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Trump Threatens New Tariffs On European Allies Over Greenland Purchase; Minnesota National Guard Mobilized Amid Heated Protests; DOJ Launches Criminal Probes Into Governor Walz And Minneapolis Mayor; Ukrainians Freezing Amid Widespread Power Outages; Small Town In Georgia Worries They're Next In Immigration Battle; Roblox Faces Dozens Of Lawsuits Over Child Safety Issues. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 18, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The new season of "Have I Got News for You" premieres January 24th at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN and next day on the CNN app.

And thank you so much for being with me this weekend. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM with Brian Abel is up next.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. Jessica Dean has the day off.

Tonight, Europe on edge as President Donald Trump doubles down on his push for the United States to annex Greenland. Both the head of NATO and the British prime minister spoke with President Trump about the Danish territory, while ambassadors from the European Union came to Brussels today for an emergency meeting. This after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on several European allies that have objected to his Greenland demands.

CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein is joining us live now.

And, Betsy, what are we hearing from the administration today about this?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the message from the Trump administration today is essentially that Europe and Greenland are going to have to come around on this. President Trump has been saying for years that the U.S. needs to have control of Greenland for what he says is national security purposes to combat rising threats from Russia and from China.

This, of course, has led to significant pushback from Greenland, as well as from Denmark, which controls that Arctic Island, as well as key European allies. The president escalating that threat in a post to social media on Saturday, warning that the U.S. would apply a 10 percent tariff to key European countries if a deal was not reached for the U.S. to control Greenland by February 1st, and that that tariff threat would ratchet up to 25 percent by June 1st, if there had not been a deal reached. This has been met with resounding condemnation from top European

officials, who have essentially said that this poses an existential threat to the transatlantic alliance. We heard from French President Emmanuel Macron. He called it unacceptable. British Prime Minister Starmer said it was completely wrong, all leading to that emergency meeting held today in Brussels. President Trump, for his part, has been working the phones.

We know that he spoke with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said in her own statement that she believes the move is an error, as well as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. But it seems that the European pushback here has done very little to change the president's position on this. We heard earlier today from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He said this morning that Trump believes enhanced security is not possible without Greenland being part of the U.S.

I want you to listen to more from Bessent's remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS "MEET THE PRESS": What is the national emergency that justifies these new slate of tariffs?

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency that it is a strategic decision by the president. This is a geopolitical decision. And he is able to use the economic might of the U.S. to avoid a hot war. So why wouldn't, why wouldn't we do that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, all of this as President Trump is expected to head in the coming days to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. There he is expected to unveil details of an affordable home buying plan. But of course, this conflict threatens to overshadow that focus -- Brian.

ABEL: Betsy, we're hearing so much publicly about what European leaders are saying, but do we have any more sense of what the conversations between those leaders and President Trump in private are like?

KLEIN: No, we've been asking the White House for any readout of those conversations, specifically with Mark Rutte of NATO, as well as Giorgia Meloni of Italy. And right now we just don't have any visibility from the White House perspective into what they said. But if you listen to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's own words, it is very clear the president is not budging on this for now.

ABEL: All right. Betsy Klein, for us in West Palm Beach, Florida. Betsy, thank you.

And joining us now to discuss this further is CNN national security analyst David Sanger. He is also "The New York Times" White House and national security correspondent, currently in Europe. And David, I do want to start by getting your reaction to what we just

heard there from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declaring a national emergency to avoid a national emergency. Is that how national emergencies are supposed to work? Is there any precedent at all for that kind of argument?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: No, it's inventive, I do have to say that. I mean, what he -- what Secretary Bessent is essentially saying is that any preventative action could forestall some future emergencies, some hypothetical future emergency, and therefore gives the president these powers.

[18:05:16]

Now, he's making this case because the president has chosen to invoke these tariffs under an emergency declaration of somewhat dubious legality. And it is right now actually in front of the Supreme Court, has been for a number of months, and so if the court rules against the president, this one would be tossed out presumably with the others. But it's not clear how they're going to rule.

