Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.N. Security Council Votes on a Resolution for the Truce in Gaza; 14 Dead, 25 Injured in Czech Republic's Deadliest Mass Shooting in Years; Eurostar services Halted due to a Strike. Christmas Celebrations in Bethlehem Cancels for the First Time since the October 7th Israel-Hamas War; Giuliani Files for Bankruptcy Protection in Federal Court; Online Comedy Sensation Names 2024 Golden Globes Host. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 22, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
After days of delays, the UN Security Council is set to finally vote on a resolution calling for a pause in the fighting in Gaza. Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Bethlehem is actually sad. No people, no locals actually even, no tourists and no decorations, no any kind of festivals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Christmas is canceled in Bethlehem as the war rages on. I'll speak to a Reverend in Bethlehem ahead of the holiday weekend.
And the Czech Republic is in mourning after a gunman goes on a rampage at a university. We're live in Prague with the latest on the deadly mass shooting.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: It's 3 a.m. here in Atlanta, 10 a.m. in Gaza, where there's growing pressure for fighting to stop. The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote today on a resolution calling for suspension of fighting and an increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. spoke with reporters after a closed-door session Thursday night, denying the measure was watered down. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: I won't share how I will vote, but it will be a resolution if the resolution is put forward as is that we can support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now it comes as more than 20,000 people in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli military since October 7th, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel says its military has destroyed a strategic network of Hamas tunnels under Gaza City and killed over 2,000 terrorists since the last pause in fighting ended on October 1st.
Meanwhile, a new report from the World Food Program and other U.N. agencies says more than one in four households currently face extreme hunger and Gaza is headed for a famine if the conflict continues. Now Hamas isn't giving up its fight against Israel, launching a fresh round of rocket attacks at Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, in Gaza, doctors describe unbearable conditions as nearly constant Israeli bombardment continues.
CNN's Will Ripley has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another day in Israel, another round of rocket fire. Hamas targeting Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets from Gaza. Israeli media reporting some 30 rocket interceptions by the Iron Dome. No injuries or major damage.
The Israeli military warning Gaza residents it will retaliate with more airstrikes, aimed at areas already reeling from more than two months of brutal bombardment.
U.S. intelligence agencies warn Hamas' credibility and influence has grown dramatically in the more than two months since the October 7th terror attacks, as global outrage grows over Israel's military response.
Nearly constant Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, plunging hospital hallways into total darkness, putting countless patients in peril, the World Health Organization warns --
UNKNOWN: What we found here is a hospital that's really almost completely stopped functioning.
RIPLEY (voice-over): The WHO says northern Gaza has no functioning hospitals left, only nine of 36 hospitals operating in all of Gaza, all of them in the south, doctors describing unbearable conditions.
On the ground in Gaza, fierce firefights, Israeli forces going door- to-door, building-to-building, snipers opening fire with deadly results. The Israeli military says it killed hundreds of Hamas militants.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning more bloodshed is coming.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The choice I am offering Hamas is simple, surrender or die. They do not have and will not have any other option.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Those grim words after Hamas rejected Israel's offer for a one-week pause in fighting in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages prioritizing women, the elderly, and patients desperately in need of medical care.
A Hamas statement saying they won't agree to any talks about prisoner swaps until after Israel ends its military operation in Gaza. An operation that only seems to be intensifying the Israeli military taking the fight underground, uncovering what it calls hidden Hamas tunnels, underground bunkers beneath the battle scarred streets.
[03:04:56]
RIPLEY: And that massive explosion you just saw there is what Israel calls the demolition of a massive underground tunnel complex underneath Palestine Park in Gaza City. They say it housed apartments and living quarters along with offices for senior Hamas leadership. Israel claims that since the ceasefire, they have killed at least 2,000 Hamas militants. The overall death toll in Gaza, as reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, around 20,000 people.
Will Ripley, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Despite the rising death toll in Gaza, according to one group's research, an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support Hamas. In a new poll of 1,200 people in Gaza and the West Bank by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 72 percent said Hamas' decision to attack Israel was correct. 22 percent says it was incorrect. The head of the research company, though, says it shouldn't be seen as support for any atrocities that Hamas might have committed that day. The Gaza surveying was done during the recent truce.
Now the war between Israel and Hamas has sparked an increase in violent confrontations in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7th. I spoke earlier with "Haaretz" West Bank correspondent Hagar Shezaf and I asked her how the war in Gaza is impacting the situation. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAGAR SHEZAF, WEST BANK CORRESPONDENT, "HAARETZ": According to data collected by the IDF, the number of settler attacks during October has doubled, if you compare it to the previous month, to September. So this is new data that we have from yesterday, which goes to show how bad the situation has become and how the war affected it.
