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More than 50 People Dead in a High-Rise Tower Fire in Hong Kong; Nigeria's President Declares State of Emergency Due to Series of Abductions Involving Schoolchildren. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 27, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.

A series of high rises in Hong Kong remains blazed over a day after a deadly fire broke out. Dozens are dead and hundreds are still missing.

President Trump is hitting out at Afghan immigrants after two National Guardsmen were shot in Washington, D.C.

And Nigeria's president declares a national emergency after a spate of school kidnappings. We will examine what's behind the surge in incidents.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Firefighters in Hong Kong are working to reach anyone who may still be trapped in that high-rise apartment complex that caught fire. At least 55 people have been killed and nearly 300 others are still unaccounted for.

Crews say extreme temperatures inside the buildings and falling debris are making it difficult to get to survivors. But they did manage to rescue an elderly man today from the 31st floor of one of the buildings. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has ordered inspections of all housing estates undergoing significant renovations in the city.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery joins us now live from Hong Kong. And Hanako, so disturbing, I mean, now more than 24 hours, firefighters still battling those flames. What is the latest on that effort and of course, this evacuation process with nearly 300 people still missing?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, the latest that we are hearing is that at least 300 people still remain unaccounted for. And of course, there is fear that they might be stuck in some of those higher floors in the skyrise just behind me.

In fact, I'm just going to step out of frame here, Rosemary, because I want to show you that the fire is actually still ablaze. I mean, from my vantage point, you see at least five water hoses trying to extinguish the flames that are still ripping and tearing through these skyrises. In fact, you see huge white and black plumes of smoke also emitted from these buildings and some of these facades are just completely black and completely charred.

And Rosemary, I don't know if you can see this, but down below me, there are dozens of fire trucks as well. Local authorities, of course, also police officers and firefighters just responding, trying to again, rescue the individuals who are feared to be still stuck inside.

Now, Rosemary, of course, this is extremely devastating and heartbreaking for the entire city, but of course, also for the individuals who call these buildings home. We heard from one individual who spoke about just how heartbreaking the situation is. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (through translator): We bought this building more than 20 years ago. All of our belongings were in this apartment.

And now that it is all burned like this, what's left?

There's nothing left.

What are we supposed to do?

What we hope most is that the government will help us solve this problem. We don't have any other requests. Just hope that the government can help us resolve it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MONTGOMERY: And Rosemary, again, there is an investigation currently to identify the exact cause of this fire. But again, of course, it's extremely devastating for the many individuals who lived in these buildings. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Hanako Montgomery in Hong Kong. I appreciate it.

Well, images of the Hong Kong fire are reminiscent of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London. Dozens were killed when a fire ripped through the 24 story tower in London in 2017. One of the firefighters who responded to that disaster spoke about the difficulty crews face when a high rise goes up in flames.

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RICKY NUTTALL, FIREFIGHTER RESPONDED TO THE 2017 GRENFELL TOWER FIRE: The problem with any kind of high rise incident is water towers are never as big as the building itself. The idea when these buildings are constructed is that they work on a set of sound principles so that fire cannot spread externally and is very difficult to spread from one compartment to the next, effectively meaning that when all the fuel in a compartment is exhausted, that fire then just dies because you need fuel in order for it to burn.

When it comes to firefighting operations, again, at Grenfell, the problem was that we didn't have anything that was big enough to fight a fire externally above about the same about the 10th floor. Some of that has been addressed by fire and rescue service with taller ladders.

[03:05:08]

What it basically means is internally, normally where you wouldn't go onto or above a fire floor without extinguishing media, i.e. hoses and water, in actual fact, what we had to do was go through several floors engulfed in smoke and flames and hope that when we got to the floor we needed to carry out our operations on, that we would have water from what's called a dry riser which is effectively a drain pipe that runs up the inside of the building and is filled with water from the outside.

