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Trump Picks Fox News Host as Secretary of Defense; 25 Million People in Sudan Desperately Needs Aid as Fighting Continues; : 35 Killed in China's Deadliest Known Attack in a Decade; Scientists in Iceland Fear Glacial Melt's Impact on Volcanic Eruptions. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 13, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, Donald Trump taps a Fox News host to run America's military, leaving some Pentagon officials in a state of shock.
The U.N. warns of horrendous suffering for millions in Sudan as the ongoing conflict brings more hunger, disease, and death.
Plus the possible connection between our Earth's melting ice caps and explosive volcanic eruptions.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin this hour with what many are calling a surprise pick by Donald Trump to be his defense secretary. He is Fox News host Pete Hegseth, an army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One source tells CNN Trump thinks he has the look. A Pentagon official says everyone is simply shocked. Hegseth stirred controversy just last week while promoting his new book.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, AUTHOR AND FOX NEWS HOST: I'm surprised there hasn't been more blowback on that already in the book because I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meantime, Trump has chosen John Ratcliffe to be CIA director. The former Republican congressman served as director of National Intelligence for part of the first Trump administration.
Trump has announced Mike Huckabee as his choice for US ambassador to Israel. The former Arkansas governor has a long history of supporting Israel including its claims to the West Bank.
And Trump says Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency. Their goal to cut bureaucracy, regulations, and wasteful spending.
Larry Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia Center For Politics. He joins me now from Charlottesville. Good to have you with us.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA-CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So President-elect Donald Trump is rapidly making his selections for key positions in his transition team as he prepares for his second administration, including one pick that raised some eyebrows. Fox host Pete Hegseth, he was tapped to be the next defense secretary. Other picks include John Ratcliffe, Ratcliffe, set to be the next CIA director, and Marco Rubio, secretary of state.
All those selected so far are Trump loyalists. What are these early picks signal to you about the direction of Trump's next administration?
SABATO: Well, with the possible exception of Marco Rubio, the people that Trump has chosen for his cabinet or key staffers so far have been kind of ultra loyalists. They're the sort of people that Trump knows he can depend on, not simply for a personal dedication, but also, to do precisely what he tells them to do without much independent judgment.
I guess you could argue that's good in some ways and bad in others, but Marco Rubio is seen a bit differently because he is well tested in the Senate. He's had exposure to many of the issues he would deal with as Secretary of State.
On the other hand, Pete Hegseth, that's one that pretty much everybody is shaking their heads about. He's a Fox T.V. morning host on the weekends. Now, you know, he's a smart guy. He's got a good education. He does, he has served in the military, has a distinguished record there.
But this is the Pentagon. It's one of the four top appointments, and you're running a gigantic, you know, $100 Billion operation, and you've never served in government, it's kind of odd.
CHURCH: And Donald Trump also selected Mike Huckabee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, a man who has said there is no such thing as a Palestinian or the West Bank and who has called the two-state solution irrational.
So Trump also selected big campaign donor and real estate investor Steve Witcoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. How might these two appointments foreshadow what Trump plans to do in the Middle East once he takes office?
SABATO: Trump has been very clear that he is, not only pro-Israel, he claims to be more pro-Israel than Joe Biden, although they're both very pro-Israel. They both sided with Israel throughout the current crisis.
[03:05:07]
Huckabee draws a different distinction because he is a fundamentalist evangelical Christian, he's known for that. His daughter, of course, was press secretary for Trump in the first Trump administration. Now she's governor of Arkansas, and Huckabee himself, Mike Huckabee, was also governor of Arkansas.
So, it all connects in a way, but anyone from the Arab side, Arab- American or Palestinian, whether he admits that's a real classification of people or not, understands now that voting for Donald Trump was actually, determined to underline the support for Israel, and that's it. There isn't going to be any balanced Mideast policy as long as Trump is president.
CHURCH: And Larry, Donald Trump also announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the new Department of Government Efficiency. It takes two people to do that apparently. So what might this mean for federal government job cuts and, of course, their consequences?
SABATO: Apparently, according to the description that's been given publicly, it isn't even a department. It's just a name that they're tossing out there. I think partly because perhaps Elon Musk doesn't want to reveal all of his finances, which you have to do if you're an official government employee being paid, that this is an honorific appointment. It will have real consequences because he has direct access to the president, spends a lot of time with him, Vivek Ramaswamy is obviously the junior partner in this arrangement.
