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Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza Worsens as Heavy Fighting Intensifies; 138 Candles Offered for the Remaining 138 Hostages in Commemoration of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday; Former British PM Grills Questions at a COVID Inquiry Hearing; British Foreign Secretary Appeals for Ukraine Aid Bill Passing; Trump to Stand as Final Witness for the Civil Fraud Trial; Hunter Biden Charged for Tax Evasion; India and China Rely on Coal Power as Two Asian Giants Decline to Sign the COP28 Pledge. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired December 08, 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]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, ahead on "CNN Newsroom."
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Violence grips a refugee camp in northern Gaza. This, as relentless gunfire sends civilians fleeing for safety. We'll have a live report with all the latest from the war.
And Britain's former leader is at a public inquiry into COVID for the second straight day. We'll look at whether Boris Johnson followed the science on the pandemic.
Plus, we're live in India where they're pushing ahead with new coal- fired power capacity, putting their emissions reduction goals in doubt.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: It's 10 a.m. in Gaza where Israel is claiming advances in its military campaign to eliminate Hamas as the humanitarian crisis grows worse by the day.
We've seen black smoke billowing from the enclaves since sunrise and the Israel Defense Forces report they've hit about 450 targets in the past day. Clashes are continuing in Khan Younis in the south where the Israeli military is searching for Hamas leaders. The IDF says it has arrested and interrogated hundreds of terror suspects in recent days. Civilians in Gaza say nowhere is safe.
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UNKNOWN (through translator): They told people to leave Gaza City and to go to Khan Younis. We are in the city of Khan Younis and we were supposed to be in unthreatened areas, the blocks that were not threatened. Israel should have given a warning that they will strike this building. There were hundreds of residents in the building behind you, and they left just one day before the strike.
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BRUNHUBER: Now a video, geolocated by CNN, shows heavy gunfire at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Civilians running through the streets as shots ring out. A Gaza City man says 17 members of his family were killed in a series of Israeli air and missile strikes. We just want to warn you these next images are graphic and they show wounded Palestinians, including children, lying on the floor of an overcrowded hospital in Gaza's second largest city.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled health ministry says more than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7th. And images posted on social media show amassed attention of men in Gaza by the Israeli military. Now in the pictures, a large group stripped to their underwear are kneeling and sitting while blindfolded. Now the exact dates and circumstances of the detentions aren't clear.
Journalist Elliott Gotkine is covering all of this live for us from London. So, Elliott, first take us through the latest on the fighting in Khan Younis.
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Kim, intense fighting on the ground and also from strikes from the IDF taking place in Khan Younis. As you say, Israel very much on the ground there. It said on Thursday that it had encircled Gaza's second largest city and it was operating in the heart of it, at the same time, the job as far as the IDF is concerned still isn't done in the northern part of the Gaza Strip either, where there is also intense fighting. And as you mentioned, overnight over the past day, some 450 strikes have been carried out by the IDF. This is the largest number since the truce between Israel and Hamas ended about a week ago.
And as part of those strikes, Israel says that it's been hitting weapons, tunnel shafts, another infrastructure from the air, land and sea. And it also specified that in a two-hour series, it says, of precise strikes, it killed numerous terrorists, it says. But we also know that hospitals in Khan Younis were taking in dozens of casualties as well.
And you mentioned, Kim, the death toll according to the Hamas-run health ministry now more than 17,000. The IDF says that it's killed around 5,000 militants. But even If those figures both from the Hamas- run health ministry and the IDF are accurate, that still leaves a very large number of civilians to have been killed since the fighting began after that October the 7th attack by Hamas. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. And then, Elliott, certainly raising plenty of eyebrows. The images I mentioned earlier from Gaza showing Israeli soldiers detaining dozens of men that were stripped of their underwear. So what more are we learning about that? GOTKINE: Well, we've managed to geolocate some of the images to Beit
Lahiya in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, we've seen those images of dozens of men kneeling, being stripped of their underwear, being blindfolded and then being put into the back of a truck to be taken away.
[03:05:04]
Now, when Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, he's the chief spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, was asked about this, he didn't seem to refer specifically to these images. But what he did say is that when fighting is going on, they engage with the enemy and then once the dust settled, people begin to emerge either from tunnel shafts or from buildings. And he says that we then investigate, we check who has ties to Hamas and who does not, we arrest them all and question them.
Now, EuroMedMonitor has accused Israel of detaining and abusing dozens of Palestinians and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists says that one journalist may be among those. We've also at CNN spoken with people who are either related or who employ people who have been identified among those people in the images. And they say that they have no known affiliation to militant groups.
