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Northern Israelis Skeptical They Can Return Home Safely Even as Israel, Hezbollah Set To Sign A Ceasefire Pact; Donald Trump Cabinet Appointees Targeted In Violent Threats; Syrian Rebels Launch Attack Against Army In Aleppo Province; Mexico Leader Responds To Trump Claim She Agreed To Stop Migration; TikTok Under Scrutiny After Far Right Politicians Success; ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrant for Myanmar's Leader; Australia's Social Media Ban; Elon Musk Reposts Personal Information on Government Workers; U.S. Eyes Return to Nuclear Power, Lacks Plan for Waste; A nature-First Approach to Childhood Education; Biohacker Spends $2 Million a Year to Cheat Death; Using Sound Waves to Pick Up, Move Liquids and Objects. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired November 28, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Ahead here on CNN newsroom, as Lebanon ceasefire continues to hold, many residents are skeptical about the safety of returning to northern Israel.
At least nine of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's picks to be part of his second administration are targeted with bomb threats and swatting calls.
And Russia makes gains against Ukraine, with Moscow essentially telling the Biden administration, you lost.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Hong Kong. This is CNN Newsroom with Anna Coren.
COREN: We begin in Lebanon, where the country's army is ramping up its presence in the south and being welcomed with open arms by residents weary after months of war.
People celebrated as a convoy arrived in this southern town on Wednesday, the first day of the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Officials say the truce appears to be largely holding. Well since then, thousands of people have started returning to their homes in Lebanon south and U.N. trucks are also on the move.
Israel is still warning residents it's not safe to return yet, and its military is still deployed in the area and some places remain under evacuation orders. The Lebanese prime minister says now the process of healing and rebuilding will begin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAJIB MIKATI, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): It is a new day, concluding one of the most difficult stages of suffering that the Lebanese have experienced in their modern history. Today begins the thousand mile road to reconstruct what was destroyed and to continue to strengthen the role of the legitimate institutions led by the military who we place great hopes in to enforce authority over the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Meantime, some residents of Israel's northern border communities are not ready to return to their homes just yet, as CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: So you're back in Shtula with all the dogs?
ORI ELIYAHU, FORMER DISPLACED RESIDENT: I am at home. It's not really home at the moment.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Ori Eliyahu is one of just a handful of residents living in this Israeli community along the Lebanese border. But he's not back because he thinks it's safe.
ELIYAHU: So basically it's not just that this is Lebanon, Baalbek (ph), you see here, there the mountain.
DIAMOND: Yes.
ELIYAHU: Those houses are Hezbollah's houses. They are shooting missiles from there.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The new ceasefire agreement means Hezbollah must withdraw from this area about 25 miles north of the Israeli border. But like many others in northern Israel, Ori doesn't trust Hezbollah nor the Israeli government's assurances that it will prevent Hezbollah from regrouping.
on the first day of this new ceasefire, Shtula is just as much of a ghost town as when we visited over the summer. Back then, the Israeli military gave us just three minutes to see home, struck by anti-tank missiles, fearing Hezbollah could strike again.
Today, overlooking that same view, standing along that same devastated home, that threat seems further away. But for how long?
DIAMOND: Your fear is that this agreement won't prevent this from happening again.
ELIYAHU: You are saying it's a fear? It's not fear, it's a fact. Here in the Middle East, this is how you go. This is how things work. If a terrorist can shoot you, he'll shoot you.
DIAMOND (voice-over): He says his neighbors among the roughly 60,000 Israelis displaced from the north don't feel safe enough to return. ELIYAHU: They won't do it. We are speaking about it all the time in
the WhatsApp group and in the phone everywhere. They are not stupid.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Just down the road, Ora Hatan is enjoying her first peaceful day in more than a year.
ORA HATAN, SHTULA, ISRAELI RESIDENT: We wake up to the quiet morning after one here. It's unusual.
DIAMOND (voice-over): She too is skeptical that the ceasefire will lead to a lasting peace. But she doesn't see an alternative.
HATAN: I spoke with the soldier. They tired, they exhaust. Also what another option to arrive to Beirut.
DIAMOND (voice-over): On the Lebanese side of the border, many civilians were quick to return to southern Lebanon. Yes, thank God. I'm happy, of course. We're going back to our hometown, to our land.
[01:05:00]
The Lebanese military also headed south, expected to monitor Hezbollah activity as a fragile truce takes hold. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Shtula, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, let's go live now to Washington and Fadi Nicholas Nassar, U.S. Lebanon fellow at the Middle East Institute. Thank you for joining us. As we just saw from that report, Israelis are reluctant to return. But in Lebanon, thousands are heading home to devastated neighborhoods where I guess we're a day and a half into this truce. Are you seeing signs that this will become a lasting ceasefire?
