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At Least 122 Killed in South Korea Plane, 181 on Board; Georgia's Parliament Swears in Controversial New President; Two Projectiles Fired into Israel from Northern Gaza. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 29, 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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[03:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

The latest now on our breaking news, investigators have recovered the flight data recorder from the Jeju Air flight that crashed in South Korea, but they're still trying to find the plane's voice recorder. 181 people were on board the Boeing 737-800 when it crash landed at the Muan International Airport. Rescue workers have confirmed the deaths of 122 people. Two crew members were rescued and officials say the rest of the passengers and crew are presumed dead.

Now, this video shows the plane dragging along the runway with no landing gear in sight. Moments later, the plane burst into flames. South Korean officials say the jet made a call shortly after the control tower warned about birds in the area.

CNN Correspondent Mike Valerio is following this breaking news from Seoul. So, Mike, let's just expand on what I was just saying there about what we were hearing from the control tower. We're getting more details about what might have happened. Take us through.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We have six crucial minutes, Kim, that are coming into focus. This is courtesy of the Land and Transportation Ministry, one of the entities here in South Korea that is involved in this crash investigation.

So, we want to bring you to 8:57 in the morning local time. That's when the control tower is talking with this Boeing 737-800 saying, hey, there are birds in the area of one of our runways. There's the possibility of bird strikes. We just want to warn you that this could be a possibility of happening. So, that is at 8:57.

8:59, a mayday is called from the cock. We don't know what exactly happened at that point, but it's a two-minute gap that this happened between the warning and the mayday. And then at 9:03, that's when the crash happens.

So, you know, Kim, we've been talking about in the past couple hits with you, as we've been updating our viewers over the past few hours, that people have gone out of their way in terms of emergency responders briefing the media and people who have been in positions of government authority saying that bird strike could be a possibility that led to a cascading series of events that caused this plane to crash.

But when we look at the video, we were just talking about this here in the bureau a couple minutes ago, bird strike, you know, these things are potentially intention here. How does a bird strike explain flaps not being up on the wings that slowed the plane down? How does a bird strike explain the plane coming down pretty far down in the runway? How does a bird strike explain so many other things that were part of the final moments of this aircraft?

Dave Soucie, one of our experts, for his part, has been mentioning over the past couple hours why there were all of these pieces of equipment at the end of the runway that this plane crashed into. And then we see that huge cataclysmic explosion in the distance that's been recorded by myriad people and, you know, so many channels here throughout South Korea.

So, one of the things that could potentially help answer all of these questions are the two people who survived, a man and a woman, crew members of this Jeju Airline flight that were sitting in the back of the plane who did manage to survive.

We don't have any confirmation from authorities as to whether or not they have been interviewed yet. We don't have confirmation on what their conditions are. But, again, the miraculous state of affairs exists that they were able to leave the plane and survive this horrible crash.

As far as we've also been able to confirm, Kim, we have to Thai nationals and the rest of the people on board are from South Korea, most of the families in the area of where the plane went down. It's about a 3.5, 4, 5, if there's traffic, hour drive south of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. So, still so many questions that remain to be answered, so many circumstances that aren't exactly adding up here.

And then I'll leave you with this. We have new information from the Land and Transportation Ministry, and they're saying that this investigation could take up to two, potentially three years. There will be, of course, so much pressure on the ministry to come up with some sort of solution or statement as to what went wrong here because we find ourselves in South Korea, in the context of a country that has gone through martial law for six hours on December 3rd into the morning of December 4th, we're on our third person who is exercising presidential powers. You know, the country has been so through so much to add this on top of everything right after the Christmas season, as we approach the new year, you know, it is weighing heavily on so many across South Korea. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. Listen, Mike, I want to -- because most people may not know too much about the airline itself, as well as the area in which it happens. So, give us a bit more context about Jeju and about one where this crash happened.

VALERIO: Sure. So, Muan, it's one of the smaller cities in South Korea. But Jeju Air, it was founded in 2005. It is the largest budget carrier that South Korea has. It has an excellent reputation. If, you know, you're out with your buddies and you're talking about vacation plans, chances are somebody will say, oh yes, I'm going to Thailand on Jeju Air. I'm going to Jeju Island on Jeju Air, Jeju Air named after the island that's sort of The Hawaii of South Korea, this idyllic, beautiful island in the very southern part of the country. It has a very good safety record, nothing that would even compare to an episode such as this.