We are seeing not only more attacks, but more intense attacks of armed people. Sometimes they would be settlers -- sometimes they would be settlers that were recruited to the IDF, because there are quite a lot of reserve soldiers that are settlers. And we have seen them participating in attacks and in threats on Palestinian communities, which have resulted in some instances in communities basically running away, self-evacuating and moving the whole community to a different place. So, yeah.
BRUNHUBER: And let me jump in as well, just about the number of mass arrests as well. It's a huge number. Explain, sort of, who's being arrested and why.
SHEZAF: Right, so there has been obviously, you know, a crackdown on people that Israel says are involved with Hamas in the West Bank, but obviously not all arrests are of people involved with Hamas.
The truth is that we have in many cases no way to verify who, I mean, what are the allegations against these people because a very high number of the detained Palestinians are being placed in administrative detention and administrative detention is a process under which no indictment is being submitted against the person detained. And there is no real list of allegations against them. So it's very difficult for us to say who these people are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: More journalists have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war than in any other conflict in the past three decades. That's according to Media Watchdog, the committee to protect journalists. On Thursday, Palestinian journalists held a rally at Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah in the West Bank to show support for a cameraman who was killed by an Israeli strike in southern Gaza.
The Al Jazeera Network has accused Israel of targeting and killing its journalists and their families. The Israel Defense Forces has denied that accusation, but Al Jazeera is vowing to get justice for the slain journalist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALID AL-OMARI, HEAD OF AL JAZEERA'S BUREAU IN RAMALLAH (through translator): We stand here to pledge that we will not tire until we achieve justice for them. Justice for them means bringing the guilty criminal to trial and not escaping punishment. Justice for them means providing protection for the rest of our male and female colleagues, whether they are male or female journalists in the Al Jazeera Network or Palestinian journalists in general.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And stay with CNN NEWSROOM. We'll go live to Bethlehem in the West Bank later this hour where the city is preparing for a much quieter Christmas than usual.
Well the Czech Republic is reeling from its deadliest mass shooting in decades. It happened at a university in Prague where students ran for their lives as a gunman went on a rampage on Thursday. Police say he shot and killed at least 14 people and left 25 others wounded.
Some students put barricades in front of the classroom doors while the shooting spree was going on. Others tried to hide on the ledge of the building high above the ground. Police believe the gunman later took his own life, but that's yet to be confirmed, and his motive is still under investigation.
[03:10:00]
Now the incident shocked the Czech Republic. Where gun attacks are rare, the country will observe a day of mourning on Saturday, and some students are still struggling to come to terms with what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNA MARIE NEWKIROVA, STUDENT, CHARLES UNIVERSITY: I really can't even come to understand what's happened here today.
KRISTYNA BORECKA, PRAGUE RESIDENT (through translator): It looks like it's something totally unprecedented in the Czech Republic, and I think everybody is completely shaken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
And for more, we're joined from Prague by Jakub Riha, a reporter for CNN Prima. Thank you so much for being here with us. So can you fill us in on the latest? What more are we learning about this crime and a possible motive behind it?
JAKUB RIHA, REPORTER, CNN PRIMA: The current update says that at least 11 people have been identified, but not all the victims have been identified yet. We can confirm that the 14 are dead, about 25 injured. Police also said that they are taking preemptive measures, but that means that they would enforce more police officers at certain potential targets, such as schools, but police also said that they have no indication that there should be any imminent threat to any of these targets.
I was able to speak to some people yesterday, they were really shocked. We could hear them describing that they had to take shelter in the cafes and pubs nearby, so it wasn't just students in the school that were affected by that. As far as the motives goes, that was your question. We don't know yet. We can say with clarity, at least according to the words of the --
(TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES)
BRUNHUBER: Alright, I think we lost our reporter there, hopefully we can get him back, but I'd like to thank Jakub Riha for his contribution there while trying to get him back. Oh, do we have him back?
Jakub, can you hear me?
RIHA: Yeah.
BRUNHUBER: Okay, your line cuts.
RIHA: We can confirm. I can hear you. I can hear you loud and clear. We can confirm --
BRUNHUBER: Go ahead. RIHA: We can confirm that the incident is not related to any
international terrorism. That is what the Minister of Interior, Vitya Rakhushyan, said. Police said that the shooting was at random, so he wasn't targeting any specific student. Then, the rest of the story is still under investigation. Police said that it is probably related to the shooting in the village earlier, in the village closed by Prague where the student was supposed to kill his father.
