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Signs of Normalcy Return a Week after Assad Regime Fell; Israel: 'Unprecedented' Number of Israelis Spying for Iran; DHS Secretary Attempts to Calm Public Over Drone Concerns; Key Cabinet Picks Expected on Capitol Hill This Week; Why German Chancellor Scholz Faces Confidence Vote Today; Researchers Build a 'Smart Cow' to Help Ranchers. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired December 16, 2024 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

[00:00:34]

Just ahead, a step toward normalcy in Syria. Schools reopen a week after Bashar al-Assad was overthrown. The challenge now: rebuilding the country after more than a decade of civil war.

The search for survivors after a cyclone devastates the French territory of Mayotte. Hundreds of people feared dead.

And weeks of mysterious drone sightings in the U.S. Northeast but no real answers. Frustration is growing.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin this hour in Syria, where the country and world leaders look toward a new chapter more than a week after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

In Damascus, university students toppled a statue of late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the ousted leader, before standing on it and dragging it through the street. The statue had been standing at the university for decades.

Meantime, Christians in the Syrian capital attended mass on Sunday, expressing hope that a new government would respect the rights of minorities in the country. Though many said the future was still uncertain.

And a return to normalcy for students in Damascus as schools reopened their doors. Students and school faculty are expressing optimism for the future. The world is watching to see if Syria's new government can stabilize the country and move toward a smooth transition.

And in the hours ahead, Syria will be on the agenda at an E.U. Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. The U.N. special envoy for Syria, who met with the new caretaker government on Sunday, says he supports the lifting of sanctions on leading rebel group HTS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEIR PERDERSEN, U.N. ENVOY TO SYRIA: We need to see that this is fixed quickly. We will hopefully see a quick end to sanctions so that we can see, really, a rallying around building up Syria again.

And then my last point, we need to see, of course, justice and accountability for crimes. And we need to make sure that that goes through a credible justice system and that we don't see any revenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Israeli government has approved a plan to expand settlements in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in Southwestern Syria that Israel has occupied for nearly 60 years.

The plan, put forward by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is drawing condemnation from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who say the move could derail Syria's chances of restoring stability and consider it a violation of international law.

The Israeli leader had this message about Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We have no interest in a conflict with Syria. We will determine Israel's policy towards Syria according to the emerging reality on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Joining me now from Damascus is Ibrahim al-Assil, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. Thank you so much for being with us.

IBRAHIM AL-ASSIL, SENIOR FELLOW, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Thank you for having me. And good morning from Damascus.

CHURCH: So, more than a week after the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's transitional government is trying to stabilize the country, while the people of Syria celebrate their newfound freedom. But how difficult is the task ahead for this new Syrian government?

AL-ASSIL: That's a great question, because the task is really difficult. The state virtually has collapsed across Syria, and there is a high level of poverty across the country.

People just need some security, electricity and water, and they just want to be able to send their kids to schools these days.

However, there are also other challenges on the political level. What you just said as a transitional government, many people now are starting to question that: how transitional is it?

Is there really a roadmap? There hasn't been real talks about a roadmap to see some milestones or some dates of what will happen next, and if there is, if there will be any sort of a national dialog to probably include other political parties and other political actors in this government.

CHURCH: And I do want to get to that point in a moment. But Syria will be top of the agenda at an E.U. Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels in the coming hours. The U.N. special envoy for Syria says he supports the lifting of sanctions against the leading rebel group, HTS.

How critical is that, that these sanctions are lifted, and how likely is it that that will happen?

AL-ASSIL: It's very crucial for -- for the country, because there is no way for Syria to move ahead and to move forward and to be able to stabilize itself without support from the international community.

And for that support to arrive in Syria, sanctions need to be lifted.

But we're not only talking about sanctions. We're also talking about delisting Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from the terrorist list. And now the talks are on these two paths, about lifting the sanctions and also about delisting the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from the terrorist list so they can talk to other international actors.

But of course, there are different conditions, including being inclusive to other actors inside Syria and including them in this political moment.

CHURCH: Yes, you've raised that point. So, let's talk about it.

The rebel group BTS has clarified that they want to ensure peaceful relations with their regional neighbors, and they are committed to Syrian territorial integrity.

But what about this issue of an inclusive government? How big a challenge will that be? And could the lifting of sanctions be leveraged here to get them to be more inclusive?

AL-ASSIL: Right. So, the international talks have focused on -- on these two levels. One of them is about the -- the foreign affairs of the -- the new Syrian government. And here we can see some alignment between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the international community, that they do want to have peaceful relations with their neighbors and the world.

