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Suspect who Assassinated the Russian General Detained; Mangione to Face Indictment in New York. Pope Francis to Release his Memoir; Dirty Dancing, 24 Others Added to the National Film Registry. Aired 3- 4a ET
Aired December 18, 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]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Max Foster, in London.
Just ahead, Russia says it's detained a suspect in the assassination of a top general in Moscow.
A massacre uncovered across Syria revealing the brutality of the Assad regime.
And the search for what motivated a 15-year-old girl to open fire at her school.
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster.
FOSTER: We begin then with that breaking news. Russian officials saying they have detained an Uzbek citizen who has confessed to planting the bomb that killed a top Russian general in Moscow. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia's radiological, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb outside an apartment building near the Kremlin.
Russia's investigative committee says the suspect was allegedly recruited by Ukraine's special services and he allegedly placed the bomb on an electric scooter which he parked outside the building where Kirillov lived and put a surveillance camera on a rented car to monitor it. They say the explosive was allegedly remotely detonated from Dnipro in Ukraine.
CNN's Matthew Chance has the details of the attack. A warning, the video you're about to see is graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was an audacious attack in the center of Moscow. Now, dramatic new video shows one of Russia's most senior military officers leaving his apartment building with his assistant before an explosion kills them both.
Investigators say the attack was targeted, the device planted on a scooter outside, probably detonated by remote control.
This is the controversial figure who was taken out. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, here pinning medals on soldiers headed Russia's radiological, biological and chemical defense forces.
Just yesterday, he was accused by Ukraine of war crimes, overseeing the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops.
He was also a prominent and enthusiastic advocate of Kremlin-backed conspiracy theories, repeatedly accusing Ukraine of developing a nuclear dirty bomb and of hosting U.S. biolabs to develop biological weapons.
Kirillov also accused Pentagon contractors and Western pharmaceutical companies of testing toxic drugs on socially vulnerable Ukrainians, all allegations widely dismissed in the West as absurd.
Still, a Ukrainian security source tells CNN Kirillov was a legitimate target and was killed by them, with Russian officials now vowing revenge, including against the top Ukrainian leadership.
DMITRY MEDVEDEV, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, RUSSIAN SECURITY COUNCIL (through translator): Law enforcement agencies must find the killers in Russia and everything must be done to destroy the perpetrators who are in Kyiv. These perpetrators are also known, the military and political leadership of Ukraine.
CHANCE (voice-over): It's unclear how Russia, already battling hard in Ukraine, can respond to yet another high-profile assassination when there have been several in recent months, all well away from the front lines.
But the deadly explosion on the streets of Moscow is a stark reminder how Russia's often distant Ukraine war can still come home.
Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Earlier, CNN's Erin Burnett spoke with Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist who's on Russia's wanted list. She asked him how the brazen attack so close to the Kremlin would affect Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTO GROZEV, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: If you can't overstate the relevance and importance of this blow to Putin and you've covered the, sort of, optical part, which is it happened right next to the Kremlin. Matthew drew the attention to the fact that this brings the war home to Muscovites, which has been a problem for Ukraine.
Ukraine has always suffered from the fact that people in St. Petersburg and Moscow don't see the war as something close to them and therefore they are indifferent or supportive of the war effort. And Ukraine has tried to bring it home to Muscovites. This is one way to do it.
But there's a much more practical and direct effect on the war effort for Russia of this assassination. People like General Kirillov felt that they're immune from being killed on the front line because they're physically not on the front line. They're physically in Moscow. They're safe.
[03:05:04]
We've seen people like that, especially another unit that we covered a couple of years ago, which was the unit that programs the missiles that hit kindergartens in Ukraine. They also felt that they're safe in Moscow.
So what Ukraine is now trying to do is take out people that are in the command position that will no longer feel safe and any replacement for them will no longer feel safe. So imagine what's happening right now. None of the deputies for General Kirillov wants the job.
And this will be a hiatus. This will be a problem for a significant amount of time because nobody will want to be in a position to be killed next.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, European leaders are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the war in Ukraine. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his allies might discuss the possibility of international peacekeeping troops in his country, which could potentially be deployed until Ukraine is able to join NATO.
