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CNN International: U.S Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Arrives In Israel; Israel Says Video Shows Massive Hamas Tunnel In N. Gaza; U.S. Defense Secy. To Meet With Israeli Officials Today. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 18, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNNI HOST: Hello, and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Tel Aviv as the U.S. toughens its tone towards Israel. The latest on his talks with top Israeli officials. A new week in negotiations in the U.S. over the southern border policy begins in Washington, and many fear there won't be a deal before the New Year. Plus, pro-democracy activist and former media tycoon, Jimmy, Lai goes on trial in Hong Kong. He could spend the rest of his life in prison. We'll tell you why.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Israel then for talks about the war in Gaza. He is expected to step up the pressure for Israel to rein in its relentless bombing campaign that's taking so many civilian lives. The U.S. is eager for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move to the next phase of the conflict. Washington says that means a more targeted approach against Hamas leadership. On the battlefield, Israel has unveiled a video that it says shows a massive Hamas tunnel discovered near Gaza's northern border. It says the four- kilometer tunnel is large enough to drive vehicles through.

Let's bring in Journalist Elliott Gotkine, because these meetings, the Defense Secretary having, very important. They very much play into Israeli strategy, but it could become quite contentious as well.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: There clearly is some difference of opinion over what happens after this war, and what's happening on the battlefield, and obviously the humanitarian situation as well. I suppose the biggest gulf between the U.S. and Israel is the Netanyahu government's assertion that there can't be a Palestinian state, and that they're not going to allow the Palestinian Authority to take control of the Gaza Strip unless it's completely reconstituted. So, that's the main kind of area of difference.

But, we've heard even President Biden talking about the need for Israel to take much more care when it comes to civilians in the Gaza Strip, talking about indiscriminate bombing, and the like. So, I think there were a number of things that Secretary Austin and his counterpart Yoav Gallant, who have been meeting in Israel's equivalent of the Pentagon, known as the carrier in Kirya in Tel Aviv, what they're going to be discussing, what they have discussed, because that meeting is now over. So, obviously, the military strategy, how Israel is prosecuting its war, getting some metrics and milestones of Israel's achievements to date, and where it goes from here to perhaps in the next phase, maybe a lower intensity phase of the war.

There is the humanitarian issue, and we saw the crossing from Kerem Shalom into the Gaza Strip opening for aid to go directly from Israel into the enclave on Sunday. That will be seen as a step in the right direction, but still falling way short of what is required inside of the Gaza Strip. And of course, it's also the regional issues which has been thrown into focus even more so.

Just in the last few minutes, we've heard from BP, the British oil giant, suspending shipping through the Red Sea. We've heard from a shipping company called Evergreen. There was a call, a distress call, from a ship called the Swan Atlantic, which a U.S. warship went to assist because they are coming under attack from Yemeni-based Houthi rebels, which of course are backed by Iran, and that is causing some major concerns about how to protect one of the most important shipping routes in the world.

FOSTER: OK. Elliott, thank you. We will have updates from Austin's visit throughout the day.

An American warship has responded to a distress call from a commercial ship in the Red Sea. A U.S. Military official says the destroyer Carney received the call after a merchant vessel was attacked by multiple projectiles Monday. It's not clear where they were launched from, but it follows a string of attacks in recent days by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. As Elliott mentioned, companies that sail in these waters are increasingly taking precautions. The British oil giant BP is the latest to say it's suspending shipping through the Red Sea.

CNN's National Security Reporter Elliott has the latest from the Pentagon. This is having a direct impact, isn't it, on countries much further afield from this region.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Exactly right. I mean, often, the personnel on these commercial vessels who are operating in the Red Sea, they come from dozens of different countries. And so, while the Houthi rebels have been saying that they are trying to retaliate against Israel's occupation and war of Gaza and its war against Hamas, the reality is that many of these ships, if not all of them, really have no ties to Israel at all.

But, the U.S. says that that is really irrelevant to the grand scheme of things. What they believe the Houthis are trying to do is take advantage of the moment, especially with Iran's help to try to interrupt international commerce, and take the opportunity to strike vessels, and of course see the U.S. respond, because the U.S. has several destroyers in the Red Sea that have been forced to respond in recent weeks to these volleys of missile and drone and rocket attacks from these Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. And as you said, BP is now the fourth largest -- the fourth large company, a major company, to say that it is pausing its operations in the Red Sea, clearly going to be a huge impediment here to international commerce and shipping and oil production. And look, I mean, the U.S. says that it is trying to come up with a

way to bolster a multinational task force to try to escort these vessels through the Red Sea, try to bolster the protection that they have against these missiles and drone attacks.

