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Senate Intel Chair Says China Cyberattack Worst Telecom In U.S. History; Trump Races Through Cabinet Picks Amid Questions About Vetting; Menendez Brothers Set To Appear In Court For First Time In 28 Years; Israeli Prime Minister Holds Meeting With Key Ministers Over Ceasefire Proposal; Former Sheriff Indicted In Judge's Killing To Appear In Court Monday; Winter Weather Alerts In Effect Today For 6 Western States; NC Communities Rebuilding After Tropical Storm; Operation Thanksgiving Blessings Feeding NC Families After Storm; Woman Vanishes After Missed Flight. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 24, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST AND CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The company that designed the potential theft wanted to see if a robot could take command without directly involving humans. It turns out they can. Luckily no bots was stolen. The exit was locked down in advance. Still, it's risky business when AI robots can adapt human-like behavior.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. We begin with a warning from U.S. Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who says the U.S. is now witnessing the worst telecom hack in the nation's history. People briefed on the matter tell CNN that Chinese hackers have been tracking phone calls, reading text messages, and even listening to the conversations for some of the most senior figures in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Even Donald Trump and J.D. Vance were targeted.

What remains unclear is exactly what intelligence was gathered during these hacks. An all-senators briefing on the situation is scheduled for December 4th.

CNN's cybersecurity reporter Sean Lyngaas is tracking the latest details live from Washington for us.

So, Sean, what have you learned about this hacking operation?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred, since the minute this was revealed several weeks ago we've been chasing this very closely. I mean, we're talking about senior political figures from both the Democratic and Republican Party. We have more names on the Republican side. We know that President-elect Donald Trump was targeted, as was his running mate, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.

But the list is growing, I wouldn't say by the day, but U.S. officials are learning something new every week or so about the techniques that were involved here, the utter infiltration of major U.S. telecom companies. And on Friday, they were summoned to the White House so White House officials could share the latest intelligence with them on this. But the fact is that they don't actually have a lot of new things to say right now. They're still very much in investigation mode.

The FBI has been quietly alerting victims that were targeted, but they're not confident yet that they've kicked the hackers out of the telecom networks, which is the hardest job of all. It's easy to remediate in some ways to try to block off access, but once they are in, it's very difficult to evict them because we're talking about alleged Chinese state-sponsored spies.

Now, we should point out that China denies involvement in this hack but they do routinely deny just about every allegation of hacking despite a preponderance of evidence -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sean Lyngaas, thank you so much.

All right. Let's talk more about all this with Rafe Pilling. He is the director of threat intelligence for Secureworks Counter Threat Unit.

Rafe, good to see you. So what do we know about how these hacking groups operate, how they coordinate with the Chinese government? Is it independent of the Chinese government or involved with?

RAFE PILLING, DIRECTOR OF THREAT INTELLIGENCE, SECUREWORKS COUNTER THREAT UNIT: It's a very complex situation. So the Chinese cyber activity this past year has continued to track consistently with previous Secureworks observation. It can be broadly categorized as information theft for either political, economic or military gain. And there are distinct hacker groups supporting a range of foreign and domestic intelligence objectives supporting both military and civilian intelligence agencies in China.

This particular group, Salt Typhoon, their tactics underscore Chinas long standing playbook of patience, precision and deep infiltration into critical systems like we've just heard being discussed there. And while we do have some recent direct insight into some of their activities, this is a relatively stealthy group that likes to keep -- to fly under the radar. But there are striking parallels between groups we've heard about earlier this year, Volt Typhoon or Bronze Silhouette as we know them.

WHITFIELD: I spoke with national security correspondent for "The New York Times," David Sanger, last hour about his report in "The Times," and he said the U.S. didn't detect these hackers for almost a year, and then only after Microsoft noticed certain anomalies did it come to the attention. So how closely does the federal government, you know, work with the private sector to try to defend against these kinds of hacks? PILLING: I can't speak for the federal government specifically, but I

do know, in general, there is a strong collaboration between the public and private sector. Telco companies in general have been long standing targets of hackers from various nations, in particular China. Obviously, in this case, they are targeting sensitive systems within those companies because they provide a treasure trove of intelligence. They will always be important for the government to protect and the government will work with the technology partners like Microsoft in order to do that.

