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Trump Picks RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary; Biden Arrives in Peru with Specter of Trump Looming Large; Authorities in Spain Say Worst is Over After More Torrential Rain; South Africa Refusing to Help Hundreds of Illegal Miners; Satirical News Site The Onion Wins InfoWars' Assets. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 15, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, here are today's top stories.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump adding to his list of Cabinet selections live on stage. During an event for the America First Policy Institute, he announced that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum will be Secretary of the Interior.

Russia is watching the Cabinet selection process pretty closely and is celebrating some of his choices. Russian state media are cheering on the selection of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Trump's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary has people talking. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and activist who's a known vaccine skeptic, will head to the department.

RFK Jr. has long been known for his bizarre behavior, some of it involving dead animals, much of it involving misinformation about vaccines. CNN's Brian Todd has a closer look at his controversies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: I'm going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicines.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The person Donald Trump's going to let go wild, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is the 70-year-old son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, and has become known mostly for espousing outlandish, false conspiracy theories about the COVID virus.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: COVID- 19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

TODD (voice-over): And he's repeatedly, baselessly called the COVID-19 vaccines unsafe.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: There could be widespread disinformation to the public about what they should or shouldn't be doing in terms of their public health.

TODD (voice-over): The co-chair of Trump's transition team told CNN's Kaitlan Collins this, about what Kennedy might try to do with the COVID vaccines that are in place now which have been proven to be mostly safe.

HOWARD LUTNICK, CO-CHAIR, TRUMP-VANCE TRANSITION TEAM: He says, if you give me the data, all I want is the data, and I'll take on the data and show that it's not safe, and then if you pull the product liability, the companies will yank these vaccines right off of the market.

TODD (voice-over): In May of this year, it was revealed that Kennedy once claimed in a deposition that a parasitic worm had once entered his brain and died, which he said led to, quote, severe brain fog, and trouble with his short-term memory. He actually joked about it.

KENNEDY: Maybe a brain worm ate that part of my memory.

TODD (voice-over): Earlier this year in a rambling video posted on X, Kennedy admitted that about 10 years ago he was driving in upstate New York when he found the carcass of a dead bear that had been hit by a vehicle.

KENNEDY: So I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear.

TODD (voice-over): But Kennedy said he got sidetracked by several events that day, couldn't go home, didn't know what to do with the bear. So he decided to leave the carcass in New York's Central Park and make it look like a bike accident.

KENNEDY: So we went and did that and we thought it would be amusing for whoever found it or something.

LARRY SABATO, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: The whole story, the wild, weird story that RFK Jr. told about the bear cub and how it got into Central Park has really made an impact and not a positive one for him.

TODD (voice-over): This summer, an article in Vanity Fair had a photo of Kennedy appearing to pantomime eating a dog carcass. Kennedy denied it was a dog.

[04:35:00]

KENNEDY JR.: It's actually me eating a goat in Patagonia.

TODD (voice-over): That same Vanity Fair article published allegations that Kennedy had sexually assaulted a former nanny for his family. Kennedy sidestepped the accusations.

KENNEDY JR.: I am not a church boy.

TODD: Robert Kennedy Jr. has already floated ideas for major turnover at public health agencies. In one recent interview, he said he would cut the number of employees in nutrition departments at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And at a recent conference, he proposed replacing about 600 officials at the National Institutes of Health with hand-picked staff.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Kennedy's nomination was bad news for some pharmaceutical stocks. Shares of prominent vaccine makers plunged after Donald Trump named the vaccine skeptic as the health secretary. BioNTech and Novavax both saw losses of more than 7 percent in the last hour of trading as news of Trump's choice began to spread.

Last week, Kennedy said he would immediately start studying vaccine safety but promised not to take vaccines away from anybody.

U.S. President Joe Biden now in Peru for the APEC summit with its focus on Asia-Pacific economic cooperation. The president will seek to reassure leaders who are talking about how to insulate their economies against potential challenges posed by President-elect Donald Trump.

