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Israel Agrees to a daily Four-hour Truce in Northern Gaza; A Non-Profit Organization Opened a Center to Seek Help for the Traumatized Ukrainian Children; U.S. Embassy in Sudan's Capital Concerned on Ethnic Targeting Video. Survivors of Hamas Attacks Record Experiences for the Future; Vatican to Allow Baptism for Some Transgender People & Babies of Same-Sex Couples.Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 10, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up on "CNN Newsroom."

A break in the idea of bombardment of Gaza, Israel agrees to daily four hour humanitarian pauses in parts of the northern part of the Strip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: They did worse than Nazis. The Nazis -- the Nazi had, you know, a little human in them just to gas us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Survivors of the deadly Hamas terror attacks in Israel preserving memories of October 7th for the historical record.

And kids impacted by the fighting in Ukraine getting some much needed help. I'll speak to the co-founder of a non-profit who just opened a new center to help traumatized children.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: And we begin this hour in Gaza where Israeli forces continue their ground assault against Hamas targets in the enclave. The IDF says much of the fighting has been focused on locating and destroying the maze of tunnels that Hamas built underneath Gaza. Meanwhile, as the Israeli offensive continues, an estimated 80,000 people evacuated from northern Gaza on Thursday. You see some of them there. That number significantly up from the 50,000 that Israel says left the day before.

The IDF began to open the safe passages last weekend and now says it will do so for four hours each day. But the Prime Minister is standing firm on his most basic demand regarding Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: One thing we haven't agreed to is a ceasefire. A ceasefire with Hamas means surrender to Hamas, surrender to terror, and the victory of Iran's axis of terror. So there won't be a ceasefire without the release of the Israeli hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Elliott Gotkine covering all of this for us from London. Good to see you Elliot. So these pauses, the thing is they new compared to what was already happening and what's going to be the real effect on the situation?

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Michael, I suppose it's more of a formalization and a slight expansion of the existing humanitarian pauses or as they're calling them tactical localized pauses which we've been seeing for the past week or so. So what's going to be happening is that there'll be this four-hour window every day.

There will be the evacuation corridor that we just saw those images of Palestinians using to head from the north which is the focus of Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip, heading to the relative safety of the south. They're also going to open up a second evacuation corridor and in addition to that there'll be a neighborhood or an area that Israel will designate to be free from fighting during that window to enable people to come out of their homes and to buy or get hold of water, food, medicine if indeed they can find any.

So it's really just a kind of formalization of what's already been happening and even though that comes thanks to pressure from the Biden administration, it still falls short from what the Biden administration was looking for, which is a more meaningful humanitarian pause, perhaps of a couple of days or two to three days. And it certainly falls short of the complete cessation of hostilities that we heard the Emirati and Qatari leaders reiterating overnight and which other world leaders and aid agencies have been calling for.

The hope that even this step in the right direction as the U.S. is calling it is that it will now allow for more humanitarian aid to get into the Gaza Strip and try to relieve some of the very dire humanitarian situations that we're seeing in the Gaza Strip right now.

That said, according to Netanyahu, we heard him there, and also according to Israel's defense minister, the actual ceasefire that so many people are calling for isn't gonna happen until those 240 or so hostages are released. That's at least what they're saying in public.

And I don't think the release of this latest hostage video, which we're not gonna show you, which showed an elderly Israeli woman in a wheelchair and a 13-year-old boy speaking to the camera saying how much they miss their family and friends, saying that they're being treated well and that if anything happens to them it will be on Netanyahu's head. I don't think that video is going to soften Israel's position. If anything Michael, it might harden it.

[02:04:59]

HOLMES: Yeah, yeah indeed. Elliott, thanks for that update. Elliott Gotkine in London for us. I Appreciate it.

Now the Israeli Defense Minister says the four-hour pauses won't affect the fight in Gaza and that Israel's mission is still to destroy and dismantle Hamas. But for civilians in Gaza, those breaks in the bombardment are a chance to seek safer surroundings if they can in an enclave that is filled with dangers.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports on the exodus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you are among those still in northern Gaza, this is what life looks like now, the heart of a battle zone.

May God protect us, this man says. Those who do not have the means to leave, we will have to stay where we are. It's as if they've sentenced us to death.

