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CNN International: Scores Killed In Central Gaza As Israel Intensifies Operations; Palestine Red Crescent Society HQ In Khan Younis Shelled; U.S. Targets Iran-Backed Kataib Hezbollah Group In Iraq; Alexey Navalny Says He's Now In Siberian Penal Colony; Mexico's President, U.S. Officials To Meet Amid Migrant Surge; Trump Wants Immunity In Election Subversion Case; Inside London's "Zero-Waste" Restaurant. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 26, 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]

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There's a storm system and its evolution. It's going to be a wet forecast with even more snow for the mountainous regions for the end of the year. Phil, Poppy?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Holiday travelers, take note. Derek Van Dam, thank you.

VAN DAM: Right.

MATTINGLY: And our coverage continues right now.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. Just ahead, one of Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidants is expected in Washington today as Israel ramps up operations inside Gaza. Plus, we hear from jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny for the first time since being transferred to a remote penal colony.

And thousands of migrants join the caravan headed to the United States. We'll take you to the Texas border to see how local officials are coping.

An official with close ties to Israel's Prime Minister is set to visit Washington today, after Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a long fight ahead in Israel's war against Hamas. A source familiar with the plan tells CNN that Ron Dermer is expected to discuss the next phase of the war in Gaza, with officials from the White House and State Department.

The Biden administration has been pressing Israel to lower the intensity of attacks in Gaza that have killed more than 20,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which draws its data from the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The World Health Organization has been touring Gaza's overcrowded barely functioning hospitals over the past few days. The WHO director warns that many of the injured will not survive the wait for treatment. As Israel's military offensive against Hamas ramps up, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. CNN's Will Ripley is following those developments and has more now from Tel Aviv. And we warn you that this piece is a difficult watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under the constant buzz of Israeli drones, Palestinians in Gaza once again dig through the rubble with bare hands. This is not a rescue mission, what they find remains of loved ones crushed under a collapsed building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My nieces and nephews, they were all displaced in Albareish (ph). They fled the day before yesterday. It was their fate to be martyred here in the uncle's house.

My nieces Layin (ph), Lana (ph) and Rana (ph), and my nephew Hamada (ph). Hamada was only three months old. They are still under the rubble.

RIPLEY (voice over): It's one of the deadliest 24 hours in Gaza in a war approaching its 80th day. The Hamas controlled Gaza health ministry says 250 people died in Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp and nearby Bureij and Nuseirat since the start of Christmas Eve. CNN cannot independently verify the numbers released by the Ministry in Gaza.

Responding to CNN questions, the IDF said, "In response to Hamas's barbaric attacks, the IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities." IDF refers to Hamas's surprise attack against Israel on October 7th. They killed at least 1,200 people and roughly 240 hostages kidnapped.

Video obtained by CNN shows families still digging through the debris for missing relatives, some saying they're still buried under the concrete slabs of collapsed buildings.

Children, children, children, innocent children, he says. This man says he lost 10 members of his family and over the collapse building, he bids farewell to his beloved Dana (ph). The 10-year-old he says was the playful one.

In the mangle of debris, glimpses of the lives that sought safety from one place in Gaza to the other. It's up to the neighbors to find the bodies of the families trapped beneath. The injured rushed to Al Aqsa hospital through the night. The hospital already struggling with an influx of injuries and bodies from other airstrikes.

By daylight, the community came together for the ritual of mourning. Bodies or what remained readied for burial.

I was waiting for you to grow up, he says, the family moved from one shelter to another in pursuit of safety, this man says. My eldest son.

Around every corner, families grappling with the scale of the loss. [08:05:01]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My daughter May (ph) was martyred. My five brothers, their children and their wives, all gone. They were displaced from Beit Hanoun. There were 96 people in that building, all gone.

RIPLEY (voice over): Survivors of previous airstrikes come to the aid of the new survivors. Khaleed (ph) lost his grandchildren last month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is utmost criminality. We are in festivities celebrating Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. People talk about human rights, mercy, the Security Council, the Red Cross and humanity. Where are these human rights?

RIPLEY (voice over): That is the question Gazans keep asking, where is safe?

RIPLEY: And that is a question that so many people in Gaza are asking right now, where is safe? Another question people are asking, how will they survive given that the entire population of Gaza is believed to be suffering from acute food insecurity and this war shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The question now, how many people -- how many more people will die not necessarily from airstrikes or not necessarily from bullets, but starvation?