But when it comes to the domestic issues and how they are running the current government, we see some divergence here. We haven't heard much talks about any roadmap for elections in the future or for launching some national dialog inside Syria, where other political actors are welcome to come to Damascus and participate in these talks or any sort of laws to establish political parties inside the country.

So, there are certainly priorities when it comes to security and economic development, but also, economy wasn't the only problem inside Syria. The political environment was a huge challenge. And to be able to include different actors inside Syria, so they feel

they are part of this new system, is totally crucial, especially for a government that does not have a strong army, and its legitimacy only comes from what we can call a revolutionary legitimacy that, sooner or later, will be drained, and people will ask for a different type of legitimacy that's built on including other actors on the ground.

CHURCH: And the other big question, of course, is how likely is it that a new Syrian government will respect the rights of minorities in the country? That is a big concern.

AL-ASSIL: That's absolutely a big concern when we talk about religious minorities, when we talk about ethnic minorities inside Syria, and also, if we take a step back and we look at the social contract. Many, many people inside Syria, even if they come from an ethnic or religious majority, they don't necessarily feel included in this new social contract.

And that's why a national dialog is extremely important, because there is a collapse of the social contract inside Syria, and there is a need to regenerate that by launching these political tracks of Syrians probably meeting each other for the first time in a country that has been divided for over a decade.

CHURCH: Ibrahim al-Assil in Damascus, many thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.

AL-ASSIL: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, the incoming U.S. administration has been warning of consequences if the remaining hostages held in Gaza are not released soon.

And a source says President-elect Donald Trump's pick for hostage affairs envoy will hold meetings with Israeli officials on the issue in the coming hours.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Mr. Trump on the situation in the Middle East and the need to bring the hostages home.

Meanwhile, at least five people were killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted a civil defense service office in central Gaza on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAKI IMAD EDDINE, CIVIL DEFENSE SPOKESPERSON (through translator): The civil defense unit stationed in the Nusrat refugee camp was targeted while teams were there. These teams work around the clock to rescue people. Everyone knows that the Civil Defense Organization is a humanitarian body that provides service during both peace and war to civilians and has no political involvement.

[00:10:09]

The team was directly targeted. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: An al Jazeera photojournalist who was covering rescue efforts after another bombing was among those killed. Al Jazeera is condemning the attack.

The IDF claims the site was being used as a command center by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Israeli authorities say an unprecedented number of Israelis have been spying for Iran. Dozens have been arrested over the past year, accused of carrying out missions like photographing military bases and even plotting government assassinations.

Our Jeremy Diamond reports on the fallout following the arrest of one alleged cell leader.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this low- income building in the city of Haifa, Apartment 5 looks just as ordinary as every other, until you notice the spot where police broke in.

Israeli authorities say the man who lived here, Azis Nisanov, was the leader of a group of Iranian spies.

LEONID GORBACHOVSKY, NEIGHBOR (through translator): I wasn't surprised; I was shocked. It was like thunder amid clear skies.

DIAMOND (through translator): His next-door neighbor, Leonid Gorbachovsky, was home when police pried the door open with a metal bar. He says they turned the place inside out and found piles of cash.

Israeli police say Nisanov led a seven-person cell of Israelis who gathered intelligence for Iran for more than two years and are now awaiting trial. And the Haifa Seven are allegedly just one cell. Israeli authorities say they have uncovered multiple spy rings in recent months.

SUPERINTENDENT MAOR GOREN, ISRAELI POLICE: If you go check the last years and the last decades, we can count on two hands how many people got arrested. From this last six months, we have over 30 Israeli citizens that got arrested.

DIAMOND: So, that's unprecedented?

GOREN: Yes, of course.

DIAMOND (through translator): Superintendent Maor Goren, who oversaw the investigations, says the arrests foiled multiple assassination plots, as well as ongoing intelligence-gathering efforts.

DIAMOND: While some of these alleged Iranian spies were accused of plotting to kill senior Israeli officials, others had a different task: photographing Israeli military bases like the Nevatim Airbase right behind me.

And Israeli officials say those photographs, that information actually helped the Iranians carry out those ballistic missile attacks in April, as well as in October.

DIAMOND (through translator): Missiles struck Nevatim Airbase in both of those attacks. And while the base's location is known to Iran, police believe zoomed-in photos and videos provided additional targeting intelligence.

GOREN: Some of them got recruited by the Iranians by using the social media.

