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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Reiners Found Dead In L.A. Home; At Least 15 Killed In Attack On Australia's Jewish Community; Witkoff Says "Progress Made" In U.S.- Ukraine Talks. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired December 15, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law, and the Central Government firmly supports the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in safeguarding national security and punishing crimes endangering national security in accordance with the law." He went on to say, "We urge relevant countries to respect China's sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong."

Again Brian, sentencing will come next. Jimmy Lai is facing a potential sentence of life in prison. He is 78 years old. He has already spent five years behind bars.

Back to you.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Kristie, can you give us a sense of how we arrived at this verdict -- some background? What were the prosecution's key arguments against Lai and how his legal team responded?

STOUT: Absolutely. The prosecution in this case called Jimmy Lai the mastermind. They called him the mastermind behind a campaign to smear the governments in China and in Hong Kong and to launch sanctions or blockades inviting foreign governments to do so against the governments of China and Hong Kong.

Now the defense, all along, maintained no sedition took place. There was no collusion of foreign forces. And also said is it not wrong to endorse and to support freedom of expression. But ultimately the judges -- and these were three appointed judges by the chief executive -- the top leader of Hong Kong. The judges -- they ruled against Jimmy Lai, and he is now guilty of sedition and two counts of collusion with foreign forces, facing this potential life in prison sentence.

Back to you.

ABEL: Kristie Lu Stout for us in Hong Kong. Kristie, thank you.

STOUT: Thank you, Brian.

ABEL: Up next, more on the investigation into the deaths of legendary act and director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:36:20]

ABEL: We are following multiple breaking news stories at this hour, including the investigation into the Brown University shooting on Saturday. Police have released a man detained as a person of interest, saying evidence is now pointing them in a different direction.

The mayor of Providence, Rhode Island sought to reassure the public that the city is safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BRETT SMILEY, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community and we want to reiterate what we said earlier, which remains true -- which is ever since the initial call, now a day and a half ago, we have not received any credible or specific threats to the Providence community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And more now on the breaking news out of Los Angeles. Politicians, celebrities, and fans alike are expressing shock and offering their condolences after the family of director Rob Reiner announced his death and that of his wife Michele.

This comes as police say they are investigating an apparent homicide. And a law enforcement source confirms that the bodies of Rob and Michele Reiner were found in their home. Police say they are seeking a search warrant to conduct a full crime scene investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN HAMILTON, DEPUTY CHIEF, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: The current death investigation that is being conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department is going to be handled by the homicide special section of the robbery homicide division of the Los Angeles Police Department. That investigation will move forward through the night and tomorrow morning we will probably have additional information regarding what occurred here on Chadbourne and our investigation moving forward. We will not be releasing any further information regarding the investigation as occurring here in Brentwood tonight.

Our detectives will be responding along with our forensic science division and our technical investigation division investigators to conduct a full crime scene investigation and determine the appropriateness of the investigation moving forward.

At this time the Los Angeles Police Department is not seeking anyone as a suspect or as a person of interest or in any other manner, and we will not be doing that until we conduct our investigation and we move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And we are continuing to follow developments out of Australia where the worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years in the country has left at least 15 people dead and dozens more injured.

Mourners gathered at Bondi Pavilion today, close to where the shooting happened, to pay their respects to those killed. Among the dead, a 10- year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor, and a rabbi.

Nine Network's Matt Connellan has more from Sydney.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT CONNELLAN, REPORTER, NINE NETWORK: Sydneysiders and, indeed, Australians wake up this morning in a state of shock and despair at the awful events that unfolded on Bondi Beach last night. Fifteen people shot dead. Two shooters taking to a Hannukah celebration. One of those shooters was, himself, killed by police at the scene. So 15 victims of this shooting so far.

There are 27 patients right now in hospital. Six of those are critically ill; six of those are critical but stable. Two police officers who raced into the line of fire were also badly injured. They are both in critical condition as well.