In particular, Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday. Steven Jiang is following all of this for us from Beijing. I'm just wondering how you think Xi is going to go into this meeting and what he might want to get from Biden.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right. But, you know, as you mentioned, the election result from the U.S. really is looming large over this meeting, because the Chinese have a lot to worry about, not just those potential massive tariffs that Trump has threatened during the campaign, but also now they have to potentially deal with quite a few China hawks that Trump just picked for his new cabinet and national security team.

But Chinese officials have been telling us that they are fully prepared to deal with the second Trump administration, which they expect to be quite different from the first time around. They are also saying that they are very much capable of fighting back, even faced with a sluggish economy at home.

Now, their more immediate concern seem to be the potential disruption or even total halt of just resumed bilateral exchanges between the two sides on numerous issues. And that actually is how the Biden administration sees this meeting as well, with officials saying from their point of view, no matter who is in the White House, both sides need to find ways to manage this tough and complicated relationship between two superpowers.

That's why they say Biden is going to mention some of the progress they have made, but also continues to raise a lot of U.S. concerns multiple fronts.

But from Xi's perspective, though, he's going into this meeting, really trying to project this image of stability and global leadership. And some analysts have also said this kind of multilateral setting like APEC gives him an opportunity to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its allies and partners, because if there's one thing China likes even less than potential tariffs, that's Biden's approach in the past few years of forming this united front with partners and allies targeting China on numerous issues.

So the setting of this meeting, of course, in Peru, also very interesting, because China just unveiled a multi-billion dollar mega port there built by one of its state owned companies, really a testament to its growing economic clout in the region, long considered to be America's backyard.

Now, of course, China has replaced the U.S. as the biggest trading partner with a growing number of Latin American countries. So that kind of stark contrast between China's continuing growing investments and what many see as America's neglect or at least disinterest in the region is something that Xi Jinping is definitely trying to highlight and take advantage of as he goes into this meeting with Biden. Very likely their final meeting -- Max.

FOSTER: Steven Jiang in Beijing. Thank you so much.

Africa's e-commerce market expanding rapidly. It was worth more than $277 billion last year, according to the market research firm Emark Group. One tech company, Jumia, launched in Nigeria in 2012. It's been dubbed the Amazon of Africa.

CNN's Eleni Giokos reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here on the outskirts of Abidjan, the economic hub of Cote d'Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, Jumia's newest integrated warehouse is nearing completion. These facilities aim to streamline operations to increase the efficiency of the e-commerce delivery process.

HAZIM OURO SAMA, HEAD OF LOGISTICS, JUMIA, COTE D'IVOIRE: Coming here, we are able to double the capacity of articles we inbound. We can inbound now more than 2 million articles.

[04:40:00]

GIOKOS (voice-over): Jumia's platform provides 64,000 retailers a marketplace to sell their goods. The company says 2 million customers make purchases from the site every quarter. And it's now focusing on growth.

SAMA: It was important to expand this on Ivory Coast, clearly, because it is one of the biggest and more dynamic cities in West Africa.

GIOKOS (voice-over): This 36,000 square meter facility in Cote d'Ivoire is one of five new integrated warehouses that are being replicated in Egypt, Ghana, Morocco and Nigeria.

LUCIA MUNOZ DE BLAS, GROUP SUPPLY AND CHAING OFFICER, JUMIA: We were also taking the opportunity to standardize across countries the same processes layout. E-commerce will never survive without logistics, and logistics need to be efficient. Having one roof integrated facility with warehouse sorting centers, so everything is in one, it's easier to manage, it's more efficient, it's better for our customers and for our sellers.

GIOKOS (voice-over): The Abidjan warehouse is expected to be completed early next year. In the meantime, the benefits of a more streamlined system are already being felt at the Lagos facility in Nigeria, which opened in June.

RICHMOND CARLOS OUT, CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER, JUMIA NIGERIA: We are doing close to 45 percent more than what we were doing six months ago. Previously, we used to deliver within two days within Lagos. Now we deliver within one day within Lagos.

GIOKOS (voice-over): And they say this expansion is just the beginning as they look for new ways to grow Africa's e-commerce ecosystem.

DE BLAS: E-commerce as a whole in Africa is having good impacts, is giving more visibility to sellers, is helping the customers across the country to be able to have all the goods that they need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Firefighters are making steady progress in containing the Jennings Creek Wildfire, which started over a week ago across New Jersey and New York state lines. Thousands of acres have been burned. Dry weather conditions coupled with a lack of rain have contributed to the historic blaze.

