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South Korea in Limbo after Failed Attempt to Detain Yoon; Desperation Grows in Gaza with Little Humanitarian Aid; New Orleans Attacker Used Rare Compound in Explosive Devices; Mike Johnson Retains U.S. House Speakership with Tiny Majority; New Year Begins with Many Missing after Boat Sinks; Fighting "Food Noise" with New Drugs. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 04, 2025 - 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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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello to our viewers here in the U.K. and all over the world. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ben Hunte in London and it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up, opposition protesters are demanding the arrest of South Korea's impeached president.

So what is going on?

We will explain.

Gaza cease-fire talks are back on but the situation on the ground is now even more catastrophic for Palestinians.

And U.S. Republicans breathe a sigh of relief, holding on to their Trump-backed Speaker of the House.

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HUNTE: Welcome. Let's begin with the political paralysis in South Korea as we wait to see if investigators will make another move to detain the impeached president, Yoon Suk-yeol.

His opponents have been holding a large rally near the presidential residence for hours now. That's where investigators failed to serve an arrest warrant on him yesterday, after they were blocked by a security detail.

The warrant is valid until Monday and it can be extended. Yoon faces charges of abuse of power and orchestrating a rebellion following the martial law he briefly imposed last month. But his supporters say it's Yoon who is playing by the rules.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Yoon Suk-yeol has followed the country's laws so far. However, they don't follow the laws. The Republic of Korea is becoming a lawless world. As a South Korean citizen, I couldn't just overlook the situation, so I decided to come here.

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HUNTE: For more analysis, we're joined by John Delury, a former professor at Yonsei University's Graduate Program of International Studies. He's also a senior fellow at Asia University Society. He is in Rome.

John, thank you for being here.

How are you doing?

JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Yes, good, good. Good to talk to you.

HUNTE: I'm glad you're here. Before we dig into all of this, there is so much happening in South Korea. I feel like I've mentioned it every single week since I started at CNN.

In the time that you've been a professor, have you ever seen South Korea make so many international headlines in such a short period?

DELURY: Well, no. Usually it would be North Korea that's capable of this level of sort of shocking, you know, tumult.

But yes, I would say the closest analogy in my time in Seoul, starting from 2010, would have been the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, the last time a president had to be impeached.

But even that, by comparison, is starting to seem tame. At least in that case, the impeached president more or less cooperated with the with the rule of law, which is really what we're seeing. This current impeached president Yoon is refusing to cooperate with the legal process in his own country. It's quite shocking.

HUNTE: It is shocking. And let's talk about the first attempt to arrest impeached president Yoon Suk-yeol. If it had been successful, Yoon would have become the first sitting president to be arrested in South Korea's history.

But how is it that the arrest wasn't successful?

Surely if they wanted to arrest the man, they could have. And the presidential security forces should have just been stood down, maybe even weeks ago.

DELURY: Yes, well, first of all, he could have cooperated with the legally approved official investigation. This, by the way, is the investigation into charges of insurrection, that his (INAUDIBLE) of the law was tantamount to insurrection, which is a high crime.

So he's refused to participate with that investigation, thus sort of forcing the authorities to actually send a team to the presidential compound to get him out. And then, as you've been reporting, he ordered his, you know, the

Secret Service equivalent, who -- many of whom are armed, of course, to refuse to allow the police and investigators to enter.

So the investigative team and the police decided to sort of stand down and wait. I mean, if they had forced the issue, they have the clear legal upper hand here. But I think they wanted to avoid potentially a violent clash.

it's a matter of time before the law is enforced but it's just contributed to the sense of chaos in this power vacuum, in the heart of a capital of a major economy and a major U.S. ally.

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So again, it's Yoon's actions, his intransigence that's forcing this issue closer and closer to a cliff.

HUNTE: Well, let's talk more about that. Let's dig into it. The impeachment wasn't successful on the first try but then the second time worked.

Are we potentially seeing the same situation here, where the second attempt at trying to arrest Yoon will be the one?