The topic had been first broached by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this year. Zelenskyy says Ukrainian troops need more support now, as Russian forces gain ground on the front lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): There could be questions not only about the foreign contingent, but also questions that Ukraine will raise. This includes our long range strike capabilities, major investments in our Ukrainian weapons production to strengthen our armed forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, the U.S. believes several hundred North Korean troops have been killed or wounded whilst fighting Ukrainian forces. The U.S. and Ukraine estimate that some 12,000 North Koreans have been sent to Russia to fight alongside Russian troops. The Pentagon spokesperson says that some entered combat a little more than a week ago, and they're already suffering casualties.
A senior U.N. official -- U.S. official rather, says North Korean troops of all ranks have been killed in action or been wounded on the battlefield.
We're going to turn now though to Syria, where just moments ago, the first domestic flight departed from Damascus Airport following the ousting of the former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, civilians who fled the country during its 13 year civil war are beginning to return home after the fall of the Assad regime. The United Nations Refugee Agency says 1 million Syrians are expected to return in the first half of next year, and that's not including the many refugees who've already spontaneously returned to Syria from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The UNHCR has released a plan seeking $310 million to address the critical needs of the refugees going back to Syria and the more than seven million people internally displaced in the country. The U.N. says Syria is still facing humanitarian challenges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEIR PENDERSEN, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY TO SYRIA: The second challenge is the sheer scale of needs. Syria's economy has been ravaged by this dreadful conflict. Its infrastructure destroyed, 90 percent of Syrians living in poverty. Let me just stress that these are enormous challenges that will require all of our support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Meanwhile, Syrians are beginning to uncover the extent of the Assad regime's brutality as mass graves are being discovered across the country. One advocacy group believes hundreds of thousands of bodies, quote, "tortured to death by the Assad regime, could be buried in those graves."
Our Melissa Bell reports.
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MELISA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: More than two weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the tragic next step in the search of many Syrians for their loved ones, some of the first images emerging of what are believed to be mass graves that may have been used by the regime to bury some of those who were first taken to the detention centers and then tortured to death.
One at Kitaifa, which is on the outskirts of Damascus, not very far from the Syrian capital, where one advocacy group has been speaking of the truckloads of bodies that were brought each week.
What we understand is that four tractor trailers carrying 150 bodies each were brought twice a week between 2012 and 2018 to this particular site, now be the subject of a search for some of those bodies in the hope that some may be identified.
Another site in the southern province of Deraa, also now believed to be another of those mass burial sites, as Syrians try and establish the identities of some of the 150,000 people who've disappeared to try and figure out if any of them may lie in these sites. That's according to the International Commission on Missing Persons.
Still many relatives frantically searching for their loved ones in the hopes that they might be alive. But these are the clearest indication yet, the first tangible proof of what we'd long heard about from outside of Syria during the Assad regime, of the brutality of its secret services, the brutality of its detention centers, with many of those bodies now no doubt beyond recognition.
It's unclear also for the time being how many people may have been buried there.
Melissa Bell, CNN, in Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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FOSTER: The Executive Director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, who's visited these sites firsthand, says the locations of these mass graves have been known for a number of years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOUAZ MOUSTAFA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SYRIAN EMERGENCY TASK FORCE: We were able to initially identify these mass grave locations back in 2021. It is when these workers that worked on the mass graves, whether it is the funeral office workers that pulled the bodies into the massive trenches, or the excavator and bulldozer drivers, some of which had escaped to Germany.
Just like with the defector Caesar, these became very important witnesses and helped us identify where these mass grave sites were. We were able to see them on Google Earth years ago, and even go back in the timeline and see how the earth is changing and see these long lines and these trucks showing up from satellite imagery.
But just the other day, I was able to go there in person and look at these locations, which is staggering in terms of size and unbelievable that the world turned away for so long.
Now that people have known where these mass graves are, I think it's really important for the world to do more to help us figure out the way forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveling to southern Syria on Tuesday, where he held a briefing on Mount Hermon, Syria's highest peak. Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated that the military would remain on Mount Hermon, quote, "for any length of time required."
Israeli forces captured the summit and surrounding foothills after the fall of Assad's regime. Mount Hermon is the highest point in the region, making it a prized military asset as it overlooks Lebanon, Syria and Israel. The CIA director is expected to travel to Doha as early as today to
continue talks for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. The talks come as Israeli forces continue to pound northern Gaza. Health officials in the enclave said that Israeli attacks killed at least a dozen people in Gaza overnight.
Meanwhile, top officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt are all touting progress in the ceasefire negotiations. Now Hamas is also signaling cautious optimism.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the latest from Jerusalem.
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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.
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 adviser, 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 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 advisers 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.
[03:15:03]
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.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, coming up, a grand jury indicts the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO on a New York street. Why the killing is being called an act of terrorism.
Plus authorities in Madison, Wisconsin, are looking into how and why a 15-year-old carried out a deadly school shooting. The latest on the investigation ahead.
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FOSTER: The suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO on a New York street is set to appear in a Pennsylvania court on Thursday. A judge will determine when Luigi Mangione could be extradited to New York, where he's facing an 11-count indictment.
The charges include first and second degree murder as an act of terrorism in the death of Brian Thompson, meaning the murder was meant to scare and intimidate the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALVIN BRAGG JR., MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.
JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: There is no heroism in what Mangione did. This was a senseless act of violence. It was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put New Yorkers at risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: The police commissioner also called the support Mangione has received on social media an appalling celebration of murder. CNN's Danny Freeman has details on how Mangione's supporters are reaching out and more on when he could be returned to New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was an incredibly busy day in the case of Luigi Mangione here in Pennsylvania and in New York. Several headlines made, and it seems like the soonest he could be back in New York could be as early as Thursday.
But the biggest headline, the Manhattan District Attorney officially announcing that indictment against Luigi Mangione on first degree murder charges in New York. Mangione also indicted by a grand jury for murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism. D.A. Alvin Bragg saying clearly this was a killing intended to invoke terror.
Meanwhile, we also have updated information on Mangione's interactions with the outside world, or really we should rather say the outside world's attempt to interact with him while he's been behind bars at this prison.
Per a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, as of Tuesday evening, Luigi Mangione has received 157 entries or deposits into his prison commissary account. And as of Tuesday morning, he's received 33 emails and six pieces of hard mail. That's up from just two pieces of mail that CNN reported he had received on Monday evening.
And still, at this point, the only visitors he's had while in custody has been his attorneys.
Now on Thursday morning, Mangione is scheduled to have two hearings not far from here out in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. One on those Pennsylvania charges, then the other right after on extradition.
[03:20:05]
And CNN has learned on Tuesday that Mangione is not going to fight extradition anymore. That's according to his new attorney from New York. And a prison spokesperson told me earlier on Tuesday that he could begin his journey back to New York as soon as court is over.
Danny Freeman, CNN, Huntington, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: A murder in the first degree is rarely charged because certain circumstances related to the crime must exist. CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst explains the evidence that authorities need to have to justify the charges.
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JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: The first degree murder charge requires it to be the murder of a police officer, of a judge, of a court officer, of a parole officer. It's an attack against the system. But there is one other attachment to 490.05 of the New York state law, which is the terrorism law.
New York State, aside from the federal government, has one of the broadest and most comprehensive anti-terrorism laws on the state level.
And because of the type of murder this was, a planned hit, staking out the CEO of a healthcare company where the individual Luigi Mangione charged with it, was arrested allegedly carrying a three-page document, a so-called claim of responsibility, or a manifesto as it's been referred to, attacking the healthcare industry and saying these parasites had it coming, these mafiosi had to be taught a lesson, that that indicates that he was doing that within that first degree murder statute and the terrorism enhancement to coerce or influence members of the public on a policy matter.
So that is highly unusual. But below that we see the other charges. Murder in the second degree as an act of terrorism. Murder in the second degree with intent. Possession of a weapon to wit the ghost gun. Possession of a weapon, the silencer. Possession of an assault weapon, meaning the ghost gun had a magazine that could carry more than 10 rounds in violation of New York state law.
So you see that they lined up a series of charges that will eventually give a jury a set of choices in terms of how many charges they put on and how many are closely related.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: To say determining the motive for the deadly school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin is top priority as of now they say it appears to be a combination of factors. A candle-lit vigil was held to remember the teacher and the student killed and the six others wounded at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday.
All investigators want to know why the 15-year-old female student opened fire and how she got the gun used in the attacks. CNN's Whitney Wild is following those developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're brought together by a tragedy.
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes solemnly addressing the school shooting Monday where a 15-year-old female student opened fire inside Abundant Life Christian School.
Finding a motive remains a top priority for law enforcement and say it appears to be a combination of factors.
BARNES: We're looking into her online activity. We're asking anyone who knew her or who may have insights into her feelings leading up to yesterday to please contact the Madison area Crime Stoppers.
WILD (voice-over): Chief Barnes also addressing reports that the shooter may have left an online manifesto.
BARNES: We have detectives working today to determine where this document originated and who actually shared it online. WILD (voice-over): The tragedy unfolded when a second grade teacher,
not a second grade student as police originally reported, called 911 at 10:57 a.m.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Abundant Life Christian Church 4901 for Engine 5 and Medic 5 for a shooter.
WILD (voice-over): Officers arrived within minutes at 11:05 they reported the shooter was down and the gun was recovered.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: MPD is saying everybody can come in, all EMS can come in, shooter is down.
WILD (voice-over): Madison Police have identified the shooter as 15- year-old Natalie Rupnow who went by Samantha. They say she opened fire inside a study hall with students from mixed grades using a handgun killing a teacher, a student and wounding six others before turning the gun on herself. Law enforcement are working to determine how Rupnow obtained the weapon.
Officers searched Rupnow's home Monday afternoon and are looking into her online activity. Chief Barnes says her parents are cooperating and they don't expect to charge them at this time.
BARNES: We also want to look at if the parents may have been negligent and that's a question that we'll have to answer with our district attorney's office.
WILD (voice-over): Monday's tragedy has traumatized this small religious school and stunned the community just days before Christmas. Some students describing the terror they felt.
Sixth grader Adler Jean Charles says he was scared after hearing the gunshots.
[03:25:01]
ADLER JEAN CHARLES, SIXTH GRADE STUDENT, ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: Just waited till the police came and then they escorted us out.
WILD (voice-over): And a heartbreaking account from the second grader who says she could hear cries from a teacher wounded from her leg.
NORA GOTTSCHALK, SECOND GRADE STUDENT, ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: 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?
GOTTSCHALK: I was really scared and I was really sad.
WILD (voice-over): Worried parents James and Rebecca Smith received a text from their teenage daughter saying she was okay after the shooting. Like many they are grateful to be reunited with their daughter but fearful of the lasting anguish of another senseless school shooting.
JAMES SMITH, FATHER OF STUDENT AT ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: You plan for these things and you don't want to have to but it's the world that we live in.
WILD: At a candlelight vigil to honor those lives we saw people hugging, we saw tears, we saw prayers and what was so striking is that most of the people here were from outside the Abundant Life Christian School community but they were joining together to try to show their support for people they know are deeply grieving.
Whitney Wild, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Authorities in New York have charged the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer with a seventh murder in a new superseding indictment. Rex Hoyman denied all of the charges against him in court on Tuesday. That includes the latest count, second degree murder of Valerie Mack more than two decades ago.
Partial remains of the 24-year-old mother were found less than three kilometers from where another alleged victim was found according to court documents. Prosecutors say DNA and other evidence link Hoyman to the killings. The judge set the next hearing for mid-January.
Donald Trump has officially clinched the U.S. presidency after winning the electoral college. Electors in Texas gave Mr. Trump the victory when they awarded the state's 40 electoral votes on Tuesday. In Austin, the nationwide tally is a constitutionally required formalization of the November the 5th vote where Donald Trump won 312 electoral college votes and Kamala Harris took 226.
It takes 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win the White House. The electoral tally is now sent to Congress where lawmakers will meet in a joint session on January the 6th to officially declare Donald Trump the president.
Mr. Trump is taking a new shot meanwhile at what he perceives as left- wing media bias against him. He's suing pollster Ann Selzer and her firm along with the "Des Moines Register" newspaper and its parent company Gannett.
Selzer's poll published days ahead of the November election showed Kamala Harris with a surprising lead over Trump in Iowa. That lead never materialized and Trump ultimately won the state by 13 points. He says news coverage of the poll was intended to artificially help Democrats and that Selzer committed election interference.
Several of Donald Trump's controversial cabinet picks have been lobbying senators on Capitol Hill trying to pick up support ahead of next month's confirmation hearings. Much of the focus right now is on Health and Human Services Secretary Nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who's been making the rounds with lawmakers
CNN's Manu Raju has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. making the rounds on Capitol Hill for a second day meeting with Republican senators and trying to get them in line. One of the big things he has been trying to do is try to reassure some who are concerned about his views on vaccines. He has according to Republican senators not reiterated what he has said before to repeat that debunked theory that vaccine use leads to childhood autism.
