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One Dies In Texas As Severe Storms Move Through The South; Putin Apologizes For Tragic Azerbaijan Airlines Crash Without Admitting Responsibility; CDC: Bird Flu Virus Mutating In First Severe Human Case; What To Expect In 2025 Under A New Trump Administration; Israeli Forces Raid Last Major Health Facility In Northern Gaza. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 28, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:36]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York, and we are following breaking news.

At least one person is dead in Texas, just outside of Houston as severe storms tear through the Southern United States. Multiple tornadoes are leaving a path of destruction across that region, including this one in Katy, Texas earlier. It ripped through a neighborhood, damaging homes there, and the threat is far from over.

A rare, "particularly dangerous" tornado watch is now in effect from Texas to Alabama, with multiple strong tornadoes expected tonight as that system moves east.

Rafael Romo is tracking the damage and new images and videos coming in. We want to check in first, though, with meteorologist, Tyler Mauldin, who is tracking the actual storm.

Tyler, what's the latest on that?

TYLER MAULDIN, AIMS METEOROLOGIST: The tornado outbreak is ongoing, Jessica.

We continue with the tornado watch for Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas until 9:00 local time. As you mentioned, this is a particularly dangerous situation. Tornado watch only issued five percent of the time and you can see why, as this strong line of thunderstorm activity is moving through the area and out ahead of it, some very strong supercell type tornadoes here.

We have multiple tornado warnings, active warnings on radar right now from Mississippi all the way down into Southwest Louisiana. We have power outages as well. North of 50,000 in Texas, and getting to about 20,000 in Louisiana at last check.

We are surely going to see more in the way of power outages as we go through time. Here is the reason why: That system is moving eastbound. We have a level four out of five threat for severe weather today, too, which is also rare.

The reason why we have an EF-4, a level four tornado threat is because we could see large, strong, destructive and long lived tornadoes. Here we are talking EF-2 tornadoes or stronger in this area.

That threat shifts to the East as we continue on into tonight, but as the system pushes to the East, it is going to lose a little bit of its punch once we get into the wee hours of tomorrow, which means from the Carolinas on into Georgia, we are looking at more of a damaging wind threat here.

But nonetheless, over the next 12 hours or so, 12 to 18 hours, we do have to get through this tornado threat here across Mississippi and Alabama. Unfortunately, this is going to occur during the overnight hours, which is extremely dangerous because many of you will be asleep and you also just -- you have trouble seeing the tornadoes at night, so make sure you are weather aware.

Typically, these type of tornadoes occur during the spring tornado season. However, we do occasionally get tornadoes during the month of December, during a secondary peak of the season. This, thus far, Jessica, the year 2024 has been above average in terms of tornadic activity. So, it is fitting, Jessica, that this last weekend of 2024 is occurring with a tornado outbreak, unfortunately.

DEAN: All right, well, we're hoping everyone stays safe.

Tyler, thank you for that.

Rafael, I know you're getting a look at some new images of the damage. What are you seeing?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Jessica.

The storms have been devastating, destructive, and now we can also say they've been fatal. We have learned that at least one person is dead in Texas after severe storms passed through the area earlier this afternoon. It happened in Brazoria County. It is located about 45 miles south of Houston along the Gulf Coast.

A spokesperson with the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office confirmed the fatality, adding that four other people were injured. But their injuries are non-critical.

The spokesperson said that deputies are conducting secondary searches and going through and ensuring that all the residents are accounted for, adding that at this point, they don't expect there to be additional fatalities. There are also plenty of devastation in Montgomery County, Texas, located just north of Houston, where a local official is reporting that the storms have knocked down trees and power lines around the area, as well as causing great damage to mobile homes and warehouses.

Many people have lost power in this part of Texas, as well, a man who was looking at a property with his family described how quickly the weather in that part of Texas turned for the worse. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUAN ALVAREZ, STORM SURVIVOR: We were already in the driveway. It was just drizzling.

