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Syria's Peaceful Transition of Power Gets a Diplomatic Boost; Trump is Time's Person of the Year, Rings NYSE Opening Bell. Missing American Citizen Found in Syria; Toxic Smog Blankets India's Capital Despite Winter Weather; Indian Teen Now the Youngest Chess World Champion. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 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]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.
The transition of power in Syria from the Assad regime to new leadership is getting a push as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the region.
With the fall of the Assad regime, the United States is hopeful that a hostage deal in Gaza can be reached soon.
And President-elect Donald Trump is named "Time" Magazine's Person of the Year.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: And we begin in Syria, where the effort to form a new government after the fall of the Assad regime is getting a diplomatic boost from around the world. Jordan will host a weekend summit with foreign ministers from Western and Arab nations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region meeting with Turkey's president and foreign minister. He's stressing the need for unity among rival factions to prevent a resurgence of ISIS. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria at a time when we want to see this transition to an interim government and to a better way forward for Syria. Part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn't rear its ugly head again. And critical to making sure that doesn't happen is the so-called SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: A joint delegation from Turkey and Qatar has arrived in Damascus for talks with the caretaker government. Syria's information ministry says the goals include engaging with Arab and international partners and reviving the country's economy. They're meeting with rebel commander Mohammad al-Jolani, the de-facto leader of the new administration, and caretaker Prime Minister Mohamed al-Bashir.
Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army, which is backed by Turkey, has announced a four-day ceasefire in the northern Syrian city of Manbij. Rival Kurdish forces have now withdrawn from the area.
All right. I want to go live now to Istanbul and Sinan Ulgen is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. Thank you so much for being here with us. So I just want to start on the Syria summit. There are so many issues. What is the priority right now?
SINAN ULGEN, SR. FELLOW, CARNEGIE EUROPE: Right now the priority, as just recently announced by the visit of Blinken as well, is to ensure the political unity of Syria, to essentially arrive at a process whereby the new transition government is an inclusive one, and therefore participation of different sectors in Syria can be assured to create a stable country.
BRUNHUBER: So with unity as the goal, I mean, the Secretary of State and Turkey both say they want unity, they want stability, but they're on opposite sides of a conflict that's being fought in the north, Turkish-backed rebels against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.
So how much sway do the U.S. and Turkey have over these groups, and how does this conflict get resolved, if at all?
ULGEN: Well, I think ultimately Turkey and the U.S. would need to reach an agreement about the future of the SDF, and by and large the parameters are well known. So there is indeed a possibility for the U.S. and Turkey to reach an agreement.
But overall they would also play a constructive role with regard to the future of Syria by essentially putting pressure on their proxies to be part of this inclusive process. And this is to their interest, whereby some other actors, external actors like Iran, may actually try to stabilize the situation, since Turkey and the U.S. working together would be more instrumental.
BRUNHUBER: I imagine there'll be a huge push-and-pull with some Syrians wanting to go back to Syria and others wanting to get out. So just to start with the former, Turkey is home to some 3 million Syrians, that's officially, I mean the number could be much higher. Do you get the sense that most of them would welcome the chance to go home, or would you expect many of them to stay because Turkey offers more security and opportunity?
[03:05:08]
ULGEN: Well, right now there's a sense of jubilation within the Syrian population in Turkey, so there's a lot of interest at least to go back and examine the situation on the ground.
But in reality, how would that translate in terms of the total number of Syrian refugees that want to go permanently is an open question. Because essentially one very important dimension would certainly be security and the security situation after Assad has improved for these people who had to escape the atrocity of the Assad regime.
But at the same time, the social and economic conditions should also be decent. And this is where the big challenge shall be. If these people who are in Turkey now, for almost a decade, establish a livelihood in this country, will ultimately go back to Syria, they would want to see a decent prospect, a standard of living, but also basic services and an economy that's in the upswing.
These conditions should be met if we are able to see a large-scale and obviously voluntary enrichment of the Syrian refugees back.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. I'm afraid we will have to leave it there. We're having some audio difficulties but we appreciate what we did hear from you there. Sinan Ulgen in Istanbul, thank you so much for speaking with us.
Well the U.S. believes the new reality in Syria could be opening the door for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held there, most of them since Hamas launched its rampage in Israel more than 14 months ago.