But I think when the history of this is written, Brian, what we're going to determine is that this was a crisis completely of the president's own making. Yes, Greenland has significant national security implications for submarine activity, for surface ships, even for building the Golden Dome. But there's nothing that requires the U.S. to own it because it has treaty rights to build whatever defensive capabilities it wants on Greenland. And we've had those since Harry Truman was president.

ABEL: And that treaty seems to be something that I have not heard, at least the administration acknowledged, in any of the discussions here about Greenland.

SANGER: They have not. That's right.

ABEL: I do want to play for you something that President Trump's former number two said this morning to our Jake Tapper about Trump's current Greenland strategy. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I have concerns about using what I think is a questionable constitutional authority imposing unilateral tariffs on NATO allies to achieve this objective. What the president is trying to do here, I think, is absolutely in the interest of the United States of America. I would just rather see the president use his persuasive powers and U.S. investment in Greenland to lay a foundation for ultimately achieving that goal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: So, David, you have the former vice president not just criticizing Trump's strategy, but questioning its legality. And then there's also the E.U. holding this emergency meeting. Give us a sense of just how significant this moment is with the president threatening these tariffs against several European countries over Greenland.

SANGER: Well, the tariffs are sort of a symbol here, Brian. And the question is what comes next? And I've been talking to some European officials about how this could play out. One of them said to me, look, imagine this scenario. The president has imposed these tariffs. Europe refuses to back down. It imposes counter-tariffs of some kind, blocks some group of U.S. goods. The president then ups the ante by saying either that he will pull out of NATO, or that countries that participate in blocking the acquisition of Greenland will not be defended by the United States under Article Five of the NATO treaty.

That's the article that basically says an attack on one is an attack on all. And at that moment, you've dismantled the alliance that is now nearly 77 years old, that was responsible for deterring the Soviet Union through much of the Cold War, has been effective in a number of other areas, has been occasionally ineffective as well. And you're doing that for what? For obtaining a property that the Europeans have already said the United States can use for whatever we want, including Golden Dome?

ABEL: Is there any sense that dismantling NATO is actually the ultimate goal here in Greenland? Is just a chess piece in that?

SANGER: It's a great -- great question, Brian. I mean, one could argue that the reason the president isn't backing down here, the reason he's not seeking an off ramp or middle ground is he doesn't want to. That in the first term he, you know, expressed his disdain for NATO. In the second term he boasted that he got NATO countries, and this was a big accomplishment, to pledge that by 2035, they'll be spending upwards of 5 percent of their GDP on defense or moderately defense related issues.

But now he's triggered this, what may be the biggest crisis that NATO has ever had just months after they had turned around and done exactly what he had asked them to do on the funding and what they should have done years before.

ABEL: And lastly, David, I do want to ask you this. Our Nic Robertson is reporting the sentiment by many in Greenland, he's there now, is that they don't want to be under U.S. control. And sales of survival gear is up there as well as locals worry about military action.

[18:10:02]

I know a year ago now, you asked Trump about military action in Greenland. Has the outlook changed at all since that question?

SANGER: So just for our viewers, just before the president was inaugurated at Mar-a-Lago, I asked him if he would be willing to use military force to take Greenland or the Panama Canal, which was a big issue at the time as well, and he interrupted me before I could finish the sentence and said, absolutely he would. And that sent a big shockwave. Then this sort of died out for much of the time, and now it's obviously come back big.

Look, if the president decided militarily to take Greenland, it's not going to take him very long. I was there this summer. It's about 57,000 people. They're all living along the coast. The U.S. has already got a major base there that belongs to U.S. space command. It has a New York Air National Guard base there. And the Greenlanders do not have an army. So this isn't going to be much of a battle. The question is, if you do that, you've then impinged on the sovereignty and started a conflict with your own NATO allies. And that's the remarkable part of this story.

ABEL: Yes, it is. David Sanger, appreciate your expertise and your reporting. Thank you, sir.

SANGER: Thank you. Great to be with you.

