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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Dozens Of Countries Invited To Join Board Of Peace; Trump Takes To World Stage At Economic Forum In Davos; Former Officer Acquitted In Uvalde School Shooting Trial; House Oversight Committee To Depose Ghislaine Maxwell On February 9; Late Designer Valentino Lies In State In Rome. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 22, 2026 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back in time now is 4:30 Eastern, any moment now U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to host a signing ceremony in Davos for his so called Board of Peace. The committee is set to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. But there's concern among some officials that the board could attempt to replace the work of the United Nations. And these remarks didn't help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want your Board of Peace to replace the UN?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S PRESIDENT: Well, it might. I mean the U.N. just hasn't been very helpful. I'm a big fan of the U.N. potential, but it has never lived up to its potential. The U.N. should have settled every one of the wars that I settled. I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them.
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SOLOMON: Dozens of countries, including Russia have been asked to join Trump's board. President Trump was asked why Vladimir Putin was invited. If there's concern about Russia being a threat to Greenland. Here's his response.
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TRUMP: Because we want everybody, we want all nations. We want all nations where people have control, people have power, that we're never going to have a problem. Yes, I have some controversial people on it, but these are people that get the job done. These are people that have tremendous influence. If I put all babies on the board, there wouldn't be very much. So he was invited, he's accepted.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SOLOMON: Well, it has been a busy few days at Davos so far. CNN's Anna Cooban is live in London to talk about the latest. Anna, it's also been a bit of market whiplash the past few days. We know that when Trump speaks, markets tend to listen. Walk us through where things stand right now in Europe.
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, European markets obviously aren't quite relieved at this. At the moment they're up around or over 1 percent. But U.S. markets yesterday rebounding as well. Remember that Tuesday was the worst day for U.S. markets since October.
Now investors, Rahel, have been here before with this so called Trump TACO trade standing for Trump always chickens out and there are many reasons as to why that's probably the case. But I will point you to the U.S. bond market.
Now this, we saw a sell off with U.S. bonds earlier this week as well. Now that raises the yields on those bonds which then has in many cases a direct effect on interest rates on the cost of borrowing for American consumers, businesses, the U.S. government.
And that seemed to have spooked Trump last year with his tariff threats and especially 2026 in an election year, the midterms coming up in November, raising the cost of borrowing is the last thing that he wants. That might help explain why we saw him back down yesterday.
SOLOMON: Yes, the last thing he wants. And the last thing I think a lot of U.S. consumers want as well. And we also saw Trump walk back on that tariff threat, as you just pointed out. But it appeared to be after what was really a show of strength from a lot of European leaders, how seriously was Europe considering using retaliatory tariffs or the anti-coercion instrument, what's been called the trade bazooka.
COOBAN: They were really serious about this. And, you know, we've got an emergency meeting still planned for tonight between E.U. leaders to discuss, you know, maybe not their retaliation to this, but at least maybe this whole debacle.
U.S., sorry, French President Emmanuel Macron was very strident in his talk tone, saying that the E.U. should not hesitate to deploy this anti coercion instrument. Now, I was speaking with analyst earlier this week who told me that the beauty of this instrument is its vagueness. It basically gives the E.U. the carte blanche to do kind of what it wants. If it wants to put a tax on U.S. services, it can. If it wants to have export controls for European products going to the United States, blocking U.S. companies access to investment opportunities, it can do just that.
So that was also on the table and might also explain Trump's -- Trump's backing down. But there is one sort of real clear message or mood, at least among European leaders, and that is that they just can't rely on the U.S. like they used to and that they're going to have to in some way go it alone.
SOLOMON: Anna Cooban in London. Anna, thank you.
And joining us now to discuss further is Michael Bociurkiw, Global Affairs Analyst and founder of the World Briefing Report, and senior fellow at The Atlantic Council. Michael, good to see you again.
As I said, we're waiting to hear from Trump. Really it could happen any moment now. And if it does, obviously, we'll break away and we'll get back to you on the opposite end. But you watched the entirety of his speech yesterday. What are you watching for and looking for in his comments in the next few minutes or so?
MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Sure, yes. Good to be with you again.
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Yes, journalists at the Foreign Correspondence Club of Thailand were so impressed that I managed to make it through the whole speech. But look, we're looking for more clarity, if you will, on the so called Board of Peace at the moment, yes, it does look like something that would be in competition with the U.N. and also maybe he could give us a little more understanding of why these founding members have been selected.
