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CNN International: Russia: Killing Of Kirillov In Moscow A "Terrorist Act"; Hamas: Ceasefire Deal In Gaza Is "Possible" Following "Positive" Discussions In Qatar; Advocacy Group: Hundreds Of Thousands Of Bodies Could Be Buried In Syrian Mass Graves. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired December 17, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

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RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning or good evening, depending on where you're watching. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.

And ahead on CNN Newsroom, a top general is killed in a Moscow bomb attack. Who is responsible and how might Russia respond? Plus, one advocacy group says that there could be hundreds of thousands of bodies buried in mass graves across Syria, as the atrocities of the Assad regime finally come to light. And tech billionaires pack their bags for Florida to meet President-elect Donald Trump.

We begin in Moscow, where Russian authorities say that a hidden bomb outside an apartment building exploded, killing a top Russian general. Source tells CNN that Ukrainian security services were behind the attack that killed Igor Kirillov on Tuesday. We do want to warn some of our viewers that some of the following images are graphic. The bomb was located not far from the Kremlin and the Russian Investigative Committee says that it's now classifying it as a "terrorist act". General Kirillov was the head of Russia's chemical protection force.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is tracking the aftermath of this attack, which left behind considerable damage in the heart of Russia's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are actually at the scene of where this explosion took place, and the Russians are saying this happened in the early morning hours of today as the general and an aide to the general were leaving that building. I'm going to get out of your way and you can see the actual scene of where all of this took place. And you already mentioned that the entrance to that building where all this happened, the second entrance down from here, was badly damaged in that explosion.

The Russians are indeed saying that they believe that the explosive device was hidden in an electric scooter parked right outside that building, and that there were about 300 grams of TNT inside that explosive device. They have already said that they found remnants of that explosive device, and one of the other things that they said as well is that they believe that it was detonated remotely.

Now, we do know at this point in time that the Ukrainian security services have claimed responsibility for this. A source saying that to CNN that Ukrainian security services were behind this. The explosion, despite the fact that 300 grams of TNT might not sound like very much, seems to have been substantial. We can see that there is a lot of workers here on the ground, Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on the ground. Some others have cordoned off the area.

But, one of the other things that we're seeing as well, if we pan over to the other side, is that the explosion was so strong that it damaged the building on the other side of the road. You can see there that windows have been smashed by this explosion that took place. There was an eyewitness report that we have seen, some of them on Russian media, saying that they thought that maybe some sort of cement truck had unloaded a lot of cement, or something very heavy had fallen down on the ground. So, clearly, the people who live in this area very much heard this explosion as it took place, of course, at the beginning, not exactly clear of what it might have been.

The Russians have launched a criminal investigation into all this. You can see the investigators, and we've seen the investigators on the ground here, not just civilian investigators or from the police authorities, but also military investigators as well. Of course, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, very important for the Russian military, very high up in the Russian military. He was the head of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces, and the Ukrainians had actually indicted him in absentia. Just yesterday, the Ukrainian security services accusing the Russians of using weaponized chemicals in the war in Ukraine. Igor Kirillov, for his part in the past, had accused the Ukrainians of doing the exact same thing.

So, certainly, someone who was on the forefront as far as that conflict between Ukraine and Russia is concerned, and someone who the Russians, of course, for their military, was extremely important.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right. Now to some breaking news in the Middle East. There appears to be some positive movement involving a hostage ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Hamas has announced in a statement that a deal in Gaza is, quote, "possible" following discussions in Qatar, as long as it says the Israeli government doesn't impose new conditions for an agreement.

Let's get straight to Jeremy Diamond, who is in Jerusalem for us. Jeremy, put this in context for us. I mean, how significant is this development from Hamas?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Hamas now becomes the latest party to these negotiations, to express some optimism about the prospects of reaching a ceasefire and hostage release deal. We have heard optimistic comments over the course of the last week from U.S., Israeli, Qatari, and Egyptian officials, and now Hamas is joining the fray.

