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CNN International: Reuters: Sources In Azerbaijan With Knowledge Of Probe Blame Russian Air Defense System For Deadly Crash; NATO Calls For Investigation Into Azerbaijan Airlines Crash; Mulino Denies Chinese Interference In Panama Canal As Trump Suggests. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired December 26, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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ISABEL ROSALES, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Live from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Isabel Rosales, and this is CNN Newsroom.

Ahead at this hour, sources now telling Reuters that Russia is behind the plane crash in Kazakhstan. We'll break down the how and why. Also ahead, doubling down, Panama's President taking aim at America's next President for a second time, as Donald Trump names his ambassador to the Latin nation. Plus, the performance that everyone is talking about, details on Beyonce's halftime show that rocked her hometown of Houston.

We begin with more on that breaking news in the deadly Christmas crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan. Multiple sources telling Reuters a plane was downed by a Russian air defense system, and NATO says it is calling for an investigation into that disaster. We know from Kazakh authorities that at least 38 people who were on board have been killed. Remarkably, however, there are survivors.

Let's get right to CNN's Nada Bashir, who has the latest for us. Nada.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, Isabel, there have been questions swirling around what may have caused this plane crash early on Wednesday. Certainly, a lot of speculation. Of course, as you mentioned, we are now learning, according to a report published by Reuters just a short while ago, citing multiple unnamed sources that the crash may have been caused or the plane, rather, may have been downed by Russian air defense systems.

Now, that sort of speculation, those allegations, were reflected earlier this morning by a Ukrainian official within the defense and security department putting out a tweet on X earlier today, accusing, of course, Russia of downing the plane, using potentially missiles. We'd also, of course, heard accusations that Russia had failed to close the airspace over Grozny in the Russian region of Chechnya, where the plane was, in fact, supposed to be heading.

But again, no clear confirmation just yet from officials. This is very much an ongoing investigation. The Kazak government has set up a commission to carry out this investigation to examine the evidence in the moments, of course, led to this crash, and we've seen the video emerging, showing essentially the plane circling the airfield before it appears to make a nosedive and crashing into the ground, bursting into flames. So, there is a lot, of course, to be examined. That investigation is ongoing.

But, this is certainly troubling reporting that we are hearing now from Reuters, again, citing those unnamed sources that this crash may have been caused by Russian air defense systems. And of course, there had been questions after video and images emerged of the wreckage in the aftermath, showing holes in the fuselage. Now, it's not clear what may have caused those holes. It appears to look similar to perhaps the impact of shrapnel, but again, no clear confirmation just yet.

And officials from Russia, from Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, all three nations, of course, with passengers on board that plane connected with this crash, have called on people not to speculate, to wait for the full results of that investigation. We certainly will be keeping an eye on those updates from officials as they come in.

But, of course, this is a tragic moment of mourning for many, 38 people killed in that crash. Remarkably, 29 people survived the crash. We saw that video of those survivors emerging from the wreckage, many of them injured. Of course, we know some are still said to be in a critical condition. We're still waiting to hear more updates from officials with regards to the status of those survivors as well. But, certainly, a lot of questions persisting, as we wait for that investigation to be completed.

ROSALES: Yeah. So many people dealing with grief over what happened and of course, questioning what led to that crash.

Nada Bashir, thank you for that update. Very important there.

OK. We're going to have much more on this story in just a couple of minutes. We'll talk with an aviation expert.

Meanwhile, Panama's President is hitting back for the second time in a matter of days, once again trying to set the record straight following comments by Donald Trump. Jose Mulino says, quote, "There are no Chinese in the canal. It is as simple as that." His remarks come one day after the President-elect doubled down on his hope to reclaim the Panama Canal and absorb Canada and Greenland into the U.S.

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Trump mentioned all three of those friendly and sovereign territories in a Christmas Day social media post, and he complained that China's military controls the canal. Shortly after that, Trump named his pick for U.S. Ambassador to Panama.

Now, a bit earlier, I spoke with CNN's Steve Contorno about why Trump is pushing for the takeover of places that belong to allied nations and his choice for Ambassador to Panama. Here is part of our conversation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Let me talk you through who exactly Trump is nominating to this increasingly key post in his administration. His name is Kevin Marino Cabrera. He is a Miami-Dade County Commissioner. In fact, he is someone who won his seat in part because of an endorsement from Donald Trump two years ago. And while he was on that commission, he sponsored legislation that would rename a state in Miami-Dade after Donald Trump. He also represented Florida on the Republican National Committee Platform Committee at the convention where they wrote a very pro-Trump, pro-MAGA playbook for Trump's next term that was heavily influenced by Trump's campaign. And lastly, he also worked on Trump's campaign all the way back in 2020.