And the CEO was out briefing reporters earlier in the afternoon, and he said from the information that he's been able to parse through so far, this specific 737-800 aircraft had no safety mishaps at all in its record of note, nothing that would lead anybody to believe that there could be some sort of problem with the mechanics of the aircraft that could lead to a catastrophe such as this.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Mike Valerio in Seoul, I appreciate all the updates and we'll speak to you again soon.

I want to bring in Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News, and he joins us live from Perth, Australia. Good to see you again.

So, since you were on -- since you spoke to one of our other anchors, we've learned a bit more and we just heard that from a reporter then. So, given what you've seen from the video and the new information that we're getting now, give us an update on what you think happened here.

GEOFFREY THOMAS, EDITOR, AIRLINE NEWS: Well, it certainly appears as though the aircraft did have a bird strike. There are images that appear to show this aircraft with a problem with its right engine, possibly an engine failure due to the bird strike. There are warnings out for that airport for this time of the year for flocks of Mallard birds, which is a reasonably-sized bird.

Now, whether that caused, as your colleagues suggest, a cascade of problems in the cockpit, we just don't know at this stage. But that bird strike, while it may have caused problems in the cockpit, it would not have prevented the undercarriage from being lowered.

Now, there are suggestions that there could have been hydraulic issues. Again, the bird strike would not have probably caused that issue. However, if there was some connection. You can manually lower the undercarriage on this aircraft like most. You can crank it down.

So, there seems to be no reason why that undercarriage could not have been lowered unless, of course, the aircraft was at the limit of its fuel from the flight from Bangkok and didn't have time to either dump fuel, the little bit extra it had, or it didn't have enough time for more circuits while they cranked the undercarriage down.

So, there's a couple of question marks there about the fuel load and why the pilots didn't crank the undercarriage down. Also, of course, the issue as mentioned by your colleague was, you know, where it landed on the runway, it appears as though it's landed well down the runway. The runway is about 3,000 meters long, which is absolutely sufficient for this aircraft to stop before getting to the end, particularly if it's sitting on its belly.

The other issue here is, with an emergency like this, why were not the fire tenders out there by side the runway? Why hadn't they put foam on the runway? So, there are a lot of questions here about the response to this incident from the ground perspective, and, of course, also some serious questions about what happened in the cockpit.

[03:10:01]

BRUNHUBER: Yes. We might get some of those answers with the black box. Of course, they have, to my understanding, found the flight data recorder. They still haven't found the voice recorder, as we were seeing their live pictures of sort of the recovery teams going through and searching, combing through the wreckage there. Which of those two do you think would provide more answers?

THOMAS: Well, the digital flight data recorder will record that engine failure, if that is what has happened. It would also record any hydraulic failures as well. But, certainly, I think to your point, Kim, the cockpit voice recorder is the one we really want to listen to, to find out exactly what's going on in the cockpit.

Of course, we'll have the air traffic control side of that, but that won't give us the dialogue between the copilot and the pilot as to what issues they were facing in the cockpit. And it could have been a cascading series of issues, some of which we don't know about at this stage, and only the cockpit voice recorder will give us some real sense of what was going on and some of the decision-making that was going on in the cockpit that led to this terrible, terrible tragedy.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Our reporter there was just saying that this investigation could take two or three years. That seems incredibly long. What's normal under circumstances like these?

THOMAS: Well, look, he does make a very good point. In some cases, I've known investigations to last four and five years, depending on the complexity and whether you've got the flight recorders or not. In this case, I'm certain we'll have the cockpit voice recorder.

South Korea, like all nations, needs to make a preliminary report within 30 days. Now, that preliminary report can be as simple as saying we had a plane crash and that's all they need to say. But, clearly, I mean, Korea is a very responsible -- South Korea is a very responsible country, and any safety issues will immediately be flagged.

And the other dynamic to this is that Boeing-Jeju Airlines, the manufacturers of the engine, which is CFM International, which is a joint venture between General Electric and SNECMA of France, all of those bodies are very responsible. So, they will be wanting to get out lessons from this terrible tragedy as quickly as possible to the wider aviation community. So, it'll be -- all the information will go out through Boeing and all the engine makers to all operators of 737s and more widely to all operators of aircraft because I think there's going to be some human resource cockpit factors to come out of this terrible tragedy. BRUNHUBER: Yes, so important, because, as you say, the 737 is such a workhorse in the industry. So many of us use it every day to travel. So, we certainly need answers as soon as possible.

We'll have to leave it there. Geoffrey Thomas in Perth, Australia, I appreciate your expertise on this.

THOMAS: A pleasure.

