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CNN International: Syrian Rebels Enter The City Of Hama; Possible Impeachment Vote This Weekend For President Yoon; Urgent Search For Gunman In Targeted NYC Attack. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired December 05, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning or good evening, depending on where you're watching. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
And ahead on CNN Newsroom, intense fighting by rebels has forced the Syrian military to withdraw from a symbolic and strategic city. Coming up, we're going to take a closer look at the importance of Hama. Plus, a killer on the loose, police in Manhattan still searching for the gunman who fatally shot the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. We're live with the latest on the manhunt. And the stowaway who boarded a flight from New York to Paris without a ticket is back in the U.S., where she could be facing jail time.
We start today in the Middle East. Rebel forces in Syria are making major gains. They've entered the key city of Hama and forced the Syrian army to withdraw from the area. It's a move that has rebels supporting -- rebel supporters in the region celebrating.
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SOLOMON: Now, these images are said to show the rebels entering the city center of Hama. However, CNN cannot confirm exactly when these latest videos were shown or shot. The entry into Hama is the second major gain for the newly formed rebel coalition. Just last week, the rebels captured Aleppo, Syria's second largest city, reigniting the country's civil war.
Joining us now with the latest is CNN's Ben Wedeman. Ben, gives a sense of what the latest here is on the ground.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've seen is, within just a matter of hours, it appears, that the rebels, who had spent some time on the northern edge of Hama, quickly were able to gain control of most of the city. The Syrian army put out a statement a few hours ago, saying that after being attacked by rebel forces from a variety of directions, and their frontlines were penetrated, that they decided to pull out of the city too, according to the statement from the Syrian military, to spare civilian lives.
But, what we're seeing is that it appears that it was a chaotic retreat, because what they did was they abandoned, for instance, an air base next to Hama, which is still, according to the video that's circulating on social media, full of war planes just sitting on the runway. There doesn't appear to be much in the way of fighting, at least from what we've seen. Of course, it's hard to report on what's going on in Syria all the way from Rome, but certainly, what we're hearing from our sources there and from this video on social media is that like Aleppo, which fell last Friday to the rebels, it appears that Hama was a pretty fast fight, and already we're seeing on social media cars heading further south, heading in the direction of Damascus. Rahel.
SOLOMON: And to that point, I mean, maybe our viewers remember Aleppo, certainly from the conflict that has been there. Talk to us about the importance of the city of Hama.
WEDEMAN: Well, Hama symbolically is extremely important. Going back to the 1960s, that was sort of one of the original hot beds of sort of conservative Muslim opposition to secular regimes in Damascus. In 1982, there was an uprising there, led by the Muslim Brotherhood that was suppressed by the regime of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar al-Assad, oppressed brutally, according to human rights, rather, Amnesty International. The regime killed somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 people in the process of putting down that revolt. So, certainly, there is a lot of bad blood toward the Assad dynasty in Hama.
More importantly is keep in mind that Hama is about 40 kilometers north of the city of Homs, Syria's second largest city, and that city is a key hub, because it's from there that you take the highway west to the coast. If Homs is taken, then the coast is cut off from Damascus, which means that Damascus, the capital, is cut off from the heartland of the Alawite minority to which, of course, Bashar al-Assad belongs. That would certainly perhaps spell the end of the regime in Damascus, as we know it. Rahel.
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SOLOMON: Really fascinating. Ben Wedeman reporting live for us there in Rome. Ben, thank you.
And how Donald Trump's policy on the Middle East shapes up is a question that has diplomats across the region really guessing. Sources tell CNN that Trump's pick for special Middle East envoy has been on a visit to Qatar. Steve Witkoff is said to have met with the Qatari Prime Minister. He is also reported to have met Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. It's a sign that both the Trump team and the outgoing Biden administration are making separate efforts to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages before Trump is inaugurated.
For now, Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. In the southern city of Khan Younis, dozens of people are reported to have been killed Wednesday, while overnight, undercover Israeli forces raided a hospital in the West Bank and snatched a patient. The IDF say that they detained a Palestinian militant who had taken part in a deadly attack on an Israeli settlement. All right. To South Korea now where President Yoon Suk Yeol is
clinging to power, as protesters outside the National Assembly demand his removal from office.
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SOLOMON: Now, the President's party insists that it will oppose an impeachment motion despite the growing backlash from Yoon's short- lived martial law debacle. The Leader of the opposition spoke with CNN earlier, describing his disbelief when President Yoon declared martial law Tuesday night. He says that at first he thought the announcement was a deep fake.