ABEL: 1500 active duty soldiers could soon find themselves in Minnesota. Find out why, next. Plus, the online platform Roblox says it's adding some new safety features to protect kids, but not everybody thinks it goes far enough. And the University of Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza gets ready for one heck of a homecoming.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:16:35]

ABEL: In Minneapolis, tensions could reach a boiling point with a source within the Trump administration telling CNN the Pentagon has put 1500 troops on alert for possible deployment to Minnesota. This as the state's governor, Tim Walz, has mobilized the Minnesota National Guard to have them ready to support state police if needed.

Walz previously criticized the federal government, saying the federal agent who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good was the only person not under review.

Here's how Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We are following the exact same investigative and review process that we always have under ICE and under the Department of Homeland Security and within the administration, the exact same policy that the Biden administration used.

I would not listen to Governor Walz. He has a very bad track record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is joining us now on the ground in Minneapolis.

And, Julia, what have you been seeing throughout the day? And also, what are you learning? JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're seeing a response

to that already, Brian. We're seeing people say they don't believe, at least the people who are here, the protesters who are here, they don't want any more federal agents. They don't want troops in Minneapolis. They definitely don't want them in Minnesota. And as the temperatures continue to dip here, we're at around 13 degrees now, it's going to be down to minus five today, outside the federal building, the Whipple Building, where these protests have been taking place for the last three, four days now, people continue to arrive.

It's actually striking to see how many people continue to get here. They're saying we're Minnesotan, we're tough. We can handle the cold. We will continue to be here to voice our discontent with the presence of the federal, these federal agents here. Interestingly, just before we came on, I was talking to someone who said he was about to go get a tent and some space heaters for someone to camp out here.

It's become a bit of a perma-protest outside this federal building. But I want to point out a couple of things here. Just I'll step out of the way to have our photographer, Orly, show you what these barricades look like. This is new. This came this morning. We hadn't seen this last night. This has changed some of the dynamics of these protests, as well as the heavy presence of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department here.

Why? The main reason why agents, federal agents had been clashing with protesters here and using those pepper bombs, the tear gas that we saw in the past few days was because they're telling people to stay off the road and restrain the protests just to this sidewalk. And as I mentioned, that number continues to grow. We had seen people going onto the street.

And every time, Brian, that a car arrived or left, there's definitely some kind of reaction from these protesters, some kind of heckling and sometimes spitting. We saw water bottles being hurled at some of these federal agents, and that is what had sparked at times that kind of response with some of those chemical agents like pepper spray and tear gas.

Now, there was, of course, on Friday a decision from a federal judge that said these agents can no longer use those kinds of chemicals to restrain a -- or to dissipate a peaceful crowd so hence these changes.

[18:20:05]

But I will point out those restrictions do not apply to the sheriff's deputies who are here. So if things continue to escalate as they have been basically every night, we could still see those kinds of measures being taken in a place that tensions don't seem to be alleviating anytime soon -- Brian.

ABEL: And we know the situation is fluid, and also, if you're not from the Midwest, it could be a bit of a shock if you're not used to the weather there. So you, Orly, and the rest of your team stay safe and warm, please.

Julia Vargas Jones for us in Minneapolis. Julia, thank you.

And joining us now is Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor and the former Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for policy.

And Paul, sources say the Justice Department has launched criminal probes into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of obstructing federal law enforcement officers.

What's your first gut reaction to hearing of these investigations?

PAUL ROSENZWEIG, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: My first gut reaction is that Donald Trump's Department of Justice knows only one trick, and this is the same trick that they tried with James Comey, Letitia James, and it'll be probably just as ineffective as a practical matter. But in reality, it's intended to intimidate. And whether it succeeds in that or not has yet to be seen.

It seems to me utterly absurd that the only person not under criminal investigation at this point is the man who killed Renee Good. But there you have it.

ABEL: As Governor Walz said when responding to these investigations. Mayor Frey, meanwhile, Paul, says he hasn't received any subpoena and is not aware of specific allegations. Is that typical for these types of investigations, at least at this point in them?

ROSENZWEIG: Well, you know, President Trump has a history of publicly announcing things that don't happen or don't happen for a while yet. I -- Mayor Frey hasn't received any notice yet. My suspicion, my strong suspicion is that in fact the attorney general has directed the agents of the FBI and the prosecutors at the Department of Justice to examine whether or not they can bring charges against the mayor and the governor.

