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What We Know with Max Foster

White House: U.S. Intends To Seize Oil From Captured Tanker; Nobel Laureate Confirms U.S. Helped Get Her Out Of Venezuela; Ukraine Delivers Peace Plan To Donald Trump; Flood-Ravaged Rivers Still Threat In U.S. Northwest; U.S. Justice Department Fails To Reindict Letitia James; Disney Agrees to License Its Characters On the Sora Platform; Oracle Shares Plummet Amid A.I. Worries. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 11, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:27]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: The United States ramps up the pressure on Venezuela's leadership.

This is WHAT WE KNOW.

Beginning with that dramatic escalation in the pressure campaign against a leader whose days are numbered, according to the U.S. president, Donald

Trump, the U.S. is now directly linking the seizure of an oil tanker with efforts to weaken Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. says the

ship is part of a shadow fleet used to move sanctioned oil, and the Justice Department executed a warrant to capture it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The vessel is currently undergoing a forfeiture process. Right now, the United States currently has

a full investigative team on the ground, on the vessel and individuals on board the vessel are being interviewed, and any relevant evidence is being

seized. With respect to the oil, that's a different issue. As you know, peter, the vessel will go to a U.S. port and the United States does intend

to seize the oil. However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Venezuela is accusing the U.S. of piracy and blatant theft. The Kremlin says. Mr. Maduro spoke today to Russian president Vladimir Putin,

who assured him of Russia's support.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House.

We've got this one extraordinary case, Kevin, and there may be more I understand

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, the White House. And when you talk to administration officials have made clear that this may not

be the last oil tanker that the U.S. seizes, that if this opportunity arises in the coming days or the coming weeks, that they will go ahead and

do something similar as they try and sort of tighten the screws on Nicolas Maduro.

Certainly, this was an escalation from what we've seen so far. The administration had been targeting those alleged drug boats, 22 strikes so

far, dozens killed. But this obviously signals a desire to go after Venezuela's pocketbook, to go after their economic lifeline. Obviously, oil

is the biggest export revenue driver for that country. Most of that oil going to China. And what the administration seems to be doing is to try and

tighten and tighten the pressure on Maduro in an effort to get him to step down.

Now, whether that happens, I think remains to be seen. But certainly, the calculation, according to administration officials, is that by going after

this very important source of revenue, that that could lead this to go further and further. And just today, the U.S. Treasury Department

announcing that they were applying new sanctions on officials linked to the energy sector in Venezuela, including nephews of Nicolas Maduro. So, you

can see how that pressure campaign inching closer and closer and closer. Now, President Trump yesterday when he was announcing this seizure from the

White House, said that there would be more to come, he said. Stay tuned. He said that Maduro's days were numbered and he has said previously that he

will be ordering at some point strikes on land in Venezuela.

But at the same time, he doesn't appear as if he's in a huge rush to get those underway. And when you talk to officials, they do say that the

president has some reservations here, that if an effort to take out Maduro fails somehow, that that would essentially be a catastrophe for the United

States, that this could potentially mire the U.S. into some sort of prolonged conflict, which he very much wants to avoid. So even though we

see this strategy escalating and we see the pressure mounting on Maduro, I think the next steps in all of this remain unclear, as the president still

sort of ascertains what exactly he wants to do.

FOSTER: Kevin Liptak, thank you.

Venezuela's Nobel laureate opposition leader calls President Trump's actions in the Caribbean decisive. Maria Corina Machado says those actions

have helped weaken the Maduro regime. After being in hiding for more than a year, she made the trip to Oslo to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Maduro

credits U.S. officials for helping her reach Norway safely and evade the Maduro government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND NOBEL LAUREATE: He did not know where I was in hiding in Venezuela, so it was hard for them to

stop me. And yes, we did get support from the United States government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Stefano Pozzebon is following the developments for us from Caracas. I mean, lots of accusations here that the U.S. has been supporting

her, propping up her up as part of this wider campaign against Maduro.

[15:05:01]

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, yeah, indeed. I mean, I think that -- it's no small secret that at this point that somebody in the White

House would very much want Maduro to be ousted. The president, Donald Trump, has said that time and again that he believes Maduro's days are

counted. The big question, of course, is what Kevin Liptak was saying just now. Kevin pointed out, we don't know what the next step in this strategy

is.