But it is not an official department of government; it's never been created by law. A president's allowed to appoint individuals to advise him in specific areas without having a department, without having Senate confirmation, but again, this is a very unusual arrangement. I'm not sure what's going to come out of this. I don't think anybody knows.
CHURCH: Larry Sabato, many thanks for your analysis. Always appreciated.
SABATO: Thank you so much, Rosemary.
CHURCH: New York prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump will have another week to hash out how to proceed in Trump's hush money case. The judge's latest decision is raising questions about whether Trump will ever be sentenced for his 34 felony convictions.
CNN's Paula Reid reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Judge Juan Merchan has delayed his decision about whether President-elect Trump's conviction in the hush money case earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records should be tossed out after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have some immunity for their official acts, including the fact that you cannot use official acts as evidence in a case, which is exactly what happened in the Manhattan case.
Now the reason the judge decided to delay this is because both sides, both prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that they need more time to figure out exactly how they address the questions in this case now that Trump is headed back to the White House and is president-elect.
CNN has previously reported that the Trump team will now argue that as President-elect Trump cannot be sentenced, that he has constitutional protections from either being indicted or prosecuted or even sentenced by state actors. It's unclear if that will be successful, but the judge has at least one more week before he has to make any decision in this case, and we can expect both sides will likely weigh in with their thoughts on this over the next week.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The United States says Israel is not in violation of U.S. law and has made some progress in improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza. These comments from the state department came on the 30 day deadline for Israel to have taken steps to improve the situation in the enclave. The assessment from the U.S. in stark contrast to findings from eight humanitarian aid organizations who say Israel has failed to meet the U.S. criteria.
Also Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council met as experts warn of a strong likelihood of famine in northern Gaza when Israeli military offensive is still underway. One top U.N. official had this to say about the dire situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOYCE MSUYA, U.N. ACTING UNDER-SECRETARY GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: Most of Gaza is now a wasteland of rubble. What distinction was made and what precautions were taken if more than 70 percent of civilian housing is either damaged or destroyed? We are witnessing acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Nada Bashir is following developments and joins us now live from London. Good morning to you, Nada.
[03:10:00]
So what is the latest on the deteriorating humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza in light of the U.S. saying it will not change policy despite the humanitarian group's findings? NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, the situation in Gaza
seems to be getting worse as each day passes by. And these warnings that we're hearing from humanitarian organizations, from U.N. agencies are not new.
The alarm bells have been sounded by these organizations for over a year now around the possibility of famine being on the cards of the situation around severe malnutrition spreading across the Gaza Strip, in particular, warnings around simply not enough aid trucks getting into the Gaza Strip as a result of a blockade put in place by Israeli authorities.
In fact, we've heard from the U.N. now describing the situation in Gaza as being nothing short of catastrophic. We've been hearing from human rights officials calling for further investigations into what could be grave violations as you've just heard, there. So the situation is desperate to say the least.
And what we've heard oftentimes in response to these warnings is words of concern, words of condemnation from the Biden administration, from other members of the international community. But these words have been very rarely followed by any substantial action. Of course, back in mid-October, we heard from the Biden administration, they had issued a letter to the Israeli government warning that they had a 30 day deadline to improve the situation, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, or they could risk being in violation of U.S. laws governing, foreign military assistance from the U.S.
Now, of course, the Biden administration has said following that 30 day deadline, they do not believe Israel is in contravention of these laws and have also said that there will be no change in U.S. policy on this. But, of course, this stands in stark contrast to what we have been hearing from these aid organizations. In fact, a group of eight humanitarian organizations have issued essentially a scorecard of the situation in Gaza.
They have said, that they believe that Israel has failed to meet the U.S.' own criteria as outlined in October to improve the humanitarian situation, but have also gone on to say that they believe that Israel has taken action to worsen the humanitarian situation on the ground, particularly, of course, in Northern Gaza where we have essentially seen the Israeli military, place a siege on Northern Gaza, forcibly evacuating civilians and now warning that civilians will not be able to return to their homes, in the north, essentially choke holding, cutting off the north from the rest of the Gaza Strip. So it is a deeply desperate situation.
In October, we saw just 57 aid trucks getting into the Gaza Strip each day. That is far less than the 600 aid trucks needed a day according to aid organizations in order to meet Gaza's basic needs.
And, of course, as the humanitarian situation worsens, we are still seeing air strikes. We are still seeing a deepening of Israel's ground operation as well. So a deeply desperate situation.
