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Ron DeSantis Ends Presidential Campaign, Endorses Trump; Netanyahu Facing Calls for Leadership Change Amid Conflict; Biden Campaign Watches GOP Contest as DeSantis Suspends Bid; Voters Share Views on Trump Ahead of NH Primary; Arctic Blast to be Replaced with Heavy Rain. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 22, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM.

[00:00:34]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's now one fellow and one lady left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: It's the home stretch in New Hampshire. The U.S. Republican presidential nomination, whittled down to two candidates.

In Israel, relatives of loved ones gathered near the prime minister's residence, calling for a hostage release deal. Some call for a change in leadership

And a powerful storm pummels much of the U.K. with large waves and fierce winds.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: Just over 24 hours to go now before New Hampshire's Republican primary and, after a major shake-up in the U.S. presidential race on Sunday, the GOP contest now down to two main contenders: former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, who hopes to leverage the Granite State's moderate Republicans, and independents.

But Trump has consistently dominated the GOP field in polling and last week registered a nearly 30-point win, of course, in the Iowa caucuses.

And now Trump has the endorsement of his former rival, Ron DeSantis. Florida's governor announcing on Sunday, he's dropping out of the race, despite insisting for days that he'd stay in it through South Carolina's primary next month.

Trump's campaign is already fundraising off this new endorsement, and Trump is telling crowds he looks forward to working with DeSantis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd like to take time to congratulate Ron DeSantis, and of course, a really terrific person, you ran a really good campaign.

He was very gracious, and he endorsed me. So I appreciate it. I appreciate that. And I also look forward to working with Ron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN reporter Steve Contorno is in Florida with details on how the governor's unexpected decision to suspend his presidential campaign played out on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis making the decision on Sunday to end --

CONTORNO (voice-over): -- his presidential campaign. He is bowing out of the race just days after Iowa dealt his campaign a devastating blow with a second-place finish there, far behind former President Donald Trump.

He had campaigned heavily in the state, visiting all 99 counties, but ultimately, not winning a single one.

The decision also comes just days before New Hampshire will vote in this GOP presidential primary. He was not expected to do particularly well there. However, he was supposed to visit the state on Sunday.

Instead, he traveled to Florida and released this video to his supporters.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, following our second can place finish in Iowa, we've prayed and deliberated on the way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome: more campaign stops, more interviews. I would do it.

But I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today spending my campaign.

I'm proud to have delivered on 100 percent of my promises. And I will not stop now.

CONTORNO: DeSantis wasted little time saying who he would get behind in the Republican presidential primary going forward. He's backing Donald Trump, and he had some choice words for former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

DESANTIS: I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement, because we can't go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackage formed of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents. The days of putting Americans last, of kowtowing to large corporations, of caving to woke ideology, are over.

CONTORNO: A source close to DeSantis says he was approached by advisers in the days after the Iowa caucuses --

CONTORNO (voice-over): -- with options for winding down his presidential campaign. But he rejected those, believing that he still had a path to the nomination, and he continued to fight on, including an appearance just Saturday in South Carolina, where he continued to press his case.

But he woke up Sunday in a different state of mind and ultimately decided to end his presidential campaign.

The big question is, what comes next for the governor? Well, he has three years left on his second term as Florida governor. He will then be term-limited out.

[00:05:05]

CONTORNO: And his advisers say, don't count him out yet in 2028.

Steve Contorno, CNN, St. Petersburg, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Despite DeSantis's swipe at Nikki Haley during his suspension announcement, she was gracious in her response while speaking to CNN's Dana Bash. But Haley also hammered home her campaign message that she is the best option for those who want to avoid a Trump-Biden rematch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HALEY: Look, I have said I think that Ron ran a good race. I know it's personal to get into a race. IT'S personal to get out of a race. He's been a good governor, and he added a lot to the campaign. And we wish him well.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: When he -- when he dropped out, part of what he said was he reminded everybody that he signed a pledge to support the Republican -- Republican nominee. I'll honor that pledge. He, meaning Donald Trump, "has my endorsement, because we can't go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear or repackaged form of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents."

That's tough stuff, on his way out the door.

HALEY: You know, and it's interesting, because there's no proof to that. These fellows say this, because they want people to believe it.

But what's amazing to me is they think they can lie to the American people, and the American people are going to believe it. Prove it. Prove one thing that they've said. Prove the fact that Donald Trump says, I want to cut Social Security or raise the age. I've never said that.

Prove the fact that Donald Trump says, I want to raise gas taxes. I've never said that or done that. Prove that Ron DeSantis says that I'm a corporate whatever he says I am. I've never done that.

