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FBI, Homeland Security Downplays Security Concerns on Mysterious Drone Sightings; Rare Tornado Hits California; German Chancellor Faces a Confidence Vote; Manchester United Wins in the latest Manchester Derby against archrival Manchester City. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 16, 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]

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster in London, just ahead on "CNN Newsroom."

Mounting questions with few answers. U.S. state officials and members of Congress alike want to know what the federal government is doing about the spike in drone sightings.

The cleanup continues. People near San Francisco are picking up the pieces after a rare tornado hits the area.

And the international community meets to try to figure out what comes next for Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster.

FOSTER: Well, we begin this hour with the mysterious drone spotted over six U.S. states and the growing pressure on the Biden administration to release more information about what is going on.

State and local officials have been critical of the federal response, as well as the lack of clarity. Homeland security officials, as well as the FBI, have downplayed any security concerns, whilst also acknowledging the unusual nature of these sightings.

The Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, says he'll co-sponsor legislation to give local authorities more drone detection tools, and he urged homeland security officials to deploy drone tracking technology to the region.

Despite the government insisting these drones aren't a threat, communities are still on edge. That was evident in Massachusetts over the weekend, where authorities responded to a drone incident near Boston's International Airport.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first let's start with Boston, because the police department there tells us they arrested two people who were found to be flying drones dangerously close to the airspace over Logan International Airport.

Now, we are still waiting to hear more about what was behind these arrests, but what we do know so far is that an officer spotted the drones and then was able to deploy drone detection technology to identify the drone history, the owners, and the locations from where they were being operated from.

That led the police department to Boston Harbor Island. This is a largely uninhabited part of Boston, and once police arrived there, they were able to arrest two people. They initially tried to flee on foot, but they were eventually captured. One of them had a drone in their backpack, and another is believed to have fled using a small vessel, a third person who the police are still looking for.

Now, we don't know how much we are going to learn as a result of these arrests just yet and whether or not it will explain some of the sightings that have been reported in Boston, but the fact that the police department was able to use technology is certainly something that a lot of law enforcement officials and representatives across many of these different communities are talking about.

Many of them are asking the federal government for more resources, for more information, so that they can take a more active role in detecting and intercepting some of these drones that are being reported.

Now, we have also heard from the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaking this weekend about the drone sightings and acknowledging that what people are reporting are definitely drones. Take a listen.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: There's no question that people are seeing drones, and I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.

PAZMINO: So, the Secretary says that he is sending resources to New Jersey where many of the sightings have been reported, but here in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul also telling us that the state is receiving some additional resources from the federal government after some drone sightings resulted in an airfield having to be shut down over this past weekend because of drone sightings over airspace at a local airport.

Now, Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statement on Sunday saying, in part, "In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State. This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigation."

[03:05:00]

Now, something we're not clear on just yet is exactly what kind of technology New York is going to be receiving, if it's going to be anything like what Boston deployed and helped them to find the drones and conduct those arrests. I have been asking about this technology, but I've been told that because this is now an issue of national security, the state is not going to share more information about what the technology is or where it will be deployed.

However, I am told by sources familiar with the conversations that the Governor and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, held a few phone calls over the weekend to discuss the need for more resources.

In the meantime, still a lot of frustration and a lot of questions being asked by local officials across the Northeast who want to do more and to make sure that their local governments have more resources to respond to these sightings.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Joining me from Los Angeles, Gregory McNeal, a law professor at Pepperdine University, is also an expert on the use of drones as well as the rules and laws regulating them.

Obviously, the issue we've got here is in the absence of hard information, conspiracy theories abound, and people are largely questioning who these drones belong to. Is there any intel on that from what you've seen?

GREGORY MCNEAL, PROF. OF LAW, PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY AND DRONE EXPERT: Yes, so we have seen a lot of information come out so far that sort of put things into a few categories. One category are those drones that have been misidentified as drones when they're really in fact manned aircraft. So they're not even drones.

