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CNN International: Israel Recovers The Bodies Of Three Dead Hostages; U.S. Pressing Israel To Ease Gaza's Suffering; Four Hamas Members Arrested in Europe; Company Creates Thermal Batteries For Green Energy. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and they have. It's been a significant success for them. And so I went through their last earnings report and you see both in their North American segment and their international segment, a really strong growth between 9 percent and 10 percent depending on what you're talking about. They mentioned Barbie. They mentioned the strength of the dolls.

And I should say that even yesterday their stock popped about two and a half percent because they announced that they're developing an American Girl doll movie that they're hoping to sort of have they own American Girl. They are going to recapture the Barbie success.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Samantha for life according to our executive producer in my ear. CNN has had Samantha, you didn't.

KAITLIN COLLINS, CNN HOST: I was too old for them.

HARLOW: OK.

COLLINS: But I would love Stevie Nicks Barbie.

(CROSS TALK)

COLLINS: If Santa's listening, I would like Stevie Nicks --

SOLOMON: No one's too old for Barbie so you can take advantage of that.

COLLINS: There you go. I like it. Thanks, Rahel. CNN This Morning continues right now.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Max foster in London. You're watching CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, we'll be live in Ramallah, where U.S. national security adviser Jack Sullivan will meet with Palestinian leaders. He's been pressing Israel to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.

Then, European Union leaders agreed to open talks on Ukraine's membership to the bloc, but failed to agree on a multi-billion dollar aid package. We'll have a report from Brussels. And a UK court has ruled that Prince Harry was a victim of phone hacking, details coming up.

The beginning Gaza where Israel says it has recovered the bodies of more hostages. Nik Beizer and Ron Sherman were both kidnapped on October 7 while serving in the Israeli military. It's unclear how they died. Israel has also recovered the body of a civilian hostages -- hostage and says it now believes there are 112 hostages who are still alive being held in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel says it's destroyed the Hamas command the control hub in Sheijaia where there has been significant fighting reported. All of this comes as the U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, is in the region for a visit aimed at getting Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. Our Alex Marquardt is covering that visit right now. He's in the West Bank where Sullivan is due to meet with Palestinian leaders and it's going to be a pretty rough meeting, I imagine.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It could be, Max, it could be rather contentious. I mean, they're going to be talking about simply what the PA looks like going forward. The U.S. has said that there needs to be a revitalized revamped Palestinian Authority that could govern both Gaza and the West Bank. Big question is whether Prime Minister -- President rather Abbas is part of that revamped Palestinian Authority.

But we did speak with Jake Sullivan at a press conference earlier today in Tel Aviv. The big question, Max, is when will Israel transition to what's being called this high intensity phase that we're seeing right now, this heavy bombardment, heavy attacks and fighting in Gaza and move to a lower intensity phase. Jake Sullivan certainly doesn't want to be seen here. And it will bear in Israel as putting pressure or telling Israel what to do. He didn't want to put a number on it. Certainly there is a timeline that could slide.

But you do get the impression, Max, that the U.S. would like to see Israel reach that inflection point sooner rather than later. Here's what Sullivan had said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What I am going to say is that we had a very constructive conversation yesterday about the transition from the high intensity phase forward. And we expect that that will occur in the future. When exactly that happens, and under exactly -- exactly what conditions will be continuing intensive discussion between the United States and Israel. And I will make sure that that conversation at least as far as I can do it is going to stay -- is going to take place behind closed doors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So, Max, Sullivan, there not wanting to rock the boat while in Israel. But we have heard directly from the White House in public saying that they hope that transition happens in the near future. We've had U.S. officials telling us behind the scenes, they expect that to happen in weeks, not months. There is clearly a major U.S. concern about the growing number of civilian casualties, thousands of civilians who have been killed.

We saw we heard President Biden yesterday saying in public that he wants to make sure that Israel focuses more on keeping civilians safe. One of the main messages Sullivan brought to Israel was the need to be much more surgical, much more precise. It's something that they have said over and over again. And yet the civilian death toll continues to rise significantly. Max.

FOSTER: OK, Alex, thank you. Sullivan's visit comes as Joe Biden visits or calls for Ukraine, Israel rather to be more careful. The U.S. president has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of how Israel is conducting his war on Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want Israel to scale its assault on Gaza in by the end of the year? Do you want them to tone it down? Move to a lower intensity phase?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITES STATES OF AMERICA: I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives. Not stopped going after a monster, be more careful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Let's bring in CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak. It does feel as though we're hearing more and more from Biden on the American side about this, you know, differing view on how this war's being conducted.

