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U.S. Hits Venezuela with New Sanctions; Ukraine and Europe Work on Peace Plan; Gaza Faces Heavy Rainfall; White House: Seized Oil Tanker To Be Moved To U.S.; Nobel Laureate Machado Vows To Keep Fighting For Venezuela; Kilmar Abrego Garcia Freed From Custody After Judge's Ruling. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 12, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

The United States is hitting Venezuela with new sanctions aimed at family members of President Nicolas Maduro and six shipping companies. Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado arrived in Oslo just hours after the ceremony vows to fight on for Venezuela's freedom. And Ukraine is working with Europe on a revised peace plan to present to the U.S. even as the Trump administration is unsure whether it will send a representative to a meeting in Paris.

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

BRUNHUBER: We begin with new U.S. action on Venezuela. This time, against family members of President Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. announced new sanctions Thursday that target three of his nephews. Two of them have already been convicted on drug charges in the U.S., but were later released in a prisoner swap. The sanctions also target six shipping companies that allegedly move Venezuelan oil.

Now, that's happening as the U.S. wraps up military action against suspected drug boats. Lawmakers are pressing the White House to release the video of a controversial double-tap strike on September 2nd. It killed the survivors of this strike earlier that day, raising questions about whether the move was legal. But the top House Republican who attended a classified military briefing on Thursday said this.

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MIKE JOHNSON, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: What the video shows is that these individuals were there. They were able-bodied, they were not injured, and they were attempting to recover the contents of the boat, which was full of narcotics. We have explicit intelligence. There was another vessel in close proximity that was headed their direction. They seemed to be waving their arms at some point to indicate that that vessel that was off outside of the video that we have was headed that way, and so that they could continue their mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. raised the stakes Wednesday when it seized an oil tanker near Venezuela's coast. As CNN's Kristen Holmes reports, President Donald Trump doesn't have a clear answer about what's behind the escalation.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A day after the United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Trump said that the pressure campaign against the leader of that country, Nicolas Maduro, was about a lot of things. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, it's about a lot of things. But one of the things it's about is the fact that they've allowed millions of people to come into our country from their prisons, from gangs, from drug dealers, and from mental institutions probably proportionately more than anybody else. They've treated us badly, and I guess now we're not treating them so good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, earlier in the day, on Thursday, during a press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that this tanker was now in U.S. possession, was going to be brought to a U.S. port, and that the United States would eventually seize control of that Venezuelan crude oil that was aboard that tanker.

Now, one of the things to note here is that that seizure ended up being really a clear escalation in President Trump's efforts to oust Maduro. He had moved on from just those boat strikes to now seizing this. We also saw the secretary of treasury announcing a number of new sanctions against Maduro's family members and oil companies earlier today.

Now, all this comes as President Trump has continued to threaten to strike inside land in Venezuela. But I will tell you that I've spoken to a number of White House officials who say that there's really no appetite for that. So, perhaps this is what they're doing or what they're looking at doing instead.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Venezuela went to the International Maritime Organization on Thursday, filing a complaint about the tanker seizure. Stefano Pozzebon has further reaction from the Venezuelan government and the country's new Nobel laureate.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: The Venezuelan government has been rattled by the growing escalations in the Southern Caribbean, especially after the United States Coast Guard seized control of a tanker off the coast of Venezuela early on Wednesday. It was carrying sanctioned oil, allegedly, towards Cuba and then onwards to Asia. CNN understands that the tanker is now en route to the U.S., where the oil will be seized following a legal process.

But Caracas is protesting vociferously. The government of authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, has issued a statement late on Wednesday talking of a blatant theft, and they're saying that this constitutes an act of piracy.

[02:05:04]

The seizure of the oil tanker marks a new tactic employed by the White House in their strategy to put pressure on Nicolas Maduro. One of the first ones to applaud this new tactic was Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader who arrived in Oslo late on Wednesday to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Here is what she said.

