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Shooter Kills Teacher and Student at Christian School in Wisconsin; Britain's Royal Mail to be Sold to Czech Billionaire; Olaf Scholz Loses Confidence vote; Germany Headed to Elections; Attorney: Rape Claim Against Jay-Z is False. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 17, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: An update on our breaking news this hour. Russia's investigative committee says a top general was killed by an explosive device in Moscow in what they're calling a, quote, terrorist attack. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed outside an apartment building some seven kilometers, that's about four miles southeast of the Kremlin. His aide was also killed in the blast.

Russian officials have opened a criminal investigation. Kirillov's death comes a day after Ukrainian prosecutors charged the general in absentia with the use of banned chemical weapons in the war in Ukraine. A source with knowledge of the operation told CNN that Ukraine's security services were behind Kirillov's assassination.

A Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, that was preparing for Christmas activities is now grappling with gun violence. Police say a 15-year-old female student shot and killed another student and a teacher before killing herself.

The uncle of a survivor spoke about the community's shattered sense of security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just hits home, right? You see it, you know it's happening. There's protocols, it's not new, right?

But, you know, I'm sitting at work and somebody says, oh, there was a school shooting. And I'm like, oh, geez, another one? Well, in Madison.

Oh, really? Well, now I have kids that go on the west side, my kids, and obviously my nephew here. And I said, well, where at?

Well, Abundant Life. What? That's it. I packed my stuff and I drove over here.

It still hasn't hit home until I see him, right? You know, my sister's a mess on the phone, you know?

And, you know, we've joked around about how safe a 400-student-bodied school, Christian private school is, right? If it can happen here, it can literally happen anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: 2024 has been a record-setting year for school shootings, with 83 so far. CNN's Veronica Miracle picks up that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN DIAZ DE LEON, LIVES NEARBY: I would have never thought it would have happened in Madison, let alone at our school here, ALCS. So it's shocking. It's a strange world we live in.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a small Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, just before Christmas break, a horrific tragedy.

BETHANY HIGHMAN, PARENT OF STUDENT AT ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: Something that you pray. I mean, I pray with my kids every morning that this won't happen.

MIRACLE (voice-over): It was just before lunchtime when a female student opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School. It's a K-12 program with just a few hundred children and about 50 staff. Police, fire, and medics were dispatched to the school at 10:57 a.m. time.

[04:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got a call coming in at Abundant Life Christian Church, 4901 for Engine 5 and Medic 5 for a shooter just advising someone was shot.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Police say that call came from someone inside the school, and officers entered the school three minutes later at 11 a.m.

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: The shooter was dead upon our arrival, police department arrival, and no officers fired their weapons.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Less than 10 minutes from when police responded to the scene, radio traffic from the Madison Fire Department said the shooter was down and called for medics to enter the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: PD is saying everybody can come in, all EMS can come in, shooter is down.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Medics were at a facility just three miles from the school at the time of the shooting, when officials say a training day turned into a real-life scenario.

CHIEF CHRIS CARBON, MADISON FIRE DEPARTMENT: Within a course of 15 minutes from the first transport to the last transport, all the patients were on their way to the hospital.

MIRACLE (voice-over): The injuries were contained to one area of the school. That's according to the Madison police chief. Sources tell CNN the shooter used a nine-millimeter pistol.

BARNES: When officers arrive on the scene, they immediately go in, which we did in this case. Stop the threat, stop the killing, find the killer. That's how we trained. That's exactly what we did today.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Police have been in contact with the shooter's family, and they are cooperating.

BARNES: As difficult as today is, that's still someone's child that's gone. That's still someone that has to deal with what happened today. And so we want to make sure that we can ensure as much cooperation as we can.

MIRACLE (voice-over): The shooting at Abundant Life Christian School marks the 83rd school shooting of 2024, the most of any year since CNN began tracking school shootings. It's the third recent shooting at a Christian school.

BARNES: I think we can all agree that enough is enough, and we have to come together to do everything we can to support our students, to prevent press conferences like these from happening again and again and again.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Veronica Miracle, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A shocking political blow for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after his finance minister suddenly quit on Monday. Chrystia Freeland's resignation came after weeks of disagreement with the PM over the best way to prepare for Donald Trump's promised tariff hike. The U.S. president-elect has threatened to implement 25 percent tariffs on all products imported into the U.S. from both Canada and Mexico, unless the two nations stop the flow of illegal migrants and drugs across the border.

