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CNN International: Hearings for Several of Trump's Top Cabinet Picks Today; Defense Secretary Pick Hegseth Grilled by Democrats at Hearing; Wildfires Raging in California as High Winds Hinder Progress; South Korea's President Yoon Detained for Questioning; U.S. President Biden to Give Farewell Address on Wednesday; Hostage-ceasefire Deal Details Still Under Discussion; Crews Try to Free Miners Trapped in South Africa Gold Mine; TikTok Preparing for U.S. Shutdown on Sunday; Two Lunar Landers Begin Journey to the Moon. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired January 15, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Hi, everyone, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade. This is "CNN Newsroom". Just ahead, a big day on Capitol Hill, six of Donald Trump's nominees heading to the Senate for confirmation hearings. We'll go live to Washington. South Korea's embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol is spending the night in jail, refusing to answer questions from investigators. Plus, closer than ever to a deal, negotiators are said to be hammering out the final details on an agreement to hold the fighting in Gaza and bring dozens of hostages home.
Well, in just a couple of hours, several of Donald Trump's most significant cabinet picks will begin confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate, including his picks for Secretary of State, CIA Director, and Attorney General. None of today's hearings are expected to be contentious, as Tuesday's battle over Defense Secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth. Democrats hammered him over his qualifications to run the Pentagon, as well as the 2017 allegation of sexual assault which he has denied and allegations of excessive drinking. It led to Hegseth saying this over and over again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, TRUMP DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE: A small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive a smear campaign. I was falsely charged. Those were false charges. Those are all anonymous false claims, anonymous smears. Anonymous smears.
SEN. MARK KELLY, (D-AZ) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: You passed out in the back of a party bus. Is that true or false?
HEGSETH: Anonymous smears.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, perhaps the biggest point of contention was Hegseth's past statements criticizing the role of women in military combat. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN, (D-NH): Why should women in our military, if you were the Secretary of Defense, believe that they would have a fair shot and an equal opportunity to rise through the ranks?
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, (D-NY): We have hundreds, hundreds of women who are currently in the infantry, lethal members of our military serving in the infantry, but you degrade them.
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, (D-HI): You previously have made a series of inflammatory statements about women in combat --
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D-MA): About your views of women in the military, and I just want to know, what changed in the 32 days that the song you sang is not the song you come in here today to sing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, Republicans seem to be sticking with Hegseth after the hearing, he got an important endorsement from Senator Joni Ernst to have been seen as one of the few Republican skeptics regarding his nomination. Well, today's biggest hearings are for Trump's picks to run the Justice Department and to be Secretary of State.
For more on all of that, I want to bring in CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill. Good to see Lauren. So let's start with Hegseth's hearing. How is his nomination looking after yesterday's confirmation hearing?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned, the fact that Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a veteran, a sexual assault survivor, someone who initially said she had a lot of questions for Pete Hegseth and had repeated meetings with him, she came out last night saying she supported his nomination.
So right now, what it looks like is at least getting through the Senate Armed Services Committee is going to be quite easy for Pete Hegseth. Moving forward, after that, he'll go to the United States Senate's floor. There he can only lose just a handful of Republicans. But right now, there's not a single Republican who has come out publicly against his nomination. Obviously, Senators who are not serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee are going to have to review what they saw of his testimony yesterday and make a decision about whether or not they could support him.
I mean, all eyes are on people like Senator Susan Collins, Senator Lisa Murkowski, some Republicans who have bucked Donald Trump in the past. But again, no one has come out yet against Pete Hegseth and a lot of Republicans were really relieved by his performance yesterday that I talked to. They really thought that he was able to answer Democrats' really tough questions, that he was remaining level headed, that he was able to demonstrate an ability to handle such a high- stakes public hearing. KINKADE: And of course, Lauren, it will be another big day of confirmation hearings today. Trump selected Pam Bondi to be his nominee for U.S. Attorney General, as well as Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. What is expected when they face questioning?
FOX: Yeah, I mean, these are going to be two very different hearings.
[08:05:00]
I am standing in the room that Pam Bondi, who's Donald Trump's pick to be the next Attorney General, will be seated in. She's going to have to answer a lot of tough questions from Democrats about her past comments, her past loyalty, her past relationship with Donald Trump when it comes to the fact that she has stood by him at every turn.
In fact, she was one of the lawyers who worked on his team in the first impeachment. I think Democrats are going to have a lot of questions about whether or not she can remain independent as the Attorney General, whether or not she will act on Donald Trump's whims as the Attorney General. Those are going to be the kinds of things you're going to see from Democrats in this line of questioning.
