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Fulton County DA Disqualified from Prosecuting Trump; FAA Restricts Drone use Across New Jersey; California Man Admits Plotting Mass Shooting with Madison, Wisconsin Teen; Pelicot Case: 51 Men Convicted of Rape or Sexual Assault; Thousands Report Unexpected Ozempic Side Effects. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 20, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us here are some of today's top stories.
A U.S. delegation is on the ground in Syria for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime. They're in Damascus right now to meet with the interim government and urge leaders to focus on human rights, the potential resurgence of terror groups and the destruction of chemical weapons.
The suspect in the killing of United Healthcare CEO now in a New York prison. Luigi Mangione was escorted to court for his first hearing by dozens of law enforcement officials as well as the mayor. He faces state and federal charges.
President-elect Donald Trump is now calling for the, quote, ridiculous debt ceiling to be discarded or extended to 2029 as a government shutdown looms. His post comes hours after the House failed to pass the new Republican resolution to keep the government funded for the next three months.
Lawmakers were divided over the latest proposal presented on Thursday which dramatically changed the original bipartisan draft.
A Georgia Court of Appeals has disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump and his alleged co-conspirators. The decision raises concerns and questions about the future of the case.
CNN's Paula Reid reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The case against President-elect Trump down in Georgia survived this appeals court. They did not dismiss the case itself but says the case would need a new prosecutor and a new office. They found that Fani Willis and her entire office should be disqualified based on the appearance of impropriety that resulted from her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade who's of course the special prosecutor that she selected to oversee this historic case. Now the trial court did not see things this way so she did not have to be removed. This was appealed. The Trump team has really been pushing to get her off the case arguing that not only was her romantic relationship inappropriate they've also raised questions about his billing practices. And here the appellate court agreed saying look it's rare that you would remove a prosecutor for just the appearance of impropriety but they found that the only way to restore public trust they said in this case and the integrity of the process is for her to be disqualified.
I know we do expect that she is going to appeal this decision but as a former President Trump currently the President-elect heads back to the White House, it's clear that this case look even if this is overturned will remain in limbo while he is in the White House.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Thousands of Amazon drivers went on strike in four U.S. states on Thursday with less than a week to go before Christmas. The company is promising it won't affect holiday deliveries arguing that these aren't official Amazon employees. Members of the Teamsters union are striking at seven facilities claiming to represent about 7,000 Amazon workers nationwide but these driver companies that are contracted by Amazon so Amazon says it's not required to negotiate with them.
[04:35:04]
That's not how the workers feel with some saying they're struggling to put Christmas presents under the tree this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quitting is easy, fighting is hard.
TRENTON KNIGHT, AMAZON DRIVER: It's sad that they're afraid of it. It is sad that they're doing all they can especially in there to discourage it even though like drivers and unions have been the backbone of this country for a very long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well thousands of years Starbucks workers are set to go on strike in the coming hours. Their union says the walkout will take place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. Other cities will be added through Christmas Eve.
The union says Starbucks hasn't met its demands for immediate and future pay rises. The union has struck Starbucks several times in the past but many stores stayed open because managers and workers from non-union stores replaced the strikers.
Widespread alleged drone sightings across the northeast of the U.S. have caused public confusion and concern. Now the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is restricting the use of drones in 22 locations in New Jersey until January the 17th. It's limiting flights above power stations and other critical infrastructure. Drone restrictions have been in place in New Jersey since late November at a Trump golf course and a military research facility.
New York's governor also announced that as a precaution federal authorities are planning to temporarily restrict flights over critical infrastructure there as well. The FAA has said multiple times that there is no threat to safety or national security.
Now according to the U.N. hunger is on the rise in Africa affecting one in five people now. Some 300 million people across the continent. Access to nutritious protein rich food is even harder to come by. CNN's Eleni Giokos visited Rwanda where a fish farm is helping to fight widespread malnutrition.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Located on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo you will find Lake Kivu one of the largest lakes on the continent. It's also the location for a massive food production enterprise.
KAMRAN AHMAD, CEO KIVU CHOICE: Kivu Choice is an end to end protein production and distribution platform. So we operate the whole value chain from egg to point of harvest. That means we operate the hatchery, our cage grow outs, our distribution system and our branches and points of sale.
GIOKOS (voice-over): This fish farm produces thousands of tons of tilapia and has become one of the largest food producers in the country.
AHMAD: In mid-2022 we took over this facility, began the fish farm and quickly 50 X the production output of the facility by implementing data technology systems and know-how. Now Kivu Choice is Rwanda's largest protein producer and we're also the fastest growing fish farm at the trajectory that we're operating at.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Their success has allowed them to produce affordable and nutritious protein which they say can also address the issue of stunting a form of malnutrition that can impair growth and developments in children.
