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CNN International: Russia Detains Uzbek National Over General's Killing; Authorities Say 15-year-old Suspect Killed a Student and Teacher, Wounded Six Others in Madison, Wisconsin School Shooting; Luigi Mangione Indicted on 11 Counts, Including First-degree Murder; Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Visits Mar-a-Lago to Meet Trump; Investors Watch Fed Meeting for Interest Rate Cut; New Jersey on Edge After Mysterious Drone Sightings; First Flight Takes Off From Damascus After Assad's Fall; Two People Killed in Plane Crash Near Honolulu Airport; 14 Killed in 7.3-magnitude Earthquake in Vanuatu; Verdict Expected This Week in the Pelicot Rape Case; China Astronauts Set Record for Longest Spacewalk of Nine Hours; Return of NASA Astronauts Delayed Again, Won't Happen Until at Least Late March 2025; "Bluey" Movie Announced for 2027. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired December 18, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: -- Corridor during the first phase of a deal, that was a major sticking point that ultimately helped to collapse these negotiations back in August, as the Israeli prime minister insisted that troops must remain there and Hamas demanded --
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello and welcome everyone to our viewers all around the world. I'm Amara Walker. This is "CNN Newsroom." Just ahead, Russia arrests a man suspected of planting the bomb that killed a senior general in Moscow. This as European leaders prepared to meet the Ukrainian president in Brussels. And we have the latest from Madison, Wisconsin as a community mourns Monday's fatal school shooting. And Israel and Hamas inch closer towards a possible ceasefire deal. Will it finally get over the line?
We begin with an arrest in the killing of a top Russian general and his aide in Moscow. Russian officials say they are holding a 29-year- old Uzbek citizen seen here, and they say he was recruited by Ukraine's Security Service. The suspect allegedly planted the bomb that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and an aide on Tuesday. They died outside this apartment building when the bomb was remotely detonated. Kirillov ran Russia's radiological, chemical and biological protection forces. Let's bring in CNN's Clare Sebastian for more. So, Clare, what are we learning about this arrest?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Amara, it seems the Russian authorities are keen to move very quickly here to at least show they're reasserting control after what was a pretty major security failing here. So we have this arrest announced this morning. It appears to be, as you say, a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan. And they're saying that he was, this is according to the investigative committee, that he was recruited by the Ukrainian Security Services that, of course, not a surprise. A source told CNN on Tuesday that the Ukrainian Security Services were behind this.
But there's more details that are revealed. The investigative committee saying that the man was, as I said, acting on orders from the Ukrainian Security Services. And there's a confession as well that state media have published a video and photos, which we are showing from the FSB, but we're not showing the confession because of real concerns that he was speaking under duress. And in it, he claims that he came to Russia, bought this scooter, which we know has been connected by Russian state media to the crime, the assassination itself, and says that he was offered $100,000 and a European passport to do this.
Now, of course, none of these claims can be independently verified. And as I said, we are not showing that video, but you can see that the Russians are trying to get right out in front of this. The Kremlin also coming out today and saying that this shows that the key regime, as they call, President Zelenskyy's government is willing to use terrorist methods and this according to the Kremlin spokesman, just confirms the correctness of the special military operation. So trying to sort of rebrand the security failing as further justification for the war in Ukraine. Amara?
WALKER: Clare, how would you read this assassination in the broader context of what's been happening there on the frontlines and as Russia has been continuing to advance in the east and fight back in Kursk with the help of North Korean troops?
SEBASTIAN: Yes, Amara, I think it's significant that this, albeit the most ambitious assassination that we've seen connected to Ukraine Security Services or other branches of the military and intelligence, it's the fourth in recent, in the past two months. That's definitely an acceleration of this tactic. And I think it comes -- we're just over a month out now from when Donald Trump takes office again in the U.S.
The Ukrainians are anticipating what could be a potentially significant change in policy at that point from the U.S. We heard President-elect Trump this week saying he thought, for example, that it was a mistake to provide Ukraine with what -- with the permission to use Western long-range missiles on Russian soil. So there's a possibility, of course, he could reverse course on that.
So I think this is part of the broader context of Ukraine trying to do really everything it can to wrestle back, if not the initiative in this war, then at least some leverage. I don't think there's any sense at all that this assassination would change the course of events on the battlefield, will stop Russia from advancing in the east, or trying to push Ukraine out of Kursk. But I think it does send a signal at least that the Ukrainians have more cards to play here, even without the help of the West.