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WHITFIELD: "The New York Times" is reporting that encrypted applications like WhatsApp, Signal, and those within Apple's network, you know, were safe from this kind of hacking operation. So what kind of lessons, you know, could those, you know, companies share perhaps, you know, with U.S. officials?

PILLING: There are a range of technologies involved there. I suspect one of the main mitigations there was the end-to-end encryption provided by some of these platforms. But that's not necessarily feasible for telcos to run at largescale to provide telephone calls and text messages and those sort of things, although obviously individuals can make choices about how they secure their telecommunications, which apps they use, and using things like WhatsApp or Signal certainly does give some additional protection when it comes to the communication and transit through the network as its encrypted from one device or system all the way through to the other end.

WHITFIELD: America's communications systems have been created over the, you know, span of many decades. You know, from landlines to cell phones and beyond. So what kind of challenges, you know, does that kind of present when trying to reinforce network security?

PILLING: It is definitely a difficult but not impossible challenge. Obviously, there are lots of conflicting priorities and cyber security often suffers as a result. When it comes to how organizations respond to this kind of hack, whether it's these particular telcos or anyone in general, we advise things like making sure the organization understands what their attack surface looks like.

All the ways that a hacker can target them, gain access, and get at their data. And that can be very challenging in the modern IT environment. And attackers aren't just going after government agencies or massive corporations. Any weak link whether it's outdated software or poorly secured routers or unmonitored access can all become an entry point. Basically, we all need to up our game.

And fortunately we have things like the Secure by Design Initiative being spearheaded by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, America's Cyber Defense Agency, essentially, and they have created this pledge and this associated program for technology companies like Secureworks. So Secureworks signed up to this, and we believe in the -- we believe very deeply in the aim of making sure that technology is secure and easy to use for customers and that customers don't have to have this sort of huge additional headache of trying to secure their platforms in addition to just trying to use them.

So yes, security should be a first class consideration and a collaboration between public and private sectors to build critical, resilient infrastructure and that applies to all businesses of all sizes, I should say. So small enterprises all the way up to global corporations make sure we advance efforts to close that cyber poverty gap.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rafe Pilling, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

PILLING: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Today increased scrutiny over the vetting process for some of President-elect Donald Trump's controversial cabinet picks. So far Trump has not yet filed the paperwork necessary for the FBI to conduct thorough background checks. Reacting to that this morning, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

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SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): We require these background checks of line DEA agents, drug enforcement agents. We require of first-time prosecutors for the federal government. Why wouldn't we get these background checks for the most important job in the United States government?

So if they keep delaying on these background checks, we will have a delay in getting these cabinet officials in. And I don't want to have a delay. I want to have the hearings. I want to make a decision on each one of them on the merits as I've done in the past. And I can't do that without the background checks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Alayna Treene joining us now from near Trump's Florida home.

Alayna, what is the Trump team saying about their strategy to get these picks confirmed?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, look, Fred, it's very clear that there's going to be some controversial picks in particular who -- that I think senators are going to have, you know, to really grill them behind closed doors. We know that many of them, first of all, we saw Pete Hegseth, his pick to lead the Department of Defense, go around and meet privately with some of these Republican senators, who will be crucial to his confirmation process last week.

They expect that that will be the case for his other more controversial picks. People like RFK Jr., as well as Tulsi Gabbard. But I think the big thing here is what Donald Trump and his team are doing behind the scenes to try and assuage those concerns. I know that there have been conversations even before some of these people were picked about some of the vulnerabilities that they have.

[16:10:03]

For example, RFK Jr. and his, you know, obviously, he was a former Democrat, but he also had previously made comments about supporting access to abortion. It's things like that that they have already been readying these different candidates for behind the scenes and back- channeling with members on the hill to try and address.

Now, one thing I did find interesting as well is we heard some Republican senators try to defend Donald Trump this morning and argued that, look, at the end of the day Donald Trump is the one who is setting the agenda and that they expect that his picks will also kind of capitulate to their policy, not necessarily given to their own personality traits.

I want you to take a listen to what Markwayne Mullin told our own Dana Bash this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): This isn't a new administration coming in. And so when people are criticizing his picks the president has done this job before. He knows exactly what he needs. He knows who he wants to put in those positions. That's why he's been able to move fast because he knows he has four years to reach the mandate that the American people said.