Authorities have arrested at least two people who were accused of intentionally starting some of the fires. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has issued a statewide burn ban effective until the end of November.

The Philippines is caught up in the middle of a record-breaking typhoon season. What was Tropical Storm Man-yi just a few hours ago is now strengthened into the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane with the potential to rapidly intensify even more. It's expected to make landfall this weekend and will be the country's fourth typhoon in 11 days.

[04:45:00]

The last storm, Usagi, just hit the northern part of weather-torn nations on Thursday as a super typhoon. It has since weakened significantly but is still a typhoon heading north towards Taiwan now.

Turning to Central America where Tropical Storm Sara is expected to hug the coast of Honduras for the next couple of days. It will bring very heavy rain, life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides too.

But some better news for the U.S. The odds of it reaching the Gulf of Mexico and the US appear to be decreasing. Tropical activity should be winding down this month but Sara is now the third named storm in November alone. Scientists point to exceptionally warm waters because of climate change.

Parts of Spain have been hammered with even more heavy rainfall but authorities say the worst appears to be over without a repeat of the deadly flash flooding that occurred two weeks ago. Now, one embattled regional leader is set to explain the slow emergency response before Parliament.

CNN's Pau Mosquera has the latest from Madrid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities say that we have already seen the worst of the cold drop that has affected Spain over the last two days. But its effects can still be felt in some parts of the country. That's the case of the southwest where this phenomenon has been moving to.

Spain's meteorological agency has activated this Thursday some orange warnings for the regions of Sevilla, Cadiz and Huelva due to the risk of torrential rains. More specifically, this agency estimated that in some towns they can accumulate up to 30 or 40 liters of water per square meter in just one hour. That's why the authorities have suspended all school activities for the day and also recommended the population not to move around until the rains have come to an end.

Also, many were paying attention to the situation in Valencia where other warnings were active but in this case lower warnings. Fortunately, the authorities reported no injuries or personal damages over the day. Now, this Friday many will fix their eyes in what happens inside of Valencia's Parliament.

And this is because regional president Carlos Mazon will appear before the deputies to provide political explanations on the response that his government offered to the emergency.

We should recall that last Saturday thousands protested in Valencia against the response that the regional government has offered because they considered that it was slow and not enough and that's why many were asking him to resign. But we will have to wait until this Friday to see what will be next.

Pau Mosquera, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: In South Africa, families of illegal miners are waiting for news after the government cut off supplies and said it wouldn't help them. It's not clear how many are underground. Some police reports indicate several hundred but it could be as many as 4,000.

They're believed to be running out of food and water after police closed off the entrances used to deliver basic supplies. Police have been cracking down on illegal mining which has been a problem in South Africa for decades. Illegal gold mining is reported to cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, taxes and royalties.

CNN's Victoria Rubadiri joins us now live from Nairobi, Kenya. You know, these mines can be very dangerous as well but, you know, people aren't going down there because they want to.

VICTORIA RUBADIRI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CONNECTING AFRICA: That's right, Max. This is an issue of necessity. We've seen many of these illegal miners who are migrants from neighboring countries, many of them also young people who simply can't get formal work in South Africa, flocking these old and abandoned gold mines to make some extra money.

Now what we know so far, the Minister of Police is actually on the ground right now to assess the situation that the government yesterday in a statement said it wants to bring to a lawful and safe conclusion. As of yesterday, over 1,000 miners had actually surfaced and a decomposed body was actually brought up to the surface.

It's a very dire situation, distressing situation for many of the families that you mentioned, Max, as they wait to hear from their loved ones, they haven't seen or heard from them in weeks. Some of these community members even offering to rescue these illegal miners.

Now the government has held its position, it's been adamant, saying it will not assist. A cabinet minister on Wednesday termed them as criminals and said that they would smoke them out.

Now this is part of a larger government initiative, an operation called Vala Umgodi, which basically means close the hole.