I was in South Carolina. We fought for the people every day. There's a reason that you don't see the legislature lining up behind me in South Carolina. It's because I fought to get them to vote on the record. I fought to have them do ethics reform. I've vetoed half a billion dollars' worth of their port projects.

And then you see Congress. The reason Congress doesn't support us is I've pushed for term limits. I've pushed for mental competency tests. I've said if they don't give us a budget on time, they don't get paid. I don't get that political elite.

That's what we need to be talking about, not the corporate stuff that they're talking about. The fact that they all side together against the people, is what I'm doing. I'm going to continue to fight for the people.

There were 14 people in this race, and now there are two. I'm going to finish this. So Joe Biden and Donald Trump or not an issue at all that we actually put them in the past and we go forward, because our country deserves it.

And Americans want it. They're tired. I don't think we need to have two 80-year-olds sitting in the White House when we've basically got to make sure that we can handle the war situation that we're in.

We need to know they're at the top of their game. We need to know that they can take care of our national security in our economy.

Right now, I don't know that people feel like that with either one. So that's why we're giving them a choice.

BASH: What's your message to Ron DeSantis's supporters, who are still out there? Let's just start in New Hampshire. He, at our -- at our latest poll this morning, he was at 6 percent. So we're not talking about a big slice of the electric, but they are out there. He just endorsed Donald Trump.

What's your message to them about why they should vote for you?

HALEY: I think that they love America, and I think they want a new generational leader. And so I am telling them that, in that new generational leader and on the conservative, it can get it done.

And we're going to go and make sure that we get spending under control. We're going to get our kids reading again and have transparency in the classroom. We're going to secure our border once and for all, no more excuses. We're going to bring law and order back to this country.

But guess what else we're going to do? We're the only one in a general election that beats Joe Biden. Even if you look at the poll yesterday that came out in New Hampshire. General election, Trump loses to Biden by seven points here in New Hampshire. I beat Biden.

Look at every swing state. I beat Biden. I beat him by up to 17 points. This is a fact: we don't want a President Kamala Harris. That should send a chill up everybody's spine.

So instead, look at the fact that we could actually win. And I think that's what Ron DeSantis's supporters want. They don't want to lose. They don't want a President Kamala Harris. And they also want a new generational leader. And we give them all of that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now with DeSantis out of the race, a new joint poll from CNN and the University of New Hampshire shows Donald Trump widening his lead over Nikki Haley.

When asked who they'd support in a two-candidate race, 54 percent of likely voters chose Trump; 41 percent chose Haley. The poll was conducted days before DeSantis dropped out but reflects the second choices of those who were backing him.

Now, that same poll also showed that DeSantis was already affectively out of the running in New Hampshire even before he quit the race. CNN political director David Chalian spoke about that earlier with our Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: But he was sort of not part of the New Hampshire conversation. He had already faded so substantially, because he had pulled himself off the air largely in New Hampshire.

He wasn't even in the final weeks when they put everything into Iowa.

And so what happened is you're right. He would have been very much a third, distant. I mean, we had a poll out this morning, Jim. It showed him with 6 percent support in New Hampshire.

So he was sort of a nonfactor. And so how do you -- how do you build momentum off of a nonfactor New Hampshire, when you've got weeks to go before the South Carolina primary, where all the polling shows Donald Trump pretty significantly ahead.

And of course, it's Nikki Haley's home state. So the -- the path ahead for DeSantis, as he acknowledged in his remarks today, there was no clear path ahead to this nomination.

So he just acknowledged the reality of the situation. There was no point to stay in this race for him.

But my God, the -- the year of 2023, you go back a year ago now, he was actually really in contention with Donald.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Oh, yes.

CHALIAN: Some polls, Donald Trump had come off of those '22 midterms in a somewhat weakened political state People thought a lot of the candidates he backed caused the Republicans to lose key races.

Here's this guy. He comes off this 19-point reelection victory. And as Steve said, it just was squandered, month after month after month. It was like a textbook example of how not to run a presidential campaign.

That is what DeSantis leaves behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN political director David Chalian there. Now, we're going to have much more on the Republican presidential race just ahead. Later, Israel's prime minister rejecting what he says are Hamas's conditions to release hostages held in Gaza. What he says they're demanding when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:15:32]

HOLMES: Welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States. I'm Michael Holmes.

And we are counting down the hours to the New Hampshire primary, where former U.S. President Donald Trump now has one less opponent in the race for the Republican nomination.

That's after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign for president on Sunday. At one point, he was considered to pose the greatest threat to Trump in securing the Republican nomination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESANTIS: If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome -- more campaign stops, more interviews -- I would do it. But I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory.

Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, now, the Republican race is down to just two main candidates, Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. DeSantis has thrown his support behind Trump.

For his part, Trump says he's looking forward to working with the Florida governor.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley is using the moment to rally support for the fight ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: I want to say, Ron, you ran a great race. He's been a good governor. And we wish him well. Having said that, it's now one fellow and one lady left. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN's Alayna Treene has more on DeSantis's surprise announcement, as well as Trump's reaction to his sudden endorsement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just hours after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed the former president --

TREENE (voice-over): -- Trump came out onstage in Rochester, New Hampshire, and congratulated him for running what he called a great campaign.

He also said that DeSantis was being, quote, "gracious for giving him his endorsement." Take a listen to how Donald Trump put it.

TRUMP: Before we begin, I'd like to take time to congratulate Ron DeSantis and, of course, a really terrific person who I'd gotten to know his wife Casey, for having run a great campaign for president. He did. He ran a really good campaign, I will tell you.

It's not easy. They think it's easy doing this stuff, right? It's not easy.

But as you know, he left the campaign trail today at 3 p.m., and in so doing, he was very gracious, and he endorsed me. So I appreciate it.

I appreciate that. And I also look forward to working with Ron and everybody else to defeat Crooked Joe Biden.

TREENE: Well, what a difference just a few hours make.

TREENE (voice-over): I mean, this is a complete 180 from the type of rhetoric we heard Donald Trump use just this weekend in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday. Trump was criticizing Ron DeSantis.

And this is also the first time, I want to note, that he's actually referred to the Florida governor by his real name, instead of the nickname that he's given the Florida governor, which is Ron DeSanctimonious.

But look, I think one thing that we should be watching for is whether or not this endorsement from DeSantis changes anything in the minds of Donald Trump. Already it appears it has, given the language we heard him use on Sunday.

But, you know, over the past year now, Donald Trump has really viciously gone after Ron DeSantis --

TREENE: -- attacked him very heavily in the lead up to the Iowa caucuses. And part of that was because the campaign was worried --

TREENE (voice-over): -- about DeSantis as a rival. But the other part was because it was personal. Donald Trump very much

believes that DeSantis was being disloyal by running for president after Trump had endorsed him for Florida governor in 2017.

TREENE: And that's where a lot of those attacks stem from, according to my conversations with Donald Trump's advisers and his allies.

TREENE (voice-over): But I think the question now is, will his endorsement change the game?

Will you see Ron DeSantis become a potential surrogate for the Trump campaign? I know, as well, from our conversations with Trump's team that as of now, there are no plans for DeSantis to show up on the trail with them. But again, that could change in the coming weeks.

TREENE: Alayna Treene, CNN, Rochester, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Alice Stewart is a CNN political commentator and Republican strategist. She joins me now. Good to see you, Alice.

DeSantis out, but let's face it, he was polling 6 percent in New Hampshire. He's running out of money. Staff had been defecting. So I don't think we can say the decision is wholly unexpected, but how do you think it's going to impact the race?

[00:20:07]

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it will have a big impact, Michael, on New Hampshire. And as far as how it impacts the race after that remains to be seen. I don't think very much.

And here's why. Look, DeSantis came into this race. He had tremendous amounts of money. You had tremendous amounts of expectation. He had solid name I.D., and quite frankly, he was the -- you know, central casting for a presidential candidate in terms of the looks and the optics of the family and the kids.

But the problem was it was not a very well-run campaign. It was run by an outside political action committee. There was tension between his current staff, as the governor, and the incoming staff on the presidential campaign. So that created a great deal of turmoil.

And I can tell you, as working on several presidential campaigns, you all have to be on the same page from the very beginning, or the wheels start to fall off. And they did.

HOLMES: Right.

STEWART: And they started to get a handle of things in the summer, and it was just too little, too late. But look, here he wasn't living up to the expectations they had with him.

Donald Trump, as we know, last week in Iowa, had a resounding victory there and really set the stone for the fact that Republicans are willing to listen to Donald Trump and give him a second chance.

The question now is how will this impact Nikki Haley? And look, I think for strong third-place showing in Iowa, puts her in a good spot here in New Hampshire.

Look, she has a tremendous wind at her sails here in New Hampshire. She -- her image of being a more moderate candidate is representative and appealing to the people here in New Hampshire.

I think she will do well here. The polls -- our CNN poll has Donald Trump around 50 percent, her around 36, and DeSantis was at six. I think she can bridge the gap in the next couple days.

But how that will impact after New Hampshire, I don't see it changing the ultimate end game, which is probably Donald Trump.