I think that even looking at the words that Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader, said earlier today, earlier on Thursday is interesting

because in the last few weeks, of course, she has come under intense pressure from both circles within the Venezuelan opposition, but most

widely, the larger international community in trying to clarify her position, whether she indeed supports these kinetic strikes that the White

House has conducted in the Southern Caribbean, which led to the death of more than 80 alleged narco traffickers without producing any evidence.

And of course, it's a strategy that has raised a lot and a lot of questions when it comes to extrajudicial killings and violations of human rights. She

refused to immediately embrace that strategy, but she had no qualms in embracing the idea of going after Maduro's purse, of seizing control of

these tankers that are essentially the lifeline of the Venezuelan economy and of the government economy. These are tankers that carry sanctioned oil

from Venezuela towards a variety of buyers. But mostly it's Iran, China, India and Russia to dilute with other components.

And of course, that is a major source of revenue for Maduro himself. So, it's very much more easier for an opposition to embrace and go hand in hand

with the idea of going after Maduro's purse than going after regular Venezuelans. That's why we're seeing a change in tactic, in my way -- in my

view, from the White House, in trying to bridge a more palatable cases against -- against maduro himself.

And of course, we've seen that Maduro has been rattled in the last few hours with an inflammatory statement late on Wednesday night, saying that

this is a blatant theft and that Venezuela would go to the -- to the -- to international tribunals to dispute these seizures. But also today, with the

decision to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court, it's a sign that Maduro is seeing the pressure growing and the temperature

rising around him for sure -- Max.

FOSTER: Stefano, thank you so much.

On two very different sides of the Atlantic, there appears to be two very different feelings about the effort to end the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Americans are getting fed up. The White House says Donald Trump is extremely frustrated with Ukrainian and Russian back and forth

peace proposals. It's unclear if the U.S. will even send a representative to talks this weekend in Paris, where European and Ukrainian officials will

meet. It comes after Ukraine delivered its new peace plan to the U.S. and Germanys chancellor said it's up to Ukraine now to make the final decision

on whether to give up land to make peace.

Let's go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen with more on the European side of all of this.

And it is, isn't it, Fred, focusing around that area of land that Russia wants, Ukraine doesn't want to give away. And Ukraine's come up with an

interesting plan there.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Possible territorial concessions. That certainly was the name of the game here in

Berlin. And of course, it was a big day of diplomacy here in the German capital with the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, here in Berlin,

speaking to the German chancellor.

But at the same time, the Europeans saying, unlike what we heard there from the White House, that they believe that there is actually momentum in the

diplomatic process. They believe they have a unified position, and certainly one that they also say that they made clear in a phone call to

U.S. President Donald Trump that happened, of course, in the past couple of days or last night.

Now, the interesting nuance that we got today is exactly what you mentioned. The Europeans are saying that it's up to Ukraine, whether or not

what type of territorial concessions could be made. The Europeans saying that is a bit of a shift from what they were saying before, which is they

were totally against any sort of territorial concessions being made. So that's certainly something where they believe there might be some sort of

wiggle room. And they certainly also believe, Max, that the diplomatic process is still very much ongoing. And they do expect that there could be

talks with U.S. officials in the next couple of days.

At the same time, I was also able to speak to the NATO secretary general to hear from him what he feels about this Trump peace proposal and whether or

not it actually has a chance. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: Secretary General, what chances do you think Trump's peace proposal has?

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: Well, I must say, what the president is doing is amazing. It's crucial. And I really want to commend him for it,

because he was the only one who could break the deadlock with Putin. He did. So, he got the conversation going from February onwards, he was only,

I think, four weeks in office when this all started.

And I'm trying to do everything I can.

[15:10:00]

And I know also the allies here in Europe and Canada are doing everything they can to make this into a success, but it is -- you always need two to

tango, so it's also a big test of Putin. Whether he wants to play ball. We'll see. We'll see. I hope he will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: It takes two to tango. You heard it there from secretary general. And, of course, that is the big question that looms over all of

this. One of the things I also asked Mark Rutte as well is, look, the Russian position really hasn't changed very much since 2022, with the

Russians demanding those territorial concessions and demanding those territorial concessions be made official. That officially, internationally,

those territories be recognized as parts of the Russian Federation, which, of course, would be something almost impossible to swallow for the

Ukrainians.

