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Possible Gaza Ceasefire-Hostage Deal; Four Fires Raging in Los Angeles County; Red Flag Warning Across L.A. with High Winds Expected; Los Angels Fires Worsen Insurance Crisis in California. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 14, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Severe fire weather conditions will continue through Wednesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The danger has absolutely not passed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water is not safe to drink. The structures are not standing. Things are collapsing. Fires are still burning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are now at a pivotal point in the negotiations for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza. There is a deal on the table that Hamas should accept.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: If they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Tuesday, January 14th, 9 a.m. here in London.

FOSTER: 12 p.m. in Doha, Qatar, where after a year of start and stop talks, a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal now looks imminent.

MACFARLANE: The first phase of the potential agreement could see 33 hostages freed, including children, women, the elderly and the sick, and a 42-day ceasefire implemented. U.S. President Joe Biden says he's optimistic a deal he has championed is on the brink of potentially being finalized. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own futures. Israel deserves peace and real security, and the hostages and their families deserve to be reunited. And so we're working urgently to close this deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: And it seems Mr. Biden's optimism is being echoed in Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIDEON SAAR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: We see some progress in the negotiations. Israel wants a hostage deal. Israel is working with our American friends in order to achieve a hostage deal. And soon we will know whether the other side wants the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, sources tell CNN members of the Biden and Trump teams are working with mediators to try to resolve the last sticking points of the deal. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump says, quote, there's been a handshake and they're getting it finished. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: We are very close to getting it done and they have to get it done. If they don't get it done, there's going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble like they have never seen before. And they will get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Elliott Gotkine is joining us here to discuss. And Elliott, we have been here so many times before, but it does feel off the back of what Trump was just saying just then, that the calculus could be different this time with the incoming president-elect. So just talk us through what more you're learning about the detail of this deal and the chances of it being done.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Well, first of all, as you say, it's very easy to be skeptical about this because we've been here so many times before. I mean, we the three of us have been sat here talking over the past year or so, even with President Biden back in February, campaigning in Michigan, chomping on that ice cream, saying a deal will be done by that weekend, he hoped, came to naught. And there were so many false storms.

But this time really does feel different. Yes, there have been changes at the margins, such as Yahya Sinwar being killed by the Israelis, the head of Hamas, of course, and the architect of the October the 7th terrorist attacks. But I think, you know, the man we just heard from is perhaps the main reason why things are different. From Hamas's perspective, President Trump seemed to be very much more in the Israeli camp, I think, than President Biden, his administration. But I say this from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's perspective. He wants to resume this kind of bromance that he had with President Trump during his first term.

And President Trump has made it very clear publicly that he wants a deal to be done. He doesn't want to be dealing with the Israel-Hamas war. And so this way, he kind of gets the best of both worlds, doesn't he? Because he kind of gets the credit for being the reason for this deal being done and then doesn't have to deal with the nitty gritty either at the same time.

But in terms of the details, you know, you mentioned a few things, such as 33 hostages being released in the initial phase of 42 day initial ceasefire. There'll be a surge of aid going in there.

There will also be Palestinians in the southern part of Gaza being allowed to go back to the northern part of the Gaza Strip as well. There'll also be an initial withdrawal of Israeli troops and, of course, hostages being released and Palestinian prisoners being released as well.

Now, of course, at the same time, there are still sticking points. That's why they're in Doha. That's why there are these so-called proximity talks. So you've got Israel, Israeli officials and Hamas and Hamas members.

They're not, of course, talking directly to one another to try to thrash out some of these last sticking points, one of which seems to be, for example, the size of the buffer zone that Israel wants between the Gaza-Israel borders on the east of Gaza and the north. Israel reportedly wanting something like two kilometers. Hamas wanting to return to the status quo of about 500. That doesn't seem like it can be an insurmountable issue to deal with.

FOSTER: What's the plan on policing that buffer zone? Will they be Israeli military or independent?