WALKER: Clare Sebastian, thank you very much for your reporting. And in about four hours from now, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with European leaders and the head of NATO in Brussels. Ahead of that, the Ukrainian president said his allies might discuss the possibility of international peacekeeping troops in his country. French President Emmanuel Macron first raised the topic earlier this year, but Mr. Zelenskyy says Ukrainian troops need more support now as Russian forces are gaining ground on the frontlines.
(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)
[08:05:00]
WALKER: The community of Madison, Wisconsin is trying to make sense of this week's school shooting that left a student and a teacher dead, with two other students still in critical condition. Hundreds of people gathered on Tuesday night for a vigil outside the state capitol building. Many said the time has come for new laws and new efforts to combat the epidemic of school shootings in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR SATYA RHODES-CONWAY, MADISON, WISCONSIN: Yesterday, the Madison community experienced a terrible and traumatic event, and we will never be the same. But we will get through this, and we will get through this together by relying on each other and by taking care of each other.
MYA CULLEN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDENT: How many more lives need to be lost? How many more lives need to be taken for people to wake up? I mean, our children, our loved ones are stuck between a crossfire. When is it enough? When is it enough?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Well, authorities are digging into how the 15-year-old shooter got the gun and what her motive may have been. CNN's Natasha Chen has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police in Madison, Wisconsin are urgently searching for what led a 15-year-old girl to bring a 9-mm handgun to school and open fire. Investigators say Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha, arrived at the Abundant Life Christian School Monday morning and killed a teacher and a fellow student, and wounded six others before taking her own life.
CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE DEPARTMENT: The past 24 hours have been a flurry of emotion, sadness, anger, disappointment, grief.
CHEN (voice-over): Grief as they try to understand why a festive day with students dressed in their holiday pajamas ended with them evacuating a shooting scene. Police Chief Shon Barnes says the motive was a combination of factors, and they are looking into everything from possible bullying to her online activity, adding everyone at the school was targeted equally in the shooting. As for writings related to the shooting that have been circulating online --
BARNES: At this time, we cannot verify the document. We ask that you not share the document or spread any information that may be false.
CHEN (voice-over): But police are looking for original documents that may have been taken from the shooter's home and speaking to her parents who they say are cooperative to determine whether they owned or possessed the gun their daughter allegedly used.
CONWAY: I think law enforcement will take the steps necessary, but we don't know nearly enough yet.
CHEN (voice-over): Not enough to know whether the parents will face criminal charges. While the police chief says they will look into whether the parents were negligent, he says that does not appear to be the case right now. Two of the shooting victims remain in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, and police are asking members of the community to respect the privacy of the student and teacher who were killed.
REBEKAH SMITH, CHILDREN ATTEND ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: That particular teacher, she would've done anything for those kids. She would've been right there, loved the school, loved her kids, loved teaching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beautiful lights.
SMITH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That they were beautiful souls.
CHEN (voice-over): It was at least the 83rd school shooting in the U.S. this year, more than any other year since CNN started tracking school shootings in 2008.
MELISSA AGARD, DANE COUNTY EXECUTIVE: There's going to be public debate about the motives and other aspects of this mass shooting, but let us remember this fact. Gun violence is the number one killer of children in this country. That's a legacy we cannot accept.
CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: Let's get the latest now with CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent, Whitney Wild, who is in Madison, Wisconsin. And here we go again, talking about yet another school shooting. Whitney. What are we learning? What's the latest on this investigation?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is following a somewhat familiar pattern. What the -- the picture of this student that is coming into clear focus based on interviews the CNN was done with -- with children in that school, and particularly one student whose locker was right next to Natalie Rupnow, is that she was alone at school, Amara.
Typically, what we see in cases like this are that these are kids who are -- people maybe would describe as a loner. This child who knew Natalie, did not even know that her real name was Natalie. She went by Samantha at school, and she said that she didn't really have a friend group. She was new to the school. And so Amara, the questions moving forward are, what led up to this? What was the motive here? Law enforcement is saying basically it was a mix of factors. The other big question, Amara, is whose gun was it and how did she get it?
And at this point, law enforcement is reluctant to say who the lawful owner of that firearm was. Although they have acknowledged that the ATF has run a trace on the gun, meaning that federal law enforcement is trying to figure out quickly whose gun that was. Although again, police are not saying who it belonged to.