So, he is someone who is obviously very close to Donald Trump, close to his inner circle, and trusted by him to carry out what is potentially a critical mission, although I will say at this point, we have very few details about what Trump actually wants to extract from Panama, what he actually intends to do there. Anything short of -- anything that would require seizing the canal back would potentially require military intervention, and Trump is someone who has been calling for the U.S. to pull back some of its military engagements throughout the world. Would he really be interested in sending troops to get back an asset that has been in Panama control for a quarter century?

In fact, Panama, Isabel, in the next five days here is about to celebrate 25 years of full autonomous control of the canal, and have taken many steps to ease U.S. commerce there over the last two decades. It's been a delicate but productive treaty for both sides for many, many decades, with Trump, as he did in his first term, throwing a wrench in those plans and trying to get a better deal for the U.S. here.

ROSALES: Right, full control since January 31st, 1999. Steve, does it seem more likely that President-elect Trump would go the full route of control of the Panama Canal, or is it him sort of trying to do better negotiation for the fees on those American ships going down the waterway, as he has spoken about at length on social media posts? Is there any indication of that?

CONTORNO: It's a fair question. Talking to people around Donald Trump, they were caught off guard by the fact that this has animated him so much. And so, they are surprised, as many Americans are, to see this being a forefront issue over the holidays here.

But, look, Donald Trump often throws out these threats and then tries to get someone to the negotiating table so he can claim victory. He did that earlier in his transition, with these threats that he would impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, getting them both to reach out to him. They had conversations with Trump, and then Trump, without really getting much extracted from them, went on to claim victory. And so, it's not clear if that is his intention here.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ROSALES: Well, in just about 25 days, Joe Biden will be out of the

job. So, the U.S. President is making the most of his last few weeks in office. Biden left earlier for St. Croix for a vacation with his family. He is also going to Italy in early January, where he will meet with Pope Francis. Until then, the President plans to tout his accomplishments over his entire career.

CNN's Kayla Tausche takes a look.

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KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden is expected to spend his final 25 days in office focused on events and travel that highlight causes that have been central both to his presidency as well as to his five-plus decade career in public service. This will include travel, speeches and events here at the White House to highlight some of those themes, like the economy, foreign policy and of course, climate.

President Biden is also expected to travel to Rome to visit with Pope Francis in mid-January. This is the second time that Biden will have met Pope Francis. The two met before he attended the G20 summit in Rome back in 2021. Both consequential visits, especially as Biden's Catholic faith has called into question whether he should be receiving Communion. Pope Francis has suggested that Biden can and should.

But, apart from that, there are not expected to be many policy advancements in the next 25 days. White House officials expect that anything they try to do in this final sprint to January 20th would just be overturned by the forthcoming Trump administration.

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To that end, transition officials from the so-called landing teams from the President-elect's team have already arrived at respective government agencies, the Department of Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce and Labor, for instance. So, the work is already being done to hand over the keys to a new President and his team. But, President Biden, for the meantime, is focused on burnishing his legacy. Back to you.

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ROSALES: Now to the Middle East, where Houthi-backed state media report that Israeli forces struck Yemen's capital Sanaa and the western city of Hodeidah earlier today. This video from Reuters shows smoke plumes over the Sanaa airport. Israel has not yet commented on the reported attacks.

This comes as hospital officials in Gaza claim that five journalists were killed in an Israeli military strike earlier. The journalists were sleeping in -- inside of a vehicle parked outside of Al-Awda Hospital when they were hit, according to other journalists at the scene. Here is a vehicle right here. It belonged to a Gaza-based television channel affiliated with the Palestine Islamic Jihad militant group. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out that strike, but said it was targeting a terrorist cell

Meantime, Hamas and Israel are blaming each other for the failure to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Here is Israel's defense minister.

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ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (Interpreted): We will ensure here in Gaza, as with Lebanon, as with Syria and in the east, that no more threats will be created against Israeli communities, citizens of the State of Israel and IDF soldiers. In Gaza too, we will ensure that there are security spaces, buffer zones and command posts that will ensure the security of the communities. And with all this, we will act to achieve the two goals of the war, to release all the kidnapped people home and to defeat Hamas.

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ROSALES: Families of the hostages in Gaza are marking the second Hanukkah without their loved ones. Crowds gathered for a silent protest on the first night of the Jewish festival of lights, demanding the Israeli government strike a deal to release the remaining captives. Relatives of the hostages lit the first Hanukkah candle and led prayers for their immediate return.

Still to come, millions of Americans are under severe weather threats amid the peak holiday travel season. We are tracking a round of post- Christmas storms just ahead.

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ROSALES: Back to our top story, the investigation into the crash of an Azerbaijan airliner in Kazakhstan, and reports that the plane was down by Russia's air defense system.