But now U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is expressing cautious optimism that a deal can be reached this month. He met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Sullivan says Hamas is negotiating differently now that the Assad regime is gone and there's a ceasefire in Lebanon. He also dismissed suggestions that Israel is waiting for the next U.S. administration to make a deal. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I got the sense today from the Prime Minister he's ready to do a deal and when I go to Doha and Cairo, my goal will be to put us in a position to be able to close this deal this month, not later. Now, we've been close before and haven't gotten there, so I can't make any promises or predictions to you. But I wouldn't be here today if I thought this thing was just waiting until after January 20th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: But as diplomats talk ceasefire, Israel's deadly strikes are showing no signs of slowing down. Palestinian officials say almost 50 people were killed in multiple strikes Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Now, this video shows the panic and chaos after two attacks in southern Gaza where 15 people were reportedly killed. Palestinians say they were guarding humanitarian aid, but Israel says they were Hamas members who wanted to steal it.
At least 33 others were killed in a separate attack on this residential block in central Gaza, including nine children. More than 80 others were injured or are missing.
In a new statement this morning, Israel said it targeted a senior terrorist who led attacks against Israeli troops and civilians. Survivors said the victims never really had a chance.
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RA'ED AL-LOUH, WITNESS (through translator): People were asleep and we only saw a rocket coming down. It targeted displaced people who were sleeping and innocent. We only heard screams. They all died. No one survived.
OBEID ABU SA'ED, WITNESS (through translator): There is no safety anywhere. People flee. They ask them to go from one place to another and target them there. This is our life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, a British-based surgeon says food shortages are starting to show visible signs among children in Gaza. She says some children's hair color is starting to turn lighter, which she attributed to protein malnutrition.
The U.S. president-elect stepped away from inauguration preparations to accept two big honors Thursday.
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So that is Donald Trump ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, accompanied by family members and the vice president-elect.
Now, the appearance was coordinated with "Time" magazine, which named Trump its Person of the Year for a second time. The publication deems the Republican to have wielded the greatest influence on global affairs this year for quote, "good or for ill."
Meanwhile, the presidential inauguration is only weeks away, and Trump is doing things his way when it comes to the invitations. CNN's Kristen Holmes explains.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President-elect Donald Trump is reaching out directly and through back channels to talk to foreign leaders and invite them to his inauguration on January 20th.
[03:09:59]
We do know that he sent a personal invitation through aides. President Xi Jinping of China, a very unprecedented move, particularly given the fact that this is a communist leader, and overall that he has been engaging in these sort of informal asks to make his inauguration a global affair.
Now, normally, these foreign leaders don't attend an inauguration. Instead, the joint committee that does the inauguration, it's a bipartisan committee, reaches out to diplomats with the State Department to invite them to observe the inauguration.
But Donald Trump is doing things a little bit differently. I mean, in these conversations he's having, some of them through back channels, as I noted, others through phone conversations, because of the way he's doing it, even some of his closest aides weren't sure exactly which foreign leaders had or hadn't been invited.
All of this to say, Donald Trump is looking forward to that inauguration, looking to make this a bigger event, a more spectacular, that's the word that a source used with us, event than we have seen in inaugurations past.
But that might mean that there are people who are invited, and this is in his own words, that are more controversial, more risky. That was something that we heard from him today, from him when he was talking at the stock exchange, as well as from some of his spokespeople. So we'll see how this all plays out.
But a lot of this is still a big question because of the fact that so many of these outreaches are done in such an informal way.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: And Donald Trump is set to have a private dinner with the widow of late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Akie Abe will attend a meal at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and wife Melania on Sunday. That's according to a source familiar with the matter.
Trump and Ms. Abe have remained close since her husband was assassinated two years ago during a political speech in Japan. According to a source, they scheduled this dinner directly bypassing government channels.
The Biden administration is reportedly scrambling to send more military aid to Ukraine. Still ahead, crunch time for the White House as it works to prop up Ukraine with only weeks left to spare.
Plus, underage Russians paying the price for opposing the war in Ukraine as the Kremlin cracks down on dissent. We'll have that and more coming up. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The Biden administration is trying to beat the clock and send as much military aid to Ukraine while it still can. That's from a senior administration official who spoke as the White House announced half a billion dollars in new aid on Thursday.
The official says there will be more help in the coming weeks while President Joe Biden is still in office to put Kyiv on a strong footing in its war with Russia. Donald Trump takes over as president in January, but he's giving no
guarantees to continue sending the aid. In an interview with "Time" magazine, he criticized the recent decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-made missiles for strikes deeper inside Russia. He says that will only make the war worse.