So what are we looking at right now? We're looking at some six monarchs, three ex-Soviet apparatchiks, a leader wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes. And you know, some of these leaders that have been invited to be part of this board of peace, like Lukashenko of Belarus, they wouldn't look out of place in an orange jumpsuit. And I'm surprised. Maybe he's still going to send an invitation to Kim Jong Un.
But also the vagueness too. Maybe Mr. Trump will give us some clarity there. He is now the indefinite chairman of this. Is he looking for an indefinite position after his second term if it ends to be someone who wants to, as he puts it, make the world great again. So a lot of questions here and a lot of understandable cynicism.
SOLOMON: Yes, it sounds like there's some cynicism and at the very least some skepticism, Michael, about who has been invited to join. But Canadian Prime Minister, I mean, you're from Canada. Mark Carney confirmed that he will be joining the board. Do you think that's a mistake?
BOCIURKIW: I believe the Canadians are still thinking about it. Thinking about it. That's our Canadian nature. We take our time, we consult widely. And I think the Canadian taxpayer will be pretty upset if we forked over a billion dollars to be members.
Now, let's be clear, that check for $1 billion is due only after three years of membership. You know, Carney, he's been impressive so far. He impressed a lot of people with that speech. But you know, in World Briefing the other day, we had an editorial cartoon where the Chinese panda and the Canadian beaver were in a tight embrace. And the kind of caption was, you have to be careful how tightly you embrace that Chinese panda because it could leave scratch marks. So what is meant by that is Carney has to be very careful with his
increasing closeness to China. You know, and at the same time, yes, we want to be leaders of the so called Coalition of the Unwilling.
But you know what, as a Canadian, I can say this is under Justin Trudeau, we gave a lot of our influence away and we failed in our bid to become a rotating member of the U.N. Security Council. We closed embassies and consulates abroad. We cut foreign funding. That doesn't bode well for someone wanting to be a big player on the international stage.
SOLOMON: Yes. It's interesting that you point out the trip to Beijing and the warming relationship with China.
BOCIURKIW: Yes.
SOLOMON: And you mentioned being careful because Trump essentially said that Mark Carney should be careful as well. Take a listen to some of the jabs that he made at Canada yesterday.
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TRUMP: Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful. But they should be grateful to us. Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.
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SOLOMON: So, Michael, a bit of a thorny spot here for Mark Carney as he, on the one hand, you know, tries to sort of diversify these trade arrangements, but on the other hand, seems to be antagonizing Trump or seems to be getting under the skin of President Trump.
BOCIURKIW: Yes. So we've been living off the United States. OK. Ask Canadian -- sorry. Ask American tourism operators how much Canada pumps into the U.S. economy in terms of tourism. Ask whiskey bourbon makers how much of their product we buy as well. Real estate developers in Florida all reliant a lot on Canadians.
And, you know, in terms of our security, our sovereignty, we're very wise to look more towards other alternatives. The problem there is we have the same problem as many European states. We've been neglecting spending on defense, especially Arctic security, so that type of thing can't be done overnight.
And, you know, again, we have to be careful of who we embrace, but also what we tell the United States to do, because, again, we're not in a position to defend ourselves. And I think of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who did keep her relationship with the Russian president for quite some time. She relied on Russian energy and also was putting a push to China, and it didn't leave her country in a very good place.
SOLOMON: We'll leave it there. Michael Bociurkiw, appreciate you being on with us this morning. Thank you.
BOCIURKIW: My pleasure. Thank you.
SOLOMON: A jury in Texas deliberated for seven hours before delivering a verdict in the criminal trial related to the Uvalde school massacre.
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A report from Texas after the break.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. A former school police officer has been acquitted of all charges in the Uvalde, Texas school massacre in 2022. Prosecutors had alleged that Adrian Gonzales did nothing to stop the gunman in the early moments of the shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
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But the jury found Gonzales not guilty Wednesday of child endangerment or abandonment charges. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has more from Texas.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Jury acquitting Adrian Gonzales, the former Uvalde School police officer. Tonight, there was so much emotion after that verdict.
Family members came out just in tears. They were hopeful, hopeful that despite, despite the difficulty that this case brought, despite that it was going to be really difficult for prosecutors to prove that Adrian Gonzales, the first officer on scene that day, didn't do enough to stop the gunman, to distract the gunman.
