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Last Deceased Israeli Hostage has Recovered, Phase Two of the Peace Plan in Trouble; White House Border Czar to Take Over Minneapolis Immigration Operations; Plush Horse Toy with Sad Face Now Viral in China Ahead of Next Month's Lunar New Year; Last of Chinese Pandas in Japan Sent Home to China. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired January 27, 2026 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church, Just ahead.
With the last deceased Israeli hostage now recovered from Gaza, the peace plan should be moving on to phase two. We will have a report from the region on where things stand.
The White House ordering the Border Patrol official overseeing part of its immigration crackdown out of Minneapolis. We'll tell you who's expected to take over.
And how a manufacturing mistake helped make this sad-looking toy a viral sensation.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
Well for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages dead or alive in Gaza. And that should mean the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas can enter its next phase.
But questions are mounting over a key condition, the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Over the weekend, Israel's Prime Minister said Rafah will reopen and phase two of the ceasefire will start after the remains of the last hostage are recovered.
But he said the crossing will be used by pedestrians only, not for goods or humanitarian aid. And that it would be subject to a full Israeli inspection.
The body of the last hostage was recently recovered and returned to Israel. Ran Gvili was taken into Gaza after he was killed in the October 7th attacks. His homecoming, while somber, is also cause for celebration inside Israel. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: People didn't believe that we'd get the 20 live hostages. With President Trump's help, we got them out. With our brave soldiers who went into Gaza, stuck a knife to Hamas and they realized that their last stronghold was going to go.
And President Trump stuck a diplomatic knife on the other side. We got the 20 hostages, but then we had to get another 28 deceased hostages. We got them all out and there remained one, Ronnie Gvili.
And we said we'd bring him back. He was the first to come in. He's the last to leave, a hero of Israel.
Ronnie is back. There are no more hostages in Gaza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And that final hostage, a 24-year-old police officer, received a posthumous promotion. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has our report from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDEN: One of the darkest chapters in Israel's history officially closed on Monday. 843 days after the October 7th, 2023 attacks, the body of the last remaining hostage held in Gaza was returned to Israel.
Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old Israeli police officer, the Israeli military recovering his body in Gaza, returning it to his family in order to be buried. And Gvili was not only the last remaining hostage in Gaza from the October 7th attacks, this actually now marks the first time since 2014 that there are no Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
And we've been seeing reactions pouring in from across Israel in what is not only a true moment of closure for Ran Gvili's family, but also for Israel as a whole, a country where every Israeli knew the names of all of these hostages who were taken on October 7th and have prayed and waited for this moment for Gvili's body to finally be returned.
We have seen videos of everyone from Israel's President to members of Israel's Knesset to celebrities and the families of hostages taking off those yellow pins that came to symbolize the fight for the return of those hostages finally after 843 days.
An Israeli military official said that Gvili's body was recovered in an area that was once part of Gaza City's Shejaiya neighborhood. The operation began on Sunday and finally on Monday, a confirmation that it was Gvili's body that had been recovered. An announcement was made to his family and his body was then brought back to Israel.
[03:05:03]
It's important to note that Gvili's body was found in a cemetery in Gaza on the Israeli-controlled side of that yellow line in the Gaza Strip.
And now, of course, the question is what this could unlock, because it does officially allow phase two of this Gaza ceasefire agreement to move forward. It will allow for the Rafah crossing, for example, between Egypt and Gaza to officially open later this week.
That was supposed to have happened months ago after the return of the living hostages, but Israel has refused for months now. Those objections expected to now go away with the return of Gvili's body. But Gaza's civil defense is also hoping that more steps can now be unlocked as well, as they have now called on Israel to allow heavy machinery into the Gaza Strip in order to allow that rescue group in Gaza to be able to recover the bodies of thousands of Palestinians still believed to be under the rubble.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The U.S. military is fortifying its position in case of a potential strike on Iran. Two sources tell CNN the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group is now in the Indian Ocean.
President Trump has threatened military action over Tehran's crackdown on anti-government protesters. Rights groups report at least 5500 have been killed, with an additional 17,000 deaths still being reviewed. Allies are urging the U.S. not to strike, Tehran says any attack will be met with force capable of destabilizing the entire Middle East.