[18:05:10]

We were waiting for the realtor to come show us the property and all the reports said that the tornado or the storm was passing already by us. It was heading northeast. So we were sitting there waiting for it.

And then two minutes later, everything just shifted tremendously. The wind started blowing and then the trees just fell on top of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Jessica, at this point, authorities there in Montgomery County are saying that they have no reports of fatalities. We are getting footage of firefighters there rescuing small children after what appears to be several trees fell all at once in a residential area. One of those trees fell right over a car.

There are many driveways that are currently blocked by limbs or trees that have fallen over. Of course, this is all part of the weather system that has moved today through parts of Texas, also Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi -- Jessica.

DEAN: Rafael Romo with the latest for us, thank you very much for that.

New details now, in the deadly Christmas Day airplane crash in Kazakhstan. Russian President Vladimir Putin apologizing for what he calls a "tragic incident" but declining to take responsibility. Thirty-eight people died Wednesday when an Azerbaijani Airliner crashed after entering Russian airspace. A US official telling CNN Russian Air Defenses may have mistaken the commercial jet for a Ukrainian drone.

And today, Putin admitted Russia's Air Defense Systems were active when that plane went down.

CNN's Nada Bashir is joining us now.

Tell us more Nada about what we are hearing from Vladimir Putin today.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, just as you said, Jessica, no clear admission of responsibility just yet from Moscow, but it is interesting that we are hearing from the Russian President Vladimir Putin, acknowledging that Russia's Air Defense Systems were active in this area at the time preceding the crash.

And, of course, that apology that the crash took place after the Azerbaijan Airlines plane left and entered Russian airspace.

Now, of course, there had been questions around nearby drone activity. It is understood that parts of Southern Russia, including Grozny, where the plane was intended to land, had been facing Ukrainian drone attacks, and therefore it is expected that those air defense systems would have been in place and active.

But there have been concerns around why the plane was even able to travel in this airspace, given the clear risk nearby. And of course, that has led many officials. We've been hearing from sources who have spoken to Reuters, unnamed sources who are familiar with the investigation, who believe that this may have been a case of mistaken identity, that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane may have been targeted by these air defense systems, mistaking it for perhaps a Ukrainian drone.

Now, of course, there are still questions and no clear conclusions just yet. That investigation is still ongoing, and they will be looking at a number of bits of evidence from the two black box recorders, which were recovered, which would hopefully provide some insight into the flight data, as well as cockpit recordings, but also looking at the damage to the fuselage.

Now, in these videos and images emerging showing the wreckage, there appears to be holes in the wreckage, which according to some aviation experts, would be consistent with debris impact and damage as a result of an explosion. That is also what we've also heard from some US officials as well. So that will be a key line of inquiry for investigators.

But of course, they will also be speaking to eyewitnesses. Important to remember that 29 people out of 67 on board survived this crash, some of whom were actually filming the last few moments before the plane crashed, recording all that was happening inside the plane, as well as some shots of sort of the wing and the exterior of the plane as well, so that will be important for investigators to look at.

We've heard from one survivor who described hearing and feeling a loud bang before the plane began to descend, and oxygen masks were dropped and the feeling of chaos and panic inside the plane amongst those passengers. So again, investigators will be looking at that.

And we know the Kazakh government has set up a commission especially designated to focus on this investigation. They will be supported by international bodies, as well as the plane manufacturers.

But again, it could be a matter of days, if not weeks before we have any final conclusions. At this stage, authorities say it will take them around two weeks to fully assess the black box data, but as that continues, the allegations against Russia are certainly mounting -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Nada Bashir with the very latest for us. Thank you for that reporting.

And joining us now with more on this, CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector, David Soucie.

David, great to have you here with us. We just heard Nada's extensive reporting on this. We still don't have an official answer as to why this plane went down. But you look at the video, you look at those photos, you see those holes across the plane that are reported as being consistent with shrapnel. What do you take from that?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, it certainly looks the same to me as it did with MH17 when that Buk missile took that airplane down. You have in-pushed metal going in.