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MARIA CORINA MACHADO, FORMER DEPUTY, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF VENEZUELA: So, we asked the international community to cut those sources because the other regimes that support Maduro and the criminal structure are very active and had turned Venezuela into the safe haven for their operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: The Venezuelan government is heavily dependent on oil exports for its revenue. According to estimates, these exports constitute up to 90 percent of the foreign income for the entire country.

And in the last few days, Maduro held phone calls with several world leaders, including Russia's Vladimir Putin and the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and yet he has not shown any indication that he would be prepared to step down any time soon.

For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Caracas.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. is still considering whether to send a representative to a meeting in Paris with Ukrainian and European leaders. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says President Trump is -- quote -- "sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting." Ukrainian and European leaders are discussing the latest U.S. draft proposal. President Trump spoke about the slow progress on Thursday. Here he is.

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TRUMP: I thought that we were very close with Russia to having a deal. I thought we were very close with Ukraine having a deal. In fact, other than President Zelenskyy, his people loved the concept of the deal. You know, we threw something out.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Is this the four-part deal that you did?

TRUMP: Well, there are four or five different parts. It's, you know, a little bit complicated because you're cutting up land in a certain way. It's not the easiest thing. It's sort of like a complex real estate deal times a thousand, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he spoke to the U.S. about security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a deal. President Trump vowed to help with security. And President Zelenskyy said any peace deal needs a series of guarantees from a variety of countries. Here he is.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: This would mean real, solid, legally binding security guarantees for our country. And they must actually be implemented. Of course, we -- of course, a working model of security guarantees is impossible, and we underlined it, impossible without Europe and all members of our Coalition of the Willing, from Canada to Japan, Australia, New Zealand.

If there is a need for elections now, there must be a ceasefire, at least during election process and during voting. And this is something that must be discussed. And honestly, we think here in Ukraine that America should speak to the Russian side about this.

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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine and European allies are working on a revised peace proposal from the U.S. CNN's Melissa Bell takes a look at what's in the plan.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Zelenskyy has been speaking in a little bit more detail about the revised peace plan that has now been handed back to the United States, a 28-point peace plan that has now been revised by the Ukrainians to have just 20 points.

What he has been telling journalists is that this is a plan that has now been worked on by Europeans and Ukrainians and, therefore, represents, he says, a European vision for ending the war in Ukraine.

Within those points, one detailing the Ukrainian position, which is that the idea of a demilitarized zone could function only for the Ukrainians along the contact line, not handing over the whole of the Donbass to the Russians as they had hoped for initially.

There is also within the revised plan the idea that Ukraine would receive NATO-style Article 5 protections without actually joining NATO. In fact, any mention of joining NATO has been removed, as has the language that might have barred the country from any hope of joining NATO. At some point, there is the inclusion, also the idea that Ukraine might be able to join the European Union in 2027.

So, a number of points that Ukrainians have turned into the basis, they believe, of further negotiations that can now take place. We expect that over the course of the next few days, those talks will continue between Europeans, the United States, and Ukrainians.

The big question on the minds of many European diplomats and leaders, officials as well, mainly is what Russia will make of the changes to its initial 28-point plan and whether it is actually willing to negotiate.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in John Lough, who is the head of Foreign Policy at the New Eurasian Strategy Centre, which is a London-based think tank. He joins me now live from Redbourn, England.

[02:10:00]

Thank you so much for being here with us. I really appreciate it. So, I want to start where our reporter left off. She said the big question is what Russia will make of it. So, first, one of the big sticking points, what happens to rest of Donetsk from everything you know about how Putin operates? Is there any scenario where Russia budges on that?

JOHN LOUGH, HEAD OF FOREIGN POLICY, NEW EURASIAN STRATEGIES CENTRE: Well, it's very difficult to see how Russia is going to move on this issue. It seems to be a red line, that Putin is determined to gain control of the Donbas region. And he has signaled that if he can't achieve this through a negotiation process, then he will simply fight for it.