[11:05:00]

But, as with the others who are expressing optimism, Hamas is also adding a note of caution to their comments. In their statement, they are making clear that, quote, "Hamas affirms that in light of the serious and positive discussions taking place in Doha today, under the auspices of our Qatari and Egyptian brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange is possible if the occupation stops imposing new conditions", and that if is indeed that note of caution that they are raising, suggesting that Israeli negotiators are making additional demands as this negotiating process moves forward. A second Hamas source said that they view the current state of negotiations as, quote, "positive and optimistic".

And it is important to note that amid this optimism, we are also seeing a flurry of diplomatic activity in the region. The U.S. National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, just last week traveled to Israel, Egypt and Qatar to try and advance a deal. He said he hopes that he can put the conditions in place to reach a deal within the next month, and that is indeed the target here, appears to be to try and reach a deal before President Biden leaves office on January 20th, and President-elect Trump will then be inaugurated. And we know, of course, that the Biden administration has also been closely coordinating with the Trump administration over this deal, as incoming Trump advisors have also been traveling to the region and coordinating closely with the officials who they will soon be replacing.

It is important to caution, though, that as we are seeing this momentum, as we are seeing this optimistic language, the reason why we are also hearing notes of caution from all of the parties involved is because we have been this close in the past. We have been very close to a deal, and ultimately talks have collapsed, and that possibility still very much looms. But, Israeli and American officials who I've spoken to have pointed to a new set of conditions in the region in terms of Hamas being increasingly isolated, Israel having accomplished a slew of military achievements in Gaza, including the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar that might make them more willing to reach a deal now.

All of this pointing us in the direction of a potential ceasefire and hostage deal, but again, the deal isn't reached until it's done.

SOLOMON: Well, Jeremy, I mean, that's a really important point. And my question was, why now? Because we have been here before, certainly since October 7th. What seems different about this time, if in fact, the deal is reached?

DIAMOND: Well, what's interesting is that the contours of the negotiations are still relatively the same. Some of the details may be different. We've gotten some indication that Hamas is perhaps more willing to allow an Israeli troop presence along the Philadelphi Corridor, for example, which was one of the major sticking points that led to the collapse of talks back in August.

But, really what has changed is this kind of bigger geopolitical picture that I'm talking about here, which is that U.S. and Israeli officials believe Hamas is increasingly isolated in the wake of Hezbollah agreeing to a ceasefire, despite previously saying they would only agree to a ceasefire if Israel ended its war in Gaza, the fact that Iran has been significantly weakened through the weakening of its proxy, Hezbollah, but also throughout the region, in the wake of the collapse of the Assad regime, which was a close ally of Iran, and the fact that Hamas' dreams, Yahya Sinwar's dreams, perhaps, as Israeli officials have said he had, of a kind of broader regional war erupting and Israel being defeated as a result of that, clearly has not happened. Instead, we have seen the reshaping of the Middle East in a way that Iran has been significantly weakened.

So, all of that, officials say, contributes to this picture of an environment where a deal can perhaps be reached, in addition to, again, the political conditions in Israel perhaps being riper, as the Israeli Prime Minister can tout the killing of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader, he can tout a series of military victories in Gaza in order to get to a deal. But, he has still cautioned that he will not agree to an end of the war. And so, there is the possibility here of a first phase of a ceasefire that could ultimately collapse and lead to the return of war in Gaza.

SOLOMON: OK. Keep us posted. Jeremy Diamond reporting live from Jerusalem. Jeremy, thank you.

More than two weeks after the regime of Bashar al-Assad fell, we are told that Syrians are beginning to uncover mass graves across the country, and we do want to warn you that the video you're about to see is disturbing. Here you see a site in a town north of Daraa where people are digging up skeletal remains. Many families still have no answers about what happened to their loved ones who were detained by Assad's secret police.

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An advocacy group says that hundreds of thousands of bodies of people tortured by the regime could be buried in one mask grave near Damascus alone.

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VOICE OF MOUAZ MOUSTAFA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SYRIAN EMERGENCY TASK FORCE: Walking into the mass grave site, and here it is. Over there are satellite jammers or the device jammers that the Russians put. This is the mass grave. You can see that pole from the satellite imagery, those are the trucks that were placed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Let's go to our Melissa Bell, who is following these developments from Paris. And Melissa, we're getting these first images of what we believe are mass graves. What are you hearing?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Rahel, those terrible pictures the next step of what we've seen unfold in Syria for more than two weeks now, first the terrible images of the jails being liberated, then the desperate search for loved ones. Now, these mass graves that we'd had hints about way before Bashar al-Assad fell, of course. The International Commission on Missing Persons speaks of a man known as the "Grave Digger" who appeared before a German court back in 2020 who described his role in taking truckloads of dead bodies to some of these sites.