It's people looking up in the sky thinking that they're seeing a drone. It's just an aircraft that's far enough away that it's moving slowly. So there was one example on Twitter or X recently where someone thought it was a drone. It was a United Airlines flight. So we have that sort of category of misidentifications. That's a known known.

We also have a category of identifications where people have said, I believe that's a drone. Turns out that it is in fact a drone. But flying a drone is not illegal. Just flying it in certain places makes it illegal.

And then I think the last category is this curious category. It's very small of aircraft that are just not able to be identified as drones. They might be or are not able to be identified as manned aircraft. They might also be those or they could be something entirely unknown to us. I think that's the category that has ignited this social panic.

FOSTER: If I can just ask you head on, you know, people are saying the government doesn't know anything about these drones and lots of people saying they do. How do we differentiate the truth there when we're not actually being told?

MCNEAL: Yeah, I think we want to look a little bit at the numbers. So there are over one million registered drones in the United States. There are more than that number of drones because many people choose to not register them.

Then the White House recently had a call with the FBI, sponsored a call, had the FBI on the line where they created a tip line. They received 5,000 tips over the tip line. They determined that only 100 of those were even worthy of investigating.

And the reason for that is that a lot of the aircraft that people are identifying as suspicious or as drones are ending up being aircraft that are following the exact same approach patterns as manned aircraft that are landing at Newark Airport or JFK or wherever else. And so you start to see this funneling down to the categories of drones that are really important for us to care about.

And then you have another category or another series of instances that are happening where people are going out to try and track down the drones they see in the sky by taking their own drone and flying it up in the sky, which then puts more aircraft in the air.

So those are all sort of the possible things that could be going on without me disregarding the fact that something suspicious is happening, right? We do see credible reports of aircraft that are flying over military installations, for example, as well as two individuals who were arrested for flying near Boston Airport.

FOSTER: How does the government address this? Do they just come out with all the information they've got or what? Because it's starting to, you know, you've got a different issue here. It's beyond the drones. It's the public concern about what's going on here, which needs to be calmed.

MCNEAL: I think you've really hit on the most important issue there, which is the public concern, the sense from elected officials in New Jersey and throughout that tristate region, as well as their own constituents who feel like the information they're getting is not information they can trust.

Now, maybe that's something that's just embedded in the discourse in American politics right now. But it certainly is a fact that both elected officials and citizens feel like they are not getting good information from their government. It's not necessarily the fact that it's inaccurate.

[03:10:04]

They're just not believing the details that they are being provided by the government. Part of that might be like if you go all the way back to the Chinese spy balloon that was flying over the United States, there was a long period of time there where not much information was being put out.

Then the American public didn't see much action. Then after the fact, the information that they got ended up being incorrect from the Department of Defense. So you have a lot of people who are mistrusting the government using that one example as one of many reasons why they don't trust the information that they're getting.

FOSTER: The spy balloon was a spy balloon. That was all confirmed in the end. It became quite transparent, didn't it? We're not getting the same transparency on this. I mean, how easy would it be for a foreign player to put these up and why would they do it in such a visible way?

MCNEAL: I think they wouldn't do it in such a visible way. If you're trying to surveil a military installation, you're probably not going to have red and green blinking lights and a strobe light on your drone.

Although there is a circumstance here where maybe an individual or a group of individuals will purposely test it in an obvious way to make their drone seen so they could see what the response mechanisms are, to see what the government does and how it responds to a known visible threat, which would then give them some insight into what they could do if they didn't have those lights on or they weren't broadcasting remote identification.

So that is a possibility, I think, that the intelligence community is talking about. But for the most part, if someone wants to do something harmful, they won't do it with lights on their drones. They'll fly them surreptitiously and at a high rate of speed into sensitive areas.

FOSTER: Okay, Gregory McNeal, really appreciate hearing from you today. I think everyone's looking to the authorities for some more information as they get up on this Monday morning.

Now to U.S. politics. Donald Trump's key cabinet picks are looking to build support ahead of Senate confirmation battles. A source tells CNN that the president elects 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.

