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Manhunt Underway After CEO's Killing in New York; Syrian Rebel Coalition Fighting Government Troops Near Hama; Amnesty International Report: Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza; U.S. Supreme Court Hears Trans Rights Challenge. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 05, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.

Police are searching for the man who opened fire on a health care CEO in midtown Manhattan nearly 24 hours ago.

Brian Thompson traveled to New York from Minnesota for his company's annual investors meeting. He was walking to that meeting when the government emerged from behind him and shot and killed him.

Bitcoin soared past the $100,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday. It surged to this new record after President-elect Donald Trump unveiled administration nominees seen as being friendly to cryptocurrency.

And it's an additional sign of Christmas in New York City. The lights at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree were turned on last night in front of a huge crowd. How pretty is that? This year's tree is 74 feet tall, weighs about 11 tons, and has more than 50,000 LED lights.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Still not as big as Chrissy's.

Back to our developing story, though, out of New York. A manhunt is underway after UnitedHealthcare's CEO was gunned down in the heart of Manhattan.

Police say Brian Thompson was shot and killed on a sidewalk near the Hilton Hotel. And the shooter fled first on foot and then on an e- bike. ABC News reporting that police say shell casings found at the scene had the words deny, defend and depose written on them.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has the story. A warning, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stunning new video obtained by CNN showing the moments a gunman carries out a brazen attack in the heart of New York City.

At about 6:40 a.m., the suspect waiting for Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, and then firing several shots, killing him.

COMMISSIONER JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: I want to be clear. At this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.

GINGRAS (voice-over): Police say that gunman camped out for about five minutes before Thompson arrived. You can see from these images he's wearing a mask, hooded sweatshirt and backpack. Sources say a silencer was attached to his handgun.

Police say he watched as people walked by and then at approximately 6:45 a.m. fired at Thompson from behind, hitting him before the gun jams.

JOSEPH KENNY, CHIEF OF DETECTIVES, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: It appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again.

GINGRAS (voice-over): He fires another shot, then the suspect fled, likely following this route, according to police, down a back alley of a Midtown theater before jumping on an electric bike. Police losing his track after he entered Central Park.

KENNY: We're still tracking video. There are GPS's on those bikes. We'll be working with the company.

GINGRAS (voice-over): Investigators also recovering a cell phone, three shell casings at the scene, and are asking the public for help in identifying the gunman. Police also releasing these images of what appears to be the gunman in a Starbucks shortly before the shooting.

50-year-old Thompson was the CEO of the health insurance unit within the Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. He arrived in New York City on Monday for an investor's conference.

As of now, police don't believe he and the gunman crossed paths until this morning and are still searching for a motive.

Thompson's wife, Paulette, told NBC News, quote: There had been some threats, but she didn't know why.

Thompson was father of two boys. His wife also released a statement saying: Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives.

ANDREW WITTY, CEO, UNITEDHEALTH GROUP: There are no words to describe how so many of us are feeling right now. Brian was a truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond.

GINGRAS (voice-over): The brazen murder happening at the start of morning rush hour in an area of New York City crawling with tourists for the holiday season.

MICHELLE WYCKOFF, HILTON HOTEL GUEST: So we just heard sirens going off. I thought, oh gosh, what's going on? I did not think it was actually right here.

ANDY KENNY, HILTON HOTEL GUEST: You know, we really don't know what it was about, but we're shocked that somebody would be killed in broad daylight in New York. That's really quite shocking.

GINGRAS (voice-over): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:35:00]

MACFARLANE: Fighting has erupted between Syrian government troops and rebel forces in the countryside north of Hama. You can see the territory under rebel control here in green. Losing control of the strategic city of Hama would be a massive blow to the Syrian regime.

FOSTER: Opposition fighters recently retook Aleppo, reigniting Syria's civil war. The main rebel commander was seen touring Aleppo's ancient citadel, a symbol of control over northern Syria.

MACFARLANE: Let's bring in CNN's Ben Wedeman closely following developments. And Ben, the rebels' advance, no doubt, has been swift and so far effective. I'm just wondering what capacity, though, they would have to hold on to the territory that they've captured in the face of the government forces' counteroffensive, which has been slow but is a building.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we haven't really seen it building in the sense of the ground forces of the regime. What we're seeing is that both the Syrian and the Russian air forces are intensifying their bombing campaign. But on the ground, they don't seem to be able to hold much ground at this point.

We've heard this morning from the coalition of rebel forces saying that they have -- they're saying our forces have begun to advance inside the city of Hama.

Now, the government is putting out repeated statements indicating that the fighting continues to be outside the city in what's known as the Hama countryside, claiming that regime artillery and missiles as well as Russian and Syrian airplanes are continuing to strike and inflict severe casualties on the rebel coalition.

