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Heavy Rain Kills More Than 1,250 Throughout Asia; Lebanon Will Bid Farewell To Pope At Airport Ceremony; Lane Kiffin Introduced As New Head Coach At LSU. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 02, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:15]
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: The death toll in Hong Kong has risen to 156 after the massive fire that tore through a high-rise residential complex last week. Families of those who died, and locals visited the site of the fire on Tuesday. Officials say 30 people are still missing and some may never be found.
Hong Kong's chief executive says the government is working to make sure history doesn't repeat itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN LEE, HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE: We must act seriously to ensure that all these loopholes are plugged so that those who are responsible will be accountable. The shortcomings will be addressed, the bottlenecks will be addressed, and we will reform the whole building renovation system to ensure that such a thing will not happen again.
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ABEL: Authorities have made more than a dozen arrests. Most of those in custody are consultants, contractors, and subcontractors connected to the construction and renovation of the high-rise.
Meanwhile, more than 1,200 people have been killed by flooding and landslides caused by heavy rainfall throughout parts of Asia. Cyclone- fueled downpours battered areas of Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, and Sri Lanka was hit by a separate storm. Hundreds more are still missing with millions affected as the disaster damaged homes and cut off communities from critical supplies.
CNN's Mike Valerio is following developments from Beijing. And just a heartbreaking situation in so many areas, Mike.
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Abel. And, you know, our super producer Kocha Olarn -- she's based in Bangkok, and she just sent in this new reporting. I really think it gets to the heart of matter. She asked a victim, Brian, in one of the hard-hit sites what did this feel like? And the victim told her it felt like the tsunami.
And we put together a two-minute story just to give you an idea of what people are experiencing, so go ahead -- take a look.
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VALERIO (voiceover): Across flood-ravaged Sri Lanka the military called in to airlift fuel for families cut off from the rest of the country by Cyclone Ditwah. Social media video from Sri Lanka's air force showing a child rescued, pulled up to safety as neighboring India and Pakistan also send in aircraft to help.
In Indonesia's West Sumatra signs of Cyclone Senyar's human toll are everywhere. Orange body bags carried by rescue and recovery teams.
This man lost both his mother and mother-in-law, saying they were sick and could not walk.
MUHAMMAD RAIS, PALEMBAYAN RESIDENT (through translator): This building used to be my house. This was a mosque and that was my parents' house, our rice mill, my younger brother's house, and my in-laws.
VALERIO (voiceover): This is a before view of Songkhla Province in Thailand from October, and this is a view from Sunday. A snapshot of West Sumatra from the summer and one from over the weekend.
Sri Lanka's President Anura Kumara Dissanayake emphasizing the scale of the catastrophe.
ANURA KUMARA DISSANAYAKE, SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As a country we are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history. We also recognize that what we are undertaking is the most difficult rescue operation in our nation's history.
VALERIO (voiceover): In Sri Lanka, more than 24,000 police, army, and air force personnel are still trying to reach families stranded by floods, authorities said.
SUNETHRA PRIYADARSHINI, GARMENT FACTORY WORKER (through translator): In the night, things were normal. But the next morning everything was underwater, including our house. Seven of us, including children, took refuge on the top floor. There are another 15 adults still there. Their houses are completely underwater.
VALERIO (voiceover): Back in Indonesia mud in some areas seen coming up to the top of doorframes. This woman says her child was the one who rescued her and the flood was as high as the attic. She's got no food from the government yet, only from relatives.
All as hundreds remain missing across the worst-hit areas of Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
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VALERIO: So with Sri Lanka's President Anura Kumara Dissanayake saying that he thinks this could be the largest disaster in the country's history that would also include the 2004 tsunami. So his comments -- you heard the sound bite right there -- suggest the scale of the devastation -- maybe not the death toll itself, but the geography of the devastation in Sri Lanka could be larger than what it experienced in December of 2004.
[05:35:00]
So what we're looking for over the next couple of hours is the storyline of the missing. Four hundred seventy-five people are still missing in Indonesia right now. In Sri Lanka, it's 336. So even though we see that devastation there is still the search for people who haven't been found for days now, Brian.