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STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SR. REPORTER: Monday kicks off another critical week on Capitol Hill 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. 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 have good behavior. Other times they're out there to make some change and get their name out there.

CONTORNO: 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.

And on Sunday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham revealed that 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. LINDSAY GRAHAM (R-SC): He told me he would release her from that agreement. Yeah, 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 accusation, saying it was a consensual encounter.

Steve Contorno, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, a rare tornado hits Northern California over the weekend, but more winds and rain are on the way as recovery there begins. We'll have your latest forecast report.

Plus, it's the worst storm in almost a century to hit the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. We'll bring you the very latest on Cyclone Chido.

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[03:15:00]

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FOSTER: 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.

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Well, 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. That's all the time it took to uproot these trees, down power lines, and damage those vehicles.

CNN's Camila Bernal has more details on the local recovery efforts. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Cleanup efforts are underway in Scotts Valley, where that tornado hit, with winds that peaked at about 90 miles per hour. So that meant down trees, down power lines, power outages, cars that were flipped over. And so now this community just cleaning up and trying to get things back to normal.

The reality is that this is not normal in this area. People were not expecting an EF-1 tornado. This is not something they know how to deal with. So officials telling people to stay away from the area where they are continuing to clean up. And we do know, unfortunately, that several people were injured.

They were taken to the hospital. We do not have an update on their conditions. But we also know that, according to officials, there were no fatalities. Despite that, it was really scary for a lot of the residents in that area. Take a listen as to how they described it.

UNKNOWN: To be honest with you, I thought this could be the end of my life. It was that strong.

UNKNOWN: I heard someone scream, there's a tornado. So I ran out to the window to see, and there were things flying around, people screaming, cars making a bunch of noises.

[03:20:05]

BERNAL: And what was also very interesting about this storm was that it put the San Francisco downtown area under a tornado warning. That's the first time in recorded history that this happened. So another incident where it is extremely rare and where people were not expecting this.

The National Weather Service saying that they did not find any evidence of tornadoes after the storm, but they did record wind gusts of up to 80 miles an hour. So there was also some damage in the San Francisco area with downed trees and power lines and power outages. So the cleanup effort was underway there as well.

And this comes about a week after the San Francisco Bay Area was under a tsunami warning. So really just rare and severe weather events for the Bay Area.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: 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, possibly thousands.

The storm was the equivalent of a category four hurricane, 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. One resident describing it as though an atomic bomb had fallen on Mayotte.

France says it's deploying more than a thousand emergency workers to help. CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bitterman joins us from

Gilles in France.

I mean, one of the issues we've got here is that communications are out. So we don't know how bad the situation is, but this is a very poor island and quite densely populated in areas.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Max. That is one of the problems that we see oftentimes with earthquakes and with the hurricanes and whatnot.

Communications go out and then officials can't really get a handle on to what extent the disaster has taken place. In fact, it seems like this is going to be quite extensive and the government is mobilizing. As you mentioned, they've got 1,600 gendarmes on their way in to maintain security and another 1,800 rescue workers are on their way.

One of the problems is that this island is so far away from anything. I mean, it's about the closest it is to any other landmass. It's Madagascar, another island, and the coast of Africa. And the French are using their island of Reunion to ferry in supplies, kind of, an air bridge from Reunion, but it's 900 miles away.

So it's a disaster in, kind of, a remote place. There's about 300,000 people on the island. It's mostly agricultural. About half of the people live in rural areas and because of that, it's very difficult to get to them because of all the damage that's been done. The roads are blocked, that sort of thing. So it'll be a while before we get a real handle on exactly how bad it is.

The president, Macron, says he's going to hold a disaster meeting or a crisis meeting this evening at the Interior Ministry. Max?

FOSTER: I mean, they're described as shantytowns, the urban areas. You've described the rural areas, but the urban areas, you know, weak structures. We're seeing that in the images right now. So they weren't protecting people in the way they would have been protected in other parts of France.

