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CNN International: Trump Expected to Appeal Colorado, Maine Ballot Decisions; Main Opposition Party Leader in South Korea Stabbed with Knife in Busan; Ukraine: Missiles Incoming From Russian Territory; At Least 48 Killed After Earthquake Hit Japan's West Coast; Major Earthquake Hits Japan; Israel's Supreme Court Strikes Down Controversial Judicial Overall Ruling. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 02, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo, live from London. Max Foster has the day off today, just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We expect the former president to ask the Supreme Court to throw out these two rulings, the one by the Colorado Supreme Court and the one by the Secretary of State in Maine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are only here because Donald Trump incited the insurrection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These were the scenes in western Japan on Monday, as a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the region.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The danger of collapses or humans being inside damaged structures is still quite real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Supreme Court's 8 to 7 ruling to strike down the one part of the government's judicial overhaul that it managed to get passed was unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

NOBILO: It is Tuesday, January 2nd, 9 a.m. here in London, 2 a.m. in Colorado and 4 a.m. in Maine, where a source says that in the coming hours, lawyers for Donald Trump are expected to appeal decisions in those two states to ban the former president from ballots in their Republican primaries. Legal challenges in those states succeeded at using the 14th Amendment's insurrectionist ban to remove Trump from ballots, though those decisions have been paused pending potential appeals. Challenges in several other states were rejected, and now Oregon's

Supreme Court will decide whether to ban the former U.S. president from the ballot there over his alleged role in the January 6th insurrection.

Colorado's Secretary of State spoke about the case in her state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENA GRISWOLD, COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: I also do not believe that there should be some loophole in the Constitution for a president who decides to engage in rebellion. When we say no person is above the law, we should mean it.

It shouldn't be an interpretation that no person is above the law except Donald Trump when he tries to steal the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: The Colorado Republican Party says it has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ruling that removed Trump from the state's primary ballot. CNN senior legal analyst Eli Honig weighed in on whether the court should take up the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELI HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is why we have a Supreme Court. We have a constitutional issue. What exactly does the 14th Amendment mean? How exactly does it work? We don't know the answer.

We've never gotten clear guidance on those questions from the Constitution itself, from Congress or from the Supreme Court. The stakes are enormous. This will go directly to the heart of our voting process.

And we are seeing disparity all over the map, literally, in the way the 14th Amendment is being interpreted and applied. The majority of states who have considered these challenges have rejected them. But now we have two, Colorado and Maine, who have upheld these challenges and thrown Donald Trump off the ballot.

So we need a legal answer. We need some certainty before the 2024 election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: All this is playing out ahead of the first test of this year's presidential election. The Iowa caucus is now less than two weeks away. Trump has maintained a consistent lead in the polls there, but rivals Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are hoping for a strong showing. CNN's Kristen Holmes reports from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is officially that final sprint to Iowa. We're looking at two weeks and the candidates are going to all be on the ground, or at least most of them, trying to scoop up every last minute voter that they can, talk to any kind of Iowan who might be on the fence and really going into it. When you look at the poll numbers, you still see that Donald Trump, according to these polls, has a very substantial lead. He is the frontrunner and their goal is to keep that margin really high between him and whoever the second place person is.

Now, the polls show that that would be Ron DeSantis right now and after that, Nikki Haley. Now, the thing about Ron DeSantis is that Iowa is critical to the Florida governor. He has made this essentially his make or break moment, put all of his cards or all of his eggs in the Iowa basket and is really focused on that.

However, we have seen some substantial rise in the polls from Nikki Haley, but still looks as though that would be the order. Now, whatever happens in Iowa is really going to set the tone for the rest of the primary and caucus season. Right now, Donald Trump is leading in most states, but there is a part or there are several Republican operatives who believe that if Donald Trump is slowed down in Iowa, if that margin is not as big as those polls show, it's possible that someone else could take the lead, we could see someone else surge.

But right now, it's just still very early and the big focus still remains on Iowa, on the Hawkeye State.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:05:00]

NOBILO: The leader of South Korea's main opposition party is in the hospital after being stabbed in the neck with a knife. We're told Lee Jae-myung is conscious and we're about to show images of the attack that, of course, you might find disturbing.

Lee was assaulted in Busan, South Korea's second largest city, but has since been transferred to the Seoul National University Hospital.

And CNN's Marc Stewart is there for us live. Marc, good to see you. This is an abhorrent attack. The South Korean opposition leader stabbed in the neck while speaking to journalists and voters on the campaign trail. What do we know about his condition and this failure of security?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Bianca, we are expecting a briefing from doctors here at the hospital once Mr. Lee is out of surgery.

There's been a lot of concern about a vein in his neck and some of the bleeding associated with that. Once doctors have completed surgery, they say that they will give us an update.