In northeast Syria, tensions remain high between the government and local Kurdish forces. A fragile ceasefire that was extended Saturday appears to be largely holding, but attempts by Damascus to forcibly integrate the Kurds into Syria's military are being met with resistance.
CNN's Ben Wedeman has more details.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The men and boys are on high alert, machine guns at the ready at checkpoints around the Kurdish controlled town of Malkia. They fear the Syrian army, fresh from victories against their fellow Kurds in Aleppo and Raqqa, is coming their way.
For years we were allies, says Abdel Jabbar al-Tayyib, and then at the last moment the Americans go with Jolani, with ISIS.
Jolani, the nom de guerre of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharra, until a decade ago a leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate.
The U.S. position is that the time has come for the Kurds to integrate into the Syrian army.
Next morning at a school hosting people fleeing the fighting, we found few were buying America's prescription. And the same goes to the U.N. and the Security Council, says Abu
Diyar. He came with his wife, his sons, and his grandchildren, like so many, uprooted time and time again.
In a country ripped apart by nearly 15 years of war, they're beyond the breaking point.
Aren't we human, asks this woman. We moved from Afrin to Shaba, to Aleppo, to Hasakeh. Enough, we're dying.
Amidst the violence and chaos lies this desolate camp, home to more than 2000 foreign women and children who flocked to Syria to live in the Islamic State, now guarded by Kurdish forces.
Camp administrator Hakeem Ibrahim tells me the atmosphere turned menacing when the detainees heard the Kurds were under attack.
They said ISIS is returning, she tells me, and when that happens, we won't leave one of them alive.
One of the guards drove us around the camp. We were told it was too dangerous to walk.
We went inside the tent of one woman from Britain, afraid to be identified, but desperate to talk.
UNKNOWN: Because I'm a different person. I'm not a dashi. I'm not Syrian, no one. And I just, I'm scared for my son. Of course.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Dashi is colloquial Arabic for someone with the Islamic State. She said the U.K. revoked her citizenship.
UNKNOWN: I was born in England, I was raised in England. I don't have anybody anywhere else. My mom, my dad, my brother, all living in England.
[03:10:03]
WEDEMAN (voice-over): The other, much bigger camp for ISIS women and children, Al Hol, is now under Syrian government control. The U.S. is in the process of moving the 7000 ISIS men who were in Kurdish-run prisons to more secure facilities in Iraq.
On the defensive, the Kurds are preparing for battle. These young volunteers load bullets into their magazines. They, too, accuse the U.S. of betrayal.
America has always pursued its interests, says this fighter who asks we not show his face. As soon as it gets what it wants, America sells you out.
That said, for them, it's time to go to the front.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Northeastern Syria.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, says she has had enough of Washington's orders. She made those comments at an event for oil workers amid pressure from the U.S. to resume oil production.
Rodriguez, who had been serving as Nicolas Maduro's deputy until his capture, has been walking a tightrope to keep the White House and Maduro loyalists happy. Trump had previously claimed the U.S. was going to run Venezuela following Maduro's ouster, but later endorsed Rodriguez as the country's interim leader.
Well meanwhile, it seems Venezuela is still willing to meet the White House's demands when it comes to their most valued export. The country's legislature is expected to approve sweeping reform of its hydrocarbon laws. The new law will allow foreign and local companies to operate their own oil fields, among other benefits.
This move is expected to help the post-Maduro government to meet U.S. demands for oil shipments. Rodriguez says the country expects more than a billion dollars of investment in oil production, the oil production sharing contracts this year alone. That's an increase of about a half a billion dollars compared to last year.
Turning now to Minneapolis, where outrage over the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good is leading to a change in immigration enforcement leadership. Top border patrol official, Greg Bovino, is expected to leave the city today, along with some of his agents. CNN is learning that Trump administration officials were frustrated with Bovino, who made these unfounded claims about Pretti.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY BOVINO, U.S. BORDER PATROL COMMANDER-AT-LARGE: This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The White House is now attempting to distance itself from these remarks, and Bordasar Tom Homan is now expected to take over ICE operations in the city. President Trump claims he had very good phone calls with the mayor of Minneapolis and Minnesota's governor about de- escalating the crisis. Governor Tim Walz says there was a definite change in tone during his conversation with the president and that he has agreed to reduce the number of federal agents in the state.