BITTERMAN: Exactly, that's right. I mean, it's one of the poorest areas of France, if not the poorest, and because of that, one of the poorest territories of the European Union.

As a matter of fact, it is a lot of shantytowns, a lot of metal structures, very weak metal structures. Things have just been totally wiped out in those rural areas particularly, but in the cities as well. There are these shantytowns or kind of slums around the cities where a lot of the people live. So it is a disaster that is going to grow over the next few days as we learn more and more.

FOSTER: Jim, thank you so much for the update there.

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

What seems to be a large Russian cargo ship that snapped in two can be seen on this video circulating on unofficial Ukrainian and Russian telegram channels. CNN hasn't been able 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 aboard the two ships is known to have died. There's no suggestion the incidents are related to Russia's war in Ukraine though.

Still to come, frustration growing across the northeastern U.S. as the conflicting federal response to the ongoing drone mystery leaves more questions than answers.

Plus smashing icons of the Assad regime in Syria. Amid hope and uncertainty over the country's future, we'll take a closer look at what lies ahead.

[03:25:10]

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FOSTER: With drone sightings now spreading across six states in the northeastern U.S., federal agencies are drawing bipartisan criticism but downplaying the concerns from state and local governments, even as they've acknowledged the unusual nature of the reported sightings.

Officials and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of transparency from the Biden administration. On Sunday, the head of Homeland Security again said federal agencies are pushing for new measures to help counter drone activity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYORKAS: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We'll keep you updated.

Syria's transformation is slowly taking shape amid uncertainty. On the week after the fall of the Assad regime, the U.S. embassy there is encouraging American citizens to leave the country because of the volatile and unpredictable situation.

In Damascus, university students toppled a statue of late President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the ousted leader, before dragging it through the streets.

[03:30:00]

Meanwhile, Christians in the Syrian capital attended mass on Sunday, expressing hope that the new government would respect the rights of minorities. But many said they're still uncertain about what lies ahead.

And schools reopen their doors in Damascus as students and teachers expressed optimism for the future. One student even raised a flag adopted by the rebels. The E.U. is sending an envoy to the country today to talk to the new leadership and the U.N. special envoy says he supports the lifting of sanctions on leading rebel group HTS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEIR PENDERSEN, 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)

FOSTER: Joining me now from London, Jasmine El-Gamal, a Middle East analyst and former Pentagon Middle East adviser, of course. Thank you so much for joining us.

HTS is under a lot of pressure right now, isn't it? Because obviously there've been infringements from Israel they're having to contend with. Then they've got all these diplomats flying in trying to work out what sort of relationship they can have with the people in power right now. And these are people there's a lot of distrust with considering their background.

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, MIDDLE EAST ANALYST AND FORMER PENTAGON MIDDLE EAST ADVISER: That's right. I mean, there's such a huge spotlight on the group right now. And obviously, for good reason, because they're now leading the charge in the transitional government. They're going to have a very big role to play in Syria's future. And that role is so far unclear.

We've seen positive steps from them, as you and I have talked about before. They're saying a lot of the right things. They're talking about respect for minorities, for the Kurds, for Alawites, for women. They're talking about disbanding various military units and factions and uniting under one Syrian military authority.

They're engaging in positive outreach with representatives from Syria's neighbors, as well as international organizations and global players like the U.S. So Secretary Blinken stated that the U.S. has been in touch with HTS to talk about the efforts to recover and find Austin Tice, who's the missing American journalist, who's been missing for several years, I think 12 years now in Syria. And also, you can see the U.S. and other countries trying to start to

shape the future steps of HTS through that engagement. France is sending a delegation to Syria to start these discussions. Qatar announced that it's opening an embassy in Syria.

So you really do see not just the regional players, but also international players and actors including the U.N. trying to get in there early, start these conversations, make their expectations clear for continued engagement, and trying to shape that future a little bit to the extent that they can in a positive way.

FOSTER: The leader of HTS hasn't got a mandate yet, has he? So presumably that's what other countries will want to see him get before they give him, you know, a place on the world stage and really start negotiating hard.