[18:10:10]

It shows that something came from the outside in. But more importantly is why was that airplane there in the first place? Had Putin said ahead of time that these operations were going forward, and made a notice to air missions, which he is required to do by the civil aviation rules, he did not do that, so that airplane had no idea, as they were there at that time.

And so that airplane, had they had the notice they were supposed to by Putin, they would not have been in the area in the first place. So that's where the responsibility lies in my mind.

DEAN: And do you think that that should be just -- that airspace should just be shut down to international flights? To any sort of commercial airliner?

SOUCIE: Yes, absolutely, it should. And in fact, there is now a NOTAM out. Russia didn't publish it, but each one of the airlines themselves have taken on that responsibility and said as long as that operation is there, but without knowing that those missile systems were there and that there was a defense umbrella there over that airport and over that area before that, no one was doing it.

But as of last night, now you can look now and there are no airplanes flying over there except Russian internal airplanes, which they are clearly identifying themselves there. But there are no airplanes flying in that region at this point, as it should have been on Christmas Day.

DEAN: Yes, and we heard Nada talking about the two black boxes that have been found saying that it could be at least a couple of weeks before those can really be processed.

Are you hopeful that we will ever get the full story on what happened here, and if indeed it was Russia, do you think they'll ever accept responsibility?

SOUCIE: Well, I think it will, and the reason I have that confidence is because Kazakhstan has stepped forward, and they are the ones leading this investigation. They've allowed people from Brazil, the aircraft manufacturer, everyone is involved in this and he made a very clear message that he wants all of that information reported back to him, and he is going to make those determinations.

So I feel very confident that we are going to hear that. The other thing the black boxes will tell us is after that missile hit, why did the aircraft have such trouble controlling it? I suspect it was from a hydraulic failure caused by those pieces of shrapnel that entered the aircraft, and that would have caused those problems.

But you can tell that with the black box as to whether the motion or the movement of the controls controlled the aircraft accurately or not.

DEAN: Yes. Do you think that -- to what extent do you think that Americans will be involved with this, if at all? Or do you think it will mainly be kind of the parties you just outlined?

SOUCIE: Yes, I don't know of any Americans being invited to the party there to find out what happened to the aircraft, and that would make sense because I've looked at the passenger list. I don't see any Americans on there.

The aircraft was not manufactured by a US manufacturer and it wasn't operating in the US airspace at all, nor had it intended to. So I don't think the US is going to be involved in the investigation.

But once again, I am pretty confident that Kazakhstan is going to manage this properly and the information is going to be released.

DEAN: Well, that is good news and we certainly hope that is the case. David Soucie, thank you so much for your analysis here. We appreciate it.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

DEAN: When we come back, President-elect Donald Trump appearing to side with Elon Musk in an argument over foreign worker visas that is setting off backlash and debate among the MAGA faithful.

Plus, bird flu now a rising risk not just for dairy, cattle and poultry farms, but also cats, including the one you may have had or you may have at home.

And growing concern for US and Israeli officials as they run out of time to get a hostage deal before Trump takes office.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:11]

DEAN: The CDC is keeping a close eye on a bird flu patient in Louisiana after doctors noticed signs of the virus mutating in that patient. The CDC says, so far, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission and the public risk of infection remains low.

CNN Medical Correspondent, Meg Tirrell has more details.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the CDC analyzed these samples that were taken from this patient who was hospitalized in Louisiana with the country's first severe case of H5N1 bird flu and what they found is mutations in this virus that may make it easier for the virus to infect human cells in the upper respiratory tract. The bird flu isn't very good at infecting people in our nose and throats, but with these mutations, possibly it could get better at that.

Now, the good news is that the patient doesn't appear to have spread the virus to any other humans, and it doesn't look like the patient picked up these mutations from wherever the patient caught this virus in the wild.

So it is thought that the patient was infected after having contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock, and these mutations weren't seen in the birds. And so it really seems like these mutations are confined to this one patient.

We have seen similar mutations to these before. Also, in a severe case of H5N1, this one in a teenager in British Columbia, Canada. Again, in that scenario, it appears that these mutations happened in the patient and weren't spread to anybody else.

