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IDF Targets Gaza's Second Largest City in its Continuing Ground Operation; White Angel Unit Evacuated A Local Hospital Head who Suffered Terminal Cancer. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 06, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Israel's ground operation in Gaza enters its third phase as the IDF hammers Hamas positions in southern Gaza.

Meet Ukraine's White Angels Unit, delivering aid and hope to some of the country's fiercest battle zones.

And a deep freeze is setting in at one of the coldest places on earth, but that's not keeping tourists away. We'll take a look.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: It is 10.00 a.m. in Gaza where the Israel Defense Forces say they have carried out about 250 airstrikes on Hamas targets in just the past day. The enclave's second biggest city, Khan Younis, in the south, is bearing the brunt of the damage. Scores of wounded are streaming into hospitals. The Israeli military says it's also destroying terrorist infrastructure and rocket launches.

In central Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent says video shows one of its ambulances fleeing the scene of artillery fire. Eyewitnesses report multiple strikes and a nearby hospital says it received 90 bodies on Tuesday. Its spokesperson says many people are still trapped under the rubble. He's appealing to the world to end the fighting and allow more medical aid and supplies into Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rejecting the idea of an international force responsible for security in Gaza after the war. He says only the Israel Defense Forces should control the disarmament of Gaza.

Well the Biden administration publicly says Israel is heeding U.S. warnings to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. But privately, not everyone in the White House agrees. One senior official says there's particular concern about Israel's military campaign in the South. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Israeli military pushing deeper into southern Gaza, now on the brink of what could be a decisive battle in Gaza's second-largest city.

HERZI HALEVI, CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (through translator): Our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip. We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli military officials and local accounts describing intensive Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza, as satellite imagery obtained by CNN shows dozens of Israeli armored vehicles on the outskirts of Khan Younis with tracks on the ground indicating an Israeli push from the east. The new offensive worsening an already desperate humanitarian situation.

New Israeli evacuation orders in southern Gaza are pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians to move even further south to the city of Rafah, where a U.N. official says the U.N. is not able to provide for hundreds of thousands of new internally displaced people.

In the city of Deir el-Bala, nearby artillery fire forcing an ambulance to flee the scene and new images of destruction from multiple strikes in the same city, killing scores of people, according to a spokesperson for a nearby hospital.

These were the latest strikes resulting in apparent civilian casualties. As a report said, the Israeli military assesses about two civilians have been killed for every dead Hamas fighter, prompting this response from an Israeli military spokesman.

LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON: If you compare that ratio to any other conflict in urban terrain between a military and a terrorist organization using civilians as their human shield and embedded in the civilian population, you will find that ratio is tremendous -- tremendously positive and perhaps unique in the world.

[03:05:07]

DIAMOND (voice-over): As it pushes south, the Israeli military says it is going after top Hamas commanders, including the group's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

HALEVI (through translator): Many ask about the destruction in Gaza. Hamas is the address. Sinwar is the address.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But amid the southern offensive, the Israeli military reporting intense battles with Hamas militants in the north, where the fight for control is far from over. Israel's prime minister already thinking ahead to when it is. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): On

the day after, Gaza must be disarmed. And in order for Gaza to be disarmed, there's only one force that can ensure that. And this force is the IDF.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Raising the specter of Israeli forces remaining in Gaza after the war.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Sderot, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Let's bring in CNN's Clare Sebastian following the latest developments from London. So Clare, what is the latest on IDF operations around Gaza's second largest city, Khan Younis, and of course in other parts of the enclave?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, I think Jeremy's report made that clear that this is an expansion rather than simply shifting operations from the north to the south. They are, they say, as of Tuesday, in the heart of Khan Younis, the IDF, but also had apparently on Tuesday completed the encirclement of Jabalia, the Jabalia refugee camp in the north. So intensive battles on the ground and in the air are continuing, certainly since the end of the truce.

We're on day six now (inaudible). We are in what appears to be a very intense phase of battles, but of course operating in the south of Gaza to this extent, and you saw from those satellite images in Jeremy's report, the clusters of armored vehicles. This is a significant operation in the south. This puts intense focus on the issue of civilian casualties. We now know almost 16,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the start of this military operation.

And of course, the comments from Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, the IDF spokesperson calling the ratio, which he hasn't apparently officially confirmed, but had seen of two civilians killed for every Hamas combatant, tremendously positive. He then later had to clarify that, say that he should have chosen his words more carefully after criticism from the United Nations, calling that tasteless. This, I think, underscores the delicateness of this moment. One, because Israel is gonna have even more of a challenge protecting civilians in the south of Gaza, where so many people have now evacuated from the north. They have been leafleting, sending out this QR code where people can see the specific areas they can evacuate from, but there are major challenges for civilians when there is very spotty cell coverage in doing that. But also in terms of public opinion, we know that in the U.S., many U.S. officials telling us that direct conversations are happening with Israel, urging them to do more to protect civilians.