ABEL: Wow. Difficult but critical reporting. Thank you for bringing us those stories and images. Hopefully they get the help that they need.
VALERIO: You're welcome.
ABEL: Mike Valerio in Beijing for us. Mike, thank you.
VALERIO: Yeah.
ABEL: Trader Joe's supermarket doesn't have any stores in London, so why are people there so enthusiastic about them? We'll find out when we come back.
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[05:40:12]
ABEL: Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.
Let's take a check of U.S. futures ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street in the coming hours. Right now you see all three major indices are slightly up.
And checking now on some of today's business headlines.
Analysts are expressing concern as the November slide in the value of cryptocurrency moves into December. Bitcoin has seen intense swings in recent weeks and slumped by six percent on Monday alone. The worry is that could signal trouble ahead for the stock market. The currency tumbled more than $4,000 from just above $91,000 yesterday. Current price, just under $86,900.
Adobe says Cyber Monday is officially the biggest online shopping day of the year and of all time. Its stats show consumers spent over $9 billion online for Cyber Monday, and that's not even the entire day's tally. When all is said and done it expects the final amount will be between $13.9 billion and $14.2 billion.
And just days after warning of one technical problem with its popular A320 airplane, Airbus has announced another. The company says it has identified a supplier quality issue affecting metal panels and says the problem is "very limited." But Airbus shares were down following the news.
How does an American grocery retailer with no stores outside the U.S. become a London fashion icon? Easy -- it's in the bag.
CNN's Richard Quest and Anna Cooban investigate.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Trader Joe's is a grocery store institution known for high quality and reasonable prices. They're everywhere. The bags are also ubiquitous. They used to be a bit of a fashion statement here in New York but now the way they've taken off overseas it's worth a great deal.
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: I'm in a trendy part of East London on a fact-finding mission because I want to know why these bags have really taken off in the U.K. despite the fact that Trader Joe's doesn't even have a store in the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime I go anywhere people are complimenting me on it, which is odd because it's just a thing you would have in the states.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People saw it on TikTok.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see something -- a piece of, like, something that people wear online. You see you like it because you see it more and more and get used to it, and you think that's what you want to wear because everybody wears it, basically.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I did bring this back from L.A. all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to London.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels like it's not a luxury but something like niched. You know, you have to be in America to have one of those so maybe that's the reason why people think it's cool. But it's basically just a supermarket.
COOBAN (voiceover): As with all fashion trends it's about individual taste.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn't wear it because I'm a black-only wearer.
COOBAN (voiceover): Anna Cooban, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: And just ahead, we take you to Lebanon and a check on the final leg of Pope Leo's first overseas trip.
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[05:47:48]
ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today.
Top national security officials have met with President Trump in the Oval Office to discuss potential next steps in Venezuela. This comes amid bipartisan backlash over a double-tap strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean. The White House says the head of U.S. Special Operations Command is responsible despite the Defense secretary authorizing the attacks.
And immigration and enforcement operation is expected to begin soon in Louisiana, according to sources familiar with the planning. A dozen officers were seen entering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near New Orleans on Monday. A source told CNN the agents are there for safety reasons. Local officials say they've received few details about the operation.
Voters in Tennessee's 7th district will head to the polls in the coming hours to choose a new congressional representative in a special election. Democratic leaders are rallying around Aftyn Behn, who has been campaigning on the skyrocketing cost of living. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson pushing for voters to elect Matt Van Epps to help maintain his party's slim margin of control.
And the White House is releasing a memo from Donald Trump's doctor about advanced medical testing he underwent in October. The U.S. president told reporters that he had received an MRI but says he doesn't know which part of his body was examined. Trump's doctor says the medical imaging was of his cardiovascular and abdominal systems and that they showed "perfectly normal results."
The news about the imaging raised eyebrows at the time because they are not routine procedures, but the White House claims they are.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health. The purpose of this imaging is preventative. This level of detailed assessment is standard for an executive physical at President Trump's age and confirms that he remains in excellent overall health.
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[05:50:00]
ABEL: All right. Pope Leo XIV is wrapping up his first trip abroad as pontiff. You're seeing live images right now. He has spent the last three days in Lebanon spreading a message of interfaith cooperation and peace in a country struggling with instability and regional conflict.