And one of the most probable theory that is also still under investigation is that the shooting might be related to the incident one week ago where father and his two month old baby was killed. But police couldn't confirm that with a certainty, but that's one of the main lines where the investigation goes.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. And now you spoke of talking to people in the immediate aftermath of this, having to shelter and so on now that you know hours of past and the sort of all of this is kind of sinking in, what's the reaction been there in the wake of this horrible tragedy?
RIHA: It's really, as you said, it is unprecedented. Czech Republic has never experienced anything like this. So when I spoke to some people, their first reaction when they read online what is happening, they thought that it's a mistake in the headline. They thought it's happening in the U.S. because nothing like that has ever happened in the Czech Republic. And everybody knows that it will change the Czech Republic.
The students that will go to school will never feel the same because it is really sad first time for Czechia. I spoke to people that have relatives there. They seem to be okay, but they are really, really shocked. And you can feel the pain. It is really big news for Czech Republic. Big, sad news.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, exactly that. We'll have to leave it there, but appreciate getting your on-the-ground reporting there. Jakub Riha, thank you so much.
And on the past hour I spoke with the like Alexei Anisin from the Anglo-American University in Prague, whose research includes Mass Shootings and he'd warned that Mass Shootings in the U.S. will likely inspire copycat attacks elsewhere and he told me the gunman in Thursday's rampage probably learned from other shootings. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXEI ANISIN, ANGLO-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Many young people learn how to live their lives with aid or through the internet and the phenomenon of, you know, cross-border diffusion of an idea to carry out a mass killing has been referred to as a copycat shooting. And from yesterday's attack, we can see clear behavior in which the offender, you know, he probably studied other previous cases that resulted in high fatality rates. You know, he planned the attack. He was highly militarized.
[03:15:06] And it would be -- it would be strange if it was just, you know, a random act that he thought of the morning of. It seemed like he planned it. And there are a number of other cases, especially in recent years in the Russian Federation, where you've had direct sympathizers to U.S. mass shooters, so people carrying out mass shootings in the name of, you know the Columbine killers and similar previous high profile cases in the U.S. So yeah, there seems to be a process of diffusion going on.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, even down to the way they dress and so on, right?
ANISIN: Yep.
BRUNHUBER: So you touched on, you know, the fact that this was a young male. I mean, let's go into that a bit more detail. Who are the shooters typically? What kind of gender and age profile are we looking at here?
ANISIN: Yeah, so this is the actual interesting thing here. So I've had several comparative analyses of, you know, Central and Eastern European mass shooters and American mass shooters so the age is just typically from age 33 to 34 on average and in the U.S. context, it's about 95 percent male in the Central-Eastern European regions. My data indicates that it's all males.
So that's far I have not identified any female shooters and as I said earlier, you know, in recent years it seems really that the young -- the younger demographic seems to be, you know, that the main culprit of who's carrying out these attacks.
BRUNHUBER: So when we're talking about the rise of the number of mass shootings in Europe, the cultural export list phenomenon from the U.S. that's one thing the availability of guns is another thing. I mean, we've seen 20 times more mass shootings in the U.S. compared to Europe which has a much bigger population so gun regulations obviously work and they're quite strict generally in Europe so are guns becoming easier to get in Europe now?
ANISIN: Well, on average, it's more difficult to acquire a gun legally in a European Union country than it is to acquire a driver's license and a car. The estimations on firearm ownership like per capita, so per 100 residents, like the Czech Republic is 12.53 firearms per 100 people. The U.S. is over 120. So yeah, there's a massive difference. And it's much more difficult, obviously, to acquire a gun.
But as you mentioned, you know, there's this cultural aspect and it seems like that's really what is tied to these recent attacks. And I think if you look at, you know, criminological research, there are few studies that would say, you know, total numbers of guns are correlated with causing a mass shooting.
But nevertheless, the total number of guns in society are correlated with, you know, outbursts of violent crime. The difficulty with mass shootings is that there are on average right. It's such a rare form of homicide in comparison to others so to put things into perspective at least according to my data yesterday's attack here was only the fourth mass shooting in the country's history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: All right, still the come. Volcanic activity nice and appears to be slowing, but officials continue to warn the area remains dangerous, we'll have the latest from the eruption zone.
Plus, thousands of travelers were left blindsided and stranded days before Christmas after an unexpected strike shut down Eurostar.
And the White House is condemning the Texas governor for flying migrants to Chicago as President Biden faces mounting pressure to address challenges at the border. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Eruptions from Iceland's volcano appear to be slowing, but authorities warn the area is still dangerous. Iceland's Coast Guard flew scientists over the eruption zone Thursday. They say no volcanic activity was visible, but it's too soon to declare this eruption is over.
