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Elon Musk Reports Persona Information on Government Workers; Australia Close to Banning Social Media for Kids Under 16; U.S. Eyes Return to Nuclear Power, Lacks Plan for Waste; Parade Fans Came to See Balloons Inflated. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 28, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:32:03]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hi, welcome back to CNN Newsroom. Here are some of the top stories we're following today. Russia launched a massive air assault on Ukraine's energy infrastructure overnight. More than a million households were left without power. Air raid sirens sounded in the capital Kyiv for more than nine hours because of a combined missile and drone attack. Residents took shelter in metro stations until the assault was over.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding for a second day and Lebanon is boosting its military presence in the country's south in an effort to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping there. Thousands of displaced people are returning home and schools are set to reopen next week.

Many U.S. federal employees are concerned about President-elect Donald Trump's promises to cut the government workforce. Those cuts won't get underway until Trump is in office, but right now they're also worried about becoming online targets of the world's richest man. That's after Elon Musk reposted items containing personal information on four obscure federal employees who've since been barraged with negative attention.

Details on that from CNN's Hadas Gold.

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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 were 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 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 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.

[04:35:05]

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.

I reached out to X for comment, trying to seek a 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." 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)

MACFARLANE: Well, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with President-elect Trump on Wednesday in Florida. A spokesperson for the company tells CNN they had 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.

Trump was also spotted Tuesday night with Boris Epshteyn, a top aide who was under internal investigation for reportedly trying to benefit financially from his access and influence to the President-elect.

Now, Australia is one step closer to banning social media for anyone under 16. The Senate is in session right now and is expected to vote on a bill that would introduce that ban. It easily passed the lower house on Wednesday, but 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 the story, joins us from Tokyo. So, Hanako, what's the status of the bill at the moment and is it expected to pass?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christina, it's good to see you.

So right now we know that the bill is being deliberated by Australia's Senate and of course this is a monumental bill and if it passes, it would be some of the strictest laws surrounding social media in the world.

Now we know that if it does become law, tech companies would have about a year to remove under 16-year-olds from their platforms and if they don't comply with the new regulations, they could face fines of up to 32 million U.S. dollars.

And, Christina, we also know there would be no exceptions, meaning even if kids get consent from their parents, they still can't create accounts. But what we don't yet know is how this ban would actually be enforced. It's a huge task to verify each user's age and also there are some security concerns, especially if you're asking each user to submit government ID, highly sensitive data, and then storing that data online.

Now the bill does say that social media platforms shouldn't ask users to submit that kind of information, but again, Christina, we don't yet know how this ban would actually be enforced. But it does look very likely to pass the Australian Senate today.

Now of course it's received also widespread bipartisan support from Australia's government and it's also been criticized by the tech companies that would be affected and some human rights organizations.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who owns X, said that the bill infringes upon children's human rights and Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has echoed similar concerns and has also said that Australia should take more time to deliberate this bill and iron out the details.

Now Australia's Human Rights Commission has also said that there are better, less restrictive ways to protect children from online harm than simply imposing a blanket ban.

But in response to this criticism, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has largely dismissed these claims and has pointed to the fact that children still get access to important platforms regarding education and health services.

Of course this bill also comes after several high-profile cases of children ending their own lives because, according to their parents, they were bullied online. So Albanese has been very supportive of this bill. And also we've seen that the public is, in general, quite supportive as well. According to a poll released by YouGov earlier this week, as many as 77% of the general public is in support of banning social media access for under 16-year-olds.

And of course for Albanese, personally, that's also important to get the public's support because he faces very important elections in May next year. So again, Christina, lots more details still to be discussed but experts are telling us that we can expect this bill to pass sometime very, very soon.

Christina.

MACFARLANE: And I'm just wondering if those elections are part of the reason why many are criticizing the fact that this bill appears to be being rushed through without really considering the wide-ranging effects that it could have on Australians.

[04:40:04]

I understand as well that some of the trials for this are still ongoing, not set to come to fruition until the middle of next year. So is that to do with these elections next year? Why the rush?

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, Christina, I think as you remember, right, we discussed last week when the bill first passed Australia's lower House, right, that they were really deliberating these details, deliberating this bill and seeing if it could actually become law. And we've seen really, really rapid progress in this last week and of course now it's being voted upon.

