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Russia May Have Mistaken Jet as Attack Drone; Plane Crash Survivors Describe Harrowing Ordeal; Hegseth's Attorney Denies Alcoholism and Sexual Assault; Transitioning to Trump; Russia Ramps Up Production of Iranian-Designed Drones; IDF Forces Last Major Health Facility in Northern Gaza out of Service; The Tragic Stories of Big Jackpot Winners; World's Largest Snow Theme Park Opens in Northeast China. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 28, 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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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Russian air defenses could have mistaken the commercial jet that crashed in Azerbaijan on Christmas Day for a drone. That's according to a U.S. official. Now hear what survivors are saying about their ordeal.

The U.S. president-elect is weighing in on the coming ban of TikTok.

Why Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to hit the pause button.

And there is a single winning ticket in the $1.2 billion Mega Millions drawing. But for some lottery winners, hitting the jackpot doesn't always make their dreams come true.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: New details are emerging about Russia's possible involvement in that deadly plane crash on Christmas Day. A U.S. official tells CNN that Russian air defenses may have misidentified the commercial jet, confusing it for a Ukrainian drone.

Moscow is trying to blame the pilot, claiming he failed to land the plane twice before it went down in Kazakhstan. But Azerbaijan Airlines says its early investigation shows, quote, "physical and technical external interference caused the crash."

Survivors are speaking out for the first time, describing what happened when they plummeted to the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SUBHONKUL RAKHIMOV, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR (through translator): when the first bang happened, I looked around, quickly assessed the situation and thought that the plane was going to fall apart. A couple more seconds passed but it didn't fall apart. Another minute passed -- not even a minute; a few more seconds passed.

But it didn't fall apart. I thought that I should start praying now. I started saying words. I started to remember the Almighty. I thought that those were probably my last words, so I thought I needed to get ready for a meeting with the Almighty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Hanako Montgomery joins us now live from Tokyo.

So Hanako, we heard from one survivor. There

Is what we're learning from the survivors shedding any light on the possible cause of the crash?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kim. It's good to see you.

Yes, you're absolutely right. We're hearing more from these 29 survivors and they're revealing some interesting new details about that crash. Some of them are saying that they heard a loud bang and felt an explosion moments before that plane crashed on Azerbaijani soil.

In fact, that man that we just heard from, the man who was praying on that plane, also said that he saw part of the plane's fuselage shell. That's the plane's main body, partially damaged.

In fact, Kim, if you take a look at this video, you can actually see there are visible holes in the plane's body. Now we don't actually know what caused these holes or what caused the actual crash.

But according to one of our aviation experts, Miles O'Brien, the fact that the metal around these holes is bent inwards and not outwards shows that there could have been, quote, "an explosion in proximity to the tail of that aircraft."

And Kim, this could all lend further weight to a growing theory about Russia's potential involvement. We've heard from a U.S. official, an Azerbaijani lawmaker and several aviation and military experts, all suggesting that Russia could have misidentified that passenger jet as a Ukrainian drone and shot it down.

In fact, on Friday, Russia, for the first time ever, said that the plane was directed to another destination because of Ukrainian drones in that area as well as fog.

And as you mentioned, Azerbaijan Airlines also said as a result of their initial investigation, they believe the plane crashed after experiencing, quote, "physical and technical external interference."

So while this theory remains unconfirmed, Kim, it is gaining a lot more traction.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. As we look at the video of the debris there, as we see the video of that fiery crash, I mean, the fact that there were so many survivors is frankly astounding.

MONTGOMERY: It's absolutely remarkable. I mean, like you said, we've all seen that video of the plane coming crashing down, skidding several hundred meters, turning into a ball of fire. Yet somehow passengers were able to walk out, crawl out of there alive.

And in fact, also we're hearing from some of these survivors that, even during these really difficult and traumatic moments, they were able to help each other. Here's one man's account.

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RAKHIMOV (through translator): I thought, I'll go and see what's there. If there's an exit, if it's accessible.