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LEE JAE-MYUNG, LEADER, DEMOCRATIC PARTY (Interpreted): My wife suddenly showed me a YouTube video and said the President is declaring martial law. I replied, that's a deep fake. It has to be a deep fake. There is no way that's real. But, when I watched the video, the President was indeed declaring martial law. Yet, I thought to myself, this is fabricated. It's fake.
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SOLOMON: And this weekend, lawmakers could vote on an impeachment motion against President Yoon, and National Police have already launched an investigation into the President and other top officials on treason allegations.
Let's get to CNN's Mike Valerio, who is tracking the political fallout, and joins us now from Seoul. You've been tracking this, Mike, from the very beginning, moments into this. What comes next now for the parliament and for Yoon?
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, I would say two things, Rahel. First of all, members of the opposition would say, making sure martial law doesn't happen again. That's number one of what comes next. Number two of what comes next, counting the votes to see if impeachment can even happen. So, to get to bucket number one, this is new reporting that's come out just after midnight into the 01:00 a.m. hour here in Seoul, the opposition party, the Democratic Party, has told us here at CNN that the concern that martial law could happen again hasn't been abated. There is still that feeling of apprehension.
So, to try to combat that possibility, Rahel, imagine this. They're keeping about one third of their members in the National Assembly at all times. That means staying overnight, keeping vigil over the heart of democracy here in South Korea. So, about 60 members are inside the National Assembly, where we saw all of those protests, just to make sure if martial law, God forbid, were declared again by the President, there would at least be some lawmakers inside the building to try to stop it, to begin the proceedings, to vote it down, like we saw early on Tuesday morning.
And then there comes impeachment. What does it look like? And even if it's going to happen, and why we say that, Rahel, is because the opposition is going to need eight lawmakers from the President's party to join them to get the impeachment train going. And at this point, we're not sure if those eight members are there. The head of President Yoon's party has said, we want the President to leave the party, but we are not in favor of impeachment, because, from their point of view, that could throw all of us here in South Korea into further disarray.
But, opponents are saying, if we don't impeach the President, that would absolutely put us into further disarray. There will be protests left and right across Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, all of these cities across South Korea, because there is new public polling out that shows that north of 70 percent of people across South Korea want President Yoon impeached and they want him gone. So, we're seeing what are the numbers going to look like? Are enough members of President Yoon's own party going to support impeachment? Because I'll tell you, Rahel, if impeachment does not happen, if the votes are not there, stay tuned for this weekend. There will be massive protests across South Korea. We really got to wait and see what happens, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, Mike, to that point, even though this martial law only lasted a few hours, it seems like and it feels like, clearly, the damage has been done in some ways to the country.
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VALERIO: Yeah. And Rahel, I think when you're here, especially, and you're friends with so many families who have lived in South Korea for generations, there are still fresh memories of what it was like in the 1960s, in the 1970s and the 1980s, when there were a string of authoritarian leaders after South Korea regained its independence from Japan after World War Two. There are people, there are family members who lived, fought and died for their freedom and for South Korea to be the bastion of democracy in East Asia, as we know it.
So, that fight is still fresh in the minds of so many people who live here. There are still memories of tanks that rolled down this street that is in the background of our live shot. That is still a fresh memory that people have. So, what we saw late on Monday night, into early Tuesday morning, that opened these wounds that are still there. So, people are sort of grappling with the fact of how could a President in 2024 do this? And they want to hear from him. We have not heard from President Yoon, minus a one-minute statement that he gave after he rescinded his own order of martial law. So, there are a whole host of dramatic developments that are still yet to unfold here in South Korea, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Some of which may begin to unfold this weekend. Mike Valerio live for us there in Seoul. Mike --
VALERIO: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- thank you.
All right. And the NYPD is following a number of new leads in the urgent hunt for the man who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on a city street. Sources say that police have searched a hostel in upper Manhattan, where the gunman may have been staying. One law enforcement source tells CNN that the suspect stayed in a room with two other males. Brian Thompson was shot on Wednesday outside a midtown Manhattan hotel. We want to show you part of the surveillance video from the scene, but first, a warning, some people may find this video disturbing. Experts say that the shooter appeared to be experienced with firearms. The motive this morning still unclear, but police do say that the daytime shooting was anything but random.
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JESSICA TISCH, NYPD COMMISSIONER: Every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack.
JOE KENNY, NYPD CHIEF OF DETECTIVES: We're reaching out to law enforcement in Minnesota, and we're also interviewing his co-workers and family members to see if there have been any specific threats against him in the past. As far as who was he in the hotel with, we're doing a search warrant in his hotel room right now. That might lead us -- give some more information.