It is important to note that today is the last parliamentary session so that the Senate really does look to vote on these bills. Now of course if you ask the Australian Prime Minister and many government officials, they'll say that this is a pressing issue that's been affecting Australian society but also the rest of the world. So this is a necessary bill, a necessary regulations and it's about time to impose new restrictions.

Of course also earlier this year in September, again, there was a very high-profile case of a child enduring her own life, according to her parents, because she was bullied online. But if you do look at the general state of politics in Australia, there is again that very important election that could come in May for Albanese so he could be looking to boost his approval ratings before those general elections, especially again before Parliament actually ends. Christina?

MACFARLANE: Well, the world is watching, not just Australia, with this one. Hanako Montgomery, appreciate it. Thanks very much.

London police have opened a new investigation into sexual assault allegations against late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. The billionaire is accused of abusing dozens of women, many of them staff members at the luxury department store. A BBC documentary from September detailed several of the claims. Detectives are now investigating associates of Al-Fayed who may have enabled the alleged assaults.

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CDR. STEPHEN CLAYMAN, LONDON'S METROPOLITAN POLICE: Over the last two months, we've been contacted by 19 victim survivors who've reported allegations of sexual assault, rape and wider abuse to us. We have now launched an investigation into a number of people associated with Mohamed Al-Fayed. This investigation will look at what role those individuals may have played in facilitating or enabling his offending and what opportunities they had to protect victims from this horrendous abuse.

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MACFARLANE: Al-Fayed denied similar allegations before his death last year at the age of 94.

Now, Sean "Dilly" Combs will remain in jail after a judge rejected a third request to release the rapper and music producer before trial. The judge said that there was no way to, quote, "reasonably assure the safety of the community." Combs is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Federal prosecutors argued Combs had been tampering with witnesses even while on federal custody. His trial gets underway on May 5th.

And passengers on a flight from New York to Paris heard a surprise announcement after landing.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board. They may be here now. And they directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that's on the plane.

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MACFARLANE: That's the moment the pilot told everyone there had been a stowaway on that flight. The person had no boarding pass but somehow snuck onto the plane on Tuesday despite the security screenings and two identity verifications.

One passenger told us he overheard flight attendants saying the person was hiding in the lavatories. An investigation is underway. Curious.

Well, still ahead, the United States appears to be on the cusp of a nuclear power renaissance but there's still no answer to the problem that's plagued the country for decades. What to do with all the waste? And later you'll find out what dictionary.com says is the word of the

year. Here's a hint.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Straight hair. Very demure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wearing a seatbelt. Very mindful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[04:46:18]

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. A 21-year-old South African HIV activist is taking over the Instagram account of Charlize Theron on World AIDS Day on Sunday. The Academy Award-winning actress is a U.N. Messenger of Peace. She also has a philanthropic foundation that works in South Africa.

Nomonde Ngema will use Theron's Insta to call attention to the experiences of young people living with HIV. Ngema herself was born with the virus and works to dispel myths and reduce stigma around the disease.

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 has more.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With humanity thirsty for clean energy, nuclear is having a green renaissance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give the Palisades nuclear plant back up and running.

WEIR (voice-over): 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 helped 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 (on camera): 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 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: A 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.

(On camera): 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've got to figure out what to do with this.

(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 move to 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.

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MACFARLANE: South Korea is experiencing the most snow it's seen since the 1960s. Seoul recorded more than 16 centimeters, or six inches, of snow on Wednesday. That's nearly double the old record. Power has been restored to most of the homes that it lost, according to government officials. More than 150 flights were canceled or delayed because of the weather. And officials in Seoul scrambled to add extra subway trips to the schedule amid dangerous road conditions. At least one reports of a multiple car pileup.

But it's not all bad news. South Korea's first ever twin pandas celebrated their first snow. How lovely is this? Rui Bao and Hui Bao were kept indoors last winter after being born in July of 2023. And just, oh, look at that. They're enjoying themselves, aren't they? Playing around, grabbing a good meal in the snow. Who doesn't love a bit of snow?

And with just a few hours left until the start of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Let me get my words, right in New York. Soon you'll see the balloons are ready. Take a look at this when we come back.

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[04:50:07]

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. The final touches are being put on the massive balloons and floats that will be featured in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's set to begin in just a few hours in New York. CNN's Gary Tuchman was there on Wednesday night as people from near and far gathered to watch the preparations.