FADI NICHOLAS NASSAR, U.S.-LEBANON FELLOW, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Well, thank you for having me. And thank you for putting a spotlight, I think, on the most important thing, which is ordinary people. When we talk about a ceasefire today, we need to put these people at the center of the conversation because at the heart of every geopolitical crisis are ordinary people who bear the brunt of unimaginable suffering.
In Lebanon, the scale of human tragedy is staggering. Over 1.3 million people have been displaced. The World Bank recently estimated $8.5 billion in damage and economic losses with over 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed.
And just to give you a number, that's $3 billion worth of housing gone. But these aren't just numbers. Their lives turned upside down and as you just said, displaced families who do not know if they have a home to return to.
And this is unfolding in a country, but if I may, this is unfolding in a country already collapsing under the weight of one of the worst financial crisis in modern history. The lira has lost nearly all its value and the vast majority of the population are living in poverty. But yes, please go ahead.
COREN: Fadi, I guess the reasons for both sides accepting this truce, you know, they vary. The IDF, they're exhausted. Hezbollah's leadership, very much decimated. In a way, I guess it's self-serving without addressing any of the underlying issues.
NASSAR: I mean, this is a significant moment, but it must be approached with caution. You know, a ceasefire, as I said, is of course, a welcome relief, especially for those who have lived under the constant threat of violence and state collapse. But to be clear, this is only the first step, not the final one.
The real challenge is turning this fragile ceasefire into something lasting, something that allows families on both sides of the blue line to rebuild their lives free from fear, free from destruction and the uncertainty that war brings. And this is where the world's attention must stay fixed, on the long road ahead. Not just, as you pointed out, the temporary silence of the guns.
COREN: Fadi, the role of oversight rests with the United States. Now, the fact that Hezbollah and effectively Iran have accepted this, what does that reveal to you?
NASSAR: I mean, this is a very, you know, we're still very early on, so I want to be cautious. Hezbollah and Iran have long exploited moments when the world looks away the second international focus shifts, they move in. That's why, despite Resolution 1701 that ended this conflict, sorry, that was supposed to end the 2006 conflict decisively, we're still dealing with the same issues nearly two decades later.
You pointed something that's very important and that the U.S. will be leading an oversight mechanism. And the real goal of this is to oversee violations that may happen. But it's not so clear yet. Right. If this is sufficient.
If you'll allow me, what I want to stress is that the international community must stay engaged, strongly supporting Lebanon's military, ensuring UNIFIL the peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon enforce its mandate, and empowering Lebanon's democracy to rebuild with transparency and accountability.
COREN: I just want to say, Fadi, that is a very valid and important point to make. You mentioned the reconstruction of Lebanon. It is daunting. You know, it's running into the billions of dollars. Who is going to pay for this?
NASSAR: You know, you ask again a very important question. But it's not just who's going to pay for it, who's going to be trusted to oversee the reconstruction. Lebanon needs leadership that is committed to putting its people first, and we didn't see that leadership for the past 13 months.
[01:10:00]
The country needs leaders who understand this must be the last war between Israel and Lebanon, leaders who will rebuild Lebanon not as a regional battleground, but as a strong, stable democracy trusted by its people and the world to stand up on its own.
I want to end with this thought. The drive for this change must come from Lebanon itself, but it also needs robust international support, diplomatic support, economic support and political. And most critically, the international community must prevent Iran from sabotaging the process and Hezbollah from turning its weapons as they did soon after the 2006 war on the Lebanese themselves.
And this is where a new U.S. administration can make all the difference. By shifting its strategy, Washington can turn Hezbollah from an asset to a liability for Iran. That's how lasting security and stability can be made real Friday.
COREN: Fadi Nicholas Nassar, we appreciate your analysis. Thank you for joining us.
Well, meantime, after the Israel-Hezbollah deal, the Biden administration says it will push for a ceasefire in Gaza. But so far there is no end in sight to the war there. And officials say Israeli airstrikes are again targeting schools sheltering displaced people.
The health Ministry in the enclave says at least 10 people were killed Wednesday when a strike targeted the Al Tabin School in the eastern part of Gaza City. It's the same compound where dozens were killed back in August. The Israel Defense Forces says it was targeting a senior Hamas official.