And it is true that the Russian army is advancing very, very slowly in this region. And the Ukrainians believe that it would probably take them several months, at least, to be able to conquer that territory.

So, Putin really has a choice here. Does he make some sort of compromise and effectively claims that territory? And President Trump is proposing to just turn it into a demilitarized zone, possibly into some sort of free economic zone. Nobody really has any real idea of what all this means. But it would effectively save Putin the effort of having to fight for it while then being able to claim that the Ukrainians have effectively abandoned it.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. As we heard, I mean, that plan apparently includes security guarantees that are supposed to be like NATO's Article 5, but not actual NATO membership. I mean, you've studied Russian behavior for decades. I mean, would Russia accept that? And would something like that actually deter Putin from coming back for more later?

LOUGH: Well, I think it depends very much on the nature of these guarantees. I think we have to be careful of the word guarantee here because what is it actually mean in practice? I mean, security guarantees always depend on the quality of your armed forces, first of all, then of your political relationships with allies, all these things.

But quite understandably, the Ukrainians are saying, look, if we have to give up some territory, and effectively Zelenskyy is accepting that he's probably going to have to do that, even though he's claiming that he's going to have to put this to a national referendum, that in return, from their allies, they do receive something reliable in the form of security assurances.

But at the end of the day, I think it's going to be down to the Ukrainian armed forces to be Ukraine's ultimate security guarantee. And here, in fact, the assistance of Ukraine's allies is extraordinarily important because it is going to require building up the Ukrainian army, making sure it's properly equipped, properly trained, and in a position to fight if it absolutely needs to, and that will then be an effective deterrent.

And I think the Russians have learned one thing from this war, which is that their assumption that the Ukrainians simply wouldn't have the will to fight, which seemed to them to be the case in 2014 when they annexed Crimea, that's, on this occasion, proven to be completely wrong. The country has mobilized very effectively. It has kept the Russians at bay now for nearly four years. And the losses inflicted on the Russian side have been absolutely colossal, estimated to be around 250,000 dead and probably up to a million injured. So that's, I think, testament to Ukraine's fighting ability.

BRUNHUBER: Now, so far, you and I have been talking about this plan, this revised plan. That's the European vision. I mean, that might not mesh with the American vision, at least as seen by President Trump. And Trump's most recent comments about being sick of meetings, debating whether even to send somebody to the next meeting, I mean, it really does sound as though he's losing patience.

LOUGH: Well, I think he's doing this for a good reason. He probably is becoming impatient because this is a good deal more complicated than he probably imagined at the outset. And he feels he's got the Russians into a position where they might be interested in some sort of settlement, and then he's having to now work with Ukrainians, and then ultimately Europeans to get them on the same page. I mean, of course, this is all extraordinarily complicated.

BRUNHUBER: Yes.

LOUGH: And the fact is the devil is in the details.

BRUNHUBER: One of the outstanding details is the financing of all this. And you've said Ukraine could start running out of money by April if those frozen Russian assets in Belgium can't be unlocked. I mean, from the latest that you're hearing from European leaders, I mean, is that likely? And if not, I mean, how much leverage does that give Trump to force Zelenskyy's hand?

LOUGH: Well, again, it's another form of pressure on Ukraine at the moment. The European allies, if they can't use these immobilized Russian sovereign assets in Europe, they're to have to stamp up the money themselves, and they don't want to do that.

So, Ukraine, effectively to keep the state finances in reasonable shape next year, to be able to pay salaries, to keep the war effort ongoing, they're going to need an extra $60 billion. And so, just countering that up out of nowhere is challenging for European economies in their current condition.

[02:15:05]

So, I think we're probably going to see later this month the European Council coming to a decision on how to deploy those immobilized assets. It's still a very contentious issue in Europe. But when push comes to a shove, I think the European leaders are going to accept this is the best option they have available. So, I would expect a positive decision, but very late in the day.