Now Prime Minister Netanyahu in his speech on Tuesday sticking to the line that we've heard from him saying that they are going to continue until absolute victory. But he did also, we're going to play a little bit more of what we heard from him. Talk about what could happen and what he called the day after Hamas. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU (through translator): Gaza must be demilitarized. And in order for Gaza to be demilitarized, there is only one force that can ensure this, and that force is the Israel Defense Forces. No international force can take responsibility for this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: No international force. Now, not a lot has been said by Israel so far in these past two months about what could happen after this conflict, but certainly this is something that will be very closely watched. U.S. officials are saying that they expect that the ground phase, this latest phase in the operation, could come to an end as soon as January. So certainly this will amp up the focus on what exactly the security situation in Gaza could be after that. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to Clare Sebastian joining us live from London.

The U.N.'s aid agency for Palestinian refugees says more than 85 percent of Gaza's population has become displaced since October 7th. And more than one million of those residents are sheltering in U.N. facilities, with the average number of displaced people more than four times the capacity of those shelters. A spokesperson for UNICEF says areas designated safe by Israel are nowhere near basic requirements of the phrase.

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JAMES ELDER, UNICEF SPOKESPERSON: It's not a safe zone if it's only free from bombardment, as some zones have not been. It's a safe zone when you can guarantee the conditions of food, water, medicine, and shelter. You cannot overstate this. These are tiny patches of barren land, or they're street corners, they're sidewalks, they're half-built buildings. There is no water, not a little bit. There's no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Conditions have forced aid groups like the Norwegian Refugee Council to halt nearly all of their aid operations in Gaza. The group says it can't even provide for its own staff in the region.

And joining me now from Cairo is Rick Brennan, the Regional Emergency Director for the World Health Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean. Appreciate you being with us.

So your organization was ordered by the IDF to move supplies from its medical warehouse in southern Gaza within 24 hours because of planned ground operations. The WHO scrambled to get that done but also appealed to Israel to take every possible measure to protect civilians, hospitals and humanitarian facilities. How did Israel respond to that appeal and what impact did that relocation have on your medical deliveries? DR. RICHARD BRENNAN, REGIONAL EMERGENCY DIRECTOR FOR EASTERN

MEDITERRANEAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Well, I think that this is just another example of how difficult it is to deliver aid in Gaza right now. The quote that you shared from the Norwegian Refugee Council demonstrates this.

Yes, we were advised to move our supplies because our warehouse was in a location that was going to be coming under military operations. We did have to scramble, as you say, to relocate to another less suitable warehouse. We missed out on doing two-way deliveries that day because of that advice and that movement and now we have a less operational warehouse from which to work.

But I think this is just, you know, I think people should be under no illusion about the massive, massive scale of need and the incredibly difficult operating environment there is for humanitarian agencies today. You mentioned, Rosemary, that 50 trucks crossed yesterday. We've been saying for weeks now we need a minimum of 500 trucks. So in spite of this massively increasing need there's a 450-deficit number of trucks just yesterday. The whole week of the pause there are only 220 trucks going in per day. The whole week of the pause, we had a 2000 truck deficit. So things, we are spiraling further and further down. And I've never been in a situation where humanitarian needs are so desperate and our ability to meet them are so constrained.

CHURCH: And of course, the other concern is the winter weather, posing a range of health problems for the most vulnerable. What are the risks involved there?

BRENNAN: Yes, well, you know, perhaps one point I should add is we absolutely need that health system protected. We cannot afford any more attacks on health care. We cannot, if the health system has to be protected, our supply lines have to be protected. And then as you rightly say, we're coming into the winter months.

And I think your reporter, Ben, talked about the displaced. There are now hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people further and further displaced. Some people displaced, you know, self-reported, have been replaced ten times. In southern Gaza now, as one of our colleagues from UNRWA said, the houses are full, the shelters are full, the streets are full. And all this overcrowding of course increased the risk of infectious diseases and disease outbreaks.

We continue to report about the increased number of cases of respiratory infections, diarrhea, including blood diarrhea, which would suggest potential dysentery, jaundice, very concerned about hepatitis, as well as the terrible infection and childhood infections. So an epidemic is just around the corner. And the terrible exposure that people will face with the winter weather really puts people at incredibly high risk of disease. And of course the food supplies.