CHURCH: Alright. Our thanks to Nada Bashir bringing us that live report from London.
Well a short time from now, the Dutch parliament will hold a debate on the violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam. Dutch police detained several people on Tuesday who had defied a ban on protests that was put in place after violent clashes last week between Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian supporters. Violent protests continued this week with protesters setting a tram and bus on fire on Monday.
Coming up, millions of people in Sudan are facing starvation as a brutal war marked by human rights abuses drags on. How the world is responding.
Plus, as China and Russia grow closer, we will look at their vision for a new world order as they work to counter the west.
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CHURCH: The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a Sudanese paramilitary leader accused of committing egregious human rights abuses. For the past year and a half, Sudan has been engulfed by the war between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. The U.S. says Abdulrahman Juma Bakala led the RSF's brutal campaign, which carried out ethnically motivated violence, sexual violence, and other war crimes against civilians in West Darfur.
In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department says, today's action underscores our commitment to hold accountable those who seek to facilitate these horrific acts of violence against vulnerable civilian populations in Sudan.
Well, the war in Sudan has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and there's no end in sight to the fighting. The United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office says that the Sudanese military and the RSF are both convinced they can prevail on the battlefield, and that will only make civilian suffering worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAMESH RAJASINGHAM, DIRECTOR OF COORDINATION, U.N. HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE: I just cannot put strongly enough how serious this situation is. Hostilities and violence have claimed the lives of thousands of people in Sudan. Hunger, malnutrition, and diseases threaten to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The U.N. says half of Sudan's population, nearly 25 million people desperately need aid right now. More than 11 million people have fled their homes, and many of those in displacement camps are already facing famine.
Well Mathilde Vu is the advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, and she joins me now from Port Sudan in Sudan. Thank you so much for talking with us.
So how bad is the humanitarian situation in Sudan right now? If you could describe it to us.
MATHILDE VU, ADVOCACY MANAGER, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: I mean, there's no other term than catastrophic, maybe even hellish. I mean, just, just this month of October, for example, 280,000 people were forced to flee and 2,000 people were killed.
You know, we're talking about a war that's been really hitting civilian daily for the past 18 months and has seized no, no, de- escalation whatsoever. Quite the contrary, we're seeing the violence getting a new level of, like, horrifying levels.
Right now, my teams are in the east of the country in Gedaref, and we are receiving hundreds thousands of people who are fleeing Al Jazeera, which has just seen a campaign of destruction. I cannot use other term than that. Just, you know, burning villages, people killed, women raped, children raped.
You know, people are fleeing with nothing, just, you know, the clothes on their back. And they arrive to a place where there's very little for them to, you know, to settle. There's, you know, they sleep in the open right now, and this is the same situation across the country.
CHURCH: And the U.N., as we just explained, says that nearly 25 million people, that is half of Sudan's population, need aid. So how do organizations like yours keep up with that level of demand when famine is so widespread, and then, of course, you describe these horrifying situations for so many people there?
VU: Absolutely. You know, what's, what strikes me is that my team right now in in the east again, we're trying to do an assessment and determine, like, who's the most vulnerable because we have so little resources to, you know, to give support to those who are just arriving from this campaign of destruction that we have to choose.
But everyone is vulnerable. It's so difficult to grade which one has been suffering the most when you see people who have just, you know, seen their home being burned like twice sometimes since the beginning of the war.
[03:20:06]
And as you mentioned, 25 million people in need. That's also half of the country that is hungry right now. So many people are just surviving on one meal a day. And when I say one meal, it's just a porridge. And all the organization across Sudan are completely overwhelmed, not only because of the lack of funding, but also because, you know, we don't have access to the people who are in need right now and who really are dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive.
CHURCH: And the United States just imposed sanctions on a commander of Sudan's paramilitary rapid support forces, accusing him of being involved in human rights abuses in West Darfur. What impact do sanctions like this have? What -- how do they sort of respond on the ground? What's the impact?
VU: I, you know, a lot of sanctions have been taken since the beginning of the war. So many atrocities have also been, you know, committed in total impunity since the beginning of the war. So I'm not really in a position to tell you what is, you know, the deficiency of this sanction.
What I can just tell you is that from Darfur, which is, you know, at the west of the country, to Gedaref in the east, everybody is suffering. And the amount of violation that we're seeing every day is totally horrific.