HOLMES: Well, will tactically, Haley has become slight -- I'm hesitant to use the word aggressive, but a little bit. She's attacking Trump. A little bit. She's challenging him selectively, if you like, talking about age and so on. Memory, you know, cognitive ability.

But not on things like criminal charges, the trials he's in the middle of. Not even -- let's face it, racially tense comments about her name. She seems to stop short. Does she now need to go all out to differentiate herself from Donald Trump?

STEWART: I think she does. Look, I've been saying all along that all of these candidates need to go through Donald Trump to get to Joe Biden, which is the goal of the GOP nominee.

And she has done subtle lobs at Donald Trumps. She certainly hit him from the very beginning in these debates with regard to how he impacted the debt. Certainly with his tone and tenor and continuously saying that chaos and drama follows, Donald Trump, and she would bring a more optimistic, young, fresh generation of leadership.

But she has, to your point, she has always stopped short of being too critical of the countless charges against him, in large part, Michael, because many Republicans look at all of these charges against Donald Trump as they view this as weaponization of the DOJ and liberal justices and prosecutors going against Donald Trump, because they see him as a big threat to Joe Biden.

And she has been riding -- singing off of that playbook.

You know, today, she came out after she heard news that DeSantis got out, and she basically said Donald Trump is too old. And she said that -- she lumped him in with Joe Biden. She said he is just as problematic --

HOLMES: Yes.

STEWART: -- as Joe Biden in terms of we don't need an 80-year-old president, and it's time for young fresh leadership.

HOLMES: Alice, good to see you. Alice Stewart there in New Hampshire for us, where the voting will begin on Tuesday. Thanks so much.

STEWART: Thanks, Michael.

HOLMES: Still ahead on the program, protesters gathered near the Israeli prime minister's home to demand a hostage deal. We will have his response when we come back.

Also, Ukraine strikes a Russian oil facility. What this could mean for Russian troops. That's also when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [00:27:40]

HOLMES: Pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages in Gaza. Families and friends of the hostages held a rally near Mr. Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem on Sunday, again, calling for their release.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After 107 days, we are demanding that they fix the failure from the Seventh. And that can only start with returning all of the hostages alive. Bringing home 136 hostages in bags can never be considered any part of a victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now this comes as a report in "The Wall Street Journal" says the U.S., Egypt and Qatar want Israel to join a new phase of talks with Hamas that would start with releasing hostages and lead to Israeli forces withdrawing completely from Gaza.

Netanyahu says he's working on it, quote, "around the clock," but is also outright rejecting Hamas's demands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I categorically reject the conditions of capitulation to the Hamas monsters in exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands an end to the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all murderers and rapists from Nukhba, and the continuation of Hamas in power.

If we accept this, our soldiers have fallen in vain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Barak Ravid is a CNN political and global affairs analyst, and also politics and foreign policy reporter at Axios. He joins me now. Thanks for doing so.

Let's talk about Netanyahu. He's also always called himself the security prime minister. But it was interesting. I was reading the number of people killed in Israel in 2023 was the highest in 50 years. How fraught is Netanyahu's political security right now, given all

that's going on?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think than you is and one of his weakest points, politically, since he started his political career more than three decades ago.

A poll that was published on Sunday on Channel 13, Israel showed that 53 percent of Israelis think that Netanyahu is mostly thinking about his own personal interests and not about the interests of the country.

[00:30:07]

His party was in one of his weakest points in the polls. I think he got 15 seats or 16 seats, which is half of what it has today. And his coalition right now only gets 45 seats, which is 19 less than it has today. So I think that Netanyahu was in a very, very weak spot.

HOLMES: And how has the hostage situation specifically and the lack of moral releases hurt him on the Israeli street?

RAVID: I'm not sure. It hurts him, at least not in the immediate term. Just another point from that poll. Only 35 percent of Israelis prefer doing a deal right now, if it means to stop the war and release all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

So I think that, when it comes to public opinion and the hostage issue and Netanyahu is still sort of in a good place. But you see how every day, there's more and more protests among the hostage -- the families of the hostages, and it -- you know, it grows slowly but surely within the Israeli public.

HOLMES: There's speculation in Israeli media that Netanyahu's position on a two-state solution or, more accurately, no two-state solution is actually part of a political plan.

And you were talking about how he's out for himself, or seemed that way. Because he's so unpopular for his handling of the war and what led up to October 7, that it's part of a political plan to pivot to a message of I'll stop a Palestinian state. I stood up to the U.S. and the West, rather than be judged on his merits.

What do you think of that theory?