There's been science of course just not making that case. He has said that before but in his meetings he has said that he is concerned about rising rates of autism since he wants to get to the bottom of that and he's also indicating he wants to have a top-to-bottom review of vaccines all together.
Now in a good sign for him he had the Senate Republican leader incoming Senate Republican leader John Thune told our colleague Ted Barrett that indeed he could support him for the job at least he suggested that he could because he said he was he viewed his answers about vaccines in a very positive light and also he has reassured Republican senators who had concerns about his pro-abortion rights views saying instead that he wants 100 percent support Donald Trump's position on abortion if confirmed as the health and human services secretary.
Now I caught up with another key senator, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who actually met with Tulsi Gabbard to lead the director to be the director of national intelligence. Gabbard has been controversial in her own right.
In 2017 she met with the then Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for a very controversial trip. She also has espoused views that have been critical of Ukraine as Collins and others have pushed for more U.S. support for Ukraine. I asked her about both her meeting with Gabbard and also whether she could vote for Gabbard or RFK Jr.
[03:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): We talked about Syria, her visit to see Assad, we talked about Ukraine, we talked about Putin, we talked about NATO, we talked about her decisions on introducing legislation that would have removed the criminal charges for Snowden and so it was a very broad and wide-ranging discussion.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you have any reservations about her or RFK Jr. at this point on vaccines?
COLLINS: As I've told you many, many times I'm not going to make a decision on nominees about whom I have questions until we're through the process. That's the approach I have always taken.
RAJU: So non-committal on both but for any Trump nominee of course they can afford to lose no more than three Republican votes on any party line vote and the moment no Republican senator is coming outward and saying they are publicly opposed to any of these nominees all keeping their door open even if they have may have some concerns about their positions which is why the Trump team is confident that they can get most if not all these nominees confirmed early in the new year.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Mysterious drone sightings around New Jersey offer more questions than answers. Just ahead, CNN speaks with experts about what could be creating the bright lights in the sky.
Plus some disturbing new revelations by the head of the Catholic Church. We'll have the latest on the Pope's upcoming memoir when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Max Foster. Let's check today's top stories then.
Russian officials saying they detained a 29-year-old Uzbek citizen for allegedly planting a bomb that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant on Tuesday. Kirillov headed Russia's Radiological, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces. Russian officials say the suspect was allegedly recruited by Ukrainian Special Forces.
The magnitude of the Assad regime's atrocities are slowly but surely coming to light in Syria. Across the country, mass graves are being unearthed. One advocacy group estimates hundreds of thousands of people quote "tortured to death by the ousted regime could be buried in those graves."
A New York grand jury has indicted the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Luigi Mangione faces 11 counts, including first degree murder. Right now he's in custody in a Pennsylvania prison. His lawyer says he won't fight extradition to New York where he appears in court on Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden says there is nothing nefarious going on in regards to alleged drone sightings off the coast of New Jersey. But not everyone who lives there agrees with that.
[03:35:08]
CNN's Pete Muntean spoke with experts and residents about the mysterious sightings to try to find an explanation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are on the lookout for drones, with drones, where fears first took off. New Jersey. Ocean County Sheriff's Sergeant Kevin Fennessy is one of about a dozen
drone officers responding to calls and now tracking flights from inside this major crimes command center, now turned into a drone war room.
SGT. KEVIN FENNESSY, OCEAN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: It's wild the amount of air traffic over New Jersey and especially over Ocean County.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The sergeant says, sure, many of the calls the department gets are actually airplanes, helicopters, medevacs, planets, even stars. But they have seen things they just cannot explain. A sheriff's lookout drone tethered to the ground captured this video.
FENNESSY: We had something coming at us and as it's coming as it stops, you know, just like a 180 in the air and then drives away and then comes back and does like a giant U around us. So that's not normal for aircraft.
MUNTEAN: So this is really happening.
FENNESSY: We think so. You know, it's definitely something that whatever we're seeing, we can't figure out what it is.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The federal government reiterated Tuesday that the vast majority of purported drone sightings are, in fact, airplanes or drones flying legally with no threat to public safety. But don't say that to the folks on the Seaside Heights boardwalk who were not shy to tell me about what they have seen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's drones. Too many people have seen them to it. Not be real.
LAURA BENEDICT, SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY RESIDENT: I haven't seen it. I do think it's legitimate, but I don't believe that nobody knows where they're coming from.