There were also reports of another deadly Israeli attack on a school turned shelter on Tuesday. The head of Gaza's civil defense described the incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAED DAHSHAN, HEAD OF THE CIVIL DEFENSE IN GAZA (through translator): This school, which houses civilians, was directly targeted. A number of martyrs have been transported and civil defense teams are still at this moment carrying out evacuation and rescue operations for the injured at the site. They're working to move civilians away from the area and manage the ongoing situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: And in northern Gaza, the IDF says troops raided a school in Beit Lahiya where it says Hamas fighters had been operating. It says dozens of militants were apprehended and taken for further questioning. Hamas has condemned the attack.
We're also tracking the first major flare up in years between Syrian rebels and Syrian President Bashar al Assad's regime forces. A free Syrian army source and local residents say rebels launched a large scale attack in western Aleppo on Wednesday.
In a statement, opposition factions say 13 villages and the largest Syrian regime base in the area were seized and dozens killed. And the incident was in response to recent artillery shelling from regime forces.
A growing number of Donald Trump's cabinet picks have been targeted this week by bomb threats and so called swatting incidents. A source says Trump's choice for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is the latest known victim. Others threatened include Pete Hegseth, who Trump tapped for defense secretary would be UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik, and even former attorney general hopeful Matt Gates. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has a closer look at the threats.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Some potential members of Donald Trump's new government facing threats in a series of incidents that took place at their homes this week. A spokesman for the Trump transition said several potential nominees were targeted in violent an American threats ranging from bomb threats to so called swatting incidents when police are summoned under the hoax some type of criminal threat at a particular address. The FBI and local law enforcement officials are investigating now.
Several top officials were targeted, including Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary. He said Wednesday night his Tennessee home was the target of a pipe bomb threat. Others include John Ratcliffe, who's tapped to lead the CIA, Elise Stefanik, selected for U.N. ambassador and Lee Zeldin, chosen to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Now, the FBI said it takes all potential threats seriously, but one law enforcement official who's familiar with these incidents and investigations told CNN these types of swatting calls are quite common and often target those of people who are in the news at any given time.
President Biden was briefed on these threats. A White House spokesman said the president and the administration condemns all threats of political violence. It's unclear if all these incidents were linked and how credible these threats actually were, but the timing suggests some type of coordination heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, joining us now, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. John, as always, great to see you.
[01:15:02]
Tell us, what more do you know about these threats? How credible are they and who have they targeted?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they've targeted just about everybody who has been mentioned as a key, important nominee to the Trump Cabinet, but they are not particularly credible. These threats, which came all at once, said there are pipe bombs, there are, you know, guns, there are things. Some of them were bomb threats, some of them were what we call swatting calls, which are carefully constructed to make the police come with a SWAT team thinking that there are armed people present, which can be very dangerous, especially since police don't know when they're going, that it's a fake call.
But it's a pattern of threats that came together either from one person, one group of people, or maybe some who saw the threat and decided to copy it. But I think the key is to keep the threats in perspective. They have a specific purpose. The purposes are to cause alarm and to cause disruption and to make problems and trouble in the lives of these public officials and those who are about to become public officials.
COREN: I mean, this is clearly all under investigation, but any idea as to who made these threats?
MILLER: Well, the investigation will be handled with a combination of local law enforcement and the FBI. The FBI has a lot of experience in this realm. And sometimes what you see is foreign actors, sometimes foreign government actors, but more often what you see is groups of relatively young people. Oftentimes they are gamers. And that part of the game is whoever loses the video game or online activity that they're playing has to go do the threat and prove that they did it.
So you have a number of possibilities here. A lot of the times, these things emanate outside the United States, but sometimes they emanate from an IP address that is spoofed to appear to be coming from outside the country.
So the FBI is going to have to go through a lot of layers and hopefully, from their standpoint, look for that mistake where somebody slipped up and left them a clue that is going to bring them to one or more suspects here.
And, Anna, I mean, while the threats are not credible, and that's a good thing, the crime is very serious. Some of these are elected officials, some of these are government officials, and some of them are about to become government officials. But using interstate commerce to threaten an elected official or a government official is considered a serious crime that you can do serious jail time for if they're, if you're identified.
COREN: We heard from former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, and he said he's not surprised by these threats. Do you feel that this is an indication perhaps of what we are going to see more of over the next four years, considering this highly, you know, charged and polarized political environment that we are now living in?
MILLER: Well, and we have been living in such a brittle political environment for a number of years that swatting, as they call it, the bomb threats, these kinds of threats have become a known part of the territory. So, I don't know if we're going to see more of it. We're already seeing plenty of it. But I think that people in public life have adjusted to the idea.