EL-GAMAL: Right, well, I don't know about mandates specifically because obviously there haven't been elections. He's talked about governance and he's talked about a future path that does include elections. I mean, we have to remember that this is just a transitional government and a transitional period.

I think what countries are really focusing on, and this is something that was discussed during the Aqaba summit in Jordan a couple of days ago, where countries like France, Germany, the U.S., and then regional countries as well like Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and the UAE, they got together and they spelled out their expectations of this transitional government.

They talked about a non-sectarian and representative government. They talked about the protection of human rights, unfettered access for humanitarian aid, and the safe destruction of chemical weapons, and a commitment to combating terrorism. So those are the things that those countries are going to be looking at.

FOSTER: How much sway does America actually have here? Obviously it's a big economic power and they can be useful for Syria to have an economic relationship with them, but there are other players who are much more entrenched in the country who can probably have a bigger say right now. Are they all coordinating? I mean, what's your understanding?

[03:34:55]

EL-GAMAL: Absolutely, that's a great question because it's not just the U.S. that has, you know, in fact there are other countries that have had much more influence in Syria over the years than the U.S., partly because they were closer to Syria and partly because they were inside of Syria operating.

So you have countries like Turkey, Iran, Russia, the Arab states, the Gulf States. I mean, those are all countries that are going to have quite a bit of influence potentially moving forward.

Qatar, like I said, is sending an embassy to Syria and so has indicated its willingness to start to engage. The UAE has, the senior advisor to the president of the UAE, Anwar Gargash, has said that the UAE wants to be supportive of the Syrian people moving forward, but they've expressed concern over the Islamist nature of the government and potential ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, past ties to al-Qaeda.

So they're kind of putting the government on notice, saying that we're ready to help, but we're also going to be watching what you do and say because of the history and because of your past.

And of course we can't have a discussion about Syria's regional neighbors without talking about Israel, because as we've discussed before, Israel very quickly after the fall of Assad went in and started taking an additional buffer zone in Syria, trying to secure its own safety.

But the way that they've been going about it has really upset people in Syria, because they're seeing it as a sign, as basically the opposite of a sign of goodwill. On one hand, you can understand the Israelis being concerned about their safety, given the nature of the new government. But the way that they've been going about it with this buffer zone, the government declaring that they're going to expand settlements in the Golan Heights, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

And then also bombing military assets and chemical sites, most recently in the coastal city of Tartus, it's really putting Syrians on edge and creating a lot of bad will, ill will towards Israel very early on, which is something that I worry about.

FOSTER: Okay, Jasmine El-Gamal, thank you so much for your insights today as ever.

Now in central Gaza, an Al Jazeera photojournalist was amongst five killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted a civil defense service office that was on Sunday. Al Jazeera is condemning the attack and says Ahmad al-Lu was killed whilst covering rescue efforts after an earlier bombing.

The Israeli Defense Forces alleges the 39-year-old was a terrorist who had previously served with the Islamic Jihad. However, they did not provide any proof of these allegations. The IDF also claimed 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 now 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 five looks just as ordinary as every other, until you notice the spot where police broke in. Israeli authorities say the man who lived here, Aziz 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 (voice-over): 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, the last decades, you can count in two hands how many people got arrested for this. Last six months, we have over 30 Israeli citizens that got arrested.

DIAMOND: So that's unprecedented.

GOREN: Yeah, of course.

DIAMOND (voice-over): 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 Air Base 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 (voice-over): Missiles struck Nevatim Air Base 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.

[03:40:05]

GOREN: Some of them got recorded by the Iranian by using the social media.

DIAMOND (voice-over): 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's worked and based on the theory of the big numbers.

DIAMOND (voice-over): 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 go to the next one. And they don't really care of the outcome.

DIAMOND (voice-over): 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 Gushchin, who lived in this apartment and was allegedly part of the Haifa cell.

For neighbors like Ricky and Moshe, who saw him struggling and had given him food and clothes.

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

DIAMOND (voice-over): A sense of betrayal for the accused spy next door.