[03:15:04]
Now in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has taken a firsthand look at a powerful weapon sent from the U.S. He literally went down into the trenches on Thursday to visit a frontline unit armed with the HIMARS multiple rocket launch system.
The unit is located in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, which is a frequent target of Russian strikes. Zelenskyy told the troops they're doing an important job defending the country. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Greetings, guys. Hello. I'm very pleased to be with you today and award you and thank you for your service. You're defending Ukraine, our families, all Ukrainian families, our fatherland. We thank you. I wish you good health, stamina, strength and victory. May the HIMARS not betray you. May they hit enemy's targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Since the war began, more than 20,000 people in Russia have been detained for standing up against the war.
Now a Russian human rights group says more than a dozen of them are under rage because people as young as 14 can be prosecuted for crimes like treason and terrorism. As Alex Marquardt reports, they learned the hard way what it means to speak out against the war in Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Arseny Turbin was your average Russian teenager. A top student who enjoyed electronics, he built a radio transmitter for a class project.
Today, he's one of Russia's youngest political prisoners. Arrested at 15 years old and now facing five years in a penal colony, found guilty on terrorism charges.
He was accused of joining a Russian paramilitary group fighting for Ukraine. He admits he contacted them but denies joining.
On Russia's National Day in June last year, he staged a solo protest. Posting on YouTube saying, I'm against Putin and freedom for political prisoners.
Now Turbin is one of at least three dozen teenagers who are jailed in Russia for political reasons. Among Russia's almost 3,000 citizens facing criminal prosecution on political grounds.
Human rights group OVD-Info has tracked these cases and told CNN there are at least 16 teenagers that they know of, but almost certainly more, who were detained after Russia invaded Ukraine and the Kremlin dramatically cracked down on dissent, including by minors.
We spoke with Turbin's mother, Irina, in Russia, who had pleaded with her son not to speak out, knowing what could happen.
IRINA TURBINA, MOTHER OF RUSSIAN TEENAGE PRISONER (through translator): Of course, I'm terrified for him and I'm afraid that part of him will break. But I want to believe that he will be strong until the end.
MARQUARDT: You shared some of the letters that Arseny wrote to you from detention. And in one of them, he says, please, I'm asking you to do everything you can to make sure I get released. I dream of the day when I'll be released and can hug you. How painful is that for you as a mother to read that?
TURBINA (through translator): I cried because I understand that I am doing the best I can already.
I knew I couldn't do anything. I have already done and am doing everything I can. But this is not enough for him to be free.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): In another letter, Turbin wrote, yesterday after lights out, an inmate pushed me into the toilet. Today, he punched me twice in the head while I was in bed. The situation is very difficult.
Kevin Lick knows all too well about the brutality of Russian prisons, after being arrested at 17-years old and sent to a labor camp with a four-year sentence.
KEVIN LICK, FORMER PRISONER IN RUSSIA: They handcuffed my hands, with a rope, and started to beat me. They put out a cigarette on my hand, there's a scar left.
MARQUARDT: They physically abused you?
LICK: Yes, they abused, to try to get answers out of me.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Lick had taken photos of a military base across from his apartment building. He says he wanted to document history as the Russian military prepared to invade Ukraine.
Pro-regime media published this video of his alleged equipment. Lick was accused of wanting to send the photos to the intelligence services in Germany, where he is also a citizen. But he denies this.
LICK: My first two months of imprisonment, I was held in a solitary confinement. Now, when I look back, of course, it left scars. A psychologist told me that I have PTSD.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): In prison, he says he was packed into cells with other inmates and lost a huge amount of weight.
Then, he was suddenly released in August, as part of the historic international prisoner swap, when "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were also freed.
[03:20:10]
In protesting Putin and his regime's war in Ukraine, charges against teenagers range from arson to sabotage and treason.
The youngest case that OVD-Info has told CNN about is of a 14-year-old unnamed girl accused of desecrating a military symbol. In late October, OVD-Info says that 15-year-old Sebastian Sultanov was arrested and is now being prosecuted for anti-Putin and anti-war graffiti.
He, like both Kevin Lick and Arseny Turbin, are supporters of opposition hero and Putin nemesis Alexei Navalny, who died in February in a penal colony.