Some Republicans say the situation could have been handled better.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TREY GOWDY (R), FORMER REPRESENTATIVE: We certainly should not be labeling him as being a domestic terrorist who is going to execute cops. There is no evidence to support that.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): What I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they're describing this. That immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out guns blazing, that we took out a violent terrorist, hooray.
GOV. KEVIN STITT (R-OK): So what's the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don't think that's what Americans want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more on Tom Homan's role in Minneapolis.
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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tom Homan is a veteran law enforcement official, especially with many years of experience at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So in many ways, he is seen as someone who can try to get a hold of the situation.
Up until this point, you have had a top Border Patrol official, Gregory Bovino, who has been leading the charge in the immigration crackdown in cities. But of course, he is with Border Patrol, his experience is more intended for the U.S.-Mexico border, not necessarily the urban landscape.
And that is what the hope is among Homeland Security officials that Tom Homan can get a grasp on. Now the White House has described his role as managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota.
[03:14:49]
The President himself also saying that he was going to have Tom Homan call Governor Walz. So the hope here among observers, among those officials that I've been speaking with, is that with Tom Homan on the ground, they can start to pivot this operation to be very much more focused on it being targeted with national security and public safety threats and less of these broad sweeps that have attracted many protesters on the ground there.
There are still so many questions, even among Republican lawmakers, allies, and even internally, about how this investigation is going to be conducted. Up until this point, it suggests an internal review at the Department of Homeland Security.
But as you've heard from folks there on the ground, they also want independent investigators, which was part of the conversation had between the President and the governor of the state. So certainly we'll be keeping eyes on that. But right now, it seems that federal investigators have some of the crucial evidence here and videos that we have not been able to see yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: For more on all of this, let's bring in former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, live from Los Angeles. Good to have you with us.
NEAMA RAHMANI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Thanks for having me, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So let's start with the shooting itself. We know that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem initially claimed Alex Pretti was brandishing a weapon, and she said he was there to inflict maximum damage on individuals. Turns out none of that was true, given the phone footage we've seen. And now the department says it has this multiple officer body camera footage that is currently under review.
So how critical will all of this be to the investigation? And how will the agency defend its actions legally against any case brought against it, given what we know?
RAHMANI: Rosemary, that video evidence that you pointed to is critical. People can lie, but video doesn't lie. And I think Secretary Noem's most damning statement was that these were defensive shots.
Well, when you shoot someone from point blank, who doesn't even appear to have his hand anywhere near that firearm, well, that's a problem. As lawyers, we know that deadly force can only be used when an officer or the public are at imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury. That doesn't appear to be the case here.
So when you have a rush to judgment, you have no investigation, and you have a video that completely contradicts what Noem, Bovino, and other government officials are saying, that's a problem for both the public trust, as well as all the other law-abiding men and women who put on a uniform.
CHURCH: And President Trump now says that he wants the investigation into this fatal shooting to continue. And he has removed top Border Patrol official Greg Bovino from his post, replacing him with Tom Homan, after the Trump administration came under increasing pressure in the wake of this fatal shooting of Pretti. So how might this impact the legal ramifications of the case, do you think?
RAHMANI: Well, I think President Trump realizes that even Republicans on Capitol Hill believe that this is a problem. The second apparently unjustified shooting in just the span of a couple of weeks.
Now, so Bovino's out, Homan's in, but really, they have HSI, Homeland Security, investigations that are conducting this investigation. Typically, it would be the FBI, really under the direction of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. We know a lot of senior officials have left that division within the DOJ, so they're not conducting the investigation.
But I think the political reality, Rosemary, is that federal charges are unlikely in either the Pretti case or the Renee Good case, which means it would be up to state officials and probably Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, if he decides to file charges at the state level, because I can't see the feds charging any of these agents with murder or manslaughter, given today's political climate.
CHURCH: Right. And what about the lawsuit that the Minnesota Attorney General is bringing against ICE to get them out of the state? How is that progressing? And does it look like President Trump's change in ICE leadership, and of course, the reduction in Border Patrol agents there, is moving in that direction after his phone call with the Minnesota Governor and the Minneapolis Mayor?
