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Thousands Headed Home in Lebanon as Ceasefire Between Israel and Hezbollah Took Effect; China Releases Three Americans in a Prisoner Swap; Australia Inches Closer to Pass the Bill on Banning Social Media on Users Under-16; Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Pushes Through, Rain or Shine; U.S. Astronauts Shared Their Thanksgiving Menu in Space. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 28, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead. A ceasefire in Lebanon. Why people on the border are still worried and what this means for the war in Gaza.
And a series of threats against Donald Trump's cabinet appointees, what the FBI says about the investigation so far.
Plus, Australian lawmakers want to ban social media for kids under 16. We'll dig into the debate about digital safety.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Appreciate you joining us. We begin in Lebanon as a major ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding for a second day. The country's army is ramping up its presence in the south as part of the deal to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping there.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
People celebrated as a military convoy arrived in this southern town on Wednesday. Officials say the Lebanese army is boosting its presence to roughly 10,000 troops in the south and schools, many of which had been turned into makeshift shelters, are expected to reopen on Monday.
Meanwhile, in the capital, thousands of displaced people are already returning home to Beirut and its suburbs, which faced intense bombardment during the conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN (through translator): I'm from Yarmouk in the Nabatea province, a resident of the southern Dahiya. Two months ago on a day like this, I left and returned after two months victorious, raising the picture of the greatest leader in the world. There's no one else after him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meantime, an Israeli security official says northern Israeli residents can decide for themselves when to return home, but some residents of northern border communities are not ready to do so just yet.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you're back in Shtula with all the dogs?
ORI ELIYAHU, SHTULA, ISRAEL RESIDENT: Yeah. I'm at home. It's not really home at the moment, but...
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, Jabal Blak, you see there the mountain? 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 homes 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, in the phone, anywhere, 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, ISRAEL RESIDENT: We wake up today, a quiet morning. After one year, 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 soldiers. They are tired. They are exhausted. Also, what other option do we have 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.
[03:05:03]
The Lebanese military also headed south, expected to monitor Hezbollah activity as a fragile truce takes hold.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Shtula, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The Biden administration is hailing the terms of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah. The lead U.S. negotiator spoke to CNN about the significance of the deal and Washington's role going forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMOS HOCHSTEIN, U.S. ENVOY: The ceasefire that was agreed to yesterday, this is a, we're in a day one of this ceasefire, so I and others will hold judgment. The hope is that this is a permanent ceasefire that is not just a cessation of hostilities on a temporary basis.
I saw a lot of reports that this is a 60-day ceasefire. It is not. It is a permanent ceasefire that will require Hezbollah to move away from the border.
But Israeli positions inside Lebanon are going to continue to be there for a few more weeks and will, as they depart Lebanon, on a gradual basis. So the Lebanese military will now come in and as they deploy to the south, the Israeli military will redeploy back into Israel.
And look, there's a lot of military gains that were achieved here, but at some point you have to translate those gains into an agreement. The government of Israel felt that this was the right time, as did the Lebanese, and so this ceasefire came about.
We were determined not to just have a ceasefire, but a comprehensive agreement that will include components of implementation to ensure that Hezbollah is not there, and most importantly to ensure that the infrastructure is not there and is not allowed to be rebuilt.
And so the United States, for the first time, is going to play a role in the monitoring and the implementation of this agreement in order to give more confidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Following the Israel-Hezbollah deal, the Biden administration says it will push for a ceasefire in Gaza. But so far, there's 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 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)
CHURCH: 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.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees says Israel has blocked nearly all recent efforts by the United Nations to deliver aid to northern Gaza, and it warns conditions for survival there are diminishing for the tens of thousands living under constant Israeli military siege. Some aid has gotten into Gaza by air, as the Jordanian air force says it dropped nearly seven tons of basic food supplies into the enclave on Tuesday.
Israel plans to appeal arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Prime Minister's office made the announcement in a statement and added that Israel renounces the authority of the ICC and the legitimacy of those warrants.
The announcement came after Mr. Netanyahu met with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham in Jerusalem. The Prime Minister's office says Graham told Netanyahu that he will promote measures in Congress against the ICC and countries that cooperate with it.
Well 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.
Russia has been launching a massive attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine today. That is according to Ukraine's energy minister.
[03:10:06]
He says emergency power outages have been introduced. Air raid sirens were sounding nationwide over the last several hours but have now been called off.
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.