Lick marched alongside Navalny's widow, Yulia, in a pro-democracy demonstration in Berlin just weeks ago. He's now embracing a new life of activism.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Now so far, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service hasn't responded to our request for comment regarding the allegations in that report. The Kremlin denies the existence of political prisoners in Russia.
An 11-year-old girl is apparently the only survivor after the migrant boat she was on sank off the Italian coast. It's thought 45 people, including her brother, were on board. Italian media says she's from Sierra Leone and was fortunately wearing a life jacket.
Yasmin, as she's been called, told rescuers the metal boat she was on capsized in a storm. She was found clinging to tire tubes three days later.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI say there is currently no evidence that the mysterious drones seen across New Jersey for weeks pose any threat to national security or have a foreign connection. The White House says the objects may actually be manned aircraft operating lawfully, but lawmakers and residents in New Jersey want answers.
Details from CNN's Omar Jimenez.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA ROSSETTO, WITNESSED DRONES: What are they? Who's sending them up there? What are they doing there? Why doesn't anybody know what they are? You know? And why New Jersey?
JANET MOSNER, WITNESSED DRONES: They actually flew in a circle around our building, both of them, and then it crossed and then disappeared.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI is now investigating weeks of reported drones over New Jersey. That's according to a document given to state and local officials. As a growing number of people report seeing drones, some described as six feet in diameter, flying in the skies.
NICK TECCHIO, STUDENT WHO WITNESSED DRONES: You see red and green flashing lights on the corners. They'll just change direction, go from 90 to 270 degrees, just fly different directions, and planes obviously can't do that.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): There have been questions about when these drones first started popping up. Reports seem to vary, but the Picatinny Arsenal, which is a military installation in northern New Jersey, has confirmed sightings in the area going back to November 13th, and public officials are starting to get frustrated.
UNKNOWN: They're creating so much fear and uneasiness in the public.
MAYOR MICHAEL MELHAM, BELLEVILLE TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY: They appear to actually avoid detection by traditional methods. So when our helicopter, our state police helicopter, has gotten close, lights go off and they go away.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): So far, authorities have stressed there is no known threat to the public. That's not enough for some.
BRIAN BELGAN, NEW JERSEY STATE ASSEMBLY: It's really concerning, and quite frankly, it's not acceptable.
JIMENEZ: Now the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are pouring a little bit of cold water on this. They released a joint statement saying that they have no evidence the reported drone sightings pose any national security threat, and they're continuing to investigate whether these reported drone sightings are actually drones at all, or if they are really manned aircraft.
And they have said some of the cases they've looked into to this point haven't actually been drones. They've been manned aircraft operating legally. That said, they are continuing to investigate what has been a flood of reports from this area to this point, and while they don't have a definitive answer to all of the cases, that lack of definitive answer is leaving a lot of people here with questions in the meantime.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Denville, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, evidence of torture. CNN's Clarissa Ward takes us inside a Syrian government building with a gruesome prison underground.
Plus, Donald Trump lays out his plans for January 6 rioters. We'll have more on those stories and more coming up. Stay with us.
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[03:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
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Syria's future after the fall of the Assad regime is sure to be fraught with challenges. But for now, there is celebration. Residents of Damascus are cheering throughout the capital as more than a decade of civil war has come to an end. Rebuilding the country will take some work. But already, banks and shops have reopened for the first time since the long-time dictator was toppled and traffic has returned to the roads.
All right, I want to take you now to Ankara, Turkey, where the U.S. Secretary of State and the Turkish foreign minister made statements a short time ago. They're both expected to attend a summit in Jordan this weekend on the transition to a new government in Syria.
Antony Blinken has been shuttling around the Middle East trying to line up support for the government taking over for dictator Bashar al- Assad. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLINKEN: -- I'm concerned of people in both of our countries. And I also want to extend my thanks and gratitude to President Erdogan for the generosity of his time and his insight last night in receiving us.
As the minister said, we're very focused on Syria, very focused on the opportunity that now is before us and before the Syrian people to move out from under the shackles of Bashar al-Assad to a different and better future for the Syrian people, one that the Syrian people decide for themselves. And we talked about how Turkey, how the United States, how other partners in the region can support those efforts.
And I think there's broad agreement on what we would each like to see going forward, starting with the interim government in Syria, one that is inclusive and nonsectarian, one that protects the rights of minorities and women, one that preserves institutions of the state and delivers services to the people, one that deals with any chemical weapons it may find to secure them and appropriately destroy them, one that rejects any alliances with extremist groups, and of course, one that does not pose any kind of threat to any of Syria's neighbors.