Will Ripley, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Artillery shells hit the upper floors of the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in Khan Younis, Gaza. There are reports of several injured among the displaced people who were taking shelter in that building. A little earlier on, I spoke to Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society. She described what happened and how civilians in Gaza remain in peril.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEBAL FARSAKH, PALESTINE RED CRESCENT SOCIETY SPOKESPERSON: -- targets the upper floors of the Palestine Red Crescent headquarters in which has resulted in a number of injuries among the internally displaced people we have inside our headquarters and Al-Amal (ph) Hospital, which is right next to our headquarters. Around 14,000 civilians who are taking shelter inside our facilities.

And those people have no place to go to. They thought they will be in a safe place, but, unfortunately, it sounds it's not the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Iran and its armed proxies are vowing to retaliate against Israel over the killing of a senior member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Iranian state media says Sayyed Razi Mousavi, seen here on the left, was assassinated Monday in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. The Israel Defense Forces wouldn't comment on this, but Israel has for years targeted what it calls Iran linked positions in Syria.

The U.S. carried out airstrikes in Iraq overnight, targeting an Iranian-backed militant group. The White House says three locations tied to the group were hit, and military officials said a number of militants there were likely killed.

The strikes were in retaliation for a drone attack Monday morning that wounded three U.S. service members, one of them critically, at Erbil Air Base in Iraq. The developments come amid fears of the Israel-Hamas war sparking a regional spillover.

Now, jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny says he's relieved after a grueling 20-day prison transfer. He's now imprisoned north of the Arctic Circle. While he was being transferred, he had no contact with anyone in his family or organization and they feared the worst.

In a statement on social media, he thanks supporters for their concern and added that he's doing well. Nada Bashir is following these developments for us from London. Nada, what more do we know about this transfer, what Navalny went through and why now?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Look, we've been getting more details today. Alexey Navalny sharing updates via his aides. Those updates were posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, as he mentioned. He spoke of his relief, but he described that 20-day transfer as exhausting.

He said it felt at points like a movie scene, seeing some of the security forces carrying machine guns in a large convoy, and that he was relieved to have finally made it to this penal colony, which is, of course, in the remote area of northwestern Siberia, known as Kharap (ph). And we have been getting more details around the conditions he may now face in this penal colony.

Of course, there was mounting concern over the conditions faced by Alexey Navalny, a key Kremlin critic, after his legal team and associates lost contact with him for some two weeks. We did hear yesterday from his legal representative confirming that the lawyers had met with Navalny at this penal colony, confirming his presence there.

The director of Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation gave some further details yesterday, issuing a statement regarding the conditions that Navalny may now face at this penal colony, saying in a statement that the conditions there are harsh with a special regime in the permafrost zone. It is very difficult to get there and there are no letter delivery systems.

Now, yesterday, local government media in Siberia was also reporting on the more general conditions believed to be in the -- what is known as the Polar Wolf penal colony saying that the focus of detention at this penal colony is re-education through occupational therapy.

[08:10:18] Now, as you mentioned, Alexey Navalny, via his aides, said that he is doing well. He thanked his supporters for their concern, but of course there continues to be calls for his immediate relief -- release, not least from his legal team. Alexey Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison back in August in relation to extremism charges.

These are, of course, charges that he and his legal team have continuously denied. They believe these are politically motivated attempts to stifle his criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

NOBILO: Nada Bashir in London, thank you very much.

A Ukrainian airstrike on Crimea has claimed at least one life. Guided missiles from Ukraine's Air Force hit the town of Feodosia, where you can see this explosion light up the night sky. According to the Russian appointed head of Crimea, six others were injured and several buildings were damaged. Russia says Ukraine also damaged one of its Navy ships.

Still to come on CNN, a new caravan of thousands of migrants is headed to an already overwhelmed U.S.-Mexico border. We're live from Eagle Pass, Texas with that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Mexico's president is set to meet with top U.S. officials tomorrow to discuss the migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border. U.S. authorities reported a seven-day average of more than 9,600 migrant encounters along the border in December, among the highest ever recorded.

And now a new caravan of thousands of migrants is on its way to the border from southern Mexico. The surge is stretching resources for already overwhelmed U.S. agencies and has become a political vulnerability point for President Joe Biden.