And soon, once these officials are confirmed and in their jobs, they will have the built in protection that comes with those positions. For now, they're getting special attention from police, where they live as this investigation unfolds.
COREN: We've heard from these Trump appointees who were threatened. They have praised the FBI and local law enforcement for their swift response. I mean, in the past, Donald Trump has often attacked these departments, especially the FBI. Do you see this as perhaps a reset in relations?
MILLER: Well, I mean, Donald Trump is in the process of shaking up who is going to lead those organizations, the Department of Justice, the FBI. And we are waiting to hear who is going to be placed in the FBI. We expect him to replace the current director.
But I mean, Trump has often had a complicated love hate relationship with law enforcement. You know, he's been charged as the guy who allegedly caused the crowds to storm the Capitol and fight with the Capitol and Washington, D.C. Police. But he is also the person, the candidate who has said the most supportive things about law enforcement. So this is just another page in that complicated chapter.
COREN: Joe Miller, always a pleasure. Thank you so much.
MILLER: Thanks, Anna. You got it.
COREN: Well, now to two different takes. On a phone call between Trump and the Mexican president.
[01:20:00]
On Wednesday, Trump claimed that she agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the US Effectively closing our southern border. President Claudia Sheinbaum had posted online that migrant caravans would no longer arrive at the U.S. border because they're being addressed in Mexico.
In a later post, she firmly denied Trump's claims that the border itself is closing and reiterated Mexico's position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples. The phone call came after Trump threatened to slap a 25 percent tariff on oil products from Mexico and Canada.
He said the move was retaliation for the illegal immigrants, drugs and crime flowing into the US.
Well, coming up, Donald Trump chooses a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia who appears to have some tough terms for a Ukraine peace plan.
Plus, the far right admirer of Vladimir Putin has won the first round of Romania's presidential election, but some officials believe TikTok may have heavily influenced the vote.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Well, Russia is currently launching a massive attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Well, that's according to Ukraine's energy minister. He says emergency power outages have been introduced. Air raid sirens have been sounding nationwide. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian power plants and other energy sites since the fighting began in 2022.
And those strikes have picked up in recent months, threatening Ukraine's heat supply as winter approaches. Well, this comes as Russia is gaining momentum on the battlefield against Ukraine. Fred Pleitgen has details from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Vladimir Putin's army advancing on nearly all front lines inside Ukraine, but also as they try to expel Kyiv's troops from the Kursk region in Russia. We fought for this area for almost three months, this Russian Marine says, thanks to the assault groups of the 810th Brigade, we knocked out these Ukrainian servicemen.
Moscow emboldened, now flat out telling the Biden administration, face it, you lost. The west should hear all this, rethink it, come to their senses and admit they lost. They failed to achieve the goals of containing Russia's development. They were unable to defeat Russia geopolitically. The speaker of Russia Senate says.
Moscow still fuming after the White House gave Kyiv the go ahead to use U.S supplied longer distance weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.
We understand the reaction of the embittered, frustrated Washington regime under the leadership of Biden, which lost the election, which did not receive support for its domestic and foreign policies from its own citizens, she says.
[01:25:05]
We must understand that in agony they are capable of continuing to take the most reckless steps. The Russians claim they are not the ones escalating, even after striking Ukraine with a new hypersonic multiple warhead ballistic missile and now publishing these graphics saying that missile could also carry a 900 kiloton nuclear warhead and reach NATO bases in Europe In a few minutes.
On Red Square, people telling us they want deescalation but support their leadership.
UNIDENATIFIED FEMALE: We need to defend ourselves because if America and Europe and other countries will give Ukraine all the weapons and all the resources they have, how can we live there?
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Of course it's a dangerous time, this man says. You know, I won't display a second cheek if I was already slapped on the other. You have to fight for your righteousness and kindness.
Tonight, Putin arriving in Kazakhstan for a two-day visit, also including a major security conference, greeted with full military honors as countries in the region increasingly see Russia growing more influential on the road to a possible victory in Ukraine. Fred Pleitgen in CNN Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump has chosen a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. And sources tell CNN that Kellogg already has ideas about what to do to end nearly three years of fighting in Ukraine.
Kellogg's plan would require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia in exchange for continued U.S. military aid. It also calls for a, quote, formal U.S. policy to seek a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict. And it would put Ukraine's efforts to join NATO on hold.
Well, Trump's future national security adviser, Mike Waltz, is said to be weighing up the proposal along with several others.