There is, I think, growing consensus on what many of us would like to see, because it's the best way to realize the aspirations of the Syrian people. It's also the best way to ensure that what emerges in Syria gets the support and recognition that it wants from the international community and which it very much needs after so many years of dictatorship, of conflict, of corruption, of isolation. We also discussed the imperative continuing the efforts to keep ISIS down.
Our countries worked very hard and gave a lot over many years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS, to ensure that that threat doesn't rear its head again, and it's imperative that we keep at those efforts.
[03:30:00]
Finally, as the minister said, we discussed Gaza, and we discussed, I think, the opportunity to finally try to complete the hostage ceasefire agreement, to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire in place. And what we've seen in the last couple of weeks are more encouraging signs that that is possible.
And in my discussions with President Erdogan and with Minister Fidan, we talked about the imperative of Hamas saying yes to the agreement that's possible to finally help bring this to an end. And we appreciate very much the role that Turkey can play in using its voice with Hamas to try to bring this to conclusion. We'll be pursuing these conversations tomorrow in Jordan, in Aqaba, with many of our Arab partners.
And again, I think you're seeing countries coming together throughout the region: Turkey, Arab countries, as well as partners like the United States, all in support of the Syrian people, of taking advantage of this moment of opportunity to see Syria move in a much different direction, one that finally reflects the will of the Syrian people.
Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: A moment of opportunity. Secretary of State Antony Blinken there speaking to reporters in Turkey, talking about the need to establish stability in Syria and prevent terrorism.
While many people in Syria are searching for their missing loved ones, CNN's Clarissa Ward visited a morgue in Damascus, where the bodies left behind reveal signs of the cruelty inflicted by the Assad regime. Now, I want to warn you, you may find the following report disturbing.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A woman wails on the floor of the Mushtahid hospital.
My mother, she's been missing for 14 years, she says. Where is she? Where's my brother? Where's my husband? Where are they?
Dr. Ahmed Abdullah shows us into the morgue, where about 35 bodies have been brought in.
Discovered in a military hospital days after the regime fell, they are believed to be some of the last victims of Bashar al-Assad. Take a look. This is the crime of the regime, he says. Even in the
Middle Ages, they didn't torture people like this. Another man points to their tattered clothing. Evidence, he says, that most were detainees at the much-feared Saydnaya prison. Even in death, they are still only identified by numbers.
Everyone here heard about the horrors that took place in Assad's notorious prisons, but to see it up close is something entirely different.
WARD: A lot of them have bruises, have horrible wounds that seem to be consistent with torture. I just saw one woman retching as she came out of the other room. Families are now going through trying to see if their loved ones are here.
WARD (voice-over): There's not enough room for all of them in the morgue, so a makeshift area has been set up outside.
More and more families stream in, the light from their cell phones the only way of identifying the dead.
My only son, I don't have another. They took him for 12 years now just because he said no. 12 years, my only son, this woman shouts. I don't know anything about him. I ask Allah to burn him, she says of Assad. Burn him and his sons like he burned my heart.
A crowd swarms when they see our camera. Everyone here has lost someone.
WARD: All of these people are asking us to take the names of their loved ones to help them try to find them.
WARD (voice-over): It is a mark of desperation. Such is the need for answers. But finding those answers will not be easy.
At the military intelligence facility known as the Palestine Branch, officers burned documents and destroyed hard drives before fleeing. But their terror was on an industrial scale. Troves and troves of prisoner files remain. It will take investigators years to go through them.
Below ground, more clues etched on the walls of cells that look more like dungeons.
WARD: So you can see this list of names of it looks like 93 prisoners here. There's also a schedule for keeping the cell tidy and just graffiti everywhere. People trying to leave marks for someone to find.
[03:35:01]
WARD (voice-over): Down here, insects are the only life form that thrives. It's clear that anyone who could survive this will never be the same again.
The cells are empty, but the doors are finally open. The quest for answers is just beginning. WARD: The one thing the Assad regime did do a very good job of was
documenting its own crimes. So the question now is how long will it be until you start to see human rights groups, investigators coming into Syria to try to start the vast process of pouring through all that data.