The problem obviously is that the further up in the building you go, the more pressure is required for that water to reach those higher floors and it also means if there are multiple levels that are having firefights or operations conducted on, it means that some of that water is being used which could potentially mean when you get to the higher floors there's actually no water or any water pressure for you to carry out the operations there anyway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And we will of course continue to follow developments in Hong Kong throughout the hour here on CNN.

Law enforcement officials tell CNN the suspect involved in a shooting that left two National Guardsmen in critical condition has been identified. His name is Rahmanullah Lakanwal. Sources say that he is in custody and is not cooperating with police.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says the guardsmen were targeted on Wednesday while on patrol near the White House. President Donald Trump says the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect came to the U.S. from Afghanistan.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: As we are filled with anguish and grief for those who were shot, we're also filled with righteous anger and ferocious resolve. As President of the United States, I am determined to ensure that the animal who perpetrated this atrocity pays the steepest possible price.

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CHURCH: Social media video shows an apparent struggle at the scene of the shooting. We are learning that investigators have now recovered a handgun believed to have been used in the attack. CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller has more details on the suspect. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: He is an Afghan national who came here in 2021 as part of Operation Allies Welcome, which really brought in about 88,000 people from 2021 with the fall of the Afghan government and the rush to get out people who had either worked with or assisted or family members of people who worked with the United States government on some level or the military.

So he is part of that group. We are told that he applied after being here since 2021, applied for asylum to remain in the United States in 2024, and we're told that that was approved in April of this year.

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CHURCH: President Trump is ramping up the National Guard deployment in Washington in the aftermath of the shooting. He's asking for 500 more troops to be sent to the Capitol, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

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PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The shooter shot in a cowardly, dastardly act targeting the best of America. We will secure our Capitol. We will secure our cities.

In fact, this happened just steps away from the White House. It will not stand.

This will only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington, D.C. safe and beautiful. The drop in crime has been historic, the increase in safety and security has been historic. But if criminals want to conduct things like this violence against America's best, we will never back down.

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CHURCH: The shooting came after a federal judge ruled last week that the National Guard deployment in Washington is illegal. She delayed her order to give the White House time to appeal but on Wednesday, the Trump administration asked for an emergency order to block the ruling. The move did not mention the shooting.

One House Democrat described the additional deployment as a step too far.

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REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): I'm not sure that expanding another 500 troops is the right call. I think that's something that we also need to assess. Look, I think the first person you need to ask that question to is the mayor and local authorities.

At the end of the day, National Guard should be brought in to assist states, in this case, the district, to assist mayors when they believe there needs to be additional support on top of local law enforcement and police that are on the ground. For the President to order additional National Guard, whether it's in D.C. or in other states, without that input and discussion, I don't think is the right approach.

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CHURCH: Donald Trump may have backed off his Thanksgiving deadline for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but he's still pushing ahead in his effort to stop the fighting.

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And now he's also defending Special Envoy Steve Witkoff over a leaked phone call with Moscow. Bloomberg published a transcript of an October call between Witkoff and a top aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which showed Witkoff counseling the aide on how Putin should approach a call with Trump. It's noted he even encouraged the Russian official to have Putin speak with Trump before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks with the U.S. President at the White House.

Witkoff is set to travel to Moscow next week, and the transcript has caused concern among some Republican lawmakers, including Don Bacon, who wrote, quote, "It is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired."

Still to come, we will tell you why the FAA briefly paused all flights at an airport near the U.S. capital during the holiday travel rush, plus Nigeria is boosting its military and police force to combat an increase in armed abductions of schoolchildren. Details coming up after a short break.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Pope Leo is on his way to the Middle East on his first foreign trip as leader of the Catholic Church. The Pope is traveling to Turkey and Lebanon, where he is expected to meet the Turkish president in the coming hours. He will also address the local Catholic community and focus attention on key regional issues.

While in Turkey, the pontiff will mark the Feast of St. Andrew, an important ceremony for the Orthodox Church. Pope Leo will arrive Sunday in Lebanon, where he'll take part in an inter-religious gathering and celebrate a mass on the Beirut waterfront.