So really the threat level would rise if we see human-to-human transmission of bird flu, and we have not seen that as of this point. Of course, health experts are worried when they see these mutations. It shows they are potentially possible. So they are watching this very closely.

There have been a couple of instances where we don't know the source of exposure, and then this one patient in Louisiana is the only one associated with backyard flocks.

So this is something that the CDC is following very closely, but they say right now, the risk of the public is low, especially because we haven't seen that human-to-human transmission.

DEAN: All right, Meg Tirrell thank you for that.

And in the meantime, researchers are trying to pinpoint the origin of a bird flu outbreak that's ravaged a Washington State animal sanctuary.

The virus has killed 20 big cats, that's more than half of the ones that live there in just a matter of weeks. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): That's Thumper, a 10-year- old Eurasian lynx who used to love to play and scratch the decks high above the foliage. The video from August was taken at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington. A big cat sanctuary where Thumper lived. Thumper is one of 20 cats from the sanctuary who died in recent weeks from bird flu.

MARK MATTHEWS, DIRECTOR OF THE WILD FELID ADVOCACY CENTER: We thought we were doing everything we could to avoid anything like this from happening.

The cats are pretty well split up into 30 by 40-foot habitats.

[18:20:01]

KAYE (voice over): The sanctuary's director and co-founder, Mark Matthews, says the cats' enclosures are spread out among five acres. He told me their first cat got sick on November 22nd. The 17-year-old cougar named Hannah Wyoming stopped eating and died the next day.

A day later, this African caracal named Crackle also got sick and died. Others they lost included this cougar named Holly, and Tabby, a Bengal tiger.

MATTHEWS: Tabby, the tiger was very fun-loving tiger. She had a super personality. Every time I came up, she'd come running to meet me.

KAYE (voice-over): This Bengal cat, Pebbles also succumbed to bird flu, as well as mouse, a Jeffrey cat. Only 17 of the 37 cats once housed here are left.

Nico, an African serval, is still in critical condition, fighting to regain the use of his back legs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feeling devastated, kind of in shock, and just taking really good care of those ones who are recovering.

KAYE (voice over): The disease spread rapidly, and they still don't know how exactly the bird flu entered their facility.

MATTHEWS: Initially, we thought it was the bird droppings from water fowl. We are in a flight pattern for migratory birds. So, I don't know if that's part of the equation or not. So, we don't really don't know at this time if it was food related or not.

DR. DEAN BLUMBERG, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT AT UC DAVIS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Although we don't know exactly how it got there, it just makes sense that it's likely due to migratory birds, because we know bird flu is transmitted through the migratory bird population.

KAYE (voice over): Dr. Dean Blumberg is an Infectious Disease Expert at UC Davis.

BLUMBERG: It is spread through the bird saliva, the feces, the urine, and so you really can't protect against that in the natural environment.

KAYE (voice over): The staff at the sanctuary are working tirelessly to disinfect the habitats while also protecting themselves from getting sick.

They are wearing PPE, including N95 masks, and doing foot baths when they enter and leave.

BLUMBERG: The virus may mutate and become more easily transmitted person to person. So, the more this virus circulates, and specifically, co-circulates with human strains, that's going to increase the odds of the virus evolving to more human-to-human transmission, and that, of course, could signal another pandemic.

KAYE (voice over): Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: We are about to turn the page on 2024, but the high prices that marked the year for many aren't going away anytime soon. The unexpected impacts Americans could experience next year, as President- elect Trump puts his economic agenda into place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:26:01]

DEAN: We have new details on the fierce debate dividing Republicans over foreign worker visas.

President-elect Trump weighing in today on the feud that's been brewing between Elon Musk and some MAGA loyalists. For the latest on this, CNN's Alayna Treene joins us from West Palm Beach.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, Donald Trump defended the H-1B visa program on Saturday, the program that allows high skilled foreign workers to come and work in the United States really weighing in for the first time on an issue that has divided his supporters over the course of the last week.