Now we've reached out to the IDF. The assumption is that, for example, they have been stripped in order to avoid the risk that some of them may be wearing suicide vests. But we've reached out to the IDF. They haven't got back to us yet specifically on these images and obviously will. bring you any news on that as soon as we get it. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: All right, perfect. Thanks so much, Elliott Gotkine in London. I appreciate it.
Israeli military says it struck targets in Syria and Lebanon after missiles were reportedly launched towards Israel from those countries on Thursday.
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According to Lebanon's national news agency, several students were wounded after an Israeli airstrike on a Lebanese border town. Earlier, the IDF said its fighter jets hit an operational command and control center in Lebanon belonging to Hezbollah. The militant group claimed to target at least two Israeli towns on Thursday, and a missile fire from Lebanon reportedly killed a 60-year-old Israeli man.
The Israeli prime minister then made a visit to northern Israel and warned, quote, "If Hezbollah decides to open an all-out war, then with its own hands it will turn Beirut and southern Lebanon into Gaza and Khan Younis."
The U.N. Security Council is set to vote today on a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The emergency meeting comes after U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres formally referred the matter to the Security Council and the UAE submitted a draft resolution on Wednesday. Guterres says he invoked for the first time a rare but powerful measure called Article 99. It allows him to bring any matter which, in his opinion, may threaten international peace and security.
In his letter, he stressed the plight of Gaza civilians, who he said are facing, quote, "grave danger on a daily basis." Here's the Palestinian representative to the U.N.
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RIYAD MANSOUR, PERMANENT OBSERVER TO THE U.N. FOR PALESTINE: The number of killed are now in excess of 17,000 Palestinians, and killed and injured around 65,000. A large number of them, 70 percent of them are women and children. This is something that is so disgusting and disgraceful to see this large number of children being killed more than any other conflict since the creation of the United Nations.
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BRUNHUBER: The World Food Program says the people of Gaza are experiencing alarming levels of hunger. The group's latest report says in northern Gaza, Nine out of 10 people are consistently going a full day and night without food and a quarter of all households are burning waste as their main source of cooking fuel. The head of the U.N. Relief Agency says Israel's military assault has left its operation in southern Gaza no longer properly functioning. Here's Martin Griffiths in Geneva on Thursday.
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MARTIN GRIFFITHS, U.N. EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR: What we have at the moment in Gaza, northern Gaza, even more difficult. but in Gaza where we have trucks still crossing daily through the Rafah crossing, is at best humanitarian opportunism to try to reach through some roads which are still accessible, which haven't been mined or destroyed, to some people who can be found where some food or some water or some other supply can be given. But it's a program of opportunism. It's erratic. It's undependable. And frankly, it's not sustainable.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's John Vause spoke earlier with Tamara Alrifai from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. And he asked if there's any meaningful aid reaching the displaced people of Gaza.
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TAMARA ALRIFAI, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, UNRWA: Our ability to distribute food, clean drinking water or protect people who are sought shelter in our own institutions, in our own buildings is very, very limited.
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The intense bombing, the scarcity of the food and humanitarian supplies going in, the fact that we keep losing colleagues or selves who get killed sometimes inside their own shelters is really limited. Our ability as a U.N. agency, as a relief agency to be up to the mandate that we have. We're not able to help and protect people. What we do is very, very little in view of the acute, immense, colossal humanitarian needs in Gaza today.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Here are some of the latest numbers from the World Food Program. 97 percent of households in northern Gaza have inadequate food consumption. 83 percent of households in southern Gaza are adopting extreme consumption strategies to survive. So what exactly are extreme consumption strategies and given that there is no longer any meaningful humanitarian assistance coming into Gaza, how long can that continue?
ALRIFAI: Extreme strategies in everyday family terms, according to my colleagues and to people who we speak to in Gaza, means that if a household receives a bag of flour, they have to ration the content to last them as long as possible. So stretching the amount of flour, the amount of bread they can produce. over several days because they do not know, the family does not know when will be the next time they receive wheat flour, which basically means entire families go on for days with a piece of bread maybe equivalent to one slice toast per day each and sometimes even less.
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BRUNHUBER: Israel says it will open another border crossing between Israel and Gaza for the inspection of aid trucks within the next few days. The UN called it a promising sign, but as CNN's Ben Wedeman reports, the help can't come soon enough.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Isra was born the day the truce went into effect, seemingly so long ago. She lives with her parents and brother in a makeshift shelter in Deir el-Balah.
It lacks the basics of life for the cold for the winter, says her mother, also named Isra.
This young family is part of the 1.9 million people, 85 percent of Gaza's population that has been displaced. Displaced but still in danger.
Smoke rises over Rafah where so many fled to.
Wednesday afternoon, this house in Rafah's refugee camp was bombed. Inevitably in such a crowded place, children were among the dead.