Meanwhile, Senator Marco Rubio, who is the pick to lead the Secretary of State job, he is certainly going to be in a position where he is going to be facing questions from both Republicans and Democrats who have already voiced a lot of support for his nomination. I think that's going to be an opportunity for Rubio to really demonstrate what the next Trump Administration's foreign policy starts to look like.
What are his answers on what the U.S. support for Ukraine is going to look like in the years and months ahead? There's also going to be a lot of questions on what is the U.S. posture toward China, toward Russia in the years and months ahead. So, I think those are some areas where you're really going to see a substantial policy discussion in the hearing with Marco Rubio, where I think you may expect more fireworks from Pam Bondi.
KINKADE: All right. We will be watching closely today. Lauren Fox, good to have you with us. Thanks so much.
Well, for more on all of this, I want to welcome in Brown University Political Science Professor, Corey Brettschneider. He is the author of the book, " The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It." Good to see you.
COREY BRETTSCHNEIDER, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Nice to see you too.
KINKADE: So, Hegseth has been criticized for his thin resume and certainly he conceded during the hearing that he didn't have the resume or experience of defense secretaries of the last 30 years. But the arguments and the line of questioning certainly came down to party lines. And even though the Republicans have that slim majority to confirm, these hearings are crucial, right? BRETTSCHNEIDER: They are, you know, the way the process is supposed to play out is that cabinet nominees have to get the consent and the advice of the Senate and they're really also seeking the consent and acknowledgement of the American people. But I think what you saw yesterday was really the nominee speaking to one person, and that's Donald Trump.
And he spoke about his -- how wonderful he was. I think at one point he called him one of the best CEOs in American history. And the reason why he's playing to an audience of one, to Donald Trump, is because he knows that to get Senators in line, that's his best bet. And unfortunately, from my mind, given his lack of integrity, the concerns about women that you brought up, it looks like it's working.
KINKADE: Yeah, it certainly does. You make a good point. He was of course, asked about his views on women in combat and he argued that they can only be in combat if they're up to the right standard. He was also caught out on some earlier claims he had made. I just want to play some sound from Senator Gillibrand. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEGSETH: In ways direct, indirect, overt and subtle, standards have been changed inside infantry training units, ranger school, infantry battalions to ensure that commanders meet --
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, (D-NY): Give me one example. Please give me an example. I get you're making these generalized statements.
HEGSETH: -- commanders meet quotas to have a certain number of female infantry officers or infantry enlisted, and that disparages those women (inaudible) not capable of meeting that standard.
GILLIBRAND: Commanders do not have to have a quotas for the infantry -- commanders do not have to have a quota for women in the infantry. That does not exist. It does not exist. And your statements are creating the impression that they're -- that these exist, because they do not. They are not quotas. We want the most lethal force.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: What did you make of that line of questioning?
BRETTSCHNEIDER: Well, I think the concerns are very serious that he, as Elizabeth Warren, Senator Warren pointed out, really disparaged the role of women in the military and certainly in combat, and now seems to be reversing himself that he's the nominee. Look, he's going to be running an organization that has more than about 3 million people in it, employees. And this is somebody who ran an organization of no more than a hundred, that's his experience.
And the concern is, look, you've got to be able to lead everyone, including the large number of women in the military and in the workforce. Also, his remarks on diversity, disparaging diversity and really speaking about its lack of strength that comes from diversity, that raises lots of questions about a very diverse military and Department of Defense. So I thought these were (inaudible) lines of questioning when it comes to whether or not he will not only have the integrity to lead and to stand up to Donald Trump when he'll need to, to defend principles of international law, but also even to internally lead an organization that is diverse when it comes to matters of gender and other types of diversity.
[08:10:18]
KINKADE: And Corey, looking at it today, Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General, has been picked by Donald Trump to be the U.S. Attorney General. What sort of issues, what sort of questions will be raised today?
BRETTSCHNEIDER: Well, here the question of loyalty versus allegiance and obligation to the rule of law is so central. This, on paper, she was of course the Attorney General of Florida, as you say. It looks like she's certainly way more qualified than Matt Gaetz was. But on the other hand, she also talked about election fraud in the 2020 election and backed Trump's false claims that he really won the election.
And the question here is you're going to be the top nation's law enforcement official. Are you going to actually enforce the law against a president who has shown a willingness to violate it? Or are you going to show loyalty to somebody who was and unfortunately, likely will be, let's call it what it is, a criminal president?