Meanwhile, the war on Ukraine is apparently putting a strain on U.S. military stockpiles. The Biden administration has less than two months to spend about $7 billion in military aid approved for Ukraine. But several U.S. officials say the Pentagon is unlikely to use it all because the equipment would be taken from U.S. stockpiles, which are starting to run low.
They say a lot of military hardware will still make its way to Ukraine in the coming weeks. But after that, it will be up to the new Trump administration to decide whether the flow of weapons will continue.
Donald Trump has now 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 the 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."
Earlier, U.S. House Republican Victoria Spartz told CNN why she thinks Trump's drastic measures would be effective.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. VICTORIA SPARTZ (R-IN): You might not like some things that President Trump done before, but he was one of the toughest on sanctions on Russia. And he was the one who unleashed energy in the United States, which causes headaches to Russia. He was the one who actually authorized to kill Wagner in Syria. That was didn't happen before to actually authorize killing Russians. So he is very unpredictable.
His policy are going to be very unpredictable. But the best thing about that, he has an ability and desire to deal with Russia economically.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Clare Sebastian joins me now live from London. Good morning to you, Clare.
So what is the latest on Russian strikes on Ukraine and what more are you learning about how Donald Trump's newly appointed U.S. envoy may impact how the President-elect plans to end the war in Ukraine, as he promised during the campaign?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, I think it's clear that these attacks on Ukraine's energy grid are accelerating as we go into winter. The weather in Kyiv now, for example, is approaching freezing. So the effects become more acute.
The information is still trickling in. But as you say, the energy minister called this a massive attack this morning. And it seems to have affected regions all across Ukraine. We're hearing now of power outages in Rivne, which is in the West.
Similarly, in Lviv, more than half a million people are without power. Schools in several regions have had to switch to online learning. Trams and trolleybuses are not operating in Mykolaiv down in the south. So very widespread.
This is a strategy, a pattern that we see from Russia. These towns and cities are miles, hundreds of miles in some cases, from the front line.
And so I think this really enforces these sort of maximalist goals, that this isn't just about the four regions that Russia has partially occupied as of now, that they have much bigger aims when it comes to Ukraine, and that they continue to try to exhaust and trip the Ukrainian population into submission, although, of course, that has not worked yet.
This is a Russia that's emboldened. Putin has been in Kazakhstan, flaunting the West's failure to isolate him, a country that has helped many believe Russia circumvent sanctions.
And all of this as Ukraine watches with concern developments out of the United States. This new Russia-Ukraine envoy, this is a new job created by President-elect Trump.
Keith Kellogg has put forward a peace plan that, you know, we don't know the details of his current one, but certainly in an article that he wrote in April, it seems to very much echo what we've heard from other members of the Trump team, including J.D. Vance. Take a look at this section of it.
He says it would mean a formal U.S. policy to seek a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict. The United States, he says, would continue to arm Ukraine and strengthen its defenses to ensure Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement. Future military aid, however, will require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia.
So he's also prepared to offer one of Russia's central demands, which is keeping Ukraine out of NATO for an extended period. So everything points to the Trump administration looking for some kind of ceasefire in the early days after taking office.
[03:15:03]
I think the question is, will Ukraine being kept out of NATO for an extended period, if that's the proposal, be enough of an incentive for Russia to come to the table when it's already feeling so much momentum on its side? Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Clare Sebastian bringing us that live report from London.
Well, the agony is over for three Americans who've been held behind bars in China. Just ahead, why Beijing decided to release them now after keeping them locked up for years.
Plus, picks for Donald Trump's cabinet are facing bomb threats and swatting scares. We'll have details.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. 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 U.N. ambassador Elise Stefanik and even former Attorney General hopeful Matt Gaetz.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny has our report.
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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 un-American threats ranging from bomb threats to so-called swatting incidents when police are summoned under the hoax of 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 people who are in the news at any given time.
When 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)
CHURCH: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Donald Trump on Wednesday in Florida. A spokesperson for the company tells CNN they shared dinner with members of Trump's transition team and discussed the incoming administration.
The "New York Times" reports the two had been in contact in the months leading up to the election, but it's not known what they discussed.
[03:20:04]
Trump was also spotted Tuesday night with Boris Epstein, a top aide who was under internal investigation for reportedly trying to benefit financially from his access and influence to the president-elect.
Well the U.S. has announced new sanctions on more than 20 officials aligned with Venezuela's president in an effort to pressure Nicolas Maduro into accepting the results of July's disputed election. U.S. officials believe the new sanctions will push Venezuelan officials to break ranks from the Maduro government and help move the country toward a democratic transition.
