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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

FBI, DHS Investigating Claims Of Fraud In Minnesota; Impact Of President Trump's Tariffs In 2025; Trump, Netanyahu Meeting Yields No Clear Progress On Gaza. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired December 30, 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]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Whitney Wild has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: The FBI says it is surging more resources into Minneapolis to combat fraud. This is just the latest chapter in a sprawling fraud investigation that goes back several years -- all the way back to 2022.

Director Kash Patel, the head of the FBI, seemed to be reacting to a YouTube video from a man named Nick Shirley. That video has now received more than 115 million views and is continuing to grow. In this video, Shirley says that he's uncovering more fraudulent businesses in the Somali community. That 42-minute video was also retweeted by Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk.

In the video Shirley confronts people at several daycare centers and confronts lawmakers over fraud schemes.

The FBI director saying his agents have been all over this case since the very beginning, saying this. "Even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs." In touting the arrests, Patel said that "The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg."

The FBI also says that there were dozens of arrests. There have been more than 75 defendants in this case. Again, that goes back years. Many of those defendants are concentrated in the Minneapolis area -- the Minneapolis area's Somali American community.

DHS is also weighing in here. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem tweeting this. "DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis going door-to-door at suspected fraud sites. The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and arrests when abuse is found."

The fraud cases have really become a major political flashpoint for Republicans.

We reached out to Governor Tim Walz's office to ask more questions. Walz's office said this. "The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthen oversight, including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. He hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs and shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, and announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions."

Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. One of the biggest stories of 2025 was Donald Trump's trade war. We'll look at how his tariffs impacted three countries in particular.

And British boxer Anthony Joshua is lucky to be alive after a deadly car crash that killed two colleagues on what's considered the most dangerous road in Nigeria. What police say caused the fatal accident, next.

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[05:36:55]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.

We're keeping an eye on U.S. stock futures ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street, and here is where things stand. The Dow looking up and let's -- hopefully things get better for the Nasdaq and S&P throughout the day.

All right. Checking some of today's business headlines.

Beyonce is now a billionaire. According to Forbes, the milestone for the mega star comes after her record-breaking 2023 world tour bringing in nearly $600 million. Her success continued with her Grammy-winning country album "Cowboy Carter." And she is now the fifth musician to join the list along with her husband Jay-Z, as well as Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, and Rhianna.

And former Lululemon CEO Chip Wilson has nominated three new directors amid a fight for control of the activewear company. Lululemon's stock has lost more than 40 percent of its value this year. Wilson says new leadership is needed for the company to thrive, but another investment firm is also moving to assume control of the athletic brand.

And Meta says it is acquiring Manus, a Chinese-founded AI startup. Earlier this year, Manus released what it claims is the first of -- the world's first general AI agent capable of making decisions more and acting autonomously. Meta says it will sell Manus' service to other companies and will integrate it into its consumer and business products, including Meta AI.

All right. The big story of this year in the global economy was Donald Trump's trade war. The U.S. president issued a series of punishing tariffs on countries around the world in April.

CNN's Anna Cooban looks at the impact on three countries in particular.

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ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Twenty twenty-five has been a momentous year for global trade. When President Donald Trump took office again for the second time in January everybody was scared of tariffs. And then when his "Liberation Day" -- his so-called "Liberation Day" came in April and he announced a lot of these reciprocal tariffs, it was a lot worse than expected. A lot higher than expected.

Now, this trade war has had far-reaching implications but to really get into it I'll just focus on three countries to try and explain to you just how significant this has all been.

So firstly, we've got the U.S. and China, two major trading partners. The world's second-largest economy is China. Now after this reciprocal tariff debacle we see China yanking up tariffs on the United States, and the United States responding in-kind. We're now in this tit-for- tat trade war. But the impact on China has actually been fairly mixed. In fact, you might say in some cases it's been quite positive.

Now, China is the only country in the world that has logged a trade surplus. That's when people buying all things from China and then China buys from them. It logged a surplus of a trillion dollars in just the first 11 months of the year. No other country has ever achieved that milestone.

[05:40:05]

And we can see here that Chinese exports to many parts of the world -- Europe, up 10 percent; Africa, up nearly 30 percent in that same time. That more than offsets this over 18 percent drop in Chinese exports to the United States.

