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Senior Russian General Wanted by Ukraine Killed in an Explosion; Mayotte Deals with Cyclone Chido as Hundreds or Thousands Feared Dead; Two Killed, Six Injured in a Wisconsin Private School Mass Shooting. German Chancellor Loses Confidence Vote; Czech Billionaire Acquires Royal Mail. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 17, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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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.
Coming up, a blast in Moscow kills a high-ranking Russian military official. We will have a live report from the scene just ahead. Plus--
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CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: A second-grade student called 911 to report a shooting had occurred at school. We'll let that soak in for a minute.
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CHURCH: Police identify a teenage girl as the suspect in a school shooting that claimed the lives of two people and left others critically injured.
And residents call the situation apocalyptic after the worst cyclone in nearly a century devastates Mayotte.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: And we want to bring you up to speed on our breaking news this hour. Russia's investigative committee says a senior Russian general has been killed by a bomb in Moscow.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was the chief of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops. He was killed outside an apartment building just seven kilometers from the Kremlin.
This footage shows the site of the explosion with blast marks to the entrance of the building. Russia's investigative committee says the bomb was hidden in an electric scooter. And Fred Pleitgen joins me now live from Moscow. So, Fred, what more are you learning about this breaking news?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Rosemary. We are actually at the scene of where this explosion took place in the early morning hours of today.
And as you can imagine, there are a lot of investigators on the ground here. The area around where this explosion took place in the southeast of Moscow has been widely cordoned off by the authorities as they are working that scene. I'm going to get out of your way for a second here so we can actually see where that explosion took place.
You can see that we're in a sort of area with high rise buildings. And it's the second entry point to that building where that explosion took place. We can see that back there that the door of that building has been blown out. The authorities are saying that there has been widespread damage to this entire area around here.
The explosion appears to have been very forceful that happened. And if we pan to the left a little bit, you can see that some of the investigators who are working the scene are right there sort of talking right now. And they have already put out several facts about what apparently happened here in the early morning hours.
They say that the power of the explosion appears to have been around 300 grams of TNT. And you're absolutely right. The authorities are saying that it was hidden apparently in a scooter at the entrance. What we are also getting from the authorities here in Moscow as well is that they say that the bomb apparently was detonated remotely.
Of course, they have launched a criminal investigation into all of this. This says Igor Kirillov, the lieutenant general of the Russian military and an aide were killed as they were walking out of a building. Now, this is a very senior Russian military commander who was killed. He was the head of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces.
So, obviously, someone who is very important for the Russian military, very high up in the Russian military. And, of course, also a part of the Russian military that has been in the news quite a lot over the past couple of weeks, the past couple of months.
One of the other interesting caveats to all of this is that Igor Kirillov was actually charged in absentia by the Ukrainian security services just one day ago for the alleged use of weaponized chemicals on the battlefields in Ukraine.
The Russians, of course, have denied that for a very long time. And, in fact, this very general himself accused the Ukrainians of using weaponized chemicals on the battlefields in Ukraine. So, certainly someone who is extremely important to the Russian military. And that is also something that we see reflected around here.
If we pan once again really quickly, I just want to show you again that there are a lot of members of the Russian security services. If we look at the car, actually, that's right in front of it, that car says investigative committee.
And that, of course, because the Russians have launched this major investigation into all this according to Russia's criminal code. As you do have this entire area, Rosemary, cordoned off on a very wide scale. And some of the eyewitness reports that we've been hearing, mostly from Russian media so far, is that a lot of people obviously were woken up by what was an extremely powerful explosion with those 300 grams of TNT.
One of the things that the Russians have done is they have sent bomb squads to the area around here to see if there's any remnants of an explosive device around. Apparently, they have found some remnants of an explosive device.
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But also, if there are any other unexploded devices possibly out there, that was being investigated. What the Russians are saying is that they have not found any further explosives.
But, of course, the investigation into this case on a criminal level is still going on. As you can see, the authorities also working the scene here on the ground as well, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Indeed. Frederik Pleitgen there at the scene of this breaking news out of Moscow. We will, of course, continue to bring you more details on this as they come into us. Many thanks for that live report.
Well hundreds, if not thousands, are feared dead in the French territory of Mayotte off the coast of Mozambique after the worst cyclone to hit the region in at least 90 years. French President Emmanuel Macron says he will visit the island in the coming days where the damage is so widespread, some are comparing it to the aftermath of a nuclear war.