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But, it remains to be seen just how many countries are going to be contributing to that multinational task force, what -- whether countries are willing to put their own kind of assets at risk, because these missiles are really targeting and launching attacks pretty regularly against these vessels in the area. So, that is going to be one of the main topics of Secretary Austin's discussions this week, especially when he is in Bahrain, which is the headquarters of U.S. and Naval Forces Central Command. So, right now, these companies, they're weighing their options. They're saying they're going to conduct a review about the safety of continuing these operations in the area. But, it really is going to come down to whether Iran and the Houthi rebels feel deterred by this task force. That is going to be the big question moving forward, Max.

FOSTER: Yeah. Absolutely. Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon, thank you so much.

And in Texas, nearly 4,300 migrants were apprehended on Sunday, prompting border authorities to redirect personnel to deal with the ongoing surge. Later today, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign a new immigration bill that would make it a new state crime to enter Texas illegally from Mexico. As these moves play out on the border, U.S. senators are struggling to reach a deal on immigration reform in Washington, D.C., and the immigration impasse means aid for Israel and Ukraine remains stalled on Capitol Hill as well. It's all linked up.

Lauren Fox is trying to make sense of it all. If this isn't agreed by the end of the year, then we're going into next year in a situation where Ukraine won't be getting the money it needs.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. That's exactly right, Max. And right now, what is clear is that negotiators are making progress. They met repeatedly over the weekend. They'll meet again today. And they continue to try and find a path forward. But also, they are coming up against the realities of what is a complex political issue, which is dealing with immigration, and border policy changes with Republicans and Democrats who have long been entrenched in these issues.

One of the things that became very clear over the weekend is that they did not have a framework to announce. They didn't have an agreement in principle. And what that means is that putting something into legislative text, getting it voted on out of the Senate, and getting it passed before the New Year is really unlikely at this point, especially given the fact that the House of Representatives has already left home, or already left Washington for home for the season.

But, it's also true that this could continue to be a major issue that lawmakers discuss when they return in January. The issue with that, of course, is that they are going to be coming back to a very real spending deadline come January 19. So, that means that if they don't find a path forward now, when they come back in January, they're going to be dealing with this issue of Ukraine funding and immigration policy at the same time when they're trying to ensure that the United States's government continues to be funded. So, a very messy January if lawmakers can't find a way forward in the next couple of days.

FOSTER: Keeping you busy. Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

U.S. President Joe Biden was startled but unharmed when a driver crashed into an SUV that was part of his motorcade. You'll hear the crash in the video. It shows the President is on the sidewalk, as he also hears the impact.

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Well, the President was in Delaware to visit his campaign headquarters, and the SUV that was hit was not the one he rides in. It's not known whether the driver was detained. CNN has reached out to the Secret Service for comment.

Northern Australia coping with its heaviest rain in decades, brought on by the remnants of tropical cyclone. The popular tourist destination of Cairns has been almost completely cut off by the rising waters, forcing some residents to escape to rooftops. Not far away in the flood drenched town of Ingham, dramatic footage shows Australian Rangers using a harpoon to pull a crocodile from the Russian waters.

North Korea has launched a long-range ballistic missile. The South Korean Military says it was fired on Monday from the Pyongyang area and flew about 1,000 kilometers. Japanese authorities say the missile fell into waters west of the Hokkaido region. Just a day earlier, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile that flew about 570 kilometers before falling into the water. Pyongyang says the launch was partly in response to a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arriving in the South Korean region.

Now, the official results are yet to come in. But, Serbia's President is claiming a party victory in the snap parliamentary election. President Aleksandar Vucic declared victory for the Serbian Progressive Party in Sunday's election. Polls looked like they were in favor of the President's party, though he wasn't on the ballot himself.

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It will allow the party to expand their reach in Parliament after failing to take a majority back in 2022. The vote comes after a difficult year in Serbia with back-to-back mass shootings, spawning anti-government protests. Parliament must meet within two weeks of official results being announced, with just 60 days to form a new government.

Still to come, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing a fresh storm of criticism at home and abroad Can he turn it around?