So, it certainly seems as though the Europeans have also identified that as being an issue. It seems as though people are trying to work around all of

that. But you heard it there. The U.S. seems frustrated by the process. Movement seems to be very difficult. At the same time, the Europeans do

believe that they are in somewhat of a strong position because they are acting together. And one of the things that I think is crystallized over

the past couple of months is that alliance between Paris, London and Berlin trying to sort of take things or take the reins, at least as far as the

Europeans are concerned, in this process of trying to find a way forward to end the conflict in Ukraine, Max.

FOSTER: Fred Pleitgen in Berlin, thank you.

Now, as heavy rains begin to slow down in the U.S. northwest, many rivers remain at severe flood stage in Washington state. Look at that. Thousands

of people still face evacuation threats as well. And dozens of roads are closed.

But some people trapped by rising waters, helicopters had to pull them to safety. This rescue happened near Seattle, Washington.

Allison Chinchar joins us from the CNN Weather Center -- Alison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So you take a look at the video next to me, and this is right here along one of the rivers of concern that

we've been talking about, potentially going up to maybe even record levels, what the crews are trying to do is they are trying to reinforce the barrier

that is already in place to make sure that as those water levels rise, the water does not creep into the communities around it. But this is one of

many rivers that we are keeping a very close eye on because we are talking about dozens of rivers that are expected to get above that flood stage.

Now some will get to minor, others moderate, and even potentially major flood stage indicated by all of these dots that you see here on this map.

So, it's pretty widespread where the concern is now. One of them in particular, the one that we just showed you, the video of the Skagit River,

it is expected to crest at just under 40 feet total. That is well above the previous record of 37.5 feet. Now the question becomes okay if they do end

up hitting that type of a crest.

And keep in mind, it's not for several more days before they would get there. What are the impacts when something like that happens? So here's a

map showing you where the Skagit River is. It will be highlighted in blue.

But also, you're going to notice when the forecast model tries to explain and show how the inundation would actually work. Where would that water

flow if it goes out of its banks. And you can see when we zoom down much closer, you can see these communities that are right here. That's where the

water goes. It goes into homes and businesses flooding some of the roadways and streets that line a lot of these communities.

Now, again, this is just a forecast estimate based off of getting the crest to where they think it will be and where that water is expected to flow. We

still have rain in the area right now. You can see on the radar, not quite as heavy as it was this morning, but at this point, really any additional

water is not good for these communities. We will get another round of rain tonight before finally getting a little bit of a break over the weekend.

But that's why you still have these flood watches in effect, taking into account the extra rain that is on the way. You also have some flood watches

farther to the east, because that is where the system itself is headed over the next 24 to 36 hours from now. So here you can see that next round

coming in overnight tonight.

Then we get a little bit of a break. The bulk of it really kind of focusing more into Canada than it is for portions of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

But we get another round that comes in early next week. So, it's not a very long break.

The key thing to note that when you talk about rivers, creeks and streams is it's a delayed effect. So even though they may not be getting much rain

over the weekend, those rivers and creeks are still going to continue to rise.

FOSTER: Yeah, worrying. Alison, thank you so much.

A federal judge has ordered for Kilmer Abrego Garcia to be released from ICE custody immediately. Earlier this year, the Trump administration

mistakenly deported him to El Salvador. He returned to the U.S. in June. The judge says after returning, Abrego Garcia was then re-detained without

lawful authority. The Justice Department has until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to report on his release status.

Priscilla Alvarez is here to explain because it's getting very complicated.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Complicated indeed. This has been a fraught legal battle between the federal courts and the Justice Department

over the fate of Abrego Garcia, given all of the back and forth that you just mentioned there.

Now, in this case, the back story is important, especially when Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States. The question was, where is the

administration going to deport him because he cannot go back to El Salvador because of a prior court order. Therefore, the administration pitched a few

options in these far-flung countries in Africa, where he has no ties.

Costa Rica, however, was also on the table and has said that they would be willing to receive him. And his attorneys have said that Abrego Garcia

would be willing to be deported there. So all of that to say that it has been tense in the courtroom over the course of multiple hearings, because

the federal judge has been puzzled as to why the administration won't just deport him to Costa Rica, given that it is a country that makes sense in

this case, given his background and the fact that he does not have any ties to these countries in Africa, some of whom have rejected receiving him.