It is important for me to stress just how prominent of a figure Mr. Lee is here in South Korea. He has a household name. He is the leader of the opposition party, which is the Democratic-Liberal Party. He was on a campaign stop helping other candidates in anticipation of the general election later on this spring.

You mentioned this idea about security. These campaign events by nature are very open. It's a chance for members of the public to come face to face with politicians.

In this particular case, a man in his 60s went up to Mr. Lee, asked for an autograph and then attacked him with a knife. One of the images we saw after was Mr. Lee on the ground with someone taking a handkerchief, applying it to his neck, perhaps in an effort to quell some of the bleeding. As far as a motive, as far as more about this man in his 60s, we just do not know.

But what is clear is that this is a very politically sensitive time in South Korea. If you look at the political landscape, there is pretty much a 50-50 split between the conservative movement of things and the liberal movement of the political landscape. And for that reason, after this attack, we have heard condemnations from South Korea's president as well as from Lee and his officials.

No one wanting to pass any judgment. It is that sensitive that no one wants to take any stance to make this a political moment.

Bianca, as startling as this is, we have seen knife attacks like this before. There was a case involving the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea as well as former President Park. When she was on the campaign trail, there was also a knife attack where she was the target.

Marc Stewart in Seoul, thank you so much for bringing us that story. Of course, we will be checking in with you as you hear about more developments. Thank you.

Ukraine's interior minister says at least three people have been killed in Russian attacks across the country. Ukrainian air forces say Russia launched waves of ballistic missiles throughout the morning. Two people were reportedly killed in a fire in a residential building in the capital, Kyiv, and one person was killed in Kharkiv. The attacks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine in the new year.

Clare Sebastian joins me now. Clare, tell us more about what Putin said. He mentioned this being in retaliation for attacks on Russian border territory.

But does this really mark a departure from the sort of attacks that we have seen previously?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, that is always the question, right? We have seen a lot of sort of vengeful commentary from Putin throughout the almost two years of this war. I think, you know, in part, we can read this as retaliation for that attack on Belgorod, which Russia says now killed 25 people and injured more than 100.

But also, I think what is going on here, and this comes out in other comments that we saw from Putin on Monday, where he literally talked about the numbers of artillery shells that the U.S. could produce versus the number that Ukraine is firing. Saying they are about to exhaust supplies, that he is trying to exploit the gaps in Ukraine's arsenal and exploit the hesitation, frankly, that we are seeing from Ukraine's allies, in particular the U.S.

This was, overnight, a very large-scale attack. We saw, first of all, drones, some 35 Shahed drones, which the Air Force says that they were able to shoot down all of them. But then came the waves of cruise missiles and even the Kinzhal ballistic missiles. Russia calls them hypersonic.

We don't have exact numbers yet from the Air Force, but it seems to have been on a very large scale. President Zelenskyy has now come out and upgraded the death toll to four people. He says we know about 92 injured.

[04:10:00]

And these were the two biggest cities in Ukraine, Kyiv and Kharkiv. So, really, this is the key priority for Ukraine right now, air defense, trying to protect those cities.

A Ukrainian MP told me a couple of weeks ago that if they didn't get more air defense missiles and systems, they could see Kyiv become the next Mariupol. This is a huge problem for Ukraine, particularly as we go into winter. And we see power supply and water supply disrupted in these attacks today as well.

NOBILO: Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for giving us that overview.

Let's go now to Peter Zalmayev. He's the director of the Eurasia Democracy Institute, and he joins us now from Kyiv. Thank you very much for being with us this morning, sir. What has your experience been of being in the capital during this latest barrage of attacks?

PETER ZALMAYEV, DIRECTOR, EURASIA DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE: Well, the first sirens went off during the middle of the night, around 3 a.m., and those were warnings of a Shahed attack, the drone attack, which passed kind of uneventfully.

And then earlier this morning, around 7, I would say 7.30 a.m., I was finally woken up. Despite the fact that I now have taken to wearing earplugs, my building was shaking from the shockwave of one of the hypersonic missiles being shot over our skies. This was quite something.

I was actually, you know, afraid that the building might crumble. So waking up this morning, the entire city is in flames in various parts of the city. Water lines are down in some parts of the city, and also some power infrastructures seem to have been struck, which, once again, reminds us of Putin's terror campaign last year.

It may be the start of 2024, is the start of a renewed campaign to try to knock out our power facilities and our water supplies.

NOBILO: I'm very conscious of the anxiety and obviously the concern that you must feel being in Kyiv when I ask you a question now that's more about the geopolitics and looking ahead into the year.