CNN's Larry Madowo has more now on the destruction and the long road to recovery.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Catastrophic. That's how residents of Mayotte are describing the damage from Cyclone Chido, the worst to hit the French archipelago in nearly a century.
The Category 4 storm killed at least 14 people as it tore through the Indian Ocean over the weekend. But government officials fear hundreds or even thousands could be dead, according to the Associated Press.
Torrential rain and winds of more than 220 kilometers per hour wiped out entire neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids and the water supply, leaving Mayotte almost entirely offline for over 36 hours, according to the website NetBlocks.
JOHN BALLOZ, MAYOTTE RESIDENT (through translator): It smashed right into us here. And to be honest, it was complicated. It was a complete disaster. Lots of houses and even towns are wiped out.
CAMILLE COZON ABDOURAZAK, MAYOTTE RESIDENT (through translator): It really is a war landscape. Around me, I don't recognize anything anymore.
MADOWO (voice-over): Mayotte's prefect says the most devastating damage was to the island's shacks, where roughly 100,000 undocumented migrants live in a population of just over 300,000.
That is making search and rescue efforts even more difficult and nearly impossible to account for all the victims.
French relief efforts are underway, and the country's interior minister was briefed on the hurricane's impact as he began an official visit to their territory on Monday.
BRUNO RETAILLEAU, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): If we want things to go smoothly, we're going to pull out all the stops. We're going to mobilize everything we can in terms of civil and military resources.
MADOWO (voice-over): With 75 percent of the population living below the national poverty line, Mayotte is heavily dependent on financial assistance from France. Speaking from Brussels, the foreign minister pledged to help rebuild the archipelago.
The island nation of Comoros, north of Mayotte, was also battered by the cyclone, which then went on to make landfall in Mozambique, where it continued to cause damage.
The storm has now weakened, but for the residents of Mayotte, the nightmare is only just beginning.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
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CHURCH: Mayotte Senator Salaman Ramir spoke with CNN just a short time ago about the immediate need for housing on the island. She says every structure has been wiped out in the slums, home to about 100,000 undocumented migrants.
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SALAMAN RAMIR, MAYOTTE SENATOR, MAYOTTE (on the phone): I heard that food is coming, water, material to help to rebuild the houses, especially to cover. Because today I can say that 100 percent of the slum illegal houses are down, 100 percent. But 80 percent of the other houses that stand up, they don't have a roof.
So I heard that they're going to bring cover, because we are in the period when there will be rain. So that will be quicker. We were waiting for all the material to help secure, to secure the house, to protect the house.
And the airport also is down, is damaged. So there's no commercial flight. All the people who wanted to leave Mayotte, they can't leave for the moment.
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CHURCH: We are following developments in Vanuatu after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit just a few hours ago. The U.S. Geological Survey says it struck off the coast of the capital Port Vila. Tsunami warnings were issued but later cancelled. No word yet on any casualties, but there are reports of damaged structures, including the U.S. Embassy, which just opened there in July.
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We're told it suffered considerable damage and is closed until further notice. New Zealand's foreign minister says its High Commission building, which is co-located with the U.S., France and the U.K., has also sustained significant damage.
Two people are dead and six others wounded after a school shooting in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, just days before it was set to close for Christmas break.
Police say the shooter was a 15-year-old female student named Natalie Rupnow, who is dead after reportedly shooting herself at the Abundant Life Christian School. There's no word yet on a motive for the attack.
The suspect's home is being searched and we're told her parents are cooperating with the investigation. Earlier, families rushed to reunite with their children and loved ones.
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I mean, it still hasn't hit home until I see them, right? You know, my sister's a mess on the phone, you know. And, you know, we've joked around about how safe a 400-student-bodied school, Christian private school is, right? If it can happen here, it can literally happen anywhere.
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CHURCH: Meanwhile, young students are speaking out about what they witnessed.
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REPORTER: Did you hear gunshots?
UNKNOWN: Yeah, I heard.
REPORTER: Tell me what happened.
UNKNOWN: We heard them and then some people started crying and then we just waited until the police came and then they exported us out. I was scared. Why did they do that? Why?
UNKNOWN: I was getting ready for lunch, so it was basically lunchtime. And then I just heard sighing and there was a teacher and she was screaming like, ah, my leg, help, help.
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CHURCH: This is at least the 83rd school shooting in the U.S. this year, which is the most in any single year since 2008 when CNN started keeping record.
Well CNN's Whitney Wild takes a closer look at how this mass shooting unfolded.