BRUNHUBER: Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fact that an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace on a Christmas day. During a phone call with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Putin called it a tragic incident. Aliyev told Putin that external interference led to a complete loss of control before the plane went down in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.

Here's what U.S. President Joe Biden had to say about the deadly crash on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Should Putin take responsibility for the plane crash?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Apparently, he did, but I haven't spoken yet with my team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Nada Bashir is following the latest developments.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as questions continue to mount over the possible connection between Russian air defense systems and Wednesday's deadly plane crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an apology for the fact that the flight crashed after entering Russian airspace around the Chechen city of Grozny, acknowledging, according to the Kremlin, that Russia's air defense systems were in fact active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny, however, no admission of responsibility from Moscow.

Investigations are still ongoing, but nearby Ukrainian drone attacks in the moments preceding the crash have led some officials to believe that the plane may have been downed mistakenly by Russian anti- aircraft defenses, with officials in Azerbaijan saying that the plane came under external, physical and technical interferences while in Russian airspace.

Meanwhile, several aviation experts and U.S. officials have said that perforations seen in the fuselage are consistent with shrapnel damage from an explosion, but the cause of the holes in the wreckage has not yet been confirmed.

[03:15:01]

Investigators are continuing to assess the evidence, including two black box recorders, which were recovered from the wreckage, as well as, of course, eyewitness accounts. Remarkably, 29 people out of 67 on board the flight survived the crash, some of whom filmed their final moments on the flight. One survivor describing a loud bang being heard and felt before the plane began to descend.

But it could still be a matter of days or even weeks before any final conclusions are made by investigators. For now, at least five airlines have suspended flights to areas in Russia, many citing safety concerns.

Neda Bashir, CNN, London.

BRUNHUBER: All right, much more ahead here on CNN. When we come back, the latest on the breaking news we've been following all morning, a deadly plane crash in South Korea.

Stay with us.

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[03:20:00]

BRUNHUBER: We're now on the breaking news in South Korea. Officials say they've located the flight data recorder from the plane crash in Muan, South Korea. They haven't yet found the plane's voice recorder. 122 people are confirmed dead. 181 people were on board the Boeing 737-800. Two of them have been rescued. Firefighters say the other passengers and crew are presumed dead.

We're also learning that the plane's pilot made a mayday call after air traffic control warned about birds in the area.

All right, to Tbilisi, Georgia now, where the parliament has sworn in the controversial new president, Mikheil Kavelashvili. He didn't win a general election, rather he was appointed by the parliament. Opposition parties have labeled the procedure illegitimate based on unfair parliamentary elections.

The directly elected former president spoke to supporters who oppose what the ruling Georgia Dream Party is doing. She calls it an anti- constitutional farce. And there have been weeks of protests calling for new elections to set things right and to put the country back on track to negotiate joining the European Union.

As the Biden administration winds down here in the U.S., newly released images are raising doubts about the president's claim that he never had any business related contact with his son.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has the details.

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MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: New pictures released this week of Joe Biden when he was vice president meeting with some of his son Hunter Biden's business associates in China. These images released by the National Archives after a lawsuit from a right wing media pro-Trump legal organization, and the photos show what we've known for a while, but we've never seen, that there was at least one photo op between vice president Joe Biden in 2013 during an official visit to China, where he met some of Hunter Biden's business partners from the private equity firm, BHR Partners. You can see the pictures of Hunter Biden introducing his father to these Chinese business executives, and they all posed, all smiles for this photo up.

Now, not only are we seeing these images for the very first time, but we also saw pictures of Joe Biden introducing his son, two top Chinese government officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, one of the most powerful figures in the world, as well as the vice president of China at the time, who was also participating in some of those bilateral meetings.

So, this is important because these pictures of Joe meeting some of his son's business partners undercuts the unequivocal denials that President Biden has previously offered, where he said that there was never any contact between him and his son's business affairs.

Now, we've known for a while, but those denials haven't really held up. They weren't true, they weren't accurate, because it has come to light that there were some dinners, some phone calls, and some meet and greets and some photo ops, like the pictures that you saw here.

That being said, Hunter Biden himself testified to Congress earlier this year, and he said, yes, there were photo ops, yes, maybe I put him on speakerphone once or twice, but we never discussed any substantive business and he was not involved in the financial arrangements, whatsoever.

A former Hunter Biden business partner here in the U.S. testified that he thought Hunter was selling the illusion of access, but not actually selling access.