Our correspondent Clare was just saying how Vladimir Putin has essentially been boasting about Russia's capacity to keep arming itself. We know historically Russia has always had numerical superiority. That's been a benefit in most of its military campaigns. Looking ahead to 2024, how worried are you about what happens to Ukraine's defense and what happens to Kyiv?

ZALMAYEV: Well, I am very worried. You know, as one of my colleagues, a member of Ukrainian parliament, a good friend of mine, recently posted on Facebook, he said that taking stock of the past year in the U.S. and the West, do not seem to have been learning the lessons of 2022 and 2023 as quick as the Russians are. Their industrial capacity is nowhere near where it's needed to allow Ukraine to put up a successful, you know, resistance to the Russians. And so, when you talk about numerical superiority, I think it's also important to mention that Ukraine must be very wary of keeping at least its moral superiority to the Russians.

Putin is now claiming that all of this is in sort of a payback for the attack on Belgorod back last Saturday, which resulted in the deaths of 30 Russians. First of all, when did he ever need a pretext to bomb us? But be it as it may, I would really caution our government, and I want to believe our government, that says that it was poor work by Russian air defenses that caused these fatalities. But once again, our Western allies expect a different sort of behavior from the Ukrainians.

As sweet as this revenge is, this justice, as karmic as it seems to us here in Ukraine, it will not help us. And I would, once again, caution Ukraine to proceed very careful and concentrate strictly on military goals.

NOBILO: A final question to you on that leadership behind those decisions and those military goals. How secure is Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his position, in your view?

ZALMAYEV: Ukraine is a democracy, is a raucous democracy, and even though the first two years of this war, there's been sort of a lid put on democratic debate in the country, politics is returning to the country. And needless to say, you know, this prevarication and wobbling by our Western allies, who have not approved major assistance packages, both Washington and Brussels, they're partly responsible for this sort of disarray that's been happening inside Ukraine's politics.

[04:15:00]

But once again, as I said previously in our interview for CNN, precisely these attacks by Vladimir Putin are, you know, bringing back this understanding who the real enemy is.

And this morning again, Ukrainians woke up realizing who the real enemy is. So I think Ukraine's democracy, raucous and unruly sometimes as it is, will prove resilient in the long term.

NOBILO: And this is a very important point and contrast to make. Russia, of course, going to the polls in March, but that is not a free or fair election, with the main opposition leader in the Siberian camp and suppression of independent media. Ukraine, a very different story.

ZALMAYEV: Right.

NOBILO: Peter Zalmayev, thank you very much for joining us today. Appreciate your thoughts and stay safe.

ZALMAYEV: Thank you.

NOBILO: Now to Japan, where rescuers are racing to reach survivors trapped under the rubble after a major earthquake hit the country's west coast on New Year's Day.

Authorities in Ishikawa Prefecture say that death toll has now risen to 48. The region was the epicenter of the 7.5 magnitude quake, which hit near the Noto Peninsula Monday afternoon. Japan's prime minister says access to the northern part of the peninsula is extremely difficult because the main road into the area is destroyed. A top Japanese official says more than 100 people are still waiting to be rescued.

The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded more than 35 aftershocks and warns that they could continue potentially for days or even months. Public broadcaster NHK reports more than 100 homes and shops have burned down after a large fire broke out in the city of Wajima. Tens of thousands of people are still without power, while thousands are sheltering in evacuation centers.

Journalist Manisha Tank is tracking this live for us from Singapore. Manisha, thanks so much for joining us on the program. So the Japanese government is warning that more earthquakes might follow and the chief cabinet minister is saying that the prime minister says it's important to put lives first at this stage. What does that actually mean in practice in the aftermath?

MANISHA TANK, JOURNALIST: Well, what it really means is an appeal, appeal to emergency services to do what they can. And they're up against very challenging circumstances, Bianca.

For example, those roads that you mentioned that have been very badly destroyed. And even though we don't often see earthquakes of this nature hit this part of Japan, they tend to hit the western side more than the eastern side. We know that local authorities are struggling to keep up.

So this happened late in the afternoon on Monday. Through the night, it was very difficult to get to all of the incidents that were reported. And as the day has gone on today, and we're now coming into the evening again this Tuesday for Japan, the authorities are catching up in a really big way.

Now, what the prime minister has said in an emergency disaster meeting after that meeting was that they would have to secure the routes in any way possible, but use any type of transport that they could. So that includes aerial transport and marine transport to reach those that might be in need. Speaking of which, there are those that could be trapped under

collapsed buildings. And this has been the big concern. This is one of the reasons we have seen the death toll going up over the last few hours. It started off overnight at six, and now we're up to 48, as you just reported.

Along with that, there are those who are concerned about their safety, the fact that they're dealing with the cold. And so they have fled to evacuation centers. And we know there are about 27,000 people or so in Ishikawa Prefecture who are in those secure spaces -- Bianca.