[08:10:00]
Moving forward, Amara, we are learning more about her home life and court records obtained by "The Washington Post" suggests that she had quite a turbulent home life. For example, her parents married and remarried multiple times, and the most recent separation agreement details Natalie going to therapy, as part of a way to -- for the court to better understand which parent she should be living with. But the separation agreement had a joint custody, Amara, and it was pretty chaotic.
She had two days with one parent, two days with another parent, three days with a parent. And so what is, again, coming into clear focus here was that she had this turbulent home life. She was at school and new and wasn't really making any friends. And so, the big questions, of course, are what points along the timeline could have prompted an intervention.
And so these are all of the questions that we continue to ask as we move through this story. There are still victims who are fighting for their lives, Amara. We know that there are two people in critical condition. That was the latest information we had from law enforcement. Two people had been released on Monday evening, but two people were still in the hospital in stable condition. We do know now that the person who -- that one of the two people who was killed was a full-time teacher and the other was a teenage student, Amara.
WALKER: Well, let's hope the two others who were injured fighting for their lives now, will survive this. Whitney Wild, thank you.
Authorities in New York have unsealed an 11-count indictment against accused CEO killer, Luigi Mangione. Among the charges, first-degree murder, prosecutors say Mangione intended to evoke terror when he gunned down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare earlier this month. An extradition hearing for Mangione will be held in Pennsylvania on Thursday as prosecutors attempt to bring him back to New York to stand trial. CNN's Danny Freeman joining me now from Pennsylvania with more. Good morning, Danny. Tell us more about the indictment, first-degree murder, and what we can expect from tomorrow's court hearing.
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You got it. Good morning, Amara. Listen, these new charges announced yesterday really escalated this case against Luigi Mangione. The Manhattan DA officially announcing that 11-count indictment against Mangione including, as you noted, that rare first-degree murder charge in New York. And it is so rare because it requires special elements related to the crime, and it really can only come from a narrow list of aggravating factors, Amara. Mangione was also indicted by a grand jury on murder in the second- degree as a crime of terrorism. DA Alvin Bragg saying clearly, "This was a killing intended to invoke terror."
Now this is interesting, Amara. We're also learning more information about Mangione's interactions with the outside world since he's been in prison, or better said, the outside world's attempts to interact with him since he's been behind bars. Per a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, we learned as of yesterday, Luigi Mangione has received 157 deposits into his prison commissary account. Also, as of yesterday morning, he'd received 33 emails and six pieces of hard mail that was up from just the two pieces of mail he received we reported back on Monday evening.
And still though, the only visitors he's had to him while he's been behind bars here in Pennsylvania has been his attorneys. But that being said, I want you to hear how the NYPD spoke about, let's say, the lionization that they have observed and we've observed happening when it comes to Luigi Mangione over the course of the past two weeks. Take a listen to the NYPD Commissioner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA TISCH, NYPD COMMISSIONER: Let me say this plainly, 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. We don't celebrate murders and we don't lionize the killing of anyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: All right, Amara. So as to what happens next, tomorrow morning, Mangione is going to be back in this courthouse right here behind me here in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania. There's going to be two back-to-back hearings. The first one is going to be on this lesser Pennsylvania charges, and then the second one is going to be on extradition where CNN's Kara Scannell, she reported that Mangione is not going to fight extradition anymore. That's according to his new New York attorney. A prison spokesperson said that means that he could be on his way back to New York right after court is over. Amara?
WALKER: All right, Danny Freeman, appreciate it. Live for us there in Pennsylvania. And as Danny just mentioned, authorities are taking note of the unusual reactions some Americans are having to this case, lionizing, as we heard, Mangione. They are going beyond relating to Mangione's alleged frustration with the U.S. healthcare system and making him out to be a hero. CNN Legal Analyst, Joey Jackson, explains how public sentiment could affect the prosecution of this case.
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I've never seen social media reaction that is so on a person's side who committed just a blatant murder.
[08:15:00]
This is a guy who's seen as a deity. They're calling him St. Luigi, right? Do you get a jury who buys into the notion of the healthcare industry being so disruptive to the common person, that this person deserved this? Right. I'm speaking about the CEO who died.
WALKER: Yeah.
JACKSON: So, could you get a jury to nullify? Could you get a jury that's hung? I mean, the evidence is really compelling, I doubt it. If you base it on the evidence and the facts alone, the question is no, at least to this point, he deserves a presumption of innocence. We're not at trial yet, but from the public disclosure of the evidence --
WALKER: Yeah.
