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Boeing CEO to Staff: 'We're Acknowledging Our Mistake'; Profile: From Wealthy Financier to Accused Sex Trafficker; Ecuador Declares Conflict Amid Gang Violence Surge; Blinken Pushes Israel on Two-State Solution; Trump's Lawyers Argue Against Election Interference Prosecution; France Appoints Openly Gay Gabriel Attal as Prime Minister; 2023 Sets Record for Global Warming, Nearing Critical Threshold. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired January 10, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN, Ecuador spirals into chaos. Security services unable to quell an explosion of deadly gang violence. America's most senior diplomat pushes Israel on a two-state solution with the Palestinians. A plan despised by the Netanyahu government. And if his lawyers have their way, President Donald Trump would be legally allowed to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue.
We begin in Tel Aviv where the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is continuing to push the Israelis on a two-state solution. As well as a plan to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return home in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow. They must not be pressed to leave Gaza. As I told the Prime Minister, the United States unequivocally rejects any proposals advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. And the Prime Minister reaffirmed to me today that this is not the policy of Israels government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Part of any return home would include an assessment mission by the United Nations to determine when conditions are right. It came during talks with the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his War Cabinet, Blinken stressed the need to avoid further harm to civilians in Gaza as well as protecting civilian infrastructure.
Secretary Blinken also pushed the Israeli Government towards a two- state solution saying Israel's long term security as well as normalization of ties with Arab states, was dependent on the creation of a lasting, viable Palestinian state. Blinken also expected to push the Palestinian Authority for reforms and better governments when he meets with the president of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, in the coming hours. Also Wednesday, Jordan's king will host a regional summit on efforts to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The very latest now from CNN's Nick Robertson, reporting in from Tel Aviv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Meeting back-to-back to back to pressure Israel to better protect Gaza's civilians, saying some progress made.
BLINKEN: We have an agreement that the UN will now conduct an assessment to determine the conditions necessary for people to be able to move back home.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): In Gaza, where Israeli officials say the battle tempo easing, the war's effects remain harsh. Nine Israeli troops killed Monday. Dead and wounded Palestinians continue overwhelming hospitals. And as Blinken urged better humanitarian access, needy Gazans stormed food trucks. From his meetings in the region the past week, Blinken set out a path to peace, which so far has been publicly rejected by Israel's government.
BLINKEN: If Israel wants its Arab neighbors to the tough decisions necessary to help ensure its lasting security, Israeli leaders will have to make hard decisions themselves. Israel must be a partner to Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people in living side by side in peace with Israel.
ROBERTSON: Blinken also saying that Palestinian leaders must reform. A message he said he'd take to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday, who appears under increasing pressure to step aside and allow new leadership more palatable to Israel. In essence, Blinken asking both sides to change. No guarantees it will happen. Nick Robison, CNN, Tel Aviv, Israel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: To Jerusalem Now, Yaakov Katz, senior columnist at the Jerusalem Post and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. Welcome back. It's good to see you.
YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST AT THE JERUSALEM POST: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: So, it seems right now there's growing pressure on Israel to work towards a two-state solution, which has essentially been in the deep freeze for a long time with the Palestinians. Especially from the White House. Just last month, Prime Minister Netanyahu told reporters, I'm proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state because today everybody understands what the Palestinian state could have been now that we've seen the little Palestinian state in Gaza.
He added, I will not let the State of Israel go back to the fateful mistake of Oslo. A reference to the Oslo Peace Accords. So, what Secretary Blinken and others now want would mean a dramatic about-turn from not just Netanyahu but his entire government. And that seems unlikely to say the least. [00:05:09]
KATZ: To say the least, John. A two-state solution with the current government in Israel is not something that's at all possible, viable, or in the cards. Let's remember, this is possibly the most right-wing government that Israel has ever had. And as a result, a two-state solution is not at all any of their policy or any part of their campaign. With that said, I think what we saw yesterday with Secretary Blinken in Tel Aviv were comments about a larger and wider regional possibility of a normalization package with the Saudis, for example.