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BARNES: Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country.
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Madison, Wisconsin, two people are dead, a teenage student and a teacher.
UNKNOWN: Abundant Life Christian Church, 49-01 for Engine 5 and Medic 5 for a shooter.
BARNES: Six other people were injured. Two students are now in critical condition in the hospital and these injuries are considered life-threatening.
WILD (voice-over): Two other victims are being treated for non-life- threatening injuries. The Madison chief says multiple shots were fired, calls coming in at 10:57 a.m. at the K-12 Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, just hours after the school day began.
BARNES: When officers arrived, they found multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds.
UNKNOWN: Ambulance, ambulance, squad car, fire engine.
WILD (voice-over): Madison police officers were on scene within minutes.
BARNES: Officers located a juvenile who they believe was responsible for this deceased in the building.
WILD (voice-over): The suspect, according to a law enforcement source, was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound using a 9mm pistol.
UNKNOWN: P.D. is saying everybody can come in, all EMS can come in, shooter is down.
BARNES: Many of you have asked me about the why of this, why did this happen, what do we know, what was the motivation. I do not know, but I will tell you this, our detectives are working hard in an investigative process to find out as many answers as we can so that we can further prevent these things from happening.
WILD (voice-over): Some medics responding directly from their training to reports of shots fired at the school. BARNES: The protocols are simple, stop the killing, stop the dying,
find out who's doing this. The officers did that.
WILD (voice-over): The officers did not fire any shots, according to the police chief. Instead, they assisted injured staff and students.
The shooting in Madison is the third at a small private Christian school in recent years. The second took place in Oroville, California, less than two weeks ago.
BARNES: I think we can all agree that enough is enough and we have to come together to do everything we can.
MAYOR SATYA RHODES-CONWAY (D), MADISON, WISCONSIN: I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence.
WILD (voice-over): The Madison School on its website asking for prayers today while frantic parents waited to hear if their kids were safe.
BETHANY HIGHMAN, PARENTS OF STUDENTS AT ABUNDANT LIFE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: I pray with my kids every morning that this won't happen and it's the world that we live in.
WILD (voice-over): Whitney Wild, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.
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CHURCH: David Hogg was 17 years old when he lived through the murder of 17 people at his Parkland, Florida, high school back in 2018. He has since risen to prominence with calls for stricter gun safety laws.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked how he would respond to lawmakers' claims that you can't legislate this problem away.
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DAVID HOGG, GUN SAFETY LAWS ADVOCATE: Looking at other countries, frankly, right, other developed countries that just do not have this issue, even the ones with guns. I've had meetings with some of the ambassadors to some of those countries talking to them about, okay, like, how do you handle guns in your country? And they talk about how frustrating it is that oftentimes they're used as a talking point by the NRA to say, well, the X country doesn't have school shootings, but they do have firearms.
When they say, well, the reason why we don't have those school shootings is because we have a strong system of laws in place to protect people. And what we need to realize is we need to stop treating this as an either or problem. We need to stop saying that, oh, we just need to focus on how does somebody get the gun? Obviously, we need to focus on that.
But we also need to simultaneously focus on why does somebody want to kill somebody else in the first place. That means addressing joblessness. That means addressing homelessness and hopelessness that many people have that caused them to pick up a gun, even if it's here in D.C. And it doesn't make it on the news because it's a shooting that happens, you know, there are shootings that happen all the time in this city, unfortunately.
Or if it's in the instance of a school shooter like the one in Parkland, Florida, who obviously had a mental illness, but at the same time was a self-declared white supremacist that drew a swastika on his AR-15.
We need to realize that hatred is not a mental illness, but realize as well. I know I'm saying realize a lot, but truly we need to realize this is not an either or problem. We need to address both the demand side and the capability.
How does somebody get an AR-15 to murder people or any gun in this case or, and at the same time, why do they pull the trigger?
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CHURCH: As Syria's new government slowly takes shape after the fall of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, Russia, a longtime ally of the Assad regime, appears to have begun a large-scale military withdrawal from the country.
U.S. and Western officials say the withdrawal began last week, but it's unclear if it will be permanent. U.S. intelligence also suggests the Kremlin is trying to determine whether the main rebel group, HTS, would allow Russia to remain on some of its key bases.
Meanwhile, the U.S. says it has received a commitment from HTS to help find Austin Tice, an American citizen who's been in Syrian custody for more than a decade.