The FAA briefly halted all air traffic at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday after two U.S. National Guardsmen were shot near the White House. CNN's Pete Muntean has more on the ground stop amid the Thanksgiving holiday travel rush. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Things pretty much back to normal now here at Reagan National Airport after the Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted all flights to here because of that shooting near the White House involving two members of the National Guard.

That ground stop now lifted, which is welcome news to the 2.7 million people passing through TSA security checkpoints like this one. That is the forecast from the TSA when Wednesday is said and done. The big days for air travel still ahead, and Sunday is anticipated to be the biggest, with TSA anticipating 3 million people at airports nationwide.

Thanksgiving Day is the best-kept secret when it comes to air travel, also when it comes to driving. And AAA says road traffic will be not much to speak of on Thursday because some commutes, when you mix in people going home from school, going home from work, and holiday traffic, can be three and four times the norm on Wednesday evening.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.

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CHURCH: South Africa will not be invited to next year's G20 summit near Miami. President Donald Trump made the announcement on Wednesday, adding that South Africa, in his words, is not worthy of membership anywhere.

The country hosted this year's summit last weekend, but the U.S. boycotted the event amid unfounded accusations by the White House that South Africa is committing genocide against its white citizens. The exclusion would be a first in G20's history. The U.S. plans to invite Poland instead, whose president is friendly with President Trump.

Nigeria declares a nationwide security emergency after hundreds of students were kidnapped by armed groups. We'll talk with an expert about what's being done to keep the children safe. Back in just a moment.

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CHURCH: All right, I want to get you up to date on the breaking news out of Hong Kong. Authorities now say 55 people have been killed in that devastating apartment block fire. Nearly 300 others are still unaccounted for.

Firefighters are working to reach anyone still trapped in the buildings, but they say extreme temperatures and falling debris are complicating their efforts. A criminal investigation is underway and three people have already been arrested. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has ordered inspections of all

housing estates undergoing significant renovations in the city. Corporate donations are pouring in to help those affected by the fire. Some people have been forced to sleep on the streets while others are staying in temporary shelters.

The apartment block was home to more than 4000 residents, many of them elderly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON KONG, RESIDENT (through translator): I'm devastated. There are so many neighbors and friends. I don't know what's going on anymore.

All the apartments are just burning, I don't know what to do. I hope the government can help us to settle down after this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, the complex was clad in bamboo scaffolding, a common sight in Hong Kong. Many of the city's modern gleaming skyscrapers were built with assistance from bamboo. Building scaffolds out of bamboo requires intensive training and it's seen as a part of Hong Kong's culture.

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But one expert told CNN's Max Foster that there are practical reasons to use it as well.

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STEPHEN MACKENZIE, INTERNATIONAL FIRE AND EMERGENCY PLANNING CONSULTANT: The use of bamboo is a highly resilient and structurally stable material. It's a sustainable root resource and it's cheaply and widely available and it grows like wildfire if enemies encounter bamboo. So it's widely used across Asia as external scaffolding and internal scaffolding.

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CHURCH: Most countries, though, have replaced bamboo with aluminum or steel scaffolds. Even in mainland China, the practice is largely a thing of the past and experts say Wednesday's tragedy shows just how dangerous using bamboo can be.

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MACKENZIE: Eight tower blocks in close proximity, heavily encased in bamboo scaffolding and, I would suggest, plastic-type netting, which will offer very little fire resistance to a sustained or determined ignition source. And once it gets going, it's quite literally like a pyre that will have a wind effects, chimney effects, a coanda (ph) effects, actually adhering the flames to the building and causing the fire spread from either internal to external or external to internal.

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CHURCH: Posts about the fire have attracted over a billion views on Weibo, China's micro-blogging equivalent to X. Many are expressing sympathy, but some are questioning how the disaster occurred. One person wrote, and I'm quoting here, "Were the builders cutting corners? How could such a massive fire happen?"

It's notable because Chinese social media is strictly monitored by the ruling Communist Party. Posts that are deemed sensitive or challenging the government are swiftly removed.