That's a way that he wants to try to entice Israel to de-escalate, to look towards the day after in Gaza, to try to work together with the Palestinians. And say that the way to do that, and what the cherry on top of it might be, is this bigger deal with the Saudis that you could see at the end of it all. But again, a two-state solution that sees a withdrawal of Israel from parts of the West Bank in the aftermath of October 7th, when we saw what happens when Israel withdraws from territory, and what type of massacres and barbaric attacks it could potentially face, I don't think that there's great support for that in the wider Israeli public, let alone in this government.
VAUSE: Okay, so you mentioned the deal with Saudi Arabia as a potential cherry on top, a normalization of relations with Israel. So also on Tuesday, we heard from the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK, outlining how that could actually still be possible now. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE KHALID BIN BANDAR AL SAUD, SAUDI ARABIA'S AMBASSADOR TO THE UK: We've been at this for a long time and willing to accept Israel for a long time. It's a reality that's there that we have to live with. But we can't live with Israel without a Palestinian state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So basically, that offer is back on the table. It never left, if you like, despite overwhelming opposition from within Saudi Arabia to normalizations of relations with Israel. It seems there are others within the region who are willing to make hard choices and go the extra distance. At this point, why isn't Israel?
KATZ: It's a very good question. And I think that we have to remember three parts to it. The first is Israel's still at war, right? And now is not necessarily the time for Israel to start talking about a two- state solution when it's still fighting what happened to the Hamas state in the Gaza Strip and what that state turned into and the enemy that Israel faced on its southern border when Hamas had its sovereignty and its rule over Gaza, what it turned Gaza into.
And we see these pictures every day, John, the hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of tunnels under the Gaza Strip, the factories to make long-range rockets with Iranian design, the attacks that are still being carried out against Israeli soldiers there. This is a war that still has to be fought. That's number one. Number two, a two-state solution like I mentioned, for Israelis, it's something that's hard to digest at the moment because what it entails is withdrawal from territory in the West Bank or what some Israelis call Judea and Samaria, the hills that overlook Tel Aviv, Herzliya, the coastal plain in Israel.
They think about Gaza, excuse me, and they think about the precedents, and they say, can we now do this also in the West Bank? Do we want to have rockets now pouring down from two fronts into Tel Aviv? And then the third part is you're right, though. There is that possibility for a wider normalization. We heard that from the Saudi ambassador in the U.K. We heard it now from Secretary Blinken. It's not something that we should ignore, and we should have a government that should be thinking about the wider possibility.
Unfortunately, like I mentioned before, this government is not going to be the one that's going to be able to make those moves because of the nature and its composition. It's Netanyahu who is kind of stuck between the Americans who want him to move forward and very right-wing members of his coalition who will not let him move an inch in that direction.
VAUSE: Very quickly. You mentioned that a two-state solution is not possible with this current Israeli government. Is any solution to this conflict, apart from a military one, which is doubtful whether it's going to work long term, is there any viable solution for this right- wing government in Israel right now?
KATZ: I think that you and I will agree, John, that military means or military action is a means just for a political resolution. We need to articulate here in Israel what is that political endgame that we want to see happen in Gaza. And so far, Israel has not done that. I think that is a mistake. I think that Israel needs to tell the world and also its own people what is it planning to do in the Gaza Strip in the day after. We don't want to reoccupy Gaza. We pulled out in 2005 with the intention not to have to go back and to give the Palestinians an opportunity to be able to flourish there. Unfortunately, Hamas flourished and not the Palestinian people.
Now there's an opportunity for a reset in the aftermath of this operation. But part of that requires Israel to say what do we want to see happen there. And so far, we don't have that.
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VAUSE: We appreciate the analysis. Thank you. Well, lawyers for Donald Trump have faced some tough questions from the federal's appeal court as they claim the former president can't be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election. CNN's chief legal affairs correspondent, Paul Reed, has details.