KINKADE: Corey Brettschneider, we appreciate your time today. Thanks so much for joining us.
BRETTSCHNEIDER: Thank you.
KINKADE: Well, firefighters in California got the news they didn't want to hear. High wind conditions is setting in, making the job of putting out those wildfires even more challenging. The red flag warning is now in effect between central California and Mexico. So far, the fires have claimed 25 lives, thousands of structures, and have burned an area larger than the size of Paris.
All the while, Californians are affected by the fires. They're still waiting to get back to their property to begin recovery. Well, four major fires are still burning. Stephanie Elam is following the story from the Pacific Palisades in California. Thanks for being there for us, Stephanie. Just how much of the fire there is contained right now?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's just a fraction of it. About 18 percent of the Palisades Fire is contained. However, there aren't active flames right now, but they're still working and a lot of the area here is very rugged to dig into and get out of. But the big concern today, Lynda, are the winds and the winds are picking up. We've heard them, they're rattling things around us.
Now, they're really going to blow around the Eaton Fire on the eastern side of Los Angeles, where we have that mass devastation. Between these two fires, more than 12,000 structures have been lost. And that could be a house, that could be a garage. Structure is a wide term here, but still a lot of destruction and over 40,000 people have filed claims with FEMA to get assistance to get that aid.
So it just gives you an idea of how widespread this is. But these winds are going to pick up today. And for the people who would love to get back in here and see what their property looks like, it's going to be a little bit longer because officials are taking their time to go through each property, each lot one by one. In fact, take a listen to an official from CAL FIRE explaining the process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT FOXWORTHY, CAL FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER: Crews are doing a methodical process of moving through the area, going to every individual structure, and searching it, looking for hazards, possibly searching for any victims that may not have made it out of the fire. And they will continue to do this until they cover the entire fire area. It's a considerable amount of structures to search, thousands, and it's going to be a long process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: A long process. So hopefully, after this wind event is done today, hopefully later this week, people will be able to start making their way back into these areas, Lynda.
KINKADE: All right. Stephanie Elam, good to have you there for us. Thanks very much.
Well, Stephanie said the dangerous winds are expected to pick back up, but I want to go to our Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar for the details. Good to have you with us, Allison. So, the red flag warnings remain. Just what can we expect from the wind conditions over the coming hours?
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Lynda, really the key is going to be the next 24 hours because after that, we will finally start to see some relief. But in the short term, we are still expecting some of these wind gusts up around 50, 60, even possibly as high as 70 miles per hour in some isolated locations. That's for the red flag warning you see here. And that is valid until 6:00 p.m. local time today.
Even embedded within that red flag warning, you have these two zones here. Those are labeled as particularly dangerous situations and those are valid until 3:00 p.m. local time this afternoon. But it's key to note that three of the fires that they are tracking are within one of those PDS locations. Look at some of the wind gusts that have come in, in the last 24 hours.
[08:15:00]
74, 61, 60, 50, we really, truly were lucky that we did not have a brand new fire that really formed in the last several hours, because these are the winds that would've taken those embers and spread them rapidly over those very dry conditions. And that is the hope for today, is that we do not get any new fires starting because if they do, these 60, 70 mile per hour winds are just going to spread those fires very quickly and make it very difficult for the firefighters to battle them.
When you look at the forecast for the winds, you do, you have those 40, 50, even 60 mile per hour wind gusts in the forecast, especially through the morning. And then by late this afternoon, you'll finally start to see them taper off. And by the time we get to Thursday, look at this, most of these areas back down into single-digit numbers. That is exactly what we want to see, and it's expected to stay that way through the weekend.
Here's a look at Wednesday. You still have that critical fire threat for today, especially that first half of the day when we still anticipate those winds to be very strong. But by Thursday, we finally start coming back down to level one. You start to see that improvement across many of these areas, and we need it. You look at some of the devastating fires to hit California, just in the time span, look at this. This is the top-10 most destructive California wildfires.
The Eaton Fire and the Pacific Palisades are on that list, number two and four, respectively. And then this red star that you see here on the side, five of the top-10 wildfires have all occurred just since 2018. So it has been a very rough last several years for this area. The more concerning thing is that we still don't really have any rain in the forecast.
Now the bit of good news is by the time we get to Friday of this week, the winds will shift direction, a much more favorable direction for the firefighters and humidity is supposed to go up. Both of those things will work in the favor for the firefighters that are still out there trying to get all of those other remaining fires back up to a hundred percent containment. But the one thing we really need is rain, and we simply don't have any in the forecast here for at least the next seven days.