There's no safe place in Gaza, says Iyad Al-Houbi. Any place can be hit.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 20 people were killed in the strike, including 17 members from the same extended family.
They told them the south was safe, they came here, the safe place, and they were all killed, says Bassam Al-Houbi.
Death now stalks every corner of this land.
In Khan Younis, the focus of Israel's current offensive, the hospital is overwhelmed with the injury. And yet more come.
The World Health Organization Gaza envoy says they're doing what they can.
RICHARD PEERPERKORN, WHO GAZA ENVOY: But the health infrastructure is on its knees. It's almost collapsing. That is what the reality is. It's almost collapsing.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Collapse, chaos, destruction, and death. Such is Gaza's lot.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.
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BRUNHUBER: And if you would like information on how to help with humanitarian relief efforts for Gaza and Israel, please go to cnn.com/impact. You can find a list of vetted organizations that are providing assistance at cnn.com/impact.
Israel believes 138 people are still being held hostage in Gaza. To mark the Hanukkah holiday, 138 candles were lit on a special hostage menorah in downtown Tel Aviv. The grandson of one of the hostages spoke about the meaning behind the lighting of the candles.
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DANIEL LIFSHITZ, GRANDSON OF HOSTAGE ODED LIFSHITZ: We are here, it's something symbolic, so we light the candles for the return of the hostages, for the release of the hostages, to make a deal for the hostages, and that's what we are here for. And there is a holiday, so it's part of all the Hanukkah holidays, to call for that, you know. And I can call for all the world to press more, to do everything they can. I see maybe there is a deal, take it, do it, they are dying there.
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BRUNHUBER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lit the first menorah candle at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. In addressing the war with Hamas, he alluded to ancient Hebrew scripture. Here he is.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Today we are fighting, the Maccabees of today, against the forces of evil that are coming to wipe the Jewish people and its state off the face of the earth. We show the same determination, the same heroism, the same sacrifice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
And in Washington, this was the national Menorah as it was being lit late Thursday with Doug Emhoff, the husband of the Vice President, lighting the first candle. Emhoff was the first Jewish spouse of either a president or vice president. In his address, Emhoff denounced the recent surge in anti-Semitism around the world.
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DOUG EMHOFF, U.S. SECOND GENTLEMAN: We've seen the presidents of some of our most elite universities literally unable to denounce calling for the genocide of Jews as anti-Semitic. That lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable.
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BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted that the rules set out by his government during the COVID-19 pandemic were too complex for both the police to enforce and for the public to understand. He was giving his second day of testimony on Thursday as part of a public inquiry into the U.K.'s handling of the pandemic.
Johnson also spoke about his time in a hospital's intensive care unit with COVID in April 2020. Here he is.
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BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And it has talked about it before in public. But it goes to what you were saying earlier about -- about elderly people and what you claim is my indifference to the pandemic.
I just want to remind you that when I went into intensive care, I saw around me a lot of people who were not actually elderly. And in fact, they were middle-aged men. And they were quite like me. And some of us were gonna make it and some of us weren't. And what I'm trying to tell you, in a nutshell, the NHS, thank God, did an amazing job and helped me survive. But I knew from that experience what an appalling disease this is.
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BRUNHUBER: And joining me now is Kit Yates, co-director of the Center of Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath and author of the book, "How to Expect the Unexpected."
[03:20:08]
Thanks so much for being here with us. So first, you know, before we drill down on any of the specific comments we heard from the inquiry, especially from Boris Johnson, I just want to get your big picture, sort of 30,000-foot view of what we've been hearing since this began.
KIT YATES, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF BATH: I think one of the main messages that seems to be coming out of the inquiry is the toxicity that was at the heart of Boris Johnson's government at the time when they were trying to manage this pandemic, people pulling in different directions, people arguing, infighting, accusations of misogyny, all sorts of things that you really don't need when you're trying to tackle a serious and almost unprecedented crisis.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah and there were no shortage of ridiculous suggestions and bad ideas. Boris Johnson suggesting to his advisors that he wanted to be injected with the virus live on television to show it wasn't a threat. I mean, what surprised or shocked you the most from what's come out so far?
YATES: I think one of the messages that keeps getting reinforced is that Boris Johnson didn't have a good grasp of the science and more than that, he failed to engage with any of the scientific or most of the scientific evidence put in front of him. He said yesterday that by December 2021, so, you know, almost two years into the pandemic, was possibly a rare occasion when he finally felt he had a good grasp on the data, but maybe he was flattering himself.