The Israeli military continues to call on all residents of northern Gaza to move south. It is the forced exodus of an entire population, Palestinians say.

But some are unable or unwilling to heed the warning. Thousands of them are taking shelter at Gaza City hospitals. Among them, patients that can't be moved, families too afraid to travel through bombs and bullets, and medical staff loyal to a duty of care.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Namuz says he has sent his family away, but he will stay behind. What can be done? There's no other way out of this. There is no safety, he says. That's why it's best if I get my family out, so I can focus on treating patients.

On Wednesday alone, as many as 50,000 people made the perilous journey south via the time-limited corridors set up by the Israeli military.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, ISRAELI MILITARY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): They're moving because they understand that Hamas has lost control in the north and that the south is safer, a safer area where they receive medicine, water and food. They understand it's an improvement.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): But the south is not safe and hardly an improvement. Israeli airstrikes level homes here too. And the conditions for the estimated 1.5 million now cramped in this corner of the enclave are described as inhumane. Thousands of the displaced are living on the street.

There is no aid, no water, the toilets are closed, she says, and no bakeries. We get a single loaf of bread every three or four days after waiting in long lines for half a day. And U.N. shelters are overcrowded. At one site, at least six people

must share a single toilet, the U.N. says.

And as for humanitarian assistance, it is so far a drop in the ocean of need.

VOLKER TURK, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: This is the gateway to a hellish nightmare. And then I see in front of me the lifeline that would bring relief and humanitarian assistance, which until now has not been enough. Woefully inadequate.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The conditions are so dire that this family says they decided to leave a UN shelter and move back into the ruins of their bombed out home.

We're still afraid of course for our children, but it's the lesser of two evils, this father says. At least it's better than being surrounded by disease, hunger and fear. At least here, our children are at home.

With three out of every four Gazans internally displaced, the UN estimates. Home is what so many dream of here, but many fear that sense of normalcy will never return.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Joining me now is Janti Soeripto, the president and CEO of Save the Children U.S. Thanks so much for making the time. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah says the majority of hospitals in Gaza, 18 of 35, have stopped functioning. 71 percent of all primary care facilities have shut down for one reason or another. What is your assessment of the humanitarian situation right now in Gaza and how much worse could it get?

JANTI SOERIPTO, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SAVE THE CHILDREN U.S.: Yes, thank you Michael. Look, it is an absolute horrific humanitarian catastrophe that's been unfolding in front of our eyes over these past four, what is it now, weeks.

As you say, a vast number of hospitals are completely out of admission. The few hospitals that are there don't actually can't run at full capacity because they lack fuel for their generators. The incubators will stop working soon. There is no electricity. You've seen the pictures of doctors operating by the light of their phones.

I've heard stories only yesterday of women now giving birth to children in overcrowded hospitals or having to have C-sections without anesthetics. So it is incredibly grim.

[02:10:08]

HOLMES: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. So I'm glad you mentioned it. I mean, amputations without anesthetics on children. It's just, I mean, that is just defies belief. UNRWA is saying, you know, just another example of hardships in general, one shower per 700 people, one toilet per 500 people. That too is unthinkable. What is the situation with food, drinkable water, and the risk of disease?

SOERIPTO: Exactly, and those are the other things that worry us. Water has been running out, as we've said. Without fuel, you cannot run your desalination plants. Water infrastructure has been damaged as well. So even with the trucks now trickling in with bottled water, but, of course, that's not gonna last very long.

So people are constantly, I think there's, you have to stand six hours in line to get half a loaf of bread for your family. People are already drinking brackish water, you know, that will soon lead to a huge risk of waterborne diseases, lack of hygiene of course, the shower example, which can lead to diseases or infections with an already weakened, vastly weakened population.

HOLMES: I know you don't do politics, but I did want to run this by you because it really struck me. Israel's ambassador to the U.N. said in an interview on CNN this week, and I'll just quote him, he said, there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In coordination with the U.S. and the U.N., we allowed a number of trucks entering Gaza, now with food and medicines, to reach almost 100 trucks a day. No humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he said. How frustrating is that for you as a humanitarian leader?