So let me read you a part of what she said in her opinion. She said, quote, respondents did not just stonewall respondents in the federal government

there. They affirmatively misled the tribunal. They announced that Liberia is the only viable removal option because Costa Rica, quote, does not wish

to receive him and that Costa Rica will no longer accept the transfer of him.

But Costa Rica had never wavered in its commitment to receive Abrego Garcia, just as Abrego Garcia never wavered in his commitment to resettle

there. So that is what is at the crux of this very moment, where the judge is ordering his immediate release and the absence of there being any plan

to deport him. And that is something that federal judges can do for detained migrants when there is no imminent removal in the books.

Now, his release still has conditions. For example, he would be -- has to be in the custody of his brother in Maryland. He cannot leave the state. He

cannot really leave the home unless there, or at least only for limited circumstances. The Department of Homeland Security, however, weighing in

and saying, quote, this is naked judicial activism by an Obama appointed judge. This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to

fight this tooth and nail in court.

So, we'll be keeping an eye on all of these developments for the rest of the day, and whether there is any additional court filings from the Justice

Department.

FOSTER: Priscilla, thank you.

Coming up, $1 billion deal involving A.I. I will tell you about Disney's new agreement with OpenAI and where you may be seeing its popular

characters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:31]

FOSTER: Some news just into CNN. The U.S. Justice Department -- U.S. Justice Department has once again failed to bring charges against the New

York Attorney General Letitia James, one of President Donald Trump's political opponents. Now, a grand jury has for the second time declined to

bring a new indictment against James in Virginia. This comes after previous charges of mortgage fraud against her were dismissed last month.

Mr. Trump had previously called for James to be prosecuted.

Katelyn Polantz has been following this for us. Is this the end of it?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Max, great question.

This is something the Trump administration wants so much that they went to a grand jury last Thursday, asked that grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, to

indict Letitia James. And then again this Thursday, asked a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, a different city, a different part of the state, to

indict Letitia James. Both times now, those grand juries have said, no. They will not be approving a mortgage fraud indictment against the New York

attorney general.

This is a failure of the Justice Department that we have not seen very often. It is very unusual to see a grand jury vote down an indictment like

this at all, let alone it be a high-profile case. This is a case, too, that had previously been allowed by a grand jury. A grand jury had approved,

initially an indictment of James back in the fall, but that indictment did not survive scrutiny by the court system.

The reason was because the prosecutor that took it through that grand jury, a woman named Lindsey Halligan, who had been sent by the Trump

administration to lead the office. A judge found she did not have prosecutorial authority or the ability to secure an indictment. As the

prosecutor on it. And so that's why they were trying again last week. And then again today in federal court to get this indictment off the ground.

But James currently does not face any mortgage fraud charges. The grand juries are not going with the justice department now. They are secret

proceedings. So, we don't know what happened in that grand jury room at this time. But it is quite a blow to what Donald Trump wanted and what the

Justice Department was attempting to do here in prosecuting a high profile political figure, a political foe of Donald Trump's for mortgage fraud,

trying to get those allegations through the court system yet again, and not being successful with that -- Max.

FOSTER: Yeah. Katelyn, thank you so much for bringing us that.

Now, it's a blockbuster deal. And perhaps the most significant collaboration between A.I. and Hollywood to date. Disney has announced it's

investing $1 billion in OpenAI. As part of the agreement, Disney will allow the use of its characters on Sora, OpenAI's video generation app.

Brian Stelter joins us now.

This is fascinating, isn't it? Because, you know, a lot of these characters are being used by A.I. already, and I know that Disney saying this is a way

of controlling their copyright rather than giving it away.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right. It does really seem like an example of trying to control what is otherwise an uncontrolled flood right

now. We know that these A.I. systems have been trained on copyrighted content. There are lots of lawsuits now unfolding about that. And even this

week, Disney sent a cease and desist letter to Google over its use, over the use of copyrighted material to train A.I. systems.

But Disney, like other media companies, also looking around trying to figure out how to be a part of this revolution, how to involve its content,

knowing that that's what users want to do. So, for example, under this new deal, you'll be able to create a video of you having a lightsaber battle

from Star Wars, a video of you right inside the movie toy story. People will be able to create short little mini movies with more than 200 Disney

characters, and also using different Disney props and things like that.