And that site you showed a moment ago fire to the outskirts of Damascus. What we were hearing was happening there, from some of the truck drivers involved, is that it was each week that four tractor trailer loads of bodies, containing 150 bodies, each report twice a week, between 2012 and 2018, and that, of course, alone would mean many, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of bodies possibly.

So, this grim task now of trying to extract the bodies and identifying them begins, although what we understand also from some of these advocacy groups that are involved in trying to get cameras to these sites and to help them be cleared and opened up that the bodies can be retrieved, is that what we understand happened is that once the bodies were brought, they were then bulldozed in order to make them sufficiently small that they could be put into these very large graves. So, the process of identification is also likely to prove very difficult. But, this the sad next step in this unfolding tragedy where so many of these estimated 150,000 people who are still believed to be missing by the International Commission on Missing Persons in Syria may now be lying. Rahel.

SOLOMON: OK. Melissa Bell reporting there. Melissa, thank you.

Turning now to the school shooting in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, police will give an update on Monday's shooting in Madison in just a few hours, but here is what we know right now. A teacher and a student were killed yesterday, six others were injured, including two students who have been hospitalized in critical condition. The suspected shooter is 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who was also found dead at the scene. You can hear the despair in the voice of one mom who just wants to protect her children from harm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIREILLE JEN-CHARLES, MOTHER OF STUDENT SURVIVOR: This is not OK. If your kids are at school, they are not OK. If they are at church, they are not OK. If they are outside, elsewhere, they are not OK. Well, where are they going to be safe?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And the shooting destroyed what was supposed to be a week of Christmas events at the Abundant Life Christian School. You see these students here escaping in their Christmas-themed pajamas. The students at the school had been through shooter drills and were able to react quickly. One young student describing what it was like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORA GOTTSCKALK, STUDENT SURVIVOR: I'm eight-years-old, and I'm in second grade. I was getting ready for lunch, so it was basically lunch time, and then I just heard siding, and there was a teacher named Mrs. Slater, and she was screaming like, ah, my leg. Help. Help. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know that teacher well? What was it like

to hear that? Were you scared?

GOTTSCKALK: I was really scared and I was really sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Let's get to CNN's Natasha Chen with us. Natasha, talk to us a bit more about what police are saying about the shooter and any motivations here.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rahel. They are made aware that there is some kind of manifesto or letter that's been posted by someone who says that they're the shooter's friend, and police did say that they are going to be trying to locate that person today to try and find out more. They are also trying to locate devices the shooter may have had to see what kind of communication she may have had with other people. We know that she went by the name of Samantha, that she died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound there. And so, while the police cannot verify the authenticity of that manifesto right now, that is going to be an important task for them in the investigation today.

[11:15:00]

This is just a truly, very troubling for that community, especially when we're talking about this being the 83rd school shooting in the U.S. in 2024. That surpasses last year's record already of the most number of school shootings in a given year in this country. Just really disturbing. As you can tell from the voices of the people you just showed, a very traumatic event, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Absolutely. All right. Natasha Chen reporting there. Natasha, thank you.

I want to continue the conversation now and bring in Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, I hate that we always talk under these circumstances, but certainly good to have you. As Natasha pointed out, school shootings, sadly, are not rare here in the U.S., but what does seem more rare is the fact that police say the person responsible was a 15-year-old girl, a student. What do you make of that?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, & FORMER ASST. SECRETARY, DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Absolutely rare, somewhat unprecedented. Looking back at my data, I can't find a single instance where there was a female sort of mass shooting at a school. There has been altercations between females where gun was used. So, the reason why this is such an outlier case is that the data in public safety is it's gendered, and I'm willing to admit that. So, it's gender stereotypes, but men generally kill based on what we would call socially aggressive behavior, or aggressively anti-social behavior. So, they'll go to a school without a target. They'll go to a shopping mall without a specific target.