DIAMOND (through translator): Many of those Telegram messages, provided by Israel's Shin Bet security service, are wildly unsophisticated: spam-style messages offering interesting and exciting jobs that pay a very high salary.

In one series of messages provided by the Israeli police, an alleged Iranian handler writes, "We just need brave men. Are you brave. For a lot of money?" Before tasking their mark with buying gasoline and setting off forest fires.

ODED AILAM, FORMER MOSSAD OFFICIAL: It worked, and based on the theory of the big numbers.

DIAMOND (through translator): Oded Ailam, a former top Mossad official, says Iran is more interested in casting a wide net than in recruiting skilled operatives.

AILAM: And they said to themselves, OK, if we fail here, we'll go to the next one. And they don't really care of the outcome.

DIAMOND (through translator): Unlike previous Iranian intelligence efforts in Israel, which have largely involved Palestinian recruits, the majority of those arrested in the last year have been Jewish Israelis, many of them new immigrants, according to the police.

They were also often poor or had criminal histories. People like Slava Guschin (ph), who lived in this apartment and was allegedly part of the Haifa cell.

For neighbors like Riki and Moshe, who saw him struggling and had given him food and clothes --

RIKI, NEIGHBOR: Shock, shock.

MOSHE, NEIGHBOR (through translator): No, no. No one could believe it. People here that know him, that also brought him food and everything, they want to kill him.

DIAMOND (through translator): A sense of betrayal for the accused spy next door.

DIAMOND: And Iran did not return a request for comment about the spying allegations. As for Azis Nisanov, the alleged leader of the Haifa Seven, I spoke to

his attorney, who did not deny that Nisanov photographed these military bases, but said he did not know that he was working for Iran. He said that his motives were purely financial and that he did not believe he was harming Israel's security.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Cyclone Chido has killed at least 11 people in the French territory of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, but government officials say the death toll could rise to hundreds and possibly thousands.

[06:15:09]

The storm was the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane when it hit on Saturday. Chido's winds topped 220 kilometers per hour. It flattened entire neighborhoods, damaged the airport and knocked out power to many areas.

France says it's deploying more than 1,000 emergency workers to help.

After hitting Mayotte, a weakened Chido made landfall in Mozambique, making it the strongest cyclone to hit that country since Kenneth in 2019.

Two Russian cargo ships carrying oil were in distress between the country's mainland and annexed Crimea during bad weather Sunday. That's according to Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations.

What seems to be a large Russian cargo ship snapped in two in choppy waves can be seen in this video circulating on unofficial Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels. CNN has been unable to independently verify the location.

The ministry says a helicopter rescue team responded to a request for assistance after one of the vessels ran aground and was damaged. It says one person out of 27 people across both ships is known to have died.

There's no suggestion the incidents are related to Russia's war in Ukraine.

State and local officials are growing more and more frustrated with the U.S. government's response to recent drone sightings, as many across the Northeast are left with more questions than answers. We'll have the latest on the investigation just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

The U.S. government is facing growing pressure for answers as swarms of mysterious drones have now been spotted across six states over the past month. Federal agencies have drawn bipartisan criticism for downplaying the concerns from state and local governments, even as they've acknowledged the unusual nature of the reported sightings.

Julia Benbrook has the latest from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Following the uptick in reported drone sightings in the Northeast, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, but Homeland Security Secretary --

BENBROOK (voice-over): -- Alejandro Mayorkas is looking to assure the public that there is no known public safety threat and that his team is closely monitoring any developments.

He also says the agency is in close coordination with state and local authorities.

During his most recent comments about the drone sightings, during an interview with ABC that aired --

BENBROOK: -- earlier today, he said that the federal government has deployed additional personnel, resources and technology to help New Jersey state police address the drone sightings.

BENBROOK (voice-over): Now, while Mayorkas has said that there's no question people are seeing drones, he has also said that the technology has confirmed that at least some of those drone sightings are actually small manned aircraft.

[00:20:13]

BENBROOK: He is calling on Congress to act to help them address future situations, asking them to extend and expand the government's authorities when it comes to drones.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We are working in close coordination with state and local authorities. And it is critical, as we all have said for a number of years, that we need, from Congress, additional authorities to address the drone situation.

We want state and local authorities to also have the ability to counter drone activity under federal supervision. That is one important element that we have requested, and we've heard it echoed by the state and local officials themselves.

BENBROOK: Mayorkas was asked about President-elect Donald Trump's --

BENBROOK (voice-over): -- social media post, suggesting that the government could shoot down the drones.