Now the welfare program is that every household in Gaza is food insecure. Rates of UNICEF reports that rates of acute non-nutrition are going to go up substantially. This is a very toxic mix of people dying from violent trauma, they're going to be dying from infectious diseases and lack of access to basic health care even for their diabetes, high blood pressure and so on.

[03:14:57]

So, you know, just it's hard to describe how dramatic the situation is. And the aid is just not getting in. We need both sides of this conflict to commit to a ceasefire. This is the only way out of this terribly catastrophic, as Martin Griffiths described it yesterday, apocalyptic situation.

CHURCH: Rick Brennan, thank you so much for joining us and for the work that you do. I Appreciate it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is criticizing the U.N. for its delay in acknowledging allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas towards women during the October 7th terror attacks. Mr. Netanyahu said on Tuesday he heard accounts from released hostages and relatives of those still being held in Gaza that broke his heart. The U.N. held a special session organized by Israel on Monday focused on the claims of gender-based violence.

Meanwhile, a U.N. inquiry into potential war crimes on both sides of the war said last week it will investigate the allegations of sexual violence. The Israeli prime minister says he didn't hear the U.N. or other human rights groups speak out until a few days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: I say to the women's rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you've heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation. Where the hell are you? I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Hamas on Monday repeated its denial of committing rape and sexual violence during the attacks where about 1,200 people were killed.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday denounced sexual assaults committed by Hamas during the October 7 terror attack on Israel. He told donors at a fundraising event, the world, quote, "can't just look away at what's going on. It's on all of us to forcibly condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists." The president's comments come as Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has faced fierce criticism for not condemning the sexual violence more forcefully. Two House Democrats are planning to introduce a resolution this week condemning Hamas's use of sexual violence and rape against Israeli women.

Well coming up, U.S. Republican lawmakers are standing firm against approving more aid for Ukraine unless their demands are met.

Plus Ukraine's White Angels bring life-saving supplies to the front line. We will hear from the brave people working in the war zone. Back in just a moment.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to travel to the Middle East for a day-long trip on Wednesday.

[03:20:04]

The Kremlin says he'll hold talks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, discussing the oil market and the war between Israel and Hamas. The Kremlin also says Mr. Putin will host Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi in Moscow on Thursday.

The Pentagon says it's getting to the point where the U.S. cannot sustain its current aid to Ukraine without major action by Congress. President Joe Biden is proposing a new aid package, but it's facing a roadblock in Congress thanks to Republican stonewalling. CNN's Manu Raju reports.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ukraine aid and Israeli aid stalled at this critical time, despite the pleas by American allies for new money to help with those two wars, uncertain if that will be resolved this year, or punted into the new year as a major division between the two parties continues to exist.

Namely over a separate issue, dealing with the southern border, the migrant crisis, the surge of the southern border, Republicans want tighter policies on immigration to be part of their larger deal, to deal with immigrate Israel as well as Ukraine. They say all that needs to be tied together, no other consent, particularly when it comes to Ukraine.

So when behind closed doors, earlier on Tuesday when senators all met with administration officials who were trying to lay out an urgent case to approving Ukraine aid. Instead, it broke out into a fight over border security and immigration policy, which led to a shouting match of sorts.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), U.S. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: It was immediately hijacked by leader McConnell. Even one of them started, was disrespectful and started screaming at one of the generals and challenging him to why he didn't go to the border.

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): We want to help Ukraine and Israel, but we've got to have the Democrats recognize that the trade here, the deal is we stop the open border. They don't want to do that. So Republicans are just walking out of the briefing because the people there are not willing to actually discuss what it takes to get a deal done.

RAJU: But amid this stalemate, Democrats are still trying to press ahead and setting up a key procedural vote to move forward on this big aid package. But because it does not have those tighter immigration policies that Republicans want and Democrats say is simply a non- starter, this means that Republicans are poised to block it, which means that aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel will continue to be stalled, hanging in the balance amid this bitter partisan feud over immigration.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Russian troops shelled the city of Kherson early Tuesday morning. Two civilians were killed in the attack, according to a local official. And one more person was wounded. Ukraine's military says Russia targeted civilian infrastructure across the country with drones and missiles overnight Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his forces shot down a Russian aircraft in the Black Sea. He says the aircraft was attempting to strike the Odessa region.

Russian forces are pressing on with the long running drive to capture the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, with both sides saying they made gains on Tuesday. CNN's Anna Coren follows a group of Ukrainians called the White Angels, who are bringing supplies to people still living in the war zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a warehouse stocked with humanitarian aid, 23-year-old police officer Dmytro Solovy picks up supplies. Food, water, hygiene products and a generator are on the list. He is part of the White Angels unit and they're heading to his hometown of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region on the eastern front, where one of the most fierce and bloody battles is being waged in the war in Ukraine.