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I went in that direction and there was a woman in front of me. She regained consciousness and was moaning. I tried to lift her, lift her up. And I saw that, from the side, there was another woman that was trapped.

I tried to pull her out but it didn't work and she was trapped and her legs were trapped. And this woman, she was not trapped. I'm lifting her up but she can't get up.

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MONTGOMERY: I mean, truly extraordinary accounts there. And it's also remarkable that these pilots were able to save some lives by managing to land part of the aircraft, even though they lost their own lives during that crash.

Now in terms of what's next for this investigation, Kim, a second black box was recovered from the wreckage on Friday and investigators are hoping that this would be really a key to solving this puzzle.

They're hoping that the cockpit voice recordings and instrument readings will give some kind of indication as to why dozens of people lost their lives during this tragic, tragic flight on Christmas Day -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Appreciate that. Hanako Montgomery in Tokyo, thanks so much.

Donald Trump is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a controversial TikTok ban, set to take effect just one day before his inauguration. The president-elect now says he wants a negotiation. CNN's Alayna Treene has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, president-elect Donald Trump on Friday urged the Supreme Court to put a pause on a controversial ban on TikTok, arguing that a delay in implementation would allow his incoming administration to try and negotiate some sort of deal that would save the app.

Now all of this relates back to a ban that Congress approved earlier this year and Biden signed into law, really arguing and requiring that the platform be sold to a new non-Chinese owner or be banned in the United States.

That ban is currently slated to take effect on January 19th, just one day before Donald Trump is sworn in to office. Now what Donald Trump is urging the Supreme Court to do puts him at odds with the Biden administration, which filed its own briefing on Friday, urging the Supreme Court to move forward with the ban.

And they warned of grave national security concerns if it is not implemented. Now one thing to be clear on is that Donald Trump, in his briefing, did not really address the underlying First Amendment questions. But he did urge the court to put this pause on the ban so that his administration can try to find some way to resolve the issue.

This is what he said in the briefing, quote, "President-elect Trump urges the court to stay the statute's effective date to allow his incoming administration to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans.

"While also addressing the government's national security concerns."

Now one thing to be clear on is that TikTok is very popular in the United States. It has 170 million monthly users in the U.S.

And Trump, for his part, has wavered on the issue. Back during his first administration, he actually signed an executive order that would have effectively put a ban on TikTok, also arguing of its national security concerns, given China's influence over the social media platform.

However, throughout his time on the campaign trail in 2024, as well as just a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump said that he is warming to TikTok. And he argued that part of his stance on that is because so many young voters who voted for him use the app.

Now all to say it is very unclear what is going to happen. But Donald Trump's argument is that he wants a pause on this ban so that his administration can figure out how they want to resolve this -- Alayna Treene, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

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BRUNHUBER: Defense and trial attorney Misty Marris tells CNN that Trump's legal argument to pause the TikTok ban doesn't address the reason behind the ban. Here she is.

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MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE AND TRIAL ATTORNEY: We see him actually, in writing, put that aside and say, we're not really going to comment on whether or not this is violative of First Amendment, whether or not National Security concerns actually overcome that burden of strict scrutiny.

We're not even going to talk about it, that prong that's required.

Instead, we hear about his negotiating skills. Instead, we hear about how he had great success using TikTok during the election. So to me, and from the legal perspective, that is not sufficient to fulfill that second prong, seeking a stay.

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BRUNHUBER: The only person to have led both the CIA and FBI is warning the Senate that Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard aren't fit to lead. William Webster sent a letter to senators on Thursday, stressing the dangers of confirming Patel as FBI director or Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

He said he was deeply concerned about the nominations and emphasized that the effectiveness of both agencies, quote, "depends on operating with complete independence from political influence."

He went on to question Patel's impartiality and Gabbard's experience.

Pete Hegseth's attorney says the man Donald Trump wants to be Defense Secretary doesn't have an alcohol problem.

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Lawyer Tim Parlatore also told CNN's Pamela Brown that he gave the Senate Armed Services Committee a copy of the confidentiality agreement between Hegseth and a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

He also says Hegseth has given the committee a memo outlining concerns employees had with his leadership of a veterans group. The attorney says that memo was written by an employee who was fired and wanted revenge.