A Romanian telecoms official is calling for TikTok to be suspended over its suspected role in a shock result in the first round of the country's presidential election.
Well, far right candidate Calin Georgescu came out on top despite polling in single digits before the vote. The telecoms official says TikTok's algorithm may have amplified some posts while not disclosing who is behind the content. Melissa Bell has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALIN GEORGESCU, ULTRANATIONALIST AND PRO-RUSSIAN: Romania is waking up. We're not changing our masters, we're changing the system.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDNET (voice-over): He appeared to come out of nowhere, but Calin Georgescu, a far-right populist, won the first round of Romania's presidential elections on Sunday. More than 2 million people in the country which borders Ukraine, chose a candidate vocal about his pro-Russia and anti NATO stance.
His success in part attributed to a relentless TikTok campaign in which he showed off his love of riding and martial arts, church and country emulating Vladimir Putin, whom Georgescu admires and it's not only the Russian president's bare chested, virile image that's being copied, but his politics too. Traditional, anti-Western, anti NATO.
To the right, even of the country's far right, Georgescu stood as an independent but now heads to the runoff after winning almost 23 percent of the vote. And that's led to fears among NATO members that this eastern flank ally may move away from its support for Ukraine.
GEORGESCU: I'm running for Romania, not for Ukraine. Neither my supporters nor the Romanian people are interested in Ukraine or Putin.
BELL (voice-over): And with a looming Donald Trump presidency, there's fresh concern now over a more divided Europe as one more country takes a step potentially against NATO and towards Moscow, this time on Ukraine's very border. Melissa Belle, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COREN: Well, three Americans who were detained in China will soon be back with their families for the first time in years. The White House says it has secured the release of Kai Li, Mark Swidan and John Leung. Another U.S. official says they're being exchanged for unidentified Chinese nationals or two of those Americans were designated wrongfully detained by the US.
According to his mother, Mark Swidan was tortured and he attempted to take his own life during his captivity.
[01:30:02]
Australia has been pushing to make social media off limits to anyone under 16. Still ahead, why many Australians believe a blanket ban is the safest option for kids.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Welcome back.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has asked for an arrest warrant for Myanmar's military leader for crimes committed against the country's Rohingya minority. Min Aung Hlaing has been Myanmar's ruler since a military coup in 2021.
The ICC chief prosecutor says he's criminally responsible for deporting and persecuting Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh. More than 1 million were forcibly displaced according to the ICC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARIM KHAN, ICC CHIEF PROSECUTOR: This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official that my office is filing. More will follow.
Today's application is the outcome of an independent and impartial investigation based upon a wide variety of evidence from numerous sources, such as witness testimonies, including from insider witnesses and authenticated, credible photographic and video materials. Today marks a culmination of this stage of our work.
We will continue to focus in the coming weeks and months as we seek to submit additional applications in this situation. In doing so, we will seek to show that the Rohingya have not been forgotten that they like all people around the world deserve and are entitled to the protection of the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: The request must be approved by ICC judges before it can be enacted.
Well, Australia is one step closer to banning social media for anyone under 16. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly supported one of the world's toughest social media bills.
But it still needs approval from the Senate, which is now holding its final session of the parliamentary year.
Hanako Montgomery explains why the proposal has a strong backing in Australia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For all the positive connections the joy social media can create, it can also quickly strip it away, destroy it forever.
[01:34:46]
KELLY O'BRIEN, MOTHER OF CHARLOTTE O'BRIEN: I will miss your hugs, your kisses, your laugh, your beautiful, beautiful smile.
MONTGOMERY: In September, 12-year-old Australian girl Charlotte O'Brien took her own life after years being bullied on social media. Her parents quickly joined a political fight to protect children from online harm.
The Australian government says the best way to do that is to ban anyone under 16 from using social media.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians and I am calling time on it. The safety and mental health of our young people has to be a priority.
Under new legislation introduced to Australia's parliament, there would be consequences for social media companies caught systematically breaching the age restriction and other safety measures, fines reaching tens of millions of dollars.
But children or parents won't be punished for breaking the new rules. Instead the government says the ban will help moms and dads to say no to young people who want to stay online.
BEN KIOKO, 14-YEAR-OLD SOCIAL MEDIA USER: Yes, so being autistic, I have a really, really hard time connecting with others and, you know, doing that online makes it a lot easier.
MONTGOMERY: Some experts too say that a catch-all approach may not be helpful.
JUSTINE HUMPHREY, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY: Even though the age is really fundamentally important that we need to get right, what we're talking about when we say we're going to introduce a ban by age, is that it negates the fact that young people have very, very different levels of maturity.