Now, in a phone interview with "The New York Post," this is what he told them. He said: "I've always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas. That's why we have them." He went on to say, "I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I've used it many times. It is a great program."

Now, one thing, just to take a step back and explain why he is saying all of this. So this week, we really saw this issue kind of create a rift among Donald Trump's most loyal supporters.

On one hand, you kind of have the MAGA faithful, the people who have long been faithful to Donald Trump, and many of them have also been drawn to Donald Trump because of his hard line immigration policies.

On the other hand, you have some of these, you know, tech bros, the Silicon Valley latecomers to the MAGA movement who support Donald Trump in this last election cycle, but also rely on these high-skilled foreign workers for their businesses.

Now, all of this kind of came to the forefront when we saw Elon Musk earlier this week post about this repeatedly on X, defending H-1B visas and wanting to really have more high skilled foreign workers coming to the United States. It is something that drew the ire of conservative pundits like Laura Loomer and Ann Coulter and Mike Cernovich. We also saw Vivek Ramaswamy, the person who with Elon Musk is going to be running Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, both of them really weighing in to back up the H-1B visa program. Now, we also heard from Musk weigh in on this again yesterday night. I want to read for you what he said. He said: "The reason I am in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H-1B. I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend."

Now, to be clear, Donald Trump has kind of been ambiguous on this issue in the past. During his first administration, we actually saw H- 1B visas decline. The people who were able to get them, the number of visas that were awarded to people declined during his first term. And at one point they even were suspended altogether.

But recently, on the campaign trail earlier this year, Donald Trump told a podcast that he actually believes that immigrants who come to this country and graduate from a US university should be able to have a green card and to stay in this country, all to say, his position on this has changed. But right now he is saying he backs the program and also defends it, putting him in line with both Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy -- Jessica.

DEAN: Alayna, thank you for that. And the New Year brings new possibilities, but a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the economy. Economists around the world are concerned about what maybe it will mean if President Trump -- President-elect Trump's proposed tariffs on some of America's biggest trading partners come to be. And the question is, if that happens, how could it impact your wallet in 2025?

So let's talk with an expert now.

Joining me now CNN global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar.

Rana, great to have you here with us. I think first, let's just zoom out for a second. Walk people through as we enter 2025. Kind of best case scenario and what you might be concerned about as well.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Yes, great question.

Look, we are in a very, very strong economy right now. We just saw the consumer spending during Christmas at amazing levels. It really seems like things are going full blast. The risk there though is inflation. And you know, you already hear Donald Trump sort of walking back some of the promises he made to bring down grocery store prices, inflation in general. He said it would be no problem to keep the economy strong and keep inflation under control, but those two things are often in contrast.

So at the same time that people are feeling really good, maybe about the jobs market, maybe about their own prospects, I think we are also going to be looking at inflation remaining with us for some time.

[18:30:12]

The other thing I'm looking at carefully is the markets, right? And markets, again, have remained at record highs far longer than many of us thought would be possible. It is possible that you're going to have another great year in the markets because you're probably going to have tax cuts coming down the pike. A lot of deregulation. Business tends to like that.

At the same time, I want to look historically and say, gosh, we are six years overdue by historical standards for a recession. If you discount that sort of quick V-shaped blip that we saw during COVID, we're decades overdue for a big market correction. Those things happen no matter who's in office. No matter what's happening globally.

So, I would be looking if I were a consumer at my debt levels. I'd be saying this is a good time to kind of get my house in order to make sure that I don't have vulnerabilities. Because if we see a big market correction, that can really create a lot of instability for people. It means the companies might pull back. The job market could change.

At the same time, the final note that I would sound is there are a lot of changes globally right now. You know, there's just so much in flux. China is trying to get its own economy back. There's the possibility of a tariff war looming if Donald Trump continues his promises to put tariffs on adversaries and some allies alike. Geopolitical changes are coming down the pike.