DELURY: I think so. I mean, everyone is afraid to guess what's going to happen next in South Korea because it's surprising us. But I do think that there's a sort of inevitability around the law being enforced. And that's what's essentially at play.

I think it's also very important here, for viewers who are trying to follow these events, to differentiate between the impeachment process, which is moving forward, that is now under review by the constitutional court.

And there's a sufficient number of judges there to review that. It's a question of when they come out with their ruling. But that is separate from the issue of his being arrested on the -- well, detained and then probably booked, charged with insurrection counts.

So there are two parallel processes here going on. Both of them are hard to predict but I think it's a matter of time before, well, I would wager that his impeachment is ultimately upheld by the court. And then secondly, that he does have to face charges for the high crime of insurrection.

HUNTE: And what actually happens next with all of this drama?

Who is holding the power in South Korea right now?

DELURY: That's another huge question. And this is one of the things that, that if we get to, you know, foreign relations and North Korea and getting ready for Trump, you've asked the $100,000 question because, of course, there's been -- there was a secondary impeachment of the acting president, the prime minister, because he was intransigent. And so we're now on the third president, who, for example, in the case

of this standoff, the -- from what we know -- and there's still reporting coming out on this -- but from what we know, the acting president, who is the finance minister, did not give an order to make it clear to those presidential, you know, Secret Service equivalent.

And there were also some soldiers in the compound to make it clear to them it would have been his role. Ultimately, he would have authority to say stand down and let the -- let this through. And from what we know, he did not do that.

Does he even have the -- he might have on paper the authority to do that.

But are they even listening to him?

You know, this group of Praetorian guards who are surrounding the impeached president may be loyal only to the word of Yoon. And that's a real possibility as well.

So this question of who is running the country, we have to admit, there is some degree of serious vacuum. I'm not using that lightly, that there's an actual power vacuum. And again, every move that the impeached president is making is prolonging that and making it more dangerous.

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. Well, we're going to follow every single twist and turn of this journey. John Delury, thank you so much for joining me. I'm sure we'll be speaking very, very soon.

DELURY: Let's do that. Thanks for having me.

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HUNTE: Emotional scenes in Damascus on Friday as Syrians released from a prison notorious during the Assad regime celebrated their new freedom with dancing and hugs.

Others carried photos of missing loved ones. Rights groups have long documented torture and mass executions in Syria's prisons.

Meanwhile the French and German foreign ministers met with Syria's de facto leader in Damascus on Friday in the first visit by European Union ministers to the country since the fall of the Assad regime.

France and Germany expressed cautious optimism about working with Syria's new government and said the constitutional process must include women and all of Syria's minority groups.

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HUNTE: Well, Israeli officials are back in Doha, trying to hammer out a deal with Hamas for a cease-fire and the release of hostages. It's the first time the two sides have come together since the end of August.

Since then, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened. Much of Gaza is becoming less livable as Israel continues to pound the enclave. Emergency workers say an Israeli strike killed three Palestinian children near a mosque in northern Gaza on Friday. The need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza is becoming more acute by the day.

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But with Israel restricting the flow of traffic into the area, those on the ground are fighting to survive both hunger and war.

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FAWWAZ SALEH, PALESTINIAN RESIDENT (through translator): Today we are standing here at this charity kitchen. When there is a charity kitchen, the children eat. And when there is no charity kitchen, there is no food. We go to bed hungry. Our children cry and yell out of hunger. This is the case with all the Gazan people.

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HUNTE (voice-over): Much of Gaza's health care system has collapsed and what remains is in a grim condition. Nurses at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza shot this video you're seeing there, showing the situation, saying there's no food, no running water and the conditions are unsanitary.

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HUNTE: A human rights group is petitioning Israel's top court, demanding to know the whereabouts of a prominent doctor who ran the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza. He hasn't been seen since his arrest last week during a raid that closed the hospital. CNN's Paula Hancocks has that and the latest on the Doha talks.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending a delegation to Doha to try and hammer out a deal in the hostage ceasefire talks.