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BRUNHUBER: All right, I want to bring in Samantha Hancox-Li, who's an associate editor of "Liberal Currents" and the author of a recent article called, "Get Ready for Trump's TV Government."

Thank you so much for being here with us. So just a fascinating article. With Trump's election, many on the Left have talked about sort of doom and gloom scenarios, where Trump essentially remakes America.

You argue basically they should they should chill out, at least about that fear, specifically, because his style of authoritarianism is based on something you call gorilla channel governance, a term I love there. So briefly explain what you mean by that.

SAMANTHA HANCOX-LI, WRITER AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "LIBERAL CURRENTS": Yes. So gorilla channel governance is a concept based on an old joke that Trump's staffers were distracting him with a fake TV channel that showed gorillas fighting all the time.

And the concept of gorilla channel governance is basically that Trump is an old man. He is tired. He's distractible and he's clearly responding to what he sees on the television.

His nomination for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, his primary qualification appears to being to be appearing on "FOX and Friends."

He's nominated Dr. Oz, a TV doctor for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator. Right. These are posts that command enormous federal bureaucracies. But these are not people with experience running enormous federal bureaucracies.

BRUNHUBER: Right. So OK, so it's not just those nominations that you cite as sort of examples of this. DOGE as well, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, another example of that. Explain, explain that for us.

HANCOX-LI: Yes. So the concept here coming out of political science is the concept of personalist authoritarian government. And in a personalist system, the big boss creates a lot of different lieutenants who have conflicting and overlapping mandates. And this inherently creates conflict within their own government effectively.

And that's the point. The point is to be able to play Elon Musk off against someone else inside of his administration, because DOGE has this enormous mandate to cut government spending anywhere.

And that conflict between Elon and whoever can only be resolved by Trump. And then, of course, DOGE itself is theoretically going to be headed by also Vivek Ramaswamy.

So these two co-equal heads, which creates further ambiguity and unclarity and conflict, which again leads back to Trump's personal ability to settle these disputes in his own administration.

BRUNHUBER: Yes.

And we've seen now Trump is touting the fact that Bill Gates wants an audience with him, which could be construed as a as a message to Musk. You predict that Elon Musk might be one of the first casualties of Trump's ego.

So how do you think his ego affects his relationships with advisors and appointees and that might maybe constrain his effectiveness in terms of governance?

HANCOX-LI: Yes, I think that's exactly right, that it is a question of ego that, in a more efficient system, you can trust your own lieutenants to, you know, be good people who are with your agenda. Under a personalist system, you always feel most threatened by your

own lieutenants. And so, Elon, who has an enormous amount of personal wealth of media influence through his ownership of X, formerly Twitter, it is precisely because he has an independent power base that he's going to be perceived as most threatening to Trump.

In the old metaphor, the tall poppies get cut first.

All right, so as we saw in Trump's first administration, they didn't actually get that much done because they didn't follow procedure. They didn't do their homework and often things got bogged down in the courts, for example.

But don't you think they'll have learned from that experience?

I mean, Project 2025 was specifically conceived to pave the way this time around.

So where do you think, how do you think that will play into it and where do you think he'll be most successful?

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HANCOX-LI: I think Project 2025 is absolutely a response to some of the difficulties that Trump had in his first administration. I think, structurally, you are always going to be in trouble trying to get a very large bureaucracy to do what you want it to do.

The Pentagon, for example, is -- you know, the American armed forces are literally, you know, more than a million people, a budget in, you know, again, hundreds of billions of dollars. And controlling an institution that is that large, even if you have, you know, Schedule F powers to fire this person or various kinds of legal authority.

It's just very difficult on an organizational level to get everybody rowing in the same direction, especially if they don't want to and they kind of want to be obstructionist. Everyone who's ever been in charge of an organization is familiar with these kinds of problems.

So where is Trump going to be most successful?