Notably, though, you won't have access to the voices, so you know, that's one guardrail that will still be in place. And Disney has lots of other

guardrails in place about a lack of violence, not interacting with characters from other media companies, et cetera. So, Disney is saying this

is an interest -- in its interest, as well as in OpenAI's. And as you mentioned, Disney taking a $1 billion investment in OpenAI. But we don't

really know how this is going to end. I'm so curious about this because other Hollywood studios will probably follow. There will probably be other

deals like this.

Disney wanting to get in on the ground floor, so to speak, but were just at the very beginning of this generative A.I. revolution where you'll be able

to insert yourself, I guess, with Mickey Mouse now.

[15:25:02]

FOSTER: Let's see what happens. It's a good test case.

Brian, thank you so much.

STELTER: Yeah.

FOSTER: "Time Magazine" jumping on the A.I. bandwagon as well with its pick for the person of the year. It's given that title to a group it calls

the architects of A.I. Those include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, OpenAI's Sam Altman.

Each year, the name, the "Time" names a person, a group or a concept, in fact, that it feels had the biggest influence on the world over the past

year.

What we don't know tonight is, is the A.I. takeover already complete?

Joining me now, Lance Ulanoff. He's the editor at large for "TechRadar".

Thank you for joining us.

I mean, it's kind of what time is implying with this justification for this front cover, isn't it? They're saying that whatever you think of it,

there's no going back now.

This was the year that the tide turned for A.I.

LANCE ULANOFF, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, TECHRADAR: Yeah, 100 percent. This is a hop on this freight train. It is going fast and going somewhere. No one

knows exactly where.

And you know, when "Time" picks people like this, it's not about whether you like it or not, it's the impact. And they're spot on with this. The

impact is enormous. It is everywhere. It has happened so, so quickly.

I know this year feels like the turning point, but just think that really we've only had these tools for like three years. Theres never been a

technology that has integrated itself with society so quickly. I always call it A.I. time because it's moving at 3x to the amount of time it took

for us to get things like broadband and Internet access and the P.C. in the home, it's so much quicker. And these people who are sitting on that ledge

with nothing below them, they're the architects of what's happening to us.

FOSTER: Yeah. What does the image mean? Do you think I read it? As you know, they are the version of the construction workers who built New York.

People were questioning skyscrapers at the time, weren't they? But are you -- are you seeing something in the gap beneath them?

ULANOFF: I mean, there's the uncertainty, right? No net. And certainly, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world of A.I. and just even how it

impacts jobs how it impacts society, how it impacts the climate. And it is worth noting that, yeah, these aren't like the typical construction workers

from that iconic 1933 or whatever picture in that, you know, they built their models on the backs of content that was made by all the people below,

right? That's how they were trained.

And that's your last story about what Disney is doing with their I.P. You know, these are they just scraped all that content to train them. And so

they didn't build the content, but they're building the models. They're building the algorithms, and they will define, you know, what happens next.

And you know, by the way, the other thing is all of them sitting up on that ledge, not all of them are going to survive. I mean, you know, I don't want

anyone to crash to their untimely death or anything, but the businesses themselves, they can't all -- they won't all be here. And in fact, between

OpenAI and Gemini, those are two of the leading ones. That is where there's a real pitched battle going on right now.

FOSTER: The richest people in the world as well, aren't they? There's lots of people online. Involved in this conspiracy theory that the whole of A.I.

is just a conspiracy to make the rich richer. And if you look at the way the markets are working, you know, you could argue there's something there.

But do you think that actually finally, A.I. has proved itself this year?

ULANOFF: Oh, yes. I mean, it's, you know, it's such a weird thing because it is so powerful and it has real has so much potential ahead of it. But it

is one of those technologies that has created a real split. There are people who love it and embrace it, and there are people who absolutely hate

it and distrust it. That will continue for some time here, I think until we see the breakthroughs that were really anticipating with A.I., where it has

an impact to help the climate change, that it may be harming right now to help find the cure for cancer, to solve problems that are unsolvable by

humans.

And that's -- that's the promise. That's what we want. And when people start to see that, maybe more people will embrace it. For a long time,

we're going to have the people who use it and the people who turn their back on it.

FOSTER: Yeah. And then soon it'll be people who can't avoid it. Thank you so much.

ULANOFF: Yeah, yeah.