In response to that, Mayorkas said that --

BENBROOK: -- there are some agencies within the Department of Homeland Security and outside of the department that could do that, but that they need those authorities expanded, as well.

BENBROOK (voice-over): Now, throughout these investigations and during these drone sightings, Mayorkas has continued to say that his team is not aware of any direct national security concerns tied to the reported drone sightings.

BENBROOK: But he has pledged to provide an update if his team sees any cause for concern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now from Montana is Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI special agent and president of the Brunner Sierra Group.

I appreciate you joining us.

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: My pleasure.

CHURCH: So, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is trying to reassure the public amid more reports of drone sightings in six states in the Northeast by saying, quote, "We are on it."

But the federal government appears to be alarming people even more by failing to explain what's going on. Some of these are small plane sightings, but what do you make of these drones?

BRUNNER: Well, that's the real question is, what are these drones?

But what the government, the U.S. -- U.S. government is failing to do is properly address this. This clearly is an investigation that has been going on for a number of weeks now, because the reported drone sightings have been going over New Jersey for a number of weeks. It's moving into Connecticut, New York, Maryland and over many military facilities.

Now, the Pentagon came out a few days ago and said, these are not U.S. Department of defense Drones. OK. Well, then their very next statement was, and these are not adversarial.

Well, we don't know what they are. You can't say that they're -- they're not an adversarial nation. The U.S. government just doesn't know. And that right there is the failure: that they don't know what this is.

This clearly shows a large vulnerability to the U.S. infrastructure and the national airspace. The clear -- we clearly see the war in the Ukraine and the combat development of unmanned aerial vehicles and utilizing these. And we know that foreign adversaries have ships and vessels that can deploy drones into different air spaces.

We don't know what these are, and it's showing a clear vulnerability.

A good percentage of these, yes, are manned aircraft that people are mistaking for a UAV. But there is definitely a lot of unanswered activity going on in the Northeast. CHURCH: And you raise the big problem, don't you? Because homeland

security secretary, he's been saying here that they're not aware of any direct national security concerns tied to this uptick in drone sightings in the last four weeks, saying they don't believe there are any foreign governments involved.

But how can they be so sure of that, if they don't appear to know what they're actually dealing with? Or if they know, they're not telling the public? Presumably, that's -- that's another point, isn't it, that they may know, but they're -- they're trying to basically tell people it s nothing to worry about. But we need more details, don't we?

BRUNNER: Right. Well, it's the job of the government to make its people feel safe. I understand that. I worked for the national -- for the U.S. government for 29 years. I understand about national security and that there are certain things that the public doesn't need to know because of ongoing investigations or national security. Completely understandable.

But this is getting national and international attention, and there clearly seems to be a lack of understanding at the national level of this -- of the government.

Figuring out what it is, being able to shoot down or neutralize these threats. These unidentified aircraft are flying over U.S. military installations, over the homes of governors. And the governor of Maryland, his home is getting flown over. U.S. Coast Guard cutters are getting followed by 12 unknown aircraft in -- flying in formation.

[00:25:00]

This is not normal. This is not just some hobbyist. This is someone who is operating aircraft in the U.S., in the Northeast, and is unknown. If the U.S. government does not know, they can't make the statement that is, the U.S. people are safe. We don't know what's on these aircraft.

We know that, from the war in Ukraine. There clearly are capabilities of deploying different munitions, different ways of attack.

This is also showing a lot of our adversaries, terrorist groups, organized crime, means to attack; how they want to conduct future terrorist attacks. This is literally a blueprint for ISIS, showing that there are vulnerabilities in the United States.

This needs to be addressed quickly. This needs to be addressed now. And the government, the current Biden administration, needs to get a handle on this.

Getting on the networks by Secretary Mayorkas and walk [SIC] -- and talking on Sunday morning is not the answer. There needs to be action, and there needs to be some sort of action now.

CHURCH: And Secretary Mayorkas also says there's no question that, in some instances, people are seeing drones, although he says some of these sightings are small planes. So, you certainly wouldn't want any vigilante groups shooting at any of these.

But in response, the federal government is deploying additional resources, personnel and technology to assist in addressing these drone sightings. What more needs to be done, though, if that's not enough?

BRUNNER: We need to start thinking forward. We need to forward think. Right now, we are in a reaction mode.

We are seeing a vulnerability that is clearly, you know, into the Northeast: vulnerabilities to our electrical grid, vulnerabilities to different systems, to, you know, the homes, military bases, the homes of our leaders. These are all -- can't be answered very quickly.