It's where he's rowing with the tide of the party or of existing federal bureaucracies. A good example here is ICE. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has clearly long been dissatisfied with the kinds of deportations that they're able to do, the number of deportations that they are able to do.

And so Trump will be able to take the leash off of ICE. In terms of going to war with Mexico, the Pentagon does not want to go to war with Mexico and they will almost certainly do a great deal to stop that from happening.

BRUNHUBER: We shall see how effective and possibly transformative this Trump administration will be. It certainly will not be boring, that we know. Samantha Hancox-Li in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, thank you so much for being here with us. HANCOX-LI: Yes. Thank you for having me.

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BRUNHUBER: All right.

North Korean troops are reportedly learning the hard way how tough a battle with Ukrainians can be. Still ahead, new reports of staggering losses as North Koreans try to help Russia recover land held by Ukraine.

Plus, Russia is ramping up its production of military drones, with Iran playing a supporting role. How a facility east of Moscow became a mecca for drone production, which is growing by leaps and bounds. That and more coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: North Korean troops are experiencing mass casualties as they go head to head with Ukrainian forces in Western Russia. The White House says about 1,000 North Koreans were killed or wounded in the past week alone.

Now in a possible first, Ukraine's president says several wounded North Koreans have recently been captured but they later died from their injuries. He also says those troops go into battle without much protection and their commanders don't seem to care if they live or die.

At least 11,000 North Koreans are believed to be deployed to Russia's Kursk region.

Russia seems to have an endless supply of drones these days, thanks to technology acquired from Iran. A factory east of Moscow is cranking out the Russian version of Iran's Shahed drones, which Tehran has been supplying to Moscow.

But as Clare Sebastian reports, Russian engineers are taking the Iranian knowhow to a new and deadlier level.

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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The caption: "My mom's reaction when she found out I earn more than her."

Cat videos, TikTok memes, all part of a recruitment effort funneling workers into Russia's ever expanding drone program. The videos are made by Alabuga Politekh, a technical college based at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in southern Russia.

The same site identified by the White House last year as Russia's domestic Shahed factory, producing Iranian designed drones.

In February, the U.S. slapped sanctions on Alabuga, noting it exploited underage students from an affiliated polytechnic university as laborers to assemble these attack UAV's. David Albright, a former nuclear weapons inspector, has been tracking Alabuga since 2022.

DAVID ALBRIGHT, INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: The only benefit is -- is the high salary but the males get exemption from military service and so that -- that's a drawing card.

SEBASTIAN: A Ukrainian intelligence officer only authorized to speak to CNN anonymously told us those perks come at a cost.

"OREST," UKRANIAN DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE (through translator): All students involved in the production of these UAVs live at a separate limited access compound. Once employed, they sign NDAs. Their contracts say they produce motorboats.

SEBASTIAN: And yet, as recruitment efforts step up, this video from July allowed the facade to slip.

"Thinking of starting 10th grade?" says the voice-over, "Join the Super Elite program, air navigation and drone programming at Alabuga Politekh and help the Stalin's Falcons."

That's a new drone unit in the Russian military. Pause here and you see the distinctive serial number of the Russian produced Shahed and the unit emblem.

In July, Russia fired 422 Shahed or similar drones at Ukraine. By November, it was almost six times that. Analysis of Air Force reports and official data show. To meet that demand, Shahed production at Alabuga has more than doubled this year, say CNN sources in Ukraine's Defense Intelligence. And there's a new product.

This is the Gerbera, a much cheaper copy of the Shahed, pictured in a video posted in July by the Stalin's Falcons, that same drone unit. For this volunteer air defense unit in Kyiv, it's clear the cheaper copies are fueling bigger attacks.

YURIY CHUMAK, UKRAINIAN AIR DEFENSE VOLUNTEER: Now they send -- Russia sends every day a lot of drones. More of them are not even with the explosive things. It's just very cheap and very simple drones.

SEBASTIAN: For Yuriy Chumak, a serving supreme court judge by day, there's no denying the decoys are working.

CHUMAK: We cannot detect what it is. You just see that it's drones so you shall use missile or you shall use machine gun to shut down it.