NOBILO: Manisha Tank for us in Singapore, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

Still ahead, an unprecedented ruling from Israel's Supreme Court that could have major implications for the war in Gaza.

Plus, police say he was kidnapped, but never actually met his kidnappers. How online extortion turned into a missing persons case. Just ahead.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back.

A ruling by Israel's Supreme Court on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul could have major implications for the war in Gaza. The court has struck down an amendment to the so-called reasonableness law, which stripped the judiciary of its power to declare government decisions unreasonable. The reform sparked months of nationwide protests, and the court's decision could threaten the unity of Israel's war cabinet, which includes two prominent critics of the plan.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it will start pulling thousands of troops from Gaza this week in preparation for a new phase of the conflict. A senior U.S. official says the move shows signs of Israel's gradual shift to a lower-intensity military campaign. There's also news for people who were evacuated from their homes near the Israel- Gaza border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): In accordance with the recommendations given by the IDF and the defense establishment, we will soon be able to return communities home in areas within a range of four to seven kilometers north of the Gaza Strip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: CNN's senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is following developments from our Paris bureau for us. Jim, good to see you. How heavy of a blow is this for Netanyahu's authority while he's waging this deeply controversial war, and what impact could it have on the conflict?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you could see it almost immediately after the Supreme Court decision, the divisions within the war cabinet. Because he has, within his war cabinet, Prime Minister Netanyahu, has opponents who were definitely in favor of this amendment being struck down. The amendment would have weakened the powers of the Supreme Court and strengthened, in a sense, strengthened the prime minister's hand. But that's not what happened. By a ruling of eight to seven, in fact, the justices said that they were opposed to the Netanyahu reforms.

[04:25:00]

And almost immediately afterwards, the reactions from the two, at least two of the leading cabinet members, it was very interesting to see the disunity within the cabinet. Benny Gantz, who was a longtime Netanyahu opponent, said the verdict must be respected and the lesson from the conduct of this past year must be internalized, and we are all brothers, we have a common destiny, therefore kind of emphasizing the unity of the cabinet.

But on the other hand, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is a supporter of Mr. Netanyahu, said this is a dangerous anti-democratic event, and at this time, above all, a ruling that harms Israel's war effort against its enemies.

Basically saying that the Supreme Court was adding to the disunity that there is within the country about the war effort.

In any case, we will see how this all plays out, but it was not good news for Prime Minister Netanyahu. One of the things that I think you mentioned there, Bianca, leading into this, was that there were several announcements of some import -- both for Gaza and for Israel.

They're going to be withdrawing about two brigades from Gaza. These are brigades that will be demobilized and sent home. The wartime economy has had a real impact on the Israeli economy, and they're going to send another three brigades out for training.

So, in fact, the Gaza troop situation will be changing probably in the near future and probably reflects that kind of drawdown and re- emphasis and refocus of the war effort -- Bianca.

NOBILO: Jim Bittermann in Paris. Thank you so much for that.

A Chinese foreign exchange student has been found safe in the frigid Utah mountains after police say that he became a victim of cyber kidnapping. Neither the student nor his parents in China apparently met the kidnappers. They just dealt with them over the phone. CNN's Nick Watt has more on this trend that police say is growing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities in Utah say they found this 17-year-old Chinese national, a student at a high school in Utah. They found him alone in a tent halfway up a remote mountainside in Utah. He had no heat source in that tent, limited supplies of food and water, and they described him as very cold and scared.

Now, apparently he had been kidnapped, but not in the traditional sense that we know it, cyber kidnapped. So he never actually came face to face with his kidnappers. That he was just coerced over his phone and over the Internet.

So what appears to have happened is that he was contacted by these kidnappers and told that unless he did exactly what he was told, his family back home in China would be in danger. They asked him for a photograph, which they then sent to his family in China with a ransom demand, and they told 17-year-old Kai Zhuang to isolate himself. That's why he was in this tent in the middle of nowhere.

The family, they say that they paid around $80,000 into Chinese bank accounts. They also contacted the high school in Utah. The high school contacted the police, and the police, by looking at this 17-year-old's spending patterns, what he bought, they worked out that he was camping. So search parties were sent out, and eventually he was found in this tent.

Apparently this cyber kidnapping is an increasingly common occurrence, targeting foreign exchange students, particularly Chinese foreign exchange students.

Now, this story ended well in that the student was found alive and well. He asked to speak to his family. He asked for a warm cheeseburger. He is safe.

But as I say, this is apparently an increasingly common trend seen in this country of cyber kidnappers targeting these young, vulnerable kids far from home. They never come face-to-face, all done online.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: When we return, U.S. President Joe Biden prepares for the final campaign of his career. But a host of domestic and international challenges could stand in his way.

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