When female killings tend to be what might be called more intimate, in other words, it's an individual, someone that they feel harmed them, someone who may have isolated them, a family member, a husband or a lover. And so, this is just very different, and that is why there is this focus on the friend and the note, because we need to figure out what was animating her, because she does fall outside of, I hate to say there is a norm to school shooters, but there is. She does fall outside of it.

SOLOMON: And what about the differences, and I take your point that we don't often see female school shooters, but what about the differences, even in terms of the method of violence, whether it's a gun or whether it's some other sort of method? What have you seen there?

KAYYEM: So, it's the same thing, and that's a great point that murder by guns for women is, I want to just say disfavored, is the best way to put it, that knifing is actually more common, or the use of a knife and there are reasons for that, and that is why -- so, this issue of the access to the gun is a huge part of this investigation now. Did the parents have it in their possession?

There are some social media posts that are alleged to be hers, in which she is at some sort of shooting range or practicing. And so, her access to the gun, because it's illegal for her to own the gun, given her age, how did she come into contact with it? Was it parent negligence? Or honestly, are there third parties out there, this friend and others, who may be able to explain what she was doing, what she was feeling to lead to this action in terms of its familiarity? It's a school shooting, but its rarity, given who she is.

SOLOMON: And Juliette, on the parents, I mean, police have said thus far that they've been fully cooperating. But --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

SOLOMON: -- it does sort of raise the question, because we have started to see now parents face legal liability, face charges themselves --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

SOLOMON: -- sometimes if authorities find that there was perhaps some negligence, or they should have known better, or the firearm should have been protected more. Talk to me a little bit about that angle and whether --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

SOLOMON: -- the parents could face exposure here.

KAYYEM: Yes. They face exposure, the police chief has said, I think, because he doesn't want to ruin their cooperation. So, if you say that they're a suspect, they may go quiet. The police chief, at least so far, said that they're not anticipating right now. This is a very new area of law. I'm very supportive of it in the United States, and it does amount to gross negligence. So, it's not just the parents made a mistake. It is the parents knew, or should have known, were aware that a that a child was under duress, was threatening things, and then either were grossly negligent in giving them access to the gun.

And then the other case, there has only been two so far. It was -- you would have called it aiding and abetting. The parents certainly knew that their son was mentally unstable and violent, and they basically gave him guns. I mean, they -- for a gift.

[11:20:00]

And so, the standard is still very high. This is not meant to criminalize bad or parenting or even somewhat negligent parenting, but it is a way to begin to put sort of a floor of conduct for parents. As we cannot get legislation in this country about gun laws, we are looking to communities to either step up or intervene. Sometimes that comes with criminal liability. But, most often, as you heard from the officials yesterday, it is just like, look, these things don't come out of nowhere. These interventions have to happen. Trust me, we will find out in the next couple of days that she left, essentially bread crumbs related to this, because it happens every single time. I mean, there is not a single case where a kid wakes up and says, I'm going to do this. Right?

SOLOMON: Yeah, just tragic. And just for our audience, we are expecting that press conference from authorities at about 02:00 p.m. Eastern. So, perhaps we will learn much more then.

Juliette Kayyem, good to have you. Thank you.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

SOLOMON: And coming up, it is a critical day for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as he works to become the next Health and Human Services Secretary. But, to succeed, he will have to calm fears on Capitol Hill about his long-time stance on vaccines. Plus, the judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial makes a major ruling. What it could mean for the case moving forward? And flocking to Florida, top tech CEOs make the pilgrimage to Palm Beach to meet with President-elect Trump. We'll have a live report on who is coming, straight ahead.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Trump's conviction in his hush money trial will stand, at least for now. Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the 34 felony counts against Trump for falsifying business records should not be tossed out due to the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity. In his ruling, Merchan on pointed to what he called an overwhelming evidence of guilt that led to Trump's conviction. The President-elect is yet to be sentenced, and with likely appeals and delays, the case could be tied up in courts for years.

