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Israeli Supreme Court Rejected Bill To Reform Judiciary; Russia's War On Ukraine; Following A Drone Attack, People Buried In Debris In Northeastern Ukraine; "Auld Lang Syne" Performed By Ukraine Chorus; New Laws Taking Effect On January 1st; Today, Minimum Wage Expected To Rise In 12 States; Abortion Rights And Gender Affirming Healthcare Protected In California; Access To Abortion Increased By Washington State; Flu Activity Rising In The U.S.; FDA: Bacterial Contamination Risk Prompts Recall Of Infant Formula; Unexpectedly, After 52 Years, Danish Queen Margrethe Steps Down; Disney No Longer The Exclusive Owner Of Original Mickey Mouse; Fans Excited For The Return Of Hit TV Shows In 2024; Interview With Variety Senior TV Feature Editor Emily Longeretta; Interview With NPR TV Critic And Media Analyst Eric Deggans. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 01, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN JOURNALIST: And indeed, the Supreme Court in justifying its ruling said that the reason for striking down this amendment to a basic law was because of, in his words, the severe and unprecedented blow to the core character of Israel as a democratic state that it represented.

Now, we've already heard from Justice Minister Yariv Levin. He has said that, look, now's not the time. This goes completely against the unity that is required right now while Israel is engaged with this war with Hamas, but that the government would continue to act with restraint and responsibility.

But on that point, it's actually not the Supreme Court's choice, or indeed its decision to do it right now. It had no choice but to issue the ruling now because two of the justices were officially resigning three months ago. They got a three-month extension. They can't extend it anymore. This ruling had to come before they stepped away, and the justice minister, one assumes, knows that.

So, the timing may seem a bit bizarre given that Israel is in the middle of the war and those divisions of the past 12 months seem to be a lifetime away, but the Supreme Court had no choice. but to issue that ruling roundabout now. The ruling is eight to seven against the government's passage of this legislation, it has been struck down, so the Supreme Court can, once again, strike down government decisions on the grounds of reasonableness. Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: Look, I think it's fascinating how, how close the ruling was, but you did a good job there explaining the context. I mean, we witnessed for months upon months on Saturday, those protests just, sort of, really underscoring how much division there was in Israel about this proposal. Elliott Gotkine, live for us in Tel Aviv. Elliott, thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right, new this morning, we're getting word that people are trapped under the rubble of a two-story building in northeastern Ukraine after the building was struck by a Russian drone. The attack comes after Vladimir Putin said that Russia will increase strikes on Ukrainian targets. Both the Russian leader and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, delivered New Year's messages.

CNN's Clare Sebastian has more on what this means going forward.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Ukraine is now bracing for a period of intensified air attacks after the massive bombardment on Friday, and now another big assault over New Year. Ukraine's Southern Defense Force is saying the overnight drone attack on New Year's Eve lasted 11 hours. Russia even targeting, they said, residential areas at midnight as people rang in the New Year. One teenager was killed in Odessa, according to the Ukrainian governor there.

And you don't have to read between the lines here for Russia's strategy. President Putin spelling it out in his first comments of the New Year, telling a group of wounded Russian soldiers, the strikes on Ukrainian military targets would intensify. A much more direct tone that he struck in his traditional New Year's address, which never actually mentioned Ukraine, instead emphasizing Russian unity and patriotism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: While President Zelenskyy delivered a much longer, more rousing New Year's address, a detailed account, essentially, of Ukrainian resilience. Emphasizing its successes in a year where the front lines barely moved and U.S. support wavered. Well, the key success was, of course, the European Union opening negotiations for future membership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This process will definitely have a logical conclusion. Full-fledged membership in strong Europe, a powerful one from Lisbon to Luhansk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: And one thing both speeches had in common was that they seemed in very different ways to be preparing their people that almost two years into this war, there is still no clear end.

John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks to Clare Sebastian for that.