Now the decrease in activity allowed residents of Grindavik to briefly check on their homes. The 4,000 residents have been allowed back occasionally since being evacuated in early November. Now the town's mayor says residents won't be able to return to their homes before Christmas and residents are worried about the future of their community. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTHJON EMIL GARTHARSSON, GRINDAVIK RESIDENT: How this is, I don't think, not soon, but maybe in the future, hopefully. But we'll just have to see, because the crack goes through the town. So we'll just have to see if it's going to survive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: -- Pleitgen rode with the Coast Guard as they monitored the eruption from the sky. Have a look.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iceland's Coast Guard flying into the eruption zone in the Arctic night.
PLEITGEN: These flights are extremely important for the Icelandic Coast Guard. On the one hand they have to survey the area, but they also have to practice in case they need to do mass evacuations at night.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Iceland was prepared for the massive eruption that started early this week. A more than two-mile long fissure spewing magma hundreds of feet into the air. But while residents have been evacuated, authorities are still working in the area.
JENS POR SIGUROARSON, COMMANDER, ICELANDIC COAST GUARD: So this is highly important for us to do this during the night. And yeah, there's a lot of hazards involved.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The crew even spots a person walking close to the lava and say they notified police to check it out. The eruption has weakened considerably, but magma is still bubbling below us. The crew strapped me in for a closer look.
PLEITGEN: This is an amazing thing to be witnessing from up here. You can see just how active the volcanic zone still there. You can see the lava. You can smell the magma. You can feel the power that our planet is (inaudible).
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The chopper drops us off right by the lava field to train evacuations.
PLEITGEN: This is extremely challenging flying for these aviators. Right now they're practicing hoist operations in case they have to medically evacuate a casualty from this area in the dark.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): As furious as the eruption was initially, it also seems to be subsiding fast, seismologist Kristin Jonsdottir tells me.
KRISTIN JONSDOTTIR, ICELANDIC METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE: It was very active in the beginning. 4 km long fissure that opened and very high rates of magma flow. So it's a bit of a surprise that it has all culminated.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Those evacuated cannot return home yet as the magma tunnel here remains active and authorities say further eruptions are still possible.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Grindavik, Iceland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Well, schedules are back to normal now, but thousands of holiday travelers were living their own nightmare before Christmas on Thursday after an unexpected strike by French rail workers paralyzed Eurostar, the high-speed train service linking London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. The strike first shut down Eurotunnel, the undersea rail link between the U.K. and France, before spreading to all Eurostar services. Stranded passengers arrived at the Paris rail hub, blindsided by the news, scrambling to find their way home. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHALIE FRANKS, BRITISH TRAVELLING IN FRANCE: We were about to return back to England today and we just got a text to say that the train had been canceled so we've come to the station to try and sort it out. And other than that, we're just trying to see what we can do now and how to get home. TUSHAR RUGHANI, TOURIST: We were travelling for just tourism, just
come to see Paris. And we were supposed to be going back to London in Eurostar and without no notice, no nothing, they just told us when we came here two hours ago, it's on strike and no trains today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:25:01]
BRUNHUBER: The strike came after French unions rejected the year-end bonus of 1,000 euros and demanded it be tripled. Eurostar later announced an agreement had been reached between management and the trade union reps. It plans to run a normal schedule today.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is escalating his policy of transporting migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to sanctuary cities across the country. He's now chartering flights to send migrants to Chicago.
On Tuesday, some 120 asylum seekers were flown from El Paso, Texas to Chicago, according to a statement from Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. A source told CNN that migrants signed a voluntary consent waiver upon boarding the flight, but CNN couldn't confirm that detail. The White House and state officials slammed Abbott's move calling it a quote "political stunt."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JESUS "CHUY" GARCIA (D-IL): We find ourselves in this condition because people like the governor of Texas, Governor Abbott, are engaged in human trafficking, spending billions of dollars to cause hurt and to cause political divisions so that they can profit from the political advantage that they seek.
BRANDON JOHNSON, CHICAGO MAYOR: The buses coming from Texas have not centered people's humanity. And it's actually been quite raggedy. It's disheartening that the governor of Texas is literally invoking chaos without having a real clear willingness to coordinate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador about how to slow the unprecedented migrant surge. And Priscilla Alvarez reports from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: The White House is slamming Texas Governor Greg Abbott for what it calls his extreme policies on immigration, saying that the governor, quote, "demonizes and dehumanizes people." Now, this after the Texas governor flew migrants to Chicago in his latest affront against the Biden administration's border policies.