RAHMANI: Well, Rosemary, I do believe that the shootings were excessive force, but I don't think the Minnesota Attorney General had a good case to kick ICE out entirely. And we heard Judge Menendez today, she denied the state's motion for a temporary restraining order. She's going to take a few days to rule on a preliminary injunction, but the reality is that federal laws supreme and our immigration laws are exclusively a federal prerogative.
And that makes sense. You can't have states enforcing their own immigration laws inconsistently. So for those reasons, what you see is the state of Minnesota, they're trying to say that this is unlawful commandeering under the 10th Amendment.
Well, that happens when the federal government really takes control of state personnel, and that's not necessarily happening here.
[03:20:01]
So I do believe the government and the Trump administration will win in their lawsuit against the state of Minnesota. That doesn't mean that the ICE raids are good policy at all, but I think from a legal perspective, the federal government does have the upper hand here.
CHURCH: Neama Rahmani, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
RAHMANI: Of course, Rosemary. Thanks for having me as always.
CHURCH: Thank you.
Snow, ice, and now bone-chilling cold. We are tracking the aftermath of a massive winter storm in the U.S. and just how many people are still without power. We'll take a look at that on the other side of the break, stay with us.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
Well, more than 200 million people are under alerts for extreme cold now gripping every state east of the Rockies. The Arctic blast coming in the wake of a monster winter storm that's left behind ice, snow, and major power outages.
Temperatures in New York are expected to stay below freezing for at least the next 10 days, something the city has never seen before. More than 15 deaths have been reported. Some have been attributed to hypothermia and others from shoveling snow.
Ice has been another significant issue across the southern U.S. Damage caused by ice in Mississippi and Tennessee is being described as devastating.
All this as more than 500,000 customers in several states remain without power. The largest number of power outages right now are in Tennessee.
CNN's Isabel Rosales is there on the ground with the latest on efforts to repair damage left by ice and falling trees.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to outages here in the Nashville area, the experts are warning that this is going to be a prolonged event, that for some it could take a week to get the lights back on.
You're looking at a crew right here of linemen, part of over 300 of them, that are out in the field from dusk till dawn working to get people back their electricity. It's a challenging scenario with this bitter cold that's refusing to move out of the area.
We can see icicles up on the power lines. We've seen so many tree limbs blocking the road waves. Here's what else the head of the Nashville Electric Service had to say about it.
BRENT BAKER, COO, NASHVILLE ELECTRIC SERVICE: This is going to be a historic event. It has, you know, gotten us up to 230,000 outages yesterday. This will be a week-long event, at a minimum, that we're going to be working on this.
But we think if we make it through today's cold weather and the trees continue to fall, as our vegetation crews come in and clear some of that other risk, we'll start to make more progress as the days continue on.
ROSALES: And these guys are working 14, at least 14-hour shifts, hard at work to get the lights back on. But a big challenge here is that there's no big warm-up anticipated anytime soon. In fact, the low temperatures for Tuesday morning is going to be zero degrees Fahrenheit, that is a record that is something we haven't seen in the Nashville area in 25 years.
That creates a more challenging scenario. And also the winds, at times, reaching 20 to 25 miles per hour. That is only making things worse, tumbling trees that are already burdened by all of this ice.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And from one weather extreme to another, Argentina is experiencing a scorching heat wave. Today, their National Meteorological Service says temperatures in the capital city reached 36 degrees Celsius, that's about 97 degrees Fahrenheit. CNN's Ivan Sarmenti has more now from Buenos Aires.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) IVAN SERMENTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While parts of the United States are freezing, here in Buenos Aires on the other end of the continent, the heat has been overwhelming.
For several days now, temperatures have climbed above 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. We are in Plaza de Mayo, in the very center of Buenos Aires. It's mid-day, and this is how people here are coping with the heat.
How are you dealing with the heat?
MAGARET, AUSTRALIAN TOURIST: It's very hot. I'm from Sydney, so there's a lot more humidity here.
SARMENTI: Well, but you're not suffering the freeze that is suffering the United States.
MARGARET: No, very lucky not to be suffering that, no. But your beautiful city, I absolutely love it. Really lovely.
I'm going from air-conditioning to air-conditioning to air- conditioning, trying my best to stay cool.