They want the government going in a different direction. And these nominations he's putting forth are actually going to deliver that for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Fred, what Mullin said there is actually very interesting. And he is right, that part of the reason Donald Trump chose some of these picks, even though he recognized that they would be controversial is because he wants to disrupt a lot of these agencies. He wants to break from the establishment norms. And so he is very much behind, particularly the ones that he hand-selected personally, very much behind wanting to gather as much support as possible for them and ensure that they get through.

That's why we've seen him particularly, we saw this last week calling up senators directly and lobbying them on behalf of some of these choices -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

Coming up, the Menendez brothers are set to appear in court for the first time in 28 years. We'll have more on their latest bid to be released potentially, after a quick break.

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[16:16:38] WHITFIELD: The Menendez brothers convicted of murdering their parents are set to appear in court for the first time in 28 years. It's another step in the effort by Eric and Lyle Menendez to try to get resentenced and possibly released from prison. The case reignited in light of new evidence and a popular series and documentary about the killings.

Joining me right now is former prosecutor Jeremy Saland.

Jeremy, great to see you. I mean, this is unique. I mean, this could be the very first time, you know, the public has seen the brothers appearing in court since, you know, their conviction nearly, you know, 30 years ago. How impactful might that moment be for their argument?

JEREMY SALAND, FORMER MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR: I don't expect tomorrow to be that impactful because, remember, this is really just a status date. All our I's dotted and T's crossed whether a motion or applications to be filed, are we ready to go for that December hearing? So tomorrow maybe you'll hear from them, probably not. Maybe you get some color from the judge as to the judge's thinking one way or another, showing his hand a little bit, but I expect tomorrow is just preparing us and getting ready for that potential sentencing.

WHITFIELD: The outgoing Los Angeles district attorney has recommended the brothers be resentenced. Is it your belief that's largely because of renewed interest through, you know, the documentary movie or even the letter, you know, written by one of the brothers to his cousin that is now being more, you know, closely scrutinized implying, you know, that there was abuse by the father?

SALAND: Yes, you know, we don't govern by reality TV and we don't see due process by Netflix. So is it helpful in the sense that it may have turned an eye or opened an eye, shed light on a serious case with some evidence that may be worth exploring? Absolutely that's going to be relevant. And we heard from the now outgoing D.A. maybe that in part was political. I don't know.

But a judge is going to look at this at the four corners of the law and say, hey, was it improper to preclude that sexual abuse evidence in the second trial? Is that letter, you know, from Eric to his cousin relevant and important? And then lastly, and equally important, we hear about the band Menudo and one of those boys claiming that their father, Lyle and Eric's father had molested them as well. All of this comes into play. Well, maybe we should review and reconsider a sentence here.

WHITFIELD: So now what about the new D.A.? I mean, the outgoing D.A. had one set of, you know, ideas. And, you know, I guess a new look at a case that's more than 30 years old. But what about, I guess, any pressure that the new D.A. may feel about re-prosecuting potentially this case?

SALAND: Yes, I -- hearing him speak, Hochman, Dean Hochman, hearing him speak, I didn't get the impression he felt pressure. I felt he was saying, you know, I'm going to explore this and give it all the opportunity and all the eyes and review the evidence and review the testimony, even talk to witnesses, and I'll do my due diligence and do his job. And I think that is a right response.

I don't know where he's going to fall, but in the end, it's important to recognize even theoretically, he says, no, I don't want it. What can a judge do? A judge can still say, we're going to resentence. I'm going to parole these people. I'm going to make a change on his own. Even over the objection of the prosecution should they go that route.

WHITFIELD: Yes. OK. So perhaps kind of reminiscent of the court days involving O.J. Simpson or even Michael Jackson.

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Tomorrow's hearing, you know, will be a rather big event, right, for a lot of people there. It's stirred up a lot of interest. Lottery tickets are now available for 16 seats. So how does that potentially influence proceedings?

SALAND: I think it doesn't. I think you look at a good judge, you look at the court, and you would hope and believe that how many people are saying and excited about seeing what's going to happen now, how many people are influenced for right or wrong about Netflix and what you're reading in the news and things like that, I believe this judge is going to say, I'm going to examine the evidence.