And Lynda, that's the crazy part here because January is the second wettest month of the year on average for these areas. And most locations, especially Los Angeles, have had zero measurable rain so far this month.
KINKADE: Yeah, they really need some rain. Allison Chinchar, good to have you with us. Thank you.
Well, South Korea's president has been detained for questioning as the country's political crisis deepens. Yoon Suk Yeol has been under intense pressure after his shock declaration of martial law last month. This footage shows investigators scaling a bus blocking the entrance to the presidential compound early on Wednesday. South Korea's Anti-Corruption Agency says he was arrested and then ushered away in a motorcade. More Now from Mike Valerio in Seoul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a motorcade that signaled surrender from a standoff, defiance turning into disbelief, as supporters of South Korea's suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol watched the former prosecutor arrested by authorities. He's now South Korea's first president to be detained while in office. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't know what to say. It's too much that I don't want to live, too tough. This is not normal.
VALERIO (voice-over): It was the second attempt this month to arrest the suspended president. The first happened on January 3rd, but that day Yoon's equivalent of the Secret Service refused to give him up. This time, presidential security backed down. And Yoon said in a prerecorded address, he left with law enforcement because he did not want violence.
YOON SUK YEOL, FORMER SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Responding to these illegal and invalid procedures is not an acknowledgement of this, but at heart to prevent unsavory bloodshed.
VALERIO (voice-over): This moment brings South Korea ever so slightly back from the brink of crisis. Yoon's opponents saying South Korea's sitting president must answer investigators questions about why Yoon declared martial law in December, leading his critics say, an insurrection.
PARK CHAN-DAE, MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Yoon Suk Yeol, who is supposed to uphold the constitution and laws, has committed grave crimes, opposition lawmaker Park Chan-dae said, violating the constitution and laws to declare martial law, but also obstructing justice through force and turning the Republic of Korea into a lawless state.
VALERIO: Being questioned here is only one of Yoon's problems. He's a suspended president because right now, he's going through an impeachment process over December's martial law. And that process could remove him from office within the next few months.
VALERIO (voice-over): For now, weeks after hundreds of thousands of Yoon opponents took to the streets, celebrating lawmakers green lighting the first steps of the impeachment process, Yoon's most ardent supporters say they are not backing down, some supporting martial law to further Yoon's conservative agenda.
CHO MIN-SIK, SUPPORTER OF SUSPENDED PRESIDENT YOON: Now, I fully, fully support the martial law and including how it was executed. Nobody got hurt, nobody got arrested.
VALERIO (voice-over): Mike Valerio, CNN, Gwacheon, South Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:20:00]
KINKADE: Well, still to come, U.S. President Joe Biden is set to address the nation one last time from the Oval Office in a farewell, capping off a career in politics that spans decades. What we can expect to hear from the outgoing president, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KINKADE: History is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. Those words from U.S. President Joe Biden in a letter he wrote to the American people. With a career spanning more than 50 years in politics, Mr. Biden is preparing to exit the White House. Tonight, the president will speak from the Oval Office one last time in a farewell address to the nation.
Well, CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House with more. Good to have you with us, Arlette. So after five decades in public service, Joe Biden will reflect on and essentially defend his legacy. What can we expect?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lynda, President Biden will sit behind the Resolute desk for the final time in the Oval Office to address the nation as he is capping off a more than five decade long career in public service. It's the latest effort by Biden to try to cement his legacy as he has tried to present himself as this transformative leader, who has presented a steady hand both here at home and abroad.
Now, the president ahead of the speech wrote a letter to Americans, and in that letter, as he touted his accomplishments, he also tried to remind Americans of the state of the country that he inherited four years ago. He wrote, "We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War." That being a reference to the January 6th insurrection.
But he added, but we came together as Americans. Ultimately, the President believes that he is leaving the country in a stronger position than when he took office. In this letter, he points to various accomplishments, the fact that the economy is on strong footing even though many Americans at home don't personally feel that way. He also talked about the boost in manufacturing under his watch, lower violent crime rates, and also efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs for older Americans.
But even as he is touting these accomplishments, President Biden is leaving office with low approval ratings which hover around 38 percent right now. And he is also preparing to welcome back to the White House, the very man who he has described as a direct threat to democracy and unfit to serve as president. And that really presents one of the challenges for Biden's legacy going forward. His decision to seek re-election is something that still frustrates many Democrats who believe that he paved the way for Donald Trump's return here to Washington.