GOTKINE: Well, the way this buffer zone worked before was simply that, you know, there was this area between the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip and where, you know, Palestinians were living. So in terms of Israeli forces being on the ground, we don't know the full parameters of what a final ceasefire would be or the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. But it does seem that Israel is insisting and will have some kind of presence along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which is where Israel says a lot of the weapons and other things were being smuggled towards Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip.

But certainly the ultimate way or the eventual way that this is expected to look, if the temporary ceasefire sticks, is that there will be, of course, an end to the war. And that would lead to pretty much the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. But again, the specifics are still not yet to be done. In fact, they will negotiate and deal with those specifics during the temporary ceasefire so that they can try and get to that end point where this war is finally over.

MACFARLANE: Right. Elliott, thank you very much.

Now, let's move to former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin, who is the Middle East director of the International Communities Organization. And he is joining us live from Jerusalem.

Thank you for your time. We were just hearing from Elliott that there is optimism today that a deal is going to be done, but obviously sticking points still remain. What is your feeling as to whether we will see a deal today?

GERSHON BASKIN, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: I think it's very likely today or tomorrow or the coming days we will see this deal finally getting done. The deadline of January 20th, the swearing in to office of President Trump, is the difference between now and everything that's been on the table for the last months. Essentially, what Hamas and Israel are agreeing to is the deal that President Biden presented in the end of May.

It's been on the table this whole time, and now it's getting to the finish line because the Trump team has told Prime Minister Netanyahu that he needs to have this war finished by the time Trump enters the White House. And apparently the Americans have promised to the Egyptians and the Qataris to tell Hamas that they will ensure that Israel will end the war by the end of this 42-day deal -- in the second round of the 42-day deal, that is.

What's disturbing about the whole thing is not only that it's taken months to reach the same agreement that's been on the table for so long, but rather than implementing a deal over a three-month period, this could actually be done in three weeks. And that's what's really angering, particularly the hostage families.

FOSTER: Just take us through the internal politics, away from the international politics, that Netanyahu is dealing with. He's obviously concerned about the collapse of his government by signing any sort of peace deal, isn't he? He's got this real resistance and the hard right to any sort of deal.

Just explain the pressures that he's been under internally, which he's trying to balance with the White House.

BASKIN: Right. I think it's very clear that Netanyahu will get a majority in his government. His government will not collapse.

The two right-wing parties, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, may vote against the agreement in the Cabinet, but they are unlikely to leave the government and bring us about new elections. The refusal of Netanyahu to agree to the terms of this deal has been more about his refusal to, one, take responsibility for what happened last October 7th, to prevent the creation of a National Commission of Inquiry into those events, and to prevent the call for new elections, because since the war broke out on October 7th last year, Netanyahu does not enjoy a majority in the polls in Israel to create a new government should there be new elections.

So, prolonging the war has been the mainstay of Netanyahu's policies until now, when he is being forced, because of President Trump, to actually agree to the same terms that have been on the table for a long time.

MACFARLANE: I mean, this deal is being done in three phases. How committed do you think Benjamin Netanyahu is to all phases of this ceasefire deal? Because, you know, in the shift from phase one to phase two, we're going to see a full ceasefire come into effect, which we know is something that Netanyahu has routinely and previously rejected.

BASKIN: Well, I think that Netanyahu will sell it to the public in Israel by saying that he hasn't agreed to end the war, there is no permanent ceasefire now. He has a problem explaining how he's going to release Palestinian prisoners who have killed Israelis, and there will be hundreds of those who will be released in this deal. That's going to be a very big problem for him.

And the danger here is that Netanyahu is going to be saying things to the public which go against what is being told inside the negotiating room, and it leaves open the possibility that Hamas could breach the agreement itself. I would imagine that Netanyahu is betting on Hamas's breach of the agreements, which would enable Israel to go back to the fighting in Gaza and continue the war.