But it's other incidents along the Texas-Mexico border that are also raising alarm. In a video obtained by CNN, a woman is shown holding a crying baby in her arms in the Rio Grande as two members of the Texas National Guard watch. Those members do not intervene.
The video, which was filmed on December 12th and lasted for about seven minutes, was filmed by an immigration activist. Now the Texas Military Department denies that they did not help the migrant, saying in a statement, quote, "Texas National Guard soldiers approached by boat and determined that there were no signs of medical distress, injury, or incapacitation and they had the ability to return the short distance back to the Mexican shore. The soldiers remained on site to monitor the situation."
Now the woman in this situation did make it back to the Mexican side with her child, but its incidents like this that underscore what has become an untenable situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Thursday, president Biden and Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador spoke by phone about the unfolding situation on the U.S. southern border where the two agreed on additional enforcement actions and how urgently they're needed to reopen some of the key ports of entry that have been closed so personnel can help with the processing of this unprecedented surge of migrants.
The president also asking senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to go to Mexico in the coming days to continue discussions.
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN at the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Well, the Christmas season is usually a time of great joy in Bethlehem, but in the midst of a brutal month-long war, the birthplace of Jesus finds itself with little to celebrate. We'll talk to one of the town's church leaders next.
And American Paul Whelan tells CNN he's been targeted inside a Russian prison when we come back. Why, he says, he's afraid for his safety. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story this hour, the United Nations Security Council is expected to vote today on the latest resolution calling for a suspension of fighting between Israel and Hamas. It's been delayed four times already, but the U.S. ambassador now says she's ready to support it.
In addition to a pause in fighting, it also calls for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza. Now it comes as more than 20,000 people in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli military since October 7th. The Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry reports now CNN can't independently verify that number. So as the war rages on, the Christmas season is taking on a decidedly
more somber tone throughout the region. Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, is typically flooded with tourists at this time of year as it hosts a variety of Christmas celebrations. But right now, the West Bank town is largely empty. Even the usually busy church of the Nativity is devoid of tourists. And their absence is being acutely felt by shopkeepers who have seen a virtual halt to business since the war began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABOOD SUBOH, BETHLEHEM SHOPKEEPER: By normal year without any problem and there is a lot of visitors in the city, it's really good season and good business. We earn a lot of money from that because you know you will find a thousand people from all over the world. You want to buy a gift for them, family from the Holy Land. But you know comparing to now, zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Joining me now is Reverend Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church of Bethlehem. Thank you so much for being here with us. So as I was just saying there normally it's a festive atmosphere there no longer for obvious reasons. Talk to me about the mood there in Bethlehem with Christmas, you know, virtually canceled.
REV. MUNTHER ISAAC, PASTOR, EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHRISTMAS CHURCH OF BETHLEHEM: Yeah, thank you for having me. We're sad, we're broken. Bethlehem is supposed to be the capital of Christmas. We're supposed to have hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in the month of December.
But if you visit Bethlehem now, not only are the streets empty, but no decorations, no Christmas tree. We don't have the annual Christmas market that people visit from all over Palestine and the world. The mood is down, and honestly, everyone is concerned and anxious about what is happening in Gaza. This is a story.
The cancellation of Christmas celebrations is tragic, but it is pointing to a deeper story to a more harsher reality that is in Gaza, and this is where we think right now.
BRUNHUBER: And I mean, it's hit so many people hard, yourself as well as a Palestinian Christian. In your church, there's an image that's generated quite a bit of attention. Christ in a kufiya, in a manger under the rubble. Explain this for us.
ISAAC: Yeah, and that's part in our church, we usually have our traditional Christmas tree. This year, we wanted to explain Christmas first to the faithful, but also to send a message to the world by creating this manger. To me, the connection was very natural. Jesus as a baby, born in a time of occupation of the Roman Empire, who himself survived a massacre when he was born, became a refugee out of all places in Egypt. This is a very familiar story to us Palestinians.
[03:35:00] The meaning of Christmas to us is what we created in this manger, that God is in solidarity with us in our pain and suffering. We wanted to say that if Jesus is to be born today in our world, he will be born in Gaza with those children who are pulled from under the rubble every day. These images break us. These images are devastating for any human being.
And what if we're Palestinians and we're very, very broken by them, and we say we see the image of Jesus, the baby of Bethlehem, in every one of those children. It is also a message to the world that this is what Christmas looks like in the birthplace of Jesus, precisely that children pulled from under the rubble, destroyed homes, and displaced families.