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SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in CNN Law Enforcement Reporter Mark Morales, who joins us now from New York. Mark, we've been getting these sort of drips and drops of information from the police department, from sources here at CNN, you working your sources as well. What's the latest with the manhunt?
MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, Rahel, what we're seeing right now is it's 24 hours later, and what it's clear is that this investigation is not only intensifying, but they are closing in. Now, as you mentioned, sources are telling my colleagues that he was staying at this hostel in upper Manhattan, and that's pretty significant, because it just shows the investigative steps that police are taking to work backwards to find out not only who he is, but where he came from and where he was.
So, what's interesting about this hostel is that when they've gone back and they've looked at the security footage, they've noticed that he was wearing his mask for most of the time, except for maybe once, and that's key, because there is at least one image where you can see most of his face. For right now, all we've seen are his face covered up in that hood with that mask where you only see the eyes. But, this could be a significant development here, because, as you know, when there is a significant manhunt like this, when you can see the actual image of a face, that's something that police can distribute widely. People can see that, and once people understand and see what that image is, they can actually start helping the NYPD and other investigators in that respect.
Now, while that's happening, investigators are still trying to piece together exactly how this happened, every minute detail from how he got there to how he even escaped. And as you could see on the route as he left, there is this one part between where the shooting happened at the hotel and right before he got to the park. And between that treasure trove of evidence, there is at least a water bottle that's being checked for any sort of signs and any indication that could lead us to who he was. And there was also a phone, a phone of his that was there. They're going through that to try and look for any clues. They're also looking into the possibility that he was the one who brought in his own personal e-bike, so that when he could leave, he could actually hook it up with the battery and take off.
This is all being figured out in real time. And as we said, this investigation, it's not only intensifying, but it's clear that they're closing in.
SOLOMON: Yeah. What about the victim here, Brian Thompson?
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I mean, what more can you share with us, Mark, about Brian, his role with the company, and any indications of what might have been the motivation here? Why he was targeted?
MORALES: Well, that's really the million dollar question here, is why, and it's something that happens every single time we have these incidents and everybody wants to know why. That motive is not clear yet, but there are clues, part of that evidence. When you go back and you look at the footage of the shooter, you'll see that the gun appears to jam, and as he clears it, one of the shell casings comes out, and that shell casing had a word etched on it that said "delay". There was another round that was found at the scene and that had a word etched on it that said "depose". Now, this could indicate that there is a possible motive here, because both of those words are part of a phrase that people use to sort of attack the healthcare industry. So, that could mean something.
But, again, it's still early on in the investigation. They're looking through everything. They're looking through motives, and the CEO of a company, especially somebody from the healthcare, they're not impervious to these sorts of threats that come about. So, it's something that law enforcement is looking into, and a motive is going to be a very, very big thing that they determine. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Certainly. OK. Mark Morales, thank you.
OK. And actually, I'm hearing that police have now released the full face photo of the suspect. As we just heard from Mark Morales there, they had many photos and images, but most included the suspect wearing the black mask. And so, this is a really significant development. You can clearly see the suspect smile. You can see their nose. You can see their eyelashes. I mean, perhaps pretty distinguishing features for police and whatever technology they may have.
Mark, let me bring you back into the conversation, if I have you. Your reaction to this news. It's almost been exactly 24 hours since police released the first photo, and now we have this new, pretty clear picture of who they say is their suspect.
MORALES: Well, Rahel, this drip, drip, drab, as you mentioned before, this is exactly how these investigations work. You have some of the best detectives in the world that are combing the situation, and as they start going through, they'll find a thing like this. They'll find a picture or an image where you can clearly see his face. And this is going to help significantly, because now they've released this. Now we're showing it. Everybody has this image. This image is going to be plastered everywhere.
So, the regular Joe on the street, passersby, they're going to see this, and it's going to trigger thoughts in their mind, like, Oh, I remember seeing him. I remember seeing this guy. He went into this store. So, it's going to really decrease his ability to slip through, because now people will recognize him. Now tips will come flooding in even more than they were before, and it's just another massive step as for how investigators are getting closer.
SOLOMON: OK. Mark Morales, thanks for hopping back on. We appreciate you.
I want to continue the conversation and welcome in now passersby. He is a retired FBI special agent and former leader of the FBI dive team. Bobby, great to have you. Just first your reaction, I'm not sure if you can see the monitor, but this clear, pretty full face photo now of the suspect.