JACKSON: -- I think it's pretty damning.
WALKER: All right. Still to come, paying court to the next commander- in-chief, another top tech CEO heads to Mar-a-Lago to cozy up to Donald Trump. A live report on who is joining the crowd next. Plus, hunting down drones with drones. CNN meets the New Jersey drone officers trying to get to the bottom of these mysterious sightings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: Another tech titan heads to the Mar-a-Lago club to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump today. Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos is making the trip to Florida where he will join a line of billionaires and top executives who are meeting Donald Trump before he takes office. Bezos also owns "The Washington Post", making him a prime target for Trump's criticism of the media. CNN's Alayna Treene is in West Palm Beach and joins us now.
Alayna, I mean, it's interesting because Jeff Bezos was one of those tech CEOs who had a hostile relationship with Trump and now he's making this trip, obviously kissing the ring. What are you learning about these meetings and I guess, what the tit for tat might be or the -- what may be expected out of this meeting?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. So I'd say the first thing, Amara, is that a lot of these people, when I talked to Donald Trump's team about these meetings, they say a lot of these meetings are introductory. Some of these CEOs Donald Trump has never met before, wanting to kind of set the groundwork for smoother relationships as they look ahead to the next four years.
However, many of these people, as you mentioned, we know this as true with Mark Zuckerberg as well, but Jeff Bezos, they had hostile relationships with Donald Trump during his first term. They have spoken in the past, but now, are really trying to improve their relationship with Donald Trump before he takes office on January 20th. I'm told that some of these conversations are more high level, just trying to get to know each other, smooth relationships, but some of them as well are going to him with specific policy priorities.
All to say though, I think they recognize that Donald Trump is going to be in the position where his policies could directly impact these companies, and it's something we saw happen during his first term. Now, to get into a little bit of the Donald Trump-Jeff Bezos dynamic, first of all, we know that they butted heads repeatedly when Trump was first in office. He had criticized Bezos at the time of him buying "The Washington Post." And we also know that during Donald Trump's first term, Bezos and Amazon, more broadly actually lost a $10 billion Pentagon contract to Microsoft.
[08:20:00]
It was something later that we learned. The former Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, his speech writer had said that Donald Trump had called Mattis directly saying that they should "Screw Amazon out of that opportunity." So again, their relationship and whether or not Donald Trump is working closely with them is going to be a huge factor for them as they look forward to what could happen with their companies over the next four years while he is in office.
Now, I will say though, despite their rocky relationship in the past, we do know that Donald Trump, or excuse me -- that Jeff Bezos has been far more supportive of Donald Trump this time around. They spoke prior to the election when Donald Trump was still on the campaign trail, which we had reported previously. But then also, we saw Bezos really congratulate Donald Trump after the election.
He posted on X saying that he supports him and hopes for success for Donald Trump over the next four years. And he also told Andrew Ross Sorkin at a "New York Times" event essentially that he recognizes that the press and Trump world kind of is at odds many times, and that there are questions over what that relationship will look like. He said that if there's a way to persuade him or he said the press is not the enemy, let's go persuade him of this. That was Bezos' direct words on that front.
So again, you're kind of seeing the contours of what this relationship could look like before they meet today. And to take a step back as well, just to bring this back into the broader stream of these tech giants and other business leaders going to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump, we know there's similar things happening there. Like Mark Zuckerberg, he had a bad relationship with Donald Trump during his first term. We know others as well.
I think the big picture here is that they are really changing their tone. They're adopting a much more friendlier approach to Donald Trump. And it's something Donald Trump even mentioned on Monday when he discussed this at a news conference. He said, during my first term, all of these people were fighting me. Now they all want to be my friend. And so, that's kind of what I have been told the tone has been for all of these meetings thus far. Amara?
WALKER: Yeah, they're definitely signaling, a much more openness this time around. Alayna Treene, thank you very much.
Well, the U.S. Federal Reserve will hold its final meeting of the year in the next few hours. It will be the last time the Fed will meet before Donald Trump's inauguration, and investors are watching closely to see if the bank follows through on expectations of an interest rate cut. CNN's Julia Chatterley reports.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR OF "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 borrow 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 is good news, including solid growth, tracking up more than 3 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 called 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.
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.