MICK WEST, WRITER AND UAP ANALYST: I haven't seen any legitimate drone sightings in this current flap around New Jersey.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Science writer and conspiracy expert Mick West investigates possible drone sightings and says that you can, too.
WEST: 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: We're on the boardwalk. The sun is set and the sky has really come alive. You can see almost why folks are reporting so many drone sightings.
Off in the distance over the Atlantic Ocean there, I can see several planes. I'm corroborating here with the same app that they use over in the command center. This is called ADS-B Exchange, showing within about a 20-mile view, planes broadcasting their position live.
There's an Atlas Air cargo flight that just left, not too far away from here, going out over the Atlantic Ocean. There's a Delta flight that's coming in over the Atlantic, turning north to go into JFK, and then another really bright light above those two, that is Jupiter.
But it's the things that cannot be explained so easily that have folks here really concerned.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Deputies like Kevin Fennessy hope the truth is still out there. We're not drone hunters.
FENNESSY: We're just trying to see if we can figure out what's going on, where they're coming from, and try to put this to bed.
MUNTEAN: The Pentagon is sending drone systems to two military bases here in New Jersey. Naval Weapons Station Earl is the closest, only about 25 miles away from where we are.
The goal is to identify and track drones, not shoot them down. Rather, jam the signal between the controller and the drone in hopes that the drone essentially lands itself.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The Federal Reserve is set to hold its final meeting of the year today. Investors are watching for predictions about the upcoming Trump administration, of course, and they're waiting to see if the Federal Reserve follows through with an expected interest rate cut for the third time this year.
CNN's Julia Chatterley has the story.
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JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR, "FIRST MOVE": The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percent in their final meeting of the year, making it a nice round one percentage point of cuts to borrowing costs for the year.
But then comes the tougher part, which involves communicating some kind of plan for 2025. And that includes what's widely expected to be a pause in the cutting cycle in January.
Why? Well, it's a few things. And actually, a lot of it's good news, including solid growth, tracking at more than three percent annualized. We can then add in a stronger than expected labor market, plus a U.S. consumer that's actually increased spending into the holiday season.
Then there's rising prices that actually have cooled a lot, but not enough. And then comes the bad news, plenty of geopolitical risk, whether that's the Middle East, Ukraine, or the potential impact of tariff policy from President-elect Donald Trump. Now, the decision to pause rate cuts, though, would be far more, I
think, about the relative economic strength, at least in my mind, than future policy decisions like tariffs that may not, in fact, materialize.
So first comes their updated economic projections and the so-called dot plot of where they think cuts in rates can come next year.
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Now, if you remember back in September, they were thinking four rate cuts next year. That could very likely be reduced to just three cuts based on what they see today. Though, let's be clear, as we've seen this year, nothing is set in stone.
And Fed Chair Jerome Powell will likely be keen to emphasize a degree of flexibility when he speaks on Wednesday. And that leaves the Fed with a core message that they've cut rates a full percentage point, that the economy is doing pretty well, and that they do remain data dependent, and that they can't react to things like tariffs until they get them.
And then they'll see how things progress between now and the January meeting.
Julia Chatterley, CNN, New York.
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FOSTER: Argentina has come out of a deep recession in a major victory for its unorthodox president, Javier Milei. Now the country's statistics agency says GDP grew 3.9 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous three months.
The agriculture and mining sectors drove the expansion. Milei, who's also an economist, has slashed government spending, reduced sky-high inflation and helped repair the country's finances since his election a year ago. His policies have also pushed up unemployment and poverty.
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales says he is the victim of a brutal legal war carried out by the government after being charged with an aggravated human trafficking offence.
The charge relates to an alleged relationship he had with a minor while in office. It was unveiled on Monday when an arrest warrant and immigration alert were issued against him. Morales criticized the government on social media, claiming it invents crimes against him.
In the South Pacific, at least 14 people are reported dead in Vanuatu after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit the islands on Tuesday. Officials say at least 200 people have been treated for injuries. The quake caused buildings to collapse, smashing cars and potentially trapping victims beneath the rubble.
The U.S. embassy in Vanuatu, which shares a building with other western embassies, was badly damaged and is now closed. Here's how one journalist described the quake.
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DAN MCGARRY, JOURNALIST: It was the most violent earthquake I've experienced in my 21 years living in Vanuatu and in the Pacific Islands. I've seen a lot of large earthquakes, never one like this.