The President of Nigeria has declared a nationwide security emergency following a series of mass abductions of schoolchildren. He's also ordered the military and police to boost their personnel. Presidential spokesperson says the police will recruit about 20,000 more officers.

More than 300 students were kidnapped by armed groups last week, which followed a similar incident where a gunman abducted 25 students from a girls boarding school. One of the girls managed to escape and the others were later rescued.

I want to bring in Isa Sanusi, director of Amnesty International Nigeria. He comes to us live from Abuja in Nigeria. Thank you so much for talking with us.

ISA SANUSI, DIRECTOR, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NIGERIA: Thank you for having me this morning.

CHURCH: So two dozen schoolgirls have been freed after being kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria last week, but sadly many more remain in captivity. Why do these kidnappings keep happening in Nigeria?

SANUSI: Well, these kidnappings have been happening because of the increasing deterioration of security across mostly northern Nigeria. Attacks on schools are just a symptom of the larger security failures and security threats the rural communities have been facing in Nigeria in the last 10 years.

And therefore when these communities are not secure and gunmen can go in, kill people, loot property, burn down homes and go away with it, that was why schools are targeted. But targeting of schools started as far back as 2013 when Boko Haram in the northeast of Nigeria popularized attacking teachers, attacking schools, abducting school children, burning down schools and generally attacking education and childhood. So other armed groups in Nigeria are also using that template to spread terror and obstruct and disrupt the education of millions of children.

CHURCH: So what is the Nigerian government doing to try to stop these kidnappings and what should it be doing?

SAMUSI: Well, I believe that Nigerian government has just yesterday announced some measures. We hope that they will come into reality and make an impact.

But you know, these things have been happening not today, not yesterday, not last year. If you recall in 2021, from February to June, we had eight massive school abductions. So what is happening now is just like a repeat of what happened in 2021. And many people are still skeptical about whatever announcement the government is making, unless they see a tangible change, improved security, protection for lives, and more importantly, accountability.

Because one of the things that came out of all these crises is the fact that there was no accountability.

[03:30:05]

You hardly hear about the perpetrators being held to account. You hardly hear about any credible, impartial, and effective investigation of these incidents, just to tell people that everything and everyone is held to account. So in the absence of this, people will continue to be skeptical about whatever announcement the government is going to make in Nigeria.

CHURCH: So what level of security is necessary at these schools to prevent them from continually becoming the target of these types of kidnappings?

SANUSI: Well, as you know, in Nigeria, apart from Boko Haram, which is still very lethal, we also have the emergence of other armed groups that are unleashing a lot of violence on communities in rural areas across the northwest and north central part of the country. So the security situation is just overwhelming, it seems, for the government.

And I believe that if the government make a resolve to address the problem, they have to address it holistically and entirely. Because if these communities are not safe, schools also are not safe. And because the communities are not safe, that was why it is very easy for the government to go in and take away 300 school children and get away with them without any obstruction.

So the important thing is for the Nigerian government to ensure that there is improved security across the country. And more importantly, as I have earlier said, there should be accountability. Because without accountability, these things will continue to happen again and again.

CHURCH: Yes, it is a terrifying situation for the parents and indeed the students. And how likely is it, do you think, that we will see the release of the remaining captives being held as a result of this latest wave of kidnappings?

SANUSI: Well, we hope that the government has said that efforts have been made by the military and other security agencies to release them. We are very optimistic and hopeful that as 24 schoolgirls were released, the rest too will be released.

But what we are expecting and many Nigerians, what they are saying is that they are expecting the Nigerian government to bring these atrocities to an end. These things have been happening as far back as 2013. And abductions and killings are daily occurrences, you only hear them in the headlines when they are more than 100 or something around that figure.

Therefore, what Nigerians are craving for and what we are hoping for is that there should be more improved security, more accountability so that people can be able to live in dignity without the fear of being attacked, without the fear of being killed. One thing that is very clear is that the gunmen are increasing, they are expanding their atrocities. Therefore, the government too has to catch up and it has to do more because people want to see improved security so that all Nigerians will be safe.