SEBASTIAN: CNN's sources in Ukrainian defense intelligence believe Alabuga will produce up to 10,000 Gerberas this year alone. Analysis of downed drones shows Russia has also adapted the original Shahed, making it tougher, more weatherproof and in some cases, deadlier.

In late October, experts in Kyiv found traces of thermobaric munitions on downed Shaheds.

OLEKSIY STEPANIUK, KYIV SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FORENSIC EXPERT (through translator): There were several of them. Their effect is that they're used as incendiary munitions. In a certain radius, they disable all equipment and people.

SEBASTIAN: Ukraine has tried hitting back. This April strike, using a modified small aircraft, blew a hole in the roof of a worker dormitory at Alabuga.

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But neither that strike nor international sanctions could stop the breakneck pace of expansion here. Between March and September this year, two entirely new buildings appeared next to the original ones.

And this image from late November seems to confirm they're connected. New covered walkways link old and new buildings. Another looks set to join the factory to the worker dormitories now fully repaired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They started to create, we thought, drone cages over the buildings. And then as they build other buildings, it looks like they're expanding the security perimeter.

SEBASTIAN: NATO told CNN it is, quote, well aware of Alabuga and expects it to ramp up production even further. This military patriotic team-building event for Alabuga students, a glimpse into the high- octane world behind that security fence -- Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, a dire new warning from the World Health Organization. The last major hospital in northern Gaza has been forced out of service amid ongoing Israeli military operations. We'll have details on the medical crisis in the besieged enclave next.

Plus, for the second time in two months, a stowaway was discovered on a Delta flight. This incident happened on Christmas Eve. We'll have the story just ahead after a short break. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

The World Health Organization says an Israeli raid has forced the last major health facility in northern Gaza out of service. The Israeli military surrounded the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday as part of its ongoing operations in the area.

[03:30:05]

The WHO says there are at least 60 health workers and more than 2 dozen patients in critical condition who remain inside. The IDF says its troops are operating in the area but aren't inside the hospital.

Israel claims Hamas is using the facility for its operations. Witnesses and staff say the IDF ordered patients and medical workers to evacuate, despite there being nowhere else to go. Listen to how one nurse described the scene.

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SHUROUQ SALAH, NURSE, KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL (through translator): 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.

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BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, some Israeli government ministers have criticized a new investigation into Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister's wife. Israel's attorney general announced the inquiry on Friday on allegations Ms. Netanyahu may have harassed a witness in one of her husband's corruption trials.

Israel's justice minister and the far right national security minister both denounced the new probe. Elliott Gotkine has more on that plus details about the hospital in northern Gaza.

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ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: If there is one thing that riles Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more than being in the dock himself, it's accusations against his wife.

Sara Netanyahu, who has a 2019 conviction for misusing public funds, now faces formal investigation for allegedly intimidating a witness in her husband's corruption trial as well as indirectly harassing the attorney general and deputy attorney general.

The allegations were first aired on Israel Channel 12's "Uvda" program, the country's equivalent of "60 Minutes." Benjamin Netanyahu decried the report as a new blood libel, calling it biased and false propaganda.

The prime minister sees it as another strand of what he describes as a witch hunt against him, orchestrated by the left-wing media and which led to him being tried for fraud, breach of trust and bribery, charges he vehemently denies.

Netanyahu asked that his trial be postponed due to the wars with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza but to no avail. In the enclave itself, the Israeli military, on Friday, said it was carrying out targeted operations against what it described as a Hamas terrorist stronghold in and around the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

Hamas has denied that it uses hospitals for military purposes and the IDF has not offered definitive proof of its claims.

Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said in a social media post that the IDF was besieging Kamal Adwan and issuing orders for its evacuation.

A few hours later, Abu Safiya said the Israeli military was burning all the operating departments in the hospital and had evacuated all displaced people and staff, some of whom he said had been arrested. Smoke could be seen billowing from the building.