There's family members who are in support of this. There's a current D.A. who's in support of the resentencing, and ultimately the judge will say they've done 35 years if in theory, they were much younger at the time, under 25, 26 years old at the time, they would have been eligible for parole assuming it was life without parole 10 years ago. So all these factors, the judge is going to consider whether it's on TV and being aired and streamed or not.

WHITFIELD: Yes. You had already said that at a status hearing the expectation is, you know, the Menendez brothers would not speak but if they do have an opportunity to speak what do you anticipate they would say or what would you, if you were their attorney, what would you want them to say?

SALAND: Well, you know, I would be cautious at this point because you're not in the sentencing hearing itself. But if they are to speak and say something, we've done our time, we've been rehabilitated, and then I would retell that story of I was the victim here and again, we mentioned before from Menudo, from that letter, from the preclusion of the sexual evidence of abuse, sort of tell that story again, humanize me. I'm a real person. Look at me. I deserve that freedom.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jeremy Saland, thank you so much.

SALAND: Pleasure.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding meetings on a possible ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah. We're live in Jerusalem next.

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[16:26:19]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. At least seven people were injured today when dozens of projectiles were fired into Israel from across the border in Lebanon. Video shows the moment a projectile hits a building in northern Israel.

Israel's military the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah was behind the attacks. An official says buildings were hit in at least two different locations.

We're also learning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding critical consultations with his ministers over a possible ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.

CNN's senior international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, is joining us right now.

So is this a meeting, a meeting to accept or reject the U.S. proposal?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, I think the fact that there is a meeting indicates that there's something positive, potentially, to talk about here. I think the sense is that this could be the moment and I say could be because we really cannot see into the mind of the prime minister, but really could be the moment where he decides that the deal that appears to be in front of him, the one that Amos Hochstein has been negotiating backwards and forwards over many months here just in the past week and meeting with Hezbollah interlocutors in Beirut earlier on in the week, that this really could be the moment.

And look, if you want a measure of how close potentially a ceasefire could be, listen to the mood music. And the mood music is the very loud sound of war and missiles.

Since we last spoke, Fred, we've had an update from the IDF and they say today there have been 250 missiles fired by Hezbollah into Israel. Some of them landing close to Tel Aviv. That is a massive number. This is exactly the sort of a blow by blow that we saw in the lead up to the ceasefire in 2006, that Hezbollah massively ramped up their strikes on Israel, and Israel has done the same inside of Lebanon.

Over the weekend a no notice strike in the center of Beirut. There have been a number of those recently. It appeared to be targeting a senior Hezbollah commander. It didn't impact. The mood music is there for a potential ceasefire right now.

WHITFIELD: And Nic, Iran's supreme leader is now speaking out about the possibility of his country retaliating against Israel in the near future. What was said?

ROBERTSON: Yes, Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Look, I think when we get that from Iran at this moment, while the prime minister is talking with top officials about what to do about the ceasefire, that's part of the mood music. That's the Iranians putting their pressure on from their side as well. We can't say that for sure, but that's how it looks. Look, the real

question at the moment for Israel on this ceasefire is what kind of right of response do they have in that border region if the ceasefire breaks down, and I think what we're hearing from Iran at the moment is right now we want this war to end with our main proxy inside of Lebanon, because they're getting hammered and crushed. Of course, they wouldn't ever say that but they want to see this war end right now as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you.

All right. Still ahead. He's charged with killing a district judge in his own chambers. What this former sheriff is facing when he returns to the same courthouse where it was the scene of the crime.

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WHITFIELD: In rural Kentucky, a former sheriff turned jail inmate is doing court Monday. This after a grand jury indicted Shawn Stines with the killing of a district judge at point-blank range inside the judge's office. What we're about to show you is graphic. You're about to see surveillance footage from the alleged shooting. This video was made public during a preliminary court hearing for Stines. The motive for the shooting is still unclear.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the latest. So, Gloria, what's the court hearing going to be about tomorrow?

[16:35:06]

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, this was a shocking incident when it happened, not just because of the nature of the incident, but because of that video that we just saw that was played at a hearing shortly after the incident took place.