You've got major conflicts obviously in Ukraine and in Gaza. But also, you have new potential theaters of conflict opening up in the Arctic, for example. That's an area that a lot of security experts are concerned about in the next few years. You have the South China Sea being a possibility for conflict. Taiwan is a hot spot.

So, there's just a lot of uncertainty. That's not to say that there aren't great things happening, too. I'm excited about the possibilities for AI. I'm excited about the possibilities for business continuing to be strong. But I think there's going to be a lot of up and downs this year, I guess that's what I would say.

DEAN: Maybe the takeaway. And you did tick through a number of issues. Of course, the President-elect has talked a lot about trying to impose tariffs on various countries that we do a lot of business with. Advisors close to him and kind of Republicans that I talk to say, listen, that's just a negotiating tactic. He's trying to get a good deal. He would never put a full tariff like that into place, but he has talked a lot about it. We have to wait and see how that all plays out.

But for the average person out there, what might that mean for them even as that's playing out?

FOROOHAR: So, I agree that it's possible tariffs will be a negotiating tactic. That said, let's say we were to see tariffs put in place on European luxury goods or consumer goods. That means immediately if you're buying something from Europe in a store, it's going to become more expensive. Same goes for China. Same goes for any country that you might put tariffs on.

The risk is that you start to get this tit-for-tat tariff war where all of a sudden there's kind of this tariff tax on a lot of goods that makes them more expensive. So, all kinds of things. I mean, your phone could get more expensive. The things you're getting in a grocery store. Gas prices. I mean, all of these things are up for grabs.

And so, the consumer simply doesn't know in this situation what they're going to be paying for something in a month versus today and that's unsettling.

DEAN: That can certainly be unsettling. A lot to come in this new year. But we really thank you for kind of walking us through what you're watching. Rana, good to see you. Happy New Year.

FOROOHAR: Happy New Year to you.

DEAN: Ahead, Israeli forces raid and shut down Northern Gaza's last remaining hospital as their operations in the territory intensify. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:37:36]

DEAN: Israel launched a raid against the last functioning hospital in Northern Gaza, Friday. And according to Israeli officials, they called the hospital a Hamas terror stronghold, say - and say they've arrested at least 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. Elliott Gotkine has more now from Jerusalem.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: The Israeli military says that its operation in and around Kamal Adwan Hospital ended on Saturday morning. They had only informed reporters of that fact on Saturday evening. It said that it made more than 240 arrests of what it described as terrorists belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and it made an unspecified number of additional arrests.

But the upshot of the operation is that the last remaining major medical facility in Northern Gaza is now no longer operational. The World Health Organization said that the hospital is now empty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOTKINE (voice over): A hospital on fire and encircled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through interpreter): The situation is extremely dire tonight. The Israeli army is present at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOTKINE (voice over): Patients and staff gather anxiously at the entrance of Northern Gaza's last major functioning hospital. Others fight flames.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through interpreter): The army are surrounding us from every side, our situation is very difficult. Dr. Hussam was directly threatened with arrest, they might arrest him at any time. (END VIDEO CLIP)

GOTKINE (voice over): These words from a nurse at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the midst of an evacuation order from the Israeli military. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital's director, is one of the last doctors in Northern Gaza. He had been documenting the horror inside his hospital in the wake of an Israeli offensive that began in early October.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA, KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL DIRECTOR (through interpreter): We had spoken and appealed to the world to protect and neutralize the medical system. But unfortunately, this is the grim reality we are witnessing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOTKINE (voice over): On Friday, he was assaulted and detained by Israeli forces, witnesses tell CNN. On Saturday, the IDF said he was being questioned in Gaza, suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative, but didn't provide evidence for the claim. Meantime, video shared widely appears to show the front of Kamal Adwan Hospital with people walking between a number of tanks, many appear to be holding their own clothes, with hands held above their heads.

