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Ukraine Faces Thursday Deadline to Accept U.S. Peace Plan; G20 Host South Africa Focuses on Inequality in Global South; Food Aid Reaches Gaza Far Short of What's Needed; First Issue of "Superman" Comic Book Sells for Record $9 Million. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 22, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello. Wherever you are in the world, you are now in the CNN NEWSROOM with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta. And it is so good to have you with me.
Coming up on the show, Ukraine's president is weighing a U.S.-proposed plan to end the war with Russia. He has to decide if peace is worth the conditions.
As Volodymyr Zelenskyy ponders the future of his country, world leaders are gathering for the G20 summit in Johannesburg. We'll have a live report.
And a political stunner: Trump ally turned foe Marjorie Taylor Greene announces she will resign from Congress.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Ben Hunte.
HUNTE: Welcome.
We are beginning with an agonizing choice for Ukraine, which is facing a deadline to accept a draft U.S. peace plan. U.S. President Donald Trump is giving Kyiv until Thursday to get on board with the plan, which appears to give Russia almost everything it wants.
And he suggested president Volodymyr Zelenskyy should say yes because he doesn't have much of a choice.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He'll have to like it and if he doesn't like it, then, you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess.
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HUNTE: The suggestion that he made, though, was that, if he doesn't accept it, that the U.S. would pull back its support for Ukraine. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, at some point he's going to have to accept something. You know, he hasn't accepted. You remember right in the Oval Office not so long ago, I said, you don't have the cards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: The proposal includes major territorial concessions to Moscow, which Ukraine has called its red line in the past. Mr. Zelenskyy explained why the plan is so hard to accept.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The national Ukrainian interest must be taken into account. We're not making loud statements. We will calmly work with America and all partners.
There will be a constructive search for solutions with our main partner. I will present arguments. I will convince and offer alternatives. But we will definitely not give the enemy a reason to say that Ukraine does not want peace, that it is they disrupting the process and that Ukraine is not ready for diplomacy.
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HUNTE: Ben Wedeman has more on Mr. Trump's draft plan.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On Friday, in an interview with FOX Radio, U.S. president Donald Trump sprang the surprise. Ukraine must agree to accept his 28-point peace plan to end the war with Russia by next Thursday.
This Trump administration initiative was already being met with shock and alarm in Ukraine and Europe. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, having been burnt once already in the Oval Office earlier this year, has since tried to avoid upsetting the unpredictable American leader. But today he did not mince his words.
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ZELENSKYY (through translator): This is one of the most difficult moments in our history. The pressure on Ukraine is now at its most intense. Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner or 28 difficult points or an extremely harsh winter.
The most difficult and further risks are a life without freedom, without dignity, without justice and believing someone who has already attacked us twice.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WEDEMAN: Trump's plan essentially awards Russia for its aggression.
It would require Ukraine to give up claims to Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including land Kyiv has managed to keep control of at a very high cost in human life, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya, occupied at the moment by Russian forces.
The plan would also bar Kyiv from joining NATO, limit Ukraine's army to 600,000 and require Ukraine to hold elections within 100 days after an agreement goes into effect.
In exchange for all these concessions, Ukraine would, among other things, receive security guarantees and aid and assistance to rebuild the country.
Now prior to the deadline announcement Friday, Zelenskyy held multiple phone calls with European leaders, who expressed their solidarity with Ukraine while not rejecting outright the 28-point peace plan.
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Perhaps the most telling indication of Ukraine's gut reaction to the plan came to -- from the chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, who described Trump's plan to CNN as, in his words, "ludicrous and unacceptable."
Russian president Vladimir Putin, not surprisingly, was much more upbeat Friday, telling a Security Council briefing the plan could form, in his words, "the basis of a final peace settlement in Ukraine."
We shall see. I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Rome.
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HUNTE: Well, pressure is mounting on president Zelenskyy to accept the U.S. proposal as he deals with a corruption investigation at home. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You may have heard there's a new peace proposal for Ukraine. Well, much of it may be dead on arrival. But it's still pretty. Perilous for Kyiv.
Key to all. Of this, for 28 points is the timing. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is in a very perilous position along the front lines, where, near Pokrovsk and in Zaporizhzhya, Russian forces are genuinely making some quite fast territorial gains.
But at the same time, this is coinciding with really an unprecedented domestic political crisis for him. A corruption investigation is swirling around his inner circle, involving energy. And that's really sapping potentially his ability to deal with the emergency on the front line.