AHMAD: What we've been able to do by building out this business is drive down the cost of protein in Rwanda by anything between 25 to 50 percent. The reason why this is important is that we believe that this is a key mechanism for alleviating stunting across the continents which currently as it stands is very prevalent. So we're looking at over 30 stunting rates across Africa. We think that fish farming and providing affordable and accessible protein production is a key lever to driving down those statistics.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Currently producing 10 million tons of baby fish called fingerlings a month. Their plans to become one of the largest fish producers on the continent. AHMAD: We are looking to scale out to about 30,000 tons in the next four to five years. So while we are very large by Rwanda and aquaculture standards we still have a very long way to go and there's a tremendous amount of impact that's still to be unlocked through our business model.
GIOKOS (voice-over): And it's a business model that is sure to be replicated across the continent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Now to the latest on the investigation into Monday's deadly school shooting in Wisconsin. Court documents show a 20-year-old California man admitted that he plotted with shooter 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow to carry out a separate mass shooting. CNN's Whitney Wild has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 15-year-old girl police say shot and killed two people and wounded six more at Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin appears to have been in contact with a 20-year-old-man in California. That according to court records obtained by CNN.
Alexander Paffendorf of Carlsbad, California was plotting a mass shooting with the teen and told FBI agents during an interview that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun, and that he would target a government building.
ALEX GALLEGOS, ALEXANDER PAFFENDORF'S NEIGHBOR: I've only seen him a few times. He's real quiet. I'm just glad that the cops and everybody FBI, whoever was on top of it and is getting to the bottom of it before anything bad happened.
WILD (voice-over): A California judge has issued a gun violence emergency protective order under the state's Red Flag Law against Paffendorf.
According to the order, FBI agents saw the messages between him and the teen. It also demands Paffendorf give up his guns and any ammunition within 48 hours unless police take them sooner.
GALLEGOS: A couple hours into it, towards the end, they're carrying out a big black box. It looked like a gun case of some sort.
WILD (voice-over): It's still not clear if he's in custody or if he will face charges. The FBI is not commenting. CNN has also reached out to Paffendorf but hasn't heard back.
In Wisconsin, new details emerging about the shooting. Police now say two guns were recovered at the school but won't say who owns them or how she got them.
Meanwhile, four people injured in the shooting are now home, while two other students are still fighting for their lives in the hospital. A local pastor saying that one of them needs a miracle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The students, the families --
WILD: As the community and the police search for answers, we're learning more about those killed. 14-year-old Rubi Vergara was an avid reader, a talented artist and singer, according to an obituary written far too soon.
42-year-old Erin West was the substitute coordinator and in-house substitute teacher. Sophomore Mackynzie Wilson says she was beloved.
MACKYNZIE WILSON, SOPHOMORE AT ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: She was a really good person. She really loved her kids and she really, really loved everyone at her school. And she would have done anything for them.
WILD (voice-over): Her mom, Linsay O'Connor, a former student here, says their legacies will live on.
[04:45:00]
LINSAY O'CONNOR, FORMER STUDENT, ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: They're integrated into our lives and they will be forever remembered.
WILD: We reached out for more details on the condition of the two children who remain in the hospital. We've received no further details.
Whitney Wild, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The French president is the latest world leader to praise Gisele Pelicot, the survivor, at the center of a mass rape case that has shocked the world. Emmanuel Macron wrote online: You face this ordeal with your head held high. For women who forever have a guiding light to speak and fight for. For all of us, because of your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world.
Pelicot was widely applauded for going public with the atrocities that she endured, forcing France to reckon with gender-based violence in a way it hasn't before. Melissa Bell reports on the verdicts and the takeaways from the trial yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gisele Pelicot was determined that the shame should not be hers, waiving her anonymity and with it, that of her rapists.
Rapists, we see you. Shouted the crowd outside, as inside Dominique Pelicot received the maximum sentence of 20 years for the drugging and mass rape of his then wife Gisele over nearly a decade.
Outside the court, there was anger that the 50 other men on trial alongside him had not received the maximum sentences sought by prosecutors. But as she left the court, Gisele Pelicot made no comment on the verdicts.
GISELE PELICOT, SURVIVOR OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE (through translator): I have faith now in our capacity to carve out collectively a future where everyone, women and men, can live in harmony, in respect and mutual understanding.
BELL (voice-over): A stark contrast to the brutality of a trial that saw the violent rapes of an unconscious Gisele Pelicot shown in court day after day. Through the videos shot by her then husband of more than 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, unmasked by chance in 2020, when a guard caught him filming up women's skirts in a supermarket. An incident that led police to the horrors that this unassuming retiree had on his phone and computer, videos of more than 200 acts of aggravated rape against his wife, most, including other men.
It was not far from the couple's home in the sleepy town of Mazan in southern France that he met the men after recruiting them online. Dominique Pelicot's lawyer said her client will consider whether to appeal.