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MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We have had, I will say, more than one communication with HTS over the past week, and those communications have been largely focused around what's called two buckets of issues. The first is the importance of locating and returning Austin Tice to his family. As you know, that has been a top priority for the United States government.
We have a number of people engaged on trying to find Austin Tice and bring him home, and we communicated directly to HTS that anything that they could do to help us find him, we would greatly appreciate, and they committed to do that.
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CHURCH: Syria's ousted leader, Bashar al-Assad, apparently released a statement on Telegram for the first time since seeking asylum in Russia after the fall of his government. CNN is unable to verify if Assad still controls the Syrian presidency Telegram account, and if the statement is authentic. Our Matthew Chance has details.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the stunning collapse of a brutal regime. Now, the former Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is apparently speaking out for the first time about his sudden fall from power.
Social media channels belonging to the Syrian presidency are quoting what purports to be a lengthy Assad statement in which he claims he never planned to flee a lightning rebel advance. "The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught," the Assad statement reads.
As that onslaught gathered pace, the Assad statement datelined Moscow, claims he relocated to a Russian military base, quote, "to oversee combat operations."
"It became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen," the Assad statement says, adding it was "Moscow that requested an immediate evacuation to Russia."
That's Assad apparently rejecting reports his aides and relatives were kept unaware of a secret escape plan.
In the aftermath of Assad's departure to Russia, Syrians have been rifling through his vast presidential enclosures, including this Damascus garage housing a pricey collection of luxury cars.
In his statement, Assad also sought to dismiss these kinds of reports of his family's corruption now being exposed in close detail.
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"The person who refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines," the Assad statement reads.
From exile, it sounds like a desperate bid for exoneration. The country Assad once brutalized celebrates his dramatic fall.
Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
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CHURCH: Sahar Razavi is the director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center of California State University in Sacramento and joins us now. Thanks for being with us.
SAHAR RAZAVI, DIRECTOR OF IRANIAN AND MIDDLE EAST STUDIES CENTER, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So after the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the transitional government led by HTS rebels has been trying to stabilize the country while coming under international pressure to be more inclusive in their new government. What's the biggest threat to stability in Syria and how big a role does sectarian violence play in that, do you think?
RAZAVI: Well, there are a lot of threats to the stability of Syria right now, but I think the biggest threat is the economic situation. Prior to Assad fleeing, 90 percent of the country was food insecure. We're talking about a society that has been ravaged by war for 13 years and the economic situation needs to be stabilized immediately before we can really expect Syria to grow economically, politically or otherwise.
In terms of sectarian violence, certainly we know that with the track record of HTS and with the associations that they have had in the past, as well as their predecessors, the predecessor groups that led to their formation, certainly sectarian violence is a legitimate concern.
At this point, observers are cautious but hopeful because the pronouncements that they have made thus far have been pretty pragmatic and politically savvy. They know that it is a very vulnerable time for Syria and for Syrians and they know that their legitimacy as a new government is going to be shaky if they're not able to consolidate power in a coalition that brings Syrians together.
CHURCH: And Russia's Vladimir Putin has begun a large-scale withdrawal from Syria, that's according to U.S. officials. What's the significance of this Russian withdrawal from its bases there?
RAZAVI: It's huge. HTS has said that one of their top goals, their primary goals now that Assad has fallen, is to expel Iranian militias and also to shed Syria of foreign influences, interventions like Russia's.
For Russia to withdraw from Syria signals that it is not planning to continue to intervene, at least covertly, and as you know, it was one of the top supporters and primary backers of the Assad regime prior to the fall of the regime. So, for them to withdraw essentially signals that, for them, their involvement in Syria, at least overtly, is over.
CHURCH: And what about Israel, now accused of trying to execute a land grab in Syria? What are the implications for Israel's security, especially after launching hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria?
RAZAVI: Well, Israel's logic is that they want to preemptively strike in order to, one, create a buffer zone beyond the Golan Heights, which, as you know, the ICJ advisory opinion has clearly stated is an illegal occupation and needs to end immediately.
It was itself conceived as a buffer zone, and now Israel is going beyond the buffer zone to create a new buffer zone.
So, one, it is for, their logic is that it is for enhancing their security, and two, primarily they say that they are conducting these bombing campaigns in order to prevent Assad regime resources, military resources, from falling into the hands of terrorists who will be hostile to them.
In terms of implications for Israel's security, certainly one can see the logic there that they are deploying. On the other hand, there is no basis in international law for preemptive strikes that are simply going to be intended to prevent hostile groups from getting their hands on resources that you don't want them to have. That is preemptive warfare, which is prohibited under international law.