BRUNHUBER: So last month you were part of a delegation of Christian leaders from Bethlehem who came to Washington, D.C. to meet with congressional leaders. You also held a sermon at a church at Capitol Hill. I want to play one clip from that sermon. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISAAC: We're in D.C. and we had meetings at the Hill and at the White House. And it feels like speaking to a judge who neither feels God nor has respect for people. For how can such atrocities be justified? How is the killing of more than 6,000 children in less than two months accepted?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now you felt then that your calls to support a ceasefire were falling on deaf ears. Has anything changed? Are you more optimistic now that the U.N., the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. says that she will support a resolution for a ceasefire?
ISAAC: Well, it's been almost 23, 24 days since I said these words. And the number now is close to 9,000 children. We're appalled. We're devastated. It's hard for us to understand how the world continues to accept this genocide as it continues.
We've been hearing calls for quite a while now. And we want to be satisfied until we see a comprehensive and long-lasting ceasefire. This is the only thing we ask this Christmas. This is the only thing we want to see. This must stop now because it's killing people who have nothing to do with the conflict.
The father of my friend in Gaza just passed away a few hours ago. Because of lack of medical attention, he was in the church. They couldn't get him even to a hospital or get medicine. It's beyond horrific right now. And I can't understand how it continues and how the world is not urgent in calling for this to stop.
So, you know, we want to see action, not just promises and words, because we've been hearing these concerns and words for a while now. We won't believe it until we see it. And I hope it's not another humanitarian pause. This must stop and this must stop now. BRUNHUBER: Yeah, condolences for your friend and I should say that the
u s calling for suspension in fighting not a ceasefire word to the difference is important, I guess to point out. Now, you are giving a liturgy of lament tomorrow. What is your main message?
ISAAC: The message is that in this Christmas season, when the world is celebrating in joyful ways, here in Palestine we are lamenting. We're broken. We're devastated by the loss of our people, of our friends, of our family. We want it also to be a message to the world that silence is complicity that we want to see churches acting, calling urgently for an end to this genocide.
And our message is that in the midst of our lament and devastation, we still have hope that as believers, when we come around this manger and we look at Jesus in the midst of trouble, we find hope. We find hope and we will not lose our faith. Christmas celebrations are canceled, but our prayers are not canceled. And maybe our prayers are a sign of our resistance as Palestinians that we want to move on. We will continue despite all the odds.
BRUNHUBER: We'll end on that note of hope. Reverend Munther Isaac, thank you so much for speaking with us. I really appreciate it.
ISAAC: Thank you for having me.
BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's capital took a hit from a Russian drone Friday morning. The city's mayor says two people were injured after the drone hit a high-rise apartment building and caused a fire. Now the blaze was quickly put out.
[03:40:04]
In the east, rescuers dug through rubble after Russian strikes hit two mines in the Donetsk region. Ukraine says three people were killed and six others injured on Thursday. Now this news comes as French President Emmanuel Macron is reminding the West what's at stake on military aid for Ukraine installed in both the European Union and the U.S. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Today, in this country that has been under Russian aggression since the beginning of 2022, in the freezing winter, Russian aggression continues. You who know what the balance of power is are well aware of what we cannot allow to happen and how we cannot allow Russia to win. What would tomorrow hold for us Europeans? So we'll continue to help the Ukrainians. What we do, even if it costs us, is decisive for our country's security, for our role in Europe, and for Europe's sovereignty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: An update now on American Paul Whelan, who's been wrongfully detained in Russia since 2018. In a call with CNN Wednesday, Whelan said he's afraid for his safety after being assaulted by another inmate in a Russian prison camp last month. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran is serving a 16-year sentence after he was accused of being a spy, which he vehemently denies. CNN's Brian Todd has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): American Paul Whelan, wrongfully detained in Russia for five years, now faces new dangers in a Russian prison camp. Whelan tells CNN he's being targeted by an official at the remote camp in the Mordovia region where he's being held. Whelan says the official is retaliating against him because the official was admonished following an assault on Whelan by another inmate on November 28th. We spoke to Whelan's sister about his latest account.
ELIZABETH WHELAN, PAUL WHELAN'S SISTER: I am concerned and horrified but not surprised to hear of these latest issues he's having. Mordovia is very isolated. I'm sure that the prison guards are used to being able to get away with an awful lot without anybody paying any attention to them whatsoever.
TODD (voice-over): According to Whelan, the prison official, who he did not name, called on prisoners to instigate fights with Whelan so that Whelan himself would be disciplined. He says prisoners, on the official's behalf, asked him for $1,100 in protection money. The exact amount that's in Whelan's prison account, quote, "prisoners would not have known that unless they had been told." Then he said of the prison official, quote, "Having no luck with obtaining the money, he ordered me to move to a different barrack, which would expose me to criminal behavior as well as the potential of assault."