And then what's the next step towards getting some sort of justice for these people? Could these Syrians choose to do what the Ukrainians did, which was essentially to open themselves up to be under the jurisdiction of the ICC?
That would be the hope of many Syrians. But the disappointment as well, for a lot of people you talk to here, is that Bashar al-Assad is very unlikely to ever see his day in court because, of course, he is now in exile in Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The United Nations reports more than 1.1 million people have been displaced across Syria since the fall of the Assad regime. Refugees are streaming into and out of the country as some minority groups fear they might be targeted by the new Islamist government. The U.N. says recent hostilities have made an already dire situation worse. The World Food Program is asking donors for $250 million for food assistance over the next six months as winter sets in.
Millions of Syrians have sought refuge in other countries since the civil war began in 2011. The majority, nearly three million, settled in Turkey. More than 7 million people were internally displaced.
Dr. Bachir Tajaldin, the Turkey country director for the Syrian American Medical Society, explains the latest on the health situation in Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BACHIR TAJALDIN, TURKEY COUNTRY DIRECTOR, SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY: Still there are some security challenges. And as I see, the situation is getting better day after day. But it still needs some time.
Actually, focusing on the health services and the health system itself, unfortunately, the health system is very affected. I have met with many health care workers in the public sector and private sector in different government rates during my visit.
Unfortunately, the corruption was very dominant in those government- controlled areas. The public hospitals, their infrastructure needs a lot of rehabilitation.
BRUNHUBER: So the need, doctor, is so great. What are the priorities immediately right now?
TAJALDIN: Yes, currently what we are trying to cover during the short term is providing medical supplies, medical communities to the facilities, trying to communicate with the medical staff, mainly the nurses in different areas, to go back to their work, because there is a lack of health care providers, mainly in the public facilities, mainly due to the fear from reporting to the hospitals, the security on the road, but also the availability of the transportation for those staff.
BRUNHUBER: Are you speaking with many medical professionals specifically who want to go back, especially from Turkey, which has taken in millions of Syrian refugees?
TAJALDIN: For sure, there are a lot of medical professionals who are willing to go back to Syria. But to be frank and clear with you, there are millions of people in the surrounding countries as refugees, but they cannot go back without stabilizing the situation, providing the essential services.
And that is the priority in the coming period. Re-establish the basic services, mainly health and education.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: A missing American has been found walking barefoot around Damascus. Travis Timmerman says he spent months in a Syrian prison after entering the country as a pilgrim. Salma Abdelaziz has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A U.S. citizen that went missing in Hungary has turned up in Damascus. Travis Timmerman, a Missouri native, 29 years old, a U.S. citizen, was found disoriented, barefoot, and wandering south of Damascus in a field.
[03:40:03]
He has spoken to media, he has spoken to residents in the area. I want you to take a listen to this interview with NBC to get a sense of his state of being.
TRAVIS TIMMERMAN, AMERICAN FOUND IN SYRIA: After that I entered the Syrian border illegally. I crossed the mountains between Lebanon and Syria. And I was living in that mountain for three days and three nights on the water. And I was seen by a border guard (inaudible). And that's when I was arrested. I was sent to a Syrian prison called Filet Philistine.
ABDELAZIZ: Now as you heard there, Timmerman does admit that he illegally crossed into Syria from Lebanon under the very tight control of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Anyone crossing into Syria would absolutely be stopped by security forces. That's what took place a few days after he arrived in Syria.
Timmerman was then taken to a regime prison. He was held there for seven months. He says he was treated relatively well, given food, given water, given bathroom breaks.
But he says he heard the sound of people being tortured in that prison every single day. Now when rebels liberated Damascus, he, among others, was able to break out of prison. The U.S. says it is aware of his case and is providing support on the ground.
An extraordinary tale and a welcome end for his family.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare's CEO isn't a member of the insurance company, according to their spokesperson, and neither is his mother. Sources tell ABC News that prosecutors in New York have started presenting evidence against Luigi Mangione to a grand jury. They're also learning that investigators have executed search warrants tied to the case.
Sources say the warrants cover a backpack found in Central Park and a burner phone found along the believed getaway route near the crime scene. Mangione's next court appearance, related to state charges in Pennsylvania, is set for December 23.
Meanwhile, we're hearing the alleged killer isn't interacting with other inmates in prison. CNN's Jason Carroll has details about what his life is like behind bars.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Luigi Mangione is fighting extradition to New York, and while that happens, this is the prison where he's being held.