WALKER: All right, Julia. Thank you. U.S. President Joe Biden is trying to calm growing fears over recent drone sightings reported across the eastern U.S. He told reporters on Tuesday that authorities are checking out the reports, but he says there's apparently nothing nefarious going on. CNN's Pete Muntean spoke with experts and New Jersey residents about the mysterious sightings.
(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 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.
[08:25:00]
SERGEANT KEVIN FENNESSY, OCEAN COUNTY SHERIFF: 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 at us, it stops, it does like a 180 in the air and then drives away. 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, 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven't seen -- I do think it's legitimate, but I don't believe that nobody knows where they're coming from.
MIKE WEST, WRITER AND UAP ANALYST: I haven't seen any legitimate drone sightings in this current flap (ph) around New Jersey.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Science writer and conspiracy expert, Mick West investigates possible drone sightings and says that you can too.
WEST: 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: 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.
FENNESSY: We're not drone hunters. 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 Earle 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)
WALKER: Hopefully, we get some answers soon. It's been almost a month now since these sightings have been occurring. Pete Muntean, thank you.
Still to come, Hamas says a ceasefire-hostage deal in Gaza is possible following what's being described as serious and positive discussions in Doha. We will get the latest. Then not going anywhere, at least not yet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes it clear the IDF will remain on territory it recently seized in Syria.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:30:53]
WALKER: The area surrounding one of the last functioning medical facilities in northern Gaza is getting pummeled by Israeli airstrikes yet again. Palestinian officials say at least 10 people were killed in the attack near Kamal Adwan Hospital, seen here last week following a bombardment, the director described as catastrophic. But even as the violence continues, there is new hope that a ceasefire and hostage deal may be nearing.
CIA Director, Bill Burns is expected to travel to Doha as early as today to continue these negotiations. Top officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar, and Egypt are all claiming progress in the talks. And now, Hamas is also signaling cautious optimism. Let's go now to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who's joining me now live from Jerusalem.
Jeremy, so look, we've been here before only to see talks fall apart. What are you hearing about this cautious optimism? DIAMOND: Well, it really does appear that every single party to these negotiations believes that we are closer to a deal than we ever have been. But we have, of course, heard language exactly like that before, particularly over the summer, amid those negotiations that followed that July framework that became the basis for negotiations. But those negotiations ultimately collapsed in August.
Now though, U.S. and Israeli officials in particular are pointing to a new set of conditions on -- in terms of the negotiating environment that could be pushing Hamas to make more concessions and move towards a deal, and also conditions such as the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, other Israeli military accomplishments that could make a deal more palatable to Israel's political leadership.
On the Hamas side, the sense is that Hamas is increasingly isolated following the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, that it has not been able to bring about this kind of all-out regional war that it perhaps wanted to see in order to try and bring about Israel's defeat. And instead, Iran has been significantly weakened in terms of its influence and its proxies in the region.
And that all of this may be contributing to some of the concessions that we've been told that Hamas appears to be making at the negotiating table, including the fact that Hamas seems more open to allowing Israel to maintain a troop presence along the Philadelphi Corridor during the first phase of an agreement. That was, of course, one of the key sticking points that the Israeli prime minister refused to budge on in August that ultimately led to the collapse of that round of negotiations.
But the optimism that we are hearing, including from Hamas, which said yesterday that they believe a deal is possible, another Hamas source saying that the atmosphere was positive and optimistic. They are also expressing caution, caution about the potential for additional Israeli demands slowing down the process and caution of course, simply about the fact that until a deal is actually agreed to, nothing is agreed to. As we have seen so often in these negotiations, it is that last yard that is most difficult to actually get across and bridge the gap there.
And there's no question that a deal is needed now more than ever. We have seen dozens of people killed in Gaza over the course of just the last 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. There are a hundred hostages that still remain in Gaza, about half of whom Israel believes to be alive. And of course, we know as we've been reporting on the humanitarian conditions in Gaza that are simply not improving. And of course, a deal would not only bring about a respite in the fighting, the release of perhaps dozens of hostages, but also of course, the entry of much, much needed humanitarian aid into the Strip.
WALKER: And Jeremy, we are seeing off the top that CIA Director, Bill Burns, is expected to travel to the region and join the talks. How significant is that?
DIAMOND: Well, there's no question that he only makes these trips at critical junctures, when it seems like there's a key decision-making moment approaching, that all the momentum is behind the potential for a deal, that these talks are approaching some kind of a critical juncture. And that does indeed seem to be the moment that we are in.