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FOSTER: Earlier we heard from Katie Greenwood from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red President Societies in the Asia- Pacific region. She gave us the latest update on the search and rescue efforts in Vanuatu's capital.
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KATIE GREENWOOD, HEAD OF DELEGATION, IFRC PACIFIC: The current situation on the ground in Vanuatu, it's very sombre, it's very sad, there's a lot of grief and shock going on.
The commentary that you just heard about the largest earthquake and the most shocking results of an earthquake in the Pacific is very true. The population is very shocked and saddened by what has happened.
The main focus of efforts at the moment is on that search and rescue in the downtown area of the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila.
A number of buildings collapsed and people have been trapped in those buildings with the search and rescue efforts being absolutely phenomenal.
A lot of effort is going into that but there's also been major infrastructure damage to the wharf from a landslide to the main hospital that has no active operating theater at the moment.
So there's an outdoor triage area that has been set up to assist people. There's still quite a bit of confusion but certainly the efforts for search and rescue are the primary focus of what's going on at the moment as well as assessing damage outside of the capital in community areas to understand what the situation is there.
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FOSTER: Authorities and aid workers in the French territory of Mayotte are working around the clock to keep the peace and prevent the spread of disease after the worst cyclone to hit that region in at least 90 years.
At least 22 people are dead and more than 1,400 injured according to a local mayor but those numbers could rise significantly as crews move further into areas blocked by sort of debris that you see here but now some residents are forced to wait for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): But the hardest part is that since Saturday morning when the cyclone passed nothing has really happened apart from us the people trying to clean up. I haven't seen any municipal technical services.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's the same for everyone. What's alarming is that we are all cut off from the world. No electricity. There's no connection. There hasn't been any water since Saturday so it's unlivable.
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FOSTER: Those much needed supplies began arriving on Tuesday. The French government expects half of the island's water supplies will be restored soon and nearly all of it by early next week.
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Pope Francis is expected to release a new book early next year, a memoir of his life entitled "Hope." It'll include details of two attempts on his life. CNN's Christopher Lamb has more.
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CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Pope Francis says he faced two assassination attempts during his 2021 visit to Iraq and what was the first time a pontiff had visited the country.
In a forthcoming autobiography parts of which were released on Tuesday the Pope said he was told of a female suicide bomber who planned to blow herself up in Mosul whilst a van traveling at high speed had the same intent. Both these assassination attempts were foiled, the Pope said by the U.K. intelligence services and by the Iraqi police. Now of course Mosul, Iraq's second largest city was under the control of Islamic State from 2014 to 2017.
In his autobiography the Pope says he was advised strongly against visiting Iraq due to the security risk and the COVID-19 pandemic but the Pope said he was determined to make the trip to a country that is rich in biblical history and of course is home to one of the world's oldest Christian communities that has faced extensive persecution in recent years.
Whilst in Iraq the Pope was also able to have an historic meeting with the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani the leading Shia authority in Islam. The news of the assassination attempts against the Pope came as Francis marked his 88th birthday making one of the oldest popes in the church's history.
However the Pope shows no sign of slowing down and he's a busy schedule ahead of services during the Christmas period.
Christopher Lamb, CNN, London.
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FOSTER: The tragedy in Madison Wisconsin marks the rare occurrence of a female school shooter. We'll take a closer look at the case next.
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FOSTER: Authorities investigating the deadly school shooting in Madison Wisconsin say the motive appears to be the combination of factors. The attack carried out by a 15-year old student marks a rare case of a female school shooter.
CNN's Brian Todd takes a look.
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CHIEF SHONBARNES, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: At this time it appears that the motive was a combination of factors.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As investigators sort through possible motives in the shooting at the Abundant Life Christian school what's not in question is that the suspect 15-year old Natalie Rupnow who went by the name Samantha has now become part of a miniscule demographic in the archive of mass shooters in the United States.
DARRIN PORCHER, FORMER LIEUTENANT, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: It's extremely rare for a woman to be the subject in an active shooter investigation.
TODD (voice-over): Data from the group EveryTown for Gun Safety which advocates for stronger gun laws shows that out of more than 540 school shootings over the past 11 years where the gender of the shooter is known less than five percent of the shooters were female.
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The violence project looked at mass shootings overall not just those committed at schools and found that only two percent are perpetrated by females. These cases are so rare that they really stand out historically.
April 2018, 38-year old Nasim Najafi Aghdam opened fire at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno California wounding three people before killing herself. She'd reportedly been upset with YouTube's practices and policies.