BRUNHUBER: We'll be waiting for that decision and to see what, if anything, comes from the meetings this weekend. John Lough, thank you so much for your analysis. We really appreciate it.

LOUGH: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Dozens of people in Myanmar have been killed in a hospital strike. Coming up, why the U.N. Human Rights chief says it could be a war crime. And things go from bad to worse for displaced people in Gaza. We will have the latest on the torrential rain that's flooding the region. That's next here on "CNN Newsroom." Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Reuters is citing sources in Western Myanmar who say at least 30 people have been killed in a military airstrike on a hospital. Another 70 people are reportedly injured. One witness says the hospital took a direct hit and was completely destroyed. The U.N. Human Rights chief says such attacks may amount to a war crime. Government forces have been battling rebel groups in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, since a 2021 coup.

Now to Gaza and some newly-released video of a poignant scene from two years ago.

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BRUNHUBER: Those are six Israeli hostages celebrating Hanukkah in a tunnel in Gaza months before they were killed by Hamas. You can see them hugging and lighting makeshift candles on a menorah made of disposable cups. Other videos show them playing cards or chess while sitting on mats on the floor. The hostages and missing families (ph) say the video was recorded by Hamas as propaganda, but the humanity of these six beautiful people shines through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Residents of Israel and the West Bank are cleaning up after a winter storm dumped heavy rain on the region. More than a dozen people got trapped in their vehicles and had to be rescued. The rain made a bad situation even worse for people in Gaza. Hundreds of tents sheltering displaced families were flooded. Authorities say fuel shortages and vehicles damaged during the war made it impossible to cope with the disaster. The U.N. and Palestinian officials say they urgently need at least 300,000 new tents for one and a half million displaced people.

We have more now from CNN's Jeremy Diamond. But first, we just want to warn you, some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Already battered by bombs, a night of heavy rain and wind was the final straw for this building in Gaza City. No injuries were reported, but it was one of several buildings that collapsed amid the most severe storm to hit Gaza this winter.

Gaza's tent camps, where hundreds of thousands now live, face the worst. Floodwaters ravage this central Gaza camp where residents equipped with nothing more than shovels tried to drain the camp by digging trenches while battening down their tents with mud.

We have been trying to block the water since the morning, but it's not working, Shidi Abu Saleh (ph) says. We are drowned. We just want to go home and find comfort.

Despair and frustration are quickly rising. We drowned tonight, Mahmoud (ph) cries out. All of our flour and food and drink and children all drowned.

Despite their best efforts, water poured into one tent after the next. Floors, bedding, clothes and food stocks all soaked. Other homes submerged as residents tried to salvage what they could. Humanitarian aid organizations say conditions have been worsened by continued Israeli restrictions on aid, with insufficient shelters being allowed in.

Tonight was very difficult. I put the children to sleep there and water came in on us, says Umm Ibrahim (ph). You can feel the bedding and the amount of water in it. And the other children were awake all night trying to remove water from here and there.

The rain is continuing to fall on Gaza. And Hanan Abu Nada (ph) is continuing to fight against it. My body is shaking because of the water. I can't help myself. I changed my clothes many times because I was already sick from the previous storm, she says. We have drowned. We are exhausted. We are mentally exhausted. We are devastated and no one feels our pain.

This storm was all too much for seven-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar (ph), who died of hypothermia after her family's tent flooded overnight. She was completely fine. I breastfed her last night. Then all of a sudden, I found her freezing and shivering, her mother explains. She was healthy, my sweetheart. But now, she is gone and another mother is left to mourn.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. turns up the pressure on Venezuela by seizing one of its tankers, but does the end game for Washington include access to Venezuela's oil?

[02:25:03]

We'll talk to an expert. And she fled to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Look at why Venezuela's top opposition leader says she plans to go back home soon.