I want to bring in CNN Aviation Analyst Peter Goelz, who is also a former Managing Director of the National Transportation Safety Board. Peter, thank you so much for joining us and for your time here. There are reports that Russia's air defense system is to blame. What do you make of that?

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PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR, & CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, yesterday's tragedy had a lot of open questions. It's unusual to have a bird strike at altitude. It's unusual for a plane to be severely damaged by a bird strike. Aircrafts are designed to fly with one engine. Pilots train for engine out events all the time. So, this was an unusual occurrence. And when initial video came back from the site showing the tail end of the aircraft peppered with shrapnel holes, that raised the question of whether there had been an air -- ground-to-air missile involved, and today, there are a number of reports coming out of Azerbaijan indicating that the Russian air defenses were trigger happy and may have shot down that plane.

ROSALES: Yeah. So, in your professional opinion, those holes that we're looking at right now, that does not look like a bird strike to you.

GOELZ: Well, the only way it could possibly be is if there was a catastrophic failure of one of the engines, and the engine throughout shrapnel, but it -- it's really not the pattern that you'd expect to see. And those engines, they were made by GE. They are extraordinarily safe, extraordinarily robust, and they're designed to contain that kind of failure. So, it looked much more similar to the Malaysia Flight 17 accident in 1990 -- 2014, in which a Russian separatist group launched an air -- a missile -- a surface-to-air missile, and took down the plane, killing almost 300 people, and the Dutch investigated that accident, rebuilt the nose of the plane and it showed the tell-tale impact of multiple pieces of shrapnel. This looks similar.

ROSALES: Peter, how does an air defense system mistake a passenger plane for anything else?

GOELZ: Well, it's -- we've all heard the cliche, the fog of war. This part of Chechnya apparently has been under assault by Ukrainian drones. I'm sure people were on edge. There may have been drone attacks earlier in the day. People were on edge, and they simply make a decision that they regret later. And America has done that. In 1988, a U.S. warship, the Vincennes, shot down an airbus -- Iranian airbus after taking off from Tehran and mistook it for a fighter jet. So, these things can happen. But, it's the terribly tragic, and the Russians appear to have a rather faulty command and control system.

ROSALES: Yeah. And you mentioned MH-17, which happened a decade ago. Was there ever any acknowledgement of wrongdoing by Russia, and if they are at fault here, indeed at fault, should we set low expectations that they will admit fault?

GOELZ: Yeah. The Russians have never acknowledged involvement with MH- 17, and back in the 1980s, they shot down Korean Air 007, a 747. It took them over a decade and the collapse of the old Soviet Union for the government to acknowledge that they had ordered that shoot down. So, I don't think you'll get much from the Russian government on this. Now, whether Azerbaijan has the courage to stand up, we'll see. But, this is -- I wouldn't look forward to a great deal of candor.

ROSALES: Yeah. And I know it's not the Americans investigating this. But, you were with the NTSB. You were leading that organization. How would you lead this crash investigation? What would you do next? Is it more the black box? Is it speaking with survivors? What's the key piece of evidence there to piece everything?

GOELZ: Yeah. I think there is two things. One is, they mentioned that they've recovered the data recorder. On these kinds of aircraft, there are two recorders, the data recorder and the voice recorder. In this case, the data recorder is interesting, the voice recorder will be critical, and nothing has been mentioned about that. That will tell what's going on in the cockpit, what the flight crew saw, what they were doing. Eventually, the truth will come out. It may take some time.

ROSALES: Yeah. Lots of families that deserve an answer to that. [11:20:00]

Peter Goelz, thank you so much for your time and your expertise in speaking with us.

GOELZ: Thank you.

ROSALES: Well, with full bellies and unwrapped gifts in tow, winter weather could stand in the way of a smooth ride home for millions across the U.S. Severe storms are expected to rock the southern states, and a snowy mix is expected across parts of the Pacific Northwest. All of this happening, as airports are gearing up for some of their busiest travel days. The TSA warning that the busiest days will likely be tomorrow and Monday.

Meteorologist Elisa Raffa joins us now with the latest on the forecast. Elisa, I remember being stuck in that great Southwest meltdown. It is not fun having your flights canceled and already some trouble we've seen in Dallas?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We've already had some problems at the airports in Dallas, because we have some severe storms rolling through with some very heavy rain and lightning. That could continue across parts of the south today. Dallas, Houston, Memphis could have some problems as those storms continue to ignite. The Pacific Northwest will have problems not just today, but through the rest of the week. We have an atmospheric river bringing just a series of storms. So, we could be looking at some problems in the air from Seattle to Portland and down towards San Francisco.