I suspect that in the end they won't be able to, but I suspect that the entire purpose here is, you know, the interim effect of saying that there's an investigation in the hopes that they'll cow opposition. It's not a surprise to me that the mayor has yet to receive a legal process. I suspect that sometime in the not-too- distant future, he will.

ABEL: I do want to turn to this now, Paul. On Friday, a federal judge issued an order that prevents ICE agents from detaining peaceful protesters, stopping people in their cars without cause and other actions. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called that order ridiculous today and said the order does not change operations on the ground. Should it?

ROSENZWEIG: Well, I certainly think it should. I mean, I think that the ridiculous aspect of this is that a federal judge has to issue an order to ICE agents to obey the black letter law. In Minnesota, as in the rest of the country, it is perfectly lawful to legally protest. It's lawful to film ICE agents going about their business so long as you do not interfere with their operations. And it's black letter law that simply following them at a distance is not interference. For the judge to need to reiterate that is kind of remarkable in and

of itself. If by saying that ICE operations won't change the secretary means to be saying that she thinks that the agents have always been following these legal obligations, then as a factual matter, she's wrong. If she means to be saying that they're not going to change because they don't think that the judge's order applies to them, she's legally wrong. Either way, I'm dubious as to what the impact of her statement is going to be.

ABEL: OK, there's also a Supreme Court decision that you recently wrote about in "The Atlantic," Wren versus United States, that ICE is using as broad authority for how it stops people and what justifications are and are not needed. How does this recent federal judge's decision stack up against that 30-year-old Supreme Court case?

ROSENZWEIG: Well, the district court judge can't change Supreme Court precedent. It remains the law that so long as officers have an objectively reasonable basis for stopping someone such as a traffic violation, then they may do so.

[18:25:07]

The interesting thing is that, of course, traffic authority mostly resides with state and local police officers. In order to effectuate these sorts of stops Wren tends to require ICE agents to act cooperatively with, you know, the police officers of, say, Minneapolis or Hennepin County. That's not going to change. And the judge's order can't change that. What she can require them to do is to follow that requirement and not, for example, to convert traffic violations into excuses for violence, for shooting at moving vehicles.

ABEL: All right. Paul Rosenzweig, thank you for sharing your time with us today.

ROSENZWEIG: Thanks for having me.

ABEL: And when we come back, how Ukrainians are fighting to survive the brutal cold there after Russia's repeated attacks on their energy grid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:30]

ABEL: In Ukraine, residents are battling a brutally cold winter and Russian strikes are leaving residents without power for long stretches of time when temperatures are plummeting.

CNN's Clare Sebastian has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's nowhere to hide from the cold in this Kyiv apartment. This is day five without heating for Kateryna Skurydina. Day three without power. KATERYNA SKURYDINA, KYIV RESIDENT (through translator): It's very

difficult mentally, especially since everything that kept you going before is falling apart. For example, when there is no electricity, sports keeps me going. I go to the gym which runs on battery power. Yesterday, they even canceled the gym.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): She says in a moment of desperation she ordered everything she could to stave off the dark and cold. Power banks, rechargeable candles. They make it cozy, she says. A Ukrainian clay pot hand warmer, even a heated blanket for her cat, ironically named Pushok or fluffy. Still life of survival in Russia's escalating war of attrition.

Kyiv has become hardened to attacks on its energy grid, but a huge wave of strikes late last week combined with a severe cold snap took it into uncharted territory. On the streets, the rumble of ever more generators, the soundtrack to Ukraine's fourth winter at war. No one is spared, not even the repair crews working 24 hours a day to bring power back online.

"We do not even know at home whether there is electricity," says (INAUDIBLE), as he works to fix a damaged cable. "We are all living in this situation."

Destruction often outpaces repairs for Ukraine's biggest private energy company.

What happens at DTEK behind the scenes when there's a major attack?