The White House calls Whelan's latest accounts troubling and says it will address this with Russian officials.
JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: We did in recent days put forward a serious proposal. The Russians rebuffed it, regardless of what Mr. Putin says. And we're working hard to see what we can do to get another proposal that might be more successful to get both him and Evin out.
TODD (voice-over): John Kirby's referring to "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, who's also wrongfully detained in Russia. Paul Whelan gave CNN even more chilling details of the dangers he now faces from other inmates. Quote, "most people carry knives here and many use stimulants which can make them wild and violent."
SARAH MENDELSON, FORMER U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL AT THE UNITED NATIONS: The conditions, like all Russian prisons, are very bad, right? So the Prison guards are controlling access to the bathroom, food, light, day, your mobility. And you know, this fact of corruption is particularly intense.
TODD (voice-over): I asked Whelan's sister if he carries any kind of a weapon to protect himself.
E. WHELAN: Paul has gone out of his way to make sure that there's nothing that can be done or said about him that would cause him to incur additional charges because that's what the Russians will do they will add charges onto your sentence.
TODD (voice-over): Whelan also told CNN he feels threatened because he's an American and that the prisoners in his camp quote "don't look too kindly upon the U.S. support of Israel in Gaza."
TOFF: Paul Whelan told CNN that when he spoke to prison officials about his security concerns they told him he could go to solitary confinement 24 hours a day. CNN has reached out to the prison for comment on all of this we have not heard back.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: More than two weeks now and still no word on the whereabouts of Alexei Navalny, the jailed outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Navalny has failed to appear at court hearings in Russia and his lawyers say they've lost contact with him. In early December, Navalny's team say they were told he left the penal colony where he was being held. They've since reached out to 250 penal colonies around Russia, but they're still not certain of his location. They say the Kremlin is refusing to reveal any information about him and his condition.
So does Donald Trump have immunity for alleged crimes committed while he was president? Well that's the question that the special counsel is asking the Supreme Court to decide right away. We'll have a report from Washington.
Plus, after losing that big multi-million dollar defamation case, Donald Trump's disgraced former attorney Rudy Giuliani is going back to court to get out from under his crushing debt. We'll have details after the break. Stay with us.
[03:45:02]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. special counsel Jack Smith is strongly urging the Supreme Court to make a quick decision on whether Donald Trump has presidential immunity from alleged crimes he committed while in office. But the former president wants the high court to stay out of the dispute for now.
CNN's Evan Perez has more from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SR. U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Jack Smith is saying that this is an urgent matter. This is something that the public has an interest in finding out what the resolution is. And obviously the election is ahead, he doesn't directly say that, but that is obvious what is behind all of this. I'll read you just a part of the filing where he says, quote, "the public interest in a prompt resolution of this case favors an immediate definitive decision by this court. The charges here are of the utmost gravity."
One of the things that the special counsel does is they cite the 1974 United States versus Nixon case. This is a case that had to do with the then president's claim of executive privilege over the White House recordings, the Nixon tapes. And that case was heard just like the way Jack Smith is trying to get this one done.
They skipped over the appellate process and went straight to the Supreme Court. It was handled in about two months and about 16 days after oral arguments, the Supreme Court rendered a decision. That's exactly what Jack Smith wants to happen in this case, pointing out, of course, that this trial is supposed to start in March. And, you know, obviously the election is coming up later this year -- later next year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A new report from the "Detroit News" alleges that then- President Donald Trump was recorded pressuring two Republican election workers to not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. The paper says in a phone call days after the vote, Trump told the Republicans they'd look terrible if they signed the certification adding quote, "we can't let these people take our country away from us. Everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell."
According to the "Detroit News," the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDonnell, then told the Michigan Republicans do not sign it. We will get you attorneys, to which Trump reportedly added, we'll take care of that.
GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is supporting former president Donald Trump in his latest legal challenge while attacking Trump's 2024 campaign. The Florida governor went on Fox News and warned the former president's baggage and legal issues could determine Republicans' chances in the next election. Still, he criticized the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to disqualify Trump from the state's 2024 presidential ballot and claimed it could lead to a similar action against President Joe Biden. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What's keeping a Republican state from saying Biden shouldn't be on the ballot? He let 8 million illegal aliens into this country. Maybe we can say that is an insurrection or a rebellion. So what the Colorado court did had no precedent in American history and it's not something that's going to be upheld by the Supreme Court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:50:08]
BRUNHUBER: Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has lost his appeal with Maine's Superior Court to be on the state's primary ballot. The court sided with the state's Director of Elections who said Christie missed the deadline to submit 2,000 voter signatures to the state. Christie's campaign said they disagree with the decision and are evaluating their options.