BOBBY CHACON, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Yeah, Rahel. I think it's -- I think this is the biggest development in the case so far. I think that there is somebody, a family, a relative, a friend, a co-worker of this guy is going to recognize this. Now, you may have lookalikes. They may have to sift through some of those. But, you're showing this image globally, and certainly within the United States and internationally, this is going to be all over, and someone is bound to recognize this guy as a neighbor, as a co-worker, as a family member, possibly. So, yeah, I think that they are hours away possibly from actually having this guy identified, if they don't have him identified already.
SOLOMON: And Bobby, when you look at this photo, I mean, to me, a layperson, not in law enforcement, this feels pretty significant. I mean, if you know who this person is. You can see the person's smile. You can see pretty good facial features. How would you rate this photo in terms of it being able to potentially identify who this is?
CHACON: Well, I would say it's not perfect, but it's very good. I mean, it's very good. You can see the shape of his face. He has kind of a unique smile or a grin. He seems very relaxed. I mean, I think with the nose and the chin and the smile, I certainly think people that know this guy, if they see this image, they'll be like, oh, that's so and so. So, I think that -- I think this is a great image to put out there, and I think someone is going to recognize this.
SOLOMON: And then Bobby, if we can just sort of reverse track what we now know. So, we now have this photo. Police apparently understand what hostel this person may have been staying at. They have these shell casings with these words on it, "delay and depose". I mean, from your vantage point, does it sound like they're closing in here?
[11:20:00] CHACON: Absolutely. They're closing in from several different aspects, right? So, we already have the forensic evidence. Now we have possible motive, which is denied coverage. And now you have this physical image. So, they're coming at this from very -- from many different angles, and each of those angles is progressively getting to the person. I mean, I think it's very much closing in on him, on actually identifying him. Now, it's a question of finding out where he is once you identify him.
But, yes, I think that the motive from those etchings and those rounds, to me, is clear that this was a denied coverage type of event. In that situation, you usually have communications with the person who has been denied coverage. And those communications kind of is a series of them, and they grow in frustration. The person keeps getting frustrated at each turn that it's denied, and appeal and denied.
And so, you might have a series of communications, however that is, probably emails or possibly the website forms that the -- on the company's websites, or written letters even that show a increasing frustration on the part of the person or their family member in this denied coverage, and each letter gets more probably threats of violence, eventually seep into those letters. You'll have somebody, forensic linguistics go over this and look at those, but there is probably a series of communications that get more and more frustrating from the person ending it, because nobody goes from zero to shooting someone in the chest. There has probably been communications that show a increasing frustration on the part of the claimant.
SOLOMON: And just for our viewers, you are looking at another angle, at the very least, or a completely separate photo of the suspect, again without the mask.
Bobby, what do you imagine is happening right now within the police force? Is this a sort of all hands on deck? Now, they have these photos. They flood the streets. I mean, what's happening now as they try to bring this person into custody?
CHACON: They're combing Central Park, looking for his clothes. He probably changed clothes in Central Park. They'll probably find the e- bike there, maybe his set of clothes that he changed out of there. They are working the phones on international media, like yourself, to put this out to as many outlets as they can to get as many eyeballs on these two photos that you're showing now on the screen. I mean, these are great photos. Somebody is going to recognize this guy. So, they're probably working the phones on every both national and international news outlet to get this worldwide image, because someone is going to recognize this guy.
The forensic people are doing their job. The canvas people are out in the streets, still interviewing people, both in New York and in Minnesota. And then the media people are really pressing the phones and trying to get this image as widely distributed as possible.
SOLOMON: Any sense of whether it becomes harder to make an arrest as time goes on? I mean, that's certainly the premise when you watch TV criminal shows, that it's the first 48 hours, or etcetera. Or at this point, does -- is timing not as critical, because it seems like they have a pretty good sense of who they're looking for?
CHACON: Yeah. I mean, timing is critical when you're trying to identify the person, but now that they've got so much information and they are, I think, very, very close, if not having identified him already, that's one of those milestones in an investigation. Then it completely turns to kind of like a fugitive hunt. He is not a fugitive yet, because he is not charged. But, this is a manhunt now, and we know who we're looking for. So, it changes. It doesn't get more difficult. I mean, those are difficult in themselves.
And this guy planned the pre-attack stuff so carefully, he probably planned his escape just as carefully. He got into Central Park. He probably changed his clothes, and wherever he was going, he probably got to in the hours after he left Central Park, whether that's plane, a train, automobile, whether that's in state, out of state, out of country, we don't know. But, once you identify him, then you actually can start that part of the manhunt.
SOLOMON: Well, Bobby Chacon, great to have you today, as we again get this breaking news image of the suspect from the shooting yesterday morning in midtown Manhattan of the CEO Brian Thompson. Again, these are pictures that have just come into us here at CNN. If you are watching your screen, this is who -- not that person. Obviously, that was Pete Hegseth, but this is who police are looking for. Bobby Chacon, we'll leave it here. Thank you.