And as we go to break, a CNN exclusive, I want you to listen to this version of "Auld Lang Syne" performed by the songs for Ukraine Chorus made up of Ukrainians affected by the war, including those forced to flee their homeland in 2021.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[12:38:10]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. It is the first day of the new year, which means that new laws are going into effect today all across the country. Nearly half of all states will see some kind of increase to their minimum wage in 2024. These 12 states you see here will get a pay bump as part of a previously scheduled effort to reach $15 an hour. Another 11 states will also see a paid boost and that's to combat inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

Let's bring in CNN's Rafael Romo who joins us now from Atlanta. So, Rafael, what other new laws are you tracking? Can you share with us?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rahel, happy new year to you. I have been tracking some of the most controversial laws that went into effect with the arrival of the New Year, especially as the country gets more polarized on issues like abortion.

There are several near total bans in Republican led states that took effect in 2023. And now, many blue states have passed laws protecting abortion rights, including two that took effect today. When it comes to abortion, the state of Washington is enacting a law that with the goal of making the procedure more accessible with changes to insurance coverage. Any health insurance plan issued or renewed starting January 1st will be prohibited from requiring cost sharing for abortions, which generally includes out of pocket costs such as deductibles and co-pays.

Meanwhile, a shield law took effect in California on Monday that will protect local health care providers from out of state litigation if they provide abortion services to patients in states with restrictive abortion laws. The protection also extends to those who provide a gender affirming care to out of state patients.

Another new law for 2024 getting a lot of attention is California's ban on carrying concealed firearms in sensitive places. This is despite the federal judge's prior ruling that the law is, "Repugnant to the Second Amendment.:

[12:40:00]

Under the new law, people with permits would not be allowed to carry concealed firearms in places like schools, parks and hospitals. Among others, a federal appeals court will allow the law to go into effect for now while the court case continues.

So, many, many new laws. A lot of them controversial. Rahel, back to you.

SOLOMON: Yes, lots of new laws and affecting certainly lots of people. Raphael Romo, live for us in Atlanta. Raphael, Happy New Year.

BERMAN: All right. Lots of new laws. Lots of flu. Also, the flu is hitting the country hard right now. Two thirds of states reporting flu activity that is either high or very high, and it seems to be accelerating.

CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell here with us now. It's, kind of, everywhere.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are in -- well, I would say peak flu season but we actually don't know if we're peaking just yet. But in the most recent numbers from the CDC, it really reminds you just how bad flu can be. They say, there have been more than 7 million illnesses from the flu already this season, 73,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from the flu.

Now, if you look at their map of where it's the worst right now, it's hitting the hardest in the southeast. They have this sort of color- coded graph. You can see the purple is the absolute worst. So down in the southeast, but really, it's getting bad, even stretching out into California. And as you said, a majority of states are seeing high or very high levels of the flu right now.

Now, if we want to compare this with previous seasons, we're still in this weird period where we're sort of shaking out after the pandemic, where COVID wiped out everything. So, what we're showing you here is this season, which is in the blue, you can see it's starting off to a slower start than the previous season which is in the orange. The purple there is the last season before COVID came along and wiped-out flu.

And so, what we don't know is that where the peak is going to be. Is it going to go up and be worse than last season, or are we heading toward a peak? What we do know, of course, is it's January. This is one of the worst months for respiratory viruses. Flu is not the only other thing going around. We've got COVID, we've got RSV. So, it's just a grab that go bag (ph).

BERMAN: Yes, there's a lot of it out there in the air, quite literally.

TIRRELL: Yes.

BERMAN: So, what should we all be doing?

TIRRELL: Well, we have started to see some hospitals in different states and cities reinstating mask requirements. We're not seeing cities requiring masks on public transport and things like that, but within hospital systems in L.A. County, in Chicago, in Boston. You are starting to see hospitals require it now for healthcare providers, patients, and visitors.

BERMAN: Hospitals. Look, if they are going to be anywhere, that seems to be the right place for there.

TIRRELL: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Meg Tirrell, thank you so much.

SOLOMON: All right. And "On Our Radar" this morning, the FDA is warning parents about a potential bacterial contamination of a specialty baby formula for infants allergic to cow's milk. Reckitt/Mead Johnson recalled nearly 700,000 cans of Nutramigen Hypoallergenic powder infant formula. The product tested positive for bacteria that can induce rare, but potentially fatal infections in newborns. The FDA believes that most of the formula distributed in the U.S. has already been consumed, but no illnesses have been reported, but certainly be on the lookout for that.