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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanksgiving Eve is very festive in New York City because it's Inflation Day. It's the day that New Yorkers and people from the metropolitan area and people from all over the world come to the Upper West Side of Manhattan to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloons be inflated.

Behind me is Tom Turkey. Tom Turkey is not a balloon. He is a float, one of 22 floats in the parade. The traditional beginning of the parade is Tom Turkey. The balloons are over here. There are 32 balloons in the parade. And this is the one getting the most attention because that is Minnie Mouse. And Minnie Mouse has never been in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before. This is her premier appearance. Her husband, Mickey Mouse, has been in the parade four different times. But this will be her first.

There are 32 balloons. Other balloons that are here are Minion from the Minions, Dora the Explorer, Spider-Man. And it's really a very festive day. Thousands of people came to watch the inflation of the balloons during the day. And I talked with many people from all over the world who are very happy to be here.

David, where are you from?

DAVID: From Sydney, Australia.

TUCHMAN: Sydney, Australia?

DAVID: Yeah, yeah.

TUCHMAN: How are you enjoying this so far?

DAVID: It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

TUCHMAN: What's the favorite thing you've seen?

DAVID: Oh, definitely Bluey. Of course. Australian character.

TUCHMAN: Where are you folks from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Spain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're from Madrid, Spain.

TUCHMAN: Welcome to New York. What's your favorite part of what you've seen so far?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The balloons.

TUCHMAN: What is your name?

MARY MALETA (ph): My name is Mary Maleta (ph).

TUCHMAN: And how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

MALETA: No, 98. I tell everybody now.

TUCHMAN: You look much younger than that.

MALETA: Thank you.

TUCHMAN: Have you ever seen all the balloons being blown up before?

MALETA: No, I never. I never did.

TUCHMAN: This is amazing.

MALETA: This is the first time.

TUCHMAN: Do you know that this parade, the first one, was exactly 100 years ago?

[04:55:03]

MALETA: Really, so?

TUCHMAN: And you're 98. So you were here for the third one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am from Colombia.

TUCHMAN: And where in Colombia?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Medellin.

TUCHMAN: Medellin's a beautiful city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course it is. You should come to see it.

TUCHMAN: Well, I've been there, and it's beautiful. That's how I know that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you've been.

TUCHMAN: So what's your favorite balloon? What's the most beautiful balloon?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do love Dora la Exploradora because Medellin.

TUCHMAN: Here's a really neat aspect to this story. On November 27, 1924, exactly 100 years ago, it was the very first Macy's Parade. This is the 98th annual parade because three of the parades were canceled during World War II. The 100th will be in 2026. But either way, that's an amazing fact.

Here's another fact. During that first parade, they actually had live animals from the Bronx Zoo here in New York City. They had a bear. They had a monkey. They had an elephant that participated in the parade.

Now, legend says and also logic says that those animals were not too happy to be marching in the parade, and they were scaring a lot of the children. So they decided the very following year to include floats and balloons instead of the live animals.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in New York.

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RUPAUL, DRAG QUEEN AND TELEVISION HOST: Oh, hey. See how I'm reading this book? Very demure.

I don't dog ear pages. I put in a bookmark. And I don't divulge the ending to my friends. Very considerate. And also, my cell phone is on do not disturb. Very demure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: OK, come on. We all recognize this. It's RuPaul using Dictionary.com's 2024 word of the year, drum roll. It is, of course, demure. It went viral this year thanks to a series of wildly popular videos by social media influencers by Jools Lebron. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOOLS LEBRON, TIKTOKER: See how I do my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful. I don't come to work with a green cut crease. I don't look like a clown when I go to work. I don't do too much. I'm very mindful while I'm at work. See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma. Not demure. I'm very modest. I'm very mindful.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MACFARLANE: Not demure. OK, I admit, I jumped on the bandwagon with this one this year. And Dictionary.com says demure is used to describe -- is used to describe, reserved behavior, but now it's associated with appearance and the way people act in public. Other contenders, by the way, for word of the year were brain rot, weird, and brat. Brat! I thought that might make it. But no, it is demure this year. And I am mindful and ready to end the show. Thank you for joining us here at CNN Newsroom.

I'm Christina Macfarlane. CNN This Morning is up after a quick break. Happy Thanksgiving.

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