Now, Republicans have argued that pictures like these and all of these contacts amount to a corrupt and illegal influence peddling scheme. But, of course, I have to note that the Justice Department spent years investigating Hunter Biden and never charged him with violating any lobbying laws or any sort of corruption, whatsoever.

Hunter Biden's attorney released a statement about these pictures saying, quote, these attacks, trying to twist these images into something they are not, is just more of the same old, tired, misinformation spin from some Republicans who can't let go of their ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Marshall Cohen, CNN, Washington.

Mikhail Kavalashvili All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll have the latest on our breaking news, that deadly plane crash in South Korea.

Stay with us.

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[03:25:00]

BRUNHUBER: An update on our top story, investigators have recovered the flight data recorder from the wreckage of the crashed plane in South Korea, but they're still looking for the so-called black box, the cockpit voice recorder. Hundreds of emergency workers are on the scene hours after the Jeju Air jet crash landed in Muan, South Korea. And we have to report the death toll has now risen to 149. Two crew members have been rescued, and the remaining passengers and crew are now presumed dead.

I want to go back to our Mike Valerio in Seoul. Yes, listen, since we've been speaking, we've had several of these updates of the confirmed number of dead, and we do expect that to continue rising.

[03:30:03]

What's the latest, Mike?

VALERIO: Oh, well, Kim, as you were just speaking, introing this segment, we now have been able to confirm that the voice recorder has been found. So, that completes the two elements of the black box system, the data recorder and the voice recorder that have now been found by authorities.

So, they're hoping that with those two components, survivors, the miracle of the morning that with two crew members who survived and the two components of the black box system, that can paint an accurate portrait of what happened with so many confusing elements and things in tension with this storyline.

But we do have some clarity as to the tick tock, the minute-by-minute event, of what happened this morning. So, 8:57 in the morning local time, that's when the control tower sent out a warning saying, hey, bird strikes could be possible in and around the runway. Watch out for birds that are near the airport. 8:59, that's when a mayday call, was sent out from the cockpit. And then 9:03 in the morning, that's when the crash happened.

Authorities from the Land and Transportation Ministry to the head of the fire department have both said that bird strike could have been a contributing factor to this crash. But, Kim, why that is seemingly in tension with other elements of this crash, a bird strike, according to our experts who have been speaking with us throughout the morning and afternoon, that seemingly would not explain why landing gear was not deployed on the underbelly of the plane, why the plane landed pretty far down the runway, why we don't see any of the flaps deployed on the aircraft wings that helped to slow down the aircraft.

So, one of the questions that investigators will be asking is whether or not potentially a bird strike, and we emphasize potentially, could have caused some sort of cascading episode that led to the disaster that we see in all of these catastrophic images.

We can also report, since the last time we talked to you, Kim, that one of the surviving crew members has been taken to a hospital here in Seoul, and then the other surviving crew member remains in a hospital in Muan where the disaster took place. Two nationals on board are of Thai citizenship, the rest are from South Korea, in and around the area where the crash happened.

So, there are still ongoing work in the area. It's interesting, it was called rescue work, according to the Korean English translation of the last news briefing that we had, I stress rescue work, even though firefighters on the ground have stressed that they do not see any more miraculous situations panning out with anybody else surviving from this horrendous crash. But that was the word or the phrase that was used that rescue work is continuing.

The airport is going to be closed at least until Wednesday, 5:00 A.M., New Year's Day, but the briefing that just wrapped up a couple minutes ago said that that timeline could shift ever so slightly depending on the work that's happening on the ground in the days to come. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. So, many questions, but with both black boxes now recovered, as you just reported, the second one found perhaps we're on our way to getting more answers.

Mike Valerio, live in Seoul, thank you so much.

Israel's emergency services say there are no reports of injuries after two projectiles were fired from Gaza.

The incident set off emergency sirens in Jerusalem Saturday night, the first time that's happened in almost a year. The Israeli military says it fired interceptors after the projectiles crossed over the border.

The last major functioning health facility in Northern Gaza now sits empty and partially burned out. That's according to the World Health Organization. And witnesses following Israel's latest raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the IDF says at least 240 people have been detained for questioning, claiming they're Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. Some patients and staff have been transferred to another hospital, which the WHO described as destroyed and non functioning. As Elliott Gotkine reports, witnesses are describing horrific scenes that played out during and after the raid.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: The Israeli military says that its operation in and around Kamal Adwan Hospital ended on Saturday morning. Though it only informed reporters of that fact on Saturday evening, ot 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.

[03:35:01]

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.