We are going to take advantage of the delay, which gives us 10 days to decide if we want to appeal this decision, she said.
As she left court, Gisele Pelicot was again celebrated for making the trial public and for having, in her own words, forced shame onto the perpetrators and where it belongs.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Avignon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: We're going to take a quick break. When we return, reports of unsavory side effects from popular weight loss drugs, which users say they were not warned about. We'll have details on that coming up.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Baseball great Sammy Sosa says he is sorry after past denials. The Associated Press reports that Sosa now appears to acknowledge using performance-enhancing drugs during his legendary career. The seven-time all-star says mistakes were made but he never broke any law. But he says he did whatever he could to recover from injuries and keep up his strength.
Meanwhile, his former team is ready to welcome back their top home run hitter. The Chicago Cubs chairman says the team is, quote, ready to move forward together with him. Sosa hit more than 600 home runs during his career. The weight loss drug Ozempic has been hailed by many as a miracle
worker transforming the lives of millions of its users. But as the drug and others like it rise in popularity, thousands of people are experiencing unwanted side effects without warning.
CNN's Nick Watt has that report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICIA, FORMER OZEMPIC USER: I'm always going to the bathroom. I had to prepare myself for this and I don't know how long I could sit.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patricia is one of the 15 million or so Americans who've taken Ozempic or one of the other so- called GLP-1 drugs. She is diabetic.
WATT: What did you kind of hope it would achieve for you?
PATRICIA: Lower my A1C and help me to lose weight.
WATT (voice-over): She's a veteran.
PATRICIA: This is my battalion I was in. Can you pick me out?
WATT: There. Am I right?
PATRICIA: Yes.
WATT: Yes.
WATT: She did lose weight. Her A1C did fall. Then, she says, her doctor doubled the dose, as suggested by the manufacturer, and within two weeks --
PATRICIA (voice-over): I was going so often, I began to bleed. When it became bright red blood, I knew it was hospital time.
WATT (voice-over): She saw a doctor in the ER.
PATRICIA: He said, you have a lower GI erectile infection and your hemorrhaging.
WATT (voice-over): More than 1,300 people have already filed suit against the makers of these drugs over side effects they say they suffered and inadequate warnings. Patricia plans to file suit.
WATT: And how many clients do you have now on this?
ANDREW VAN ARSDALE, PATRICIA'S ATTORNEY: We have over 6,000 clients.
PATRICIA: It doesn't say it on the pamphlet that you're going to be hemorrhaging.
WATT: And if it had said that on the --
PATRICIA: I wouldn't have taken it. WATT (voice-over): The label does warn of diarrhea but not hemorrhaging.
VAN ARSDALE: I do think we'll find evidence that they were aware that some of these reports were coming in, and maybe they didn't do enough about it.
WATT (voice-over): The maker of Ozempic declined an interview but gave us a statement that reads in part: Novo Nordisk believes that the allegations in these lawsuits are without merit, and we intend to vigorously defend against these claims. The known risks and benefits are described in their FDA approved labeling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may have seen photos of celebrities and others showing off dramatic weight loss.
WATT (voice-over): These drugs are now ingrained in the zeitgeist.
[04:55:02]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Party time guys!
WATT (voice-over): South Park, SNL.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since my doctor prescribed Ozempic for Ramadan, I've never gotten more work done.
WATT (voice-over): And so many commercials in between.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ozempic.
WATT: I can hum the tune from the commercial.
VAN ARSDALE: There's a reason you can hum the tune. There's a reason everybody knows about this, because of the amount of money they're putting into the marketing of these products.
PATRICIA: I heard about Ozempic on the TV.
WATT (voice-over): Patricia has now stopped taking it but she says is still suffering.
PATRICIA: Uncontrollable diarrhea.
WATT: Which makes life quite hard to live.
PATRICIA: Right, so I stay pretty much close to the house. I still have the effects of uncontrollable going to the bathroom. WATT: There are of course many, many people taking these drugs very happily and getting great benefit from them. Patricia and her lawyer are not saying these drugs should be banned. They're just saying that the manufacturers, the pharmaceutical companies, should spend a lot more time and effort looking into potential side effects and should make the warnings around those potential side effects much more explicit.
There is of course a long and complicated legal road ahead.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now Kosovo's capital Pristina is 95 percent Muslim but that isn't stopping people from enjoying a decidedly Christian celebration. They are flocking to three Christmas markets in a display of cultural diversity. The markets include symbols of the Yuletide as Father Christmas, as well as activities for the kids as well.
Mainly it's a chance to set differences and enjoy yourself. Pristina's mayor says we're celebrating life, we're celebrating the city, we're celebrating freedom, inclusivity. Pretty good message.
Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" up next after a break.