The ages of the victims range from 10 to 87.

As for the shooters, they were a father and a son. The father, as I said, was shot dead at the scene -- a 50-year-old. His son, 24 years of age. The father had six guns legally in his possession.

[05:40:00]

A number of raids occurred across Sydney in the immediate aftermath of that shooting and a number of arrests were made as well.

It was declared a terror incident by our authorities here. That means that the joint counterterrorism task force will take over this operation and investigation. That means police from here in New South Wales as well as Australian Federal Police.

This is the worst shooting incident in this country since the Port Arthur massacre nearly 30 years ago. That led to widespread gun reform in this country. And today, the Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns hinted that further gun reform could well be on the way as a result of this massacre.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Matt Connellan reporting there.

Let's get more now from John Coyne, the director of national security programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. John, thank you for joining us.

As you've heard details of how this all --

JOHN COYNE, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAMS, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Thank you, Brian.

ABEL: -- unfolded, what stands out to you the most?

Uh, what stands out to me the most is how instances like this bring out what is the best about my country. What is the best about Australians.

During that attack a Muslim Australian, middle-aged man, unarmed ran across the car park and tackled an armed shooter, took his weapon off him, only to be later shot twice. We saw people throw themselves on top of children to protect them. We saw our police force act without reservation, running towards threat. We saw them shoot down the offenders and then being CPR on them. We saw Australians grabbing people off the street and taking them into their houses to make sure they are protected.

So what we saw was that everything that those cowardly terrorists were trying to achieve was not achieved in terms of fear and divisiveness in Australian society.

ABEL: It is so true that whenever we see the worst in humanity, we also see the best in it as well, as you just described.

I do want to talk a little bit about this investigation and the suspects here, specifically the background of the son in this father- son duo that were suspected of this mass murder. He was apparently known to authorities but not deemed a threat.

What do you make of that?

COYNE: Look Brian, you know, it appears that about six years ago, Naveed, which the -- which is the son's name -- had some sort of connection to people with connections to Islamic State. We know here in Australia our security agencies, the Australian Secret Intelligence Organization, which is sort of like part of the FBI function for domestic intelligence, would have undertaken a threat assessment looking at his capability and intent and found him not to be a high priority target.

Now, six years later, we started to get a picture of a person who was actively involved in connecting with people involved in Islamic State who was indeed radicalized. It appears that he and his father did travel to the Philippines for a month.

So we're getting a picture of a person here who is not an innocent, who was not radicalized in a short period of time, and that intelligence system didn't flag as a threat.

ABEL: And I do want to make note that CNN has not been able to independently verify that information yet.

I do want you to, if you can, help us understand what communities who are under attack, like the Jewish community, can do to protect themselves, whether here in the U.S. or internationally where gun laws vary from region to region, sometimes drastically and therefore so to the threat potentially.

COYNE: Look, absolutely. And I think -- I want to take a couple of steps back here, Brian, and I think what I want to really reiterate is the fundamental issue here is not to allow a mix-up between what is free speech and what is the expression of our democratic rights, be they in the U.S., Australia or elsewhere. And what is, indeed, hate speech. And what is, indeed, ideologically driven crime or violence or what is terrorism.

And I think there has been a slow process of normalization of antisemitism occurring across many Western liberal democracies. And certainly we saw that since the 7th of October attacks with a number of pro-Palestinian -- pro-Palestinian protests.

[05:45:00]

So I think the other issue here is at the end of the day this event is not about Arabs and Jews. It is not about -- or Israelis. It's not about Muslims and Jewish people. It is about antisemitism. It is about a small number of people targeting a community based on hate. And it's about that sort of cowardice.

That said, community groups do need to be increasingly security aware in the current environment where we see a rise in antisemitism and a targeting of Jewish people.

The Australian Prime Minister John Howard, of many years ago, during the initial period of September 11, raised this as being alert and not alarmed.

The terrorists win if we change our behavior. If we allow fear to drive us. But there is nothing wrong with being increasingly security aware when we face these sorts of problems.