VALID AL BUDI, NURSE AT KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

GOTKINE: These words from a nurse at Kamal Awan 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.

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA, DIRECTOR, KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL: 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.

GOTKINE: 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.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From Kamal Adwan Hospital to Al-Fakhoora, they made us strip down to our underwear. It was a tough situation, and they assaulted the wounded and women.

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

SHUROUQ SALAH, NURSE AT KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL: They separated the men from the woman and took the woman 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.

GOTKINE: 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 tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of healthcare.

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 healthcare system in a seemingly never ending freefall.

(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.

BRUNHUBER: Israel's Prime Minister is set to undergo surgery to remove his prostate in the coming hours. His office says Benjamin Netanyahu had a medical exam on Wednesday when doctors discovered a urinary tract infection caused by a benign enlarged prostate. The infection has already been treated with antibiotics. Israel's government is still set to hold its meeting planned for Sunday.

CNN has reached out to Netanyahu's office to find out who will fill in as interim leader during the procedure. The prime minister is 75 years old.

All right, we return to Tbilisi, Georgia, now, where the parliament has sworn in the controversial new president, Mikheil Kaveleshvili.

I want to bring in Jill Dougherty, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief who joins us From Tbilisi with the latest.

So, Jill, we have this unprecedented situation, one president being sworn in while another one giving a defiant speech. There were questions about whether she would actually refuse to leave but it sounds as though she will.

[03:40:00]

So, just give us an update on the latest about this very fractured situation.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Kim, I actually was right at the presidential palace when -- her name is Salome Zourabichvili, who is the existing president up until that moment. I was inside the palace gates as she came out to speak. And it was actually a dramatic moment because she was dressed in a white coat, a red shirt, kind of echoing the Georgian flag. There was a very large crowd that was outside at the gates of the palace and she began to speak to them. She spoke for about a half an hour.

And to set the scene, this is literally a five-minute walk from the parliament building where at that very moment, the other president chosen by the recently elected parliament was being inaugurated.

So, President Zourabichvili said, I am leaving, but I'm taking the legitimacy of the presidency with me. She called the inauguration of the other president a parody and said, as she said many times, that it was illegitimate, and she said that the current government, which is controlled by the Georgian Dream Party in power is trying to divide us just as the Russians did.

And then she went on to say that, in spite of this, we will continue our fight and we will win. And she also said that the people who had been arrested at those protests that have been taking place on the streets of Tbilisi and other cities across Georgia for actually a month now, they will help them to get out of jail, but there were not a lot of details exactly how this movement will continue.

Nevertheless, she said that it will. And then when she was finished, she walked outside of the gate, literally into the scrum of her supporters, walked through the crowd and then walked back in the direction of the palace. It's unclear at this point, at least to me, where she is. But I think you can definitely say that she is defiant, but she did not go to the point of staying in the palace. Because, remember, the prime minister was saying once there is a new president elected, she would be illegally in that palace. And so she decided not to have that confrontation. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Fascinating details you've given us there about the color of this happening, as we speak. So, I want to pick up on what you said there about the movement continuing. I mean, those protesters have been out on the streets for so long. I mean, where do the protests go from here? I mean, do you see, you know, strikes other types of more impactful civil action?

DOUGHERTY: You know, Kim, I think at this point it's very unpredictable. As I walk back up toward this location, the people who were at that at that gathering for the president, we're walking back in the direction of the parliament, which is where the other president was being inaugurated. There were a lot of horns and whistles, a lot of people with whistles in their mouths.

But it's really unclear whether they will continue their protests. Certainly, you know, there will be no -- there's no indication of exactly where former President, you could say, Zourabichvili will have her headquarters or what she will be doing.

So, I think it's unclear whether the movement will continue. And that's -- remember, you know, that is the public movement. That is people. It's not really a political movement. It's really a people's movement. Whether that can continue, whether the opposition parties will stay united, you know, where this all goes. So, a lot of, I think, questions at this point.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, and also questions about the level of repression that we might see against those movements, should they continue, because, of course, they have been quite brutal and violent in terms of the repression so far. I want to end with sort of a wider question about the international response to all of this. I mean, there have been sanctions. What role do you expect from the international community? And I'm thinking particularly of the U.S. under the Trump administration, a president, an incoming president, who's much more pro-Moscow than his predecessor.

DOUGHERTY: Well, it's interesting, I think, because there is a member of Congress, Joe Wilson, who's been kind of like -- he is a supporter of Donald Trump and he's been kind of the voice in support of Georgia, and he is urging the Trump administration, when it comes into office, not to recognize the newly elected president or chosen president as legitimate, to keep recognizing Salome Zourabichvili, which is interesting.