MONTGOMERY: But advocates of the ban point to age limits on alcohol, gambling and smoking, arguing social media can be equally damaging for those too young to use it.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COREN: Well, many federal employees in the U.S. are concerned about President-Elect Donald Trump's promises to cut the government workforce. Well, now they're also worried about becoming targets.
That's after Elon Musk posted items that revealed personal information about four obscure federal employees who have since been barraged with negative attention.
CNN's Hadas Gold has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Last week, Elon Musk reposted several posts from an anonymous account that was looking at a database of federal employees and questioning some of the roles that some of these people held.
Now Elon Musk, when reposting them, these screenshots included the names, the titles, and the city of these federal government employees.
Now some of their titles are things like director of climate diversification, senior adviser on environmental justice and climate change.
And in one of his reposts, Musk commented so many fake jobs, but whatever one may think of these jobs and whether they are worth to have in the federal government, all of the people that were listed are in relatively unknown bureaucratic government roles and they are relatively private people.
None of them have public-facing positions and these posts by Elon Musk or amplified by Elon Musk they have now been viewed tens of millions of times, and people are leaving a torrent of negative comments. Some of them calling out these employees directly by name.
Now we've reached out to these employees. They've either declined to comment or were unable to be reached, but we know that at least one of them removed all of her social media accounts likely as a result of this targeting.
And we've been in touch with other people who have been targeted by Elon Musk in the past. He has done this before with people he thinks that have wronged him or have been critical of him, or he believes might be in the way of the progress of his company.
He said to me that when they were targeted by him they ended up getting threats from others. Sometimes these were death threats. Sometimes they had to leave their homes. Some of them even moved permanently.
And that is a fear that a lot of federal employees now have, that in this effort to try and make the government more efficient which some federal employees actually support the idea of, that this might be something that may happen, that Elon Musk may post the names, may post titles like this in a way that could actually lead to threats to the safety of these federal employees. Now we have a statement from the president of the union that
represents federal government employees. And he said these tactics are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees. It's intended to make them fearful that they will become afraid to speak up."
Now, what's interesting in the process of reporting this, I reached out to several experts on cyber harassment and online abuse, and several of them actually didn't want to speak to me on the record using their names because they themselves were fearful of becoming Elon Musk's latest target.
We tried to ask for comment, trying to seek for comment from Elon Musk. They did not respond, but our colleague Rene Marsh did speak to Vivek Ramaswamy, who was of course co-leading this effort on efficiency with Elon Musk. And he said our opponent is not any particular individual. Our opponent is the bureaucracy.
[01:39:47]
GOLD: But of course, that will be of little comfort to those four individuals who were in those posts that Elon Musk amplified.
Hadas Gold CNN -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: The United States is starting to reintroduce nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. But misconceptions about the dangers of nuclear waste and potential meltdowns have stalled any type of progress in recent years.
CNN's Bill Weir reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: With humanity thirsty for clean energy, nuclear is having a green renaissance.
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Get the Palisades Nuclear Plant back up and running.
WEIR: Even among Democrats. In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer is using a $1.5 billion in IRA funds to reopen the Palisades Nuclear Plant, saying it's the only way to meet state climate goals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chaos and confusion reigned as monitors tried to determine exactly how much radiation was released.
WEIR: And 50 years after America's most notorious nuclear accident, Microsoft is planning to reopen Three-Mile Island to power the demand for A.I. computing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Radiation in the containment.
WEIR: There is no conclusive proof that accident made anyone sick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a serious condition.
WEIR: But films like "The China Syndrome" and "Silkwood" helped make a Cold War culture even more wary of meltdowns that never came.
But spent nuclear fuel had been piling up at dozens of sites around the country. Radioactive waste with no clear destination.
What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about nuclear energy in the general public, in the United States especially?
BRIAN VANGOR, DRYCAST SUPERVISOR, INDIAN POINT, HOLTEC INTERNATIONAL: Well, that it can blow up. It can't blow up when the plant was running, it couldn't blow up.
WEIR: Brian Vangor spent his career at Indian Point before New York Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and RFK Jr. helped shut it down. Safety, he insists, was never an issue.
VANGOR: So, 25 millirem is a typical maybe 1 or 2 chest x-rays, and you'd have to stand at the plant fence 24/7 for an entire year to receive that radiation.
Each one of these canisters weighs 360,000 pounds. They're designed for floods, earthquakes, fires, explosion, aircraft impact, you name it, they can withstand it.