[08:35:00]
And his presence in the region kind of solidifies that notion of the kind of momentum that we've been seeing in the region, not only in terms of the rhetoric from the parties, but also of course, in terms of the actual boots on the ground of diplomats meeting in rooms and trying to move this deal forward. His visit is just the latest of a number of U.S. officials, beginning with the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last week, his -- one of his deputies, a top Middle East Adviser to President Biden, Brett McGurk has been in the Qatari capital since Sullivan left.
And now you have Bill Burns, really the kind of top negotiator for the United States at the table now, trying to see if they can seal a deal. And indeed the goal is to try and reach a deal by the end of this month. That is what Jake Sullivan said last week when he was here in Tel Aviv at a press conference that I attended. But he made very clear that he has been optimistic before. He has said a deal can be achieved before, and it has not happened for one reason or another. So, all parties really trying to temper that optimism because, again, there are always these unknowns and it is this last stage of the process that always ends up being the thorniest.
WALKER: All right. Jeremy Diamond, always appreciate your reporting. Thank you very much.
Aaron David Miller is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a Former Middle East Negotiator at the U.S. State Department. He's joining us now live from Washington. Aaron, so what are your thoughts? I mean, we've seen hopes (inaudible) fall before over a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal. Do you see anything notably different this time around? I mean, clearly, there's a lot of momentum towards an agreement.
AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: Yeah, Amara, thanks for having me. Look, my experience in Arab- Israeli, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is that they really only have two speeds, slow and slower. But, I think the one missing ingredient that has prevented a deal over the last year since the last hostage exchange for a temporary week-long ceasefire last November is urgency. I think Hamas needs a deal, and I think Benjamin Netanyahu, and he is the principal decision maker for sure, is more willing to accept a deal.
Hamas is under pressure. There's no cavalry that's going to rescue them. The Iranians, Hezbollahs hollowing out, has diminished their Axis of Resistance. They have nothing to show for the October 7 terror surge, only misery and death to the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. So I think Hamas is under pressure and Netanyahu, I think, is more willing than ever before to come to a limited agreement.
And Amara, let's be clear, that's what we're talking about here. Limited exchange of hostages, probably the women, the elderly, the -- if there are any children left the -- and the infirm for a, what, 45 to 60-day ceasefire in anticipation that if it holds, you might be able to set the stage for the remaining 50 IDF soldiers that Hamas will not give up without a major concession. Who knows? Maybe you can extend -- you can extend the ceasefire, so better than ever. But we've talked about this before. Nobody ever lost money betting against Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. So, closer than -- closer than ever I think --
WALKER: Right.
MILLER: -- is probably the best you can do right now.
WALKER: OK. So, you posted this on X that big gaps though do remain. I mean, let's say there is a deal, there is a prisoner and hostage exchange. What happens after that? I mean, how does the war end? And obviously, there's a lot of talk about the Israeli presence, and it seems that Hamas is now more open for an extended Israeli presence in these two corridors as long as Israel agrees to eventually withdraw.
MILLER: Yeah, I mean, I think the major sticking point and it's been there from the beginning, is what to do about the end game. What to do about the end state? Hamas may be prepared to release their remaining hostages, but it's going to require a huge concession from the Israelis, and I don't think this Israeli government is prepared to give that.
Number one is the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. If you look at the commercially available overhead, what you see is very clear. The IDF is preparing in Northern Gaza and Netzarim Corridor for a prolonged stay. And will the Netanyahu government be willing to release the asymmetrical number of Palestinian prisoners that Hamas will demand for the release of the remaining hostages?
Those are prisoners who have either been tried, convicted, or accused of killing Israelis. So, I -- again, step by step here, a six-week ceasefire would be extraordinary for the people of Gaza, for the hostages, those that have been released and their families. But we are no mean -- by no means, are we on the cusp of ending this war and creating a better future for Palestinians in Gaza and more security for Israelis right now.
[08:40:00]
WALKER: Aaron, let's listen quickly to what both President Biden and President-elect Trump had to say about efforts to end the Israel-Hamas War on Monday. Here they are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The trauma of that day and its aftermath is still raw and ongoing. I've gotten over a hundred hostages out. I will not stop till I get every single one of them home.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And I'll be very available on January 20th. And we'll see. As you know, I gave a warning that if these hostages aren't back home by that date, all hell is going to break out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Obviously, very different rhetoric between the two, and it remains to be seen what Trump's approach will be to these talks. How much do you think, Aaron, the incoming Trump Administration had to do with the pace of these talks accelerating, given that Trump's Mid-East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, had talks with Netanyahu and the Qatari prime minister last month?