And in a surprise move, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announced in her New Year's Eve speech that she will be stepping down this month after more than 52 years on the throne. The Queen's son, Crown Prince Frederik, will take over. The 83-year-old says that her decision was influenced by a back surgery she had last year. Queen Margrethe II took over the throne in 1972 following the death of King Frederik IX.

And how about this one? Mickey Mouse, the iconic character symbolizing Disney for almost a century, well, it's now available to other creators. Starting this month, an early version of Mickey Mouse from 1920, Disney's 1928 "Steamboat Willie" is out of Disney's exclusive copyright grasp. Now, Disney is clarifying that modern versions remain unaffected. The 1928 Mickey lacks the current gloves and oversized shoes, and his eyes are small black ovals without pupils.

BERMAN: I find this so interesting.

SOLOMON: Still a big story.

BERMAN: Copyright law is so hard to wrap your hands around, but the first Mickey Mouse, the "Steamboat Willie" Mickey Mouse, is now out there. You can start seeing that Mickey in really weird stuff, right?

SOLOMON: Yes, similar to what we saw with "Winnie the Pooh".

BERMAN: Which is a horror movie, right?

SOLOMON: Yes.

BERMAN: OK. So, with the Hollywood strike over, fans are eagerly waiting the return of their favorite TV shows and films. We're going to get a preview of what you can expect this year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:48:28] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JODIE FOSTER, ACTRESS, "TRUE DETECTIVE": I'm working on this new case. A missing scientist found on the edge of the villages. Frozen solid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you want?

FOSTER: It's been six years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you here?

FOSTER: Because we both know what really happened, and you need my help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen that before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. I'm excited. I'm in. All right. That's a new case in a new season for the hit show, "True Detective". The crime drama premieres in just a couple weeks on Max, which of course is owned by CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery. It's just one of the many highly anticipated shows set to premiere this year.

SOLOMON: Yes, and viewers are welcoming the new content. You're not alone, John, in all of the excitement after last year's strikes brought Hollywood to a halt for several months and widespread layoffs at the entertainment industry. There is now a lot to be excited about in 2024.

Joining us to discuss all of it is Eric Deggans, a TV critic with NPR and Emily Longeretta, a senior TV features editor at "Variety". Good to see you both. Emily, let's start with you. Happy new year. So, award season about to be in full swing, and apparently there are some changes this year due to the strike. What's that going to look like?

EMILY LONGERETTA, SENIOR TV FEATURE EDITOR, VARIETY: Happy New Year to you guys, too. It's going to be quite busy few months -- a few weeks coming up here because we have the Emmy's for the first time in January. Of course, they have been pushed before, about 20 years ago, but this is the first time they have been in in January in a long time and you -- when they are usually in September.

So, that means Emmy's, Globes, and Critics Choice are all within, you know, 10 days of each other. And that's a lot of award shows and a lot of people, kind of, battling it out at the same time.

[12:50:00]

Oddly enough, some of these shows that are nominated at the Emmy's are also nominated the Golden Globes for different seasons. So, there's a chance that we could be seeing people win awards for different seasons within a week of each other due to the strike and due to the delay and all of that.

BERMAN: So, Eric, I think like a lot of people toward the end of this year with the Writers striking and everything, I kind of ran out of shows. I was watching "The Wire" and "Game of Thrones", --

SOLOMON: Oh, but "The Wire" is always a good one, yes.

BERMAN: Always good, yes. But I'm excited for the new stuff. What new stuff are you most excited about?

ERIC DEGGANS, NPR TV CRITIC AND MEDIA ANALYST: Well, you can't go wrong with "The Wire". I'm going to say that right out. But of course, you showed a clip from "True Detective", that's an anthology series that HBO has done for years, and we haven't seen it for many years. And now we're going to see a new version with Jodie Foster as a law enforcement official in Alaska investigating a mysterious crime. I've watched all the episodes. It's very good.

There's a show called "Criminal Record" that's coming on Apple TV+ in January and it stars Cush Jumbo. You may remember her from "The Good Wife". And it starts Peter Capaldi, who you might remember from "Dr. Who". She plays a young detective. It's in set in Britain, a British police detective who suspects that a black man may have been put in jail unjustly, and that Peter Capaldi may have led the task force that put him there.