WEIR: Data shows that when measuring deaths from accidents and pollution coal, oil and gas are the most dangerous power sources by far. While nuclear ranks with wind and solar among the safest.
But uranium mining can still have a steep environmental cost, and the waste remains radioactive for centuries.
One pellet of enriched uranium holds as much power as one ton of coal. So these 127 canisters hold all the pellets that produce 50-years' worth of electricity for a big chunk of New York City. Hell of a legacy.
But now they've got to figure out what to do with this. In 2010, Harry Reid and Nevada democrats killed a plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain. And with no new plan, it has been piling up at dozens of sites around the country ever since.
If we move it at 3,000 tons a year, which is a lot of fuel to be moving, it would take us approximately 50 years to meet the interim storage.
WEIR: And that's just interim storage. A permanent site could take 250 years to fill and close. First, they have to build the world's safest train car to move it, and then they have to find a community to take it, likely in exchange for a fortune in taxpayer dollars.
Nominations could start next year, and could indicate whether the politics of nuclear energy is any less radioactive.
Bill Weir, CNN -- Westchester County, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, we visit a unique school in Hawaii that aims to change the world one child at a time, with its hands-on, nature-based approach to education.
[01:43:41]
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COREN: Across the globe, more and more schools are including lesson plans that help their students engage with the natural world around them. Today, on "Call to Earth", we visited a school in Hawaii with a hands-on nature-first approach that aims to inspire the next generation of environmentally-conscious leaders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very slowly, very gently. Remember, walk carefully because there's snail shells in here.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This group of schoolchildren on the island of Kauai are helping a local farmer rid his fields of an invasive and highly destructive pest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm trying to find apple snails and get them out of the taro.
ASHER: Taro is a root vegetable that's considered a sacred plant in Hawaiian culture, and is also a staple in the island's cuisine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell us what you're doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Collecting these.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are those?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snail eggs.
ASHER: By helping remove the eggs from the taro, these kids are not only helping protect their own food source, but they're also learning valuable life lessons.
JUAN GOMEZ, SBH TARO FARMS: I think it's important for the kids because it does teach them about the Hawaiian culture, where it all came from.
That's why we say it's our responsibility to take care of the taro, and it helps them with just the basic understanding of biodiversity.
ASHER: Nature-based activities like this are at the core of a curriculum that is the brainchild of educator Christina Zimmerman.
CHRISTINA ZIMMERMAN, FOUNDER, EARTH SCHOOL HAWAII: At Earth School Hawaii, our mission is to create children who will be through environmental education, through small group education.
You know, we live at a really unique place, being on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
So we really try to cater to the individual child here and the individual needs of our island.
ASHER: based on the north shore of Kauai, Earth School Hawaii has programs for kindergarten through eighth grade.
ZIMMERMAN: So our goal is taking our entire school day and focusing in on environmental education and teaching the language arts and the math and the science and all the common course through environmental concepts.
ASHER: By partnering with local organizations, the school is able to provide a true hands-on approach to learning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're doing crab traps. Thats the chicken.
ZIMMERMAN: We work with a lot of other nonprofits on the island who are also doing amazing things here, and we try to get the kids involved and out and doing as much as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've never done this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if you let some of your rope out like this, and you (INAUDIBLE) like this and you can kind of toss it gently like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok.
J. KAPULE TORIO, EDUCATOR AND STEWARD, HAWAII LAND TRUST: The crab traps is a way to give them some tools with tying knots and understanding the life and biology of decomposers inside of the stream.
Male or female.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Male.
TORIO: Male. So can we take these ones or no? Are these the ones we can eat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TORIO: Yes.
Then the lesson shifts to resource management and the species of crab that you're catching and size limits, and then, you know which ones are legal to take.
Is that one big enough? I think he's a little shy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit shy.
That's right ok.
ASHER: One of the biggest issues in Kauai is the water quality with high bacteria levels, a cause for concern. According to the Surfrider Foundation's Blue Water Task Force.
ZIMMERMAN: We do a lot of work with Surfrider Kauai. And our goal behind that is beach cleanups, but also the water studies which is huge.
We don't have great results a lot in our rivers around here so it's important for the kids to learn what causes that to be off. What can we do to help remedy that and so they chart it. They do all their math studies through it, but also talk about solutions to that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. This is cool.
ZIMMERMAN: They are so far ahead of where we were 20, 30, 40 years ago. And they're five and six and seven. They're just starting.
And so in my mind, it's like, what is it going to be like in ten years or 20 years with these kids leading us? And that's the focus.