ABEL: All right. John Coyne for us. I really appreciate your time and expertise, sir. Thank you for joining us.

COYNE: Thank you, Brian.

ABEL: Still ahead, President Donald Trump has reacted to the weekend's multiple tragedies. His words for victims and their families when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:50:33]

ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are the stories we are watching today.

Police in Rhode Island have released a man detained in connection with Saturday's deadly shooting at Brown University. Officials say they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute the person of interest. Law enforcement has asked the public for any information that may help investigators find the person responsible for killing at least two people and injuring nine others.

The family of director Rob Reiner has announced his death and that of his wife Michele. A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation confirms their bodies were found in their Los Angeles home. Police say they are seeking a search warrant to conduct a full crime scene investigation for what they are now treating as an apparent homicide.

Australia plans to strengthen its already tough gun laws with new measures that will restrict who gets a license as well as how many guns someone can own. The announcement comes just a day after a mass shooting left at least 15 people dead and dozens injured at a Hannukah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach.

U.S. President Donald Trump is reacting to that deadly attack in Sydney but also the shooting at Brown University. Here is what he said on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before we begin, however, I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately, who are no longer with us. Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from heaven. And likewise in Australia. As you know, there was a terrible attack and it was an antisemitic attack, obviously. And it -- I just want to pay my respects to everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Talks continue between the U.S. and Ukraine on a potential peace deal with Russia. We'll get a live update just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:56:54]

ABEL: U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff says progress has been made during talks with Ukrainian officials in Berlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been meeting with Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as European officials.

On social media, Witkoff said Sunday's meeting lasted over five hours. He also said the delegates discussed the peace plan to end the conflict in Ukraine as well as economic agendas. Those talks are set to continue today.

So let's get more now from CNN's Clare Sebastian joining us live from London. And Clare, give us an idea of where these conversations may be going.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So after five hours (audio gap) Brian, they are continuing this morning. The U.S. and Ukrainian delegations going through the finer details of some of the sort of peace proposals on the table.

We know that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has also met this morning with President Alexander Stubb of Finland and is set to meet with other European allies later today. I think -- look, clearly, there are some extremely difficult issues under discussion right now. Number one, for Ukraine, I (audio gap) guarantees. How any potential peace deal or ceasefire could be enforced and could prevent any further Russian aggression.

President Zelenskyy sort of acknowledging and reiterating on Sunday that he knew that NATO membership was not imminent for Ukraine, but he said that bilateral security guarantees that would essentially mirror NATO's Article 5 could be, in his words, an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression. So that's, in his view, already a compromise there.

On the issue of territory, this is extremely difficult. There's a significant amount, I think, of concern from Ukraine and from Europe on a U.S. proposal that emerged last week of a -- of a demilitarized zone or a free economic zone. It's not exactly clear yet in the part of Donetsk that Ukraine still controls that Russia is demanding it give up. Ukraine, I think, is very concerned that would mean that its troops withdraw but Russia's don't, and that it essentially would not prevent further aggression.

So that's the kind of issues that are on the table and that why I think that after five hours on Sunday they've reconvened this morning.

And I think for Europeans there's a lot at stake here. They essentially now have to step up to support Ukraine not only militarily, not only financially, but in these negotiations to prevent any kind of undue pressure coming from the U.S. side as it pushes on ever tighter timelines towards some kind of final deal, Brian.

ABEL: All right. We'll see where this all goes.

Clare Sebastian for us in London. Clare, thank you.

A JetBlue flight heading to New York narrowly avoided a midair collision with a U.S. military plane off the coast of Venezuela. The pilot blamed the Air Force refueling tanker for crossing its flight path, saying the aircraft did not have its transponder turned on. The controller responded, saying "There has been an unidentified aircraft within our air."

JetBlue says it has reported the incident to federal authorities. The Air Force has not responded to a request for comment.

That does it for us. Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, D.C. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.