This move comes one week after the U.S. formally recognized Venezuela's opposition leader as the country's president-elect. The U.S. Secretary of State wrote on X, quote, democracy demands respect for the will of the voters.
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.
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's behind the content.
Melisa Bell has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALIN GEORGESCU, ROMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER (translated): Romania is waking up. We're not changing our masters, we're changing the system.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (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 two 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 (translated): 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 Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: 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 visited a decommissioned nuclear power plant in New York to ask an expert about the most common fears and what the country is doing with its nuclear waste.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With humanity thirsty for clean energy, nuclear is having a green renaissance.
Even among Democrats. In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer is using a billion and a half in IRA funds to reopen the Palisades nuclear plant, saying it's the only way to meet state climate goals.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Chaos and confusion reigned as monitors tried to determine exactly how much radiation was released.
WEIR (voice-over): And 50 years after America's most notorious nuclear accident, Microsoft is planning to reopen Three Mile Island to power the demand for AI computing.
There is no conclusive proof that accident made anyone sick. But films like "The China Syndrome" and "Silkwood" help make a Cold War culture even more wary of meltdowns that never came.
But spent nuclear fuel has been piling up at dozens of sites around the country, radioactive waste with no clear destination.
WEIR: What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about nuclear energy in the general public, in the United States especially?
BRIAN VANGOR, DRY CAST SUPERVISOR AT 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 (voice-over): Brian Vanger spent his career at Indian Point before New York Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and RFK Jr. helped shut it down.
[03:25:07]
Safety, he insists, was never an issue.
VANGER: So 25 millirem is a typical maybe one or two chest x-rays. 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 (voice-over): 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.
WEIR: One pellet of enriched uranium holds as much power as one ton of coal. So these 127 canisters hold all the pellets that produced 50 years' worth of electricity for a big chunk of New York City. Hell of a legacy. But now they got to figure out what to do with this.
WEIR (voice-over): 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.
PAUL MURRAY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY: 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 (voice-over): 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)
CHURCH: Beijing says three of its nationals involved in a prisoner swap with the U.S. are back home. Their exchange for three Americans who spent years behind bars in China. CNN's Jennifer Handler has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Three Americans who were detained in China for years are on their way back to the United States after a prisoner swap between Washington and Beijing. Kai Li, Mark Swidan, and John Leung were exchanged for an unknown number of Chinese nationals in Wednesday's swap. That took place after years of quiet negotiations between the U.S. and Chinese.
At almost every meeting between the officials, be it Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, or President Joe Biden, they brought up the need to bring the Americans home. And that finally came to pass on Wednesday.
Although the negotiations were done quietly, there were signals that things were beginning to move back in September when another American, David Lin, was quietly released from Chinese custody.
The three Americans are expected to land in U.S. soil late on Wednesday night and be reunited with their loved ones.
The son of one of the Americans, Kai Li, said in a statement that he was enthusiastically welcoming the news of his father's release. Harrison Li thanked the president, the National Security Council, and the State Department for their role in the effort in bringing his father home in time for the holidays.
He urged the Biden administration to use its remaining days to bring home other Americans who are detained abroad or held hostage.
Jennifer Hansler, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Goods could get more expensive for Americans if Donald Trump's planned tariffs take effect. Why even U.S.-made cars are poised for a price hike.
And why some U.S. federal government employees are now worried about becoming an online target of the world's richest man. Stay with us for that and more.
[03:30:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check the top stories for you now.
A major ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding for a second day. Lebanon is boosting its military presence in the country's south to roughly 10,000 troops to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping there. Thousands of displaced people are returning home and schools, many of which had been turned into makeshift shelters, are set to reopen next week.
The FBI is investigating bomb threats and swatting scares that targeted at least nine people tapped for key positions in the Trump administration. We're told the latest is Commerce Secretary pick Howard Lutnick. Others threatened include Lee Zeldin, Trump's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as would-be CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
The CEO of furniture giant IKEA warns Trump's tariffs are likely to push up prices. Jesper Brodin says neither the global economy nor IKEA have ever benefited from high tariffs.
And as CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich reports, they could also drive up the cost of U.S.-made cars.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: We have the big three U.S. automakers, but there's no such thing as an all- American car. The cars that are made by Ford, Stellantis and GM are made with foreign parts from Canada, Mexico and even China.
And Trump says he's going to put a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10 percent on Chinese imports. And that will have a significant impact on the price of cars here in the U.S.