SOERIPTO: Yeah, it beggars belief, frankly. It really, really does. And we see the images, we see the levels of destruction, the rubble everywhere. We have 25 colleagues trapped in Gaza with their families, they show us their vlogs and their first-hand eyewitness accounts. It is an unbelievable scale of destruction. And deaths, over 4,000 children have died in the last four weeks. It's unconscionable.

HOLMES: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that number itself. And it's not twice, but close to twice the number of kids who've died in Ukraine in, you know, a year and a half of war. Israel has told people to go south of the Wadi Gaza, that line there, and yet we see deadly strikes south of that line. Where can Gazans go right now and have some semblance of safety, let alone resources to survive?

SOERIPTO: No, there are no safe places in Gaza and our colleagues are telling us that every day, every day, whether it's in the north and the south, in shelters, in their homes, in hospitals, there is no safe place. Nothing is de-conflicted.

And the idea that also that people with disabilities, the sick, the wounded, the injured, the elderly people that they can pack up and leave, the people who are stuck in a hospital or bedridden, the idea that they can pack up and leave to go where is, again, is it's just unbelievable that is even, you know, offered as an option.

HOLMES: We're seeing Israel, the IDF, saying they're going to have this sort of four hour pauses for quote unquote "humanitarian reasons." Does that move the needle at all?

SOERIPTO: Yeah, that's frankly also a ridiculous notion. That doesn't move the needle at all. What can you do in four hours? You can't get enough supplies in. Trucks are crossing the Rafah crossing now, that alone takes hours and also without fuel you cannot get the supplies in those four hours to the places where it needs to be because our staff are essentially moving supplies with donkeys or sometimes carrying it on their backs.

HOLMES: Janti Soeripto with Save the Children, appreciate your time and the work that your organization is doing.

SOERIPTO: Thank you so much Michael.

HOLMES: And if you'd like to help humanitarian relief efforts for Gaza and Israel, head to cnn.com/impact. You're going to find there a list of vetted trustworthy organizations answering the call on the ground. Again, that's cnn.com/impact.

Ukrainian troops putting up a stiff fight to make sure they're not encircled by Russians, will have the latest on the grueling battle for the town of Avdiivka.

[02:19:59]

Also, Ukrainian children who survived the war now deal with psychological scars. I'll be talking to a doctor who works in Ukraine about how to ensure their future is not taken away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Ukraine says its troops are holding the line in a key eastern city in the face of Russian attempts to encircle them. Officials say Ukrainians repelled seven new attacks on Avdiivka on Thursday. Russia has been trying to lay siege to the city for more than a month in a possible attempt to turn the tide of the war.

Further south, Ukraine says one person was killed on his balcony in artillery attacks on the city of Kherson. Two other people were wounded on Thursday when Russia reportedly hit apartment buildings and other civilian targets.

A non-profit group is trying to help the Ukrainian children dealing with psychological trauma from the war. On Thursday it opened a new center in western Ukraine for children who moved there from the front- line areas in the east and the south. The non-profit called Ukraine Children's Action Project says about five million children from those regions are displaced because of fighting and many of them are now dealing with serious psychological effects of what they saw in the war zones.

For more I'm joined by a co-founder of that non-profit Dr. Irwin Redlener. He's speaking with me from Lviv in Ukraine where I spent the start of the war. It's good to see you sir. Before we get to the launch of the new Santa let's start with the big picture. The world's attention, of course, has shifted to the Israel-Hamas war. But what is the situation with the impact of war in Ukraine on children there? How worried are you about their welfare, mentally and otherwise?

DR. IRWIN REDLENER, CO-FOUNDER, UKRAINE CHILDREN'S ACTION PROJECT: Yeah, hi Michael, good to be with you. So we're actually very, very worried about it. And that is even exacerbated by the fact that the world's attention is very distractible and there are crises all over the world and especially what's happening in the Middle East. That said, we have about two-thirds of the Ukrainian child population that since the beginning of the war have been displaced. About half of them outside the country is refugees, and another half of them are in Western, relatively safer parts of the country to avoid the direct impact of the battlefields.

But on the other hand, too, we know, Michael, that children are also being exposed to bombing and missiles and other terrifying events that are affecting how they're feeling and what their attitude is about the future. But, you know, I should say the Ukrainian children are phenomenally resilient, as are their whole families. And this is people that don't know Ukraine would be, I think, really surprised at the courage, the resiliency and so on.