CHACON: Thanks, Rahel.
SOLOMON: And now to a defiant Pete Hegseth, who is returning to Capitol Hill. Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon makes another round of visits to address allegations of misconduct, while a potential replacement waits in the wings.
We'll be back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Vowing to fight like hell. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Defense Department is back on Capitol Hill, and Pete Hegseth remains defiant in the face of an uncertain confirmation fight in the Senate.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, do you feel confident after your meetings today to be confirmed?
PETE HEGSETH, DONALD TRUMP'S PICK FOR U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Great meetings with all the senators today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel confident?
HEGSETH: I feel confident every day.
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SOLOMON: That confidence set to be tested again today as Hegseth tries to win over Republican senators, and there is plenty of skepticism following multiple reports alleging that he engaged in sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse, both of which he denies. This morning, though, he was pretty upbeat.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you be meeting with Trump this week?
HEGSETH: If he wants a meeting we will have a meeting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you make of the rumor that DeSantis and others might be considered (ph)?
HEGSETH: I spoke to Trump this morning, just a few minutes ago. He supports us fully.
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SOLOMON: Well, as of Wednesday, CNN sources tell us that there are more than three Republican senators who say that they are uncertain how they will vote on his nomination. If more than three Republicans join all of the Democrats in voting no, well, that's enough to sink his nomination.
Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes, who is tracking this story for us. All right. Kristen, what's in store today?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, the big question here is whether uncertain means no. And when I'm talking to people around Trump's orbit, they remind me of the fact that Matt Gaetz, who was nominated for Attorney General and then withdrew his name, the reason why Trump essentially asked him to withdraw his name by telling him he didn't have the votes to be confirmed, was because he was talking to senators who were hardnosed, who were certainly not going to change their votes.
Right now, I'm talking to people in Trump's orbit. I'm talking to advisors of both Hegseth and Donald Trump, who say they have not been aware of any hardnosed, that everyone is expressing concern, but nobody is saying that they are absolutely not going to vote for Pete Hegseth. And as long as that stands, they are going to stand by his side, because they believe there is a pathway to him being confirmed. Now, I am told also by people close to Hegseth that Donald Trump told him that he wanted him to fight for those votes. That's why you're seeing him be a little bit more bullish.
But, we also know that these reports aren't going away. These are serious allegations, particularly when it comes to his drinking at these work events passing out. That was in one of the whistleblower accounts, being drunk at work or drinking on the job. He had tried to address this yesterday when he sat down with Megyn Kelly. Here is what he said.
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HEGSETH: First of all, I never had a drinking problem. I don't -- no one has ever approached me and said, oh, you should really look at getting help for a drink. Never. I've never sought counseling, never sought help. I respect and appreciate people who do.
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HOLMES: To say he never had a drinking problem, it's obviously not where you want to be at this point in time that you're defending your drinking when you're up for a big job like this.
But, one of the other things to keep in mind here is that Donald Trump himself seems to continue to talk to Hegseth and keep propping him up. Hegseth said today they spoke this morning, that he said he had his full support. The big question, of course, also is, whether or not this drip, drip of allegations that we've seen over the last couple of days continues? Donald Trump's team and the President-elect himself do not want any more surprises. Hegseth has told them on multiple occasions, there won't be. However, obviously, we have seen more and more reports, more and more allegations coming out.
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It's just another factor that plays into all of this.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's an interesting point. And Kristen, it seems like Hegseth and his team have taken a different approach now. I mean, we just played the Megyn Kelly interview. We saw his mom on Fox News. Initially, it seemed like the team was maybe just trying to rise above the allegations, perhaps blame the press, accusing the press of a slander campaign, but it seems now they realize that they have to either try to get in front of this or put on a pretty strong public affairs -- public relations campaign to perhaps increase his odds.
HOLMES: Well, and that's where you see him on television. I mean, look around the landscape here of everybody who Trump has tapped for the cabinet or for the administration. You're not seeing any of them on television, and that is by design. They do not want people out here stepping in it before they go to their confirmation hearings. They don't want any big mistakes. They are telling people to stay away from the press.
Clearly, they are in a different scenario here with Hegseth. One, Donald Trump telling him to fight. So, you're seeing him out there talking to cameras, sitting down for interviews. But, two, they believe he has to address this head on. They believe that they had gone past the point of no return in terms of kind of trying to gloss over the issue, pretend it wasn't happening.