MILLER: You know, I think the primary drivers why we may be "closer than ever" have a lot more to do with regional factors. Hezbollah's weakening pressure on Hamas. But there's no doubt I think that an incoming Trump Administration, at least in the mind of one politician, and that is Benjamin Netanyahu, figures prominently. I think Netanyahu's calculation is that essentially, he won't -- he would like some progress on hostages in order to diffuse pressure from an incoming Trump Administration and from the hostage families.
And he also wants to clear the deck, so he can focus the president- elect on what he really wants to do, and that is deal with the Iranian nuclear challenge. So I think that's all hell to pay. I mean, how much more hell to pay could there be than what Israelis and Palestinians have suffered over the course of the last year since October 7th, particularly on the Palestinian side. And I suspect that's at whom the president-elect's comments were directed.
So, it may help actually, but it is not the determinative or decisive reason that we may be "closer than ever".
WALKER: Yeah.
MILLER: -- for a limited hostage (ph) --
WALKER: Well, we will watch this closely and we will see if CIA Director Bill Burns is able to finalize a deal. Fingers crossed, but of course, realism will also set in. Aaron David Miller, good to have you. Thank you.
So as a ceasefire deal to end the fighting in Gaza may be gaining momentum, Israel is expanding its military presence in Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced trip to Mount Hermon on Tuesday, which is a strategic site in a buffer zone on the Syrian border that Israel recently seized. And he said the IDF will remain there "until another arrangement is found".
Meanwhile, life in Syria is slowly returning to normal. Earlier, for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime, more than one week ago, a domestic flight departed from Damascus Airport.
In other news, two people were killed in Hawaii when a plane on a training flight crashed into an unoccupied building near Honolulu Airport. In this video, you can spot the plane flying quite low in the sky before it disappears from view and moments later, large plumes of smoke are visible. Authorities say, a fire erupted after the plane crashed into the building and you can see the extent of the damage here. Airport authorities, the airline, and the NTSB are investigating the cause of the crash.
Aftershocks are continuing to rattle Vanuatu the day after a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit the South Pacific Island nation. 14 people have been confirmed dead and that number is expected to rise. The quake caused a network outage and damaged many buildings, as you see, including the U.S. Embassy. Rescue efforts are continuing and a state of emergency is in place in the worst impacted areas.
Still to come, as we wait for a verdict in a trial that has gripped the world's attention, we will look at the horrors Gisele Pelicot allegedly suffered at the hands of her husband for years. Our exclusive report is just ahead.
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[08:46:30]
WALKER: A verdict is expected Thursday in a mass rape trial that has shocked France and much of the world. Dominique Pelicot is accused of organizing the abuse of his own wife, Gisele. She decided to waive her right to anonymity and has spoken openly in court, saying it is time to "Look at this macho, patriarchal society and change the way it looks at rape." 15 men, including Pelicot, have pleaded guilty to rape. Others claimed they believed a husband's consent was enough.
CNN has obtained exclusive access to French police reports which reveal exactly how Dominique Pelicot enlisted men to rape his wife. And we warn you, the content is graphic and disturbing. Saskya Vandoorne has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: I've come here to retrace the steps of all those men who visited Pelicot's house in the middle of the night. This case really has captured the world's attention with so many people asking, why? We're going to focus instead on how? Pelicot led the men right here.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): The way he communicated, the tactics he used, how he came to be on trial for mass rape and drugging his wife. What was his playbook?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 50 men accused in the mass rape of Gisele Pelicot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was drugged.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drugged unconscious by her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dominique Pelicot --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dominique Pelicot admitted to recruiting dozens --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enlisting other men to join --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- to rape his wife, caused outrage across France.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Global concern about violence against women.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): CNN has gained exclusive access to police reports with thousands of messages that Dominique exchanged with the 50 men on trial alongside him. He didn't have to search far for his alleged accomplices. They all live within a 30-mile radius of his house in Mazan.
VANDOORNE: The horror is still felt here by local women.