[01:49:48]
ZIMMERMAN: We have to take these kids and get them educated at a very, very young age. And I can only imagine what that looks like for our island or our world.
But I feel like this has to be the focus. It has to. This is our future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: What a wonderful way to learn.
For more information, go to CNN.com/CallToEarth.
Stay with us. We'll be right back
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COREN: Having a multi-million-dollar net worth isn't going to save you from the inevitability of death but tech entrepreneur and biohacker Brian Johnson is trying anyway, sinking (ph) countless hours and at least $2 million a year on experimental treatments.
CNN's Anna Stewart spoke to him.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You don't actually think it's possible to not die. Surely you expect to die someday?
BRIAN JOHNSON, TECH ENTREPRENEUR: No. I -- yes. So this project is not about immortality. I want to be very clear. This project is about being healthy today and wanting tomorrow.
At the same time, we know that biology has shown, for example, in certain species, like the jellyfish, they can rejuvenate themselves. We know from long-lived species, they can be over a few hundred years
old. Bo biology has solved aging on these larger timescales. And so yes with given how fast technology is progressing and our understanding of biology, this is what I'm saying.
And its mind bending. This is the first time in human history where we don't know how long and how well we can live. There is no cap.
STEWART: You are a human trial of one. How can you be sure that the protocol you follow will work for the general population? And why not put the millions of dollars you're spending into financing a clinical trial for just one supplement?
JOHNSON: Yes. I get a lot of criticism from scientists. The people will say what he's doing is not scientifically valid. It's not contribution to science. It's limited because it's n equals one.
All true. And I accept all the critiques. What they don't understand is my goal. They don't understand what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to change the culture of the human race.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well Anna's full interview airs on "DECODED" this Saturday, 3:00 p.m. Eastern time in the U.S. That's 8:00 p.m. in London.
Well, it seems like science fiction but a start-up company based in London have found a way to pick up and move liquids and objects from one place to another by using only sound waves.
More on this innovative technology from CNN's Nick Valencia.
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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Levitating liquids and objects using just sound waves. Sounds out of the ordinary, even magical. But a London-based startup says this could be revolutionary.
SRIRAM SUBRAMANIAN, ACOUSTOFAB CO-FOUNDER: We've been working on acoustic levitation for the last decade or decade and a half. We -- yes, we've always been looking and exploring at ways in which we can float objects in mid-air using ultrasound.
And it was always a blue-sky idea until about a year ago when some of my co-founders were saying, oh, maybe there's a commercial opportunity for this.
VALENCIA: AcoustoFab has perfected the ability to pick up a droplet or a small particle, adjust it mid-air, then move it to a specific location doing all of this with only using sound waves.
[01:54:51]
VALENCIA: The new technology uses a range of tiny speakers set at 40khz to generate the sound waves, outside of the audible range for humans. SUBRAMANIAN: The magic trick is we time the turning on and off of each
individual speaker precisely. So when we turn them on and off at different time intervals, they create a pattern and we can computationally using acoustic holography, shape the sound (INAUDIBLE) however you want.
So for example, we can make them all come together to a point and they can we can make transducers from the bottom and from the top come to two different points that are half a wavelength apart. Then if you put an object there, it's going to be held in place.
VALENCIA: So what are the practical uses for sound levitation. Seed processing companies are already showing interest in this new technology for its abilities to make the seeds float, filtering out unwanted materials like sticks and stones.
It also brings new opportunities to the life science industry especially in handling dangerous chemicals and blood.
SHUBHI BANSAL, ACOUSTOFAB CO-FOUNDER: Everything could be automated. They can do the reactions, place the samples directly in the well plate on the required positions without any human hindrance, without creating any waste.
VALENCIA: AcoustoFab has been demonstrating their sound levitation kit at tech fairs around the world. They say research labs can buy a basic kit for academic use, starting at $3,100.
Nick Valencia, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Before we go, officials in Florida have recovered a million dollars in gold coins stolen from a shipwreck recovery effort nine years ago. The stolen items came from the wreckage of a fleet of Spanish ships that sunk during a hurricane in 1715.
Well, this particular trove was discovered nine years ago, but investigators say part of the haul was stolen by a salvage operator contracted to hunt for more treasure from the 1715 fleet.
Gold and silver artifacts from that fleet have been recovered offshore for decades following the first discovery in 1928. One man is now facing charges for dealing in stolen property.
Well, thank you so much for your company. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong.
My friend and colleague Rosemary Church will be along shortly with more of CNN NEWSROOM after this short break.
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