[02:20:04]

But there are kids now that are not just psychologically traumatized, but many of them have had their education severely disrupted. I mean, schools in Ukraine were closed for almost two years from the pandemic before the war started.

Now we have another two years of interrupted education for many of the kids. And Ukraine and the countries that they're going to as refugees are doing a lot to help them deal with school. But there's going to be a tremendous need to remediate education.

HOLMES: Huge amount of need. Now, you've already done a lot of work in Ukraine, a variety of programs since the Russian invasion, but your organization is now setting up this new support center. What essentially is its mission?

REDLENER: So a lot of -- a lot of the children who were displaced from the eastern war-torn areas are moving to, have moved to Lviv. So this is a new center that is for child and youth resiliency and enrichment. And it provides, as you can probably see in the clips there, a lot of activities for kids to help them keep their spirits up, to get back into the stream of normalcy, of a normal child's life.

And we're very excited about this. And hundreds of children showed up for the opening yesterday and we're already engaging in activities. So we're excited about this and we hope it becomes a model for more programs like this going forward.

HOLMES: It's a terrific idea and it's in a beautiful city, by the way. A survey, you mentioned the resilience among children and a survey commissioned by your group showed that. But it was really sad too that it also showed diminishing optimism about the future. What sorts of things do you hear from these? What do they tell you and your people about what they've experienced and what they continue to endure in a psychological sense?

REDLENER: Right, so the reflexive reaction of children to crisis, to danger, is to try to find normalcy, which they're doing. But if you speak to older children, we've spoken to countless numbers of teenagers, there is still a certain amount of anxiety about the future. You know they were, these are many high school kids planning to go to the university and they find themselves now really stymied as what to do next.

HOLMES: Yeah.

REDLENER: A lot of the kids are very angry and you know what, yeah, sorry.

HOLMES: No, I'm sorry. The shot just froze for a second and I thought you were finished, but you are back with us now. I just wanted to, we're almost out of time, but I wanted to ask you the immediate impact of the war on children is obvious. What are your concerns about long- term damage, long-term trauma and the resources to deal with that?

REDLENER: Well, what we're concerned about is that the next generation won't have the wherewithal to participate in a recovery and restoration of this extraordinary democracy here. And Americans need to not lose sight of the fact that we need to continue supporting Ukraine militarily. They have to defeat, you know, Russia. Russia is really opposing democracy in general, and it's in our best interest to make sure that the future of Ukraine and Ukraine's children is preserved and enhanced in the years to come.

HOLMES: Dr. Erwin Redlener of the Ukraine Children's Action Project. I Appreciate you making the time. It is a beautiful city. That's great work that you're doing there and important work. Good luck with it.

REDLENER: Thanks Michael.

HOLMES: Cheers.

And for more information on Ukraine Children's Action Project or if you'd like to help or donate just go to ucap.help.

Doing good work.

U.S. troops and their allies are taking more fire in the Middle East as the war between Israel and Hamas grinds on. A U.S. official says those forces came under at least four new missile and drone attacks in Iraq and Syria since Wednesday, three U.S. service members suffering minor injuries. The attacks coming after U.S. fighter jets hit weapons storage facility in eastern Syria on Wednesday, you see the strike there on your screen.

The U.S. says it belonged to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and its allies, whom Washington blamed for a series of earlier strikes on its troops in the region. There have been at least 46 such strikes since mid-October, according to U.S. officials. At least 56 U.S. troops have been injured in those attacks.

And the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum says it is deeply concerned by eyewitness reports of ethnic targeting in West Darfur.

[02:25:03] The statement came after CNN geolocated disturbing videos, which were about to play for you, showing members of African ethnic groups who had appeared to have been rounded up by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The embassy said, quote, "these horrifying actions once again highlight the RSF's pattern of abuses in the country with their military offensive."

Now new images, also geo-located by CNN, show several bodies in the same general area as that previous video you were watching. The RSF denies any incidents of ethnic cleansing, saying it doesn't target civilians and is working with the people of Sudan to restore the country to civilian-led democratic rule.

With the brutal reality of October 7 still fresh in their minds, survivors of the Hamas attacks are sharing their memories of the ordeal, so others will never forget. We'll have details on that after the break.