FOSTER: We've heard from all sides at various points that we know we've come close to a deal. Just for our viewers, how do they define when a deal has been actually confirmed? Is it when the Qatari foreign minister, for example, comes out, or do we need to wait for everyone on each side to confirm it?

BASKIN: I think we'll hear some kind of official statement from the U.S. side, and probably both from President Biden and President Trump. I imagine that the Qataris and the Egyptians will announce it. Everyone's talking about Israel and Hamas signing a deal.

Historically, they don't sign a piece of paper together. They don't talk to each other directly, and it's unlikely that we will see a piece of paper that has all the details with the signatures of the representatives with the state of Israel and the representative of Hamas.

Nonetheless, there will be something official that will be presented to the public. It may not be the whole thing. There are usually secret annexes attached to these deals that we will never see. But there will be some kind of official announcement.

MACFARLANE: All we know is this deal is badly needed. We hope we will see that soon. And in the meantime, Gershon Baskin, we appreciate your thoughts there live in Jerusalem. Thank you.

BASKIN: Thank you. FOSTER: Turning now to Southern California, where firefighters are

working to stop a new brush fire from spreading.

MACFARLANE: The Auto Fire which broke out in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, just hours ago has burned about 22 hectares and prompted evacuation orders. But the fire department says crews have halted its forward progress in the areas under the highest fire threat.

FOSTER: This comes as fire crews are bracing for more powerful winds overnight. In L.A. County, the strongest winds will likely be felt in areas outside the active fire zones. But the danger there does remain high.

MACFARLANE: Those winds threaten to undo the progress firefighters have made against the Palisades and Eaton Fires, which have burned more than 15,000 hectares combined. The L.A. Fire Chief says the threat for the area remains critical through Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF KRISTIN CROWLEY, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: We urge the public to stay diligent, to stay ready, as the danger has absolutely not passed. Please adhere to any evacuation warning and orders immediately and prioritize your safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has committed to covering the cost of removing debris from the fires for 180 days. But FEMA's administrator acknowledges the work will continue beyond that time frame.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: It's going to take more than six months to remove this debris. We'll get the majority out. California will get the majority of out in that time frame. But it's going to take some time to be able to get everything out so they can start rebuilding and make sure that it is safe for people to come back in and start rebuilding those homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: But while some look forward to rebuilding, crews are still struggling to contain the most destructive wildfires in the state's history. CNN's Leigh Waldman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIEF ANTHONY MARRONE, LA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Severe fire weather conditions will continue through Wednesday.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): L.A. County's fire chief warning the community that the work to put out the area's deadly blazes is far from over. Potent gusts of wind are expected to move in. LINDSEY HORVATH, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERVISOR: We hope that it doesn't get to that level, but we are seeing that there could be hurricane-level winds. And so it is very concerning at this time.

WALDMAN (voice-over): The work to get these fires under control now approaches a second week from planes in the air to boots on the ground. Firefighters went door to door in the Pacific Palisades Monday looking for hot spots. And they're urging the tens of thousands of people who remain under evacuation orders to stay away.

CAPTAIN ERIK SCOTT, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: You can't drive through the roads. There's power poles down. There's live, you know, electrical wires that are potentially lethal. The water is not safe to drink. The structures are not standing. Things are collapsing. Fires are still burning.

WALDMAN (voice-over): While they wait to return to their neighborhoods to assess all that they've lost, some survivors say they're grateful for the kindness of strangers as donations pour in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I came down here, I was just, I was blown away just how much the community is pulling together and how amazing it truly is. And just to see each person, they're just pouring their love and their energy into every single thing that they're doing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, joining us now is Todd Hall, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service working in their Los Angeles office. Todd, good to see you. Just bring us up to date on the latest with some strong winds due to pick up through Wednesday.

What are you seeing? And is there any -- do you expect any break in the weather for firefighting services?