And Nikki Haley held a town hall Thursday where the former U.N. ambassador tried to set herself apart from the other Republicans running for the White House, including the former president. She was confronted by an Iowa voter who called on her to more strongly criticize Trump. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOTER: I want to support you. I also want to hear from you that you also think there's a danger here because this is not good for our country and it's not good for the church. And I want to be able to support someone who agrees with that.
NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wouldn't be running. If I didn't think that he's not the right person at the right time. I have said multiple times, I don't think it's good for the country, for Donald Trump to become president again. I've made that very clear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Former U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime ally Rudy Giuliani says he's all but broke and has asked federal court for protection from bankruptcy. The move comes just days after a jury ordered Giuliani to pay tens of millions of dollars for defaming two election workers in Georgia. Giuliani claims he has assets of up to $10 million, but debts of up to half a billion dollars. CNN's Kara Scannell has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy court protection on Thursday. That's just one day after a federal judge ordered him to begin making payments in a nearly $150 million defamation award awarded by a jury to two Georgia election officials just last week.
Giuliani's claim in this filing is that he is saddled with debt, the biggest one being the nearly $150 million jury award. But he also indicates that he owes nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes. He owes $1.7 million to attorneys and he has a $30,000 unpaid phone bill.
But the biggest unknown is just how much more in debt he could incur. That's because he is facing a number of lawsuits, including three defamation lawsuits related to the 2020 election. He's also facing a lawsuit from Hunter Biden, who alleges that he hacked into his laptop computer and a $2 million lawsuit brought by a grocery store worker who alleges that Giuliani got him falsely arrested.
He's also facing a lawsuit from a former employer who is -- an employee who is alleging harassment. A spokesman for Giuliani says it should come as no surprise that he filed for bankruptcy, saying that it's unreasonable for anyone to think that he'd be able to make these payments.
Now, a lawyer for those two election workers say that Giuliani's, quote, maneuver to file for bankruptcy is not going to stop them from seeking their payment. These election workers filed a new defamation lawsuit against Giuliani on Monday for continuing to spread these election lies. So Giuliani's legal and financial problems continue to mount.
Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: All right, still to come, Europe's highest court says soccer's two most powerful governing bodies behaved unlawfully when they blocked the formation of a new competition. Will look at what this could mean for soccer in Europe. That's coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: The European Union's Court of Justice has ruled against FIFA and UEFA over what it calls their unlawful rules involving the formation of the controversial European Super League.
[03:55:03]
The court ruled the two governing bodies abused their dominant position by forbidding clubs from joining the breakaway league. FIFA and UEFA rules require their prior approval for establishing new competition and prohibiting clubs and players from playing in them. Experts say the court's decision means the two groups could still prevent clubs from joining the Super League, but the process would have to be fairer. Still, some club owners celebrated the ruling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOAN LAPORTA, FC BARCELONA PRESIDENT: We believe that the time has come from clubs, and even more so for those that are owned by their members such as Football Club Barcelona, to have greater control over their destiny, over their future, over their own sustainability.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: One of Hollywood's biggest nights, the Golden Globes just named comedian Jo Koy to host the annual award show on January 4th. Koy has had comedy specials on Netflix and Comedy Central.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JO KOY, COMEDIAN: You got to tell them how good they got it. Download a movie in less than a minute. 4K, they can watch a movie. You got to tell them how hard we had it. What we had to do for the new movie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The Globes president says they're thrilled to have Koy's infectious energy and relatable humor to kick off Hollywood's awards season. Stand-up comic and past Chelsea Lately panelist says, hosting the Golden Globes is going to be extra special. While painting, the legendary Beatles made in the 60s while they were
touring in Japan is going up for auction. Some experts believe the painting, known as Images of a Woman, is the only artwork made by all four Beatles, or at least signed by each of them. In the summer of 1966, the Beatles performed five shows in Tokyo and apparently spent some of their downtime in their hotel making the painting. Christie's Auction House in New York expects Images of a Woman to go for between 400 and $600,000 when the bidding gets underway February 1st.
All right, and before we go, we want to show you this, a remarkable image from the U.S. Space Agency just days away from Christmas. Now, this so-called Christmas tree cluster is about 2,500 light years from Earth. Two of NASA's space telescopes capture the image, which shows young stars surrounded by a gas cloud. There you go, Christmas in space.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. CNN NEWSROOM continues now, with Max Foster.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