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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former President Trump travelled to Washington Tuesday to watch arguments in a federal appeals court hearing over whether he should be shielded from criminal prosecution. DONAL TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel that as a president you have to have immunity. Very simple.
REID (voice-over): Trump was not required to be in attendance, but was in court to witness the three-judge panel express skepticism of his legal team's claim that he cannot be prosecuted for his actions unless he is first impeached and convicted by Congress.
JUDGE PAN: Could a president order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? That's an official act in order to SEAL Team 6?
JOHN SAUER, TRUMP ATTORNEY: He would have to be and would speedily be impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution.
JUDGE PAN: I asked you a yes or no question.
SAUER: There is a political process that would have to occur under the structure of our Constitution which would require impeachment and conviction by the Senate in these exceptional cases.
REID (voice-over): Trump's lawyers argued that when trying to overturn the 2020 election, Trump was acting in his official capacity.
SAUER: To authorize the prosecution of a president for his official acts would open a Pandora's box from which this nation may never recover.
REID (voice-over): Trump's lawyer also warned that if this near- absolute immunity was not recognized, there could be a possibility of vindictive prosecutions against political rivals.
SAUER: It would authorize, for example, the indictment of President Biden in the Western District of Texas after he leaves office for mismanaging the border, allegedly.
REID (voice-over): The special counsel rejected these arguments, noting that charges were brought in this case because of what they describe as extraordinary conduct.
JAMES PEARCE, SPECIAL COUNSEL ATTORNEY: Never before has there been allegations that a sitting president has with private individuals and using the levers of power sought to fundamentally subvert the Democratic Republic and the electoral system.
REID (voice-over): And argued that impeachment and conviction through a political process should not be required before a criminal prosecution.
PEARCE: I think it would be awfully scary if there weren't some sort of mechanism by which to reach that criminally.
REID: The court here has been operating on an expedited schedule, so we expect we will likely get a decision soon. Whoever loses can then ask... the entire circuit to hear the case. But that requires the majority of judges in the circuit to agree to hear it. It's not clear that'll happen. Then, of course, there is the next step, which is appealing to the Supreme Court.
And they're already weighing this question of ballot eligibility related to former President Trump. It's unclear they're going to weigh in. But, of course, the Trump strategy is as much about delay as it is about the merits of this case. Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us now is legal analyst Norm Eisen, an expert on law, ethics, and anti-corruption. He served as the ethics czar for the indictment-free Obama administration. Welcome back. Good to see you.
NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me, John.
VAUSE: Okay, well, four times indicted, twice impeached, one-term president, Donald Trump, was busy after Tuesday's hearing posting video messages on social media like this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Of course, I was entitled as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief to immunity. I'm entitled to immunity. I wasn't campaigning. I was looking for voter fraud, something that I have to do. Under my mandate, I have to look for voter fraud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EISEN: Whether or not he was looking for voter fraud, we'll get to it in a moment. But the U.S. Constitution makes no specific reference to presidential immunity. But there is an assumption of immunity. So, explain what the legal legalities here.
Well, John, the United States Supreme Court has recognized exactly that assumption. In the civil case context, in lawsuits for damages arising from language in the Constitution describing the job of the president. The court has said it's logical in these civil cases that we're going to extend immunity to the president. Not really absolute for official acts the president is immune. But, and this is very important. The court has expressly recognized, that criminal cases are different.
It declined to extend the immunity to criminal cases because those are the most serious matters in our country. The place where it's most important that no one is above the law. And the law simply does not recognize absolute immunity for any American, including former or current presidents.
VAUSE: Well, under the argument put forward by Trump's lawyers, the president is immune. He's only held accountable by Congress through an impeachment trial. And because it takes a two-third majority in the Senate for a guilty verdict, if Donald Trump actually did this --
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: All Trump or any president would need is 34 loyal senators and he'd be free to do whatever he wants. Is that kind of what they're arguing?