Tomorrow, we are expecting to potentially learn more about the motive. And the reason we might learn more about that is because Shawn Stines is going to be arraigned on charges of killing a public official. That's after a grand jury reviewed the evidence and decided to present these charges.

Now, this happened back in September. This is a small community in Kentucky in Letcher County. And the sheriff, Sheriff Stines, walked into the courthouse that day and into the chambers of Judge Kevin Mullins and opened fire, as we saw there on that video.

We know that the two men were known to each other. They worked in the law enforcement community together in Letcher County. And we also know that the two shared lunch earlier in the day. We also know from testimony that a detective provided that in the video you can see Stines dialing his daughter on his cell phone, then asking the judge for his cell phone. And it's when the judge hands over his cell phone that the sheriff opens fire. We don't know what the nature of that interaction was about. We don't

know what information may have been on those phones. But hopefully those details will be revealed at tomorrow's arraignment.

In the meantime, defense attorneys for the sheriff, who has since resigned from his post, have not denied that it was their client who opened fire. But they've said that he was experiencing an extreme emotional disturbance.

Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. And then if convicted, what -- what -- what are the possibilities of penalty?

PAZMINO: Well, it's Kentucky. So this is a state that could seek the death penalty in this case. This will be, of course, up to the prosecution to see if they want to seek those -- if they want to seek that penalty. But it is certainly an option that they have in the state of Kentucky.

WHITFIELD: All right. Gloria Pazmino, thanks so much.

All right. Up next, two months after parts of North Carolina suffered catastrophic damage from Tropical Storm Helene, a community comes together on this Thanksgiving to help those in need. That story next.

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[16:42:10]

WHITFIELD: All right, two significant storms are set to hit the U.S. this Thanksgiving week. CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the weather that could impact your holiday travel plans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's quite the mixed bag for Mother Nature over the next several days. So if you have some travel plans and you can be flexible, you may need to be in the coming days. For today specifically, the eastern half of the country looks absolutely wonderful. No issues expected in those areas.

It's in the west where we now have multiple systems in play that could end up causing some slowdowns, maybe even requiring you to use a little bit more patience, especially at some airports. When we fast forward into Monday, we've got two separate systems. The first one is going to be impacting portions of the Great Lakes, Midwest, and down through the Ohio Valley where you could have some rain and snow.

Out to the west, several different systems bringing heavy rain along the coast of the entire west, basically from California up through Washington. Snow, which could be very heavy, especially in the Sierras, two to three feet is expected, and then more of that snow will continue to creep into portions of the Rockies as we head into Tuesday. That initial system also starting to spread eastward on Tuesday, now bringing rain chances from New York all the way back down towards Louisiana.

By late Tuesday into Wednesday, that first system now finally exits out over the open Atlantic. But it's this system here, this is the one that's going to continue to spread its way across the country as we go through the rest of the week.

So by Wednesday, now you're looking at the Midwest, much of the Mississippi Valley, looking to have some rain chances back into the mix. By Thursday, that begins to spread back into the Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley, and yes, even into portions of the Northeast.

So any local travel plans or last-minute travel plans you may have on Thanksgiving Day itself, the Northeast stretching back all the way down to the Gulf Coast may have some rain and even some snow into the forecast.

This begs the question, OK, what about the Macy's Day parade that will take place in the morning? Well, those first couple of hours you may get lucky, but it's the latter portion of the parade that's likely going to have some pretty higher chances of rainfall into the mix. Temperature-wise, still on the chilly side, looking at maybe in the low to mid-40s at absolute best throughout the parade.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Allison Chinchar. All right, so many families across the South are still suffering from the impacts of Tropical Storm Helene. That's especially true in the hardest-hit areas of North Carolina. And with the holidays coming up, one community is giving families some comfort and a taste of the season just in time for Thanksgiving.

Joining us now are the co-event planners for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings, Angie Acree and Michael Keeter. Joining us from Seaboard, North Carolina, which is kind of -- which is Northeast North Carolina right along the Virginia border, right?

All right, ooh, let me hear that audio one more time because I can't hear you. All right, we're going to take a short break because I can't hear you and no one else can. So we're going to work this out technically.