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[02:30:15]

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

A quick recap of our top story. The U.S. is slapping new sanctions on Venezuela, targeting three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro. The sanctions also take aim at six shipping firms suspected of transporting Venezuelan oil. This comes a day after the U.S. seized an oil tanker near the coast -- off the coast of Venezuela. The White House now says the ship will be moved to the U.S., which will keep the oil cargo.

I want to bring in Thomas O'Donnell, an energy and geopolitics strategist at GlobalBarrel.com. He's also a former visiting professor at the Central University of Venezuela. And he joins us from Berlin.

Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, this seizure, a clear escalation here. The White House says more tanker seizures could be coming if that happens. I mean, what would that do to the Venezuelan economy.

THOMAS O'DONNELL, ENERGY AND GEOPOLITICS STRATEGIST, GLOBALBARREL.COM: Well, there's two aspects here. Of course, if they can't export any oil for a long period of time, this would be very difficult for the regime. I think what we have here is a problem where Trump really wants to get Maduro out.

He wants to scare him and squeeze him. He really doesn't want to commit troops or get involved inside the country. It could escalate. Although the opposition tells him everything will go fine. Don't worry. Just decapitate the regime.

So, this is another pressure tactic. But you know, the regime doesn't care about what the people eat. That's why there's 8 million refugees since Maduro has been there. So, cutting off the oil is more pressure. But in the - it still would take a very long time before the regime itself would be squeezed enough to in some way shake it.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, but this does represent a huge percentage of their income, I think is what was it, 90 percent of their foreign income comes from oil. I mean, it's a huge economic blow for the -- for the country, right?

O'DONNELL: No, no, I agree with you. But what I this is something a fellow who had been fired by Chavez in 2000 told me, look, everyone's arguing how much oil will PDVSA put out under Chavez, 2.5 million, two million? He said it doesn't matter if they get half a million for years. The regime can live.

And who cares about the people? And that's what they have done. So they still have gold. They still have, you know, they're not = they don't care about the economy. There is no business class that's independent anymore of the state.

Everything comes from the state to the people, unless the people rose up. And that is not a path that the opposition Trump has Trump has a problem here. How to really force him out? I'm sure he's calling him up and threatening and so forth.

I agree, it makes it harder in the long run. After several months or a year or so, it will make it harder for Maduro to, you know, pay people in the military and keep them loyal. Pay the colectivos, the armed groups in the that are in the barrios and so forth that support the government. But it's -- yes, but there's a limit to it is what I'm saying.

BRUNHUBER: Right. Okay. So, oil might not be the pressure point that the Trump administration thinks it might be. Still, though, critics say this is all about oil. It may not be about seizing oil, you know, seizing oil from Venezuela. But might be opportunities for the U.S. in terms of oil exploitation.

So, if there were regime change tomorrow -- I mean, how realistic would it be that American oil companies could actually ramp up production in any meaningful way?

O'DONNELL: Well, first, let me make it clear for 20 years, Chavez and Maduro have said they're going to come for oil. They said it's the last Coke, the last Coca-Cola in the desert, but it's not anymore. We have shale.

So, there was no reason that the United States was going to risk what they would have to risk to go into Venezuela, which would be the biggest intervention. I mean, they have the biggest military and capability. It's not a lot, but they have the most of any country they've ever invaded in Latin America. So, yes, I think what's one thing that has changed here? There are other things. But finally, the United States administration or the United States in

general has some interest in the oil. For the first time in 20 years of Chavismo. And there's more than one thing here. The United States right now has a major campaign, together with the Ukrainians, beside from all the negotiations with the Russians, we hear about their squeezing the Russian oil exports. They're really squeezing it.

The Russians, the Ukrainians are hitting them with drones, with American military intelligence support. And there's really tough sanctions. Those barrels have to be replaced. So, the administration thinks about we better think longer term.