Now, cars made with foreign parts but assembled in the U.S. include Tesla's Model 3, the Honda Ridgeline and the Ford F-150, which is the most popular car here in the U.S.
Cars assembled in Mexico that are coming over the border are the Chevy Blazer, the Honda HRV, the Ram and Chevy Silverado. Now, the reason why U.S. car companies make cars and parts in foreign countries like Mexico is to keep costs down. It's cheaper to make cars and parts there.
Labor is a lot cheaper. And currently, there's free trade between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, something that President Trump helped negotiate under USMCA.
Now, the average car price in the U.S. in October was about $47,000. But with tariffs, that price will go a lot higher. So why can't we just keep the production in the U.S. to avoid these tariffs? Well, we don't currently have facilities for that. And wages for workers are a lot higher here.
And the U.S. is currently trying to build 16 semiconductor plants. But that will take three to five years to build. Those semiconductors can be used for cars.
But now, if prices of new cars end up going up, that will put pressure on the used car market. And those prices will go higher. And once again, inflation will kick in.
Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Donald Trump's threat to impose that massive tariff on Mexican goods in retaliation for the migrants and drugs flowing into the US led to a phone call Wednesday with the Mexican president. But the two leaders shared different takes on what they concluded.
Trump claimed that President Claudia Sheinbaum, quote, "agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the U.S., effectively closing our southern border."
She had posted online that migrant caravans would no longer arrive at the U.S. border because they're being addressed and assisted in Mexico.
[03:34:58]
In a later post, President Sheinbaum firmly denied Trump's claims that the border itself is closing and reiterated, quote, "Mexico's position is not to close borders, but to build bridges between governments and between peoples."
A federal appeals court has ruled that the Biden administration cannot remove razor wire put up by Texas officials on the border with Mexico. Texas sued more than a year ago after Border Patrol agents cut down razor wire that state officials placed to hamper immigrant crossings.
The Fifth Circuit rejected the administration's arguments that the federal government had so-called sovereign immunity prohibiting the lawsuit. Two migrants drowned while the emergency appeal was being litigated at the beginning of this year, though Texas disputes the claim that the wire impeded efforts to save them. While many federal employees are concerned about Trump's promises to cut the U.S. government workforce, now they're also worried about becoming targets. That's after Elon Musk posted items revealing personal information about four obscure federal employees who have since been barraged with negative attention.
CNN's Hadas Gold has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA 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 advisor 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 our 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 companies. And they 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 home. 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 may 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 some 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 reached out to X for comment, trying to seek a comment from Elon Musk. They did not respond.
But our colleague Renee 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.
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)
CHURCH: Australia has been pushing to make social media off limits for anyone under 16. And now the country's lawmakers are one step away from passing that legislation. We'll have a live report. Back in just a moment.
[03:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Australia is one step closer to banning social media for anyone under 16. The Senate is in session right now and is expected to debate a bill that would introduce that ban. It easily passed in the lower house on Wednesday.
The time is running out because today is the last day of the parliamentary year. And senators have about 30 bills they hope to bring to a vote.
Hanako Montgomery is monitoring this story. She joins us now live from Tokyo. Good to see you, Hanako. So, will the Senate pass this in time? And if they do, how will this social media ban for kids under 16 work? And how will it be enforced?
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT; Hi, Rosemary. It's good to see you too.
Of course, this is a monumental bill, right? And if it does pass the Australian Senate, which many experts believe it will, then it would be some of the strictest laws on social media that we've seen in the world.
Now, we know that tech companies would have about a year to remove under 16-year-olds from their social media platforms. And if they don't comply with the new restrictions, then they could face fines of up to 32 million U.S. dollars. Now, we also know that there would be no exceptions, meaning even if
kids get consent from their parents, they still can't create accounts.
But, Rosemary, what we don't really know yet is how this ban will actually be enforced. It's a huge task to verify each user's age. And also there are some security concerns here, because if you're asking each user to verify their age with government I.D., very highly sensitive data, and then storing that information online, of course there could potentially be a security breach. And that could be very problematic.
Now, in the bill, the Australian government has said that social media platforms shouldn't ask users to submit that kind of highly sensitive information. But, again, Rosemary, not that many details about how it would be enforced.
Now, the bill has received widespread bipartisan support from the Australian government. But, of course, it's been criticized by tech companies that would be affected, and also some human rights groups.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who owns X, has criticized the bill, saying that it would infringe upon children's human rights. And Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has echoed the same concerns, and has also said that Australia should take more time to deliberate the details, iron out the details, before it actually becomes law.