What the international community needs to do beyond sanctions is really to scale up the pressure on the warring parties to, you know, to protect civilians. Like you've stated in your introduction, the warring parties are not ready to sit down at the table of negotiation and call for a ceasefire.
There needs to be measures before that. And those measures are twofold. 1 is the protection of civilians and making sure that the harm sees. And second, making sure that humanitarian access is actually provided by the warring parties. And it's not the case at the moment.
CHURCH: Let's hope your message is heard by the international community. Mathilde Vu, thank you so much for talking with us and for all the incredible work you do. I appreciate you talking.
Well, as Donald Trump works on building his new administration, Europe is bracing for what his next presidency could bring. Secretary of state Antony Blinken, is in Brussels right now for a meeting of NATO officials. Last hour, he met with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, and this hour, he will be attending a North Atlantic Council meeting.
The agenda will undoubtedly focus on future support for Ukraine, the NATO alliance, and the issue of tariffs. Mr. Trump has suggested he would only support NATO's mutual defense commitment for countries he feels are contributing enough of their annual budgets to defense.
China and Russia are drawing closer together, both militarily and economically, in order to counter what they see as growing threats from the west. And they're trying to capitalize on the uncertainty that the new Trump administration and the U.S. will bring.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports now from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jet fighters streaking across the skies at China's largest air show, aiming to show just how fast the People's Republic is modernizing its massive military.
China's main partner is Russia. The head of the Russian National Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, in Beijing praising ever closer ties. We are not a military political alliance like the ones formed during
the Cold War, he says. Relations between our countries are superior to those forms of interstate ties.
This is China shows off its brand new stealth fighter called the J35A for the first time ever, while the Russians were showcasing their own stealth jet, the SU-57, which has already been used in combat operations.
Russia and China have dramatically expanded their military cooperation in recent years with regular exercises like these major naval drills, the Russians say were the largest in more than 30 years.
This, as Vladimir Putin says, he wants what he calls a new world order with less U.S. influence and more power in the hands of countries like Russia and China.
Russian-Chinese cooperation and world affairs acts as one of the main stabilizing factors in the global arena, he said.
And China's Xi Jinping added, in the face of the turbulent international situation and external environment, the two sides should continue to uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations to come.
All this as relations with the U.S. grow ever more adversarial, watching concern about Chinese territorial claims and military expansion in the South China Sea.
[03:25:08]
President-elect Donald Trump bowing to rein Beijing in.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: There are certain countries, I can tell you, everyone. I can give you from top to bottom. China's the toughest of all, but we were taking care of China with the tariffs.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But the U.S. now also faces an emboldened North Korea. Kim Jong-un, heavily courted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently conducting another round of ballistic missile tests.
The U.S. also believes more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently fighting on Russia's side in its war against Ukraine.
Russian political analyst Sergei Markov telling me the alliances forged by Vladimir Putin will be a major issue for the new administration.
SERGEI MARKOV, POLITICAL ANALYST: All this coalition has a major goal: to support each other in the only one thing - sovereignty. And because the challenge to sovereignty comes first of all from the United States and the western coalition, it moves them automatically, to be anti- American.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still to come, transgender Americans have become a direct target of incoming President Donald Trump. I'll speak with an expert about their concerns as the U.S. begins Transgender Awareness Week.
Plus, a surge in violence as some Israeli settlers in the West Bank target Palestinian civilians. We'll hear from one Palestinian farmer who was threatened by a settler, and it was all caught on tape.
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CHURCH: Today marks the start of Transgender Awareness Week here in the United States. According to GLAAD, a non-profit LGBTQ advocacy group, the annual event aims to bring attention to the trans community by educating the public about who they are as well as advocate for the community and fight against discrimination and violence.
With last week's election still top of mind for many, it's notable that Sarah McBride recently became the first out transgender person to serve in congress after winning her election in Delaware.
But the celebration also comes with an impending feeling of dread as the country prepares for a second Donald Trump presidency. He's made his stance on LGBTQ issues very clear in the past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Who would want men playing in women's sports? They want it. Who would want transgender operations for almost everybody in the world? They want that. This is a sick group of people, I'm telling you.
[03:30:00]
And we will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our school. And we will, of course, keep men out of women's sports.
Have you ever met anybody that said we want men playing in women's -- you know, I've never met anybody. I know there's got to be some kind of a moment. I'm going to terminate that immediately. I'll terminate it. I'm not going to let it happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Campaign ads for the incoming president attacked Vice President Kamala Harris for her stance on transgender issues, specifically her push to deliver gender affirming care to prisoners.