And one thing that's really interesting is that Hulu is going to actually bring "Only Murders in the Building", that wonderful comedy with Steve Martin and Martin Short and Selena Gomez. They're going to show it on ABC, on broadcast television starting tomorrow. Two hours a night, every Tuesday, they are going to show episodes of "Only Murders in the Building" to give people and broadcast a chance to see shows that Hulu subscribers had to pay to see.

SOLOMON: Oh, that's interesting. So, we're seeing it now starting to happen the opposite way where it's streaming and then going to broadcast. Eric, let me stick with you for a moment. I'm wondering, just coming off of the blockbuster success of "The Color Purple". I think the most, successful film on Christmas Day in -- I think, second ever, but most popular since 14 years or so.

Any early indications of award nominations? I saw "The Color Purple" over the weekend. It was incredible. What are you hearing? What do you think?

DEGGANS: Well, it -- that's one of the things that's interesting about this, sort of, jumbled up award season. Because of the strikes, of course, actors and performers and creators weren't necessarily able to campaign for Oscar bait movies as long as they would have normally.

So, it seems as if "Color Purple" is a movie that's doing really well. People seem to really love it. There's strong word of mouth. Fantasia Barrino, the star, has a wonderful story about having survived, you know, financial troubles after winning "American Idol" and then coming back to star in "The Color Purple" on Broadway and now in this movie.

"American Fiction" is a wonderful movie starring Jeffrey Wright as a black author who gets disenchanted with the literary business, and he writes this really stereotypical novel and then it takes off. And suddenly he has to contend with having created this thing that he thought was a joke but it becomes super successful.

There's a lot of great movies in contention. Some movies that we thought would be in contention like "Napoleon" starring Joaquin Phoenix, getting really terrible buzz. Not getting great reviews. It may not be in the conversation the way that people thought -- might have thought when they heard about the project and they saw it on paper. It's going to be really interesting to see the impact of the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, in particular, because they some -- come so close together before we get to the Oscars.

BERMAN: Emily, let's back up a little bit and go back to you on the what to look forward to in 2024 on the screen. Small or big, if it matters anymore.

LONGERETTA: Absolutely. I think the "True Detective" -- the new version of "True Detective" is, of course, on my list as well as, you know, as he said, I -- the episodes are absolutely incredible and it's really nice to see such a great show back. But I think there's also a lot of other new shows coming. There's "Agatha", of course, the spinoff from "WandaVision" with Katherine Hahn, which everyone fell in love with during the show. So, that's been very exciting highly anticipated and it's been long awaited. So, that's coming this year.

As well as "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", which is of course Donald Glover's take on the classic movie with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. So, it will be really fun to check out that. And there's another really, really highly anticipated one would be "The Penguin", because of course when there's an I.P. like that and when there's something -- there's a story that people have followed for many, many decades, they are really excited to see that on the small screen. So, I would say those are my top picks for the big shows people are going to be talking about in 2024.

SOLOMON: And Eric, we're running out of time here, but I saw you making sort of some gestures. So, I want to give you a moment to at least, sort of, get the final word here.

[12:55:00]

DEGGANS: Well, you know, I was just thinking about "The Penguin". You know, that is a really interesting spinoff of the most recent "Batman" movie. It's a completely different universe. And, you know, it stars an actor who doesn't really resemble "The Penguin" but somehow inhabits an entirely different character. It's a really interesting test as to whether people are going to be interested in a, sort of, comic book TV show at a time when there seems to be a lot of comic book fatigue out there. So, I'm really interested in watching how that does.

BERMAN: He has a high bar for all these different comic book worlds right now it seems for viewers. But if they meet that bar, maybe the artistic side of it all, maybe that will be enough to get people to turn it on. Eric Deggans, Emily Longeretta, thank you so much for being with us. Have a wonderful rest of your new year.

DEGGANS: Happy New Year. SOLOMON: That's was fun.

BERMAN: We did it.

SOLOMON: We did it. Four hours.

BERMAN: Special bonus edition of "CNN News Central". Thank you all so much for being with -- thank you.

SOLOMON: Good to be with you.

BERMAN: You made this possible. Completely possible. I'm not sure I would have made it otherwise. Happy New Year, everyone. "CNN News Central" continues with Brianna Keilar right now.

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