The IDF said troops had facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel prior to the operation -- Elliott Gotkine, CNN, Jerusalem.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to bring in Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan. She's the co-founder of Gaza Medical Voices and a pediatric intensive care doctor with Medecins sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors without Borders. And she's worked in Gaza's hospitals many times. She joins me now from Amman, Jordan.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So you have actually taught at the Kamal Adwan hospital, I understand. So before we get to the wider implications of this in terms of what it means to Gaza, I just want to first ask your reaction to what's happening there.

DR. TANYA HAJ-HASSAN, PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE SPECIALIST, MEDICAL AID FOR PALESTINIANS: Thanks, Kim.

Honestly, I'm struggling to even process it. You know, for almost three months now, the Israeli military has repeatedly attacked Kamal Adwan hospital. We have received plea after plea after plea from its from its director, a pediatrician like myself, Dr. Sam Abu Safiya, asking for international protection.

While we were having our Christmas dinners, doctors in the north were sending SOS messages about injured patients.

They were bleeding to death because they could not access military -- they couldn't access medical care as a consequence of obstructions by the Israeli military and besiegement of one of the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza.

There are three public hospitals in northern Gaza, namely Beit Hanoun hospital, which has already been destroyed by the Israeli military; the Indonesian Hospital and Kamal Adwan hospital, the hospital you were just speaking about.

The Indonesian hospital was mostly put out of service about a week ago by the Israeli military. The electricity supply, the water supply and the oxygen generators were destroyed. You cannot run a hospital without those things. It also doesn't have medical supplies.

[03:35:00]

When CNN minutes ago mentioned that the Israeli authorities had said they had organized safe evacuations for the patients from Kamal Adwan hospital, I'm afraid that is false. That is inaccurate.

What they did was forcibly evacuate and detain under gunpoint much of the patients and medical workers within Kamal Adwan hospital and the critically ill patients that weren't able to evacuate the hospital.

We have heard they have been transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, the same hospital, that third hospital in northern Gaza, that has already been, for the most part, destroyed. It has no electricity, no water, no oxygen.

We have a colleague, a nursing colleague, who was severely injured by the Israeli military two days ago while he while he was in the process of treating a patient. He's in critical condition. He was on a ventilator, a ventilator in the only ICU left in northern Gaza, which was in Kamal Adwan hospital.

And now we don't know where he is and what his fate is, if he's amongst those critically injured patients that were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital. There is no electricity there to operate his ventilator. This is a death sentence for those critically injured patients at Kamal Adwan hospital.

And Dr. Hassan Abu Safiya has sent numerous messages over the last few months, including four days ago saying the world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with an intent to kill and forcibly displaced us -- displace us. This is exactly what happened.

BRUNHUBER: I want to get to the wider implications here and we should just say Israel again says these attacks are to root out Hamas, which is using the hospitals for military operations.

But you know that that phrase that you used, a death sentence, I mean, that's something that the WHO has said as well. These attacks are a death sentence for thousands of Palestinians.

The U.N. has said that all of this is a wider pattern. They've accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity because of these widespread attacks against Gaza health facilities.

You yourself provided the U.N. with testimony. You spoke out at a panel during the election here in the U.S. at the Democratic national convention. Yet this still keeps happening.

HAJ-HASSAN: It does, Kim. And this is part of a wider pattern. And it's utterly incomprehensible to think that, after about almost a year ago, in January this year, the International Court of Justice ruled a plausible genocide, insisted that preliminary measures be put in place to prevent ongoing genocide.

And what we have seen is a worsening of these egregious crimes against humanity. We have Amnesty International calling this a genocide.

We have Doctors without Borders, Medecins sans Frontieres, the organization, I, one of the organizations I work for, saying that this is -- what they're seeing is consistent with reports by these organizations of ethnic cleansing.

And yet every single credible organization that is -- exists to protect our human rights and our health saying the same thing.

And it is met with impunity and ongoing militarization, ongoing supply of weapons by the United States in very clear contradiction of international humanitarian law, in very clear contradiction of the U.S.' own laws.