Austin Johnson is the director of the Campaign for Southern Equality's Research and Policy Centre and associate professor and chair of sociology at Kenyon College. And he joins me now from Gambia in Ohio. Appreciate you being with us.
AUSTIN JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, SOUTHERN EQUALITY RESEARCH AND POLICY CENTER AND ASSOCIATE PROF. AND CHAIR OF SOCIOLOGY, KENYON COLLEGE: Thank you for having me. CHURCH: So what are the main concerns for the LGBTQ community as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to lead the country for a second time?
JOHNSON: Wow. I think there's a lot of concerns. You know, I think one of the primary concerns is for trans, the trans community. You know, in 2024 alone, over 600 anti-trans bills were introduced in state legislatures across the U.S.
And in the last election cycle alone, around $215 Million were spent on anti-trans election ads. And so we see a lot of energy and political hostility targeting this community, and the community's feeling it. As a social scientist, I see study after study that shows the negative impact of just the political advertisements and the political rhetoric, not to mention the laws when they do go into effect.
And so I think there's a lot of anticipatory anxiety among LGBTQ people right now and among trans people in particular that their rights are going to be taken away, that it's going to be harder for them to access health care, harder to get an education, harder to provide for their families, harder to, access community and to thrive in their lives.
I think those fears are not unfounded. And, unfortunately, the Trump administration has made clear that they're going to double down on them.
CHURCH: And why do you think it is that, that Donald Trump and, of course, other Republicans decided to double down on transgender Americans?
JOHNSON: Oh, I think this is a political strategy, using fear as a political tactic, to distract people from real issues that they care about, like health care, like employment, like climate change, or gun violence in our schools.
If you talk to most parents, and I'm an educator of college students, and so I see parents of college students, and I see college students now after they come out of high school. When you talk to these folks, they're not so much worried about culture wars. They're worried about everyday issues. They're worried about how they're going to provide for their families, what kind of jobs they're going to get after college.
They're not worried about the issue of a trans student using the restroom in their school. They're not scared of their peers. They're scared of the outcomes in social life. And so I think that folks are using a fear of the unknown to distract people from the real issues that they don't have answers for.
Instead of offering solutions to the real problems faced by Americans, and the real fears that people have about their future and their present, politicians are marginalizing people who are already oppressed, targeting a population that makes up less than one percent of the American public, using vast amounts of resources to stoke fear and division rather than answering the question of what they're going to do for you and your family in the coming terms.
And so I think it's a cynical strategy to distract and divide.
CHURCH: And transgender Americans are worried about Donald Trump's promise to, in his words, keep men out of women's sports. But many American women feel strongly about protecting their right to compete against other women who were born female. What do you say to those female athletes who have fought hard to compete and then find themselves up against individuals who were not born female?
JOHNSON: You know, I say that, athletes I respect the hard work that all athletes put into their sport, and how hard they train. You know, some of my students are athletes and I see them, before I'm up in the morning down at the gym getting ready, you know.
And that's true for my cisgender athletes and that's true for my transgender athletes. I think every athlete who commits themselves to a sport really gives themselves to that sport, and they try really hard and they work really hard at their craft.
[03:35:07]
And to say that some students get the opportunity to participate in those and some do not, is a conversation that really goes against our values, as Americans. And I hear the conversation around fairness and how people are putting cisgender women against transgender women or girls in these conversations, but I think that that's misguided.
And it is using the stereotype of transgender women and transgender girls as scary and dangerous. Whether they're trying to use the restroom, whether they're trying to play a sport, whether they're trying to access health care, or just live in their communities, the same tropes around trans girls and trans women being dangerous to other people come up time and again. And I think it's important that we question those tropes when they come up instead of taking them to face value.
And so I push back on that. I think there's room for all kinds of women in sports, and I think that we should open those doors and make room for them and support them.
CHURCH: Austin Johnson, thank you so much for joining us. I Appreciate it.
JOHNSON: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: Israel's far-right finance minister has sparked condemnation after ordering preparations for the annexation of settlements in the Israeli occupied West Bank. That move likely to heighten tensions amid a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
CNN's Nic Robertson has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): This is the face of Israeli settler intimidation in the occupied West Bank.
SHEM TOV LUSKI, ISRAELI SETTLER: Next time, we won't be nice.