However, it's not all so rosy for other countries. Switzerland -- we see Switzerland here has got the -- logged the steepest fall in its GDP and in its economy during the third quarter this year since back in the pandemic. Since the height of COVID.

Now many people were quite confused when President Trump announced a 39 percent tariff on Switzerland. Many people asking what did Switzerland ever do to the United States? That's not reached -- and they've now reached an agreement to lower that down to 15 percent. But as you can see, some of the damage has already been done.

Now to Canada, the closest trading relationship with the United States. We saw the United States say they're going to put a 25 percent tariff on most Canadian goods. Earlier this year a 50 percent tariff on aluminum and steel imports into the U.S. And this has had an impact on Canada's manufacturing sector. So we've seen that since the start of the year the sector has lost over 36,000 jobs. In fact, the workforce in this sector is now the smallest it's been since September 2021. Again, when the country was reeling from the impact of the pandemic.

So this year has been pretty big -- a pretty big one for trade. Now we don't know what's going to happen in the next few years and how this is all going to play out. It could be that the Supreme Court overturns some of these reciprocal tariffs. They're currently looking into that right now. But whatever happens, we know that in many cases the damage has already happened.

Anna Cooban, CNN, London.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, we have more on the meeting between President Trump and the Israeli prime minister and what's at stake in Gaza and Iran. Stay with us.

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[05:46:20]

WHITFIELD: All right -- welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are some of the stories that we're watching today.

CNN has exclusive reporting that the CIA carried out a drone strike on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela earlier this month. It marks the first known U.S. attack on a target inside the country. According to sources, the U.S. government believed the remote dock was being used by Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and to load them onto boats.

And President Trump says he held a productive call with Vladimir Putin amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine. And he says during that call the Russian leader told him that a Ukrainian drone attack had targeted one of his residences -- a claim Kyiv has emphatically denied. The Kremlin is dismissing calls for Russia to provide evidence of the alleged attack.

The Israeli prime minister announced Monday that U.S. President Trump will receive the Israeli Prize for Peace. It marks the first time Israel's highest civilian excellence honor will be awarded to a non- Israeli citizen. A source tells CNN that President Trump is considering attending the ceremony, which is held on Israel's Independence Day.

CNN's Kevin Liptak has more from West Palm Beach, Florida.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump heaped praise on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting down here in Palm Beach on Monday. They had a number of issues to discuss and neither man seemed to put any daylight between themselves on all of these critical points of discussion, whether it was Iran --

President Trump saying that he had heard things about Iran. That it was rapidly accelerating various programs, be it nuclear or ballistic missile programs, and that the U.S. stood ready to potentially join Israel if it was required to go in and strike. He said they would knock them down very quickly. "We'll knock the hell out of them," which I think will be good news to Benjamin Netanyahu who entered this meeting intent on warning the president about what Israel sees as rapid developments in Iran's ballistic nuclear program.

When it came to Gaza, the president really putting the onus on Hamas to further disarm. That has been part of the phase two of the ceasefire deal. There had been some concerns among American officials that Israel could potentially be slow-walking the move to this second stage of the deal. But President Trump really revealed none of that during his remarks with Netanyahu down here in Florida, saying that it will be a necessity to Hamas -- for Hamas to move very, very quickly to disarm or that nations would go in and essentially do it for them.

Now when it comes to sort of the political issues between the two men and the relationship between the two men, I think Netanyahu couldn't have asked for anything more. You know, he's staring down a tough re- election battle in Israel next year and I think he entered this meeting looking for a degree of political boosting from President Trump. Now, President Trump offered that in spades. He says he doesn't think Israel would exist without Netanyahu as prime minister.

Netanyahu really did repay the favor, awarding President Trump the Israel Prize. That's the first time it has ever been awarded to a non- Israeli.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:50:00]

WHITFIELD: All right. British boxer Anthony Joshua is recuperating from minor injuries after being a passenger in a car crash in Nigeria that killed two of his associates. Authorities say the driver lost control of the SUV on a highway that is considered the most dangerous road in the country.

Larry Madowo has more.

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LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anthony Joshua has called Ibadan one of his favorite cities to go to in Nigeria because his granddad lives there -- and now there's a painful memory to go with it. The British boxer of Nigerian descent involved in a tragic accident while driving on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Joshua was in the back of this Lexus SUV that authorities say was speeding on that highway and lost control while overtaking and crashed into a stationary truck that was well-parked on the side of the highway.