And then we have mainstream media continuing to peddle this claim by the Israeli military that, you know, the excuses that there's military activity from within these hospitals. I am sorry but these this excuse has been used from the very beginning. It was used for Al-Shifa hospital. We found no evidence of that.

It was used for a hospital, for the Indonesian Hospital, for the hospital. It is used every single time Israel targets a hospital. And it has targeted virtually every hospital in the Gaza Strip, all of this by design.

International journalists, independent human rights and forensic investigators have been prohibited by Israel from bearing witness. You, Kim, as a journalist, for 15 months, have not been allowed on the ground.

You and everybody you work with, they've not been allowed on the ground to document this. And yet these same mainstream media channels still provide the Israeli narrative, which has been proven false time and time again.

And last night, Kim, Dr. Youssef Abu el-Rish, deputy minister of health in the Gaza Strip, came on CNN, on your news network and said, we have told the Israeli military over and over again, go in the hospital, search for yourself.

[03:40:07]

Don't destroy the hospital. We do not have military activity within our hospitals. And you are welcome to go inside and see that. And yet they burned it. They burned it down.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. We will have to leave it there. But just to the accusations about the mainstream media and CNN as well, we have tried to provide both sides. But as you very rightly pointed out, Israel has not allowed reporters and CNN access to Gaza, which unfortunately limits our ability to tell all those important stories.

We'll have to leave it there, Dr. Tanya Hajj-Hassan in northern Gaza -- rather in Amman, Jordan -- thank you so much for speaking with us. Appreciate it.

HAJ-HASSAN: Thank you, Kim.

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BRUNHUBER: All right.

Well, there are new concerns about airport safety and security during this busy holiday travel season after a stowaway on a Delta flight was arrested on Christmas Eve. CNN's Carlos Suarez has more.

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CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A stowaway discovered again, hiding on an airplane just moments before takeoff on Christmas Eve in Seattle.

The unidentified individual cleared a standard security screening the night before the flight, bypassing identity verification and boarding status stations without a boarding pass, an airport spokesperson tells CNN.

The following afternoon, they were able to board the Delta flight, still without a boarding pass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He must have been a sweet talker, Betty Crocker, because I don't -- I couldn't imagine how you could ever do that.

SUAREZ: When the person was discovered on board, the plane returned to the gate to remove them, according to the airport spokesperson. The suspect then ran out of the plane before police arrived and hid in a bathroom in the airport terminal. Port of Seattle police used video surveillance cameras to find and arrest the suspect.

BRADY BLY, PASSENGER ON FLIGHT 487: Nobody knew really what was going on, so we were kind of left in the dark.

SUAREZ: All passengers on board were deplaned and rescreened by TSA, delaying the flight for nearly 2.5 hours.

BLY: Which leaves you to wonder the worst. You're stuck on the plane. And you know what if there was explosives or something?

SUAREZ: The incident elevating security concerns during one of the busiest seasons for travel.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: I understand that the Transportation Security Authority agents are besieged but these are the areas where the system is, you know, blinking red.

SUAREZ: So far, officials from the TSA, the port of Seattle and Delta representatives have not explained how this person was able to bypass so many layers of security.

Delta apologized to delayed passengers in a statement, saying, quote, "There are no matters more important than safety and security."

The TSA said it takes such incidents seriously and, quote, "will independently review the circumstances of this incident."

O'BRIEN: I think the responsibility for these stowaway events so far has been sort of joint between the TSA for letting these individuals pass their ID check points and the airline, in this case, Delta, for not being vigilant enough at the doorway to that jet way.

SUAREZ: It's the second time in weeks that a passenger boarded a Delta flight without a ticket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board.

SUAREZ: Just before Thanksgiving, a woman snuck onto a Delta flight from New York's JFK Airport to Paris. It took three attempts to get her back to the U.S. to face charges.

The TSA said that the unticketed passenger didn't have prohibited items. Now officials with the port of Seattle added that the aircraft and the terminal was swept by a police canine and all of the passengers were rescreened -- Carlos Suarez, CNN, Atlanta.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, someone out there may be starting the new year $1 billion richer. We'll have more on the Mega Millions massive 10-figure jackpot when we come back.