[04:50:00]

What they've been doing over the last couple of months is stopping supplies from getting to these miners underground in hopes that they will surface and then arrest them. But it's done little to deter many of these illegal miners from engaging in this illegal activity.

So what we'll be watching for is what this government stance means for the survival of many of these miners still stuck underground and whether this will escalate into a larger humanitarian crisis.

FOSTER: Yes, Victoria, thank you so much for bringing us that update from Nairobi.

A satirical news site, The Onion, known for its biting humor, of course, now it might have the last laugh after acquiring the assets of Alex Jones' Infowars. The details on the what and the why next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(VIDEO OF NEW ZEALAND'S PARLIAMENT) (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The video going viral. Maori members of New Zealand's parliament staged a haka to disrupt the vote on a bill that many claim would undermine their rights. The measure is based on an 1840 treaty between the British Crown and Maori chiefs, and it still guides policy today.

This bill would limit the interpretations of the treaty, as some argue it led to discrimination against non-indigenous citizens. Protests are ongoing across the country, but with little support from political parties, the bill is likely to become law.

Satirical news site The Onion has won the auction for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' website Infowars. The site was sold as part of a defamation settlement after Jones falsely called the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax. The amount of the bid wasn't revealed, but families of the shooting victims backed the purchase. Jones' lawyers questioned how the auction was conducted.

A federal judge in Texas has now ordered a hearing on the issue. Here's what The Onion's CEO had to say about what he plans to do with the site.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN COLLINS, CEO, THE ONION: We're going to take it and take the universe that Alex created and just pave it over. We're going to create a new world where hopefully in a couple of years, if you think of Infowars, you'll either think of this day where we pulled off this very ridiculous joke where we were able to purchase Infowars as is, or you'll think of this new site. We're going to go after all the conditions that Alex Jones creates to sell his supplements and do all of those things.

I think, you know, we're all on social media. We're all on TikTok and Instagram, and there are a million little Alex Joneses out there each selling their own supplement or making you drink raw milk or something. They're trying to get you afraid of something, and they're trying to sell you the solution.

And our new website is going to tackle exactly that. And once we get it in our control, which is hopefully very soon, you guys can see what we have cooked up.

JOHN FEINBLATT, PRESIDENT, EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY: We all know that Alex Jones visited unspeakable harm to the Sandy Hook families. And from our point of view, if we could give them one ounce of satisfaction, one ounce of restitution, this was worth it to us.

And look, some people think that the alliance between Everytown and The Onion is strange bedfellows. We think just the opposite. Look, at our fingertips, Everytown's got the facts and the research and the stories and the data.

[04:55:00] But what The Onion brings is a creative way using the medium of satire

and humor to reach new audiences. And that's how you fight misinformation. That's how you fight fear.

COLLINS: What's great about this is the families can say, actually, you know, we're human beings. We have senses of humor. And this is a big cosmic joke to play on Alex Jones. It's a big cosmic joke to play on that whole world.

The Onion, which is known for making fun of everybody in the world, has purchased InfoWars from him at a Storage Wars-style auction. And, boy, does that feel good.

And hopefully, if you're a Sandy Hook family right now, there is, you know, a bit of cosmic justice happening here. That's why we did this thing, and we want people to feel that hope too. We want people to feel like, hey, a good thing can possibly happen. How can we pay this forward?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, the Pentagon has seen a drastic rise in accounts of new UFO sightings, with hundreds made in a span of just 11 months. That's according to a just-released annual report from the office established to track claims about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UFOs, as they're known. The report says many accounts are everyday items like balloons or drones, and several hundred are still in review or lacked enough data to draw firm conclusions.

But some 21 cases remain open and haven't been plausibly explained. One official said analysts have been unable to identify the objects, though no evidence of alien activity has been found.

Now, last night's slap in the face may have an influence on tonight's punch in the mouth. Iron Mike Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, will face former YouTuber Jake Paul. The bout was originally set to take place in July but was rescheduled when Tyson became ill with an ulcer flare-up.

Paul and his company agreed to the delay. Tyson says he's ready for the fight, but experts suggest at his age, he will want to claim a quick victory rather than endure a match that drags on. The fight takes place in Arlington, Texas, at the 80,000-seat home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up next after a break.