Now, Australia's Human Rights Commission, which is an independent government body, has also said that there are better ways, less restrictive ways, to protect children from online harm than simply imposing a blanket ban.
But Australia's Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has dismissed this criticism, saying that children still get access to important educational and also health services.
Of course, also, Rosemary, this bill comes after several high-profile cases where kids took their own lives because, their parents say, they were bullied online.
Now, also importantly, Albanese has the support, much of the support, from the general public. According to a YouGov poll released earlier this week, as many as 77 percent of Australians supported a social media ban for under-16-year-olds.
And again, of course, this is also very important for Albanese personally, because he's facing very important elections in the new year around May.
So again, Rosemary, lots more details that still need to be discussed here, but it could very likely become law very soon. Rosemary.
CHURCH: We'll be watching this closely. Hanako Montgomery, joining us live from Tokyo. Many thanks.
[03:45:04] For more, I'm joined now by Kirra Pendergast, the founder of Safe on Social, a group specializing in online safety education, and she joins us from Byron Bay in Queensland, Australia. Thank you so much for talking with us.
KIRRA PENDERGAST, FOUNDER, DIRECTOR, AND PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT, SAFE ON SOCIAL GROUP OF COMPANIES: Thank you for having me, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So, Australia is set to become the first country in the world to ban kids under 16 from using social media platforms, the most restrictive ever. What's your view of what they're proposing right now?
PENDERGAST: Well, initially I was anti-ban, but I went back through 13 years of research that I've done myself when I've been speaking in schools all around Australia, and it stacks up.
And I actually very publicly back flipped to be pro-ban after talking to a lot of parents, a lot of teachers, and a lot of students that agree with the changes to the legislation.
CHURCH: And the ban is expected to pass, as we've been pointing out, but how will it be enforced, particularly when it comes to verifying ages, which could prove an issue for social media companies, or that is their claim?
PENDERGAST: Yeah, well, the government has pushed it back onto social media companies that they actually have to destroy the data of any government I.D. that is uploaded as part of that age verification process, or that will be the 50 million Australian Dollar fine as a breach of the Privacy Act.
So, they've already started to think about that. Obviously, this is a very first step in a very long journey to get this right and to get it in place to make everyone happy and comply, effectively.
CHURCH: And, of course, tragically, this comes after a number of suicides of young children in Australia who were being bullied online. It's a problem elsewhere, of course, we have to point out. So, could this ban become a model for other countries, do you think? Will they be watching very closely?
PENDERGAST: Well, I've been contacted by a lot of people around the world in the last couple of weeks because of that fact, because everyone is looking closely at how Australia is going to do this.
It's not a silver bullet, it will take a minute, it will probably take a year or so, but it is a first step and I think that is really important because other governments are watching.
As we know, it's very hard for countries that are very small, like Australia, population-wise, to change U.S. government laws and things like that, but we can make a difference with doing it in our own backyard first and that's what the Albanese government is trying to do. CHURCH: And, of course, we are watching the Senate now. Of course,
they've got 30 bills to consider here. Are you confident they'll get through this, given it is the last day?
PENDERGAST: I hope so. I'm not sure what time they'll be there too, but let's hope it gets through.
CHURCH: And, I mean, this is quite a breakthrough, isn't it, for Australia to be a first with this, because it has been so problematic in so many countries and people have not been able to tackle it, certainly here in the United States. So, talk to us about why Australia and how Australia has become so progressive on this issue.
PENDERGAST: Look, I think Australia is a good test bed for this because of the size of us. You know, our population is smaller than California, remember. We're only about 28 million people on a block of dirt that is almost as big as North America and so we're a good test bed for how this works.
The whole of Asia looks at us and a lot of countries that we're tied to through heritage, like the U.K., Ireland and things like that. So, you know, something had to happen, Rosemary, to be honest. I have, in the last couple of weeks, it is the first time in the history of my career that I've actually walked out of a school in tears because of the behavior of the students.
Now, I know because of the behavior that was put towards me, it was directly influenced by social media. It couldn't have been any other thing because of the particular things that were said and done in that session.
So something had to give and with the amount of bullying, Australia is now one of the highest rates of bullying anywhere in the world for such a small company. That's abhorrent and something really needed to change and I think we're all just getting a bit sick of the things that are happening online and no one doing anything about it and it's just getting worse and worse and worse.
So it really had to change and I think it's a big brave step that our government doing to put this in place or attempt to, at least.
CHURCH: Indeed. We'll watch to see what happens once they do that. Kirra Pendergast, thank you so much for talking with us. I appreciate it.