President Biden has remained defiant, just last week, saying that he still believes that he would've beaten Trump if he had stayed in this race. But Biden is unlikely to rehash that part of his legacy in his speech, instead trying to reflect on this more than 50-year career he's had in Washington, D.C.
[08:25:00]
He wrote in this letter, "I have given my heart and my soul to our nation, and I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. History is in your hands," he writes.
KINKADE: And of course, Arlette, it's not completely goodbye yet. There are a few days left. What is Biden hoping to get across the finish line?
SAENZ: Well, right now, he continues to monitor those wildfires in California, trying to ensure that they have the federal support that they need. But there are also some other big-ticket items on his to-do list. He and his team are still trying to push along those negotiations to get a ceasefire and hostage release deal before inauguration day.
He is also set to make a decision about whether he will give any preemptive pardons to individuals who could be targeted for prosecution during Trump's second term, when he takes power. Just last week, he said he's still evaluating that. He wants to see if Trump telegraphs any of his intentions in the final days. So that is a decision that could come before he leaves office.
And then on Sunday, he will be traveling down to Charleston, South Carolina. This state is so important to Biden because that is the state that really resurrected his campaign when he was struggling back in the Democratic primary in 2020. He has visited there time and time again, traveling there also with his family after the death of his son, Beau Biden, as a state with a lot of personal significance for the president. And he will be paying one last visit in his final trip in office just one day before Trump's inauguration.
KINKADE: All right, Arlette Saenz at the White House, good to have you there for us. Thank you.
Well, still to come, all eyes are on Doha, Qatar, where marathon talks to bring about a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza are taking place. Hamas, Israel and the negotiators say they are getting very close. We'll have a live report next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back. We are keeping a close eye on developments out of Qatar where negotiators are ironing out the final details of a complex deal that would see a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. Both sides, Israel and Hamas, as well as mediators, Qatar, Egypt, and the U.S., say an agreement is closer than ever.
[08:30:00]
As they wait for news of a truce, civilians are still suffering and dying in Gaza. On Tuesday, Israeli's strikes killed at least 54 people across the Palestinian enclave according to local officials.
I want to bring in CNN's Paula Hancocks, who joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Good to have you with us, Paula. So, this ceasefire can't come soon enough for those still suffering in Gaza. What more can you tell us about this latest deal? Because it looks awfully similar to the one that we saw months ago.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lynda, it does. It appears that the parameters are certainly very similar indeed. So what of course, is different now is that there is a feeling that we're closer than we have been for 15 months. And we are hearing that from a number of different sides, not just Hamas and Israel, but also the mediators themselves.
Now, when it comes to the feeling in Gaza itself, there is hope, but it is coupled with despair. Remember, several months ago, there was a report that Hamas had agreed to one of the drafts, and there was celebration on the streets in Gaza, only for those hopes to be dashed and the bombs to continue to fall. Thousands have been killed since that time. So, there is a huge amount of cynicism on the streets of Gaza that this will actually make a difference.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): This is the closest these girls can get to going to school in Gaza, trying to teach each other in this school building turned displacement center, desperate for an end to the war which abruptly stopped their education, their safety, their normality 15 months ago.
Saba Ahmadaba Uda (ph) remembers her friends, girls she says were killed in Beit Hanoun at the start of the war. We used to play together, she says, make lunch, do our homework and study. We did everything together. I'm sad I won't find them when I go home.
Noor (ph) is 12 years old and has been displaced, she says, seven times during this war. She wants to go home to see what happened to her school friend who she hasn't heard from for a year after her home was destroyed. I just want to go home, she says. I want my belongings, my toys, my memories.
Northern Gaza has been decimated by Israeli airstrikes in recent months. There's no guaranty Noor's (ph) family will have a home to go back to.
Abdul Rahman Salama (ph) digs through the rubble of his home in Khan Younis, hoping to find a blanket or a mattress, anything to help his family living in a tent by the winter sea. There are no memories, he says, our life has vanished. There's no future. He calls negotiations lies, saying we celebrate a little until we see a drone strike, an artillery shell hit or the quad copter shoot at us.
Abu Simiya (ph) walks through his neighborhood, a place he says residents no longer recognize. He asks about the day after. Let's say a truce happens, he says, and the residents of this area return. Where do they go? Is this area fit for humans to live in?