Two people were killed in this accident -- the driver of the car Anthony Joshua was in, and a passenger. Joshua survived with minor injuries and one other passenger survived as well. Social media video shows Anthony Joshua getting pulled out of the

wreckage of this car, which is in a bad state. He appears to be in pain, in a daze. He is walked across the road and into the passenger seat of a police vehicle and driven away for treatment.

It's an accident that has shocked Nigeria and the world, especially as Anthony Joshua has recently been in the news after having knocked out Jake Paul in this well-publicized Netflix bout just a week ago.

Hours before this accident he had posted a video playing ping-pong with one of his team members and then this accident.

People paying attention to it because Anthony Joshua is much beloved in that country, here in the U.K., and around the world. One of the most famous boxers out there. But a lot of people sending support, including President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria sending sympathies. Many leaders and many in the country praying for him and sending condolences to those who were killed in this accident.

Larry Madowo, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And shortly after the crash, Jake Paul sent condolences on X, writing "Life is much more important than boxing. I am praying for the lost lives, AJ, and anyone impacted by today's unfortunate accident."

All right. George and Amal Clooney are now citizens of France, according to a government gazette notice. Documents show that the couple and their two children have been granted French citizenship. This comes after years of privacy concerns about raising their children in Hollywood around paparazzi. While the family has homes in the U.S. and England, Clooney told the Times earlier this year that their primary residence is a farm in France, a country with stronger privacy laws. And those laws include rules that make it illegal to photograph someone in a private place.

All right. Still to come, we'll take you around the world for some unique traditions as people get ready to welcome 2026. Did one of yours make the list?

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[05:57:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Phone ringing)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello? Hey, Kristie.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Will. I need your help for CNN "NEW YEAR'S EVE LIVE IN ASIA." Why not fly out and do the show together live from Bangkok?

RIPLEY: Bang what?

STOUT: Bangkok. We'll have CNN Fan Zone live games.

RIPLEY: Who knows my name?

STOUT: Will, we are on. I'll see you in Bangkok, and bring a tux, too. It's happening.

RIPLEY: Did she say what I think she said?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join Kristie Lu Stout and Will Ripley live from Bangkok with celebrations in every city at midnight, New Year's Eve on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, that'll be fun. And the countdown is on to 2026. And while the team here at CNN is getting ready for our own New Year's party, the folks in Times Square are making sure the confetti is ready for midnight. More than 3,000 tons of it will be dumped on crowds there.

But have you ever wondered how other parts of the world ring in the new year? Here's our Max Burnell.

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MAX BURNELL, CNN PRODUCER, EDITOR (voiceover): What does eating 12 grapes, wearing red underwear, and receiving coal from a tall, dark- haired man have in common? Well, depending on where you are in the world these actions are thought to bring you good luck in the new year.

For a lot of us, celebrations on December 31 might look something like this.

TIMES SQUARE CROWD: Three, two, one.

BURNELL (voiceover): Fireworks have become widely recognized as a way to mark the new year, but they originally became popular in Asia to ward off evil spirits.

Around the world there are a multitude of lesser known traditions and rituals at the turn of a new year and many of them include food. Some of us might be eating soba noodles for a long life, lentils for money and prosperity, or marzipan piglets for good fortune.

The tradition of eating exactly 12 grapes at midnight -- one for each toll of the clock -- to encourage a prosperous new year originated in Spain. More recently, it has spread around the world after gaining popularity on TikTok.

But it's not all about the food. Wearing red underwear is said to bring you good luck, especially if it's a gift from someone else.

Want to travel more? In some Latin cultures people believe walking around with an empty suitcase at the end of one year might bring more trips in the next.

And in Scotland a custom called "first footing" means the first person to enter your house on January 1 might influence your year. Traditionally, it should be a tall, dark-haired man coming with gifts, including a coin, some shortbread, coal, and whiskey for good fortune.

[06:00:10]

Superstitions, traditions, celebrations -- however you want to mark the new year, we'll leave it to you.

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WHITFIELD: Ooh, I've got to grab one of those traditions and make it mine.

All right. Thank you so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in New York. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.