In her resignation letter, Freeland said Canada must push back as the Trump administration pursues what she describes as a policy of America first, aggressive economic nationalism. Prime Minister Trudeau moved quickly to name a member of his inner circle, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, to replace Freeland.

Britain's Royal Mail, a 500-year-old institution dating back to King Henry VIII, has found a new owner in what's poised to be an historic sale.

Anna Stewart has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Could there be anything more British than the iconic red postbox? Well, soon, for the first time in history, it will have a foreign owner. Royal Mail was privatized a decade ago.

Since then, its financial performance has been poor, to say the least. Now Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is buying it for the princely sum of $4.5 billion. Now, he made his money in energy, but he has a few U.K. interests already.

He owns a 27 percent stake in the West Ham United Football Club and a 10 percent stake in the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's. His mysterious personality and reluctance to talk about business dealings earned him the nickname of the Czech Sphinx in 2019.

Now, he won't be able to do anything he likes with Royal Mail. This takeover comes with strings attached. Royal Mail will still have to deliver letters six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and parcels Monday through Friday. And the U.K. government will hold a so-called golden share in the company because this is vital British infrastructure.

So they'll get final approval on things like a change in ownership of the company, a change in headquarter location or tax residency. This takeover is expected to complete next year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now, an alleged Chinese spy who's banned from the U.K. and has links to Prince Andrew has been named by a British judge. The man, Yang Tengbo, was publicly identified after the judge ruled his anonymity should be removed. Yang was authorized to act on Prince Andrew's behalf during business meetings with potential Chinese investors in the U.K.

He was also invited to Andrew's 60th birthday party in 2020. Yang said in a statement he had done nothing wrong or unlawful and that the widespread description of him as a spy is entirely untrue.

[04:40:00]

Four major political parties have already announced their candidates for Chancellor hen Germany goes to early elections next year, Olaf Scholz will stand again, but his political career may never recover from the defeat that he suffered on Monday.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla has that story from Berlin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence that he called in himself on Monday. He lost that vote by 394 votes against him versus the 207 votes in favor of him. What that means is that Germany is now almost certainly headed towards a federal election, the date most likely to be the 23rd of February.

Now, the vote today came about because Olaf Scholz's bickering government collapsed back in November when he fired his finance minister, Christian Lindner. The two had been bickering for some time over a financial mechanism and Germany's economy. But what resulted in this was Scholz leading a minority government. That meant he had very few other options left to him apart from calling this confidence vote. What the opposition party saw, though, in Scholz's weakness was the ability to force him to make the call on having the confidence vote and the election earlier than he had originally wished. That animosity was very clear to see on the floor of the Bundestag today with all parties levelling accusations at one another. Scholz took another opportunity to remind the German people that the reason this government collapsed, in his mind, was because the liberal partners in his coalition were not prepared to agree with his policies and timetables.

The CDU, the former party of Angela Merkel, now led by Friedrich Merz and one of the frontrunners to be the next chancellor, also took his opportunity to blame Olaf Scholz.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, CDU OPPOSITION LEADER AND CHANCELLOR CANDIDATE (through translator): You are asking about confidence today. Mr. Chancellor, you had your chance. You did not take this opportunity, and it applies to today as well as to February 23rd, 2025, the expected date of the Bundestag elections.

You, Mr. Scholz, have not earned any trust.

SHUKLA: But forming coalitions is a key part of any German government and is often the way governments are formed. Whilst the outcome of the election is difficult to predict right now, all signs are pointing towards Friedrich Merz and the CDU becoming Germany's largest party and therefore the keys to the chancellery. And as one person said to me today, it will almost certainly spell the end of Olaf Scholz's political career.

Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Germany and France are welcoming the first high-speed rail line directly between their capitals. Officials from both countries gathered in Berlin to see the first train off to Paris. Germany's transport minister says the new rail link is more than a practical achievement. It's a symbol of friendship and unity between the two countries and amongst European nations as a whole.

Jay-Z's lawyer are doubling down on claims of his client's innocence, coming up what he is saying about the rape allegations against his client.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The Frenchman accused of organizing the mass rape of his wife over nearly a decade has apologized to his family in court. 72-year- old Dominique Pelicot took to the stand one last time on Monday, saying he, quote, hailed the courage of my ex-wife. Pelicot has admitted to drugging his then wife, Gisele Pelicot, for years, so that he and dozens of strangers he recruited online could rape her. Prosecutors are asking for the maximum 20-year prison sentence. The trial has triggered protest rallies in support of Gisele Pelicot and prompted calls for an update to France's rape law.