EISEN: That is their argument, and that can't be right, John. The text of the Constitution, the structure and history of the Constitution, the almost two and a half centuries of uninterrupted rulings by judges, nowhere recognize that a president has that power. And quite to the contrary, we have had criminal investigations of presidents. If what Trump argued were true, getting in the Oval Office would be a get-out-of-jail-free card to commit the most heinous crimes. That can't be the law. It's not the law, and this court is not going to find that it's the law. Trump's argument is a dead loser.
VAUSE: Well, let's stay with the Trump legal team, because here's a part of their argument which seems to be less extreme, if you like. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN LAURO, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: The special counsel conceded that if it was President Obama who was being prosecuted for a drone strike, then they'd have to consider immunity. But when it's not, when it's President Trump, then they're taking the position that there's no immunity for presidential acts that were required when a president is carrying out his job responsibilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: On the surface, that does seem to have a certain amount of logic. Assuming that Trump is being perfectly honest when he says he was carrying out his presidential duties by highlighting voter fraud, he wasn't inciting a violent insurrection at the Capitol, and he wasn't part of a complicated scheme to try and overturn the election results.
EISEN: Well, first of all, court after court has found that this alleged misconduct around the 2020 election was not official, that Donald Trump was trying to perpetuate himself in office as a political candidate despite having lost the election. But as for the argument, won't this expose President Obama to prosecution for drone strikes or President Biden to prosecution for what's happening on the border. There's no need to create this enormous exception that would extend absolute immunity to deal with these hypotheticals, because we already have a strong checks and balances and rule of law system. A
Unless this is the only tiny exception Donald Trump and his lawyers are willing to make, unless they say, based on the words of the Constitution, a president is impeached and convicted. But if you read the Constitution, that's not what it says. It says the opposite, John, that a president can be prosecuted after an impeachment and conviction. They're turning it upside down. So there's just no basis for these tricks. They're just using Donald Trump legal arguments and no need for them to protect other presidents.
VAUSE: Norm Eisen, as always sir, thank you for the explanations. Thank you for the insight. Good. Good to see you.
EISEN: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: The surge of gang violence has sent Ecuador spiraling into chaos. When we come back, more on a crisis which has shocked a nation and now testing a young president. Also ahead, he's just 34 years old, openly gay and now the prime minister of France. More in a moment.
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VUASE: Ecuador's president has declared a state of internal armed conflict, authorized the military to neutralize drug gangs behind a wave of bloodshed and violence, which has left the nation in shock. At least eight people were killed Tuesday, two others wounded in Ecuador's biggest city, Guayaquil. And on state-run television, during a live broadcast around 1 p.m. local time, viewers watched as more than a dozen armed men wearing hoods stormed a studio. Gunfire could be heard as staff were forced onto the floor.
Police intervened, arresting all 13 government and say all hostages and staff at the network are alive. Explosive material, as well as guns and grenades, were recovered from the scene. One of the TV anchors described the attack as extremely violent. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JORGE RENDON, TC TELEVISION ANCHOR (through translator): We heard something. We thought it was a fight that was going on outside the studio. But that wasn't the case. The producer told us, be careful. They are getting in. They are robbing us. The studio doors are very thick. They wanted to enter the studio so that we could say what they wanted. I guessed their message. Then we settled in a safe place. But when they entered, they asked for us to go live. They insulted us. But we managed to get in a safe place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The head of the joint command of the armed forces says the future of the country is at stake. And after the president declared a 60-day nationwide emergency on Monday in the wake of a high-profile gang leader escaping from prison, a wave of killings, of police kidnappings and prison uprisings was to follow. That spiring violence is the biggest test yet to face the newly elected young president who won last year's runoff vote with promises to tackle soaring crime. Ecuador's neighboring Peru announced on Tuesday night it would declare an emergency along with its entire northern border region amid the unrest.