[02:35:01]

Right now, there's a glut in the market. We can do these things, but there's not always going to be a glut in the market. We got to get Venezuela back online. And I think for the first time, this administration is thinking in those terms. Now, there's other things that have always been true in the United States. We're getting this great amount of light oil, but the refineries around the Gulf Coast are most of ours are in the United States, are for heavier crude that historically came from Latin America and old stuff from Texas.

So, mixing in Venezuelan oil with that very light American crude makes the western hemisphere. And they also get Canadian heavier crude mixing that in would you know, its the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, right, making the western hemisphere a fortress in and of itself, self-sufficient. And there is that logic.

So, for the first time, there are these logics where they might have an interest in going after the oil. I don't think they want to pay the price of making a mistake and going in and underestimating what needs to be done, like happened in Iraq.

BRUNHUBER: We've been hearing. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, to say the least. I mean, we've been hearing from Venezuela's main opposition leader who's generally supported this idea. I mean, what are Venezuelans saying about all of this right now?

O'DONNELL: Well, I mean, I would say overwhelmingly the vast majority of Venezuelans would. They don't care how Maduro goes. And in the first administration, you remember Trump and Bolton gave this idea, oh, we might do regime change. Now. They had no intention of doing anything on the ground.

But when there was interviews inside Venezuela by reputable interviewers, it was something like 90 percent of the people said, whatever, just get rid of them because people were starving. People are emigrating, right? Now, so there's that.

Now, on the other hand, if you talk to military experts who go through the way the regime keeps itself in power all these ways of keeping loyalty, people spying on each other, the Cubans in charge of security, all these different military apparatuses, it might not go that way. So, the Venezuelans overwhelmingly will say, just come and knock out Maduro and everything will be fine. We'll all with you. That might very well be true. Whether that's legal or not, but that

might very well be true. And they feel like Trump was their liberator, I have to say. But it might not go that way. There might be terrorism from pro-Chavista groups. There might be sabotage.

There's many armed groups in barrios that are dependent on the state. Will the state be able to feed the people in the months after a regime change? Because all the food basically comes through state channels.

So, this is the conundrum. Some Venezuelans see the problematized side. The opposition absolutely does not there. I'm just saying I respect the opposition. They fight hard, but the whole thing for 20 years, they were not going to organize uprisings in the street that would themselves bring down the government.

It's always been wait for the Americans. They will come through external pressure to liberate us, basically.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there. But I really appreciate getting your expertise on this. Thomas O'Donnell, thank you so much for speaking with us.

O'DONNELL: Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me, guys.

BRUNHUBER: And Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado says she's taking things one day at a time. Since arriving in Oslo, Norway, the Venezuelan opposition leader met Thursday with Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition candidate who replaced her on the presidential ballot last year after the Maduro government banned her from running.

Machado arrived in Oslo just hours after the Peace Prize ceremony and despite being considered a fugitive by the government, she's vowing to keep up the fight for Venezuela's freedom. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER: We need to start preparing and making plans now because we're going to have to work very hard. Germany knows precisely what it's like to rebuild a country after a conflict, a period of division, and without its institutions. We're going to do it, and we're going to do it well, just as Germany was able to do it. So, I'm sure they'll bring us enormous lessons on how to manage a process of this complexity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Our Pau Mosquera has this report from Oslo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This Thursday, most of the eyes and the attention here in Oslo has been riveted on the grand hotel that you can see here behind me. And the reason why is because Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader, has been staying in here since she got to the Norwegian capital earlier in the morning. During the day. Machado has actually offered to different news

conference an opportunity for the media to pose a different questions that wanted to ask her, for example, how did she manage to get outside from Venezuela? She actually didn't share many details about that, but she confirmed that she got the help from the U.S. government, and she actually confirmed that her intention is to get back to Venezuela in a few days or weeks.

[02:40:01]

And she will be back, she said, whether Nicolas Maduro is still in power or not.