TOD HALL, SENIOR METEOROLOGIST, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Well, we're getting a little bit, a little or maybe some (INAUDIBLE). It's some (INAUDIBLE) and some reprieve (INAUDIBLE). We're expecting (INAUDIBLE) a break and then we'll see them again (INAUDIBLE).

MACFARLANE: Todd, unfortunately, we're having a little trouble there with your audio, as I'm sure our viewers can see. So we will keep you on hold for now and hopefully come back to you, Todd, in just a moment when we can reestablish that connection. Thank you.

FOSTER: U.S. Justice Department -- U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, meanwhile, saying if Donald Trump hadn't been reelected president, the evidence against him would have resulted in his conviction at trial. That is the conclusion of Smith's new report on Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Much of what's in the report already known.

MACFARLANE: Well, Smith includes extensive details of Trump's efforts to retain power, including pressuring state officials to adopt a fraudulent electors plan. In a letter to the attorney general, Smith says Trump's claim of complete exoneration is false and he stands fully behind the merits of the case. Here is what Obama White House Ethics Czar, Norm Eisen had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORM EISEN, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE ETHICS CZAR: It never grows old that you have this evidence and the detail that a president of the United States lost an election. He refused to leave office. He came up with this cockamamie scheme to have the electors for the losing candidate replace the electors for the winning candidate.

He tried to pressure his own vice president to do that. He incited a violent mob. And now he's returning to the Oval Office with the ability to use those powers again.

So this report is very important and worth waiting up for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, it didn't take long for Donald Trump to respond to the special counsel's report. He called it fake findings by deranged Jack Smith, who couldn't bring the case to trial before the election.

FOSTER: Back to our breaking news, though, in L.A., how the wildfires will make California's insurance crisis even worse. Some homeowners who had their policies canceled have lost everything.

MACFARLANE: Plus, Donald Trump's Pentagon pick will be on Capitol Hill today, facing senators who will vote on his confirmation.

FOSTER: Also coming up, Pope Francis releases his new book, Hope, the autobiography. Today, we'll have a look at the stories featured in this first of its kind memoir.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. We're turning back now to the wildfires raging still in L.A. to speak to someone in the region, Todd Hall, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service, working in the Los Angeles office. Todd, I know we had a few issues with connections earlier. I hope you can hear me now.

So just bring us up to date on the latest with the weather forecast because we were expecting these strong winds, hurricane-like winds to pick up once again midweek. Is that what we're seeing?

HALL (via phone): Yes, we're going to expect those winds to increase again overnight tonight and into really we're starting into Tuesday morning now. So we're going to see those winds start to increase as we get into sunrise here and shortly thereafter. And so we could see gusts between 55 and 70 miles per hour across the area.

And we're already seeing these critical fire weather conditions already in place. We've had the red flag warnings out for the last several days. We're going to enter the particularly dangerous situation type red flag situation again after 4 a.m. this morning when those winds start to peak again. And we start to see the much drier air push in with the same anti-wind events.

FOSTER: As important is the direction of those winds, isn't it, and whether or not they're going towards the built-up areas. Can you tell us anything about that?

HALL: Yes. So right now we're seeing a little bit more of an easterly push. That is what fueled the Auto Fire near Ventura earlier -- late last night, actually.

But what we're seeing is we'll probably see a little bit more of a shift back to the northeast a little bit. And that will cause different canyons from our complex topography to actually increase. And, you know, they'll see winds surface in some different canyons.

At this point right now, it looks like the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire may not be affected as much by these winds due to the direction. But there is still that outside chance the northern end of the Eaton fire and the western end of the Palisades fire could see some of those winds. And if there's any hot spots, they could they could reignite. So that's the main concern.

We also have to be very cognizant, aware of any new fires that start, especially not only in L.A. County, but to our areas to the east and south of us in Riverside and San Bernardino County.

MACFARLANE: We know, Todd, that breaks in the wind are important for the firefighters to operate. At what point do you expect to see some respite this week? Any changes in the weather?