So, you know, he didn't have a good grasp of the data for the whole of 2020 and 2021, at a time when this was an overwhelmingly scientific crisis. Science was important in our response, and he didn't have that. He seems, it seems that he just dismissed some of the evidence that was put in front of him, even in the early days, things like mathematical models which suggested the NHS would get overwhelmed that hundreds of thousands of people would die. He didn't take that seriously until too late.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it seems incredible. He just didn't want to believe the data. I want to play a clip here of Boris Johnson. After everything that happened, all the mistakes that were made, here's one of his conclusions about what could have been better done on lockdowns. Listen to this.
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JOHNSON: There needs to be a great deal of reflection about simplifying the whole approach and seeing what we can do to rely more on common sense and less on regulation and legislation.
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BRUNHUBER: I mean, are you surprised that that's the big takeaway here, that we should rely more on common sense?
YATES: Well, yeah, I mean, that's sort of the opposite of the message that I think has been coming out of this, that we should be relying on data much more than what Johnson would call common sense. I think one thing he was trying to get out there is that the rules that they made were perhaps too complicated for people to follow. They had various different tiers, different parts of the country and different restrictions.
And that's evidenced by the fact that, of course, Boris Johnson famously didn't respect his own lockdown rules and broke them in Downing Street and other people in Downing Street broke them multiple times while other people in the U.K. were strictly adhering to these rules, not being allowed to go and see their loved ones dying in hospitals, not being able to go to funerals of people they loved. So I think that certainly the rules could have been simpler, certainly if he couldn't abide by his own rules.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. All right. So let's look ahead a little bit here. Are you confident that the next government or policymakers around the world that are watching this will actually apply any of the lessons learned here or is the sort of the depressing conclusion here that at the end of the day, leadership matters? It doesn't matter what advisors you have around you if the person at the top won't listen to them.
YATES: Yeah, I think that's right. I think leadership is incredibly important. The polls over here in the U.K. are suggesting that this government won't be here for much longer. So perhaps it will be a different government the next time that a pandemic strikes.
But certainly there are -- there are numerous lessons that we have to learn from this pandemic. And this is what this COVID inquiry is all about, is about finding out these lessons. But I do worry that given the testimony that we've been hearing from some of the politicians who were in charge at the time, that those lessons have not been learned. They seem to be more concerned with protecting their reputations than admitting mistakes and trying to learn for the future.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that seems to be a recurring motif. The U.K. was certainly not alone in making mistakes during the pandemic. So for those watching, around the world. You mentioned lessons learned. Okay, what are they? What are we learning from this inquiry that maybe isn't U.K. specific that could help for the inevitable next pandemic?
YATES: So I think one of the main lessons is act early, go early and go hard, because I think that means that generally you can get things under control and then you don't have to take such dramatic action later on. One of the most unforgivable things in the U.K. was the fact that yes, we had a large number of deaths early on in April 2020, but that number of daily deaths was exceeded in January 2021, when we'd already had that experience, when we knew that taking action early on would have saved lives.
[03:25:08]
We didn't do it again. So things like acting early, using the precautionary principle and using that time that you get from taking drastic actions like a lockdown to mitigate the impact. And this is something we still haven't done. We haven't instituted better ventilation or filtration, which would help reduce the spread of these airborne diseases and mean that we don't have to take such drastic measures in the future.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, listen, I spoke to you during the pandemic. It's good to speak to you again now to sort of get your perspective about all the things that we've learned since then. Kit Yates from the University of Bath, thank you so much for speaking with us.
YATES: Thank you, too.
BRUNHUBER: U.S. Senate Republicans are coming under new pressure to greenlight more military aid for Ukraine. On Wednesday, they blocked a new aid bill for Ukraine and Israel demanding tougher border security. The White House has made it clear the money for Ukraine will run out by the end of the year unless Congress approves more funding. On Thursday, the White House urged the Republicans to think ahead.
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JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: And if you think the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now, just imagine how much higher it's going to be. Not just in national treasure, but in American blood if he starts going after one of our NATO allies because as the president also said we take our article five commitments very seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: British Foreign Secretary David Cameron is asking the U.S. Congress to lift the morale of Ukraine by passing the aid package he's been in Washington meeting with U.S. lawmakers and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Most of the people I met on the hill yesterday support backing Ukraine because it's the right thing to do. I mean if you fundamentally think about it, the country's supporting Ukraine, add up the economies and we outmatch Russia 30:1. We've just got to make that economic strength show and make it pay.
And that's what this is all about. Obviously it's complicated about exactly how a bill goes through Congress and what it gets attached to it and I don't want to get involved in that but I just absolutely know that this money will make a huge difference to a Ukrainian campaign that actually is in many ways far more successful than people give them credit for.
They've taken back half the land that Russia stole from them. The other night they destroyed 20 percent of Russia's attack helicopters in one night thanks to American equipment. They've driven the Russian Navy back across the Black Sea. They're exporting grain again so their economy is growing again.