French President Macron has appointed a groundbreaking new prime minister. Thirty- four-year-old Gabriel Attal is the youngest person to serve in that role in almost 70 years. Also, the first openly gay man to do so. President Macron is hoping the new hire will give his government a popularity boost. As CNN's Melissa Bell explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELLISA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A change of prime minister in France. It had been widely anticipated that Elisabeth Borne would leave matignon after a tumultuous 20 months but made even harder towards the end by the immigration law that many had seen as extremely controversial. There had been rumors she might be replaced.
And the name of her successor, Gabriel Attal, had become in the last few days the subject of a great deal of debate. Gabriel Attal becomes the youngest French prime minister in the history of the French Republic, so since 1958. Also the first openly gay politician to hold the post of prime minister here in France. It had been widely expected there'd be a change, a reshuffle that would lead to the departure of Elisabeth Borne who'd held the post for 20 months. It had been a fairly tumultuous time for her. There had been the pension reform, also the protests on the streets as a result of the killing of a 17- year-old of Algerian descent by the police.
And of course, the loss of Macron's presidential majority in parliament in the last elections. And yet she had survived thus far. It's understood that it was the immigration law introduced at the end of last year that may have put her in the most difficulty. And it's when the rumors had begun that she might in the end be sacrificed in the favor of a new prime minister. Gabriel Attal then takes over.
He's considered fairly controversial even within government ranks. It is said that his nomination was subject to delay as a result of opposition from several of the cabinet's biggest hitters. He's now set to announce his new cabinet looking ahead to the next few months. A difficult time, it's expected, say those who watch French politics closely with European elections that are likely to test the French government and the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. Gabriel Attal now leading that government into them. And of course beyond that, towards the end of the second term of Emmanuel Macron. Melissa Bell in Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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VAUSE: In the U.S., doctors disclosed that the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, had received surgery to treat prostate cancer last month. They say the prognosis is good. Austin went back to hospital two weeks later with a buildup of fluid impairing the function of his small intestines. The White House says President Biden did not know about the prostate cancer diagnosis until Tuesday. But Biden said he has complete confidence in Austin and plans to keep him as defense secretary.
We'll take a short break. When we come back, 2023 was a record year for global warming, but how bad did it actually get? And there were some highlights as well. We'll break down the latest climate report. And days after part of a passenger plane broke off during a flight, we're hearing from the head of Boeing. The very latest on Alaska Airlines investigation. That's next.
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Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN Newsroom. Well, after the hottest year on record, the world is now dangerously close to hitting a critical climate threshold agreed to by nearly 200 countries at the 2015 Paris Accords. CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, explains.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: One-point-four-eight degrees Celsius. That was the amount of global warming in 2023, two one-hundredths of a degree away from that pivotal number of 1.5 that the world agreed should be the upper limits of man-made global warming. But we're there.
Twenty-twenty-three, as a lot of people felt it around the world, just was undeniable. Not only did it break previous records, the hottest year ever in 2016, shattered them, obliterated them. The most northern latitudes you can see on the map there are the most northern latitudes you can see on the map. Up in Canada, there are a good three, four degrees of warming, warming much faster than the rest of the world. So, it is not even.
If we look at the global surface temperatures going back 57 years, it goes back to 1967, my birth year. This is my life and temperature graphs here. And 2023, you can see how that bar on the right is so much higher than anywhere else. Usually, these records are broken by just hundreds of a degree because you're talking about so much area, so much mass, so much time. But '23 was deadly special in so many ways. And then as we look at the through the year as the temperatures bounced around that 1.5 line there, we dipped above in March, came back down. But as you can see, the temperatures around the world hit that 1.5 threshold and stayed there for most of the back end of the year, even going above two degrees of global warming for a couple of days in November.
That has never happened before. For the first time ever, you can lay 2023's calendar over a calendar of '19 or 1850 to 1900. And every day was a full degree warmer than those before. And this doesn't even take into account the estimated millions of species of plants and animals that could go extinct by 2050.
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Bill Weir, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: So climate change doesn't come cheap, it seems. The U.S. saw a record $28 billion climate disasters last year, according to NOAA.