HALL: We still have these critical fire weather conditions in place through 6 p.m. Wednesday. There's a chance that for some areas these could extend into Thursday. We're still evaluating that.

And we'll be talking with a lot of the fire behavior analysts that we work with closely here across Southern California in these fire agencies and really discussing that with them to see, you know, what we're looking at as far as the fire behavior when we when we produce the wind forecasts and humidity forecasts. So we're going to be taking a very close look at that. We are seeing a little bit of reprieve, hopefully by Friday and Saturday.

A return of onshore flow, which was flow basically from the ocean to the desert here in California. And so we will hopefully see some of those fire weather conditions moderate, which will allow containment figures to go up and really allow these allow these firefighters to build some fire lines around these wildfires.

MACFARLANE: All right, Todd Hall, we appreciate the update. Thank you so much.

FOSTER: The L.A. fires are sure to make an already crippling insurance crisis in California even worse. Some homeowners who lost everything had no coverage after a wave of cancellations in the past few years.

CNN's Brian Todd has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Francis Bischetti tells CNN his home in Pacific Palisades, California, is completely gone, burned down in a scene he described to us as mayhem.

FRANCIS BISCHETTI, HOME BURNED DOWN, UNINSURED: It was just really intense, like, like, like as intense at a level that I've never, ever experienced.

TODD (voice-over): Bischetti says he tried to protect his home by watering the property year round. He says he had to do that because last year he learned that the annual cost of his homeowner's insurance policy was skyrocketing.

BISCHETTI: We got a notice that our fire insurance went up from approximately 4,500, I want to say, per year up to, I think they jumped us to $18,000 a year. And those are numbers that we just could not afford.

TODD (voice-over): He says he also could not afford to get on a program set up by the state called the California Fair Plan, which has higher premiums, less coverage, and would have required him to cut down several trees on his property, which was too expensive for him. So Bischetti says he basically was forced into an untenable position.

BISCHETTI: We sort of agreed between me and my sisters that what we'll -- what we ought to just cancel the fire insurance.

TODD (voice-over): Francis Bischetti's story is not an isolated case. For several years, major insurance companies have been hiking up rates at an astounding pace in California and not renewing policies.

RICHARD GILLER, INSURANCE RECOVERY LAWYER IN LOS ANGELES: The insurance companies decided not to write new policies or they decided just to not renew people. And that left a number of homeowners scrambling to try and find other private insurance.

TODD (voice-over): The California Department of Insurance says that between 2020 and 2022, insurance companies declined to renew 2.8 million homeowner policies in California, including 531,000 policies in Los Angeles County, where the current wildfires are causing so much devastation.

State Farm, California's largest home insurer, announced last summer that it was seeking increases in rates of as much as 52 percent for some renters citing increased costs and risks. State Farm had already stopped selling insurance for new homes in California in 2023.

GILLER: It's incredibly risky in high risk areas. Some people are estimating that we could be looking at 50 or $60 billion in losses.

TODD (voice-over): In recent days, California's insurance commissioner issued a bulletin to protect homeowners affected by the Palisades and Eaton Fires for one year.

RICARDO LARA, CALIFORNIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: I am using my moratorium power to stop all non-renewals and cancellations.

TODD: When State Farm announced it would stop new home insurance sales, the company issued a statement specifically citing skyrocketing construction costs and the risks posed by wildfires like the ones we're seeing now. Farmers Insurance, which was Francis Bischetti's carrier, did not respond to CNN's request for comment on his case, but told the Los Angeles Times it could not comment on Bischetti's assertions because the company does not discuss individual policyholders.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Gaza ceasefire deal finally on the horizon. We're live in Doha next with details of what could be the final round of negotiations.

MACFARLANE: And Pete Hegseth has some explaining to do in front of the Senate committee today. The first step in his quest to become the U.S. defense secretary.

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