FOSTER: Lance from "TechRadar". I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Still to come, Oracle shares plummet after earnings miss the mark.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:52]

FOSTER: Just in to CNN: the U.S. Treasury says it will target associates of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. The Office of Foreign Assets control

says that will include who it describes as narco nephews of Mr. Maduro's wife. This comes as the White House says the U.S. plans to keep the oil

seized from a tanker off Venezuela in the Caribbean.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the tanker will travel to an American port and the U.S. will follow the law in seizing the oil. President Trump's

homeland security chief was on Capitol Hill today where she tried to link the tanker seizure with the U.S. war on drugs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: It was a successful operation directed by the president to ensure that were pushing back on a

regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, after 15 months in hiding, freshly minted Nobel Prize winner Maria Corina Machado met with her fellow Venezuelan opposition

leader Edmundo Gonzalez today in what appeared to be an emotional reunion in Norway. That meeting was just part of what's been a whirlwind few days

for Machado, who says Venezuela will soon be a Democratic and free country.

More now from CNN's Isa Soares.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE0

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under the cover of darkness in Oslo, a moment many thought wouldn't happen. Maria Corina Machado,

Venezuela's most prominent opposition leader, stepping on to a hotel balcony, waving to supporters and ending months in hiding.

Below, her crowds surged forward, chanting brave and freedom in Spanish. Hand on her chest, Machado joined them in singing Venezuela's national

anthem before heading down to meet them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): After all these months in which she's been in hiding, and her life's been in danger. I think seeing her

together with the entire Venezuelan diaspora is a pleasure and a reassurance that she's safe. And it's also a way for the Venezuelan cause

to stay alive, in a way to put more pressure on the regime so that there can be a transition in Venezuela.

[15:35:07]

SOARES (voice-over): Hours earlier, her daughter accepted this year's Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. The Nobel committee said Machado had done

everything in her power to attend, but warned her journey carried extreme danger.

MACHADO: Certainly, the regime would have done everything to prevent me from coming. They did not know where I was in hiding in Venezuela, so it

was hard for them to stop me. It was rude, nonetheless. And yes, we did get support from the United States government to get here.

SOARES: Machado went into hiding after last year's disputed election, when President Nicolas Maduro's government cracked down on dissent. Officials

banned her from traveling abroad and says she will be treated as a fugitive if she ever tried to leave the country.

Hours before the opposition leader's arrival in Oslo, the United States dramatically seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela's coast.

Washington said the skipper had been involved in illicit trade with Iran and sanctioned the ship in 2022. Maduro swiftly responded to the incident,

calling it an act of international piracy.

In Oslo, Machado, the Venezuela would soon be democratic and free, as she has spent decades pushing for what she calls ballots over bullets.

MACHADO: It is very dangerous to leave when you are being looked for and persecuted and accused, as I have been, as many as thousands of other

Venezuelans right now. But it's certainly worthwhile because I think that this is a moment that has -- it's a turning point in our history.

Venezuelan people are feeling right now that the world is behind us and that we are not alone. And it's a decisive moment, certainly.

SOARES: Now in Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize has thrust the Venezuela opposition movement back into the spotlight.

Isa Soares, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: It's the final moments of trade on Wall Street, and stocks have had a strong session so far. The Dow is up more than 1 percent.

This is our business breakout.

U.S. President Donald Trump has officially launched a new gold card visa that allows faster immigration to the United States for those who pay $1

million, a government website claims the whole process would take just weeks. Once an application is submitted. Companies can also pay $2 million

to sponsor a foreign worker.

Elon Musk's A.I. company says it signed a deal with El Salvador to put its chatbot, grok, into thousands of public schools. xAI says the plan will

impact more than a million students. Musk has previously said he wants Grok to help rewrite, quote, "entire corpus of human knowledge".

Amazon has revealed some of the most common questions to Alexa, its famous A.I. assistant. Ironically, the question what does A.I. mean? Was amongst

the most popular for users in the U.K. at least.

Celebrities were also the focus of many questions, with British users mostly asking about Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift and Elon Musk. Oracle

shares took a tumble today, this after the cloud computing giant reported massive A.I. related expenses and a worse than expected outlook. Shares in

the company down more than 10 percent right now.

Oracle's stock has fallen by more than a third over the past several months, as worried investors fear the A.I. spending boom may be due for a

reality check.

Anna Cooban is here with more now.

We don't often hear this, that A.I. investing is a bad thing.

ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS & ECONOMICS REPORTER: No, it's obviously we're in this sort of A.I. frenzy right now.