PENDERGAST: Pleasure. Pleasure, Rosemary.
[03:49:58]
CHURCH: Microsoft is under the microscope yet again as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigates whether the company is violating antitrust laws. A source tells CNN the agency sent a letter to Microsoft demanding information related to the probe.
It's been just over a year since the last dispute between the two parties was resolved. The FTC argued Microsoft's recent acquisition of video game publisher Activision-Blizzard would give them a monopoly in the industry. Microsoft denied those claims and the merger went through.
Still to come here on "CNN Newsroom."
Millions of Americans are traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday but bad weather and a shortage of crucial airport workers could slow down air traffic for many of them. We're back with that in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone.
Nearly 80 million people will travel by plane, train or automobile this Thanksgiving holiday. That is according to the American Automobile Association and the Federal Aviation Administration is warning there could be slowdowns in air traffic in the Northeast because of a shortage of air traffic controllers.
More now from CNN's Pete Muntean in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Things have been smooth here at Reagan National Airport but air travel on Wednesday has not been smooth everywhere. A particular pain point is Newark Liberty International Airport. The FAA is short of air traffic controllers there so the agency is purposefully delaying flights going into Newark.
The average delay on Wednesday? About an hour and 35 minutes.
United Airlines sent out a memo saying that this is a significant disruption for the airline. Newark is a huge hub for United and it says that 343,000 of its passengers have been caught up in these air traffic control delays in the month of November alone. 46,000 this past Saturday.
I want you to listen now to FAA Chief Mike Whitaker. He says that the FAA has tried to blunt this problem by moving the facility responsible for Newark airspace from New York to Philadelphia and he says these slowdowns are necessary but only temporary.
MIKE WHITAKER, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We are working the traffic, the staffing issue as quickly as we can. We expected some disruption which is why we're pushing so many controllers through the pipeline. We have never been able to get this kind of a pipeline for staffing Newark when it was in New York and so we're very optimistic we're going to get through this with minimal delays.
MUNTEAN: Relief cannot come soon enough for the millions flying during this Thanksgiving travel rush. The TSA screened about 2.7 million people at airports nationwide on Tuesday. It's expecting another 2.9 million people by the time Wednesday is said and done.
Since the start of this week about 8 million people have passed through security checkpoints at airports nationwide and it is only the start.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: In the eastern states a storm system will bring rain and snow for Thanksgiving which means soggy parades and possible travel disruptions especially in the northeast.
Steady snow will last through Thursday evening in parts of New England where winter storm warnings are already in effect from New York State to Maine. By Friday as the storm moves offshore northwest winds will bring the coldest air of the season and the first significant lake effect snow event for the Great Lakes.
[03:55:00]
Well the rain won't stop the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade today. CNN's Harry Enten is in New York with a preview of what to expect.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRY ENTEN, CNN REPORTER: Here on Central Park West ahead of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which will be going on tomorrow morning I got my dear big older brother Tom the Turkey who has been part of this parade pretty much since it started. Get this, 100 years ago. My goodness gracious.
Look, today the energy is absolutely through the roof. You can see the folks have been making their way on Central Park West here. Of course, this is part of the big pregame show. The parade's tomorrow, but tonight they will be inflating the balloons some of which have already been inflated others of which are under netting.
Tomorrow on their way down Central Park West here in Manhattan all the way down to 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
Of course, a big question tomorrow is the weather. Now, the weather forecast ain't so hot to trot. Rain is in the forecast, but I dare say that is part of the reason why we have hats. We have hats here to cover ourselves up from the elements.
Look, the good news is that the wind forecast is supposed to be rather minimum in terms of wind and that is key because those 17 giant balloons including new ones such as Minnie Mouse who's making her debut in the parade will be able to fly as long as the wind stays minimum.
All I can say is 1, 2, 3, let's have a parade tomorrow. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And a few Americans will be spending Thanksgiving very far from home on the International Space Station. Here's what's on their menu. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK HAGUE, NASA ASTRONAUT: Brussels sprouts. Butternut squash. Apples and spice.
UNKNOWN: Smoked turkey.
HAGUE: And smoked turkey. It's going to be delicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Very nice. And at least two of those astronauts were not expecting to spend Thanksgiving in space. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded at the ISS for months now after a technical issue on a Boeing Starliner spacecraft kept them from flying home.
But in the holiday greeting video, Wilmore tells his friends and family in the U.S. that one thing he's thankful for this year is zero gravity.
I want to thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate this day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Christina Macfarlane in London.
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