Now it is a working level delegation. At this point, it's not high level, so they won't be able to really create any kind of breakthrough. That is not expected at this point. But there is cautious optimism that these talks are at least ongoing after they officially ended at the end of August with no agreement.

So a working level delegation will be having these indirect talks with Hamas. And we have been hearing from sources within Hamas and also the Israeli government that there is cautious optimism. But, of course, we have been here many times over recent months.

Now also, Israel is coming under increasing pressure to release the location of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who is the hospital director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. Now this is really one of the last major health care facilities in northern Gaza.

And the Israeli military raided it in recent days, closed it down and arrested Dr. Abu Safiya and many of his medics.

Now we have heard from the palace, the Physicians for Human Rights Israel, that they have filed a petition with the Israeli high court, asking for his whereabouts, saying that they have received conflicting information from the Israeli military.

We also know that there is an Arab Israeli lawmaker who has written a letter to the Israeli defense minister, effectively asking the same. Now the IDF has told CNN that they arrested Dr. Abu Safiya, saying that he is a member of Hamas, something which he has denied in the past.

They did not give any evidence for their claims but he has become a very prominent health care individual as, in recent months, he was documenting the deteriorating situation in northern Gaza. And according to Amnesty, they have called him the voice of Gaza's decimated health sector -- Paula Hancocks, CNN, Jerusalem.

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HUNTE: Israel says the hospital raid was prompted by, quote, "irrefutable evidence" that hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were hiding inside the facility under Dr. Abu Safiya's leadership.

The World Health Organization is calling on Israel to release the doctor immediately and the U.N.'s human rights chief is criticizing Israel for its actions and justification.

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VOLKER TURK, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER OF HUMAN RIGHTS: In most instances, Israel alleges that the hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian armed groups.

I've, in fact, just received a letter from the Israeli ambassador, asserting that Kamal Adwan Hospital was militarized by Hamas and that Israeli forces took extraordinary measures to protect civilian life while acting on credible intelligence.

Yet Israel has not provided sufficient information to substantiate many of these claims, which are often vague and broad. In some cases, they appear to be contradicted by publicly available information.

I'm calling for independent, thorough and transparent investigations into all Israeli attacks on hospitals, health care, infrastructure and medical personnel, as well as the alleged misuse of such facilities.

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HUNTE: A restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans will hold a vigil in the coming days for the victims of the New Year's terror attack in New Orleans. And new memorials are showing up on Bourbon Street.

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HUNTE (voice-over): This one's written in chalk and lists some of the names of those killed. On Friday, the coroner released the names of 12 of the 14 victims who were run down by the attacker in his pickup truck. This as we get new information about explosive devices planted by the attacker.

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Sources tell CNN that they contained a rare organic compound not previously seen in the United States. Investigators are now trying to learn how he obtained it.

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HUNTE: Temporary barriers designed to prevent a similar attack are now in place on Bourbon Street but there are questions about why those barriers were not in place on New Year's Eve. CNN's Randi Kaye has the story.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Keeping Bourbon Street safe for New Year's Eve revelers was priority number one. So what happened?

ANNE KIRKPATRICK, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT SUPERINTENDENT: This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target. We did indeed have a plan but the terrorist defeated it.

KAYE: I'm at the corner of Bourbon and Canal Street and this is where the city parked that police vehicle on New Year's Eve, what they refer to as the hard target. But the suspect managed to jump the curb with his truck maneuvering around that police vehicle, then raced down Bourbon Street.

KAYE (voice-over): The city's more permanent barriers are bollards like these, portable steel structures that were designed to prevent vehicles from entering Bourbon Street. They move up and down and can either lay flat or be raised to close the street to traffic when needed to protect pedestrians.

Despite warnings years ago that this area was at risk for terrorism, including vehicular attacks, the bollards were not used. When the attack happened, the bollards were under construction and in the process of being repaired.