So for more on this, let's go to CNN's Rosa Flores, who's in Eagle Pass, Texas. Rosa, a two pronged question, really. Is there anything that has triggered this particular exodus of people that we're seeing? And what is going on in terms of preparations for when they try to cross the border?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me start with that caravan first. What I can tell you is that these are a group of people, a very large group of people, mostly from Central and South America and the Caribbean. And a lot of the times what happens is they're stuck in southern Mexico because they can't travel north. A lot of them have entered Mexico illegally and they need some sort of travel document to move through Mexico.

And so a lot of the times what these migrants experience is they lose their patients waiting in Southern Mexico. They get together in a large group and they feel that there is strength in numbers and that's how they start moving north towards the southern border with the United -- the northern border of Mexico, the southern border of the United States. [08:15:15]

A lot of the times, these caravans dissipate along the way. And even though it starts with thousands of migrants on the southern border of Mexico by the time they get here, where I am in the northern border of Mexico, southern border of the United States, those numbers are much lower.

Now, to your question about what law enforcement, for example, here in the United States is doing and how they're grappling with it, I can tell you from talking to sheriffs all along the U.S. southern border that they're very frustrated because their main mission is the safety and security of the citizens in their jurisdiction.

I'm here in Maverick County, the sheriff from this area -- I've talked to him for weeks now -- he's very frustrated because in recent weeks, there have been thousands of migrants in the open area that you see behind me waiting to be transported for immigration processing.

Now, that bottlenecks, his resources in various reasons. First of all, there are deputies that have to respond to, for example, drownings on the Rio Grande, which is also just behind me. There's been an increasing, an elevated number of drownings that have happened in this area.

Those -- responding to those incidents then take resources that normally would take care of the safety and security of the people who live in this community to deal with that crisis. And so, a lot of sheriffs have either started task forces, for example, or figured out other ways to deal with the migrant influx while trying to do their job in keeping the safety and security of these communities.

Now the other thing that I can add is I've spoken to a senior CBP official who says that even though the situation that you see behind me is a much better scene. There are not thousands of migrants like we saw last week waiting to be transported for immigration processing.

They say the agency is not out of the woods yet. They say that there's still much illicit activity happening. Smugglers still pushing migrants to cross into the United States illegally, not just here in Eagle Pass, but also in very remote areas of Arizona, which I can tell you, creates a nightmare, a logistical nightmare for Border Patrol, who then has to transport those thousands of individuals to processing facilities.

So again, Customs and Border Protection, a senior official there saying that the scene has improved, but they're not out of the woods yet. Back to you.

NOBILO: Rosa Flores, thank you.

The FBI says it is investigating threats made against Colorado Supreme Court judges. They ruled that Donald Trump should be removed from the state's 2024 ballot because of the 2021 insurrection. Now that case is likely headed toward the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Trump wants a federal appeals court to grant him immunity from prosecution in the federal election subversion case. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has this covered.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: The trial judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal case has already said that the presidency doesn't give you a get out of jail free card, but Trump is still trying to get his case tossed. This is the case in federal court in Washington, D.C. related to the 2020 elections, his actions to try and disrupt the transfer of power to Joe Biden in the presidency.

And what Trump is doing at this stage is appealing. He has taken that trial judge ruling and asked the appeals court to revisit it. The appeals court above the trial judge in Washington, D.C., called the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court is going to hear arguments on this question of, is there immunity around the president? Can Donald Trump sit for trial?

The arguments are on January 9th. So in just about two weeks and over the weekend, Trump's legal team was putting their positions, their legal positions on paper. They also had some political arguments to make, such as this is very dangerous for the country to have a former president being tried, especially at a time where he's running for office again.

But at the end of the day, the court is going to look at the question of whether there is some sort of immunity around the president, whether Donald Trump can sit for trial. And the Justice Department is going to push very hard, not only to keep these charges on the books for Trump so that he does go to trial.

They also are trying to get the courts to move quite fast to decide upon this question because Trump's trial is set for March 4th. And depending on how fast the appeals courts rule on this, not just this appeals court, but also the Supreme Court above them, that trial date could be pushed back and potentially get into a place where it may have to be moved after the election.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

NOBILO: Still ahead, when it comes to expensive fine dining, sustainability is not usually on the menu, but one zero-waste restaurant hopes to be the first of its kind. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:45]

NOBILO: A London restaurant is trying to shake up the world of fine dining by focusing on sustainability. It serves decadent gourmet dishes while promising that nothing goes to waste in the kitchen. CNN's Anna Stewart takes a trip to Silo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): There are few industries as indulgent as the world of fine dining. You come with an empty stomach. You leave with a lighter wallet. And for a few sumptuous courses, you forget about the world outside.