SARMENTI: The high temperatures are expected to persist at least until Tuesday, when some rainfall is forecasted. But even then, the heat wave is likely to continue throughout the week, according to forecasters.
Ivan Sarmenti, CNN, Buenos Aires.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: But it's even hotter in southeastern Australia, where a dangerous heat wave has prompted evacuations amid a heightened bushfire threat.
New weather data shows Tuesday is the hottest day on record in the state of Victoria. A fast-moving fire has already burned about 10,000 hectares or 24,000 acres. Preliminary reports from inland towns show temperatures nearing 49 degrees Celsius, that is about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Incredible.
NATO's Secretary-General has a harsh warning for member nations. Europe should keep on dreaming if it thinks it can defend itself without the support of the United States. CNN's Melissa Bell has more on developments from Brussels.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After a week in Davos, when so much of the world's attention was gathered around the question of Greenland, it was central to the questions that MEPs had to ask the Secretary-General of NATO once he appeared before them on Monday afternoon.
Many wanted to know whether there had been any linking of the conversations over Greenland with the security guarantees that President Zelenskyy has now announced are ready to be signed and ratified by the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian Parliament.
Mark Rutte was unequivocal. There had been no linking of the two issues. What would happen now came to Greenland, he explained, was that any conversations over a future deal would happen within the trilateral setting of the United States, Greenland and Denmark. NATO itself would be outside of that.
But he did essentially thank President Trump for having pushed the issue to the fore, explaining that Arctic security and keeping Russia and China out of the Arctic space, which involves seven NATO countries, was essential and now would be the focus of those conversations. He also spoke more broadly to the war in Ukraine and to what Europe needed to do in terms of those security guarantees that have now been agreed, essentially explaining that the Europeans needed the United States and the United States needed NATO and that this was likely to continue. This is what he said.
MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: At NATO, we have tried and tested when it comes to standards, structures, procedures, and the contributions and capabilities of NATO's non-E.U. allies are indispensable for our collective defense.
So my argument would be, let's be practical, let's be realistic when it comes to our security. We need to leverage our respective strength, NATO, E.U. even more, use the common pot of money, the single set of forces and the vast amount of industrial and innovation power we have across the alliance. That's the only way to keep Europe safe.
BELL: Mark Rutte explaining that it wasn't simply to irritate the Europeans gathered before him that he was speaking in defense of President Trump, but of the need, specifically now, over the question of Ukraine and the future defense of Europe, to show unity with the United States.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: China's military may be in disarray after President Xi Jinping just purged his top general. We'll explain the accusations against him. Back in just a moment.
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[03:35:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you. The Trump administration is changing its immigration enforcement leadership in Minneapolis. Top Border Patrol official Greg Bovino is expected to depart the city today following the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti over the weekend. White House Border Czar Tom Homan is expected to manage ICE operations in Minneapolis moving forward.
The remains of the last hostage in Gaza have finally been returned to Israel. Rangvili was a police officer killed on October 7th. His body was taken into the territory, U.S. officials says Qatar and Turkey helped to get Hamas to cooperate.
Sources say a U.S. carrier strike group is now in the Indian Ocean in case of the need for military action against Iran. President Trump has said he is considering options in response to Tehran's brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters. Allies are urging the U.S. not to take military action.
Well now to a shocking shake-up in the upper echelons of the Chinese military. Its top general, once considered unassailable, is under investigation. He appears to be the latest figure swept up in China's long-running anti-corruption drive.
CNN's Will Ripley has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The stunning fall of China's most powerful general, Zhang Youxia, battle- tested survivor and longtime lieutenant to President Xi Jinping, seen by many as untouchable until this.
A 30-second shock announcement from China's defense ministry. Zhang is suspected of leaking information to the U.S., allegedly revealing secrets of China's nuclear weapons program. The "Wall Street Journal's" Lingling Wei reports, citing a high-level Chinese military briefing.
LINGLING WEI, "WALL STREET JOURNAL" CHIEF CHINA CORRESPONDENT: Our reporting only shows that such a briefing happened and the leaking state secrets was one of the allegations that was disclosed during the briefing. We haven't been able to really verify any of those allegations.