UNKNOWN: This is my house.
LUSKI: Don't touch my cows.
UNKNOWN: This is my house.
LUSKI: I don't (expletive) care if this is your house -- this is my house now.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): It was early August. Hamdan Bilal is the Palestinian farmer they'd come to intimidate.
HAMDAN BILAL, PALESTINIAN FARMER: I was asleep under this grapes tree. I was asleep there.
ROBERTSON: This is your farm here?
BILAL: Yes. And when I wake up, I saw the cows grazing
ROBERTSON: The settlers' cows?
BILAL; Yes. The settlers' cows.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): For the first time, the settler threatening him, putting his livestock on Bilal's land.
BILAL: They bring their sheep to grazing in our field. The plan is it's like to steal our land when they destroyed everything.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): A plan to take his land and farm that he says accelerated when the Gaza war began.
ROBERTSON: All those outposts have been built since October 7th?
BILAL: Yes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): On this occasion, the settlers getting closer and more aggressive. The day with the cows, worse than previous.
LUSKI: Touch my cows. Touch my cows, I dare you. I dare you. Tell me.
UNKNOWN: What? You're killing me.
LUSKI: You will see what I do. I know where you found. Lower your phone, lower your phones.
UNKNOWN: You threaten me in my house. Shem Tov.
LUSKI: This is my house.
UNKNOWN: Hey.
UNKNOWN: You cover your face, but we know you. ROBERTSON (voice-over): The settler, whom Bilal says he recognizes,
claiming God gave him the land.
LUSKI: I was given it by God. And Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
ROBERTSON: When the settlers are here and threatening you, what's going through your mind?
BILAL: I can't explain it, how I'm feeling. It's like broken me.
ROBERTSON: Did you call the police?
BILAL: I called the police. I talked with them. It's like 7 minute.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Bilal says the Israeli police didn't come. They declined to comment to CNN.
Things really got ugly after that call.
UNKNOWN: What do you want?
LUSKI: I want to dance with you, man.
UNKNOWN: Dance with me?
LUSKI: I want to dance with you.
UNKNOWN: You look, I'm not your bitch.
LUSKI: You look sweet. You're my bitch. And you look sweet.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Then in Hebrew, he threatens to rape Bilal.
LUSKI (translated): Rape in the name of God they say... You get what I am saying?
ROBERTSON: According to Israeli media, the sort of settler violence that Hamdan Bilal experienced has so worried the domestic intelligence chief, the head of Shin Bet, that he wrote to the prime minister warning of Jewish terrorism coming from these hilltop youths, and that it was damaging Israel's international standing.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The rebuke was enough to bring stinging criticism from Netanyahu's right wing pro-settler security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who controls the police. Ben Gvir called for the intelligence chief to be fired.
Late August, 37 year old Khalil Salim Zayedh was laid to rest in Wadi Rahal. He was the second Palestinian to be killed by settlers in the occupied West Bank that month.
The U.N. says settlers have killed 12 Palestinians since October 7th last year.
On the street where Zieda died from settler gunshots, rocks litter the road. The Israeli settlement the attackers came from a few 100 yards away.
Footage in the Palestinian village captured the moment of the Israeli settler attack.
[03:40:07]
The question everyone here is asking, how can the settlers get away with the intimidation and the killings?
UNKNOWN: I question Netanyahu and the government of Israel. Why killing?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): And the conclusion they are coming to is that Netanyahu's government feels it can act with impunity.
MUNTHER AMIRA, POPULAR STRUGGLE COORDINATION COMMITTEE: The government is trying to show the international community that they are taking some actions against some settlers, but it was clear yesterday a Palestinian have been killed here. We know that the settlers -- the settler who have been, you know, shooting toward our houses.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Back at Hamdan Bilal's farm, I asked Israeli peace activist, Shai Parnes, whose group, B'Tslem, released the video of the settler attack, why is settler violence up?
SHAI PARNES, B'TSELEM SPOKESPERSON: They don't hide anything anymore. That's what's really changed.
ROBERTSON: And why don't they hide it anymore?
PARNES: Because this is part of their ideology and they don't care because they see nothing happens to them. They bombard Gaza with tens of thousands of casual Palestinian casualties and they're still Israel has total impunity.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): He says he believes authorities know who threatened Bilal, a nearby settler, Shem Tov Luskie.
ROBERTSON: So why isn't he arrested?