OLEKSIY POVOLOTSKIY, HEAD OF ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE RECOVERY OFFICE, DTEK: Actually, the attack may take just a few minutes, but to recover after the attack, you need months or even years. So we don't have spare time.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): DTEK power plants have been attacked eight times since October, the company says. A recent strike blowing a hole in the roof of this one, letting in the snow.

POVOLOTSKIY: This winter, maybe because the Russians, they are not very progressing on the battlefield, they decided to put Ukraine into the humanitarian crisis.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): It's a fate Kyiv is racing to avoid. Shelters known as invincibility centers have been set up in the capital for people to charge devices and get warmed.

"The lamp hasn't charged for some reason," says Tamara Viktorovna (PH), who's in her 70s. Everyone here learning new survival skills.

In another heatless apartment across town, Kateryna Voronina, who's 72 and has trouble walking after hip surgery, is struggling to stay positive.

KATERYNA VORONINA, KYIV RESIDENT (through translator): It's scary of course. I'm holding on. I'm not complaining at all. But yesterday, after the lights went out, I had what you might call an acute stress reaction. I was crying here all by myself. My friend called me. I couldn't stop.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): She says she regularly scrapes off the ice forming on the inside of her window, and waits.

Clare Sebastian, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: And we now have new information on two high speed trains that derailed on Sunday in southern Spain. A local official is now estimating around 20 people have been killed, many others injured. The accident took place when one of the trains traveling to Madrid derailed and then crossed into an adjacent track, where another was traveling from Madrid, causing that train to derail as well.

The operating company says it's activated emergency protocols and is working with authorities to manage the situation.

Coming up, why a small Georgia town thinks they could be the next in the Trump administration's battle on immigration.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:39:16]

ABEL: A potential big change is causing outrage in a small Georgia town. People in the city of Social Circle say the federal government is considering converting one of the town's warehouses into a massive ICE facility, and some people just aren't having it.

CNN's Rafael Romo joins us now.

And Rafael, what's the word on the streets of Social Circle?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brian. Well, local people told me that no other issue in recent memory has united this town more than this one. Progressives in the town say a warehouse is not a place to hold human beings like cattle. And conservatives are concerned about public safety and the impact to their already strained water and sewer system. Meanwhile, the town's mayor has a message for ICE -- go away.

[18:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARETH FENLEY, ORGANIZER, INDIVISIBLE BOLDLY BLUE: Social Circle is a very sweet small town in Georgia. It's a very conventional, old fashioned, lovely little town.

ROMO (voice-over): But all that may be about to change in this town of 5,000, located about 45 miles east of Atlanta.

Is this a conversation that is being had?

FENLEY: Oh, yes. People around the town are all talking about it.

ROMO (voice-over): Many people here like Gareth Fenley are convinced that the federal government wants to convert this warehouse in a detention center for as many as 10,000 immigrants, which would triple the town's population.

FENLEY: I myself am also against having ICE transform industrial warehouses into detention centers. I think that's a really, really bad idea from a human rights perspective.

ROMO (voice-over): Fenley, a human rights activist, says she organized the protest when she received a tip that people from out of town were going to survey the facility.

David Keener, who's starting his seventh year as mayor of Social Circle, is opposed as well.

MAYOR DAVID KEENER, SOCIAL CIRCLE, GEORGIA: Painful. I don't want that here. This is not the town for that. You know, if I had to sum it up in two words, go away.

ROMO (voice-over): And so is the town leadership for reasons they say that have nothing to do with politics or the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.

ERIC TAYLOR, SOCIAL CIRCLE CITY MANAGER: It has nothing to do with what the political situation is. For us it simply just comes down to the fact that we're a small town of 5,000 people. We have a very limited water and sewer infrastructure. It's too close to elementary school.

ROMO (voice-over): Social Circle Elementary is located only 4,000 feet from the warehouse.

John Miller, a businessman who owns horse stables across the street from the warehouse, says the entire town is united against this. Even beyond political differences.

JOHN MILLER, ORGANIZER, ONE CIRCLE COMMUNITY COALITION: Regardless of your ideological bent, most people in Social Circle are about Social Circle first. We're about our lifestyle.

ROMO (voice-over): CNN asked the Department of Homeland Security about the issue, but so far there has been no reply.