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FOSTER: Well, a powerful storm is barreling up the northeastern coast of the U.S. right now, threatening flash flooding, power outages and travel disruptions. Nearly 60 million from North Carolina to Maine could be impacted by heavy rain and strong winds. New England is expected to be hit the very hardest, though. It's the same storm system that dumped torrential rain in the south over the weekend. CNN's Polo Sandoval joins me now live from Rockaway Beach in New York. Polo.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN COMMENTATOR: Hey Max. It was an absolutely horrendous night weather wise for millions of people in the Northeast. This massive storm that originally started in the southern United States made its way towards the north, and overnight, experienced a combination of heavy rains and also heavy winds. Now, finally, after a very busy night, a break in the clouds off in the distance, the coast, Max, just beyond what we're reporting from right now, that is a promising sign that things are getting back to normal, as those heavy winds caused some power outages, at last check, nearly a quarter million customers in and around the New England area still in the dark.

So, even though there is that break in the clouds, those effects are still being effect -- still being felt, I should say. But, nonetheless, there seems to be that the storm is moving very quickly through the area, things improving very quickly from one hour to the next. So, there is hope that that normalcy will be restored throughout the Northeast very quickly. But, again, millions of Americans, flights also affected to a certain extent, not just from Florida, but all the way up to the state of Maine. Back to you.

FOSTER: All right. We wish them well. Polo, thank you for joining us from there.

We're going to return now, though, to our top story, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Israel, meeting with key players as the warheads Hamas continues. It's Austin's second visit since October 7. And this time, he is bringing a much tougher message from the U.S. that Israel and its leader need to shift their battlefield strategy and prioritize more precise and targeted attacks. But, Mr. Netanyahu isn't only facing fresh criticism from abroad. Over the weekend, large crowds gathered in Tel Aviv to demand Netanyahu do more to secure the release of the more than 100 hostages still believed to be held by Hamas. The recent outcry coming after three hostages were mistakenly shot and killed by IDF forces in Gaza on Friday.

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CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv. I mean, the pressure really is growing from inside and outside the country right now on Netanyahu. Isn't it, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. No question about it. I think the pressure coming from domestically and the pressure coming from abroad are two different types of pressure and focus on different things. Certainly, from the United States' standpoint, it is urging the Israeli government to transition to a new phase of fighting, a phase that would see less intensive bombing of the Gaza Strip, more targeted special operations raids that rather than this kind of all-out ground offensive that we are seeing in both northern and southern Gaza. And of course, the United States wants to see that transition happen a lot sooner than Israeli officials do themselves.

But, nonetheless, Israeli officials are listening to the United States. They are having these meetings. Secretary Austin is here today with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just days after the National Security Advisor was here. And the question is, how quickly will that pressure come to bear, and will it actually accelerate a timeline for transition from Israeli officials?

Now, the pressure that Netanyahu is facing domestically is far more focused on the issue of the hostages. We watched as those two kind of collided on Friday as Israeli military operations resulted in the killing by an Israeli soldier of three Israeli hostages who were being held in the Gaza Strip. And over the weekend, we saw spontaneous demonstrations of hundreds of people who came out in Tel Aviv, demanding that the Israeli government reach a deal as soon as possible for the release of the other hostages.

Now, the extent to which those two issues kind of come together in terms of the military campaign and a hostage deal, it kind of remains uncertain at this point. Support in Israel for the war effort is still very, very high, despite this pressure on the hostage release. But, there is no question that Netanyahu is getting a lot of different pressure that he is having to deal with. And he is also very unpopular in Israel at the moment, and a lot of Israelis are wondering, after this war, whether or not he will still remain Prime Minister.

FOSTER: Yeah. He is committed to the war. Isn't he? And then he remains in position as that war continues. One thing he can do is negotiate hostage releases, but Hamas is now saying that they don't want to get involved in that, and clearly, they lose their position if they do release all the hostages.

DIAMOND: Yeah, and that's the tricky part of this. We know that the U.S. has been kind of spitballing ideas with the Israelis and with the Qataris to see what kind of deal would be acceptable to Israel first, and then to try and bring those ideas to Hamas, via the Qatari government, to see if there is something that can be worked out here. I mean, it does appear like there is some movement beginning once again. The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, he was in Qatar over the weekend, meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister to discuss a potential resumption of the talks.

I mean, from the Israeli vantage, it's clear that they need to see all women, who still remain in custody in Hamas, released as part of any kind of deal to move forward. They're not going to move towards men and Israeli soldiers until they get all the women out. Now, there is the possibility of the remaining women being wrapped up in kind of a broader deal. But, again, there are questions about the extent to which the military pressure is working on Hamas, if indeed, that will drive them back to the table, or if instead, it's perhaps making them kind of retreat and be more recalcitrant to the idea of negotiations and of forming a deal going forward.

FOSTER: What about the two-state solution? Because Netanyahu being very clear, he doesn't believe in one. He is not going to encourage one. But, every single one of his allies seems to be making that non- negotiable going forward.