This is an investment into their success and the worst thing in the world would be to allow Putin a win in Ukraine not just because that would be bad in itself but he'd be back for more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And despite the congressional logjam the White House still approved $175 million in new aid for Ukraine this week it was done under a separate presidential authority but it's a far cry from the more than $60 billion in the bill that Republicans blocked. Nick Paton Walsh explains how a lack of aid could affect Ukraine down the line.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The recent package we just heard you of, $175 million, that's going to provide high Mars ammunition, the longer more accurate range missiles, javelins, other things too that are urgently needed by Ukraine. But there are suggestions from U.S. officials that it's going to be air defenses urgently needed by Ukraine to fend off the attacks by Russia on Ukraine's infrastructure.
The air defense may begin to suffer with ammunition and that possibly also too, the badly needed 155-155 artillery shells, the kind of the key part of so much of Ukraine's artillery attacks that they may begin to slow down in arrival here too.
Now Ukraine I think has perhaps been concerned this moment might begin to arrive, it might be the beginning as I said of broader doubts in western capitals as we head into the second, the third year now of this war next year, that we possibly there may not be a decisive victory ahead for Kyiv, but I think there are many Ukrainians here who feel certainly that Russia is holding its ground, will use any pause to re-equip, to regroup and then potentially push forwards ahead and we are seeing even signs not far from where I'm standing at in Avdiivka, a key town that Russia is again beginning to use a grinding, slow and brutal offensive towards, but essentially Moscow is looking to take one small town after another over the months ahead and try and increase its grip on Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Israel calls him a dead man walking. Coming up we'll tell you about the man most wanted by Israeli authorities in Gaza.
Plus why the Israel Hamas war is increasing the risk of terror attacks in the U.S. and the E.U. The new warnings from officials this holiday season, that's coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
Our top story this hour, Israel is forging ahead with its military campaign in Gaza, aiming to take out Hamas commanders and militants. There's a heavy fighting reported in Khan Younis in the south. In recent days, the IDF says it has arrested and interrogated hundreds of suspects in Gaza, allegedly involved in terror activities. The Hamas- controlled health ministry reports more than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7th.
The World Food Program says the people of Gaza are experiencing alarming levels of hunger. According to the group's latest report, nine out of ten people in northern Gaza are consistently going a full day and night without food. The head of the U.N. Relief Agency says Israel's military assault has left its operation in southern Gaza no longer properly functioning.
One of the most powerful and arguably dangerous figures in the Israel- Hamas war is Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. He apparently remains at large, even though Prime Minister Netanyahu said this week his nation's forces surrounded his home in Gaza. Israel accuses Sinwar of being the mastermind behind the October 7th Hamas terror attacks.
CNN's Brian Todd has this profile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of Israel's top targets, the man they call the face of evil. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's highest-ranking leader inside Gaza. Top Israeli officials have sounded very confident in recent days that they'll kill him, saying their forces have encircled his house in southern Gaza.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): His house is not his fortress, and he can escape, but it's only a matter of time until we get him.
TODD (voice-over): Without elaborating, Israeli officials say they believe Sinwar is underground.
HUSSAIN ABDUL-HUSSAIN, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: He's most likely in these tunnels that Israel fears to go into them. because they're not sure what's in them, whether they're booby traps.
TODD (voice-over): Such is the existence of the 61-year-old who's imprinted his hatred of Israel into the identity of Hamas. Analysts say it's one of Hamas' top masterminds of the October 7th attacks.
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: Yahya Sinwar to Israel is what Bin Laden is to the United States. And like Americans went after Bin Laden and eventually got him, I think the Israelis will do the same, and this war will not end until they get Sinwar.
TODD (voice-over): Sinwar joined Hamas in his 20s. Arrested by the Israelis for the murders of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians, he spent 23 years in an Israeli prison, learned Hebrew, and it was during that period that the Israelis actually saved his life.
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: A tumor was discovered in his head. Israeli doctors operated on him, took the tumor out, and he survived.
TODD (voice-over): Michael Koubi, a former officer of Israel's Shin Bet Security Agency, says he interrogated Yahya Sinwar for a total of about 180 hours.
[03:35:07]
Koubi says he knows Sinwar better than Sinwar's own mother and describes him as the cruelest man he ever met, known to use a machete to kill Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israeli intelligence.
MICHAEL KOUBI, FORMER SHIN BET SECURITY AGENCY OFFICER: I asked him, you are now 28, 29, and how come he's not married? How come he doesn't want a family? So he told me the Hamas is my wife, the Hamas is my child. The Hamas for me is everything.
TODD (voice-over): Sinwar was among more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Just last year he seemed to warn Israel what was coming.