Let's get to CNN's Kara Scannell, who has been following the case from the very beginning and joins us now. So, Kara, what happens now?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, we are expecting Trump's team to take some sort of appellate action in light of the decision yesterday, and in that decision, the judge was ruling on a motion to dismiss by Trump that was based on the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity. And in his ruling, Judge Juan Merchan went through all the evidence at issue, including the testimony of White House aides, Hope Hicks and Madeleine Westerhout, as well as tweets that Trump had made while he was in the White House, and he said that all of those were personal in nature, because this whole case was about personal, unofficial business, that was the payment of a porn star to silence her allegations from coming out ahead of the 2016 election, and then to cover up that.

So, the judge finding that all of this was unofficial conduct, and so it didn't fall under the protections that the Supreme Court had allowed for something that would be official conduct.

[11:25:00]

This is, of course, a new ground. It's never been tested before. So, Trump's team is expected to move to appeal this. But, this is just one of their many efforts to try to get this case dismissed, which leads it, again, to be a little uncertain of exactly how this is going to play out. They have also asked the judge to dismiss the case based on the fact that Trump is now the President-elect, and saying that having this case move forward, even on appeal in the courts, would be distracting and influence potentially his decision-making as President. So, they are trying that grounds also. That is fully brief. The Judge Merchan could rule on that at any point, and Trump's lawyers would be too expected to try to appeal this.

But, the end game here is the question of whether Trump will be sentenced before he gets into the White House. That is still an unanswered question. It is something the judge could try to schedule before Inauguration Day, and we do expect Trump's team to continue to challenge this every step of the way, and it could go back to the Supreme Court for them to ultimately weigh on in this again. Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Certainly lots of unprecedented ground here. Kara Scannell, thank you.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Donald Trump's controversial pick to become Health and Human Services Secretary, is back on Capitol Hill today. Kennedy will meet with more Republican senators as he tries to gain their support ahead of the confirmation process. And though he has the full support of the President-elect, he is starting to face tough questions about his history as a long-time vaccine skeptic.

Here is CNN's Kara Scannell with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL- ELECT: I think you're going to find that Bobby is much -- is a very rational guy. I found him to be very rational. You're not going to lose the polio vaccine.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The President-elect is playing defense amid new reports that a lawyer tied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. petitioned the government to revoke approval of the polio vaccine, a move Kennedy himself could approve if confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., TRUMP PICK FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: I'm not going to take away anybody's vaccines. I've never been anti-vaccine.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Kennedy is trying to calm fears about his views and goals, but his statements over the years have raised alarms.

KENNEDY JR.: It would be against mandates at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For any vaccines.

KENNEDY JR.: For any vaccines.

FOREMAN (voice-over): He has pushed unproven claims that vaccines cause autism. He has compared U.S. vaccine policies to those in a totalitarian state like Nazi Germany, for which he later apologized, and he has disparaged then-President Donald Trump's handling of the COVID pandemic.

KENNEDY JR.: We had the worst record of any country in the world.

FOREMAN (voice-over): That's not true, say top medical researchers, but vaccines aren't the only issue he faces with Republican senators he must win over. Kennedy has insisted, on Inauguration Day, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water, which Trump said sounds OK, despite decades of evidence showing fluoride radically lowers tooth decay.

Kennedy has made false claims about the ingredients in Fruit Loops and calls a lot of American foods poisonous, and many abortion rights opponents simply don't trust him, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who says Kennedy's nomination is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration, and should be deeply concerning.

But, the Kennedy pedigree still has power, and even with all the concerns about the nominee, some of his complaints about the quality of food and the policies behind food safety standards are resonating with Democrats.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Is RFK right about a lot of the challenges? Yeah. I've heard him say a lot of things that are absolutely right.

FOREMAN: During the campaign, Trump said he would let Kennedy go wild on healthcare policy if he won the election. Now, that may not be helping Kennedy very much, as he faces a lot of senators who are afraid he could do just that.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Our thanks to Tom there.

And it appears that the biggest names in Big Tech all want facetime with the President-elect. The latest is the CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, who will be in Mar-a-Lago today. Donald Trump has already met with the CEOs of Apple, Meta, OpenAI and TikTok, and on Wednesday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is expected to huddle with Trump. And many of those Silicon Valley giants haven't come to Florida empty handed. A number of them, Bezos and Zuckerberg, included, have pledged $1 million to the President-elect's inaugural fund.