[16:45:12]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, Operation Thanksgiving Blessings is almost underway, bringing the holiday treats and love and meals to a very hard-hit part of North Carolina, devastated by Tropical Storm Helene.

[16:50:07] Back with us now, the co-event planners for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings, Angie Acree and Michael Keeter, joining us from Seaboard, North Carolina.

Welcome to both of you. Talk to me about how this plan was hatched and what is going to happen on Thanksgiving Day?

ANGIE ACREE, CO-EVENT PLANNER, OPERATION THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS: Well, we're delighted to be here. We're volunteers through the Seaboard Lions Club and our mission is called Operation Thanksgiving Blessing. And just a short little backdrop of how all this came about.

David Burke, a member of the Seaboard Lions Club, has cooked for many, many families throughout our local area and beyond. People needed monetary help when they were having medical expenses and he happened to be at Sunday school the Sunday after the hurricane hit and the Sunday school lesson was about volunteering and how to help others and God really spoke to him and planted that seed and David began this planning process and started reaching out to people like Michael that used to work with David. And I have numerous friends that have helped David with other fundraisers and so when I got the call, I knew right away my answer was yes. And I wanted to help my neighbor out in western North Carolina.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's wonderful. So Michael, how are you guys going to be able to do it? Because there are still areas that are, you know, have roads that are impassable. You still have trees down. You've got debris. There are people who still don't have, you know, clean, fresh, running water. So how are you now going to get to people in need and try to provide them Thanksgiving meals?

MICHAEL KEETER, CO-EVENT PLANNER, OPERATION THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS: Well, it's not an easy question to answer. This has been a two-month planning operation. We've met for three to four hours every Sunday since October the 7th. We've been in touch with the mayor of Newland as well as many other local volunteers there that have been able to relay information to us. As far as the logistics, we found a middle school. Cranberry Middle School is going to allow us to use their facilities to cook.

And if I could kind of shift over to the donation side, this is how we planned our route because about two months ago, we started accepting clothing and hygiene, first aid, like, you name it. We've collected donations to pack two 18-wheelers. We actually sent one 18-wheeler last week, and the guy who volunteered to drive that was able to kind of navigate and figure out the best route. So when we go on Tuesday and Wednesday, we kind of have it all planned out.

WHITFIELD: Got you.

KEETER: Thanks to some of the volunteers.

WHITFIELD: OK, well, that's incredible. I mean, what a network, you know, of people --

KEETER: Yeah. KEETER: -- who are volunteering, and that is just so inspiring and beautiful. So when you're going to do your cooking at Cranberry Middle School, how now are those fantastic meals going to get to people? Or are you inviting people to come to you? How is it going to work, Angie?

ACREE: So it's been advertised all over Avery County. We have been working with the county manager there. They've actually had it not only on their Facebook page, but on their website. It's gone out on their emergency calls to let people know to come to Cranberry Middle School to pick up the traditional Thanksgiving meal. And it will be a North Carolina Southern traditional Thanksgiving with turkey, ham, collards, seasoned potatoes, dressing, gravy, the cranberry sauce, hushpuppies, and, of course, we're going to have good old North Carolina homemade desserts for them.

(CROSSTALK)

ACREE: But all -- yeah, all the school children have had a flyer sent home in the book bag. They finally were able to go back to school the week of Veterans Day. And we have a great network of people out there that we're going to team up some of our volunteers with volunteers there to actually go out and deliver plates to the people that can't get to us.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. Mike, how many people do you think you're going to be able to serve?

KEETER: We're trying to serve 5,500 meals. We won't know. There may be some families that get more than one meal, but there will be 5,000 meals will be served in Newland, North Carolina. And then we've located another group of people who are struggling outside of that area that are going to take an additional 500 meals. So 5,500 meals altogether.

WHITFIELD: Wow, this is really incredible. And I know you said you've been planning this, you know, for more than a month now and getting all the resources together. It almost sounds like, even though this is a colossal and very difficult arrangement and very tall order, it sounds like you've been able to get a lot of cooperation just looking at the video of the boxes and boxes of food. That looks like that's been the easy part, getting people to participate.

[16:55:06]

KEETER: Yeah.