So, the implications for security for the region are quite far- reaching.
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If these preemptive strikes are allowed to continue, I anticipate that we will see much greater escalations in Syria and beyond, and the power balance has shifted in the region now.
So, we are not exactly sure. I try to avoid making solid predictions for things like this because things are so in flux, but I think it is going to make it much more difficult for us to see stability and peace in the region if we continue to see these kinds of escalations and accelerations in the violence between the states.
CHURCH: Sahar Razavi, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.
RAZAVI: Thank you.
CHURCH: Olaf Scholz has lost a confidence vote that he called on himself. Ahead, why looming snap elections next year will be an uphill battle for one of Germany's least popular chancellors ever.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
Thousands of North Korean troops are fighting in Russia's Kursk region to help Moscow's army reclaim land taken during Ukraine's offensive in August. And on Monday, Ukraine's military said North Korean forces there suffered heavy losses. A warning, the video you're about to see is graphic.
Drone video released by Ukraine's military appears to show the bodies of North Korean and Russian forces in the Kursk region. CNN cannot independently verify the nationality of the dead soldiers. Ukraine says some 30 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded over the weekend.
Germany will go to snap elections next year for just the second time since it was reunified in 1990. After Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote Monday, Germany's president can now dissolve parliament and trigger that early vote.
A September opinion poll ranked Scholz as one of the least popular chancellors ever. But he will stand again and he says leadership means making unpopular decisions. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Politics is not a game, ladies and gentlemen. Joining a government requires the necessary moral maturity. Anyone who joins a government bears responsibility for the whole country. Responsibility that goes beyond your own party platform, your own voters. Responsibility for 84 million fellow citizens.
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CHURCH: CNN's Sebastian Shukla has more now from Berlin.
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SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence that he called in himself on Monday. He lost that vote by 394 votes against him versus the 207 votes in favor of him.
What that means is that Germany is now almost certainly headed towards a federal election, the date most likely to be the 23rd of February. Now the vote today came about because Olaf Scholz's bickering government collapsed back in November when he fired his finance minister Christian Lindner.
The two had been bickering for some time over a financial mechanism and Germany's economy. But what resulted in this was Scholz leading a minority government. That meant he had very few other options left to him apart from calling this confidence vote.
What the opposition party saw though in Scholz's weakness was the ability to force him to make the call on having the confidence vote and the election earlier than he had originally wished. That animosity was very clear to see on the floor of the Bundestag today with all parties levelling accusations at one another.
Scholz took another opportunity to remind the German people that the reason this government collapsed in his mind was because the liberal partners in his coalition were not prepared to agree with his policies and timetables.
The CDU, the former party of Angela Merkel, now led by Friedrich Merz and one of the frontrunners to be the next chancellor, also took his opportunity to blame Olaf Scholz.
FRIEDRICH MERZ, CDU OPPOSITION LEADER AND CHANCELLOR CANDIDATE (through translator): You are asking about confidence today. Mr. Chancellor, you have your chance. You did not take this opportunity and it applies to today as well as February 23rd, 2025, the expected date of the Bundestag elections. You, Mr. Scholz, have not earned any trust.
SHUKLA: But forming coalitions is a key part of any German government and is often the way governments are formed. Whilst the outcome of the election is difficult to predict right now, all signs are pointing towards Friedrich Merz and the CDU becoming Germany's largest party and therefore keys to the chancellery.
And as one person said to me today, it will almost certainly spell the end of Olaf Scholz's political career.
Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: One of Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet picks is courting senators on Capitol Hill. The latest from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the polio vaccine. Just ahead.
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CHURCH: Police are investigating a school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, that killed two people, a teacher and a teenage student. Authorities say a 15-year-old female student named Natalie Rupnow carried out the attack and then killed herself.
Police have been searching her home as they try to piece together a motive. Six others were wounded in the mass shooting and two of them are in critical condition. The Abundant Life Christian School, which has about 400 students, posted online asking for prayers.
2024 has been a record-setting year for school shootings. CNN's Brian Todd explains.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNKNOWN: Got a call coming in at Abundant Life Christian Church.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The shooting at Abundant Life Christian School adds to the bleakest of statistics. It marks at least the 83rd school shooting of this year in the United States. It surpasses 2023 for the most shootings in a single year since CNN began tracking these numbers in 2008.