RIPLEY: Why would a Chinese general leak such sensitive information to the United States if indeed that happened?
WEI: There are all kinds of speculations. There has been a track record of the party, you know, drumming up charges against people they wanted to take down.
RIPLEY (voice-over): General Zhang, second in command of the People's Liberation Army, behind only Xi himself, purged and accused of corruption. Along with the PLA's top operational commander, Liu Zhenli, Zhang and his boss share an elite upbringing, two sons of communist revolutionaries, making this purge earth-shattering.
[03:40:00]
Chinese state media accuses Zhang and Liu of undermining Xi's ultimate authority over the military. China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, likely seeking an unprecedented fourth term next year, turning on lifelong allies and handpicked proteges.
JONATHAN CZIN, FORMER CIA OFFICER: This really demonstrates nobody in that system is safe, truly.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Former CIA officer Jonathan Czin spent years analyzing China's military.
CZIN: Getting rid of somebody he's known for so long and talking about him violating the chairman's responsibility system does make me wonder, is he starting to veer more into kind of a paranoid dictator mode?
RIPLEY (voice-over): The lack of clear answers is fueling intense online speculation. Inside China, government censors only allow comments supporting the investigation. Outside China, unverified rumors of a shootout between security teams loyal to Zhang and Xi, there's no evidence those claims are real.
CZIN: I think this is more reflective of the information vacuum inside the system.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Zhang now joins a long list, more than 20 senior military leaders removed since 2022.
CZIN: Xi has somehow concluded that the rot is so deep in the PLA and the mismanagement is so gross at the top that he needs to clean a house with an entire generation of leaders.
RIPLEY: What happens to people when they're purged?
CZIN: They come out, they look great, they look gaunt, they look haggard. It's pretty rough.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Imprisonment is common, execution still legally possible. In Xi Jinping's China, power offers no protection from the chairman's purge.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: It's the year of the horse in China, but a toy made to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday doesn't look too happy about it. Why it's sad looking face has made it a viral hit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back. Let's check the business headlines now.
President Trump says he is raising tariffs on South Korean goods from 15 percent to 25 percent. In a Truth Social post, he claims South Korea is not living up to a trade deal reached in July. South Korea's presidential office says the trade minister will travel to Washington for talks.
Global trade tensions have sent gold prices soaring to record highs. They topped $5,000 an ounce for the first time late Sunday. Experts say gold is seen as a safe haven in times of market uncertainty, gold prices have already jumped 15 percent this year after record gains last year as well.
French lawmakers have advanced a bill that would ban kids under 15 from using social media. It's backed by President Emmanuel Macron, who says it would help protect children's mental health by limiting screen time. The bill now heads to the Senate.
As China gets ready to welcome the year of the horse next month, one toy for the Lunar New Year is already making waves. Nicknamed the Crying Horse by online shoppers, the toy was designed as a smiling New Year's decoration. But a manufacturing error gave it this sad expression instead.
The store owner who sells the toy says she initially offered a refund after discovering the issue. But the horse's mournful face quickly made it a viral hit, with customers saying it reflects the mood of today's white-collar workers in China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZHANG HOQING, TOY SHOP OWNER (through translator): A lot of customers like it and they said it makes sense that it suits the spirit of today's corporate slaves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The store owner says she plans to keep producing the toy ahead of the holiday, which starts February 17th.
Precious pandas sent packing, why these beloved bears born in Japan are now heading to China.
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CHURCH: The mayor of a town in the Philippines has survived a brazen assassination attempt. He was riding in an armored SUV when he was ambushed Sunday morning, according to state-run news.
Police say the attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade and other high-powered weapons. Three of the alleged attackers were killed following a police chase. The mayor was unharmed.
Two of his security guards were injured but are expected to recover. The motive for the attack is unknown, but the mayor has survived several attempts on his life in recent years. Turning now to Japan, which says it's facing a growing threat from
regional adversaries and that has Japanese armed forces ramping up their exercises. CNN's Jim Sciutto gets a rare look inside a training facility.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Camp Asaka in Tokyo, Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force troops are in training to defend their country. This is the SDF's 1st Division. The force is responsible for protecting the capital in the event of an attack.
At nearby Camp Narima, Colonel Daisuke Shinobe, commanding officer of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the 1st Division, tells me the potential threats come from multiple directions.