Also, a closer look at the growing international concern that Israel's war with Hamas could expand across the region. You're watching "CNN Newsroom." We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes, you're watching "CNN Newsroom."

Israel says it will continue daily four-hour pauses in fighting in northern Gaza to allow civilians to evacuate south. But Israeli leaders insist there will be no ceasefire until the hostages are released and Hamas is decimated.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, meanwhile, says it is prepared to release two Israeli hostages on humanitarian grounds, a 77-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy. CNN is not releasing their names or images at this point, following a request by the families of the two hostages for their privacy to be respected.

Meanwhile the Palestinian Health Ministry says 14 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Thursday during another Israeli military incursion there. The IDF says it was intended to quote, thwart terrorist infrastructure. about the violence in Gaza adding fuel to an already simmering fire in the West Bank.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIPPE LAZZARINI, COMMISSIONER GENERAL, UNRWA: I'm deeply concerned about the potential spillover of the conflict beyond Gaza. In the West Bank, military incursion of the Israeli forces and settler violence have caused record high death toll among Palestinians. The West Bank is boiling, and if we wouldn't have Gaza today, all our attention would be on the West Bank.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, I spoke earlier about the threat of escalation with Robin Wright at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. I asked her what or why the regional conflict might look like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN WRIGHT, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: A couple of different options. One is the fact that Iranian-backed militias have been targeting U.S. troops both deployed in Iraq and Syria. These troops are there because of their ongoing campaign against the return of ISIS, but the militia groups have attacked Americans 41 times, and there are now 56 American troops who have suffered injuries, including traumatic brain injuries. So, there's that front.

There's a second front that is possible, not necessarily probable at the moment, and that is, along Israel's northern border with -- where Hezbollah is based. That's Iran's largest proxy militia. And it has an arsenal that is far larger, several times larger than what Hamas has in the way of weaponry.

And, of course, there is a third, more remote front with the Houthis in Yemen who have twice now been engaged with U.S. forces in whether it's shooting down their missiles, and rockets fired at Israel or the Houthis in Yemen, shooting down an American drone. So there is a real concern for an escalation.

HOLMES: Right. I mean, when you talk about Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, what do you think Iran's strategy is regionally in the broader context of Israel's war with Hamas? What does it want, and I guess, importantly, not want out of what's happening?

WRIGHT: Well, for all the dangers of an escalation, because of some unintended consequence, I think Iran has so far indicated that it does not want a larger war with the United States. Even though its proxies have engaged with U.S. forces, kind, of sending a message we don't want the Americans in the region, go home, your continued presence will come at a price. It's been clear over the last month that it is not willing to engage in a larger escalation that brings the United States and Iran into direct confrontation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, some survivors of the deadly Hamas attacks in Israel are now recording their testimonies to preserve their witness accounts of that day for future generations.

CNN's Nick Watt with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tomer Peretz was collecting bodies at kibbutz, bury within hours of the slaughter October 7th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). The entire village is like full of bodies. I --

WATT: He'd gone to Israel for a family wedding ceremony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State your name.

TOMER PERETZ: Tomer Peretz.

WATT: Now back home in L.A., taping his testimony at the Shoah Foundation.

PERETZ: I was too coward to be on the side of the head. They want to see faces. And then my time to touch the dead body came. It was the first time. You work like that, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rolling.

WATT: For decades, the Shoah Foundation has collected the testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

ANITA LASKER-WALLFISCH, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: I'd never touched a dead body before. I'd seen dead bodies, well somebody else came, we just put the body out. One body. Well, it didn't take long before that was multiplied by thousands.

PERETZ: Every year at school in Israeli, we used to get a lecture from a Holocaust survivor. And as a kid, I was always getting bored listening to them, like, OK, OK, we got, OK, OK, so they killed eventually. All right, all right, let's move on. It will never happen again. It's history.

WATT: October 7th, saw the largest loss of Jewish life in a day since the Holocaust.

Now, the Shoah Foundation is taking testimony from a new generation, October 7th survivors.

ROBERT WILLIAMS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, USC SHOAH FOUNDATION: It's about providing a platform for the voices of survivors to echo for future generations.

For the better part of a year, we've resolved that we need to begin taking testimony on contemporary anti-Semitism. But then October 7th happened. And we had to ramp up our efforts very, very quickly.