FOSTER: Yeah.

COOBAN: But I think it's important to say that Oracle missed its revenue expectations from analysts. It came in at $16.1 billion for the quarter,

missing expectations, which were $16.2 billion. So, this is a lot of money. You know, for any company, $16 billion in revenue is a lot. But this is

taking place with a lot of nerves, a lot of jitters around A.I. and any sort of in the armor of A.I. is seen to be potentially a bad sign. Now,

oracle is a cloud computing company. It's spending billions investing in data centers.

And there are concerns that it's taking on too much debt to do that. Over $100 billion worth of debt and also making deals with A.I. companies like

OpenAI, ChatGPT maker, that don't yet turn a profit.

FOSTER: It's interesting because they -- they were quite late to the party really, compared with some of the other companies, right? With A.I. and it

gives the impression that it's only the big monsters that are going to win this one.

COOBAN: They are late to the party, but they are really competing with the Microsoft's. The Amazons of this world. But the concern is also not so much

around who's going to win, but will everybody lose at the same time? Because if you look at this chart that we can show you now, the circularity

of all of these A.I. deals, there are companies investing in others on the promise that they will then buy their technology.

[15:40:07]

It's all incredibly cozy.

And so, the fear is, is that one of these companies posts bad results. They're not only that company be affected, but all together.

FOSTER: Anna, thank you.

Still to come, flooding in Gaza brings misery and heartbreak. Palestinians living in tent cities. How this disaster is adding to the -- to the ever

worsening humanitarian crisis there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:43:37]

FOSTER: Two months after a ceasefire, heavy rain is exposing the ever worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. A winter storm ripped through the

area, flooding so-called homes in Palestinian tent cities.

Jeremy Diamond has the latest. A warning, there are disturbing images in his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Already battered by bombs. A night of heavy rain and wind was the final straw for this building in Gaza

City.

No injuries were reported, but it was one of several buildings that collapsed amid the most severe storm to hit Gaza this winter. Gaza's tent

camps, where hundreds of thousands now live, face the worst. Floodwaters ravaged this central Gaza camp, where residents equipped with nothing more

than shovels, tried to drain the camp by digging trenches while battening down their tents with mud.

"We have been trying to block the water since the morning, but it's not working," Shide Abu Salah (ph) says. "We are drowned. We just want to go

home and find comfort."

Despair and frustration are quickly rising. "We drown tonight," Mahmoud (ph) cries out. "All of our flour and food and drink and children all

drowned."

Despite their best efforts, water poured into one tent after the next.

[15:45:01]

Floors bedding, clothes and food stocks all soaked. Other homes submerged as residents tried to salvage what they could.

Humanitarian aid organizations say conditions have been worsened by continued Israeli restrictions on aid, with insufficient shelters being

allowed in.

"Tonight was very difficult. I put the children to sleep there and water came in on us," says Om Ibrahim (ph). "You can feel the bedding and the

amount of water in it. And the other children were awake all night trying to remove water from here and there."

The rain is continuing to fall on Gaza. And Hanan Abu Nada (ph) is continuing to fight against it.

"My body is shaking because of the water. I can't help myself. I changed my clothes many times because I was already sick from the previous storm," she

says.

"We have drowned. We are exhausted. We are mentally exhausted. We are devastated and no one feels our pain."

This storm was all too much for seven-month-old Rahaf al-Mujazah (ph), died of hypothermia after her family's tent flooded overnight.

"She was completely fine. I breastfed her last night. Then all of a sudden, I found her freezing and shivering," her mother explains. "She was healthy,

my sweetheart."

But now she is gone, and another mother is left to mourn.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Bulgaria's prime minister has resigned after weeks of street protests against the government over its economic policies and its

perceived failure to tackle corruption. He made the announcement in a televised statement just before parliament was due to vote on a no

confidence motion. It comes shortly before Bulgaria's due to join the Eurozone as well, January the 1st.

A major setback for peace efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 said Wednesday it's taken control of a key

city in Eastern Congo in their most significant advance in months. M23's latest offensive comes despite a U.S. brokered peace agreement signed last

week by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington. The agreement doesn't include M23, which is negotiating separately with the DRC.