[18:40:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through interpreter): From Kamal Adwan Hospital to Al Fakhoora, they made a strip down to our underwear. It was a tough situation, and they assaulted the wounded and women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOTKINE (voice over): In a briefing, an IDF spokesperson said people were asked to remove clothes to ensure no one was carrying explosives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through interpreter): They separated the men from the women and took the women in groups. Those who refused to remove their clothing were beaten, and they took our phones. I didn't have a phone, but those who were refusing to hand over their phones were beaten, and those who refused to take off their clothes were also beaten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOTKINE (voice over): The IDF says that it had carried out targeted operations around the hospital based on intelligence regarding the presence of terrorist infrastructure and operatives there. CNN cannot confirm these claims.

On Friday, the World Health Organization said the raid took the last major health facility in North Gaza out of service, adding that the systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for 10s of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.

Many patients now evacuated to Gaza's other hospitals, which medical staff say are not fit for purpose. This critically ill man evacuated from Kamal Adwan still in an ambulance Saturday after he was evacuated a day earlier.

Inside another hospital, this man tries to explain what happened to him, appearing to make signs of gunfire and beating. All the while, Gaza's health care system in a seemingly never-ending free fall.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOTKINE (on camera): Now of the more than 240 terrorists, as the IDF puts it, that it arrested, it says that some were posing as patients, others tried to flee in ambulances. And of those who were arrested that it merely suspects of being members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, it says that those found not to be militants will be released.

And one can only assume that that also applies to the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Abu Safiya, who was detained for questioning and was, as of Saturday evening, still being questioned inside Gaza.

Elliott Gotkine, CNN, Jerusalem.

DEAN: Elliott, thank you.

And joining us now is CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst and Axios politics and foreign policy reporter, Barak Ravid.

Barak, great to see you. Thanks for being here on a Saturday night.

I want to start there where Elliott left off, which is Israel's raid on this Northern Gaza hospital. Elliott really laid out the fundamentals of what happened, but what are you hearing beyond that?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, Jessica. Well, you know, the IDF still claimed that it had intelligence that there was terrorist activity in and around the hospital. Until now, the IDF did not produce or present any evidence, any real evidence for that other than some photos of two handguns and four hand grenades, which is weapons. But, you know, it's definitely not something that is like a major terrorist base inside the hospital.

And I think what we see here and that this operation is part of a wider effort that the IDF is doing in Northern Gaza and the Kamal Adwan Hospital was, I think, maybe one of the key places that the IDF was looking at because the goal is, that the IDF has, is to get all the Palestinian civilians out of Northern Gaza. And according to the IDF, there were still between 10- to 15,000 Palestinian civilians in Northern Gaza. And without the Kamal Adwan Hospital, I think many of them will leave. And I think this is the real goal behind this operation.

DEAN: And what about the impact to the humanitarian situation there? This was, as we noted, the last remaining hospital in that area that was functioning.

RAVID: Again, I think that the reason that - the fact that this hospital was still functioning was one of the things that kept Palestinian civilians in this area. And the humanitarian situation in this area is very, very bad. And I think that the IDF is trying to get all Palestinian civilians out of Northern Gaza.

When you ask Israeli officials whether they will ever be able to come back, you hear different versions. Some say yes. Some say no. Some say we don't know. And I think this raises a lot of questions about the real intentions of what the IDF is doing in Northern Gaza, exactly where the Kamal Adwan Hospital was.

DEAN: And then just broadening out a little bit, the hostage talks. I know you've been doing some reporting on these final waning days of the Biden administration, them trying to close this deal on a hostage deal. Where does that stand? What are your sources telling you?

[18:45:04]

RAVID: I don't think it stands in a very good place, at least for now. It seems that the negotiations are stuck. The Qatari prime minister met earlier today with a Hamas delegation with the head of their negotiation team. And according to the Qatari statement after that meeting, he, you know, stressed that there needs to be a movement towards a deal that will end the war in Gaza.

But other than that, when I speak to the Qataris, when I speak to Egyptians, when I speak to people in the Biden administration, and obviously the Israeli negotiators, all of them admit that there's no movement. And that the chances of getting a deal before January 20th, before Donald Trump assumes office, are not big. And every day that passes doesn't make those chances bigger. It makes them even less likely.