Wildfires and floods, to hurricanes, to tornadoes, and beyond, the report says the total cost of all of these disasters put together, natural disasters, is $92 billion. That number could still rise, because it does not account for severe weather at the end of 2023.
The cost of climate change went beyond money, though, with nearly 500 deaths attributed directly or indirectly to these disasters. The eighth most disaster-related fatalities on the mainland U.S. since 1980.
Well, environmental groups are raising concern over Norway's push to allow deep-sea mining between its coast in Greenland.
Under the plan approved Tuesday by Norway's Parliament, over 100,000 square miles of Arctic seabed would be open for exploration, an area larger than the U.K.
Supporters say extracting metals and minerals from the ocean floor would help reduce carbon emissions more quickly. But scientists are worried about the potential damage to whales and other marine life.
Boeing's CEO told employees the aircraft manufacturer is acknowledging mistakes. David Calhoun says the company will approach the investigation into Friday's fuselage door plug blowout on board an Alaska Airlines flight with complete transparency, because quote, "This stuff matters."
The FAA says certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft remain grounded while the door plugs are under investigation. And the big focus now is on bolts, as CNN's Pete Muntean explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun says the company is acknowledging its mistake. That, in a just-released excerpt from the company's all-hands safety meeting on Tuesday.
Here is the issue. Calhoun did not say exactly what the mistake is, if anything, and now investigators are scrambling to get to the bottom of it.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): After Friday's dramatic in-flight blowout, significant new findings by investigators and airlines are putting the spotlight on bolts in the Boeing 737 MAX 9, designed to hold the part that ripped off in place.
Known as a door plug, the National Transportation Safety Board now says it blew out and up, triggering what investigators call a chaotic and loud explosive decompression.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alaska 1282, we just depressurized, and we're declaring an emergency. We do not need to descend down to ten thousand.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): In prepping their plans for FAA-mandated emergency inspections, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines both report issues with door plugs on an undisclosed number of now-grounded MAX 9s.
Alaska says mechanics found some loose hardware was visible. United says it found possible door plug installation issues and bolts that needed additional tightening.
Now, investigators are searching for the door plug bolts from Friday's incident, potentially key evidence.
CLINT CROOKSHANKS, NTSB AEROSPACE ENGINEER: We have not yet recovered the four bolts that restrained it from its vertical movement. And we have not yet determined if they existed there.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): A MAX 9 door plug is secured by high air pressure inside the plane, pushing 12 tabs on the door against matching tabs on the plane's frame. A total of four bolts at the top and bottom of the door can be removed for maintenance, but without them, the door could slide out of place.
CROOKSHANKS: By design, if the bolts are there, it prevents the door from transiting upwards and disengaging from the stop fittings and flying off the plane.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Early reads from Alaska 1282's flight data recorder detail that cockpit alarm sounded, followed by the door plug blowout one minute later.
JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NTSB: This was a really significant event. It was terrifying.
MUNTEAN: The NTSB says it has also reached out to Spirit AeroSystems. That is the Boeing contractor that builds the MAX 9 fuselage.
Those planes remain grounded until airlines can inspect them. Airlines are waiting on inspection details from the FAA. The FAA says it's waiting on details from Boeing.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The growing safety concerns follow strong demands for Boeing jets. The plane maker reported record new orders in December, which was one of its busiest years ever for sales.
Last year was also Boeing's strongest year since the grounding of its 737 MAX jets after two deadly crashes in 2018 and the following year, respectively.
Nigeria has destroyed two tons of elephant tusks, valued roughly at $11 million, which were seized during operations against illegal wildlife trafficking.
Thousands of elephants are killed every year for their tusks, despite a 1989 worldwide ban on the trade of ivory.