NEDELJKA MACAN, MAZAN RESIDENT: This area was so quiet and nice area, And now, we don't know if somebody who is in the next shop is one of these men. It changed everything.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): From a firefighter to a journalist to a nurse, from 27-years-old to 74-years-old, all the men were connected by one website, Coco. Shut down this summer, Coco's chat rooms were easy to access.
VANDOORNE: It was not buried in the dark web, as one man accused of raping Gisele Pelicot said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I got in touch through Coco in the evening when I was by myself. My wife had gone to bed and I was a little bored.
VANDOORNE: But because the so-called dating site was entirely unmoderated and anonymous, it boasted chat rooms selling date rape drugs and spaces to glorify sexual violence.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): Under the pseudonym "AvailableAllNight", Pelicot posted in a chat room called "Without her knowledge." It was there that misogyny and sexual abuse were completely normalized.
VANDOORNE: While Pelicot has pleaded guilty to rape, most of his co- defendants say that they believe Dominique Pelicot's consent was enough.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): Pelicot was the door. Pelicot would then move the discussion to Skype.
VANDOORNE: He traded videos of his wife being raped for intimate images of the men's own partners, according to the police report.
[08:50:00]
MATHIAS DARMON, LAWYER, INNOCENCE EN DANGER: We saw Coco was a very dangerous website.
VANDOORNE: "Innocence en Danger" has been campaigning against this site for years.
DARMON: They went to this website to realize their worse -- their worst fantasies. So it became a reality, thanks to Dominique Pelicot.
VANDOORNE: He told police that over time, he built a network of men.
DARMON: It's a place where they could meet, what time, what they could wear, they couldn't wear.
VANDOORNE: He allegedly told the men what drugs to buy and how to use them. This all went undetected for 10 years.
Dominique Pelicot never thought his text messages or his alleged crimes would see the light of day, and they probably wouldn't have if it weren't for the events that took place right here on September 12th when a security guard caught him red handed, filming up the skirts of several women.
DARMON: This -- these kind of websites, as long as there is demand, then there will be supply.
VANDOORNE: In the wake of Coco's shutdown, more websites have gained in popularity in France. CNN extracted data from just one of those websites.
VANDOORNE (voice-over): After going through almost 6,000 messages from a 24-hour period, we found a strikingly similar pattern of men sharing explicit photos of their wives and girlfriends, and asking to move the discussions to private messaging platforms.
VANDOORNE: Some men went as far as offering up their wives to other users in a manner like Pelicot, but it's unclear if any of them set up real-life encounters.
There are some websites that could be the new Coco. How does that make you feel?
MACAN: For these websites, it's kind of a marvelous thing what happened with Gisele Pelicot. It brings them advertising.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It could very well happen again tomorrow in another place.
MACAN: We expect that some laws will change. But of course, I'm not sure that will be enough. So I don't feel at ease here in the streets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: Incredibly disturbing report there. That was CNN's Saskya Vandoorne reporting. We're going to take a break, back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: A new milestone in space, two Chinese astronauts have broken the record for the longest spacewalk. According to the China Manned Space Agency, it lasted nine hours on Tuesday. That beats the previous record of eight hours and 56 minutes set by a pair of U.S. astronauts in 2001. China has been increasing its role as a major player in space with plans to land on the moon by 2030. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will have to extend their stay in space again. NASA announced their trip home slated for February will now be pushed back to late March when a new SpaceX craft is expected to be ready. The two went on what was supposed to be a one-week mission in June, and they have since been stranded on the International Space Station ever since due issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Another delay?
[08:55:00]
Well, a certain beloved blue dog is heading to the big screen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bluey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Yay, Bluey. My kids love Bluey. I'm sure yours do too. Right? A movie based on the popular children's animated series, Bluey, is now in the works. The project was announced on social media on Tuesday. The series creator, Joe Brumm, says he will step back from his involvement in the TV show with the third season being his last. But he added that he really loves the script for the movie, which will be an event for the entire family to enjoy. That's exciting.
And before we leave, we wanted to introduce you to a Santa who has ditched his sleigh for -- there you see him -- a jet ski. Here you see him on the water in Rio de Janeiro, where he delivered presents to kids. It was an event hosted by the non-profit "Heroes of Love" which joined forces with the fire department to give presents to about 50 children and their parents.
Always interesting to see Santa, not on a sleigh, but on the water. That's my time. Thanks for being with me here on "CNN Newsroom." I'm Amara Walker. "Connect the World" with Erica Hill is next.
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(CONNECT THE WORLD)