COL. DAISUKE SHINOBE, COMMANDING OFFICER, JAPAN GROUND SELF-DEFENS E FORCE (through translator): Not only China, but also Russia and North Korea. We are surrounded by threats from three nations. The Japanese government recognizes that the current security environment is the most severe since the Second World War.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Japan's new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, made that clear in public comments soon after her election in October, stating that Japan would consider a Chinese attack on Taiwan as an existential crisis. In effect, an attack on Japan itself.
SANAE TAKAICHI, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If China were to deploy battleships and involve the use of force, I believe this could be deemed a situation threatening Japan's survival.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Those words enraged Beijing, which condemned them as crossing a red line for China and soon imposed new sanctions on exports of dual-use technologies to Japan and trimmed Chinese imports. But the standoff did nothing to dent Takaichi's popularity. She just called snap elections, betting she can expand her majority in parliament. After decades of being largely defined by limitations to its role and its size, the SDF is gaining confidence and support as well.
SHINOBE (through translator): As threats from neighboring countries are increasing, the Japanese public's understanding and awareness of national defense are growing. And this is supporting us in the self- defense forces.
SCIUTTO: Like in Taiwan, it was Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that led once distant fears of Chinese aggression in the region into a more believable threat. And that has led many here to call not just for more resources for Japan's military, but also the possibility of an expanded mission.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): One growing concern and potential flashpoint, the Senkaku Islands, claimed by both Japan and China, where they are known as the Diaoyu. Following a playbook, Beijing is employed in the South China Sea with the Spratly Islands and on islands close to the Philippines, Chinese vessels frequently conduct operations and harass Japanese ships there.
To Japanese military commanders, the danger of escalation now requires training on multiple fronts.
SHINOBE ()through translator): Training involves not only countering strong opposing forces, but also responding to complex situations such as satellite surveillance, cyber attacks, electromagnetic attacks, and intelligence gathering by drones.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): An expanding mission for the Japanese military at an increasingly harrowing time.
[03:55:05]
Jim Sciutto, CNN, at Camp Narima, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And as tensions between China and Japan rise, two of China's best ambassadors are leaving a Tokyo zoo. Not long ago, crowds gathered to bid farewell to a pair of four-year-old pandas. They're heading back to their ancestral home, marking the first time in decades that there'll be no panda presence in Japan.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery has their report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time in half a century, Japan will be panda-less, as its last two cubs, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, are leaving for China.
SHOKEN IKEDA, PANDA FAN (through translator): I'm really sad. We always said, there's a panda here, so we'll get to see it sometime. And then this happened. I wish I'd come more often.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): News of the twins' departure has drawn fans from across the country, some waiting hours for a final glimpse. Though they were born in Tokyo in 2021, the cubs were always meant to return this year to their motherland, which loans the bears as goodwill ambassadors and to strengthen trade ties.
But as tensions between Japan and China deepen, prospects for another panda loan seem increasingly far-fetched.
YUKIE KUYAMA, PANDA FAN (through translator): It feels like such a cute, innocent animal is being used as a trump card or weapon.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in years, after Japan's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, said in parliament that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could trigger a Japanese military response. China, which claims Taiwan as its own, considers the issue a red line, and has responded with a flurry of economic pressure tactics, like cutting flights, warning citizens against traveling to Japan, and suspending seafood imports. Now the pandas' departure, though pre-planned, feels like yet another blow.
HITOSHI SHIMIZU, GENERAL CURATOR AT UENO ZOO (through translator): Honestly, at the operational level, we don't know if we'll get more pandas, but we hope to continue working with China on conservation and breeding research in the future.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Japan first welcomed pandas in 1972 to mark the normalization of ties with China. What followed was decades of panda fever, with a zoo-surrounding neighborhood transformed by tourism and panda-themed merchandise.
Tens of millions of dollars are generated each year from the panda economy, according to one economist's estimates. But with no new bear loan in sight, Japan's 50-year chapter of panda diplomacy comes to a close.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTEPE)
CHURCH: Thanks for your company this hour, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "Amanpour" is next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Rahel Solomon, starting at 5:00 a.m. in New York, 10:00 a.m. in London.
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