But it's hard to get a good, clear idea of what's going on inside the city of Hama itself, because apparently the Internet is down, landlines aren't working, mobile phones aren't working as well. So the amount of information coming out of there is limited.

But certainly what visual evidence we are getting from not Hama itself, but outside would indicate that the rebels continued to advance. I was just now looking at a video of what appears to be a rebel car going into what's known as Brigade 87, with the base of the Brigade 87 of the Syrian military. And they're driving around an abandoned base that is full of lots of armor, armored personnel carriers and tanks. So despite the claims of the regime about a counter offensive, it just

doesn't seem to be happening. Actually, quite to the contrary, it appears that the rebels are continuing to make significant progress in retaking territory from the regime -- Christina, Max.

FOSTER: Ben, are they on the way on the road to Damascus? I mean, what's the plan, do you think?

WEDEMAN: Well, before they get to Damascus, first they have to actually take the city of Hama. And then after Hama, there's the city of Homs, which is a larger city. And the highway between Homs and Damascus is quite a stretch of desert road. So it's still some ways to go.

But, of course, the government really, in terms of what it needs to hold on to, to remain in power, is, of course, the city of Damascus. Homs is important because that is where you take the highway west to the coast. And, of course, the coast is where the majority of Alawites, which is the Muslim sect to which Bashar al-Assad belongs and which is the real core of the regime's strength. So as long as they can control Damascus, Homs and the coast, they might be able to stay in power, ruling over a rump state.

But what we've heard is that, for instance, Abu Mohammed Golani, who's the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is the biggest group within the rebel coalition, has sent messages, has put out statements to the Alawite minority, to Christians in Syria, reassuring them of the rebels' intention not to harm them and to suggest that they join the rebels in their fight against Bashar al-Assad.

It's important to keep in mind that there isn't much love for the Syrian regime. But at the same time, many of the minorities fear the consequences of rule by rebel groups that are dominated by Sunni, in some case, fundamentalists. Let's keep in mind that Hayat Tahrir al- Sham used to be known as Jabhat al-Nusra, which was an affiliate of al-Qaeda.

[04:40:00]

And, of course, there's the bitter experience of ISIS ruling over parts of Syria where they had no tolerance whatsoever for any religious minorities, whether Christian or Muslim -- Max, Christina.

FOSTER: Ben, thank you so much for your insights there.

We're going to turn now to the situation in Lebanon. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah is holding, and that despite some back-and-forth strikes, both sides want the truce to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We get reports of violations. We look at them. We engage the parties. And that's exactly what we've done. The mechanism that we established with France to make sure that the ceasefire is effectively monitored and implemented is working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Meanwhile, Israeli attacks killed dozens of people in Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike on senior Hamas militants in the humanitarian zone of Khan Younis.

FOSTER: A local hospital says 11 of the 20 people killed were children. Gaza authorities say women and children were also amongst the 10 people killed by strikes in Gaza City.

Paul Hancocks following all of this for us. And Paula, Amnesty now, the latest group to accuse Israel of genocide.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a report, Max, which has just come out from Amnesty International. It's almost 300 pages long. And they say that they have gathered evidence over a nine-month period.

And they say that they have sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide. Now, there have been a number of criticisms, a number of accusations to this length, all of which Israel has strongly denied.

But this particular report, Amnesty say that they have certain incidents, multiple incidents, where the Israeli military and government authorities had carried out acts which were against three out of five acts that are banned by the U.N. Genocide Convention.

Now, those three acts, they say, are mass killing of Palestinian civilians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and also deliberately instilling conditions of life on the Palestinians in Gaza that were calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.

Now, Israel has strongly denied these accusations. In fact, the IDF has called the claims entirely baseless.

We've also just had a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel saying that the deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty has produced a fabricated report saying that it is entirely false.

Israel's criticism is that it doesn't take into account the operational realities, they say, on the ground for the IDF to be working in, the fact that Hamas is using humans and the civilians on the ground as human shields and that they're embedding themselves in the civilian population. In fact, in this report, Amnesty does acknowledge that Hamas does base itself in densely populated areas where civilians are but says that that does not absolve Israel of the responsibility to protect civilian life.

But as I say, it's not the first time that this accusation has happened. There was a U.N. special committee report just last month where they said Israel's conduct in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. And, of course, the International Court of Justice in The Hague is listening to accusations brought by South Africa at this point of genocide created by Israel. Israel has called that grossly distorted.

And probably one of the most damning views of what Israel is doing in Gaza at this point is from a former Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon. He spent about three decades in the Israeli military saying that Israel's actions in northern Gaza are what he considers to be ethnic cleansing.

But as I say, all these accusations are strongly rejected by Israel, saying it is on Hamas because they are using civilians as human shields and Israel has a right to defend itself -- Max, Christina.