[03:45:09]

And you have I know at least one European country from the Baltics, I believe, Lithuania, is saying that they will recognize her as well.

So, the strategy here might be to wait this out, to have the international community continue to consider President Zourabichvili the legitimate president and then hope also that those sanctions, remember just a few days ago, the United States sanctioned Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is the head of the Georgian Dream Party, and, really, the most powerful person here in the country, they sanctioned him. And so the results of those sanctions will have to be seen.

So, there are a lot of -- I think there's a lot of movement internationally, but it hasn't gelled yet in terms of precisely what will happen.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's sort of a momentous thing. day just leading to more questions about the future.

Jill Dougherty in Tbilisi, Georgia, I really appreciate getting your take on all this. Thank you so much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unreal. You hear that sound?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That was a tornado in Southwestern Mississippi on Saturday, as the threat of severe weather continues to loom large for millions of Americans. At least two people are dead after severe storms and tornadoes tore through parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi on Saturday. New tornado watches have just been posted across parts of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

Almost 10 million Americans are right now under tornado watches, and more than 2 million were under a rare particularly dangerous situation warning earlier on Saturday. That's according to the U.S. National Weather Service. A number of tornadoes were reported outside Houston, Texas on Saturday, including the small town of Montgomery. You can see there family including young children had to be rescued from the rubble. Storms moved quickly and unpredictably, impacting those who thought they were out of harm's way. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were already in the driveway. It was just drizzling. 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 and was headed northeast. So, we were sitting there waiting for, and then two minutes later, everything just shifted tremendously. The wind started blowing, and then the trees just fell on top of us.

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BRUNHUBER: There were some 30 reports of tornadoes on Saturday from Texas to Alabama. The threat area continues to move eastward in the hours ahead.

All right, to Peru now, where ports and beaches are closed over unusually high waves this weekend. Look, the tides began to intensify on Christmas Day, striking along the northern and central coast. The Peruvian Navy states swells along the coastline are expected to last until New Year's Day, but abnormal activity will likely continue afterward. So far, no loss of life has been reported.

Well, South Korea is reeling after a devastating plane crash. We'll have more on the breaking news, next.

Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. You're looking at live pictures from South Korea as day turns to evening there and searchers are combing through the rubble. And just minutes ago officials reported that they've recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the Jeju Airplane crash in South Korea earlier. They found the plane's flight data recorder. They now say the death toll is 149.

181 people were on board the Boeing 737-800. Two crew members were pulled from the wreckage alive, but officials say the rest, the passengers and crew, are presumed dead.

Now, the jet was traveling from Bangkok to South Korea when it crash landed at Muan International Airport. Officials say that two minutes earlier, the crew made a mayday call.

On Tuesday, NASA's Parker Solar Probe made a record breaking flyby. The craft passed less than 4 million miles from the sun. It was humanity's closest approach ever to the star that lights our planet. Our Paula Newton has the story.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Here comes the sun. NASA is ending the year on a high, its Parker Solar Probe flying closer to the sun than any space mission has ever done. On Christmas Eve, the probe flew through the sun's outer atmosphere called the corona in a record breaking flyby coming within 6.1 million kilometers of the sun's surface and withstanding expected temperatures of up to 982 degrees Celsius. And after a nail-biting few days when it was out of contact with NASA, it found home.

JOE WESTLAKE, HELIOPHYSICS DIRECTOR, NASA: You know, we got this green beacon back. The green beacon is basically, hey, I'm here, I'm okay, everything looks all right. I'll be sending you back the data soon. As Parker gets farther and farther away from the sun, it gets much easier to actually transmit the data.

NEWTON: Scientists expect to hear again from the probe on January 1st, when they'll be able to check out how much data it collected, which could shed light on some of the sun's mysteries, like what makes the corona so hot, and what drives solar winds. The spacecraft is expected to make more passes of the sun in 2025, something NASA says could help humans to better understand the shining star that powers life on Earth.

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WESTLAKE: I mean, it's amazing, right, to know that you can actually achieve -- you know, if you think about it, like we humans have created a spacecraft, that spacecraft has gone on into the atmosphere of the sun. Like that's just a huge technological achievement and a huge scientific achievement for us at NASA.

NEWTON: Paula Newton, CNN.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much for joining us here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhooper in Atlanta.

Ben Hunt picks up our coverage from London.

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