YAHYA SINWAR, HAMAS LEADER IN GAZA (through translator): We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with an endless number of rockets. We will come to you in a flood of soldiers without limit.
TODD (voice-over): Analysts say the man who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2021 won't be easy to kill this time either.
ABDUL-HUSSAIN: If there's someone who's passing on information to the Israelis, he usually knows who they are, and he takes them out before the Israelis get to him.
TODD: Analyst Hussein Abdel Hussein says, if and when the Israelis eliminate Yahya Sinwar, it's likely that whoever tries to take his place won't be nearly as brutal as Sinwar. But even if it's someone more moderate, he says, it really won't matter, given how determined the Israelis are to take out all of Hamas' leadership.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Now to Albany, New York, where a man is accused of firing two shots outside a synagogue. The state's governor says no one was injured at the Temple Israel on Thursday. The FBI's Albany office told local media that a 28-year-old man, Mufi'l Fawaz al-Qadir, was arrested and charged after the incident. And Albany's police chief described why this is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Did he say anything about the Jewish faith or about Israel or about anything that would be like a hate crime?
CHIEF ERIC HAWKINS, ALBANY, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: We were told by responding officers that he made a comment, "Free Palestine."
REPORTER: Is that the reason the FBI is involved in this situation?
HAWKINS: Yes, that is part of the reason, yes.
REPORTER: So is it being investigated as a hate crime?
HAWKINS: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Top U.S. and E.U. officials are warning of an increased risk of terror attacks this holiday season amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The FBI director testified before lawmakers that he sees warning signs, quote, "everywhere I turn." Christopher Wray says the bureau is working around the clock to identify and disrupt potential attacks inspired by the Hamas siege against Israel on October 7th. Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs says the polarization from the war has created a, quote, "huge risk of terror attacks in the coming weeks."
Now the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah started Thursday night and lasts eight days. Earlier I asked a security and terrorism expert about violence that's spilled over from this conflict so far. Here he is.
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GLENN SCHOEN, SECURITY MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT: The big worry is what may be coming, which is actions by more organized groups principally a concern about Middle East-based groups operating in Europe and finally there's an overlay of concern that extreme rights might also undertake action particularly against Jewish or Israeli targets in Europe
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and then there are you know other attacks we don't necessarily know the motive we saw you know Palestinian students here in the U.S. being shot, of course, so far the fear is that dot this is just the tip of the iceberg I mentioned FBI director Christopher Wray who recently said there's been a huge volume and intensity of messaging in chat rooms, message boards and videos produced by foreign terrorist groups. Is that a sign that something much more sophisticated, maybe meticulously planned and deadly could happen?
SCHOEN: Yes, and there are indications that we're already present before 7 October and Hamas attack on Israel. Europe since COVID, we've seen mostly smaller incidents. But the last year, roughly, there's also been the detection of larger plots by larger groups. Part of that is tied into Islamic State and movements of people coming from Afghanistan, Turkey into southeastern Europe.
A couple of smaller and larger plots have been detected, including plans in Germany to detect it just last week for an attack this Christmas. So right now, authorities are worried about the potential for better planned actions in the near term over the holidays.
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BRUNHUBER: We're watching a developing story out of Baghdad where two rockets have hit the U.S. embassy. It released a statement saying there are no reported casualties and damage assessments are ongoing. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the embassy says indications are that it was initiated by Iran-aligned militias.
[03:40:01]
The embassy is calling on the Iraqi government to do everything in its power to protect diplomatic partners and facilities. Again, no casualty was reported as the two rockets hit the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Weeks of testimony appear to be wrapping up in the fraud trial of Donald Trump. The former president is expected to be the final witness when he takes the stand on Monday. We'll have the latest on the trial just ahead.
And we're learning about the victims in the shooting at a university campus in Las Vegas, which left three people dead. We'll have the latest just ahead.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a political witch hunt. This is meant to influence an election. This is third world country stuff. This is banana republic stuff. I should be right now in Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina. I should be sitting in a courthouse.
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BRUNHUBER: As former U.S. president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump there during a break in the $250 million civil fraud case against him in New York. He's expected to testify in his own defense on Monday. Now Trump was in court on Thursday to hear NYU accounting professor Eli Bartov testify as an expert witness for the defense. Bartov said he found no evidence of fraud in Trump's business deals.
CNN's Brynn Gingras has that.
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BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Trump expected to take the stand on Monday as the final witness for the defense in the civil fraud trial that is really nearing an end after about two months.
But in the courtroom for the defense, the second to final witness is an accounting expert that really was the strongest witness for the defense that we have seen yet.
Really this witness basically said that the statement, the financial statements of condition that are at the heart of this case, which of course, if you remember, the New York Attorney General has said had over inflated assets done by the Trumps and they did it intentionally.