Jay-Z's attorney says the sexual assault claim against the hip-hop mogul is false. A woman has accused Jay-Z of raping her at an after- party for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards when she was just 13. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Jay-Z's attorney is doubling down on a denial that his client ever raped a 13- year-old girl. Now, Jay-Z has already fiercely denied these accusations and his legal team has already asked the court to dismiss this case entirely.

But now, for the first time speaking to reporters since these accusations came out, Jay-Z's attorney, Alex Spiro, held a press conference of sorts.

There was a private meeting at Jay-Z's Roc Nation offices in New York City where CNN was invited to watch a presentation put on by Jay-Z's attorney where he had a PowerPoint where he showed different details that he says disprove Jane Doe's case. Let's take a look at some of what he said.

ALEX SPIRO, JAY-Z'S LAWYER: This is not an account of inconsistencies. I wanted everybody to understand that this never happened. This is completely false.

You have to look at the timeline. You have to look at the timeline. So there's an old expression that time doesn't lie.

Everything else that I'm talking about, these glaring inconsistencies, these are not minor inconsistencies. These are not minor problems with this story. This is utter falsehoods.

Time never lies. And so if you look at the time, no matter what, this couldn't have happened. It's not even possible that this happened.

WAGMEISTER: Now, as you heard there, Jay-Z's attorney saying that these aren't just inconsistencies in Jane Doe's case. He's saying that the entire thing is false. In fact, he says it's not even possible that Jay-Z was there.

Now, if we go back to Jane Doe's initial complaint, she alleges that she was raped by both Jay-Z and Sean Diddy Combs at an after party for the MTV Video Music Awards in the year 2000. Now, this after party, she said, was held at a White House that was outside of the city. Well, Jay-Z's attorney actually showed photos of Jay-Z that night at an after party, but it was in New York City.

So he says, if you look at the timeline, it's not possible that Jay-Z was in the suburbs at this alleged after party because he was photographed being somewhere else. Now, in her initial complaint, Jane Doe also said that she got to this

alleged after party by getting into a limo from a driver outside of the MTV VMAs who said that they worked for Sean Combs. Well, today, Jay-Z's attorney is saying that's not possible because the limousine line was barricaded by the police and fans were not able to access it.

Now, I reached out to Jane Doe's attorney. His name is Tony Busby. He says that he is representing over 120 accusers of Sean Diddy Combs. This is the first accuser to come forward and name Jay-Z. But he tells me that he stands by his client. He says that they are still vetting her.

[04:50:00]

But when I asked about the vetting, he told me, he said that four individuals at his firm interviewed the client and checked details. He says that a background check was run on Jane Doe and that his firm actually engaged a seasoned investigator to vet some details she disclosed to us. And he said, quote, those results were consistent with what the client had told us.

He also says that she assigned two separate affidavits and he tells me, quote, courts exist to resolve factual disputes. Our client remains adamant about her claim.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now, the tallest building here in London and in fact, all of Western Europe will soon have some competition. Details on the new tower poised to change the city's skyline.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The NFL regular season winding down with the last Monday football doubleheader now complete. The Atlanta Falcons managed to keep their playoff hopes alive, winning a close game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Kirk Cousins connected with Drake London for Atlanta's only touchdown of the game. Final score, Falcons 15, Raiders 9.

And the Minnesota Vikings have won their seventh straight game. Minnesota are shoo-in now for the playoffs. The Chicago Bears fall to 4-10 on the season.

[04:55:04]

A newly approved skyscraper here in London will someday share the crown as the city's tallest building. It'll have exactly the same height as The Shard, currently the tallest tower, not just in London but all of Western Europe. You can see it there in the background, the photo, the spiky one. The new tower in the middle, called 1 Undershaft, will join The Shard, standing at almost 310 meters, or more than 1,000 feet tall, offering 73 floors of office space.

While food should fill you up, some dishes will only make you more hungry. That is the case of a new London exhibition showcasing highly realistic food replicas set to feed just the eyes and leave mouths watering. Fake food is often displayed in front of restaurants in Japan to lure diners.

These dishes are made by the Iwasaki Group, one of Japan's largest producers. Called Looks Delicious, the exhibition runs through mid- February.

Finally, this year's holiday cards from Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, out. For the first time in years, they include the couple's small children. The cards feature several photos of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, one of which shows the couple with their five- year-old son, Archie, three-year-old daughter, Lilibet. The children's faces aren't shown, in keeping with the couple's stated desire to protect their privacy, but people talking about the length of Lilibet's hair.

Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up after a quick break.