PARNES: Because that's always Israel policy. Israel policy, state violence and as well as, settler violence is to expel Palestinian, make their life miserable, and to steal their land.
ROBERTSON: Hi. This is Nic Robinson with CNN. Is this, Shem Tov?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): I call Luski.
ROBERTSON: I want to talk to you about the video of youth threatening farmer Hamdan Bilal in Susiya. Was that you?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): At first, he denies it was him.
ROBERTSON: It wasn't you?
LUSKI: It wasn't me. ROBERTSON (voice-over): I play him the video.
ROBERTSON: You recognize this?
LUSKI: Next time, we won't be nice. You understand this? Don't touch me.
ROBERTSON: You recognize that? That's your voice. That's your voice.
LUSKI: Okay. It's my voice.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): I want to ask to meet for an interview, but he hangs up.
LUSKI: Go (expletive) yourself.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): I call again.
LUSKI: All day long, they're telling the cops I was, I was here.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): When I ask him to tell me more about his conversations with the police, he changes the subject.
LUSKI: I didn't do anything because I'm free and because I didn't do anything wrong to anybody.
ROBERTSON: Shem Tov, listen. We both know this is you. We both know this is you. So let's sit down and do an interview politely together.
LUSKI: Nic.
ROBERTSON: Yes, sir.
LUSKI: First of all, I don't care what you think. Second of all, I don't care what anybody in your country think of me.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): I ask again to meet him. He wants money.
LUSKI: Five-minute interview, $10,000. Okay? Okay? Bye bye.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Bilal knows Luski's apparent impunity isn't just putting his land on the line, but his life too.
BILAL: If he will kill you, he will take it. If you accept that, he will take it in any way that you feel in his voice. He's have, like, powerful, big power force behind him.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Nic Roberson, CNN, Susiya, the occupied West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Police in southern China were investigating the country's deadliest known attack on the public in a decade, which left dozens of people dead and injured at an outdoor sports center. We'll have a live report on the latest developments. \ [03:45:00]
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CHURCH: People in southern China are leaving flowers and candles in tribute to dozens of victims of the country's deadliest known attack on the public in a decade. Police say 35 people were killed and more than 40 injured on Monday when a man apparently deliberately drove an SUV into crowds who were exercising at an outdoor sports center. Police caught the 62 year old driver as he tried to flee the scene.
And CNN's Marc Stewart is following the story for us from Beijing. He joins us live. So, Marc, what more are you learning about this horrifying attack?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT; Rosemary, the big focus is on that 62 year old man. According to an initial report from police, he was upset about how his divorce settlement went, and perhaps that is what prompted all of this.
He is in custody, but as of last night, he was unconscious. Police add that he hurt himself, on purpose, they believe. He had -- they found a knife in the truck that he was in, his vehicle.
They say that he has severe neck injuries, and that he is receiving medical treatment. So, that is a big unknown. They desperately want to question this man.
But this case is getting attention for so many different reasons including the fact that violent attacks like this and violence in general is very low in China with this population here of more than a billion people. The violence rates are low.
But this -- but we have seen in recent weeks, a series of violent spontaneous outbursts like this often in public places where people get hurt. Sometimes it's with a motor vehicle. Sometimes it's a knife attack. But that is why this case is getting so much attention. It shows a series of disturbing and perhaps dissatisfaction in China right now as families deal with a lot of struggles, including the economy, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And, Marc, why is news of this attack being censored in China? What's the latest on that?
STEWART: Right. This is being censored, because of concerns that this is portraying China in a very negative light.
This is a country where there is heavy surveillance. It is hard to get a gun. For those reasons, this is leaving this narrative that China is typically used to seeing of it being a safe place. It does not want to scar its worldwide image. So we are seeing some censorship, especially on social media of images after this attack occurred as well as some of the tributes and memorials that we have seen develop after Rosemary.
CHURCH: Alright. Marc Stewart, many thanks for bringing us that live report from Beijing.
Well, still to come, climate concerns in the land of fire and ice, why scientists fear melting glaciers in Iceland could impact volcanoes and make their eruptions even more dangerous.
[03:50:00]
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CHURCH: The Philippines is bracing for its 3rd major storm in less than a week. Usagi is now officially a typhoon according to the latest alert from the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It's expected to make landfall in the northern Philippines, which has borne the brunt of unprecedented tropical storm activity in the region.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Really, what a couple of weeks it has been here and still more weather to come. From Usagi to Man-yi, these are the areas there are still going to get rainfall from the storms that are still coming.