I was born in this town, he tells me. My neighbors are there, my relatives my friends. It's my duty to help them. We are their hope.

But getting to Avdivka is a death trap. Shortly after leaving us with his GoPro rolling, he spots Russian shelling through the windscreen.

Look, the bomb has landed. Report incoming of an ugly bastard. And there's another one, he tells his colleague.

Russian artillery, mortars, and drones target the road. And yet Dmytro remains calm. This perilous journey has become routine despite multiple close calls. Driving past the sign that proudly states Avdiivka is Ukraine, the town of once 30,000 residents is now deserted, devoid of the living, as almost every single building has been shelled.

But surprisingly, some people still live here, including Dr. Vitaly Syntnik, head of the local hospital.

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, he's decided he's not going anywhere.

[03:25:03]

We have a job and we do it, he explains.

He called the White Angels to evacuate a man who'd just been injured from shrapnel. As they load him into the van, the idle chatter is interrupted.

Incoming, it's a mortar, explains the doctor. Sometimes it rustles and then bang, that would be a tank. As the explosions get louder, it's time to go.

COREN: This is the road to Avdiivka. There is one way in, one way out. We are not allowed to travel to the town, which is 17 kilometers away. The military has banned all media, saying it's just too dangerous. But for the White Angels, they travel on this road multiple times a week, risking their lives to support the less than 1,300 people still living in the town.

COREN (voice-over): As the White Angels begin the dangerous drive out, Dmytro reflects.

It's very sad what's happening to my town, but one day we'll rebuild Avdivka and I will live there with my grandchildren. We just need to believe.

A belief that keeps this community among the ruins alive.

Anna Coren, CNN, on the outskirts of Avdiivka, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, people in Gaza dig through the rubble searching for survivors. We'll have a report on the horrific conditions they're facing.

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CHURCH: Egyptian officials say 50 trucks full of humanitarian aid crossed into Gaza through the Rafah border on Tuesday and two of them were carrying much needed fuel. The U.S. Agency for International Development also announced an additional $21 million in relief for Gaza. The agency says the funds will provide displaced residents with food, shelter and health services as well. This follows an initial allotment of $100 million announced by the U.S. president back in October.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council says the group can no longer reach the supplies meant for Gaza residents, and members don't even have enough to support themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAINA LOW, COMMUNICATION ADVISER, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: We are cut off from aid that we have stored in warehouses in the middle area and cannot access it. We cannot access aid in our warehouse, in the UNRWA warehouse where we have it stored in Rafah because there are tens of thousands of people outside seeking assistance and we cannot safely access the aid and distribute it in a way that wouldn't feed the chaos that is in the streets.

[03:30:00]

We cannot even provide food and shelter for our own staff.

We have staff members sleeping on the street right now, including one with a two-month-old baby, because we simply are unable to deliver an effective response, not just to the 2.3 million people in Gaza, including 85 percent of whom are displaced, but even to our own staff.

The trickle of aid that's been coming in is nowhere near enough to support the needs of people, and it's impossible to deliver that limited amount of aid under bombardment, ongoing hostilities and the increasing chaos on the streets of Gaza as people panic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Ben Wedeman takes a closer look at what Gaza residents are being forced to endure. A warning though, his report contains disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They came here hoping to escape the war, and this is what happened.

Tuesday afternoon an apparent Israeli air strike demolished this building in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza.

Civilians more than 50 are now martyrs, says Abu Basim. The building's owner had given them shelter. They all came from the north.

Under the sand and the rubble is a lifeless body.

There's his head, someone says, while others, peering into the ruins, search for survivors.

Is anyone alive? He calls out.

Without heavy equipment, bare hands must suffice.

At Deir al-Balah's only functioning hospital, the injured are rushed inside.

The hospital spokesman says they received more than 130 injured and more than 90 bodies. CNN cannot confirm the death toll.

Once again, so many of the victims are children.

Stunned, confused, terrified, she grasps her mother's hand.

The injured, treated on the floor.

The luckier among those who fled and then fled again further south and up in places like this makeshift camps devoid of running water, electricity or sanitation.

A plastic sheet is all that protects Anas Mosleh and her family from the elements.

We spend all night hearing rockets and bombs, she says. We're living between life and death. We may die at any moment.

Indeed, in Gaza now, the line between life and death is perilously thin.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Lebanon's caretaker prime minister says he is working with the U.S. and U.N. to keep his country out of any major war. But he indicated only Israel can keep the conflict from expanding. The situation along the country's shared border remains tense.