RAVID: Well, first, I'd say, I think that what matters to most Israelis these days is not whether Netanyahu will stop a Palestinian state or support a Palestinian state.

Between 70 to 80 percent of Israelis voted on Netanyahu to resign regardless of his position on two-state solution. So I think I'm not sure this campaign will work. He tried it. He tried sort of a similar campaign after the beginning of the war when he said that everything that happened in -- in Gaza is a result of the Oslo Accords from 30 years ago. The Israeli public didn't buy it. I'm not sure it will buy the whole, you know, two-state solution thing or his opposition to the two-state solution.

And honestly, I think that, you know, Netanyahu lied so many times about his position on two-state solution, that I'm not sure why even -- why anybody would even take seriously whatever he has to say on this issue.

HOLMES: He -- he continues to argue, you know, this is no time for talk of elections. It's time for unity. We're in a time of war and so on, which normally resonates in Israel, that unity argument during a time of conflict.

But what does the public think of that argument this time around?

RAVID: Well, I think, you know, while the Israeli people, like I think in every country, wants to have as much unity as possible, again, the majority of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign.

Some of them want him to resign now. Some of them want him to resign after the war ends.

But every day that passes, I think, just convinces more and more Israelis of the need for an election. Just last Saturday, we saw for the first time a demonstration in Tel Aviv with something like 10,000 people calling for election. This is something we haven't seen since the beginning of the war.

So I think we see those things are popping up more and more and more. And as time passes, the Netanyahu situation will not get any better.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. Reports of tents being set up outside his house. So that's something.

Got to leave it there, unfortunately. Barak Ravid, good to see you. Thanks so much.

RAVID: Thank you.

HOLMES: Lebanon's national news agency says one person was killed, five others injured in an Israeli drone strike on Sunday. The incident happened near the Lebanese-Israeli border, according to the news agency.

Meanwhile, Israel says it's been conducting operations against Hezbollah positions in several locations in Southern Lebanon recently. Israel releasing this video on Sunday, saying that their fighter jets carried out strikes against what it calls terrorist infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah militants in the region.

Turning now to the conflict in Ukraine, the U.N. secretary-general is condemning the deadly attacks on the Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region.

A Russian appointed official says at least 28 civilians were killed in a shopping area.

[00:35:04] Meanwhile, Ukraine is extending its reach into Russia and appears to be trying to disrupt Russian military logistics. Ukraine says it launched a drone attack on a Russian oil terminal about 100 kilometers or 62 miles West of the major city of St. Petersburg.

Local Russian reports say two drones struck the facility. A Ukrainian defense source telling CNN, the terminal, which processes liquefied natural gas into fuel, is used by the Russian military.

When we come back on the program, mass demonstrations gaining momentum in Germany over the far-right party's stance on migrants. Hear how the party is responding, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Hundreds of thousands of people are turning out in Berlin and cities all across Germany, protesting for a second straight week against the country's far -- major, far-right party.

The demonstrations have gained momentum after reports emerged that senior members of the Alternative for Germany Party have discussed a, quote, "master plan" for the mass deportation of migrants, and even German citizens, who originally came from other countries.

The party denies any such plans are part of its policy and says a meeting where this was allegedly discussed was a private event.

In the U.K. -- in the U.K., Storm Eisha is hammering the British Isles, with high wind alerts in effect for much of the nation. The storm has brought powerful wind gusts, heavy rain, and milder temperatures to the region.

Almost 300 high wind reports were recorded across the region on Sunday. Those strong winds have led to some treacherous landing attempts at London's Heathrow Airport, as you see there.

More than 300 flights reportedly delayed on Sunday. More than 100 others canceled.

[00:40:09]

Preparations are underway in India for the inauguration of a new multimillion-dollar Ram temple in Ayodhya, in the next hour. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be presiding over the ceremony.

More than 7,000 people have been invited to attend the ceremony, including politicians from across the country.

The controversial Hindu temple stands on the site of a 16th Century mosque that was destroyed by Hindu nationalists more than 30 years ago, triggering riots across the country.

The construction of the temple fulfills a long-standing promise by Modi in an election year.

Another health concern for Britain's royal family. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has been diagnosed with malignant melanoma. That's according to the U.K. Press Association, citing her spokesperson.

It is an aggressive form of skin cancer which was discovered after several moles were removed when Ferguson was treated for breast cancer last June.

The 64-year-old duchess, who was previously married, of course, to Prince Andrew, is said to be recovering at home and is in good spirits.

I'm Michael Holmes. For our international viewers, WORLD SPORT is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with more news in just a moment.

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[00:40:41]

(WORLD SPORT)

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HOLMES: Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM.