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U.S. Defense Secretary Risked Compromising War Plans Through Sharing Sensitive Information Sent via Signal app; Bad Bunny Retains as Spotify's Most Streamed Artist for 2025. Aired 3-3:45a ET
Aired December 04, 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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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.
Growing controversy over the U.S. Defense Secretary about sensitive messages he sent on the Signal app, while scrutiny over his role in a deadly double strike in the Caribbean intensifies. Also coming up--
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forgive me, Mom, if anything happens to me. Whoever finds my phone, please tell my family that I love them so much.
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CHURCH: A final message and a heartbroken family. Our CNN investigations team finds evidence about what may have happened to several missing aid seekers in Gaza.
Plus, the U.S. launches new immigration crackdowns in Minnesota and Louisiana, spreading widespread fear across the country.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: And we begin with the growing controversy surrounding the U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. As Venezuelans brace for possible attacks on land, President Trump says those could start soon.
On Wednesday, the President told reporters he has no problem releasing video of a second strike on one of those boats in early September, which killed two survivors. Some critics have called it a war crime, but President Trump disagrees.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't know what they have, but whatever they have, we'd certainly release, no problem. You know, we stopped every boat we knock out. We saved 25,000 American lives.
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CHURCH: U.S. Navy Admiral Mitch Bradley, who the Trump administration says gave the order for a follow-up strike, will meet with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee today. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he did not know about the second strike in advance, but supports Bradley's decision. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been critical of Hegseth.
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REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX): I think there are a series of questions that surround this, and as you know, those questions are being asked, and that is, who gave the order? What were the standing orders to be, had they thought this through?
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CHURCH: A U.S. flight carrying deported migrants landed in Venezuela on Wednesday. That is despite President Trump saying the country's airspace should be considered closed.
CNN's Stefano Pozzebon was at the international airport there when the plane arrived.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's rare to see the stars and stripes here in Venezuela, especially these days, but we're in front of a plane that just arrived this Wednesday directly from Phoenix, Arizona. This plane is directly operated from ICE, the U.S. government agency that is tasked with the order to remove and deport as many undocumented migrants as possible.
It's a flight that was carrying more than 260 undocumented migrants that were deported from the United States, and this flight essentially tells us two things. Number one, that despite all the government rhetoric and the campaign of pressure against the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, there is still some level of communication between the U.S. government and the Venezuelan government in order, if only, to coordinate one of these flights.
At the same time, this tells us that the order from Donald Trump that he posted on Truth Social earlier on Saturday, last Saturday, calling the Venezuelan airspace closed for all airlines and for pilots, well, that order doesn't count if the airplane is a U.S.-made, U.S.-run airplane carrying undocumented migrants, deported migrants, which is clearly much more important for the White House than anything that can take Maduro out of power.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Caracas.
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CHURCH: An Inspector General's report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal messaging app will be made public today. According to false sources, the report concludes that Hegseth risked compromising sensitive war plans, which could have endangered American troops when he used the app for a group chat before an attack on Houthi rebels.
The White House has a different take, echoing the response from Hegseth on social media: "No classified information, total exoneration, case closed, Houthis bombed into submission."
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A Ukrainian official is warning no safe places are left in the Donetsk region. Reuters reports the latest Russian attack has wounded at least eight people, including two children in Sloviansk.
The regional governor says Russia launched nine aerial bombs hitting a residential building on Wednesday. One woman says she was hit by shards of glass when the blast blew out windows and doors. Emergency crews are working to clear the rubble and search for survivors.
The latest attack on Ukraine comes as peace negotiations are ongoing. A Ukrainian source says a delegation from Kyiv is on its way to Miami to meet with their American counterparts for talks today. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country was heard and listened to at previous meetings.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We are preparing meetings in the United States of America. Everything is developing quite effectively right now. At the meetings in Geneva and in Florida, Ukraine was heard and listened to.
And this is important. We expect it will continue this way. Only by taking Ukraine's interests into account is a dignified peace possible.
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CHURCH: The U.S.-Ukraine talks will come days after Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner held lengthy talks in Moscow. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has details.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I think what's remarkable at this particular stage is how little indeed we know of the detail of Russian President Vladimir Putin's response to the proposal brought to him by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
We know from aide Yuri Ushakov that a 28-part plan was presented with perhaps three or four other documents, that some of it was rejected, some of it was potentially to their liking. But we've heard very little elaboration from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself, who has said that his team is open to contacts, be they in person or on the phone with the American side going forwards, and hope they happen reasonably soon.
His chief negotiator Rustam Emerov has met with European national security advisors in Brussels, presumably a bid to try and come up with a forward strategy after that Kremlin meeting. It's likely that Emerov has heard some of the results of what Witkoff heard.
But what is staggering is the silence from the United States. President Trump, remarkably prolific on social media over the past days, but utterly silent on this key issue.
Remember he gave a deadline of Thanksgiving for Ukraine to agree to a peace. Instead, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, silent; Steve Witkoff, silent; so far Jared Kushner, silent as well.
And a question I think really being asked is whether this reflects a new era of more intense negotiation, in which all sides have agreed that the constant leaks and public airing of their differences won't take them to a more productive place. Or if indeed more darkly, is it a reflection of Vladimir Putin's rejection of what Steve Witkoff had to offer, and how ultimately he said thank you for this but I simply need more.
And that now the Europeans and the Ukrainians are urgently trying to respond to that to keep a sense of a process alive, potentially fearing that Trump might react harshly to the failure of his latest proposal.
We simply don't know. There is clearly a lot of activity still occurring, a lot of desire for the Ukrainians to see yet more activity, but ultimately the decisions here have been gifted to the Kremlin. They have dictated the pace of this, the pace of the meetings, and indeed now we are still waiting to see exactly how the Washington response of this will be conveyed.
A dark moment for Ukrainians who had perhaps hoped that the lead up to this might bring a ceasefire slightly closer, but instead are now left frankly with a bit of an abyss as to what the next steps forward are while Russia continues to make slow, painful, yet still irrevocable progress on the front lines.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
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CHURCH: The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is largely holding, but many families in Gaza are still searching for their missing loved ones. A CNN investigation just ahead.
President Trump's crackdown on immigration is spreading to more states. New details on the federal operations now underway after the break.
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CHURCH: The Israeli military says the remains of the last Thai hostage abducted from Israel during the October 7th attacks have been identified after being handed over by Hamas. The victim, Sudthisak Rinthalak, was 42 years old when Hamas launched its surprise attack. Israel says his body was taken into Gaza and held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
Only one hostage body, that of an Israeli citizen, remains in Gaza, and Israel says it's working tirelessly to bring him home for burial. The return of all hostages, dead or alive, is a key requirement for the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
The Israeli Knesset has advanced U.S. President Donald Trump's 20- point Gaza ceasefire plan despite a boycott. During Wednesday's debate, far-right coalition members left the chamber, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also skipped the largely symbolic vote.
The key sticking point for members of his coalition is still the path to Palestinian statehood. Israel says its commitment to the ceasefire agreement will be evident soon when it reopens the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza.
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But that's only for Palestinians to leave Gaza for Egypt, and Egypt denies coordinating with Israel to open the key route.
A CNN investigation based on video, satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts points to the Israeli military bulldozing the bodies of some Palestinians killed near an aid crossing in northern Gaza. IDF whistleblowers who spoke to CNN also point to a broader pattern of the Israeli military mishandling bodies in ways that could amount to war crimes.
The result? Families in Gaza left searching for answers about loved ones who went missing while seeking aid.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports from Jerusalem, and a warning, you may find some of the video disturbing.
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UNKNOWN: My brother is missing. Anyone who saw--
UNKNOWN: My cousin went missing yesterday in Zikim.
UNKNOWN: Ehab Adel Mansour, 16 years old, went missing in the Zikim area.