This witness countered that for the defense, basically saying that they weren't out of the ordinary that no accounting principles were violated and that he and his judgment hasn't even seen a case of fraud here and even questioned the attorney general as to why they even brought this case forward. So really the strongest witness that the defense has put forward, the former president sitting at the defense table listening to this testimony. But again, the big day, the big final day will be Trump when he
finally does take the stand in this trial that has started really in October, and we won't hear a final decision. Of course, the judge making that final decision until January. Back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Joe Biden's son has been charged for allegedly failing to pay taxes for several years. The special counsel filed nine counts against Hunter Biden in his federal tax case. Prosecutors alleged Biden included false business deductions to evade tax assessments and reduce his liabilities, although he did eventually pay his taxes.
[03:45:00]
Biden's attorney criticized the new charges, saying if Hunter's last name was anything other than Biden, the new charges wouldn't have been brought against him. The case was on the verge of being resolved in July when a plea deal fell apart. When asked for comment, the White House referred to the Justice Department and Hunter Biden's representatives.
Las Vegas police say they're still trying to figure out the motive behind the mass shooting on a local university campus on Wednesday. Authorities said the alleged gunman had a list of people he was, quote, "seeking on the University of Las Vegas campus, but the department says none of the three faculty members who were killed were on that list. "
CNN's Lucy Kafanov has more.
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UNKNOWN: We have three gunshot victims.
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): UNLV reeling from a campus shooting Wednesday that claimed the lives of three people. All faculty members, including 64-year-old Professor Jerry Chang and 39- year-old Assistant Professor Patricia Navarro-Velez, another victim, a visiting professor, now recovering from a gunshot wound.
Law enforcement released video of the moments before police shot the gunman, 67-year-old Anthony Polito.
SHERIFF KEVIN MCMAHILL, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE: Officers from both UNLV and LVMPD arrived and heard shooting coming from inside the beam hall and went in immediately. I stressed without hesitation to neutralize the threat.
KAFANOV (voice-over): Police saying the gunman was shot multiple times, just minutes after he began shooting on multiple floors of a UNLV campus building.
MCMAHILL: Polito was armed with the Taurus 9-millimeter handgun. He had brought 11 magazines to the scene with him. KAFANOV (voice-over): The gun, according to law enforcement, was
legally purchased by Polito in 2022. He described himself online as a semi-retired university professor who taught in Georgia and North Carolina until 2017. He also taught classes at Rosemond University in Henderson, Nevada until June 30th, 2022.
Law enforcement is still trying to understand his motive for the shootings.
MCMAHILL: The suspect had a list of people he was seeking on a university campus. We know he applied numerous times for a job with several Nevada higher education institutions and was denied each time.
KAFANOV (voice-over): His connection to Las Vegas and his online profile shows an unorthodox approach to teaching including conspiracy theories he claims to have solved, like the mystery of the Zodiac Killer and the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, and multiple references to Las Vegas, including dozens of links on his personal website, with a reference to, quote, "making more than two dozen trips to Vegas over the last 15 years."
Polito's "Rate My Professor" page for East Carolina University had mostly positive ratings before the shootings, but also multiple references to a, quote, "unconventional teaching style focusing largely on personal anecdotes."
Posts dating back to 2014 and 2009 saying, he's great, we spent over two months just talking about Vegas and he loves to go to Las Vegas.
On his website, Polito brags about his education, which he says includes a master's from Duke and a PhD from the University of Georgia. He even claims he was a member of the high I.Q. society Mensa.
KAFANOV: Police revealing more. disturbing details, including that before the shooting, Anthony Polito sent 22 letters to other university personnel. At least one of those contained some sort of a white powdery substance. Police also revealing that they searched Polito's residence and when they did so, they found a chair with an arrow pointing down to a document, which appeared to be some sort of last will and testament. They also found computers and hard drives as well as the same type of ammunition that they found right here on the scene.
Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Las Vegas.
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BRUNHUBER: The NBA held a moment of silence prior to the inaugural in- season tournament semifinal on Thursday, following the campus shooting on Wednesday.
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UNKNOWN (voice-over): At this time, we ask that you join us in a moment of silence in honor of those impacted by this tragedy. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The in-season tournament semi-final games are being played in Las Vegas, not far from the site of the shooting. The league said it was heartbroken by the quote, "senseless act of violence."
We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: As the U.N.'s annual Global Climate Change Conference winds down this week, officials from India and China say that burning more coal is a key part of their plans to meet future energy demands. At the same time, they're refusing to join 118 countries who've signed a pledge to increase power production from renewable sources.