On Tuesday, a CNN team in Lebanon witnessed several rockets fired from the southern part of the country toward Israel. Hezbollah said on social media that it targeted IDF troops at multiple locations. Israel is also admitting its troops attacked Lebanese soldiers by mistake while targeting Hezbollah in self-defense. The Lebanese armed forces say one soldier was killed and three more wounded. The IDF expressed regret over the incident.

The European Union is warning of potential holiday terror attacks because of the Israel-Hamas war. The commissioner of Home Affairs says she is allocating $32 million to protect public spaces such as places of worship during the holiday season, and she's been candid about the risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YIVA JOHANSSON, E.U. COMMISSIONER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: With the war between Israel and Hamas and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And that concern is being echoed in the United States, where the Justice Department is reporting a sharp increase in hate crime investigations since October 7th. And the director of the FBI told a Senate committee on Tuesday that it's been following a quote, drumbeat of foreign terror threats since Hamas's attack on Israel.

[03:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: We're working around the clock to identify and disrupt potential attacks by those inspired by Hamas's horrific terrorist attacks in Israel. I've never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated all at exactly the same time.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Would you say that there's multiple blinking red lights out there?

WRAY: I see blinking lights everywhere I turn. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Just ahead, a U.N. weather organization says global temperatures have set a troubling new record. We will have the details after a short break. Do stay with us.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. An ambitious first draft of the COP28 Climate Summit Agreement is out. The draft pushes for a substantial increase in carbon capture and removal from the air by 2030. But critics say carbon capture is expensive and unproven. The plan also had several suggestions for the phasing out of fossil fuels. They include the choice for parties to either phase out rapidly or in a quote, "orderly way." The first draft leaves plenty of room for negotiators to water down these proposals.

Meanwhile, climate activists are confronting heads of oil and gas companies at the summit. Protesters are calling for an end to the use of fossil fuels. This comes amid reports that a record number of people linked with the fossil fuel industry were registered for COP28, four times higher than last year. And here's more from one protester.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ROSE JACKSON, "KICK BIG POLLUTER OUT" SPOKESPERSON: There are more fossil fuel lobbyists here seven times over than official indigenous representatives. They're here unchecked, roaming free, and we're here to say it's time for big polluters to no longer be allowed to write the rules of climate action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A U.N. weather organization says 2023 will be the hottest year on record. Each month from June to October set global temperature records by wide margins with July being the warmest month on record. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, just in from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, November of 2023 was the warmest November on record, and probably to no one's surprise.

1.75 degrees Celsius, 3.15 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.

Now, we didn't really start out in the record territory, but boy, we got there in a hurry.

June, July, August, September, October, and now November were all records by a large margin in some spots. And yes, November of 2023 will take this line and push it all the way into record territory.

There is very little, if anything, December can do to not make 2023 the entire year the warmest year on record globally because we are so far above where we should be.

In fact, some days, we're even two degrees Celsius, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. There was a little bit of a perturbation in here in October and into November, but now we are so far above the old line, which was 2016, another El Nino year. That 2023 is going to be the warmest year on record for sure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[03:40:03]

CHURCH: Well one of the coldest corners of the world is starting to see extremely low temperatures. Some areas of eastern Siberia hit negative 58 degrees Celsius Tuesday. That is negative 72 degrees Fahrenheit. In the city of Yakutsk, one resident said, you can see the frost on your face as soon as you step outside. But for some, this weather doesn't faze them at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PYOTR NIJOLAYEV, YAKUTSK RESIDENT (through translator): Of course it's cold, but as we used to say in school in English, there's no bad season, meaning there's no bad weather. One just needs quality clothes that suit the weather and everything will be fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Very positive. Well, despite the extreme cold, Yakutsk is one of Siberia's fastest growing cities and it attracts adventurous tourists every year.

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks is trying his hand at a new way to entertain an audience through his love of space. "The Moonwalkers, A Journey with Tom Hanks" is a documentary about the Apollo missions that will be featured at the Lightroom in London.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

"Moonwalkers" includes interviews with astronauts and footage of the missions using Lightroom's projection and audio technology, making it an immersive experience. But for Hanks, it's about celebrating the Apollo missions and looking forward to future journeys to the moon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HANKS, ACTOR: This show is about the wonder of the moon and the amazing creatures that have made it possible for members of their race in order to walk upon it. The truth is in the 50,000 years of human history only 12 representatives of bipeds like you and me have walked on the surface of another planet. And that's the 12 missions of Apollo. And that was 50 years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The "Moonwalkers" runs through April 21st. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary

Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Bianca Nobilo at the top of the hour. "Marketplace Middle East" is next.

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