Ahmad Salama (ph) tries to repair one room in his destroyed home, mixing sand and water to make clay. He says he kept waiting to do this, thinking negotiations would work, but he now needs to move his family from a tent on the coast which collapses every time it rains. They say the same thing every time, he says, but nothing happens. We want anything, anything is better than this.
With 90 percent of the population displaced, the dream of going home is prevalent, even when they know their home is likely just rubble. Mohammad Abu Abbey (ph) knows her house is unlikely to have survived in the largely leveled city of Rafah in the South. I swear when the ceasefire comes, she says, I will celebrate and rejoice and I will not sleep all night. We hope that this cloud of despair finally lifts.
Hope and despair go hand in hand in Gaza, a ceasefire has been close before and yet the bombs still fell.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Now, when it comes to those on the ground in Gaza, there may be, the sources telling us that, that this is very close.
[08:35:00]
This ceasefire is extremely close, but they're not feeling it. In Gaza itself, the airstrikes are continuing. There have been dozens killed over the past 48 hours. In fact, in one three-storey building in Khan Younis in the south, that was leveled, at least a dozen killed in that strike, including women and children. Israel saying that they are still targeting Hamas, but as we have been seeing for the past 15 months, women and children are bearing the brunt.
KINKADE: Yeah.
HANCOCKS: Lynda?
KINKADE: Exactly. It's heartbreaking. Paul Hancocks for us, appreciate you. Thanks so much.
Well, for a closer look at that possible ceasefire deal that could emerge from the talks in Qatar, I want to bring in Aaron David Miller. He's a former U.S. State Department Middle East Negotiator, and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Good to see you, Aaron.
AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: Good to see you. Thanks for having me.
KINKADE: So after more than a year of war, this could be the start of the end. You've been a former Middle East Peace Negotiator at the State Department. We keep hearing that this deal is close to being finalized. Just how close do you think it is?
DAVID MILLER: You know, no one ever lost money betting against Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements, and they tend to have two speeds, slow and slower, particularly in the final stages when in fact the parties face a proverbial moment of truth about whether or not the upsides of signing an agreement outweigh the downsides. Again, we've been here many times before. I don't think I've seen the urgency or the commitment, or the level of detail with respect to the mediator's engagement indirectly with both the Israelis and Hamas' leadership. And remember, this is complex because you have an indirect negotiation going on in Doha and at times in Cairo. And yet, the key decision makers on the Palestinian side appears to be Yahya Sinwar's brother, Mohammed, and a couple of other battalion commanders who have influence. They're making decisions in circumstances that are hardly ideal for making these sorts of decisions.
How the two sides are communicating, the external and the external leadership is also a fascinating question. But, I do think every conceivable signal the parties appear to be preparing their constituencies, certainly on the Israeli side, that a deal is coming. You have opposition to the agreement, which is a certain sign that in fact, you're getting closer from some of Prime Minister Netanyahu's extremist ministers. So again, I think it's going to happen.
KINKADE: Yeah, I mean, you can only hope, especially for those who have been waiting over a year to hear from loved ones who were taken by Hamas on October 7th in 2023. I want to play some sound from one mother, Herut Nimrodi, whose teenage son was taken by Hamas 15 months ago. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERUT NIMRODI, MOTHER OF ISRAELI HOSTAGE: As a mother of a young boy, I'm scared. I'm scared that he won't be back home and it'll take time till we get another deal done. And I don't know if there will be anyone to bring back home and it scares me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: So, as part of this first phase of this deal, 33 hostages said to -- will be released. How do they determine which hostages?
DAVID MILLER: They've been negotiating this for months now. This is going to be described I think as a humanitarian release, 33 Israeli hostages, the women, female soldiers, which will be traded for a large number -- in each individual soldier, a large number of Palestinian prisoners. Whether there are any children still living, that's under consideration for the exchange. The infirm, the elderly, men over 50, and I think a few under 50. And thank you again, by the way, for focusing on the human dimension of this.
The trauma, the pain that hostages -- these hostages have endured and the trauma of their families. And then of course, the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, innocent civilians who have suffered. And Hamas has clearly left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. And for those individuals, for the Palestinians in Gaza, maybe you'll get six weeks of calm in which you can begin to not just dribble humanitarian assistance in, but surge it in.
So, all of this is going to be good news. My only concern is that it's going to be very difficult to move from the first phase of this deal to a cessation of the war, the release of all the hostages, and an end to the conflict. And that's going to remain the purview, I suspect, of the Trump Administration.