JIMMY COTHRAN, WITNESS: Those barricades were not up, period. They had the flimsy orange ones that you could just push over with your finger. We actually thought it was kind of odd.

KAYE (voice-over):The city's explanation.

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL, NEW ORLEANS: Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed, of course, by Super Bowl.

KAYE (voice-over): All of this despite an alarming report from a private security firm in 2019 that warned the risk of terrorism in the French Quarter remained highly possible, while moderately probable. The report warned specifically about vehicle ramming and recommended fixing the barriers immediately.

KAYE: A source familiar with that 2019 report told CNN that New Orleans does own the type of temporary barrier that could have been used on New Year's Eve to block access to Bourbon Street but decided not to use it. Now the New Orleans City Council is trying to figure out why Bourbon Street was left vulnerable to attack.

JEAN-PAUL MORRELL, NEW ORLEANS COUNCIL MEMBER-AT-LARGE: We have had some contradictory messages from internally as far as when the work was awarded and when it should have started. We are going to do our own deep dive investigation over the coming weeks to go into that.

KAYE (voice-over): This Department of Public Works plan obtained by CNN, shows work began on the bollards on November 18th. This photo from a December 19th update shows the area at Bourbon and Canal Streets under construction. That is exactly where the suspect entered and began his attack.

The update also says bollard installation was, "happening at Canal and Bourbon." According to this plan, the work was supposed to continue through January.

JOSE LIERAS, WITNESS: I don't think they should let any vehicles at all. It should always be blocked off at nighttime because something like this could happen.

KAYE: The police chief here says the city is hardening the target around Bourbon Street and that any penetration will be almost impossible. She says she's confident people will be safe as they look ahead to the Super Bowl next month and Mardi Gras in March -- Randi Kaye, CNN, New Orleans.

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HUNTE: The man who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas wrote of political grievances before his suicide.

Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret, said the incident was intended as a wakeup call and not a terrorist attack. Police say he shot himself in the head just before the explosion.

Livelsberger traveled from Colorado to Nevada to carry out the bombing. Surveillance video shows him at an EV charging station in Arizona. The active duty soldier wrote that he needed to cleanse his mind of the brothers I've lost and relieve himself of the burden of the lives I took.

The 119th Congress came into session on Friday. Republicans in the House selected a Speaker on day one but there was drama behind the scenes. That's ahead.

Plus, America's top doctor is sounding the alarm about alcohol consumption and cancer. His push for new warning labels just ahead.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

The final preparations for the state funeral for the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter are set. The days-long goodbye to the former Democratic president will begin in the coming hours in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

His body will lie in repose at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta for two days, then lie in state at the U.S. Capitol in Washington until his state funeral on Thursday and return to Plains, Georgia, for burial later that day.

Jimmy Carter served for one term as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981. He died on Sunday at the age of 100.

Republican lawmakers in the House defied concerns about a lengthy stalemate and selected a speaker on Friday. The GOP chose Mike Johnson in the first vote. Unlike the weeks of wrangling over the Speakership that took place a couple of years ago, still, he'll have the narrowest majority in nearly a century and he needed intervention from the president-elect to flip key detractors and keep the gavel. CNN's Manu Raju has that.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So after a day full of drama, Mike Johnson did, in fact get the job as Speaker of the House yet again. But it wasn't without concern.

In fact, on the House floor for some time, an extended period of time, Mike Johnson simply did not have the votes because three Republicans voted against him. He could only afford to lose one Republican vote.

Two of those Republicans were uncertain at that point. We knew that Thomas Massie of Kentucky, he said he was a hard no and could not change his mind.

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But then when congressman Ralph Norman, congressman Keith Self joined in the opposition, that created problems for Johnson, given the narrowness of his majority. And he can only lose one Republican vote when it moves along party lines.

But then Donald Trump got involved. In fact, he called both Norman and Keith Self and talked to them multiple times through the course of the day, urged them to get on Johnson's side.