ACREE: Yeah, we've had lots of volunteers. We have right at 200 people that plan to be there on-site starting Wednesday. We'll be cooking overnight Wednesday night. In fact, today at 5 a.m., the guys put the Boston butts on the grills. So all of that's been going. We've had about 100 people here volunteering today.

WHITFIELD: Wonderful. Well, what an incredible event. I mean, your hearts are very big, and I know so many other hearts are very full because of this great work that you're doing. Angie Acree and Michael Keeter, thank you so much. All the best and happy Thanksgiving.

KEETER: Thank you. The same to you.

ACREE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Thank you. And of course, everybody, if you can, make sure that we're at the table. CNN has the ultimate Thanksgiving morning watch party taking place featuring celebrity appearances and a live view of a lot of parades across the country. So it's going to be a big festive day in so many ways.

John Berman and Erica Hill are hosting Thanksgiving, and America starts Thanksgiving Day at 8 a.m. right here on CNN and streaming on Max.

All right, the United Kingdom is getting slammed, by the way, this weekend by very dangerous weather. Storm Bert has brought flooding as well as landslides throughout the U.K. Heavy snow has also led to numerous flight cancellations in England as well as treacherous driving conditions across Ireland and Scotland. Strong winds between 60 and 70 miles per hour are also expected today across many regions across the British Isles. And the storm is forecast to clear by Tuesday.

All right, a woman last seen on some surveillance video in Los Angeles is now officially missing. The family of Hannah Kobayashi is pleading for her safe return. CNN's Veronica Miracle has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARIE PIDGEON, HANNAH KOBAYASHI'S AUNT: Please, please, please do not stop saying her name.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Worried family and friends of a missing woman are asking anyone for help. Desperate in their search for Hannah Kobayashi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These little like postcards, these are to hand out to people.

MIRACLE (voice-over): The 30-year-old from Hawaii disappeared November 11th. Surveillance images and bizarre texts are the only clues family members have.

PIDGEON: If someone has her, I want you to look at the pictures that we have posted. I want you to see this family and I want you to know that she is so loved.

MIRACLE: Two weeks ago, Kobayashi flew from Maui to Los Angeles. She was supposed to go on to New York, but never made her connecting flight here at LAX. Family members say they have seen footage of her running to get to her gate, but missed the flight due to a tight 40- minute layover.

MIRACLE (voice-over): For the next three days, family members say they were in touch with Hannah as she kept going back to LAX to try and book a new flight. Family members even spoke to an airline checking agent who spoke with Hannah.

PIDGEON: Basically that she was just frustrated. She was done. She wanted to get a direct flight to JFK. She even talked about, you know, getting a direct flight to Maui. Like -- and they said, unfortunately, you have to book a brand-new ticket, which is expensive.

MIRACLE (voice-over): When she wasn't at LAX, family members say she was spotted at a popular outdoor mall in Los Angeles. Two days in a row, she was seen at The Grove, once in a bookstore. And another day she was caught on camera by a vlogger. She also posted a picture on Instagram from an event at the mall.

During the three days her phone was on, in addition to speaking with her family, she was also in touch with friends. Some shared screenshots of texts from Kobayashi before she went silent. Mysterious messages like, "Deep hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, and have had me on a mind (bleep) since Friday", one message said.

"I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds," another text read. Followed by one saying, "For someone I thought I loved." Family members say these text messages do not sound like the Hannah that they know and love.

MIRACLE: Do you think that she is behind these text messages, or do you think someone else is writing these texts?

PIDGEON: You know, there's two cases of scenarios. It's that someone has her phone, that's writing the text, someone's forcing her to write these texts. Or she's, you know, she's not OK, and she's writing these texts.

MIRACLE: The last place Hannah was seen was at this train station in downtown Los Angeles. Family members say they've seen footage of her on the train with someone they don't recognize, and leaving the train station with that same person. They've now posted flyers all over the area in hopes that someone recognizes Hannah.

MIRACLE (voice-over): The LAPD now sharing this poster seeking help in their search for Kobayashi.

[17:00:03]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hannah, you are loved. You're missed, yes. And we're here for you.

MIRACLEL (voice-over): Veronica Miracle, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Very sad. All right, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN Newsroom continues with Kayla Tausche right now.