As CNN reported in October, DHS is funneling $10 billion through the Navy to help facilitate the construction of a sprawling network of migrant detention centers across the U.S.

KEENER: I don't know that it's a done deal. You know, we've -- I've actually, no one has contacted me from ICE nor federal government, nor the property owner. And as of today, we've not received an application for detention center in that location.

ROMO (voice-over): For Georgia's greatest little town, it's a battle residents say they can't afford to lose. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO (on-camera): And as we reported in October, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to convert warehouses and other spaces around the country into massive detention facilities in several states, including Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Utah, and here in Georgia.

Additional details about the facilities remain unclear, Brian, and local officials in Social Circle told me they believe there might be a nondisclosure agreement between the warehouse's owner and the federal government.

Now back to you.

ABEL: All right. Rafael Romo for us in Georgia. Rafael, thank you.

The online platform Roblox, to put it mildly, is very popular with kids. But is it doing enough to protect them?

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:48:06]

ABEL: The popular online gaming platform Roblox is facing more accusations about child user safety. Almost 80 lawsuits accused the platform of knowingly facilitating child sexual exploitation, according to Reuters. Many accused the company of making it easy for predators to target children and neglecting to warn parents of the risk.

CNN's Hadas Gold reports on the new measures the platform is taking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you have a child at home, there's a good chance they've played Roblox. The kids build and play user generated games while chatting with others, paying for special avatars, abilities and items along the way. But the open ended nature of Roblox, as well as its chat functionalities, has led to major questions and lawsuits over child safety.

BECCA DALLAS, SUING ROBLOX AFTER SON'S DEATH: We did everything we thought we did. We did our best. We put the parental controls. We talked to my son about the dangers. Don't click any links. He thought he was corresponding with a minor. Little do we know it was a 30 something year old man.

GOLD (voice-over): We registered for Roblox as though we were a 10- year-old. Almost immediately we came across worlds such as active shooter games. In this spray paint world marketed to kids five and older, we saw inappropriate language within seconds and messages about dying, along with an image of a stick figure in what appeared to be a noose. Roblox says that while it uses technology to block inappropriate

content, those tools work best when paired with parental controls. Anger over safety issues has led to some of its own users, like 15- year-old Mason Hebden, to call for action.

MASON HEBDEN, LAUNCHED PETITION TO REMOVE ROBLOX'S CEO: I've seen inappropriate avatars with body parts that really shouldn't be in the game.

GOLD (voice-over): After hearing about so many kids' inappropriate experience on the game, he launched a petition calling for accountability from Roblox CEO and co-founder Dave Bouzouki. The petition has more than 300,000 signatures.

HEBDEN: Since he hasn't done anything at all in the past, well, like multiple years, I feel like there's a -- there needs to be a change with the CEO spot.

[18:50:00]

GOLD (voice-over): Roblox says it welcomes the feedback from the community.

ELIZA JACOBS, ROBLOX SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT POLICY: We have been building safety systems for a long time, and we will continue to build and innovate and improve.

GOLD (voice-over): In addition to its existing parental controls and safety measures, Roblox is rolling out age gating software that scans users face, estimates their age, and will only allow the player to chat with those in their age range.

JACOBS: We will have systems running in the background to detect if there's any kind of anomalous behavior on the account, so if we have any reason to believe that the person that used the facial age estimation system and verified their account is no longer operating that account we'll introduce additional checks.

GOLD (voice-over): The company is also facing dozens of lawsuits, including by at least four states.

JAMES UTHMEIER, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today, I'm announcing that my office is filing a lawsuit against Roblox for what we believe are serious failures to protect our kids. Roblox aggressively markets to young children, but fails to protect them from sexual predators.

GOLD (voice-over): If your child is playing Roblox, experts recommend the following tips. Register your child in the appropriate age range. Set up a parent account, link it to your child, and engage parental controls. Only put approved friends on their chat list. Monitor their activity and keep open the lines of communication.

For Mason's mom, Lena, figuring out how to manage the risks of a game like Roblox is just part of modern parenting.