CHURCH: Let's hope that happens. Isa Sanusi, thank you so much for talking with us. I appreciate it.

SANUSI: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: And still to come, a new lawsuit reveals that social media companies knew how their apps could harm teens but pursued young users anyway. More on that and the rest of the business headlines just coming ahead.

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[03:35:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN. These are the business headlines.

A newly unsealed legal filing is providing insight into a massive lawsuit brought against four social media giants. The plaintiffs, a group of school districts, alleged the companies knew their platforms could cause harm to teen health but continued to target teen users anyway. Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube parent Google have sought to dismiss the case.

The Netflix service is largely back to normal after a brief outage just a few hours ago, that is according to Downdetector, a website that tracks outages. The website said Wednesday night that more than 14,000 users in the U.S. reported their service was down.

An increasing number of people are choosing to eat out for Thanksgiving this year. Restaurant reservations for the holiday climbed 13 percent from last year, that's according to booking platform OpenTable. This comes at a time when both the costs of groceries and dining out are climbing.

Now to what's being called a breakthrough in next generation aviation, a new hybrid aircraft that can take off and land in tight spaces. CNN's Jim Sciutto goes for a ride.

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): What if you had a plane that could take off and land in a space not much bigger than your backyard?

I got to see for myself. SCIUTTO: Wow, that was quick.

MARC ALLEN, CEO, ELECTRA: It's pretty fast.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): This is Electra's ultra-short meant to compete in the flying car craze.

[03:40:04]

That is a relatively cheap to operate aircraft that can get you from pretty much anywhere on the map to pretty much anywhere else.

ALLEN: And we can save them half the time, right? I mean, half the time you spend in a commercial airplane or on the road or in a train, this will get you there twice as fast.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): How does it work? The science is pretty crazy. Its eight electric motors don't just move the plane forward, they generate their own airflow over the wings, switch in the physics of flight, then generates their own lift for the aircraft.

ALLEN: You experience something very few people have experienced. The airplane is going super slow, the wing thinks it's going super fast because we're just accelerating all of this air over it. And then some really unique design structures just rises right up.

So the wing just lifts the airplane up at about 150 feet of ground roll.

SCIUTTO: You create your own lift.

ALLEN: You create your own lift and then you just fly on that lift like an airplane.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Because the plane creates its own lift, we took off at just about 30 miles an hour, about the speed of a racing bicycle. Something of a nod to the bicycle building Wright brothers who invented the world's very first flying machine. From the air, you get the feeling of floating, sort of like taking a ride on a drone.

Plus, it's a hybrid with turbo generator charging batteries that run the prop, sort of like a flying Prius. And less fuel means a lower cost per mile than helicopters and many flying cars.

The idea of the ultra-short is to solve another problem with many flying cars. While they can take a passenger or two, the ultra-short can take multiple passengers and cargo and go as much as 10 times as far, about 250 miles.

Electra already has more than 2000 planes ordered, mostly from airlines and the U.S. military, with even the ambition to replace the military's workhorse transport helicopter, the Blackhawk.

ALLEN: A lot of military applications because the military has the same problem we all have. They need to go from where they are to where they want to go and imagine a bombed out runway. How do you get an airplane in with fuel, with munitions, supplies, food, spares? You can't.

And if you're in the ocean, you can't take a helicopter hundreds of miles. This airplane flies like an airplane, arrives like a helicopter. That bombed out runway, no problem.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): The $10 million price tag for the larger commercial model means most of us can never dream of owning one. But for the military, airlines and other transport companies, perhaps a new taxi for the skies.

ALLEN: That's the idea of direct aviation. That's the new era of air travel.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Jim Sciutto, CNN, somewhere over Manassas, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: I'm grateful for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Happy Thanksgiving to our American viewers and everyone else, have a wonderful day, too. "World Sport" is next.

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