If they are going to deploy somewhat similar to an Iron Dome, which you know, is -- is protecting Israel, here in the United States, it's going to take billions of dollars, planning, and deployment.

This is not going to happen overnight. This is not going to happen in the next few months.

The Trump administration needs to come in and start addressing, looking at this problem of how we are going to deploy. We need to start thinking -- forward thinking, monitoring more, you know, shipping traffic that are out -- that's out in, you know, in our area around the United States, looking at the possibilities.

More intelligence needs to be had. And to track these ships, which are capable of launching drones over the United States. We need to start thinking more proactively instead of reactively.

CHURCH: Right. I mean, another reason why we need more answers to this is we don't want too much alarmist discussion on this, too. We have to be very careful with that.

Daniel Brunner, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

BRUNNER: My pleasure.

CHURCH: Well, the weekend finished with back-to-back days of severe weather in California, where a rare tornado hit the state just South of San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go home. Let's go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Oh, my God.

OK. Oh, my God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The National Weather Service measured winds up to 90 miles per hour, or nearly 145 kilometers per hour, during the storm, which only lasted about five minutes. But that's all the time it took to uproot trees, downed power lines and damage nearby vehicles.

Multiple people were injured and are receiving treatment, but fortunately, no deaths have been reported.

In the coming hours, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote that could prompt snap elections. Ahead, we will look at how his coalition fell apart.

Plus, U.S. senators are weighing in as President-elect Donald Trump's key cabinet picks look to shore up support in the week ahead. More on what they're saying, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:19]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

In the United States, Donald Trump's key cabinet picks are looking to build support ahead of Senate confirmation battles. A source tells CNN that the president-elect's choice to lead the country's top health agency and his pick for defense secretary are expected back on Capitol Hill this week.

CNN's Steve Contorno has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Monday kicks off another critical week on Capitol Hill --

CONTORNO (voice-over): -- for Donald Trump's cabinet picks.

It's the last expected week these senators will be in D.C. before they head home for the holidays. And on Sunday, we heard from Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who urged Donald Trump's allies to knock off the pressure campaign, trying to get Republican senators on the Hill to support his picks blindly.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Pete Hegseth had a good week this week on Capitol Hill. I'm working with Kash Patel. The members are not really swayed by these. If anything, they could create a structural problem for future nominees if they overreach.

But I don't believe that it's coming directly out of Mar-a-Lago. I think it's coming out of groups. Sometimes they're -- they have good behavior. Other times they're out there to make some change and -- and get their name out there.

CONTORNO (voice-over): Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, will continue meeting with senators this week. It comes after a weekend where he had a public display of support from President- elect Trump, when the two appeared side by side at the Army-Navy football game. CONTORNO: And on Sunday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham

revealed that --

CONTORNO (voice-over): -- in his conversations with Hegseth, Hegseth told him that he would release from a nondisclosure agreement a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): He told me he would release her from that agreement. Yes, I mean, just think about what we're talking about. I'd want to know if anybody nominated for a high-level job in Washington legitimately assaulted somebody.

I've known Pete for years. I met him in Afghanistan. I've heard nothing but good things about his service over there.

CONTORNO: Hegseth has denied the accusations, saying it was a consensual encounter.

Steve Contorno, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Today, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote that he called and is likely to trigger early elections.

Scholz is expected to speak in several hours ahead of a two-hour debate before voting starts.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla explains how Germany got to this point.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back on November 6th, Germany's rocky coalition spectacularly fell apart.

OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Too often, too many times did he act to serve his clientele and party. Too many times did he break my trust. Such egotism is completely incomprehensible.

SHUKLA (voice-over): Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, unceremoniously firing his finance minister, Christian Lindner.

The two massively disagreed about Germany's economic future.

CHRISTIAN LINDNER, HEAD OF LIBERAL PARTY, FORMER FINANCE MINISTER OF GERMANY (through translator): The chancellor gave me an ultimatum to suspend the constitutional debt break. I couldn't do that, because I would have been breaking my oath of office.

SHUKLA (voice-over): But the divisions between governing parties go far deeper than a financial mechanism.

LEONIE VON RANDOW, POLITICAL REPORTER: All three parties contributed to why this coalition fell apart by provoking one another, by publicly fighting. SHUKLA (voice-over): Leonie von Randow is a political reporter at

"Welt." She's covered the coalition since it was formed. She says the euphoria of this government ended abruptly, triggered largely by the war in Ukraine.