Much more to talk about with CNN Media Analyst Sara Fischer. Sara, great to have you. I mean, just top line reaction to this parade of tech CEOs that have made their way down to Florida. What do you make of this?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: It's really interesting, Rahel, because if you think back to 2016, these executives were not lining up in front of Donald Trump, but it's a very different environment today for two reasons. One, a lot of these tech firms are under unprecedented and historic regulatory scrutiny.

[11:30:00]

You talk about Meta. They're facing a major FTC trial in 2025. Google faces not one, but two DoJ antitrust lawsuits, both of which could result in breakups of various parts of his business. Microsoft is facing an FTC investigation, and the list goes on and on. So, that's one reason they want to make sure to curry favor with Donald Trump right now.

The other is that if you think about the landscape with China, we have become in such a competitive environment for technology and dominance in the U.S., that's a huge, huge priority for us tech companies to ensure that Donald Trump's policies ensure that they can compete on a global stage.

SOLOMON: And so, it's an interesting point. I mean -- and Sara, if you had to sort of describe the difference to an outside observer, Trump does seem, from the outset, more tech friendly than perhaps his predecessor was.

FISCHER: Oh, absolutely. And if you think about who Biden instilled to lead the FTC, which does do oversight of a lot of Big Tech deals, it was a very, very progressive lawmaker who opened up many more investigations than the FTC chair before during the Trump administration. Now, Donald Trump still opened up investigations, this FTC trial next year that actually originated from a lawsuit filed by the DoJ under the Trump era, the first one, but it wasn't to the same extent. And I think what lawmakers -- excuse me, companies are hoping, leading into this next era of the Trump administration is that it's going to be much more business-friendly. They're going to focus less on breaking up American companies and more on supporting them, especially as they compete with China.

And so, I think they're optimistic about Donald Trump. And you're right. He is tech savvy. I mean, this is a President who started his own social network, who is every day on social media. They're hopeful that he'll lean into that. SOLOMON: And is there anything to glean from the fact that he won very

differently this time, I mean, a full sweep of Washington, the popular vote, albeit slim? I mean, is there anything different in terms of maybe how these leaders are viewing him in terms of the way he won and the legitimacy of his win?

FISCHER: Yes, it's critically important. So, if you think about these tech companies, they're very global, but most of them make the majority of their revenue, particularly companies like Meta that have advertising businesses from users here in North America. And so, it definitely matters that their businesses are seen as friendly to all types of people across the political spectrum.

I also think, in 2016, we didn't know the temperature of the country as much. It was so new. Now, Donald Trump has won very decisively. It was an overwhelming majority. And so, I think these tech CEOs see this as an opportunity to publicly show that they are endorsing of a belief that people had a say in this election and that they wanted to see change. And I think if you're somebody like Mark Zuckerberg, who has a lot of users of your products in the U.S., if you don't send that message, the risk is that you're being perceived as being too far left and that you're not going -- and that you're going to censor conservative content. These tech companies went through the wringer on Capitol Hill because of those types of allegations they will call after the whole Hunter Biden laptop story. They don't want to go through that again, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yeah. And I wonder, Sara, I mean, as someone who follows this space extremely closely, what are you going to be watching in terms of any future regulation or deregulation, and how that might impact ordinary Americans, and whether that ultimately means that maybe these relationships, maybe these contributions, were fruitful for some of these tech leaders?

FISCHER: Totally. So, the big ones, the biggest one is whether the DoJ is going to force Google to sell off its chrome browser that's used by the vast majority of Americans on mobile and desktop, whether it's going to force Google to divest parts of its ad tech arm. Donald Trump is going to be putting in place a whole new infrastructure at the DoJ, and they couldn't choose to enforce these laws differently than the Biden administration would. So, that's a big one.

And then in terms of how they're viewing regulation broadly, I mean, look, it's a pro-business stance on the Republican side. So, these are people who do not want to come down to break up businesses, to overregulate them, to be punitive against them. But, what I do think you should expect, this is a Republican-led Congress as well. Expect them to introduce bills to do investigations on Capitol Hill when they do think that the Big Tech companies are censoring them or are not playing a ball in their court. We already saw this in September. The Republican- led House had a big hearing on advertising, basically saying that they issued a report that media companies and ad agencies and tech platforms are colluding against conservative media companies. I would expect a lot more of that type of stuff.