[08:40:00]
If the president-elect believes that somehow this was going to be cleared before he was sworn into office, I think he's going to find himself literally in the middle still of an Israeli-Hamas negotiation with the situation in Gaza increasingly fraught in the weeks and months ahead.
KINKADE: Yeah, you make a good point. In fact that it's taken this long just to get through one of three phases of this deal, is really tough for anyone involved to fathom. We can only hope that there is progress and quickly. Aaron David Miller, thank you so much.
DAVID MILLER: Thanks for having me.
KINKADE: Well, still to come. Dire warnings as another round of fierce winds hit Southern California and fire crews battled to control the deadly wildfires. And trapped underground for mums and cut off from vital supplies, hundreds of illegal miners in South Africa beg for help. We have the latest on the rescue mission, after the break.
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KINKADE: Welcome back. I want to go to the deadly wildfires in Southern California where more high winds could make battling the flames more difficult. Officials there are urging people to remain on high alert and to wear respiratory masks due to the poor air quality and the ash that's in the air. Some 6 million people are under a critical fire threat Wednesday. Crews continue to wage a battle against several fires in the region, including the Eaton and Palisades Fires, now the most destructive and second most destructive in Southern California history.
Those wildfires have already claimed at least 25 lives and thousands of structures, and behind every single home destroyed is a deep personal history of the people who lived there. CNN's Gary Tuchman shares the story of a 93-year-old man who lost a home which was filled with memories.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after Eric Back turned 93-years-old, he had to evacuate his Pacific Palisades house as fire approached, and this is what happened to his home.
ERIC BACK, PALISADES FIRE SURVIVOR: It's just a shock. It is hot (ph).
TUCHMAN: I'm so sorry for what you're dealing with.
BACK: My wife and I loved the house. Yeah, we just loved it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): What makes this so much harder for Eric is that his wife passed away two-and-a-half years ago at the age of 90.
TUCHMAN: Your wife, Rose? BACK: Yes.
TUCHMAN: How long were you married for?
BACK: 67 years.
TUCHMAN: 67 years and she is --
BACK: Wonderful years.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Eric and Rose met in their homeland of Germany when they were 17-years-old. They both moved to America in the 1950s and got married. They moved into their dream house almost exactly 60 years ago.
BACK: We are lucky we are still together and --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're very fortunate.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): They had two children and now, there are four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
[08:45:00]
But there is such a void in the family without Rose. Eric says the first time they met, they danced.
BACK: We kept dancing -- we kept dancing until we were 90-years-old. Every Saturday night, we went dancing, ballroom dancing. We enjoyed it.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The destruction of the house is devastating enough, but like so many fire victims, Eric had to leave so much behind, including physical memories of Rose. All the photo albums of their pictures are now gone. He hasn't been permitted to go back to his home yet.
But we got there and found some sentimental mementos, including this decorative statue that was in front of the house of a kissing girl and boy. Every Sunday, Eric says he goes to the cemetery to talk to her, including this past Sunday after the fire.
BACK: I said, well, I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do. And so I said, luckily, you were already gone and I'm happy you didn't have to see what actually happened.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Eric says he would like to rebuild his home, but doesn't know if he's too old to do so. Before we left his grandson's apartment, we told Eric we had something we wanted to give him.
TUCHMAN: We found this outside your house. This must be you and Rose.
BACK: Yeah. Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Why don't you sit down? Yeah, I'll put it down so we can look at it together.
BACK: OK.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): His wife Rose forever alive in Eric's heart.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (on camera): Eric is lucky in that he has a great extended family, the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren, but the trauma is deep. And he joins thousands and thousands of others here in Southern California who have their own personal traumas now.
This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Altadena, California.
KINKADE: Well, in South Africa, a rescue mission to retrieve miners from an abandoned gold mine is underway. They've been trapped for months, but the government only launched the mission this week. Police say they've pulled out 160 survivors and 78 bodies so far. CNN's Isa Soares reports on the rescue efforts. And a warning you might find some of the images disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR (voice-over): Rescue teams are in a race against time to reach miners trapped at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa. But for many, it's too late. More than a hundred have died, a group representing the miners told CNN, some from possible hunger as well as dehydration. This after police cut off vital supplies and a crackdown on illegal mining last year.
Grim footage filmed by a miner, which CNN cannot independently verify, appears to show dozens of dead bodies wrapped in plastic and those still alive look emaciated, pleading for rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many days must you live in a situation like this? Please help us. Please.