So this proposal contains an awful lot that Ukraine has already rejected but in times, perhaps, where it felt more confident.
What's in the plan?
Well, the first nonstarter in Ukraine's mind is the idea they have to give up more territory, particularly in the Donetsk area, where they fought hard over the past years. There's a suggestion from Russia there could be a demilitarized zone even there, without any soldiers in it, that is technically part of Russia.
That's an almost impossible sell. They also want elections within 100 days. Well, that is a political bomb, frankly, for president Zelenskyy. They can't run legitimate elections that quickly. And it basically puts his shelf life as a talking point from that moment onwards.
And then finally, there are severe limits as to Ukraine's future geopolitical alliances, whether it can join NATO. A lot of this unacceptable but the fact we're hearing it right now is a bid to increase pressure on Zelenskyy at a time when he's already got enough of it in Ukraine.
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HUNTE: Ukraine is expected to be a hot topic at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, where world leaders have gathered at this hour. European leaders are expected to meet on the sidelines of the event to discuss their next steps on the U.S. peace proposal. All of that while Washington is staying away.
Let's speak to Larry Madowo, who is joining us live from Johannesburg.
Thank you for being with me, Larry. We have this Ukraine peace proposal on the table.
Have any leaders reacted so far?
And what signals are you picking up about how some might respond?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: European leaders have been united in their support for Ukraine and their alarm, at least privately, at this U.S. plan, which appears to give Russia everything it's looking for.
We know that the E3 that is the German chancellor, the U.K. prime minister, Starmer and French president Macron, who are all here, held a call Friday with the president Zelenskyy. And they agreed on how to safeguard Ukrainian and European interests for the long term.
According to a readout issued by the Germans, they also gave something that differs from what the U.S. position here is. They said that the Ukrainian military has the capacity to defend its sovereignty.
That is a dig at this U.S. plan that would allow Ukraine to cede some territory to the Russians, essentially giving them everything they want.
We know that in the hours ahead, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said, European leaders will be meeting here on the sidelines of the G20. We don't exactly know when this will be but we expect to hear from some of the European leaders who are here about exactly what comes out of that.
But one thing that Ursula von der Leyen said, which is the line from all these Europeans, "There is nothing for Ukraine without Ukraine."
And the Europeans feel that they have been left out of these negotiations. And this plan that has been put forward by president Trump and has been endorsed, appeared to be endorsed by President Putin. The only person who has spoken so far in Europe with president Trump was the German chancellor.
He had a call with president Trump Friday as well and he said that they had agreed on the next steps at advisor level. So that's some progress there but not a lot.
Today, in the next few days, should lead some in some direction to see what the Europeans are offering as a counter to the U.S. proposal. And they're all going to be here in Africa for the next few days, heading to Angola for the African Union-E.U. meeting.
So any progress in Ukraine will certainly be coming from this part of the world. Ben.
HUNTE: Let's step back from Ukraine for a moment.
What else should we expect from this summit, especially with South Africa pushing global south priorities and all of the drama over America's boycott hanging over all of this meeting?
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MADOWO: South Africa is moving full steam ahead and president Cyril Ramaphosa said that Trump's loss -- he's out there; he's been receiving leaders here. All the major European leaders are here.
But also South Africa has invited a record number of African leaders to this summit as well, because they have been centering African priorities, being the first G20 summit on African soil.
In fact, it came with some criticism. So Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, saying this is like the G100. And president Ramaphosa embraced that criticism that they've built a long-enough table for everyone. And Africa is at the center in these conversations.
So I've seen in the past few hours the president of Namibia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, all here. Some of them are members of BRICS and some of them are just part of the wider African conversation.
He had a meeting overnight on Friday, a working dinner with these African leaders, to make sure that their interests and their perspectives are represented here, whether it's the reform of the global multilateral institutions, it's the reform of how much it costs Africa to borrow internationally.
And president Ramaphosa is supposed to be handing over the G20 presidency to president Trump, who's not coming. The U.S. is boycotting this. The U.S. attempted to allow the charge d'affaires, essentially the acting ambassador, to take over the presidency.
And South Africa said no, either the president comes and receives it himself or they will hand over to an empty chair. Ben.