DIAMOND: And Iran did not return a request for comment about these spying allegations. As for Aziz Nisanoff, the alleged leader of the Haifa Seven, I spoke to his attorney, who did not deny that Nisanoff 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)

FOSTER: From a coalition collapse to a parliament on the brink of dissolution. Ahead, we'll look at why German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote today and what could follow that.

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[03:45:00]

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FOSTER: Just hours from now, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote that's likely to trigger early elections. Scholz is expected to speak ahead of the two-hour debate for the voting starts.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER (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 AND FORMER GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER (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, POLITICS REPORTER, "WELT": 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.

SHUKLA: By throwing out the liberal party in this 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, CDU (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.

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FOSTER: A stunning result from one of football's fiercest rivalries. When we come back, the highlights from Sunday's nail-biter Manchester derby on "CNN Newsroom."

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[03:50:00]

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FOSTER: The noisy neighbors were silenced on Sunday. Pep Guardiola and Man City suffered yet another defeat. This one ended in stunning fashion against long-time rivals Manchester United at home. Our Don Riddell has the derby detail.

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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, they lost again for the eighth time now in just 11 games. Manchester City are having an absolute nightmare and this one is going to really sting.

You know, City have been so utterly dominant over the last decade that their current malaise just seemed unthinkable. But they went ahead against Manchester United through Josko Gvardiol in the 36th minute and that actually looked as though it would be enough for all three points.

However, their lack of ambition hurt them and their failure to manage the game proved to be just catastrophic.

Bruno Fernandes equalized for United with a penalty two minutes from time and then, two minutes later in the 90th minute, City's defense dozed off, failing to spot the danger as Amad Diallo latched onto a long ball, rounding the goalie to score.

As you can imagine, United were just jubilant. This has not been an easy season for them either. But City weren't just heartbroken. They were utterly shell-shocked.

PEP GUARDIOLA, MANAGER, MANCHESTER CITY: I don't have defense, so I'm the boss, I'm the manager. I have to find a solution and I don't find the solution. So this is a big club and a big club, when you lose eight to 10, something wrong has happened. So they said, yeah, I can see the scheduling staff, yeah. The injured players, yeah. But, no.

So, yeah, we give away again and what we have to do, keep working. But I'm the boss, I'm the manager and I'm not good enough. It's as simple as that. I have to find a way to talk to them, to train to them, to the way you have to play, the way you have to press, the way you have to build up. And I'm not good enough. RIDDELL: He is one of the greatest football managers of all time. I

never thought I would hear Pep Guardiola say, I'm not good enough. You know, this club used to be one of the most feared teams in all of Europe. But for all of their vast wealth, Manchester City just cannot buy a win.

Just once in their last 11 games in all competitions have they come out on top. And their form in the Premier League is now officially the joint worst.

Since the start of November, their points per game average is just 0.57. That is the same as the bottom team Southampton and poorer than every other team.

Next week, they're going to be away at Aston Villa, which will not be an easy game either. Manchester City really struggling big time at the moment. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

[03:55:04]

Get ready for the Christmas block. 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 draws everyone out, it seems, at this time of year. All participants received a medal, including, of course, the dog that joined the race, a husky appropriate for the weather.

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 Centre. It was really cold. Sunday's high temperature in Budapest was six degrees, but they just don't care. Proceeds from the event go to a charity helping children with Prader-Willi syndrome, which is a rare genetic condition.

Swedish bakers showcased their building and design skills at a gingerbread house competition in Stockholm on Sunday. The annual event has been held for more than 30 years. At the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, they take it very seriously.

Bakers competed in three categories centered around this year's theme, which was the comeback. Look at the detail. Visitors get to vote for their favorite entries. Oasis, making a comeback, of course. The People's Choice Award, though, went to a cookie recreation of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Trying to work out which one it is. But we support that because it's part of our company that produced it.

That does it for this hour. I'm Max Foster, in London. I'll be back with more "CNN Newsroom" after a short break.

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