UNKNOWN: My son went missing while going to the aid area in Zikim on Sunday.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Messages from desperate families, all searching for loved ones who went out to seek aid and never came back. 23-year- old Ammar Wadi was one of them, last seen in June going to the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza where United Nations food trucks entered. His mother is still desperate for answers.
NAWAL MUSLEH, AMMAR WADI'S MOTHER (translated): I just want peace of mind, to know what his fate is. Even if he is a martyr, praise be to God. I just want to know what happened to him.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Wadi's fate is still unknown, but a CNN investigation based on video, satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts points to the Israeli military bulldozing the bodies of some of those killed near the Zikim crossing. IDF whistleblowers who spoke to CNN also point to a broader pattern of the Israeli military mishandling bodies in ways that could amount to war crimes.
Collecting humanitarian aid became a deadly reality in Gaza over the summer before the ceasefire took effect.
More than 2000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while trying to get aid, according to the World Health Organization.
The Israeli military has acknowledged firing toward these crowds but said it does not intentionally fire at civilians. Hundreds, some dead, others still clinging on to life, were hauled away amid the mayhem, including here, near the Zikim crossing.
But amid the clattering of gunfire, others were left behind.
UNKNOWN (translated): Gunfire, death, killing, martyrs - so many martyrs.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Six aid truck drivers told CNN they saw dozens of bodies near the Zikim crossing. One shared these photos showing partially buried remains surrounded by aid boxes.
Some said they witnessed Israeli military bulldozers burying bodies. They've asked us to conceal their identities, fearing retribution from Israeli authorities.
"There are bodies everywhere, decomposed skeletal remains," one truck driver told CNN.
"Some are covered with dirt because the army cannot tolerate the smell of decomposing bodies," said another.
"I watched Israeli bulldozers bury the dead," said a third.
This video appears to show the aftermath of Israel's bulldozing alongside a crushed, overturned truck, partially covered bodies of several Palestinians jut out from the earth. A paramedic at the scene said rescue workers managed to haul away 15 dead Palestinians. With the ambulance full, some bodies had to be left behind.
CNN geolocated the video to this location near the Zikim crossing. You can see the overturned truck here, alongside bulldozed roads and track marks left by heavy machinery or armored vehicles. These are the roads where crowds of starving Palestinians swarmed aid trucks on a near- daily basis, where they were fired upon and at times killed by Israeli gunfire. We geolocated multiple videos of people being shot and killed to these bulldozed areas, the same areas where Palestinians said some bodies were left behind in the chaos.
On August 9th, 31 hours after crowds are seen here, evidence of fresh bulldozing appears in the exact same location. This video shows just how close Israeli forces, including this D9 bulldozer, were to those crowds.
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The soldiers came in front of us, eyes to eyes, and the quadcopter was 10 meters away from us. They were shot in front of us, and there is a martyr that stayed over there, and no one could get close to him. We begged the soldiers to carry him back, but they didn't allow us.
We provided the Israeli military with GPS coordinates for the locations where bodies were likely bulldozed and a detailed list of questions. The military said bulldozers positioned in the Zikim area are, quote, "used for operational purposes, to deal with IED threats and for routine engineering needs."
It denied they were used to remove bodies, but did not address questions about burying them. The military also declined to describe its protocol for dealing with bodies in Gaza.
The Israeli military's apparent improper disposal of bodies of Palestinians stretched far beyond Zikim. We spoke with two Israeli soldiers on condition of anonymity due to fears of retribution. Both described bodies of Palestinians being buried in shallow, unmarked graves in different parts of Gaza.
UNKNOWN: Essentially, the idea was to shove the body with a bunch of dirt, clearing the road, and push it to the sides.
DIAMOND: And that was it?
UNKNOWN: That was it, yes.
DIAMOND: The grave was not marked?
UNKNOWN: No.
DIAMOND: There was no identification process or notification process to any international or Palestinian organization?
UNKNOWN: Not that I was aware of. Not in my unit.
So essentially, we were never given any protocol or any order of how to handle any bodies. There was never once that anyone told us, if you have a body, this is what should be done.