CNN's Vedika Sud is live for us in New Delhi with the details. Vedika, it isn't at all what the experts were calling for, COP28, China and India doubling down on coal.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: And they will for a while, Kim. It's complicated. Two Asian giants, China and India, together account for more than a third of the world's population. And that's why both the countries are not among the 118 countries that you just spoke about that pledged to triple green energy capacity by the year 2030.
Let me start with India. India has a population of 1.4 billion people, the largest population in the world by a country and it has needs to manage of these 1.4 billion people. Employment, electricity, there are still millions of people who cannot rely on steady electricity here in India and therefore the reliance on coal and therefore more production of coal fired plants in India and India is clear they need to depend on coal for a while at least.
There is a self-imposed deadline of 2070 for net zero emissions for India but for now coal is the biggest source of energy here in India and it will be for a while. But also along with that India has made clear that they are into renewable energy. There's huge investment happening there and there needs to be a balance between both experts say, but that's going to take a while from now.
Let's just take you through our report.
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SUD (voice-over): The world's two most populous nations are deepening their reliance on fossil fuels. Governments in India and in China, home to almost 3 billion people combined, want to satisfy a growing need for energy by burning more coal.
Both are pledging greater coal-fired power capacity and putting their net-zero ambitions in doubt. There will be no compromise on power needed for growth, India's
Minister for Power, R.P. Singh said last month, even if it means addition of coal-based capacity.
In November, the United Nations production gap report revealed that if all the coal projects currently planned around the world materialize, we will burn 460 percent more coal in 2030 than water be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
KATE LOGAN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CLIMATE, ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE: This energy security issue has really spooked a lot of the local governments in China and prompted China basically to renege on that commitment to limit new coal power bills.
SUD (voice-over): China says it will be carbon neutral by 2060, India by 2070. But according to a report by the Global Energy Monitor, China had 136 gigawatts of coal power in construction and over 255 gigawatts in earlier stages of development, while India had over 65 gigawatts in the pipeline.
HARJEET SINGH, HEAD OF GLOBAL POLICY STRATEGY, CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK: We need to understand Indian context in a much more nuanced manner than just looking at it as a large emitter. We should also look at its energy needs, its poverty levels, its energy poverty.
SUD (voice-over): As both countries continue to develop and drag people out of poverty, the baseline power that coal provides remains attractive. But it's not all bad news.
LOGAN: In the near term, there are signals that China's actually very close to peaking its emissions, in part because China is also the world leader in adding new renewable power.
SUD (voice-over): China possesses more solar power capacity than all other countries combined and could hit peak emissions before the end of the decade. While India could soon be producing 500 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030, far more power than it currently produces.
SINGH: More than 80 percent of green finance in India is domestic. which means that international partners have not played their role. They've only put pressure on India. So India is largely on its own.
[03:55:05]
SUD (voice-over): For both countries, coal capacity is the backup plan. The danger is that if a coal power plant is built, there will always be pressure to use it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SUD (on-camera): China is building far more renewable energy capacity, Kim, than any other country, according to some analysts.
And the use of coal may peak by the end of this year, or rather next year, according to some analysts as well. But the big question is, what about the coal-fired power plants they're coming up with? There are more in the pipeline as well. And this could really make a lot of analysts question their commitment towards phasing out fossil fuels, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, very worrying indeed. Vedika Sud in Delhi, thanks so much.
A cloud of opaque dust at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy has long perplexed scientists, and new research is further deepening the mystery. Nicknamed The Brick, that dark cloud should be turning up massive new stars, but it's all but dormant.
According to a study in the "Astrophysical Journal," the brick is littered with frozen carbon monoxide, and that has scientists asking why they aren't seeing any star formations. There's myriad theories. One possible answer, the region is just too young to give birth to stars.
All right, how would you like to fall asleep on Christmas Eve with the late, great Jimmy Stewart reading you a bedtime story? Now the good news is, now you can.
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Now Stuart died in 1997, but thanks to artificial intelligence, his soothing, distinctive voice has been replicated as the narrator of a festive Christmas story, titled "It's a Wonderful Sleep Story." It was released this week on the meditation and sleep app Calm and had the approval of Stuart's family in estate. One of his children said it was gratifying to hear their father's legacy live on, even if it is only make-believe.
A group of Chinese tourists in Venice landed in cold water when their gondola flipped over. The boat capsized after the visitors stood up to take selfies. The tourists weren't injured and the gondola wasn't damaged, but it's upholstered chairs and blankets were thrown into the canal. Badly behaved visitors have been a problem in Venice in recent years, and the city plans to implement an entry fee next year to combat over tourism.
That wraps this hour of "CNN Newsroom." I'm Kim Brunhuber. "CNN Newsroom" continues with my colleague, Bianca Nobilo, after this short break.
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