LENA, MASON'S MOM: There's really only so much a parent can do without fully taking the game away, so we have to make them as prepared as possible.

GOLD (voice-over): Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Soldiers from two battalions in Alaska could soon be headed to Minneapolis, as tensions between protesters and law enforcement heat up.

You're on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:17]

ABEL: Tomorrow night, all eyes will be on Hard Rock Stadium outside Miami, where the Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes will face off in the College Football National Championship Game. Miami is seeking its first national title in 25 years, while the Hoosiers are looking for their first ever football championship.

CNN's Coy Wire is in Miami with what to expect from this epic matchup.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COY WIRE, CNN SPORT ANCHOR: This will be known as the year the perennial powerhouses were shocked and has everyone questioning what this new era of NIL money and the transfer portal is becoming. Miami is the team that's done nothing but fall short of expectations for the last quarter century. And that's understandable because they were at the mountaintop the last time they won the title in 2002. 38 NFL draft picks. Probably the greatest college team ever assembled back then.

But head coach Mario Cristobal, who played for the Hurricanes, returned with a no nonsense, no living in the past mentality, and his canes are now exceeding expectations. 100 to one underdogs before the playoff field selection. They have shocked the world, becoming the first team ever to play for a title on their home field. Now some of his players told me his mantra is one and zero. No thinking about the past. The you is here. They're one win away from becoming champions.

Now for Indiana, they pulled off arguably the greatest turnaround story ever in college football. Coach Curt Cignetti came in just two years ago, took him from the bottom of the barrel with the most losses of any college football program ever to two playoff appearances, an undefeated season playing for the first ever national title. We asked both teams how they would put into words how huge it would be if they could actually pull off winning this title.

FERNANDO MENDOZA, INDIANA HOOSIERS QUARTERBACK: Yes, it would mean a lot, and I know how much it would mean to people. And I know that the best way to accomplish this goal is to really just focus on the football. Myself focusing on the job and myself focusing on the present gives the Hoosiers the best chance to win, and I owe it to my teammates, to my coaches, and also Hoosier nation. FRANCIS MAULGOA, MIAMI HURRICANES OFFENSIVE TACKLE: I mean, it will

mean a lot, man. I mean, winning the national title means, you know, that you're the best. We all play for each other. We all play for -- because this is a brotherhood. This is a family. And, you know, we just do it for ourselves. We just do it for each other.

WIRE: All right. These coaches are phenomenal. Miami Coach Mario Cristobal won two titles as a Hurricanes player from '89 to '92. "The Rock," Dwayne Johnson was his teammate. He was accepted as a Secret Service agent, but realized coaching was his dream. He has seen and lived the glory days. He grew up in Miami. He said it makes him livid seeing how Miami has been ridiculed and stomped on the last 20 years. Seems he's taking it personally. He is on a mission.

Now Indiana coach Curt Cignetti grew up in locker rooms. Dad Frank is in the College Football Hall of Fame. While head coach at West Virginia, he hired a young Nick Saban as an assistant. Nearly 30 years later, Saban returned the favor, hiring Curt Cignetti to his inaugural staff at Alabama in '07. In four years there, Cignetti helped secure some of the top recruiting classes ever, said he learned more in just one year than he had in 27 as an assistant.

After 27 years, he finally got his chance to become an FBS head coach. JMU turned that program around. Now, at 64, he's instilling his wisdom, principles and lessons in this Indiana team. We asked the Hoosiers players all about their head man Curt Cignetti.

ROMAN HEMBY, INDIANA HOOSIERS RUNNING BACK: Just his personality and all of the things that he kind of said to me and the recruitment process, it's all come true. You know, he's a man of his word. He's all about winning. He does everything that's possible to win.

D'ANGELO PONDS, INDIANA HOOSIERS CORNERBACK: It's honestly great playing for a legendary coach like that. I feel like he's one of the best in the game. Just to learn from everything he goes by. And his standard that he keeps and just how it molds you as a man. I just feel like it's just a blessing just to be in his presence.

WIRE: It's about to be on. The tickets are astronomical prices. Current get in price for the worst seats is $3,000.