Doctors in England say the worst-case scenario. Up next, why people are getting hospitalized with flu at a record rate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:14]

FOSTER: Serious flu cases are rising across Europe, with doctors here in England saying it's a worst case scenario. English authorities say the

number of people in hospital with flu has risen by more than 50 percent in just a week, the highest ever number of patients for this time of year.

According to the World Health Organization, 15 countries in Europe are seeing above average flu rates, and five countries have high rates of acute

respiratory infections. That's England and Spain, Russia. Iceland, also Kazakhstan.

So, what we want to know is how can Europe escape a worst case scenario on flu as a continent?

Joining me now is Samantha Vanderslott. She leads the vaccines and society unit at oxford university.

Thank you for joining us. I mean, what is the European picture right now, Samantha?

SAMANTHA VANDERSLOTT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: Well, I mean, as you say in England, it's very worrying. We're having over 2,000

patients with flu in hospital each day, and this is the highest ever recorded for this time of year. So, it's really quite unprecedented. And in

other countries like Spain, we're seeing similar rates. And it's really this new strain of the flu which has mutated. And it's meant that the

population immunity is quite low and people are susceptible for, getting quite ill and going into hospital with this flu.

FOSTER: It's clearly very bad if people, it's not -- you know, it's one thing people getting the flu. It's quite another ending up in hospital.

So, take us through the symptoms of this strain.

VANDERSLOTT: Yeah. So, I mean, it's the normal kind of flu symptoms that would come on quite quickly rather than with a cold. So, you'll have a high

fever, you'll have aches and pains. There might be some gastro issues as well. And really, people are feeling quite unwell, especially vulnerable

groups like younger children and also the elderly. They've been most affected.

FOSTER: And are they being dramatic going to hospital or is that the advice?

VANDERSLOTT: Well, it's the advice. I mean, if you -- if you're feeling very unwell and if you have any breathing issues I think, yeah, the main

worry is that people get, problems with their lungs and problems with breathing. So that's something to really watch out for.

FOSTER: And I know the government's concerned that, you know, there are plenty of people eligible to take the vaccination. But they haven't done

so. What's the reason for that, do you think?

VANDERSLOTT: It's always a bit mixed, but flu. Flu is quite a hard, vaccine to get people to take because it's something you have to do every

year. And also, you have to go a bit out of your way to do it. It's not always available for people. You might have to pay privately if you want to

avoid it. And you're not in one of the risk groups.

And I think just because its spreading on a community and population level, we would encourage people to vaccinate, even if you're not in that risk

group of being immunocompromised, a pregnant woman, young children and also the elderly.

FOSTER: So how concerned are you about this spreading very quickly across borders?

VANDERSLOTT: Yeah. I mean, it's across borders, but also in communities. It's -- we've seen in schools and in hospitals. These are -- these are

places where, flu is really spreading very quickly. And unfortunately, at the moment, the vaccine that we, we do have hasn't been so good at stopping

transmission. But it is being really good at stopping severe infections. So, we still would encourage people to be vaccinated.

FOSTER: Okay. Samantha Vanderslott, really appreciate your time from Oxford today. Thank you.

VANDERSLOTT: Thank you.

FOSTER: Now to an impressive feat of human strength in a world. First, nine professional cyclists successfully launched a glider plane by peddling

away on a runway.

Tour de France podium finisher Florian Lipowitz led the extraordinary peloton effort at an airport in Majorca, where his team accelerated to 54

kilometer per hour, harnessed to the glider, the cyclist averaged 650 watts per 90 seconds each. Power output comparable to winning a world tour stage.

Still not clear why it happened, though.

Well, it is the headline we've all been waiting for. Chocolate could be the fountain of youth, if only. But a study by Kings College London finds that

a compound in dark chocolate could slow the aging process. The same compound is found in the blood of people whose biological age is younger

than their chronological age, if you kept up with that.

[15:55:05]

Sadly, the study stopped short of recommending that we'll go out and eat as much dark chocolate as we like. But there you go. I think that's milk

chocolate.

And finally, tonight, Katniss and Peta are returning to the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS AS KATNISS: But do you see that fire is catching? And if we burn, you burn with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: "The Hollywood Reporter" has confirmed that Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will reprise their roles in the new "Hunger Games" prequel

movie. The pair will likely return in a flash forward. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping" is set to hit theaters in November of next year.

So, a bit of a wait.

I'm Max Foster. That's WHAT WE KNOW.

Stay with CNN. More after the break.

END

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