And we assume that winning the lottery can be life-changing. But for some past winners, those changes came with tragedy. That story and much more straight ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Someone is now $1 billion richer after winning Friday night's Mega Millions drawing. Lottery officials say the single winning ticket was sold in California. And it's worth -- get this -- $1.2 billion. That's the fifth largest jackpot in the game's history.

By the way, the odds of winning that jackpot were one in more than 300 million. But not all giant jackpot winners live happily ever after. CNN's Randi Kaye lays out the tragic situations that some jackpot winners have experienced.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to present to you this check.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His name was Jack Whittaker and he is the poster boy for problems often faced by lottery winners. JACK WHITTAKER, LOTTERY WINNER: I just want to thank God for letting me pick the right numbers.

KAYE (voice-over): On Christmas 2002, Whittaker won a whopping $314 million. The 55-year-old West Virginia grandfather took the lump sum payout of $113 million. He had plans to buy a helicopter and start a charitable foundation.

WHITTAKER: My biggest problem is going to be keep my granddaughter and daughter from spending all their money in one week.

KAYE (voice-over): Whittaker, who died in 2020, was proof money doesn't buy happiness.

In the years following his big Powerball win, Whittaker was charged with drunk driving and allegedly threatened to kill a bar manager. He was sued for alleged sexual assault, had half a million bucks stolen from his car and lost his granddaughter to drugs. His marriage also ended.

In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare won $17 million in a Florida jackpot. But the newfound wealth for this on-again, off-again sanitation worker from Florida was short-lived. Less than three years later, he was murdered by a woman who claimed to be his friend.

Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore shot Shakespeare twice in the chest and stole his money. His body was found buried under concrete in her backyard. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2001, David Lee Edwards and his future wife, Shawna, won a quarter share of a Powerball jackpot. After taxes, they walked away with $27 million.

DAVID EDWARDS, LOTTERY WINNER: I was sincere when I asked God to help me because I was desperate.

KAYE (voice-over): In the end, he lost it all and the pair divorced. Edwards later died in hospice.

In 2012, 46-year-old Urooj Khan won $1 million in an Illinois lottery scratch-off game. But before he could collect it, he was dead. The night he died, Khan's wife said she made him dinner at home, then later woke to him screaming in pain.

First, doctors said Khan died of natural causes but new information led to his body being exhumed. The Cook County medical examiner found a deadly poison in his blood, cyanide.

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DR. STEPHEN CINA, COOK COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Urooj Khan died of cyanide toxicity. A lethal level of cyanide was detected in the peripheral blood.

KAYE (voice-over): A homicide investigation is still underway but more than a decade later, nobody has been charged in Khan's death. His wife and family denied any wrongdoing.

KAYE: Given how lottery winnings turn out for so many, experts suggest keeping your winnings private. But that's not so easy, given state laws. Many states do require you to go public if you win the lottery.

Still, we did check and at least 18 states allow you to remain anonymous. But still, experts say, if you want to avoid trouble or even worse, the best thing you can do if you win the lottery is to seek out reputable legal and financial advice -- Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

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BRUNHUBER: Despite a year of historic highs, U.S. stocks took a dive before the markets closed Friday following selloffs across Big Tech's Magnificent Seven. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 each fell into the red to end the holiday week.

The lackluster close has analysts advocating for a broader market in the new year, cautioning against heavy reliance on a handful of industry giants, should they all stumble at the same time.

We'll be right back.

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BRUNHUBER: People in the Deep South and the eastern part of the U.S. will get more severe storms, strong tornadoes and damaging winds today. And the Western states will see more rain, snow and gusty winds.

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BRUNHUBER: A unique winter wonderland is now open to the public in China's northernmost province. It's the 26th edition of the world's largest indoor ice and snow theme park in Harbin, China.

Harbin is also known as Ice City. The festival runs until late February and features interactive projects, entertainment, ice sculptures, gourmet food and more.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber in Atlanta. More CNN NEWSROOM just ahead with Ben Hunte in London.