STEPHEN GUTOWSKI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR AND ANALYST ON GUN ISSUES: It is a bit surprising to see an increase in school shootings at the same time we're seeing a decrease in the overall murder rate.
TODD (voice-over): Of the school shootings this year, 56 have been reported on K-12 campuses, 27 on university and college campuses. The incidents have left at least 38 people dead and more than 100 others wounded, according to CNN's analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Every Town for Gun Safety.
The deadliest school shooting of the year in the U.S.? September 4th at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, when a 14-year-old suspect allegedly shot 11 people, killing four of them.
Like Monday's shooting, the alleged perpetrator at Apalachee was a student at the same school, according to law enforcement.
Since the COVID pandemic, when there was a major decline in gun violence at schools, every year since 2021 has set new records.
On Monday, the Madison police chief praised the response of officers at the Abundant Life School.
CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: The protocols are simple. Stop the killing. Stop the dying. Find out who's doing this.
TODD (voice-over): The officers did that, and they did that adamantly. The police chief says the Abundant Life Christian School did not have a school resource officer, but having one is not a guarantee of safety.
The school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was charged but acquitted of failing to confront a gunman who massacred 17 people there in 2018.
The new emphasis on police response comes from a horrific shooting two and a half years ago. May 24th, 2022, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. For more than 70 minutes, police failed to breach a classroom while a suspect was opening fire. 19 students and two teachers were killed. A school police officer was charged with 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child.
And the school district police chief was charged with child endangerment with known criminal negligence. They pleaded not guilty.
GUTOWSKI: Uvalde was really an outlier in that regard and really emphasized why it's important to immediately confront the shooter.
TODD: And the shooting in Wisconsin comes as we've just marked another stark milestone regarding school shootings in the U.S. and the country's inability to stop them.
This past Saturday, December 14th, was the 12th anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 20 children and six adults dead.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: Donald Trump's transition team is blasting a ruling that his hush money case should not be dismissed because of presidential immunity. New York judge Juan Merchan says evidence that led to Trump's conviction was not related to his official conduct as president.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts. A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts back in May for falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
And we are getting new details from Donald Trump on what's in store for his second term in the White House. The president-elect covered everything from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to polio vaccines to the future of TikTok. CNN's Alayna Treene reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, president-elect Donald Trump on Monday took questions at a wide-ranging news conference, his first since winning the election on November 5th. But really, that event on Monday was supposed to be about his announcement with the Softbank CEO about $100 billion being invested into the U.S. over the next four years with the hope that it would create 100,000 jobs.
However, Donald Trump then used the stage to give somewhat of a campaign speech and tried to paint this very optimistic picture of America under his leadership.
But the real news came from that question and answer with reporters. One of the things he discussed was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s skepticism over vaccines. He said that he believes RFK Jr. is far less radical than he has been in the past.
These comments, of course, notable given that it marked the start of RFK Jr.'s meetings on Capitol Hill with crucial senators who will be deciding whether or not to confirm him.
He said that he does believe in some vaccines, specifically pointing to the polio vaccine, but then talked about this idea of wanting RFK Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services to look into whether there's any correlation between vaccines and autism. This is something we know from study after study has been debunked.
Now, he also talked about the drones flying over New Jersey that many people have spotted. And he claimed at one point that the government knows what they are and should be able to identify them.
[03:40:10]
I will argue, though, however, and we've heard this from many officials over the weekend, that they are still trying to investigate that, that they do not believe that these drones are a national security risk, something that Donald Trump seemed to nod to during that press conference, but also added -- but these officials added that they are looking into this. They are not concerned, but they still recognize that they have to get to the bottom of it.
One other thing I want to mention is what Donald Trump said about TikTok. This is going to be a huge issue, given that there is a ban, an impending ban coming on January 19th if Donald Trump chooses not to act on that. Donald Trump said that he's warned to TikTok, noted that he believes many young voters were responsible in part for his election victory and that he was going to be considering whether or not to handle or reverse, I should say, that previous ban on TikTok.
Alayna Treene, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected back on Capitol Hill today for more meetings with senators. CNN's Tom Foreman takes a look at his controversial pronouncements over the years and how they align with Donald Trump's positions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: I think you're going to find that Bobby is much, he's a very rational guy. I found him to be very rational. You're not going to lose the polio vaccine.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president-elect is playing defense amid new reports that a lawyer tied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. petitioned the government to revoke approval of the polio vaccine, a move Kennedy himself could approve if confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., TRUMP'S PICK FOR HEALTH SECRETARY: I'm not going to take away anybody's vaccines. I've never been anti-vaccine.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Kennedy is trying to calm fears about his views and goals, but his statements over the years have raised alarms.