It's the state correctional institution at Huntington, the oldest operating state prison in Pennsylvania. Mangione's cell looks much like the one you see here, according to a law enforcement source. His actual cell is 15 by 6 feet. The Department of Corrections spokesperson says he's in a single cell and not in solitary confinement. He is not interacting with other inmates at this time. He has a bed, a sink, toilet, and a desk with a seat.
STEVE BOHNEL, "PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE": It's always interesting to see, you know, a prison in your backyard that, you know, frankly, most people wouldn't be able to pick out of a map or wouldn't know the name of, and now everyone's interested in the type of food he's eating, you know, the cell block that he's in.
CARROLL (voice-over): Meals at the facility are served three times a day, 6:15, 10:40, and supper at 5:15. On the menu, Mangione has a choice between chicken parmesan and a dish called pizza beans.
The Department of Correction says, Mangione has taken his meals in his cell and is not interacting with other inmates, adding, all inmates are afforded time outside their cells, even if they are a higher custody level.
Mangione's case has received a great deal of national attention, so perhaps no surprise, he's already known to some inmates. That type of notoriety is also an added security concern at a correctional facility.
JUSTIN PAPERNY, PRISON CONSULTANT: Any prison, state or federal, is a predatory environment, and there could be prisoners who are there for a long time, perhaps looking to get in the media, get some attention, so he's got to learn to enjoy his own company in a little cell with a desk, with a toilet, with a pen to be able to write, with a sink, because he will not be around prisoners, as I see it, for quite some time. The prison just can't risk it.
CARROLL (voice-over): Huntington's inmates have made headlines before Mangione.
Cosmo DiNardo, who was convicted of murdering four men and burying them on his parents' property, served part of his life sentence there.
Nick Yarris also served time there. Yarris was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 on rape and murder charges. His sentence overturned in 2003 due to DNA evidence. He says his time at Huntington are years he will never forget.
NICK YARRIS, FORMER PRISONER: He decided to send me to Huntington Prison, the hardest prison in America at that time.
JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": What was he going to do before that?
YARRIS: I don't know, but he made sure I went to the place that they broke you.
CARROLL (voice-over): Mangione's time there could be measured in weeks as prosecutors push to have him brought back to New York.
[03:45:04]
CARROLL: The Department of Corrections also says that Mangione is allowed to have visitors there at the facility, but so far the only person to visit him has been his attorney, and that was Thursday afternoon.
Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: India heads into a winter plagued with toxic smog and the pollution that's putting children at risk. We'll have that story next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Toxic smog is choking parts of India and seriously harming its poorest and most vulnerable. In Delhi, life-threatening pollution has become a regular occurrence during the winter and children are particularly at risk.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery has our report.
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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For three-year-old Chahat and his baby sister, clean air is a luxury that their parents cannot afford.
MUSKAN, MOTHER (through translator): I feel scared that my children might die. I'm filled with regret when I think about what might happen to them.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Delhi's air is so toxic that Muskan says her kids have needed a nebulizer since birth. She spent months saving up for this machine, rag-picking the very trash that's also poisoning her children, earning just a dollar a day.
MUSKAN (through translator): During the winter months, their ribs start to hurt. Mucus freezes in their chest. They vomit too. We're so worried. I have three children. They keep falling sick in this dust.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): But her children are the lucky ones.
DEEPAK KUMAR, FATHER (through translator): The doctor asked us to buy a nebulizer, but we don't have that kind of money.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): When Deepak's daughter struggles to breathe, they rush to a nearby clinic where he says each breath costs more than his daily wage.
Nights are his worst fear. No doctors, just bombs and thoughts of mounting medical costs.
KUMAR (through translator): I want to leave Delhi, but I can't because I need to pay off a debt for my daughter's health.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Every winter, toxic smog blankets Delhi. A deadly mix of smoke from crop fires, coal plants and traffic. Officials block cars and close schools, as air pollution can hit 60 times the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines.
But like winter, the smog returns every year. And its biggest victims are the tiniest lives.
MAJINDER SINGH-RANDHAWA, PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE CONSULTANT: The human lung also develops, still, about eight to 10 years of age. It's not in its mature form 'till that time. And a developing lung, if it's exposed to all these pollutants, that has when it causes long-term problem.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): While India's poor are bound to these slums, the wealthy rush to hospitals.