FOSTER: OK, Paula in Abu Dhabi, thank you so much for that.

Now, coming up, the U.S. Supreme Court considers a Tennessee law that bans gender affirming health care for minors. We'll have the details.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to back a controversial law from Tennessee after conservative justices questioned a challenge to the legislation.

MACFARLANE: The law bans gender-affirming care for minors. But as CNN's Paula Reid reports, the top court's liberal justices seem ready to support trans youth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH PRELOGAR, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: If you change the individual sex, it changes the result. And a law like that can't stand on bare rationality.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): That's Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar arguing Tennessee's ban on medical care for transgender minors amounts to sex discrimination, which is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.

But Tennessee argued their law protects minors from irreparable harm.

J. MATTHEW RICE, TENNESSEE ATTORNEY: Its application turns entirely on medical purpose, not a patient's sex. That is not sex discrimination. The Equal Protection Clause does not require the states to blind themselves to medical reality.

REID (voice-over): Conservative justices, like Samuel Alito, focused in on how other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Sweden, have recently shifted policies to limit access to treatments for transgender youth.

JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I wonder if you would like to stand by the statement that you made in your petition or if you think it would now be appropriate to modify that and withdraw the statement that there is overwhelming evidence establishing that these treatments have benefits that greatly outweigh the risks and the dangers.

PRELOGAR: If the court wants to go ahead and look at what's happening in Europe, the U.K. has not categorically banned this care, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, the other jurisdictions that my friends point to, have not banned this care. And I think that's because of the recognition that this care can provide critical, sometimes life saving benefits for individuals with severe gender dysphoria.

REID (voice-over): But Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor highlighting potential harm of withholding treatment.

JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Some children suffer incredibly with gender dysphoria, don't they?

PRELOGAR: Yes, it's a very serious medical condition.

SOTOMAYOR: I think some attempt suicide.

PRELOGAR: Yes, the rates of suicide are striking and it's a vulnerable population.

REID (voice-over): And both sides closely watching Chief Justice John Roberts, a potential swing vote as he suggested the court should leave questions of medical nuance to the states.

[04:50:02]

CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Doesn't that make a stronger case for us to leave those determinations to the legislative bodies rather than try to determine them for ourselves?

REID (voice-over): That line of questioning concerning Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I'm worried that we're undermining the foundations of some of our bedrock equal protection cases.

REID (voice-over): ACLU Attorney Chase Strangio sharing those concerns as he made history as the first known openly transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court.

CHASE STRANGIO, ACLU ATTORNEY: Tennessee claims this sex-based line drawing is justified to protect children, but SB1 has taken away the only treatment that relieved years of suffering for each of the adolescent plaintiffs.

REID: The incoming Trump administration is expected to reverse federal support for transgender care for minors, which means the justices could dismiss this case. But there is another appeal out there asking the court to consider whether parents should have the right to make medical decisions for their children. So a similar question with just different framing that has divided conservatives. And on Wednesday, both sides agreed that that question is one the high court could still consider no matter what they do with this case.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, a new honor for Japan's most famous alcoholic beverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(TAYLOR SWIFT, TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: That, of course, is Taylor Swift's song from her Torture Poets Department album, which is Spotify's most streamed album of 2024.

FOSTER: She just wins, wins, wins. Spotify also names Swift as the top global artist of the year. For the second year in a row, her music was streamed on the app more than 26.6 billion times. That is unreal.

MACFARLANE: That is insane. After Swift, Spotify's most streamed artists were The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish.

FOSTER: Japan's smooth rice wine sake has earned a spot in or on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List. It is specifically honoring the ancient techniques for brewing sake. Its makers are hoping the recognition will drum up new interest in the centuries-old beverage, one of Chrissie's favorites.

MACFARLANE: It is. It's underestimated, I think. It's a real smooth treat, if you can get it.

And, obviously, they're hoping this will keep it flowing for many years to come. Sake is made with rice, yeast and a mold called koji. It can be served hot, cold or at room temperature.

FOSTER: What's your preference?

MACFARLANE: Slightly warm.

FOSTER: Yes, I've had it warm in Japan.

MACFARLANE: Yes, lovely.

FOSTER: It's good.

Miller Highlife is celebrating the holidays with a fragrance meant to remind you of your favorite drinking spot.

MACFARLANE: Whose favorite drinking spot exactly? FOSTER: This isn't one that you would go to, but the fragrance is called Dive Bar-Fume.

MACFARLANE: Oh!

FOSTER: It's described as having aromas of cedarwood, the musky scent of worn-in leather, barstools and sea salt from the basket of fries and popcorn.

MACFARLANE: The only aroma I remember from dive bars of the past. Anyway, a limited number will be made available through Friday if you're interested.

Thank you for joining us here at CNN NEWSROOM.

Your Christmas present, sorted.

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