KENNEDY JR.: It would be against mandates at all.
UNKNOWN: For any vaccines.
KENNEDY JR.: For any vaccine.
FOREMAN (voice-over): He's pushed unproven claims that vaccines cause autism. He's compared U.S. vaccine policies to those in a totalitarian state like Nazi Germany, for which he later apologized. And he's disparaged then-President Donald Trump's handling of the COVID pandemic.
KENNEDY JR.: We have the worst record of any country in the world.
FOREMAN (voice-over): That's not true, say top medical researchers. But vaccines aren't the only issue he faces with Republican senators he must win over.
Kennedy has insisted on Inauguration Day the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water, which Trump said sounds OK, despite decades of evidence showing fluoride radically lowers tooth decay.
Kennedy has made false claims about the ingredients in Froot Loops and calls a lot of American foods poisonous. And many abortion rights opponents simply don't trust him, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who says Kennedy's nomination is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning.
But the Kennedy pedigree still has power. And even with all the concerns about the nominee, some of his complaints about the quality of food and the policies behind food safety standards are resonating with Democrats. SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Is R.K. right about a lot of the challenges
yet? I've heard him say a lot of things that are absolutely right.
FOREMAN: During the campaign, Trump said he would let Kennedy go wild on health care policy if he won the election. Now, that may not be helping Kennedy very much as he faces a lot of senators who are afraid he could do just that.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Next on "CNN Newsroom," the U.S. government looks to calm the concerns over mysterious drone sightings, while also countering a wave of conspiracy theories. Back with that in just a moment.
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[03:45:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
As the U.S. government announces new measures to counteract the recent mysterious drone activity, the FBI is urging the public not to shoot at aircraft, fearing some will take matters into their own hands.
CNN's Polo Sandoval reports on the steps federal agencies are taking to calm the concerns, confusion and widespread conspiracy theories.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The federal government now preparing to deploy drone detecting and tracking systems to two military facilities in New Jersey, where mysterious drone sightings began four weeks ago.
That's in addition to what's already, according to the Pentagon today, a very robust intelligence network. But the time of the deployment, not yet clear, sources tell CNN.
The president-elect offering a drone theory of his own about the mysterious sightings first reported over New Jersey, including over his golf course.
TRUMP: The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it's a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Donald Trump's declined to say if he's been briefed on the investigation into the unexplained drones. He did seem to eliminate the possibility of foreign involvement, a theory that had already been previously shared by the current administration.
TRUMP: I can't imagine it's the enemy because it was the enemy that blasted out. Even if they were late, they'd blast it.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Unanswered questions have hovered over some residents in New Jersey and beyond. Similar drone reports have come into authorities in at least six states now.
The FBI, which briefed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Sunday night, insists many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft. DHS maintains the unexplained sightings don't pose a public safety threat and stated unequivocally that not all of them are airplanes.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: There's no question that people are seeing drones. And I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): That does little to assure elected officials on both sides of the aisle.
They've been trying to discredit these sightings from the very beginning.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told CNN that assurances from the government quote, "fall flat."
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): My fear is that the federal government knows little or nothing about most of these sightings.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Two weekend incidents demonstrated the disruptive potential from drones in civilian and military airspace. Two men in Boston were arrested for trespassing after flying dangerously close to Logan Airport. And in Ohio, flight restrictions were temporarily put in place due to drone activity at one of the Air Force's most critical installations.
SANDOVAL: And agents at the FBI's Newark field office warning that they've received an increase in reports of pilots in the air getting hit in the face with lasers by people on the ground, presumably people assuming that the aircrafts are drones.
The FBI extremely concerned. They are worried that things could potentially escalate and folks may even open fire on these aircraft. The FBI warning not only is that illegal, it's extremely dangerous.
Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Jay-Z's attorney says the sexual assault claim against the hip-hop mogul is false. A woman has accused Jay-Z of raping her at an after-party for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards when she was 13. But Alex Spiro says the allegations are, quote, "all a fantasy."
CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the latest now from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Jay-Z's attorney is doubling down on a denial that his client ever raped a 13- year-old girl. Now, Jay-Z has already fiercely denied these accusations and his legal team has already asked the court to dismiss this case entirely.