[08:05:00]

KEVIN LITAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And I think when you talk to officials, they do recognize that there are striking a balance here, because they do not want to be seen as dictating what Israel is doing on the battlefield. But when you listen to President Biden, and you listen to officials, it is clear that patience for the current phase of this war with such a high civilian death toll is not limitless.

And you have seen that reflected in this kind of rhetorical arc from the President over the last several months, he started this conflict, really embracing Israel and steadily over the last two months, he has injected more caution into his public comments to just this week, really the most critical that we've heard from the President towards Israel, saying that what they're doing in Gaza is indiscriminate bombing, and then just yesterday saying that he wanted Israel to be more careful and more focused on protecting civilian lives.

And of course, the backdrop to all of that is significant pressure, both internationally and here in the United States, for the President to do more to apply pressure on Israel. And it has been somewhat remarkable. Really, for the first time in his presidency, Biden's seeing up close sort of the anger among the progressive Left about what's going on. Whether it's protests outside of his home in Delaware protests here at the White House.

Even this week, at the Naval Observatory, where the Vice President lives, there was a state representative who was invited to a Christmas reception, who unfurled a banner and protested there in the Vice President's own home. So certainly the pressure is building on President Biden to do and say more. What you hear from officials is that they believe that this pressure is more effectively waged behind the scenes, in private, in these conversations that officials like Jake Sullivan are having with their Israeli counterparts.

And they do argue that they have had some success in that front so far. Really at the beginning of this conflict. They say that Israel came to the United States with what they called highly problematic war plans that they were able to successfully convinced the Israelis to scale back. But now certainly you're starting to hear the U.S. talk more and more about this transition to a more surgical phase.

The question, as Alex was saying, is when that will happen? Certainly the National Security Adviser did not want to talk about timelines publicly, but you can bet that they're talking about those behind the scenes quite intensively, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Kevin, thank you so much for that. Ukraine is a step closer to becoming part of the European Union but still has a long road ahead. In Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders agreed to open membership talks with Keith and the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calls truly remarkable results. Talks in Moldova will also begin soon. This comes at a critical time and Ukraine's war as the delivery of a major aid package from the U.S. has been stalled. The European Council President praised the decision to open membership talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES MICHEL, EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT: This is a historic moment and shows the credibility of the European Union, the strength of the European Union It is a very powerful political signal. It is a very powerful political decision. And today and tonight, I think, to the people of Ukraine, we are on their side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Hungary, which has close ties to Russia opposes membership talks and didn't take part in the EU's decision. Its Prime Minister Viktor Orban went on to veto a $55 billion EU aid package for Ukraine. Bianca joins us from Brussels because pretty frightening for Kyiv when you've got the American money being held up in Washington and now the European money held up where you are.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Precisely. Even though yesterday marked a huge diplomatic and symbolic win for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In terms of the money that is so sorely needed at this critical juncture, it hasn't been good news. That was a disappointing trip to the United States; he wasn't able to procure those funds in full. And then the EUR50 billion which is sort of roughly in the same ballpark as what he was hoping to get from America, that also hasn't been guaranteed.

And that would have given Ukraine the certainty of helping to stabilize their economy for the next four years. So the money currently from the EU to Ukraine is on track to run out. They're going to resume discussions about those funds in January, but I'm sure quite anxiety inducing for Kyiv. And this was all because of Viktor Orban the Hungarian Prime Minister who decided that he wouldn't be present for the vote on Ukraine, becoming a member of the European Union and starting that process.

And we learned earlier today that that was something that was devised between the German Chancellor, the EU member states and Orban himself that he would just not be present for the vote. And we understand from EU officials that has never happened before it is an unprecedented situation and the last veto in the European Council was David Cameron back in 2011. So this has been a novel summit on many levels.

[08:10:00]

But the Hungarians also at pains to point out that there are potentially 70 votes where it needs to be unanimous from now to Ukraine actually becoming a member. So they keep reiterating the fact they can still intervene, they can still stop this from happening. So this is a difficult point for Zelenskyy. He might have that symbolic reassurance, but in terms of the money that he needs to ward off Russia's invasion, that just hasn't arrived.

FOSTER: OK, Bianca in Brussels, thank you so much. Three people suspected of being members of Hamas are to appear before a German judge soon. They're detained on suspicion of planning attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe. Prosecutors say one was acquiring weapons to be stashed in Berlin, ahead of possible acts of terrorism. Elsewhere in Europe, four other people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences, one in the Netherlands and three in Denmark. Officials in Denmark said the arrests were not related to the German case.