SOARES (voice-over): Police say more than a hundred miners have been brought to the surface over the past two days. Dozens dead and the others arrested, facing charges including illegal mining and immigration violations. The families of those still trapped are desperate, waiting to see if their loved ones come out alive.
I don't even know if my husband is amongst the dead, this woman says. I don't know if he's alive. I'm stressed and depressed.
Police started to crack down on illicit mining last year. In November, they blocked food and water supplies in an effort to force miners to the surface.
ATHLENDA MATHE, SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SPOKESPERSON: Our mandate is clear. It is to prevent and combat crime, and we are still of the view that what is happening down there, it's pure criminality.
SOARES (voice-over): A South African court then ordered police to halt its standoff and provide food to the trap miners. On Sunday, in the face of public pressure, the government said it has begun plans for a rescue operation. Illegal mining is a dangerous lifeline for tens of thousands in South Africa, driven by poverty and organized crime. The country loses over a billion dollars annually to this underground economy, fueling violence and tragedies like this.
Isa Soares, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Still to come, a troubled social media giant is in need of a buyer and a familiar face may come calling.
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[08:51:08]
KINKADE: Welcome back. We're just in the scene and we are very close. That's the word from a source to scene and familiar with the ceasefire and hostage talks happening right now in Doha. The Israeli government expects an agreement will be announced either today or tomorrow, according to sources. If a deal is finalized, implementation would most likely start Sunday. We'll bring you much more in this as we get it.
Well, the clock is ticking on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media giant faces a Sunday deadline to find a new owner, or it will be banned in the United States. We may hear from the U.S. supreme court today on whether or not they will block the ban. There are several conflicting reports about what TikTok will do if the ban stands, including possibly selling to Elon Musk.
CNN Business Writer, Clare Duffy, joins us now to sort through TikTok's options. Good to see you, Clare. So just what are the options on the table?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Hi, Lynda. So, ByteDance really has sort of three options for what it can do with TikTok here. The first is that TikTok could just choose to shut down in the United States itself. The second is that ByteDance could sell TikTok to an American owner. The company has long pushed back on the idea that it would do that, but it may be sort of considering that option more as Sunday gets closer. And the third option is to do nothing and to allow the app stores in the United States to block TikTok.
We've expected that that is the route that they would go down, that U.S. users who already have the app on their phones would be able to continue using it. But you wouldn't be able to download it on new phones or update the app. It might get a little wonky as time goes on. But now, we're hearing new reports, including one from the information overnight, that TikTok actually does plan to shut itself down starting on Sunday and redirect any users who go to the app to a page explaining the ban.
And I think that could provide them with some leverage as they discuss new options with the incoming President Trump Administration, potentially look to find a new buyer. If they have a whole bunch of angry users who can no longer access the app, they may -- that may give TikTok and ByteDance some leverage in those conversations about what the next steps are, Lynda.
KINKADE: And of course, Clare, we have also seen the reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal that Chinese officials are discussing Elon Musk as a possible American buyer for TikTok. China has said previously, it would oppose a forced sale of TikTok. What made (ph) might Elon Musk change their mind?
DUFFY: Yeah, it's an interesting sort of turn of events here, but I think in a lot of ways it makes sense that Elon Musk might seem like a friendlier option for China if it needs to have an American buyer, if the supreme court doesn't block the ban. Elon Musk has a lot of business interests in China. He's really reliant on the country. It's Tesla's second largest market. He does a lot of manufacturing there. He has previously met with Chinese officials and expressed interest and increase in cooperation with China. So, he may be seen as a friendlier face there.
We know he also has the ear of President Donald Trump, incoming President Donald Trump, and the Chinese are going to be looking for a negotiating leverage over the tariffs on China that Trump has promised that could really impact their economy. So, they may see this deal as an opportunity to sell TikTok to a friend of Donald Trump's, give the Americans something that they want to potentially get a better deal on tariffs in return.
KINKADE: All right, we'll see how this plays out. Four days to go. Clare Duffy, thank you.
Well, two lunar landers are on their way to the moon, both onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which took off just after 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, ignition and (inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: That launch marks the first flight to the moon for the Firefly Aerospace, a Texas company whose unscrewed Blue Ghost lander could eventually play a part in NASA's goal of taking astronauts back to the lunar surface. Even before it gets to the moon, the Blue Ghost lander will conduct experiments on solar wind and radiation-resistant computer hardware. The Resilience lunar lander from the Japanese company, ispace, is also onboard.
[08:55:00]
Well, thanks so much for joining me here on "CNN Newsroom." I'm Lynda Kinkade. Stay with us. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next.
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