Starting on the West Coast, we've got rain and snow coming on shore, pretty much all day already. We've got winter storm warnings in effect, where we could get another foot of snow possible in the highest elevations. This is coming with winds up to 60 miles per hour. So, that will -- those gusts will blow around and snow drop the visibility, and could cause some problems with downed trees and power lines. All this continues as we go through the day today, and then again into tomorrow and through the weekend, because we just keep this machine going with storms just right -- one right behind each other, like train cars.

You've got two to four inches of rain possible along the coast, about a foot of snow possible in the highest elevations of the mountains. And that's just through Friday. We'll have additional storms rolling through as we go into the weekend.

We have another storm along the Gulf Coast that is continuing to feed off of some of that daytime heat and humidity. It's actually quite muggy around Texas today. We've got these showers and storms rolling into Dallas, and they're packing a punch with the flooding. We now have a flash flood warning in effect for Dallas. It's in effect for more than two million people, where we could have some heavy rain, leading to some flash flooding. Again, there has already been some slowdowns at the airports there this morning.

We now have an enhanced risk, a level three out of five for severe weather from Houston and points to the east. This is where we can have a couple of tornadoes today. We're talking damaging winds, large hail and a tornado threat as we go through the afternoon. Kind of a rare threat to see in December, but that will cause some travel headaches there, you can see, that could be moderate. Notice again, the West Coast just keeps it going. All of this moves east as we get towards the weekend. By Saturday, we could be looking at problems across the south from Nashville over towards Atlanta, and then it spreads up and down the East Coast. On Sunday, as the storm moves east, you'll have some soggy conditions from D.C. to New York and Boston.

So, all things to watch for, again, as this storm just flourishes and continues to work its way east, through Friday and into the weekend, and notice all of those airplanes on the West Coast. We just keep that atmospheric river pumping as we go into the weekend. Sunday, a lot of return home trips will be on the wet side of things. Boston, New York, D.C., all could have some problems with some of that rain. Again, through the weekend, we're looking at multiple feet of snow, and some of those rain totals even by the end of the weekend could be approaching 10 inches for parts of the West Coast. Isabel.

ROSALES: Snow, rain, tornado threats, jeez, people can catch a break.

RAFFA: Yeah.

ROSALES: Elisa, thank you so much.

All right. Today marks 20 years since the deadliest tsunami in history. People gathered in Indonesia to remember those who were lost in that horrific disaster back in 2004. The massive wave was triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Aceh province. 230,000 people were killed. Many remain in mass graves.

We'll be right back.

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ROSALES: Welcome back. Fans turned up the volume on Christmas Day. I know I certainly did. Well, Beyonce took to the field during halftime of the Houston Texans-Baltimore Ravens game, marking the first time the singer had performed any of the music from her country album "Cowboy Carter" live.

Coy Wire has more on her electric performance and the victory of the Baltimore Ravens.

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COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes. The bar has been set pretty high for Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show, as Beyonce crushed it with some special guests at halftime of the Ravens-Texans game. Take a look.

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WIRE: The 32-time Grammy winner rocking her hometown of Houston, performance songs from her Cowboy Carter album in front of a live audience for the first time. Special guests Shaboozey, Post Malone and her daughter, Blue Ivy, gracing the stage as well. Beyonce also teased something coming on January 14th. We shall see.

As far as the game, the Ravens were flying high against the Texans. There was no stopping quarterback Lamar Jackson. He threw two touchdown passes, and he also ran for one. He went 87 yards in this game, including this 48-yard score. Then Lamar ran into the record book in the third, moving past Michael Vick at the top of the all-time rushing list for quarterbacks. Baltimore wins 31 to two, improving to 11 and five on the season. They're one game up on the Steelers now for first place in the AFC North.

The Chiefs taking on the Steelers in the first game of Christmas Day, Patrick Mahomes led KC out to an early 13-point lead, and they were never really threatened by Pittsburgh. Mahomes threw three touchdown passes, one to his favorite target, Travis Kelce. Travis' 77th career touchdown catch early in the fourth breaking Kansas City's all-time TD receptions record. He dunked it to pay tribute to former record holder, Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez. The Chiefs lock up the top seed in the AFC for the fourth time in seven seasons in a 29 to 10 win.

Now, it was a very Merry Christmas for the Chiefs, as Santa Claus showed up to help them celebrate in the locker room, but this was actually head coach Andy Reid. He was there laughing and chuckling with a bowl filled of jelly, and then a jolly old health showed up to give coach the game ball after his Chiefs earned a franchise record 15th win on the season.

Back to you.

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ROSALES: Got to love the good joy and good music that happens around this time of the year.

Well, thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Isabel Rosales. Skylines Qatar is up next.

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