Melissa Bell joins us from Paris with more details, because this is what the security services were warning, you know, possible uptick in a reaction in Europe to what's happening in the Middle East.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Max. What we've seen are European countries raising their terror threat levels. France, for instance, on its highest level, as a result of this, the European Union warning just a couple of weeks ago that it was fearing the high possibility of attacks, especially over the holiday periods. Now, these two sets of arrests, as you say are related, both have happened yesterday.

And what we understand first of all, is that series of arrests in Denmark, which was spoken to by a statement released by Israel, which did refer to the conflict. Denmark authorities being much more cautious about linking those arrests, whether they -- although they are terror related, Max, to the war that's going on right now between Israel and Hamas. These arrests in Germany, however, very clearly linked by Germany's federal prosecutor to events in the Middle East. In fact, the three -- the four people, three of them arrested in

Germany, one of them was arrested in the Netherlands as a result of a tip off from the German authorities. The three that were arrested in Germany, Max, of Lebanese and Egyptian nationality, the one arrest of the Netherlands, a Dutch citizen.

What we understand from German authorities is that they had been actively preparing terror attacks, preparing this cache of weapons that you mentioned, that had begun in the spring and what we've seen what the authorities say they noticed as a result of the attack of October 7, and what followed, were increased trips by two members of this group, to and from Berlin to try and acquire more weapons to keep in that cache and their fear that they were preparing to act against Jewish targets.

We've seen today those images of those men that were arrested in Germany being taken in front of the investigating judge who's looking into this case. But a series of very worrying arrests here, even as you say Europe is on high alert, and fearing the worst over the next couple of weeks, Max.

FOSTER: Melissa in Paris. Thank you. Still coming, a verdict for Prince Harry and his long battle with the tabloids, a judge has just given a ruling in his lawsuit over phone hacking, details and analysis next.

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[08:15:00]

FOSTER: A victory for Britain's Prince Harry in his ongoing battle with the British tabloid press. The UK High Court has just ruled that he was a victim of phone hacking, and other unlawful information gathering by journalists working for the Mirror group newspapers. The Prince became the first senior British royal in more than 100 years to give evidence in court at the trial in June saying the articles played a destructive role in his teenage years; he was awarded nearly $180,000 in damages. And here's what the Prince had to say through his lawyer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SHERBORNE, PRINCE HARRY'S LAWYER: Today's ruling is vindicating and affirming. I've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today's victory, and the importance of what is doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay. The Mission Continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: For more on this lawsuit; what it means let's bring in a Godwin Busuttil, a barrister who specializes in media and communications law. I mean, it is a complex case, isn't it when you really go through the detail? But what about the headline that 15 articles, broke the law, broke his privacy, and have been found to go against the Mirror group here? GODWIN BUSUTTIL, BARRISTER, 5RB CHAMBERS: Yes, so obviously his claim was wider than that. And interestingly, the case isn't really about the published articles. It's primarily about the activities that took place unlawfully in order to generate these articles.

And as you said, in 15 cases, as of 33, the judge has decided that unlawful hacking and news gathering activity took place which led to the publication of these articles. And Harry has been awarded a very substantial amount of damages by British standards in respect of that unlawful activity.

FOSTER: So when he says it's a victory, is he correct in saying that?

BUSUTTIL: Yes, I mean, he may not have won on all of them. But certainly, to win to this extent, seems to me to be a substantial victory. And certainly the damages are on -- are on a very high scale, perhaps particularly for someone who it might be thought has a thicker skin or to have a thicker skin than others. So yeah, it -- it's a substantial victory without question.

FOSTER: He said it really blighted his adolescent years, all of this phone hacking and the invasion into his privacy, it made him depressed, it made him paranoid, that would have been, of course, taken into account when the judge looked at the damages.

BUSUTTIL: Yes, I mean, the way it works really is, is first of all, one, one obtains, if one succeeds, in a case like this, one gets damages for the invasion of privacy, so the sheer penetration of the realm of privacy. Secondly, and probably most significant -- significantly, in these cases for distress, and hurt feelings, and obviously, any form of psychiatric damage.

And then thirdly, the judge has also awarded aggravated damages in this case, because he found that Prince Harry was right. And he was -- it was he was right to be seriously upset by the fact that this had got to the board level at the Mirror group.

FOSTER: He now wants charges pressed, doesn't he, by the Financial Services Authority, perhaps the Metropolitan Police. He then goes on to his other battles with other newspapers. This is part of a much bigger war for Prince Harry. How would you place this particular victory then in that wider war against the British tabloids?

BUSUTTIL: Well, well, there is certainly a wider war. And we all know why there is a wider war, which is the death of his mother in the circumstances that we all know about, chased by the paparazzi. The war will continue. And this is a very major step in the -- in the winning of the war. It's a major victory. It's a major battle, which he has won. And I say that because there has been a trial where he gave evidence and he has largely his claims largely been upheld.