Now, another of the questions that we, the press, the journalists asked her is if she supports a United States military intervention in Venezuela. And that's what she said.

MACHADO: I was asked if he were supporting an intervention from the United States, and I said that Venezuela has been already being occupied by forces from totalitarian regimes such as Russia, Iran, Cuba and criminal groups such as Hezbollah, the drug cartels and the Colombian guerrilla.

MOSQUERA: Even Machado answered many questions. There are some that still remain unanswered. For example, what are her plans for now?

So, for the moment, she said, it's going to -- she's going to spend some time with the family and friends that are also staying in this building, located downtown Oslo, and then maybe arrange meetings with different authorities that can help with the work that Venezuelan opposition has been doing over the last few months.

Pau Mosquera, CNN, Oslo, Norway

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Indiana Republicans hand Donald Trump a significant defeat, rejecting his pressure for the state to redraw its congressional maps for next year's elections. We'll have their reasoning and the fallout next.

Plus relief for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian man now freed from U.S. custody. But his legal troubles may not be over yet.

Stay with us.

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[02:46:13]

BRUNHUBER: Indiana Republicans have defied President Trump's pressure campaign to redraw congressional maps ahead of next year's midterm elections. Twenty-one Republicans joined Democrats to vote down the measure in the state senate, where Republicans hold a supermajority. Trump won the state by nearly 20 points in 2024. Now, the rejected map would have set up Republicans to sweep all nine of Indiana's U.S. House seats in next year's midterms, and that would have been a pickup of two seats and potentially help the party retain control of Congress.

President Trump says he hopes Republicans who voted against redrawing the map will face primary challenges from more loyal MAGA supporters. Several Indiana Republicans say their constituents oppose redrawing maps mid-decade, and the pressure from the White House backfired.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was interrupted by a protester during a congressional hearing. The demonstrators spoke out against the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration before he was taken out of the room by Capitol Police. No one was there to face questions from lawmakers about her leadership and potential threats to national security.

Meanwhile, the White House abruptly postponed the final meeting of a task force charged with shaping the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Noem was set to co-chair. The FEMA review council was appointed by President Trump and had been expected to vote on a final draft report recommending sweeping changes to the agency. But sources say White House officials objected to its recommendations.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is now back with his family after he was freed from U.S. custody. A judge ordered his immediate release on Thursday, saying the Salvadoran had been detained again without lawful authority. The department of homeland security is likely to appeal.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A federal judge on Thursday ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year despite a prior court order. But the backstory here is important in how the judge came to her decision. The administration, once he was returned to the United States, has been looking for countries to deport him to because he cannot return to El Salvador, his origin country.

Now, those countries have included some in Africa, three of which have rejected receiving him and one of which the administration recently said they were planning to send him to. That is Liberia. However, Costa Rica has similarly said that they would grant him protections, and his attorneys say that Garcia would be willing to go to Costa Rica.

Now, in her conclusion, the federal judge really nodded at how puzzled she's been over these ongoing back and forth about where he'd be sent. She said, quote, respondents did not just stonewall respondents, there being the federal government, they affirmatively misled the tribunal. They announced that Liberia is the only viable removal option because Costa Rica, quote, does not wish to receive him and that Costa Rica will no longer accept the transfer of him.

But Costa Rica had never wavered in its commitment to receive Abrego Garcia, just as Abrego Garcia never wavered in his commitment to resettle there. And that is really what is at the crux of this legal battle right now. And judges do have or are able to order officials to release detained migrants if there is no imminent removal planned.

Now, there are still conditions to his release. For example, he would be in the custody of his brother in Maryland, and he would not be able to leave the state nor his home unless for limited circumstances. As all of this continues to be worked on by the administration in terms of setting up his deportation.

Now, the Department of Homeland Security did respond in a statement and they said, quote, this is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge. This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in courts.