And in Nigeria, the elephant population has fallen from 1,500 to less than 400 over the past three decades.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARK OFUA, WEST AFRICA REPRESENTATIVE AT WILD AFRICA FUND: We want to let people know that these tusks belong to elephants. They are most beautiful on the elephants, and we should leave them on the elephants. Every tusk you see today represents an animal that's been killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:35:16]
VAUSE: Nigeria is considered a hub for gangs selling illegal African wildlife parts to Asia. The country has stepped up its counter- smuggling efforts in recent years.
More documents have been unsealed about sex offender and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his relationship with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The CEO of an Indian A.I. start-up has been arrested on suspicion of murdering her 4-year-old son. The details are gruesome here.
Thirty-nine-year-old Suchana Seth was detained after the body of her son was found in her luggage.
State police say she checked into a hotel on Saturday with her son, but on Monday the boy was not seen as she checked out. Seth left in a taxi. That's when the hotel staff went to clean her room and allegedly discovering bloodstains on a towel.
At the same time, police contacted the taxi driver, directed him to divert to a nearby police station, where they say the boy's body was located in her luggage.
Newly unsealed deposition of the late accused sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein shows he refused to answer dozens of questions about his relationship with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The deposition was part of the fifth round of hundreds of documents on a lawsuit connected to Epstein released Tuesday.
CNN's Jean Casarez has more now on Epstein's meteoric rise in the financial world, and his spectacular fall from grace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Much of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's life remains a mystery, from how he accumulated has multi-million-dollar fortune, to how he developed ties to incredibly influential people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you please give us your name?
JEFFREY EPSTEIN, CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER: Jeffrey Epstein. CASAREZ (voice-over): From former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald
Trump, actor Kevin Spacey, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, David Copperfield, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and even Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Epstein associated with an elite circle.
He owned lavish properties in Manhattan; Palm Beach, Florida; New Mexico; Paris; and a private island in the Caribbean, according to court filings. He also owned at least 15 vehicles and had access to two private jets.
Born in Brooklyn to working-class parents, he actually never received a college degree. But that didn't stop him from getting a job teaching mathematics at the prestigious Dalton School in New York City.
It was there he tutored the daughter of Bear Stearns chairman Alan Greenberg and wound up getting a job at the investment bank. There, he met billionaire Leslie Wexner, who ran L Brands and Victoria's Secret. And Epstein not only became his money advisor, but was given power of attorney over finances.
[00:40:06]
In the '80s, Epstein began operating his own money management firms.
In the early '90s, Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, would become Epstein's lifelong companion. For years, the pair would host billionaires, politicians, and celebrities.
But in 2005, Epstein was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex, and was criminally charged in 2006. Epstein was charged with Florida state prostitution crimes. He pleaded guilty in 2008, served 13 months in a jail work release program, and registered as a sex offender.
Despite his criminal conviction, Epstein and Maxwell continued to mingle with the rich and famous, and continued to recruit young girls for massages, a code word for sexual services, according to court documents.
But 11 years later, Epstein's legal troubles caught up with him again. Wexner wrote that Epstein, quote, "misappropriated vast sums of money" from Wexner and his family more than a decade ago. Over $46 million, according to "The Wall Street Journal."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeffrey Epstein.
CASAREZ (voice-over): And in July 2019, a federal indictment charged Epstein with sex trafficking, and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Epstein is alleged to have abused dozens of victims by causing them to engage in sex acts with him at his mansion in New York and at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
CASAREZ (voice-over): While awaiting trial in New York, Epstein died by suicide, denying justice for his victims, and leaving so many questions forever unanswered. Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, it's been closed for three years because of the pandemic. Millions in Manila have returned to see a statue of Jesus believed to have healing powers.
The Parade of the Black Nazarene was back in full swing, as many as 6 million Filipinos turning up, because they believe the statue can heal incurable ailments and bring good fortune.
It's come from Mexico and arrived in the Philippines in the 17th Century. Some say the dark color has been caused by a fire. Others say it's made of mesquite wood. Whatever it is, it's very popular.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, back with more news at the top of the hour. Until then, stay with us. WORLD SPORT is up after a very short break.
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