Now Da Nang picked up some rain as we expected in the overnight hours, but really only about 100 millimeters. Most of the heavier rainfall was south of Da Nang.
Now we take a look at Toraji, the storm that did affect the northern part of the Philippines a couple of days ago, really falling apart now. And that's kind of what happens when the water isn't as warm as it has been.
And there's a little bit of shear out there too, but really we're going to take this storm and turn it into nothing. There were some showers in Hong Kong today.
Now let's pay attention and focus on what's still coming, Usagi. Usagi will likely be a typhoon of about 185 to maybe 195 miles per hour as it makes contact here with the extreme northeastern part of the Philippines, a very strong event.
Then farther off to the east still to come, there's Man-yi, and that's where it's going all the way down to the south. And then making another run at the exact same place here across the northeastern part of the Philippines.
Now will they be 30 or 40 miles away likely from the landfalls? But they could be very, very close and many, many models are taking this very seriously when it talks to you're just talking about so much precipitation that can come down 250 to 500 millimeters more rainfall in places where we just showed you all of that flooding.
So yes, there will be wind and some spots will pick up 200 KPH. That's a lot of wind, but it's the rainfall on top of the mountains that could really get people in trouble as that water tries to go down the hill and all the way back out toward the ocean.
One, two, three, four. Two gone, two still to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Our thanks to meteorologist Chad Myers.
Well, environmental activists are facing a major setback after a Dutch appeals court ruled a major energy company can keep on polluting. The British oil and gas giant Shell is no longer required to dramatically reduce its planet heating pollution by 2030. This overturns a previous verdict from 3 years ago that imposed steep carbon emission reductions on Shell.
Well, the 3rd day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 29, is underway. Tuesday kicked off the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, where the U.N. secretary general, Antonio Guterres, issued a dire warning on the urgency to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL: The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH; Meanwhile, the president of Azerbaijan, the host country, pushed back on what he called the West's double standards, rejecting the label of a petrostate and defending his country's right to use any and all available natural resources including oil and gas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ILHAM ALIYEV, AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT: It's a gift of the God. Every natural resource with this oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all that are natural resources. And countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them. The people need them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The impact of climate change on Iceland's rapidly melting glaciers is well known, but what about on its volcanoes? CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa reports on the scientists working to find out whether melting glaciers can make for more explosive volcanic eruptions.
[03:55:07]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): A land of ice and fire.
Iceland is renowned for both its stunning volcanoes and glaciers, but scientists are now studying whether climate change is affecting the balance between these two natural wonders.
Around two million tourists visit Iceland each year, many hoping to see an active volcano showering red hot lava or get a glimpse of a cool blue glacier, thousands of years old.
But researchers say there could be a connection between melting glaciers, which are shrinking because of rising global temperatures, and the frequency of volcanic eruptions.
MICHELLE PARKS, VOLCANOLOGIST: Iceland is essentially one of the best places in the world to study this. It's a natural laboratory because we have both volcanism and glaciers. So at the moment, about 10 percent of Iceland is covered by glaciers, and we have over 32 active volcanoes here.
RAFFA (voice-over): Scientists say the Askja volcano in Iceland's central highlands has risen about 80 centimeters in the past three years because of pressure building underneath it that's pushing the ground upwards.
The theory is that magma or pressurized gas under a volcano increases as glaciers melt because the heavy ice no longer weighs down the Earth's crust, allowing magma to move more freely underground.
And those subterranean pressure changes can permeate to areas which aren't directly under glaciers, like Askja, which is just north of the country's largest glacier.
But with recent eruptions in Grindavik, a town in southwest Iceland, which not only put on a spectacular lava show, but also forced the evacuation of the town's residents, scientists are eager to learn more about what's triggering such volatility.
FREYSTEINN SIGMUNDSSON, GEOPHYSICIST, UNIVERSITY OF ICELAND: There are many benefits of volcanoes, all the geothermal. Geothermal heat, we heat all the houses with geothermal, so lots of benefits. But now with the activity in Southwest Iceland, where lots of property has been destroyed and people have need to move out, we are again reminded about how hazardous volcanoes are.
RAFFA (voice-over): Preliminary results in one study show that in the last three decades, magma beneath Iceland was produced at a rate two to three times what it would have been without ice loss. A possible pressure cooker lurking in one of the world's most picturesque places.
Elisa Raffa, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London.
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