HUNTE: There is a lot going on. Let's see what happens next. Larry Madowo for now, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
OK. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls it quits. The Georgia congresswoman says she's resigning before her term is up. What prompted that decision is coming up ahead. See you in a moment.
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HUNTE: Welcome back.
A surprising announcement from congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia Republican says she's stepping down in January. This all comes just days after her public falling out with president Donald Trump. Greene and Trump were once massive allies but their relationship soured, mainly over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Last week, Trump rescinded his endorsement and called Greene a traitor. She says she'd rather resign than fight a nasty primary.
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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I love my family way too much.
And I do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president that we all fought for, only to fight and win my election, while Republicans will likely lose the midterms and, in turn, be expected to defend the president against impeachment.
After he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me, it's all so absurd and completely unserious. I refuse to be a battered wife, hoping it all goes away and gets better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: From ditching a one-time ally to welcoming a political opponent to the Oval Office, President Trump is now gushing about his meeting with New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. He called it a great honor and admitted that they have more in common than he thought. CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House with some key moments from
that meeting.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This meeting between Zohran Mamdani and president Trump was really striking. These are two men who have criticized each other for months.
President Trump has said the mayor-elect is a communist, that he's going to ruin New York City. And yet, when they were sitting there, he said that he would be happy or comfortable living in New York with Mamdani as the mayor. This was a really striking 180. Here is some of what he had to say.
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TRUMP: I've been called much worse than a despot, so it's not it's not that insulting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?
MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NY), NYC: I've spoken about --
TRUMP: That's OK. You can just say.
MAMDANI: OK. OK.
TRUMP: OK?
MAMDANI: Yes.
TRUMP: It's easier. It's easier than explaining it. I don't mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you feel comfortable living in New York City under a Mamdani administration?
TRUMP: Yes, I would. I really would. Especially after the meeting. Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What makes you comfortable?
TRUMP: We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you fly here?
Aren't trains greener?
MAMDANI: I'll use every form of transit and I want to make sure that they're all affordable in New York City. And that's why making buses fast and free is a central piece of ours.
TRUMP: Did you --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's the bus that is fast? TRUMP: Well but -- I know. But if you flew, that's a lot quicker, too. No, I mean, he's working very hard for him to be -- that's a long -- that's a very -- that's a very long drive. I'll stick up for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republican Elise Stefanik has campaigned multiple times by calling Zohran Mamdani a jihadist. Do you think you're standing next to a jihadist right now in the Oval Office?
TRUMP: No, I don't. I met with a man who's a very rational person. I think you really have a chance to make it great.
MAMDANI: I appreciate that.
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HOLMES: This was again, an incredibly different kind of meeting than we had expected. And one thing to keep in mind, president Trump, when he brings the cameras in and the reporters, he usually does that at the beginning of the meeting when he's just sat down with the world leader and they haven't begun their discussions yet.
This time, he brought everybody in or the White House brought everybody in at the very end, which goes to show you there was consideration to kind of see how this meeting went.
And by president Trump's telling, again, a man who doesn't feel like he has to say anything, even if the person is sitting next to him, it was a remarkably productive meeting.
Both of these two men completely centered on New York and did try, at least when answering questions, to focus on the things that they agreed on, like affordability, like housing and their joint love of New York City -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
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HUNTE: Anti-Israel protesters in Italy clashed with police on Friday.
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HUNTE (voice-over): Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse demonstrators on the streets of Bologna. They were protesting an Israeli basketball team ahead of a Euroleague game in the city.
The demonstrators launched fireworks, waved Palestinian flags and condemned Israel's actions in Gaza.
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HUNTE: The World Food Programme says the amount of food aid reaching Gaza is still falling far short of what's needed.
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The U.N. agency says hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are still in urgent need of help. The WFP has only reached 30 percent of its target delivery of food assistance due to issues getting supplies into the enclave earlier this month.
Making matters worse, Gaza was inundated with heavy rain earlier in the week, which spoiled and washed away some supplies. The WFP says there's still a long way to go to help families as the winter months approach.
And UNICEF says at least 67 children have been killed in conflict- related incidents since the ceasefire began last month.
Mourners buried two Palestinian teens in the occupied West Bank on Friday. Residents say they were killed by Israeli forces during an overnight raid on a town near Ramallah. Asked for comment, the Israeli military deferred to the Israel border police, which did not immediately respond.
Meanwhile, new video shows the wreckage and destruction of the latest attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. Palestinians say the Israeli settlers torched cars at a repair shop near Nablus overnight Thursday into Friday.