DIAMOND (voice-over): By allowing the dead to become the missing, international law experts say bulldozing bodies into unmarked graves can violate international law. And if those bodies are mutilated or desecrated, the practice can rise to the level of outrages upon personal dignity, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
As for Ammar Wadi, about a month after he went missing in late June, his phone was returned to his family. A message had been left on the home screen.
Forgive me, mom, if anything happens to me. Whoever finds my phone, please tell my family that I love them so much.
A message that reads like a young man's final words. Words that are impossible for a mother to accept without a body to bury.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
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CHURCH: Still to come, vulnerable communities across the U.S. are bracing for what may come next as the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration spreads to more states. We'll have details after the break.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.
Democrats and Republicans are demanding answers about U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. U.S. Navy Admiral Mitch Bradley will meet with lawmakers today. The Trump administration says he gave the order back in September to take out people who survived a first strike at sea.
At least eight people were injured after Russian forces hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Wednesday. The regional governor says one of the aerial bombs hit a residential building. This latest attack comes as a delegation from Kyiv is reportedly heading to Miami for peace talks today.
The doctor who pleaded guilty to selling actor Matthew Perry ketamine in the weeks before his death has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The "Friends" star overdosed on the drug in 2023 after struggling with addiction for years. Four other defendants have also pleaded guilty in connection with his death.
The Trump administration's immigration crackdown is spreading to more states with federal operations underway in Minnesota and now Louisiana. The Department of Homeland Security says they plan to make at least 5000 arrests in Louisiana. Top Border Patrol official Greg Bovino and masked agents were seen in the New Orleans suburbs on Wednesday.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says they are going after quote "the worst of the worst criminal offenders." Though local officials say they're concerned black and brown communities are being profiled and targeted.
Authorities are already making arrests. Federal agents wearing Border Patrol vests detained at least one person in a residential area.
Meanwhile, President Trump is doubling down on attacking Somali immigrants as federal raids sweep through Minnesota. He is also calling out Minnesota's Somali-American congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a vocal Trump critic.
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TRUMP: They have destroyed Minnesota. She should not be and her friends shouldn't be allowed. Frankly, they shouldn't even be allowed to be congresspeople.
Okay, they shouldn't even be allowed to be congresspeople because they don't represent the interests of our country.
REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): I'm not shocked because we know that the President oftentimes resorts to very bigoted, xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist rhetoric when he is trying to scapegoat and deflect from the actual failures that he has himself.
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CHURCH: President Trump is also criticizing the city of Minneapolis, calling it a quote "hell hole," blaming the Somali community and calling the city's mayor a fool. Mayor Jacob Frey has invited President Trump to visit to see how the Somali community is a part of the city.
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MAYOR JACOB FREY (D), MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: The Somali community is almost universally American citizens. They have come here legally. They are in our city legally.
They've been here in many cases for decades and they have contributed greatly to the fabric of who we are. They're part of our family here in Minneapolis. I mean, they are our banker.
They are our babysitter in my family. They're my bodyguard. And that's just the bees.
These are people that have benefited Minneapolis in a really beautiful way.
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CHURCH: CNN's Ryan Young has more on the operations now underway in Louisiana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RYAN YOUNG, CNN SR. U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The official start of this operation started on Wednesday, and Border Patrol agents were seen throughout Louisiana making arrests and detaining people.
Video has spread throughout social media, really making people concerned about what the next steps could be. We know the operational number that they want to arrest is at least 5000 people.
Some folks feel like that's a number that's way too high but for community members, that has really scared them. We saw restaurants that had their doors shut, had signs up saying no ICE or CBP.
We also saw restaurants handing out whistles just in case members of ICE or CBP were in the area. They could blow those whistles to alert the neighborhood.
There was a slowdown at some of the stores as well because people weren't coming in. And we actually saw some of the grocery stores and neighborhoods trying to slow down, if not close early, on Wednesday afternoon.
From there, we've been trying to figure out what would the next steps be when someone was detained. There is a belief that they will be taken to an ICE facility before moving to Mississippi. That's something that we're still working through.