DIAMOND: I mean, in some ways, it almost seemed like the Israeli Prime Minister was kind of sticking his thumb in the eye of the U.S. President, as he said over the weekend, he basically took credit for preventing the existence and the creation of a Palestinian state under his watch. He is very much trying to shore up his far right support in Israel and the support of his kind of right wing government as a way to try and stay in power. But, that goes directly against what we've been hearing from President Biden increasingly vocally over the last couple of weeks, which is the idea that something needs to emerge out of this. And ideally, a two-state solution is what the United States would like to see.

And also, just in terms of kind of basic governance of the Gaza Strip, the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was in Ramallah on Friday to meet with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to talk about a role for the Palestinian Authority in the future governance of Gaza once and if the Israel achieves its aim of removing Hamas from power in Gaza. That is very much not something that the Israeli Prime Minister wants to see. He has kind of rejected the idea of the Palestinian Authority being involved in the governance of the Gaza Strip, although he hasn't really presented an alternative. But, that's certainly another topic that remains on the agenda for these U.S.-Israeli talks, and one where there is a significant divide that still needs to be bridged.

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FOSTER: Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, appreciate your time. Thank you.

Still to come, Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai appears in court, accused of violating the city's national security law. More on the landmark trial, just ahead.

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FOSTER: A trial is underway in Hong Kong to decide the fate of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a supporter of the city's pro-democracy movement and founder of the now shuttered Apple Daily newspaper. Lai is being tried under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law. He is facing multiple charges of colluding with foreign forces and a separate charge of sedition. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has the very latest.

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Considered by many as a father figure to Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, Jimmy Lai always knew his actions might attract the ire of authorities, but he didn't let it faze him. JIMMY LAI, FORMER CHAIRMAN & FOUNDER, NEXT DIGITAL: I think it's a

good idea, anytime, any situation that you are in to fight for your freedom, because without freedom, you have nothing left.

STOUT (voice-over): In a recent media briefing, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not holding back in their criticism of Lai, calling him "one of the most notorious anti-China elements bent on destabilizing Hong Kong". After numerous delays, the former media mogul returning to court to finally face trial under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law. Since that legislation was imposed by Beijing in response to massive social unrest and anti-government protests, authorities have cracked down on dissent. Today, most of Hong Kong's political opposition are either in prison, like Lai, or have fled the territory.

As the founder of the Apple Daily, once Hong Kong's largest pro- democracy newspaper which regularly challenged the government, Lai is the most high-profile critic of Beijing charged under the national security law. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on multiple counts of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security, as well as a single charge of sedition under a law that dates back to Hong Kong's colonial past. 76-year-old Lai has been in custody for the last three years, and his son is concerned that incarceration is taking its toll.

SEBASTIEN LAI, JIMMY LAI'S SON: I think psychologically he is very strong, but there is -- there always is that element that nobody escapes the gravity of age, and at his age, he is at a tremendous amount of risk being in maximum security.

STOUT (voice-over): For its part, the Hong Kong government says that all cases concerning offenses that endanger national security, including Lai's, are handled in a fair and timely manner.

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In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson said "Without commenting on individual cases, the Hong Kong SAR law enforcement agencies have been taking law enforcement action based on evidence and strictly in accordance with the law in respect of the acts of the persons or entities concerned." Lai was a fixture at the student-led pro- democracy and anti-government demonstrations that brought central Hong Kong to a standstill in 2014. When millions of people took to the streets in 2019, Lai was there once again.

Just months later, Lai was marched out of his own newsroom when more than 200 police officers raided the Apple Daily's headquarters. A year on, Lai's printing presses fell silent as the paper shuttered a blow to media freedom in Hong Kong. Lai's legal challenges have mounted ever since his lengthy rap sheet worn as a badge of honor after a lifetime of demanding democratic reform.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art says it'll return more than a dozen ancient artworks to Cambodia and Thailand. One of the artifacts is a 10th century sandstone statue of a goddess from Cambodia. Another is a statue of a Buddha's head from the seventh century that will be returned to Thailand. The works were linked to a British art dealer accused of trafficking artifacts looted from South Asia.

Before we go, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is celebrating his 80th birthday today, just months after Mick Jagger did just the same thing. The two knew each other as teens, and the rest of course is history, and Rich has created the iconic riff on their hit song "Satisfaction" released nearly 60 years ago now. The band is gearing up for their Hackney Diamonds tour next year, which is sponsored by AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I am Max Foster in London. World Sport with Amanda is next.

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