But now, for the first time speaking to reporters since these accusations came out, Jay-Z's attorney Alex Spiro held a press conference of sorts.
[03:50:00]
There was a private meeting at Jay-Z's Roc Nation offices in New York City where CNN was invited to watch a presentation put on by Jay-Z's attorney where he had a PowerPoint where he showed different details that he says disprove Jane Doe's case. Let's take a look at some of what he said.
ALEX SPIRO, JAY-Z'S ATTORNEY: This is not an account of inconsistencies. I wanted everybody to understand that this never happened. This is completely false.
You have to look at the timeline. You have to look at the timeline. So there's an old expression that time doesn't lie. Everything else that I'm talking about, these glaring inconsistencies, these are not minor inconsistencies. These are not minor problems with this story. This is utter falsehoods.
Time never lies. And so if you look at the time, no matter what, this couldn't have happened. It's not even possible that this happened.
WAGMEISTER: Now as you heard there, Jay-Z's attorney saying that these aren't just inconsistencies in Jane Doe's case. He's saying that the entire thing is false. In fact, he says it's not even possible that Jay-Z was there.
Now if we go back to Jane Doe's initial complaint, she alleges that she was raped by both Jay-Z and Sean Diddy Combs at an after party for the MTV Video Music Awards in the year 2000. Now this after party, she said, was held at a White House that was outside of the city.
Well, Jay-Z's attorney actually showed photos of Jay-Z that night at an after party, but it was in New York City. So he says, if you look at the timeline, it's not possible that Jay-Z was in the suburbs at this alleged after party because he was photographed being somewhere else.
Now in her initial complaint, Jane Doe also said that she got to this alleged after party by getting into a limo from a driver outside of the MTV VMA's who said that they worked for Sean Combs.
Well today, Jay-Z's attorney is saying that's not possible because the limousine line was barricaded by the police and fans were not able to access it. Now I reached out to Jane Doe's attorney. His name is Tony Buzby. He
says that he is representing over 120 accusers of Sean Diddy Combs. This is the first accuser to come forward and name Jay-Z, but he tells me that he stands by his client. He says that they are still vetting her.
But when I asked about the vetting process, here's what he told me. He said that four individuals at his firm interviewed the client and checked details. He says that a background check was run on Jane Doe and that his firm actually engaged a seasoned investigator to vet some details she disclosed to us.
And he said, quote, "those results were consistent with what the client had told us." He also says that she assigned two separate affidavits. And he tells me, quote, "courts exist to resolve factual disputes. Our client remains adamant about her claim."
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A woman who stowed away on an international flight last month has been arrested again. Svetlana Dali was caught Monday trying to sneak into Canada from the U.S. by bus. Law enforcement sources tell CNN she had cut off her ankle monitor, which she had been ordered to wear after her arrest last month.
Dali had stowed away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris in November. The lawyers at the time urged the judge to release her without bail, saying she was not a flight risk. Dali is now in FBI custody.
It's a British institution dating back half a millennium. And soon the Royal Mail could have a new forwarding address. That story just ahead.
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[03:55:00]
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CHURCH: Britain's Royal Mail, a 500-year-old institution dating back to King Henry VIII, has found a new owner in what's poised to be an historic sale. Anna Stewart reports from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Could there be anything more British than the iconic red postbox? Well, soon, for the first time in history, it will have a foreign owner.
Royal Mail was privatized a decade ago. Since then, its financial performance has been poor, to say the least. Now Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is buying it for the princely sum of $4.5 billion.
Now he made his money in energy, but he has a few U.K. interests already. He owns a 27 percent stake in the West Ham United Football Club and a 10 percent stake in the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's.
His mysterious personality and reluctance to talk about business dealings earned him the nickname of the Czech Sphinx in 2019.
Now he won't be able to do anything he likes with Royal Mail. This takeover comes with strings attached. Royal Mail will still have to deliver letters six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and parcels Monday through Friday.
And the U.K. government will hold a so-called golden share in the company, because this is vital British infrastructure. So they'll get final approval on things like a change in ownership of the company, a change in headquarter location or tax residency.
This takeover is expected to complete next year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A newly approved skyscraper in London will someday share the crown as the city's tallest building. It will have exactly the same height as the Shard, currently the tallest tower, not just in London, but in all of Western Europe.
And you can see it there in the background of this photo. The new tower in the middle, called 1 Undershaft, will join the Shard standing at almost 310 meters or more than a thousand feet tall, offering 73 floors of office space.
I want to thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster in London.
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