UNKNOWN: But I don't think so that this kind of severity here. So, it might be very painful at that time.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): He wants to send his three-year-old son, hospitalized with bronchitis, hundreds of miles away from Delhi to his hometown. [03:50:08]
But even money can't save these children from the silent killer.
When winter ends in Delhi, the smog will lift. But the impact on India's children, permanent and lethal.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: Cyclone Chido is moving toward Madagascar and is expected to pass to the north of the country by this afternoon. Now the compact but powerful storm isn't expected to make landfall and is continuing to weaken. But its outer bands have already begun impacting the island country. Weather officials warn of winds up to 120 km per hour and sea level rise of up to 8 meters above normal.
Scientists are sending human tissue into space. Join us when we come back. An orbital experiment to unravel the mysteries of the aging process. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Thousands of lights and colorful decorations are bringing Christmas cheer to Sydney, Australia. The city claims it has the tallest Christmas tree in New South Wales, adorned with 330 large decorations and 15,000 native Australian flowers. People can also watch scenes from Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol" play out on the walls of Sydney's largest Catholic cathedral, St. Mary's.
Samples of human tissue are in orbit right now on the International Space Station. It's part of an experiment to see why astronauts seem to age faster while in space and whether age-related diseases can be slowed. CNN's Nick Valencia has more.
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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outer space may hold the answer to some of humanity's greatest questions. What causes aging and can the process be altered?
Human tissue samples called organoids are now in orbit at the International Space Station and identical samples are back on Earth at Oxford University's Space Innovation Lab. This experiment will allow researchers to compare and analyze data from both samples to study the aging process and the impact of microgravity on it.
GHADA ASALEH, SPACE INNOVATION LAB: So this is a very new project where we work between, actually the frontier between the space and biology.
VALENCIA (voice-over): Inside the International Space Station, a box containing human tissue samples serves as a controlled environment.
ASALEH: The box has a small computer and all the detection material that we need to get the measurements we wanted. And we can actually control that and see all the data coming all the time.
VALENCIA (voice-over): Researchers don't require assistance from the astronauts aboard the space station as they can automatically gather the information from their laboratory on Earth.
ASALEH: We could be able to measure a few things without interacting anyone.
VALENCIA (voice-over): Over the years, astronauts have suffered from muscle loss, joint and bone issues, and problems with their immune system. Researchers found that this is similar to an age-related disease.
ASALEH: And this leads us to ask the question, if the space might provide us with an accelerating aging model.
[03:54:56]
And if it is the case, that means we can actually be able to study aging very fast, because this has happened in a very short time, while aging on Earth needed different years.
VALENCIA (voice-over): With future missions planned to send humans to Mars and beyond, the impact of space travel on aging will become a key issue.
Nick Valencia, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: Well fossils from three dinosaur skeletons have fetched more than $15 million at an auction at Christie's in London. Have a look.
An Adult and juvenile Allosaurus from the Jurassic period were sold as a pair for $10 million. A Stegosaurus skeleton, also from the Jurassic, sold for $5 million. Fossils were excavated in Wyoming before they were brought to London.
The New York Mets are showing off their new multi-million-dollar man. The team introduced their incoming outfielder Juan Soto at a news conference on Thursday. The baseball superstar recently became the highest-paid player in professional sports history.
He signed a 15-year, $765 million deal, according to several reports. Soto told reporters he was won over by the team's leadership and impressed by their dedication to future wins. Here he is.
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JUAN SOTO, NEW YORK METS OUTFIELDER: That was one of the things that opened my eyes more, how hungry they are to win a championship and to want to make a dynasty in the New York Mets.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Now the left-handed hitter is expected to bat second and play right field for the Mets next season. Ahead of last season, Soto was traded to the New York Yankees from the San Diego Padres and had one of his best campaigns of his seven-year career.
Now there's a new champion in the world of chess. Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju was become the youngest-ever undisputed world champ in classical chess after beating his Chinese rival in a grueling best- of-14 final in Singapore.
The 18-year-old is four years younger than the previous record-holder, the legendary Gary Kasparov, who won his first world title in 1985. Gukesh broke into tears as the emotion of his victory sunk in, telling reporters he's living a dream he's had for more than a decade. Back in India, celebrations broke out for their hometown hero. Congratulations.
All right, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta. There is more "CNN Newsroom" with Ben Hunt and Christina Macfarlane in London. That's coming up after the break. Please do stay with CNN.
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