On his final day he visited a local hospital and the sites of Beirut's 2020 port blast. Leo met with families of the victims and paused for a silent prayer. He also celebrated a huge public mass on the city's waterfront.
And for more on his trip senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman is joining us live from Beirut -- and it's been a busy trip, Ben. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, and
the culmination, of course, was this mass on the Beirut waterfront where we were there. There were tens of thousands of people coming from not only from Lebanon but also Syria as well, which has seen its Christian community shrink as a result of the long and bloody civil war there.
But certainly, the atmosphere was one of -- was hope of people. I can tell you that for a country that has been through such a difficult period in its history this visit by such a prominent world figure has really been a ray of hope for people here who appreciated the pope coming here and appreciated the words that he said at that mass where he called upon world leaders to do more to bring peace to this region.
This is what he said.
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POPE LEO XIV: I ask the international community once again to spare no effort in promoting processes of dialogue and reconciliation and make a heartfelt appeal to those who hold political and social authority here and, in all countries, marked by war and violence. Listen to the cry of your people who are calling for peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WEDEMAN: And what we seem to see, however, is that call is falling on deaf ears. Israel has made it clear that if Hezbollah does not disarm by the 31st of this month, as demanded by the Trump administration, it has warned that it could resume the full-scale war on Lebanon. Hezbollah, for its part, hasn't fired back after almost daily Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets and infrastructure since the ceasefire went into effect a year ago. But there is real fear that once Pope Leo's plane takes off trouble could begin again.
So it was three days of celebration, of happiness, of hope. And what comes next, fingers are crossed that something will be left behind from the pope's visit that could spare this country more sorrow -- Brian.
ABEL: That is certainly the hope for so many there in Lebanon.
Ben Wedeman for us in Beirut. Ben, thank you.
Still ahead, is has built up one college football powerhouse only to leave for another. You'll hear from LSU's brand new head coach Lane Kiffin, up next.
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[05:57:40]
ABEL: Louisiana State University has officially introduced its new head football coach. Lane Kiffin joins the Tigers after stepping down at rival Ole Miss. In a news conference Monday Kiffin said leaving Mississippi was difficult but that coaching at LSU is the best job in football.
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LANE KIFFIN, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY: Our program here at LSU will be designed top to bottom to be the number one destination for elite players in all of America. That's why we're here. Our immediate priority is assembling the best staff in the country and securing top talent. The mission is simple: Bring the best players in the country to LSU, and it starts right here in the state of Louisiana.
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ABEL: Kiffin coached at Ole Miss for six seasons, guiding the Rebels to an 11-1 record this year, their best season in more than six decades and most likely the school's first-ever college football playoff spot.
CNN spoke with ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum who explained why Kiffin's decision to leave Ole Miss for a conference rival isn't too surprising.
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PAUL FINEBAUM, ESPN SPORTSWRITER AND BROADCASTER: It's almost impossible to describe to a national audience how chaotic and how Shakesperean this really is. But Lane Kiffin is somebody who has just bounced around in so many different places. He was fired at 31 by the Oakland Raiders. He ended up bouncing back at Tennessee. He left after one year in the middle of the night, taking players and coaches with him to go to Southern Cal when he was fired on the tarmac after a loss.
He resurrected his career because Nick Saban gave him a job when nobody would talk to him. Of course, he got fired in Alabama even though he already accepted another job. But he was not paying attention to the national semifinals and Nick Saban fired him a week before the title game.
And here we are again. It is not surprising that Lane Kiffin has walked out. But what is surprising is that Ole Miss has waited its entire life -- it's been since 1963 that they've been in this position. And on the eve of the college football playoff, what does Lane Kiffin do? What Lane Kiffin always does -- he burns down the house that he built to go to another school that's better and also the biggest rival of Ole Miss.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:00:00]
ABEL: All right. Who says you can't celebrate Christmas with a little fun in the sun? Visitors at a beach in Rio de Janeiro -- a beach -- gathered for the lighting of a floating Christmas tree on Sunday. The structure is more than 260 feet or 80 meters tall with around two million LED lights. Yeah, the Christmas spirit can be found anywhere. Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in
Washington, D.C. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