Johnson contended that he would give them more say in the legislative process over some -- over putting together big pieces of legislation. Watch for that to be a flashpoint in the months ahead, how they actually pursue that Trump agenda.

But nevertheless, this got done. And Ralph Norman, who I caught up with afterwards, said that Johnson said, indicated there will be some changes.

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RAJU: What did you get?

NORMAN: I didn't get anything personal other than a commitment that things are going to change over the last 14 months will be a drastic change from the next 14 months.

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RAJU: Now I did catch up with the Speaker afterwards and he said there was no, quote, "quid pro quo." He said these are things that he had planned to do all along. He always said he wanted to decentralize power in the Speaker's office altogether. So -- but he did credit Donald Trump for playing a big role in all of this.

And now the question is, what can they actually accomplish, given the divisions within their conference, the narrowness of the majorities?

All big questions as the Republicans begin to plot out their agenda for 2025 -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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HUNTE: A New York judge has ruled that Donald Trump's hush money conviction will stand but he will face no legal penalties.

Trump's request to throw out the jury's verdict in the case was rejected on Friday, meaning he will be the first convicted felon sworn in as President of the United States.

Judge Juan Merchan did set a sentencing hearing for January 10th, just 10 days before the inauguration, but indicated that the case is essentially over. CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein explains what this all means for the president-elect.

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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the judge was dealing with the practical problems of, you know, trying to impose any kind of sentence on an incoming president.

Obviously, you can't put him in jail while he is president. That's kind of impractical. While at the same time preserving the felony conviction. I mean, you know, that's important. I mean, that is a cloud, that is a stain on Donald Trump that he will certainly seek to reverse through appeals.

And who knows, this Supreme Court that, you know, ruled to give him immunity might someday undo this.

But for now, the judge has preserved the jury verdict while, I think, bending to the practical realities of the difficulties of really imposing any kind of sentence on a president after voters have chosen to put him back in the White House.

HUNTE: I mean, that does it make sense. It makes sense. Let's turn to the other big news. So Mike Johnson is keeping his Speaker seat with a push from Donald Trump. The resistance to Johnson being Speaker was all coming from the Right of the Republican Party and from Republicans who want severe cuts in government.

Can you just break down for me what cuts do they want and why?

Why all the drama?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I mean, that's the really important dynamic here. I mean, you know, Johnson was saved not only by Donald Trump's intervention but by the fact that there was no real alternative.

Anybody would have been more acceptable to Johnson's most severe critics, could not have reached the majority of the votes, because there would have been too many other Republicans who said no.

The significance here was that all the pressure on Johnson was from the Right. It was the same thing we saw last month in that down to the wire fight about keeping the government funded and potentially a suspending the U.S. debt ceiling.

And what it says is that there is going to be a lot of sustained pressure from Republicans on the Right for big spending cuts. At the same time, they are going to be pushing Trump's big tax cuts.

Now that is a fight that Democrats have been very successful at waging before arguing that tax cuts for the wealthy should not be funded on the backs of cuts in programs for the middle class.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, made that case today in his speech before Johnson. So Republicans are steaming down, you know, into waters that are going to be potentially very tumultuous for them.

HUNTE: Yes. And the House Speaker is one of the most powerful posts in Washington, controlling the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress and second in line to the presidency after the vice president. But it's only really a powerful role with a decent majority.

Right? So what impact will Johnson's razor thin majority actually have?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, this is the really interesting question. So like, you know, our politics has been evolving really over the last 20 years or so in a direction that most viewers around the world will understand.

It's becoming more parliamentary, where there is less tolerance for any dissent within the ruling coalition and less ability of the of the majority party to get any support from the minority party.

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We used to have much more bipartisan legislation. It was much more frequent in Congress. Now we basically have a government party and an opposition party, much as you would see in a parliamentary system.

The Republicans have, as we've been discussing, proven extremely fractious over the last few years.