FOSTER: OK, well, thank you so much for joining us, Godwin Busuttil. Really appreciate your insight today on that story that just happened a few hours ago. Still to come; the effort to create green energy has produced some remarkable results. We'll take a look at a company using rocks to fuel thermal batteries, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:00]

FOSTER: Well, it's no secret that wind and solar power are excellent sustainable forms of energy and now thanks for a California company blocks and bricks are essentially being turned into batteries, as Bill Weir explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For the first time in human history, the two most affordable forms of energy do not come from burning fossil fuels.

WEIR: Wow.

WEIR (voice over): But from catching onshore wind, or clean, abundant sunlight.

ANDREW PONEC, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, ANTORA ENERGY: Most days in the middle of the day in California energy is free electricity on the wholesale market is worth $0, sometimes even negative dollars, because there's so much solar that's now been installed in California.

WEIR (voice over): The same thing is happening in the American Wind belt. So while Andrew Ponec was the kind of kid who built solar panels in the garage, he realized that renewables are great for topping off batteries and cars and homes. But the factories which make everything from steel to baby food, need a lot of energy all the time.

PONEC: The problem is you can't shut down your factory when the sun goes behind the cloud or the wind stops blowing.

WEIR (voice over): So with $80 million in investment from backers including Bill Gates, he started a company called Antora to store clean energy with --

PONEC: This is it.

WEIR (voice over): -- a box of rocks.

WEIR: I had a hard time explaining to my kids what nuclear fusion is. But this is just a hot rock in a box.

PONEC: Exactly.

WEIR (voice over): Heated up by either wind or the sun, right.

PONEC: People sometimes feel like they're insulting us by saying, hey, that sounds really simple. And we say no, that's exactly the point. You know, there's not much more here than a steel box with insulation inside of that, and some carbon blocks inside of that. That's it.

WEIR (voice over): Antora's batteries heat up blocks of carbon like this until they glow like little suns for a full day. PONEC: What's right in the box right now is about 1600 degrees Celsius. So this is hotter than the melting point of steel, and it's just a couple of feet inside that shell.

WEIR (voice over): By cracking open the box, Andrew says they can release enough heat to make a factory steam and enough light to generate electricity as it glows into a special kind of solar panel. And while the box is tricky to build, the rocks are cheap and abundant.

PONEC: There's plenty of production of this, even just 1 percent of the current production of carbon blocks would be enough to make terawatt hours of batteries which would be enough to power you know the United States.

WEIR (voice over): A competing company called Rondo uses even cheaper bricks in their thermal batteries to create megawatts of power for a single factory without the need for a grid upgrade. Which means places with a lot of sun and wind could become magnets for new industry. Both companies were present at COP28 in Dubai where big oil had a big presence. But Andrew came back convinced that clean simple ideas are the future.

[08:25:00]

PONEC: The transition is inevitable. It's going to happen. And actually, if you talk behind closed doors to most of the people in the fossil fuel industry, they'll say the same thing. They understand that. But I'm confident that we're going to be able to take that huge tool that we have in solar and wind and displace fossil fuels faster even than most people think.

WEIR: Really?

PONEC: Yeah.

WEIR: Why? Why? What gives you that faith?

PONEC: It's really because of the technologies that are coming down the pipe. If you'd asked me five or 10 years ago, I would have said, I'm not sure we have everything we need to decarbonize. But today, we have the tools we need, we just need to deploy them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: That was Bill Weir reporting that. Now, a British boy who's been missing for six years has been found in Southwest France. Alex Batty hasn't been seen since he was 11 years old, since French motorists spotted him walking on the side of the road. Batty reportedly told the motorists he had been walking for four days and really wanted to see his grandmother. The 17 year old also said he had been in Spain for three, in France for two after being, "kidnapped by his mother in 2017."

As if running a marathon wasn't challenging enough, try adding sub- zero temperatures and catabolic winds, for runners of the Antarctic ice marathon, this could be the hardest race yet. Now on Wednesday, 68 runners competed in the last frontier for adventure marathoners facing underfoot conditions of snow and ice strong winds and an altitude of 700 meters to Americans came out on top.

Stephanie Estridge has competed in all 50 U.S. states and now three continents. She took the gold in the women's division with a time of five hours, four minutes and 13 seconds. The marathon is held just a few 100 kilometers from the South Pole. The average wind chill temperature, minus 20 degrees Celsius. Thanks for joining us here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. World sport for some sport with Amanda Davies.

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