Now they are at the point where he has to talk about it and even putting out his mother. I mean, that is a strategic decision that they made just coming after The New York Times had reported on an email she wrote in 2018 when he was going through his divorce, where she alleged that he had mistreated women. He has denied that. She went on Fox News, saying that she apologized for that, that she regretted writing that email. It was the heat of the moment. The tensions were high around the divorce. But clearly, they are trying to address this head on, and one person who is going to be watching all of this as it unfolds, particularly those media interviews, is Donald Trump himself.
SOLOMON: OK. Kristen Holmes, we will leave it there. Thank you.
And Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are making the rounds on Capitol Hill as well. Donald Trump chose the two to cut U.S. government spending and the federal workforce. Both men are meeting with House and Senate Republicans today. Trump has appointed the tech billionaire and the former Republican primary candidate to lead what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency. Ramaswamy says that he has a list of initiatives by the Biden White House that he is looking to cut or claw back, including the recent promise of a government loan to Rivian, which is an electric car company that competes with Elon Musk's Tesla.
All right. Still ahead for us, the woman who stowed away on a plane to Paris is now back in the U.S. She is also under arrest and facing an appearance in court. We will lay out the potential charges. Plus, political turmoil in France. The Prime Minister is now out. So, what's the next move for President Emmanuel Macron?
We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. And here are some of the international headlines we're watching for you today.
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SOLOMON: In Georgia, a government crackdown on dissent appears to be intensifying. An opposition party says that one of its leaders was beaten conscious by police and detained. Georgia's interior ministry tells CNN that the opposition leader was arrested on a charge of disobedience to the police. Various protests began last week after the ruling party suspended talks to join the European Union.
Top diplomats from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. are gathering today in Malta for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived a short time ago. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also there. It's his first visit to a European Union country since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
And France, meantime, remains deep in political chaos one day after the collapse of its government. A short time ago, Prime Minister Michel Barnier submitted his resignation. He is going to stay on for now in a caretaker role until his replacement is chosen. Barnier was ousted after receiving a vote of no-confidence from lawmakers, a vote that actually brought together both liberals and far-right members of parliament. French President Emmanuel Macron expected to address the nation in a televised speech just a few hours from now, and his next task is deciding who will be the next Prime Minister.
Let's get more now from our Jim Bittermann, who is in Paris. So, Jim, what does this mean, the caretaker role? What does this mean for Barnier, and what comes next for a new Prime Minister?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Barnier can't take any new initiatives. The caretaker role means that he just addresses day-to-day problems, if there is some kind of a police action they need to take place, if there is some kind of security situation, if there is something that comes along that's in the normal train of things, but he could take no new initiatives, most notably on the area -- in the area of budget making, which is what brought down his government. So, it's temporary, and it was something that Emmanuel Macron put up with for about three and a half months in the summertime, right through the Olympics, when France was essentially without a government. It has a caretaker government back then.
So, now we're going to see what happens. Macron is under no time constraints about naming a new Prime Minister. However, there have been a lot of calls today saying that the President should name somebody as quickly as possible. And this is a country, Rahel, as you may know, is where you are where you eat, and having lunch today with Emmanuel Macron was a well-known politician, Francois Bayrou, and many people are speculating that he may be the leading candidate to take on that Prime Minister job next after Barnier's resignation. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Jim, it just feels incredible, as an observer. It feels like it's been an extraordinarily tumultuous time for French politics. You think about the protests in the streets from the reform, the pension reform, you think now about what's happening here, what's happened with Emmanuel Macron. What are the implications of the current political stalemate in France, and how much of a burden, do you think, it could be on the economy?
BITTERMANN: Well, that is the key question, the economy, because basically, the markets are not going to tolerate this for very long. France has a huge debt. It has a debt that's 106 percent of its gross domestic product. It has something like 3.3 trillion euros in debt. And these are things the markets don't like, and the interest rates could climb if the whole -- this government turmoil is not resolved very quickly.
The problem for Macron is finding the person who can appeal to all the factions in the French parliament. A lot of them will say, OK, they like one person or another. Michel Barnier, for example, went to the far right when he came into power back in September, and they said, yeah, he is OK. He'll be OK. And Macron said that the far right had approved the Michel Barnier prime ministership. But, then in the end, it was the far right as well as the far left that coalesced together to bring the downfall to government.
So, you can't trust what the politicians are saying. You've got three factions that are represented in the parliament in about equal amounts of a number of deputies. And so, any new Prime Minister is going to have -- is going to face that, and Macron has got to find somebody that will appeal to everybody.
SOLOMON: Yeah.
BITTERMANN: It doesn't seem like it's a very easy job. Rahel.