DEAN: And what about, as we sit here today, less than a month from President-elect Trump going back into the Oval Office and taking over, what might that mean?

RAVID: I think - and I think both President-elect Trump and his people know this very well and they're concerned about it. Because when he - when Trump said that he wants the hostages back by January 20th, it wasn't a whim. He said that because he and his people know that when he assumes office, there are going to be 10,000 other issues on his table.

And this is why they wanted to close this open issue by then, because they know that if it happens afterwards, or if it doesn't happen by January 20th, it's going to take a long time until they will be able to seriously tackle this issue, because they will come into office, they'll have so many things on their plate, and not necessarily this will be the number one, two or three that they will want to handle.

DEAN: All right. Barak Ravid, always good to see you. Thanks so much for coming on. We appreciate it.

RAVID: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, from a once-in-a-decade eclipse to record- breaking hurricanes and tornado outbreaks. The most impactful climate stories of the year. We'll walk you through them. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:51:30]

DEAN: The impacts of global warming on our planet dominated the climate stories of 2024. CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir has our top 10.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At number 10, a rare moment of national unity and wonder. Thanks to the celestial dance of sun and moon.

April's eclipse stretched from Texas to Maine, putting over 30 million Americans in the Path of Totality. We won't see another one over the U.S. until 2044.

At number nine, this year's Hajj fell in June, drawing millions of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca just as thermometers hit 125 degrees. And the Saudi Kingdom, reported over 1,300 heat-related deaths.

At number eight, wildfire nationwide. While July's Park Fire was the fifth biggest in California history, Texas saw their biggest ever with the million-acre Smokehouse Creek blaze.

And in the northeast, the worst drought in decades led to over 500 wildfires just in New Jersey.

At number seven and fueled by record high ocean temps, Hurricane Beryl roared to Category Five strength in July, the earliest storm to ever hit the top of the scale. While it hit Texas as a weaker Cat One, millions lost power around Houston, and it took nearly two sweltering weeks to get the air conditioning back on.

At number six, tornadoes and lots of them, the most in a decade. Of the two dozen billion-dollar disasters this year, over half included twisters. And while Oklahoma saw two monster EF4s, climate change is shifting tornado alley from the Great Plains to the Southeast.

At number five, Earth's overheating atmosphere is like a giant sponge in the sky, soaking up more water, wringing it out with a vengeance and causing the National Weather Service to issue an unprecedented 91 flash flood emergencies this year.

And at number four: The deadliest rain fell in Spain, where in late October, a year's worth fell in hours around Valencia. The surge broke riverbanks, turned streets into raging rapids and took over 200 lives.

At number three, the devastating duo of Helene and Milton, back-to- back hurricanes that began with a 15-foot surge in Florida's Big Bend, but got worse in the Mountains of Appalachia. Up to 30 inches of rain around Asheville, North Carolina, brought horrific flooding, while spun up tornadoes helped make Helene the deadliest since Katrina, and then came Milton just two weeks later, jumping from a tropical storm to a Category 5 in 24 hours, Milton is just the latest example of rapid intensification in the age of climate change.

But at number two, we have the rise of climate denial. After promising fossil fuel executives deregulation, Donald Trump retakes power with a promise to hamstring the nation's clean energy momentum and pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord for a second, and possibly final time.

The American election cast a pall over COP 29 in Azerbaijan, where petro states that agreed to transition away from fossil fuel at COP 28 transition back to praising oil.

[18:55:02]

And at number one, the heat driving so much of this destruction. Eight years ago in Paris, the world agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius, but this year topped it. It was over a hundred degrees in Phoenix for 113 consecutive days, shattering the record by 37 days. So, first responders now carry body bags and ice and the city has embraced a policy of shade, signs that humanity will have to adapt because 2024 could be the coolest year of the rest of our lives.

Bill Weir, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Still to come, breaking news is at least one person is dead as severe storms sweep across the Gulf Coast, bringing with them the threat of dangerous tornadoes. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[19:00:00]

DEAN: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.