Do I think new laws will be passed? Probably not, but I think that you're going to hear -- feel the pressure continue to exist.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting to hear Trump say, compared to his first term, when everybody was fighting me, now saying everybody wants to be my friend. So, watch this space very closely to sort of see the details and the contours of these relationships.

Sara Fischer, great to have you. Thank you.

And Donald Trump's future Justice Department is expected to go on the offensive against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, often referred to as DEI.

[11:35:00]

But, even though Walmart, Ford and other companies are already making changes to their diversity policies in response to online pressure, a CNN review has found that DEI is still alive and well in Corporate America. Nearly all of the largest U.S. companies in America still say that they are committed to promoting DEI. Few companies have scrapped their DEI efforts entirely, and only a small number have made any changes at all.

And still ahead for us, some lawmakers take action on those mysterious U.S. drone sightings, while the White House insists there is nothing nefarious going on. We'll have a live report straight ahead.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.

More drones, more questions and fewer answers. That seems to be the formula for the last few weeks, as mysterious drones continue to appear in the sky over New Jersey. Today, hopefully a step towards some reassurance and perhaps understanding, U.S. House Intelligence Committee is set to receive a classified briefing on the sightings. And moments ago, White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby says that he doesn't think there is anything to be alarmed about.

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JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR: You're seeing the lights on these things, the navigation lights. That's what's required if you're going to be flying in U.S. airspace at night are navigation lights. So, clearly, they're being operated in a lawful and legal way, and we've seen nothing from their behavior, nothing that tells us there is a public safety threat or a national security threat.

I do want to add one point, though. We still got about 100 leads that the FBI is following up on, and if we learn something that contradicts that, or something more, something additional, something more specific, my goodness, we're going to come public and we're going to talk about it. We have been trying to be as transparent with the American people as we can.

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SOLOMON: Now, while the White House insists that there is no evidence that these drones pose a threat, that's done little to quiet a growing course of concern, as CNN Pete Muntean reports.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drone hysteria is soaring as federal authorities are scrambling to tamp down false alarms breading conspiracy theories online, fanning the latest fears, reports of unmanned aerial systems over secure Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aircraft use extreme caution. Patterson class delta is now closed for heavy UAS activity.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Pentagon officials now say the Ohio case is not connected to possible drone sightings in a half dozen states. Even still, President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago doubled down on conspiracy theories, after Alex Jones and Joe Rogan amplified claims that drones over New Jersey are looking for a stolen dirty bomb.

TRUMP: Something strange is going on, for some reason, they don't want to tell the people.

[11:40:00]

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Federal aviation rules allow drones to fly legally, so long as they stay below 400 feet and away from airports, airplanes and stadiums. Biden administration officials tell CNN that of the almost one million drones registered in the U.S., 8,000 might be flying at any one given time, and quote, "We haven't seen evidence of anything non-compliant." But, that has not stopped lawmakers from demanding new technology to help detect hostile drones. Defense officials now confirm to CNN that the government is sending drone tracking systems to a pair of military installations in New Jersey.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is the technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck is going on.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says he has been briefed by the FBI now that it and the Department of Homeland Security say most cases of possible drones are, in fact, manned aircraft.

Science writer Mick West is debunking purported drone videos online. New Jersey airspace is some of the busiest in the country, with videos surfacing from under Newark, Teterboro and New York flight paths.

MICK WEST, WRITER AND UAP ANALYST: If you get the details, the date, the time and the location, you can actually look up what was in the sky at that point and look at what direction they were looking in, and you can see that it was actually just a plane. MUNTEAN: The FBI says it's taken in about 5,000 tips of reported drone

sightings since this frenzy began, but has deemed only about 100 of those legitimate enough for any follow-up. This fixation on drones is also causing a concern for commercial flights. There is video surfacing online of flights being hit by laser pointers from the ground, it could temporarily blind pilots, and can lead to a massive fine from the FAA. The FAA says that it's investigating such incidents in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

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SOLOMON: A Russian woman is accused, yet again, of trying to leave the U.S. and sneak into another country. This time it was Canada. Law enforcement sources say that Svetlana Dali, who is a U.S. permanent resident, attempted to sneak into Canada on board a bus from the U.S. She was caught Monday. Dali was already facing charges after authorities say that she slipped by security and hitched a ride on a plane from New York to Paris last month. Now, she is expected to be charged with bail jumping and could face up to five years in federal prison.