[02:50:01]

So legal saga for Alberto Garcia continues. And we'll be watching for any filings in this case as, again, the Department of Homeland Security has been ordered to release him from custody.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Meet the so-called Pink Ladies. Still ahead, the U.K. group putting a new face on anti-immigrant tropes pushed by the far right. That story and more coming up.

Stay with us.

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[02:52:54]

BRUNHUBER: As tensions over migration rise across Europe, one group in the U.K. is trying to put a softer spin on right wing rhetoric. The Pink Ladies are a new group that says its mission is the protection of women.

But as CNN's Jomana Karadsheh discovered, the group is exploiting anti-immigrant tropes often used by the far right.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SINGING)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet the Pink Ladies, a new face of Britain's growing anti-immigration movement. We went to one of their pink protests just outside London to try and understand what this is all about.

ORLA MINIHANE, ORGANIZER, THE PINK LADIES: All right, scumbags, our own predators and our own sex pests. We do not need to bring in more every day. Men from cultures that do not think like we do, who treat women like third class citizens, and who think it's acceptable to marry eight to nine-year-old girls.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): This is not racism, they say, and they're not the far right. But a lot of what we heard sounded an awful lot like the far right's narrative.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to get the army involved. We've been invaded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's bloody terrible. It's all over Europe, you know, being invaded --

KARADSHEH: By?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By illegal migrants.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Advocacy groups say exploiting the issue of violence against women and genuine safety concerns is a common far right tactic. The Pink Ladies say their grassroots women concerned about mass migration and what it means for their safety and the future of their country.

By putting out catchy tunes like this one that market their agenda. The so far small group emerged a few months ago at a time of rising tensions over migration, with the far-right seizing on that.

KARADSHEH: A lot of people looking at what's happening in the U.K. from the outside, they might say that a lot of the things that you are saying are the talking points of the far right. How would you --

MINIHANE: What is far right? Far right is extremists. Far left is extremism.

[02:55:01]

How am I extremist? I'm just a mum who's worked her whole life, who's bringing up three children, who lives in suburbia. I don't want my daughter to be sexually assaulted by men that have come over to this country that we've got no background checks on.

If that makes me a far right, then there's something very, very concerning with the rhetoric, right?

KARADSHEH (voice-over): That's Orla Minihane. She's a local candidate for the right-wing populist party Reform U.K.

Amid this show of pink solidarity and what was mostly a jovial and at times surreal atmosphere, we heard from women worried about their safety and that of their daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women are scared to walk anywhere. And, you know, we live in a small town.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the seriousness of what we're dealing with.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The government doesn't publish detailed figures on crimes committed by asylum seekers, but there have been some high-profile cases that have put women and girls on edge. On top of that, there are the twisted facts that go unchecked.

MINIHANE: These five women have died, have been murdered at the hands of an illegal migrant catastrophe that this government is letting happen.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Except two of the suspects in these five horrific murder cases are British nationals. But for Laura and others, what they heard here was enough for them to make up their minds.

KARADSHEH: What is it that is making you feel unsafe?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it's all the rapes, murders. You know what they've been talking about today.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Chelmsford, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Well, have a look. You're looking at a group of people suspected of stealing more than 600 artifacts from the U.K.'s Bristol Museum. Avon and Somerset police released images of four suspects on Thursday and appealed to the public for information on them. Investigators believe the men stole items from a storage building back in September. The artifacts were connected to the history of the British empire and commonwealth, and are described as having significant cultural value.

Christmas came early for some wild guests at a Columbia theme park. Have a look. Rescued animals from lions and hippos to pumas and jaguars spent Thursday unwrapping Christmas gifts. Keepers staked out the habitats with holiday themed treats and toys. Biologists say these enrichment activities help keep the animals sharp and active.

Now, the park used to be the estate of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. Now it focuses on conservation and housing animals rescued from illegal trafficking.

Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in a moment with more news.

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