The Israeli military said soldiers responded to reports of Israeli citizens hurling rocks and setting fires but found no suspects in its search. Palestinians say they're still struggling to make a living as the settler attacks increasingly target their businesses and livelihoods.
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MOHAMMED OUDEH, BUSINESS OWNER (through translator): This year, they didn't allow us to pick our olive trees, so they are giving us a hard time in picking our olives and supporting our family. This is the second place they are damaging, this site here, and set it on fire. As you can see, yesterday we needed four firefighter units to control this fire.
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HUNTE: Violence in the occupied West Bank has surged to new levels in recent months. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's clearly an issue that's caught international attention. The U.N. has said since 2006 that it's the highest level of settler violence. On average, more than eight attacks a day. Last night, there were more attacks, not just that scrap dealer who had 150 cars incinerated.
It's a scrap dealership but so many Palestinians rely on these secondhand parts to keep their aging vehicles running in the West Bank. So this was a source of income for his family. But it's a tactic that we've seen the settlers turning to more in recent weeks, targeting businesses.
It was a dairy distribution processing plant that was targeted last week. And as I say, some of the other places that were targeted last night again by settlers were businesses. I was in the West Bank just yesterday with a group of Israeli peace activists.
And they had taken us there to show a pattern where they say these groups of settlers that the prime minister calls a small group of extremists are now moving out of their targeting of rural Palestinian communities, small farmers and are moving their attacks to be more close to towns and putting more pressure on Palestinian towns and businesses.
And I think one of the things that not just the Palestinians in the West Bank look for or the Israeli peace activists look for, would be for the prime minister to instruct his defense minister, Israel Katz, who, when he took over the post late last year, one of the first things he did was to remove administrative detention for the settlers.
Administrative detention is something that Israel uses a lot to hold Palestinians in detention in the West Bank but many people see the absence of that administrative detention for settlers as an implicit open door for them to continue that there's no penalty for what they're doing.
Now we've heard Avi Bluth; the IDF commander for the West Bank, calling the settlers -- this violence, calling them anarchists. They've sprayed paint and graffiti during one of their attacks, saying they don't care what he says.
And I think it's risen to the level of concern here that you now have opposition figures saying, look, we need to treat these -- this settler violence, treat it as we would Palestinian terrorists, call it Jewish terrorism and treat them as such.
So there's -- there is a lot more public debate and discourse about it. But aside from that government meeting last night, we're not seeing steps that people could interpret as curtailing the free hand the settlers perceive that they have.
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HUNTE: OK. You are looking at the most expensive comic book ever sold. It is the first issue of "Superman," published in 1939.
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Back then, it sold for 10 cents. But on Thursday, it sold for just over $9 million. Three brothers in northern California discovered the comic while clearing out their mom's attic after her death last year. It is in remarkable condition, despite being found among old newspapers in a cardboard box.
The auction house says this is the highest-ever graded copy of the comic. The previous record for a comic book auction was Action Comics No. 1 from 1938 and that was Superman's first appearance. It sold for $6 million last year. A music store in Malta insists it is the world's oldest record shop,
despite what the record books say. D'Amato Records has an inscription by its doorway that says it has been, quote, "A music shop since 1885."
Owner Anthony D'Amato says family documents indicate the shop was selling records by the 1890s. However, Guinness World Records uses a strict standard and recognizes Spillers Records in Cardiff as the oldest continuously operating record retailer. Still, there is no question that D'Amato's shop is one of the world's oldest.
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ANTHONY D'AMATO, D'AMATO RECORDS: The shop was founded in 1885 by my great-great-grandfather. His name was Giovanni D'Amato. He came from Naples in Italy and set up shop in this very, very place. Since 1885 until today, the shop has remained operating in the industry and never closed, not even during the Second World War.
The only time we ever had to shut down for a very short while was during the six weeks of the -- of the COVID pandemic.
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HUNTE: Colombian superstar Shakira has received a very unusual honor. Researchers in Colombia named a newly-discovered turtle species after her.
This is a fossil of the species called Shakiremys colombiana. Scientists say it lived 13 million years ago. Researchers say its shell reveals the turtle's unique traits, including an ability to adapt to any type of water current.
Exciting. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. That's all I've got for you for now. I will see you tomorrow. "INTELLIGENT FUTURE" is next. See you tomorrow.