Still to come, catastrophic, apocalyptic, as if an atomic bomb had gone off. That's how some residents of Mayotte are describing the damage done by a major cyclone. We'll have the latest.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. An attorney for Jay-Z says that 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 13.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the story.

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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 is 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 these stories -- 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 is 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 Buzbee. 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. But, when I asked about the vetting process, here is what 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.

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SOLOMON: Our thanks to Elizabeth there.

Well, hundreds, if not thousands of people are fear dead in the French territory of Mayotte, off the coast of Mozambique, after the worst cyclones hit the region in at least 90 years.

CNN's Larry Madowo has more now on the destruction and the long road to recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Catastrophic, that's how

residents of Mayotte are describing the damage from Cyclone Chido, the worst to hit the French archipelago in nearly a century. The Category 4 storm killed at least 14 people, as it tore through the Indian Ocean over the weekend. But, government officials fear hundreds or even thousands could be dead, according to the Associated Press.

Torrential rain and winds of more than 220 kilometers per hour wiped out entire neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids and the water supply, leaving my yacht almost entirely offline for over 36 hours, according to the website NetBlocks.

JOHN BALLOZ, MAYOTTE RESIDENT (Interpreted): It smashed right into us here. And to be honest, it was complicated. It was a complete disaster. Lots of houses and even towns are wiped out.

CAMILLE COZON ABDOURAZAK, MAYOTTE RESIDENT (Interpreted): It really is a war landscape around me. I don't recognize anything anymore.

MADOWO (voice-over): Mayotte's prefect says the most devastating damage was to the island's shacks, where roughly 100,000 undocumented migrants live in a population of just over 300,000.

[11:50:00]

That is making search and rescue efforts even more difficult and nearly impossible to account for all the victims. French relief efforts are underway, and the country's Interior Minister was briefed on the hurricane's impact as they began an official visit to their territory on Monday.

BRUNO RETAILLEAU, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER (Interpreted): If we want things to go smoothly, we're going to pull out all the stocks. We're going to mobilize everything we can in terms of civil and military resources.

MADOWO (voice-over): With 75 percent of the population living below the national poverty line, Mayotte is heavily dependent on financial assistance from France.

Speaking from Brussels, the Foreign Minister pledged to help rebuild the archipelago. The island nation of Comoros, north of Mayotte, was also battered by the cyclone, which then went on to make landfall in Mozambique, where it continued to cause damage.

The storm has now weakened, but for the residents of Mayotte, the nightmare is only just beginning.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. 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 a historic sale.

Anna Stewart reports.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Could there be anything more British than the iconic red post box? 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 UK 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 and in 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 UK government will hold a so-called golden share in the company, because this is vital British infrastructure. So, they'll get a 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.

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SOLOMON: Our thanks to Anna Stewart there.

And before we go, one more thing. This year's holiday card from Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, is out, and for the first time in years, it includes the couple's small children. The card features several photos of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, one of which shows the couple with their five-year-old son Archie and three-year-old daughter, Lilibet. The children's faces are not shown, which is in keeping with the couple's stated desire to protect their privacy.

And now, before we go, a quick check of the markets. Taking a look now, the Dow is off about 200 points on pace, potentially, if it closes lower to perhaps end for a ninth day lower. That's something that the index hasn't done for decades since the 70s. The NASDAQ also off about one third of a percent, and S&P off as well. One thing to watch this week, investors, for sure, watching Washington, watching the Federal Reserve, to see if, in fact, we see another rate cut from Jay Powell.

[11:55:00]

Taking a look overseas, Europe and Asia, mostly lower as well. Certainly, Asian markets lower. Nikkei closing off about a quarter of a percent. European markets, more of a mixed picture, with the Paris CAC closing up about one tenth of a percent.

And thanks for being with us today. We know your time is money. So, thank you for spending some time with me. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.

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