SOLOMON: At all. It sounds like a tall task. Jim Bittermann live for us in Paris. Jim, thank you.
[11:40:00]
And staying in Paris, the woman who stowed away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris last week, well, she is expected in court in New York in the coming hours. Svetlana Dali was flown back to the U.S. on Wednesday, escorted by two French security officials. The 57-year-old Russian woman was arrested by the FBI after she landed at JFK Airport. She is expected to appear in Brooklyn federal court later today. Dali stuck onto the flight to Paris after she was able to bypass security checkpoints.
For the latest now, let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval, who joins us live from New York. So, Polo, what's expected to happen next?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rahel. Like the rest of the passengers on that incident, free flight yesterday, Dali was not able to go straight home. She continues in federal custody, detained by federal agents, as you just mentioned. She is waiting to stand before a judge here in Brooklyn in just a matter of hours. It's very procedural, Rahel. She'll basically face that judge in a federal courtroom in Brooklyn where she will be read that charge of being a stowaway in an aircraft without consent. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison, likely enter a plea, and who knows, we may even hear from her. So, we do have a presence in the court to see what comes out of that.
Meanwhile, here is what we know about Dali, a 57-year-old woman, Russian passport, but is a U.S. green card holder. At last check, she appears to reside in Philadelphia. We do know that she has recently filed some lawsuits in civil court alleging that she is the victim of, as she described in a complaint, the victim of military great -- military weapons and also a kidnapping plot. So, that's certainly what beg the question of what -- perhaps what her state of mind was at the time that she boarded that flight to Paris last week. So, prosecutors will certainly take all this into account.
I will tell you this. This is certainly not the first case of its kind. In fact, just this past January, the U.S. Department of Justice tried and convicted an individual who had a Russian and an Israeli passport that snuck onto an SAS flight to Los Angeles last November, after being convicted, ended up being sentenced to about 90 days in prison, had to pay a fine, and had to pay back the roughly $1,100 ticket that he avoided.
So, it gives you a sense of how these cases turn out in court, but ultimately, it's -- this is a unique one, and we're going to have to see how it plays out, especially if this goes to trial.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's interesting, Polo. I mean, I think for some, the question may be, what her motivations were? But, I think for others, the question is, how did she do it? And to that end, what is the TSA saying about all of this?
SANDOVAL: Bypassed two checkpoints that are meant to make sure that she has her identification and a boarding pass. So, the TSA saying that she was only one of nearly 18 million passengers who traveled ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday season. So, only one case of unreported access. But, you and I know, it only takes one person to compromise security.
As for Delta Airlines, they have said that it was, in their assessment, a deviation from standard procedures that allowed this woman to gain access to that flight last week. They did not expand on what that deviation was, only that they are addressing it. So, make no mistake about it, though there are questions about her motives and why she wanted to go to France, what is very clear, she exposed not one, but two vulnerabilities in one of the world's largest, busiest international airports,
SOLOMON: Yeah. Certainly concerning for a lot of folks.
Polo Sandoval, thank you.
SANDOVAL: Thanks, Rahel.
SOLOMON: All right. Coming up next, people in southern Lebanon tell CNN that the outlook remains bleak, even as a fragile truce holds between Hezbollah and Israel. We're going to have our report from Lebanon straight ahead.
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[11:45:00]
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SOLOMON: America's top diplomat says that Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah is holding. Antony Blinken made the comment in Brussels on Wednesday, even as both sides accuse each other of violations. Blinken said that he believes that, fundamentally, Israel and Hezbollah want the truce to succeed. But, when pressed on whether the U.S. has assessed if there had been any violations, here is how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We get reports of violations. We look at them. We engage the parties, and that's exactly what we've done. The mechanism that we established with France to make sure that the ceasefire is effectively monitored and implemented is working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward is on the grounds in Lebanon, where the view for many people there is bleak.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the balcony of his apartment, a man gazes out at his city, Tyre, once renowned for its glittering waters and ancient ruins, now in ruins itself. Moos Assad (ph) has lived through many wars in Lebanon, but none like this. 25 years, we have been here in Tyre, he tells us. An Israeli strike pulverized the next door building where his neighbors once lived. Their clothes still hang ghost-like in the closet.
Imagine a person was sleeping here. The building collapsed on them, everyone died, a woman and her children, all of them dead. Why? For what, he says. America did this to us, not Israel. It's America that goes like this, like she didn't see anything and she didn't want to know anything.
Lebanon is a country where loyalties are divided, but bitterness towards the West for its support of Israel is everywhere. In villages around Tyre, Hezbollah flags fly proudly. No community has been spared. The Melkite Greek Catholic church had been a refuge for displaced people when it was hit by an Israeli missile on October 9th. Eight people were killed.