VON RANDOW: The government had to take on a huge debt to kind of put more money into defense and into the army. And also, the economy started to really stumble, because we were so largely dependent on Russian gas and oil. So, that's kind of where it all went downhill.

[00:35:08]

SHUKLA: By throwing out the Liberal Party in his traffic-light coalition, a reference to party colors, Olaf Scholz was forced to call a vote of confidence in himself.

His suggested timeline was a vote in January and elections in March.

SHUKLA (voice-over): The opposition saw their moment to pounce.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, HEAD OF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY (through translator): This is not behavior that does justice to this office, and above all, it is not behavior that does justice to the situation of the country.

SHUKLA (voice-over): Parties forced him into a reversal. The confidence vote on December 16th and federal elections on February 23rd.

The polls put the conservative CDU, the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, way ahead of Scholz's party, the SPD, and a surging far-right AFD coming in second place.

VON RANDOW: The election is probably coming at a very good time for the AFD. This is just a moment when many people are generally very unhappy with the government, so they kind of want to make a point and vote for an extreme party to kind of show how unhappy they are.

SHUKLA (voice-over): A crucial vote then beckons for Germany, as this coalition has been unable to right itself.

Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, a short but busy trip to the French island of Corsica for Pope Francis. We will tell you why it was so significant. Back with that and more in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Pope Francis praised residents of the French island of Corsica on Sunday during a one-day stop to the largely Catholic area.

People lined the streets for the island's first recorded visit by a pope. The Vatican estimates more than 80 percent of the island is Catholic.

The pope celebrated mass with residents, lauding the amount of children he saw on the island and calling their presence a grace from God.

He also met with French president Emmanuel Macron during what's likely to be his final trip for the year. Macron invited the pope to attend the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month, but the pope decided not to attend.

The day also included an early celebration of the Holy Father's birthday. Pope Francis turns 88 on Tuesday, already 11 years into his papacy.

Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia are working on building the world's first smart cow. They believe their A.I.-powered robot will help cattle farmers keep their fields green and their herds healthy. Lynda Kinkade shows us how.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not something you see every day.

A bright red, cow-sized robot against a green backdrop of rolling pastures.

But despite looking out of place, Swagbot --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mission complete.

KINKADE (voice-over): -- is the field worker of the future.

[00:40:00]

SALAH SUKKARIEH, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY: Once the animals, once the cattle are used to the robot, they will follow the robot around. And so, if you move to certain parts of the pasture, the animals will follow through.

And -- and if you stop, then they'll stop, and they can graze that particular part.

And why that's important is because, if you over graze, then you ruin the pasture. And so, you don't want to over graze. So, you want to move the animals to the right part of the pasture where there's good protein, good carbs.

KINKADE (voice-over): When it was launched in 2016, Swagbot's only job was herding cattle.

Now sensors and A.I. give the smart cow the power to do much more.

You can actually measure the property of the animals' motion as it's moving along. So, what we call its gait. So, how it's actually moving.

And if you measure that information over a number of different days, you start to build up a characteristic profile of that animal.

And from that, you can determine whether or not the animal is healthy or not healthy at a particular point in time. Along that -- along that path.

But also, we can sense it -- we can sense a collection of animals and where they're moving as a -- as a herd. And that tells us also information about the herd characteristics and why those two things are important is that if the robots going around and measuring pasture and measuring quality of pasture, it can actually determine where the best part of the land is for the animals to move to.

KINKADE (voice-over): Australia is a top global producer of beef, but overgrazing can hurt already poor pastures. Swagbot's creators hope to eliminate that issue.

The population of the world is growing, and we have the same amount of land to feed that population. And so, maximizing how much food we deliver for the same amount of inputs, even less in terms of the inputs, is what's important. And the only way we can do that is with precision agriculture. And doing that on such large scales needs robotics.

KINKADE (voice-over): Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

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CHURCH: Festive runners spread holiday cheer Sunday on the streets of Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

Thousands were in costume for the annual run Santa Claus event. Local runners were joined by soldiers from NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

Pristina is a predominantly Muslim city, but this Christmas-themed event seems to draw a strong turnout every year.

All participants received a medal, including a dog that joined the race.

In Budapest, dozens of people donned red swimsuits and Santa hats for the 21st Santa Speedo Run. Many shouted, "Ho, ho, ho!" as they raced through the city center in very cold weather.

Sunday's high temperature in Budapest was six degrees.

Proceeds from the event go to a charity helping children with Prader- Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic condition.

And I thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. WORLD SPORT is coming up next. Then I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM. Do stick around.

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