[02:35:02]

MAOR MORAVIA, OCTOBER 7TH SURVIVOR: They did worse than Nazis. The Nazis had, you know, the -- a little human in them just to gas us.

NIR SHANI, SON KIDNAPPEED ON OCTOBER 7TH: My two little daughters, and they were like crying, weeping. Amit was kidnapped. Amit was kidnapped. Amit is my son.

AMIT YESONA ADES, OCTOBER 7TH SURVIVOR: With the knife in my hand and the baby on the other hand, trying to keep her not crying so no one will hear us. And it went, and it felt like forever.

AVI LULU SHAMRIZ, OCTOBER 7TH SURVIVOR: My village was destroyed by the Hamas. There is no village to return to.

WATT: Peretz told his interviewer what he cannot tell his own children.

PERETZ: Lie to them. Don't tell them the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's tissue there if you like.

PERETZ: Slightly, then.

WATT: The killing goes on, Palestinians also suffering and no end in sight for anyone.

Is there a way out? Is there a solution? Is there light at the end of some tunnel?

PERETZ: I think so. I think so. But I think we've got to go so low. Both sides, I guess needs to get a big slap before something good will come out of it.

WATT: Might this be that moment?

PERETZ: I hope so.

WATT: Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, even before the Holocaust, an event known as Kristallnacht in 1938 signaled what was to come. That was very much on the minds of people who gathered in Denmark late on Thursday to mark the grim anniversary of the Jewish pogroms and to take a stand against rising antisemitism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOREN GADE, DANISH PARLIAMENT SPEAKER: So we do not forget what happened 85 years ago. It was the start of the Holocaust, the darkest chapter in the history for hundreds of years. And, of course, also on the light of what happened in the 7th of October, where 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered In the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The candlelit march marked the day in 1938 when Nazi mobs attacked synagogues -- thousands of Jewish businesses were vandalized. More than 90 murdered. And tens of thousands of Jewish boys arrested.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A new ruling by the Vatican doctrine department will allow some transgender people and children of same-sex couples to be baptized in the Catholic Church.

[02:40:06]

The new rules say a person who identifies as transgender can be baptized like any other adult as long as there was, quote, no risk of causing this scandal or disorientation to other Catholics. Baptisms also allow for children of same-sex couples as long as the child is likely to be taught in the Catholic faith.

The Vatican also wrote, quote, the church is not a tollhouse. It is a house of the father, where there is a place where everyone with all of their problems.

The father of Liverpool football star Luis Diaz is now free after Colombian guerrilla group released him on Thursday.

We're told Luis Diaz Sr. was handed over to representatives of the U.N. and the local Catholic Church. He was kidnapped last month at a gas station in northern Colombia by armed men from the ELN National Liberation Army.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIS MANUEL DIAZ, FATHER OF LIVERPOOL PLAYER LUIS DIAZ (through translator): I want to thank god for the second chance to return home and thank all of the people of Colombia for all the support they've shown to my family. Thank you all. I love you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The younger Diaz had been pleading for his father's release. He played and scored on Sunday and under his kit was the message, freedom for papa.

England's Victorian Era is hardly associated with rock music, but a little known citizen of that time unknowingly helped sell millions of Led Zeppelin albums decades later. Historians have tentatively identified the man on Led Zeppelin for as Lot Long, a thatcher who died in 1893. The original black and white photograph was recently found in a book of Victorian photography from 1892. It's worth noting that Led Zeppelin IV sold 37 million copies worldwide, and is perhaps best known for the song "Stairway to Heaven".

And before we go, superstar singer Beyonce just rolled out a new worldwide trailer for her film, behind the scenes, her behind the scenes film, "Renaissance".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEYONCE: I close my eyes and travel through realms of space and time. Reality holds no power or control --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Queen Bey, as she's known by many of her fans, talks about some of the challenges she's faced, and how can be tougher times in a male-dominated world. "Renaissance" is set to give moviegoers a backstage look at Beyonce's Renaissance World Tour, where she crisscrossed the globe with 57 sold out shows.

Beyonce's new film blasts on the big screen December the 1st. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes.

"WORLD SPORT" is next, and my colleague Max Foster will have more CNN NEWSROOM at the top of the hour. I'll see you tomorrow.

(WORLD SPORT)