December 2015 Tashfeen Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farooq targeted a holiday event at the public health department in San Bernardino California shooting and killing 14 people before they were killed by police. The FBI later said the couple was inspired by foreign terrorist groups.
Analysts who examined mass shootings and who study women committing violence say there are varied reasons why the overwhelming majority of mass shooters are male.
KRIS MOHANDLE, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: There's a biological basis to it but overwhelmingly there's a lot of sex role socialization that goes into conditioning males to resolve problems aggressively. TODD (voice-over): Responses to being bullied or the avenging of
perceived grievances analysts say are often handled differently between the sexes.
MIA BLOOM, AUTHOR, "VEILED THREATS": The men focus the violence outwards and women very often focus the violence inwards. Women tend to express when they're being bullied they tend to express the violence on themselves. The women engaged in self-harm are cutting themselves or they've got an eating disorder or they might take pills but it's a different form of focusing that rage.
TODD (voice-over): And experts say women who do strike others often gravitate toward their targets differently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Women tend to strike out with their aggression at people they're close to rather than strangers.
TODD (voice-over): But once perpetrators do commit to harming large groups of people, analysts say the underlying reasons for doing so aren't so different between males and females.
MOHANDLE: Grievance fixation identification with prior shooters very similar.
TODD: Analyst and author Mia Bloom is worried that the culprit in Wisconsin might start a new and horrifying trend of female mass shooters. Bloom is concerned that Natalie Rupnow might become a symbol and incentivize other young women to follow suit.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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FOSTER: Well coming up what did "Dirty Dancing," "Wrath of Khan" and "Up in Smoke" all have in common? They're all receiving a unique honor. We'll explain when we come back.
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FOSTER: "Dirty Dancing" along with 24 other films are this year's additions to the film archives maintained by the U.S. Library of Congress. The selections include "Beverly Hills Cop," Sidney Poitier- directed "Uptown Saturday Night," one of five films by black directors now inducted into that registry, and of course the franchise favorite performance of Ricardo Montalban in 1982, "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan,"
CNN's Harry Enten has the quote "time of his life" explaining why the selections are of such historical significance.
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HARRY ENTEN, CNN SR. DATA REPORTER: I submitted a name. You know the public can submit some names. I submitted "Baby Geniuses 2." It didn't quite work out for me.
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But the bottom line is it's just really, really rare you know this year we were talking well over 6,500 films, I believe that were sort of nominated to potentially be part of the film registry, and look at this only 25 were added, only 25 out of more than 6,700.
And so what we're dealing with here is I think if you do put it out in the percentage points it's like 0.4 percent or something along those lines it's just incredibly difficult so the fact that these 25 were added is quite a testament to their popularity and also their cultural relevance.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What stands out to you about the list?
ENTEN: You know what stands out to me about the list is just sort of the time span of this list you know you have to go all the way back to 1895.
I want to get this name right, "Annabelle Serpentine Dance" in fact I believe it was hand color you know tinted that's how long ago that film was. It was a short little film, and it spans all the way to 2010. And there it is right there and look at that, isn't that amazing?
It is it's a wonderful short film, and you know you look at that and then you sort of go to the newest film which is the you know "The Social Network" in 2010 which is about social media so you have you know a hand color tinted film on the one end and then a film about social media on the other it truly spans the ages.
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FOSTER: Hollywood star Tom Cruise spending years of course playing military heroes but his service is more than just make-believe the U.S. Navy is honoring him with a distinguished public service award; the force says he significantly boosted his recruitment of pilots through his lead role in the 1986 action film "Top Gun."
Cruise, a licensed pilot, played naval aviator Maverick and reprises role as a captain in the 2022 sequel.
Now it will be a few more months before you can check into the new season of the award-winning TV series "The White Lotus." Here's a look at season three.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to The White Lotus in Thailand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm on an exchange program.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm starting to feel like something good is going to come out of this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stress management meditation. Yeah you need this.
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FOSTER: Well the dark comedy returns in February this time traveling to Thailand with a new batch of issues for the new cast of resort guests they include actors Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb and Lisa from K-pop supergroup of Blackpink.
"The White Lotus" season three premieres on Max which is owned by CNN's parent company Warner Brothers-Discovery but thank you for joining us. I'm Max Foster. I'll be back with another hour of "CNN Newsroom" after this short break.
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