81-year-old church caretaker Milaad Ilia (ph) has prayed here as long as he can remember. This is my house, he says. Next to the church a mosque, connected by a shared hall for events. If our homes were hit and the church stayed, it would be better, he tells us. If the church is gone, there is no coexistence between people here.
Tyre is one of the world's oldest inhabited cities, mentioned several times in the Bible. As the light falls, Kamaal Istanbuli (ph) does what fishermen have been doing here for thousands of years. For 60 days during the war, Israel's military barred boats from going out on the water. Of course, it was tough, he says. We fishermen must work every day to feed our families.
WARD: What's your dream for the future?
WARD (voice-over): We don't have a future here, he tells me. With Israel as your neighbor, occupying your land, there is no future for you. There is just war after war, destruction after destruction, and the country collapses and collapses.
A bleak outlook shared by many in this historic city, even as a shaky ceasefire continues to hold.
Clarissa Ward. CNN, Tyre.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Out thanks to Clarissa there.
Coming up, when was the last time you checked your 401(k) account? Well, you might want to take a look, because apparently there are more millionaires than there used to be. Coming up, find out who is moving up in the world.
We'll be right back.
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[11:50:00]
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. The price of Bitcoin has climbed above $100,000 for the first time ever. Yeah. The world's most valuable crypto currency hit an all-time high of $104,000 late Wednesday. It's up 133 percent for the year so far, with most of that increase coming after Donald Trump's election win. The new record price came on the day that President-elect announced Paul Atkins as his pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump has also committed to embracing crypto-friendly policies.
All right. And one more thing before we go. If you happen to have a 401(k) retirement plan, your chances of joining the Millionaires Club are on the up. Fidelity Investments, one of the biggest retirement plan providers, says that the number of million dollar accounts on its books grew nearly 10 percent in this year's third quarter. It was a good quarter for asset values in the U.S., helped in part by a bumper Federal Reserve rate cut. Fidelity says that that's encouraging news, especially for Gen Xers, whose generation is next in line for retirement.
Let's bring in CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. So, talk to us a little bit more about this analysis and what they found, Vanessa.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Fidelity looked at their 24 million account holders and realized that there is some more millionaires in the mix. Essentially, there is about 550,000 of their account holders that are now in the $1 million club. The average amount that those individuals in that group is holding is about $1.6 million, and as you mentioned, that's a 9.5 percent increase from just the previous quarter. So, from Q2 to Q3. And Gen X, this is the next retirement group that's coming up, they've been saving for about 15 years or so now. Their average holdings in their accounts, almost $600,000, and that's a six percent increase from Q2 to Q3.
And so, why is this happening? Well, the stock markets have been very good to people recently. But also, Fidelity says that people have been saving more, so putting more into their 401(k) out of their paychecks, and then the contributions from companies have been very helpful. So, all in all, savings rates have been about 14 percent for people's 401(k)s.
But, Rahel, of course, you and I are lucky to have our 401(k). There are some people out there who do not, and not everyone who does have a 401(k) is having -- has a million dollars in that account. The average amount of money in a 401(k) for Fidelity account holders was $132,000. That is still up from the previous quarter. So, that is good news. Of course, it's not the $1 million club. But still, accounts are on the rise, and that is everyone, what everyone wants to see and what everyone obviously hopes for with their 401(k), Rahel.
SOLOMON: And then talk to us a little bit about, I think it can be sometimes enticing when you see a big account balance, or even if it's not, you need the money to maybe thinking about cashing out. But, officials say, and experts say that's -- that can be really costly, maybe more than you even realize.
YURKEVICH: Yeah. There are penalties associated with that. A lot of the -- a lot of what people like 401(k)s is because you can transfer it from job to job, and just watch that money grow. And while some people might want to take money out to pay off other credit cards or other loans or things that they may have -- that they may be in debt for, analysts and experts really say, just try to leave that money alone if you can, and watch it grow. Especially right now, we're seeing just such that surge of money in people's accounts, and experts say, try not to touch it.
[11:55:00]
You don't want to get any penalties associated with drawing money from those accounts. Better to hold that cash, if you can, Rahel, if you can. I know people sometimes do need the extra cash.
SOLOMON: Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. It's the expenses obviously, the fine that you may get hit, but also the opportunity costs, all of the compounding that you may lose out on if, in fact --
YURKEVICH: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- you take it out. But, of course, personal situations are what they are.
Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you.
All right. And thank you for spending some time with me today. We know your time is money. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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