The families here realized the difficulty in all of that, but they were still hopeful that there would have been a better outcome and that did not happen for them. As to Adrian Gonzales, he's now completely cleared of these charges.
There is still another trial though that is going to take place at some point and that's for the former Uvalde School police chief Pete Arredondo, who was also charged by this same district attorney for his alleged failures that day and for essentially not taking action and allowing the children that were inside the classroom to remain inside for 77 minutes with the gunman.
That trial is expected to take place at some point, but no trial date has been set. But nonetheless, all of that for the families tonight, certainly a very difficult night as they have had to sit through this trial for so many days now and now dealing with this outcome. Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Corpus Christi, Texas.
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SOLOMON: House lawmakers will continue their investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's sex abuse scheme at a closed door hearing next month. The House Oversight Committee has called Epstein's co accused and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell to the stand.
But the committee's chair, James Comer warned that she'll likely invoke her right against self-incrimination and won't answer questions.
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REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): We've been trying to get her in for a deposition. Her lawyers have been saying that she's going to plead the fifth. But we have nailed down a date, February 9th where Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by this committee. Her lawyers have made it clear that she's going to plead the fifth.
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SOLOMON: Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Epstein's years long sex trafficking scheme which included sexually abusing underage girls. Representative Comer says that he hopes that Maxwell will change her mind and talk.
And the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt for not complying with a subpoena to testify in the Epstein investigation. The decision with bipartisan support sends the case to the full House for a vote.
The former U.S. President and the former secretary of state did not appear for a deposition last week on Bill Clinton's relationship with Epstein. They said that they were being unfairly targeted. Instead, Bill Clinton offered a limited interview with two top committee members. Now, if they are found in contempt, the Clintons could potentially face a criminal prosecution.
The late Italian designer Valentino is now lying in state in Rome. Visitors paying their respects at the headquarters of his foundation. And his beloved dogs, pugs, were also there. Valentino Garavani, who came to be known as just Valentino, died Monday at 93. He founded one of Italy's most renowned luxury fashion houses and became famous for his red gowns. Valentino will be laid to rest on Friday.
OK, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. President Trump is set to speak any moment in Davos. He arrived at the World Economic Forum just moments ago. He's hosting a signing ceremony in Davos for his so called Board of Peace.
The committee is set to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. But there's concern among some officials that the board could also attempt to replace the work of the United Nations. Let's get to CNN's Oren Liebermann who is following all of these developments and joins us live this morning from Jerusalem. Oren, good morning to you. Among the countries that have been invited and have said that they will attend, that includes Israel. Just give us a sense of what we've heard so far there in Israel about what this plan and this board will look like entail and obviously what this will mean for the people in Gaza.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, there's two different perspectives here on the Board of Peace itself, especially when it comes to Gaza. The first is what is effectively the first concrete application of the Board of Peace, and that is for the rebuilding and reconstruction of Gaza as part of the second phase of the cease fire, a phase that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said had been launched within the last few days here that's supposed to disarm Hamas, demilitarize Gaza, oversee reconstruction, manage a Palestinian technocratic committee and effectively move all of this forward.
But it's unclear how much of this is actually going to happen and how it'll actually make progress. So, there are serious questions hanging over this entire effort, even as we have seen parts of this put in place with layers of management set to move forward with Gaza.
Israel, in fact, has sort of a mixed relationship with the Board of Peace. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is not at Davos, has openly fumed about the members of the Gaza Executive Board, which includes Turkish and Qatari officials. Israel has repeatedly accused Turkey and Qatar of funding and supporting Hamas and tried to keep them away from this entire process.
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But it was the U.S. and the White House that effectively included them here. And that's why you have seen that open criticism of the Gaza Board of Peace. So that's the first part of it here. But according to the charter of the Board of Peace that CNN has seen, the charter has nothing to do with Gaza. It is much broader. And that is where you see, for example, European countries having major issues with this.
First, President Donald Trump himself is the indefinite leader of the broader board of peace and he has said it might be used to replace the United Nations. Then there's the countries that are signing up for this here. Countries like Russia and China have been invited, as have many others. Europe, however, has kind of hit the brakes on that as Trump here gets closer to speaking.
SOLOMON: OK, Oren, we appreciate you being with us. We'll check back with you in the next hour. Thank you.
In the meantime, we're going to take a quick break. I'm Rahel Solomon here at Early Start. More Early Start after this break.
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