As we talked to the mayor-elect, she really had some concerns about how this would move forward for her community.
MAYOR-ELECT HELENA MORENO, NEW ORLEANS: What they're seeing is what appears to be racial profiling of brown people, and then going after these individuals and treating them like they are these significantly violent offenders.
YOUNG: One thing that stands out that's different about this operation is the state is involved. This is the first red state that's been involved in this sort of operation. Of course, when it happened in Chicago or California or even North Carolina, those states are run by Democrat governors.
And so here you have a Republican governor, and the structure really has set up itself to make sure that these agents not only will get escorts, they will be able to make the arrests they want to make, and it's been also made clear by the FBI and the state troopers that if anybody tries to impact or stop these Border Patrol agents from making arrests, they will face prosecution.
Ryan Young, St. Rose, Louisiana.
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CHURCH: Raul Reyes is a CNN opinion writer, attorney, and immigration analyst, and I asked him if he has seen any kind of effect on people who are trying to navigate through the green card or citizenship process as this crackdown intensifies.
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RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER, ATTORNEY, AND IMMIGRATION ANALYST: During this administration, if you're an immigration lawyer, the thing that's so unusual right now is that we hear questions and we get clients who are U.S. citizens, who have lawful status, who are in the country legally, but the climate of fear and anxiety is so high.
Most immigration lawyers are now dealing with people who are afraid for their older relatives or people who may be immigrated years ago. They're just afraid what will happen to them if they get caught up in an ICE raid. They're afraid of what will happen if they go to court for their immigration check-ins.
And we've seen again and again people go to their check-ins to, say, for their green card appointment, and then they're basically taken by the government, sometimes disappeared into the system, and they can be summarily deported, removed from this country. And I'm talking about people with legal status. So it's an extremely challenging time for migrants, for foreign-born nationals in the U.S., and immigration attorneys, absolutely, we see it in the daily work that we do.
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There's so much chaos and confusion, and when immigration decisions are coming so quickly, sometimes on social media, sometimes by executive order, it's a real challenge to be able to make case assessments and help your clients go forward to positive outcomes. It's tough.
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CHURCH: Still to come on "CNN Newsroom," Spotify unveils its highest- streamed artist of 2025, and they're no stranger to being number one. We'll tell you who it is after the break.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN. This is your Business Breakout.
Let's get a check of the major Asia Pacific markets. Japan's Nikkei is up about 2.3 percent, the Hang Seng also ending the trading day in positive territory. The Seoul KOSPI shed about 8 points.
And these are the business headlines.
The French President is on a three-day state visit to China. Emmanuel Macron attended a welcome ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier, before their talks began. The big focus is trade. President Macron also called on Beijing to help achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine.
President Trump says he's rescinding fuel economy standards put in place by the Biden administration. On Wednesday, he accused the former president's policy of being anti-economy, claiming it was detrimental to the auto industry; car company CEOs thanked the President for the reversal.
The CEO of tech giant NVIDIA says he met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Jensen Huang says they discussed export controls, he told reporters he supports export controls, but believes that NVIDIA can't sell China degraded or lower quality chips. The White House would not comment on the meeting.
Spotify has released its year-end statistics, telling each user about the music they listened to in 2025. And one artist has risen above all others for a fourth time.
Bad Bunny was crowned as this year's most streamed artist, with more than 19 billion streams, his latest album was also the most streamed album of the year. Rounding out the top three were Taylor Swift in second place, followed by The Weeknd in third.
The Olympic flame for the Milano-Cortina Winter Games will be handed over to the host nation Italy later today. It's set to arrive in Rome after reaching the Parthenon in Athens on Wednesday during the Greek leg of the torch relay.
On Saturday, a months-long relay through 60 Italian cities and 300 towns will begin. It's been 70 years since the Winter Games were last held in Cortina. The torch will arrive on January 26. The relay will end in Milan for the opening ceremony on February 6.
I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "World Sport" is coming up next.
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