But these days, it's hard to ignore the green impact of everything we do, including where we eat. So that's why I'm here in East London, where one restaurant wants to change how you think about food.

DOUGLAS MCMASTER, FOUNDER, SILO: My name is Douglas McMaster and I'm the father of Silo Restaurant.

STEWART (voice-over): An alumnus of restaurants like Noma in Copenhagen, Douglas founded Silo hoping to create the world's first zero-waste restaurant.

MCMASTER: Thank you.

STEWART (voice-over): It's a noble and lofty goal that can be summed up in simple terms. It doesn't have a bin.

MCMASTER: Zero waste in one word is nature. There is no bin in the jungle or in the ocean or in a desert.

STEWART: No, it's a perfect circle.

MCMASTER: Exactly. It's a perfect circle. And that's what we aspirationally want to achieve with Silo.

STEWART (voice-over): When Douglas says zero, he means it. Nothing that comes into Silo comes out as waste. All the raw materials are reused.

MCMASTER: This is every cork we've ever wasted.

STEWART (voice-over): There's no disposable packaging and every part of the produce eventually makes its way onto the table. The result is a high-end menu unlike any other.

MCMASTER: Sometimes we describe our food as supernatural peasant food. A peasant would like, you know, utilize everything. My pedigree was the world's best restaurants. And so, my nature, my training is of a very, very high standard. I personally believe, seeing the world's best restaurants, that what we're doing is world class. The fermentarium.

STEWART (voice-over): With nothing going to waste, there are big flavors to be found in every nook and cranny of the restaurant.

MCMASTER: Wild.

STEWART: It's like a thousand percent crab.

MCMASTER: Yes.

STEWART (voice-over): And behind every dish, there's a sustainable story to be told.

MCMASTER: Amazake ice cream. Amazake is sake wine before it's fermented into alcohol.

There we go.

STEWART: Look at that.

MCMASTER: It's basically rice. Rice that sailed over from Portugal on a pirate ship.

STEWART: On a pirate ship?

MCMASTER: I was in Copenhagen and this boat pulled in. This pirate ship pulled in to this event that I was doing. And it was delivering wine into Copenhagen in barrels. So, talk about pre-industrial food systems. An actual pirate ship sailing over with just the wind and the waves. So, emission-free cargo.

STEWART: It's delicious. I love this.

STEWART (voice-over): This eco-friendly movement is being noticed by the food industry. Michelin now has a Green Star award for sustainable restaurants. Silo got a Green Star in 2021.

[08:25:03]

And in 2023, so did Apricity. A restaurant in London's Mayfair focused on seasonal, low-waste dining.

CHANTELLE NICHOLSON, CHEF AND OWNER, APRICITY: OK, table one. Two doughnuts. Follow pate soup to follow two lunch pollock.

STEWART (voice-over): Its founder, Chantelle Nicholson, says going green can go hand-in-hand with high quality.

NICHOLSON: To, I guess, sound a bit cliche, you can have sustainable luxury. I think for me, it's about the notion of a circular economy, which is very much when you kind of distill it down, it's common sense.

You value things to the maximum. So, we're very conscious about where we get everything from, how we cook, our wine list. And then it's all about joy. Dining should be about joy. So we've kind of done the hard work for you by doing all the thinking and all the bits behind the scenes so that you can just come and enjoy yourself.

STEWART (voice-over): That commitment to sustainability doesn't stop with the food. Apricity is decorated with upcycled chairs and all- natural exposed walls. While back at Silo, Douglas has taken an even more radical DIY approach.

MCMASTER: So, the lights you can see on the walls in the restaurant are made out of our wine bottles. And these are plates made out of wine bottles.

STEWART: These are your wine bottles.

MCMASTER: Yes. This is literally what you would see in the street. It's just like crisp packets turned into this.

STEWART: Really? This is just rubbish.

MCMASTER: It's just rubbish. Brilliant, beautiful rubbish.

STEWART (voice-over): Rubbish is not a word we often associate with gourmet cuisine. For Douglas, it's just another way to think differently about the way we dine.

MCMASTER: There's a brilliant quote that sums this up perfectly from Desmond Tutu. And he said, there comes a point where you have to stop pulling people out of the river and instead go upstream and find out why they're jumping in. It's about prevention rather than healing a symptom.

STEWART: Well, I think your work is delicious.

MCMASTER: Thank you. It's the greatest compliment that you could give me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. World Sport is up for you next. See you tomorrow.