But this narrow majority in some ways may concentrate the mind. Democrats, in 2021 and 2022, in the House, had a majority that really wasn't much bigger and passed an extraordinarily broad agenda because the expectations are so different than they used to be. And virtually everyone is expected to vote with the party every time.

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HUNTE: The U.S. surgeon general is putting the spotlight on growing evidence of a link between alcohol and cancer. He's warning that even drinking small amounts of alcoholic beverages could increase your risk of developing the deadly disease. CNN's Brian Todd has more.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Straight off the holiday partying season, a stark warning about the effects of alcohol from America's top doctor. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy today issued a warning that alcohol consumption can increase our risk of cancer and Dr. Murthy called for new warning labels on alcoholic beverages.

DR. BENJAMIN WEINBERG, GASTROINTESTINAL MEDICAL ONCOLOGIST, MEDSTAR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I think it really helps raise awareness that alcohol is a risk factor for certain diseases, including cancer and that even lower levels of alcohol use can still be associated with the development of certain cancers.

TODD: The Surgeon General's Office says alcohol is now the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, behind tobacco and obesity.

Dr. Murthy said in a statement that alcohol is responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths every year in the U.S. compared to 13,500 deaths associated with alcohol-related vehicle crashes every year.

Dr. Murthy says a majority of Americans are unaware of this risk. How ignorant of it have we been?

WEINBERG: Yes, so he showed in his survey data that less than half of Americans were aware that alcohol is a risk factor for the development of cancers, whereas more Americans were knowledgeable about other things, such as radiation, tobacco smoke, ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

TODD: The surgeon general's advisory says the link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer breast, colorectal, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat and the larynx or voice box.

We asked MedStar Georgetown oncologist, Dr. Benjamin Weinberg, what exactly alcohol does to the body to cause some cancers.

WEINBERG: Alcohol is broken down into acetaldehyde, which is a breakdown product that can inadvertently cause DNA damage, directly hurting our cells and sometimes causing cells to grow rapidly, causing cancers.

Another mechanism is that it can they can induce inflammation, which can be bad for our cells and also bad for our DNA. They can also raise levels of certain hormones like estrogen, which have specifically been linked to the development of breast cancers.

TODD: Is any amount of booze OK?

Does moderate drinking say two drinks a day for men, one for women raise our risk?

WEINBERG: I would say try to drink one drink or less per day and one drink to keep in mind is five ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, 1.5 ounces of spirit. It's not a bottle of alcohol. It's not a six pack of beer. So people need to be aware of those quantities.

TODD (voice-over): And some of the major spirits companies have been preparing for this news. Top brewers Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch InBev and major spirits producers Diageo and Pernod Ricard have all been boosting their portfolios of nonalcoholic drinks to address an increasing number of consumers who are ditching alcohol.

TODD: Now as far as those new warning labels that Dr. Murthy is recommending are concerned, only Congress can mandate those.

On the question of whether the incoming Trump administration will support new labels, it is worth noting that President-elect Trump does not drink. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's choice for Health and Human Services Secretary, no longer drinks -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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HUNTE: The new year brings more migrant crossings on the Mediterranean. Ahead, the ongoing challenges and extreme danger of the treacherous journey. A UNICEF official joins us when we come back.

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HUNTE (voice-over): Hours before the end of 2024, a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean. More than 20 people are still missing. One of them is the mother of an 8-year old child who was rescued.

The journey from North Africa to a hoped-for better life in Europe is a treacherous one. The attempt has and continues to claim the lives of many. This is just the latest tragedy on the high seas. So many boats are carrying desperate migrants and have capsized in the last few years, it's so hard to keep count.

According to UNICEF, more than 2,000 people are missing or are known to have died trying to make the journey. Children make up about one in five of those migrating through the Mediterranean.

I want to break down this story a bit, so let's go live now to Nicola Dell'Arciprete, the UNICEF country coordinator for Italy. He's in Rome.

Nicola, thank you for being here.

How are you doing?

NICOLA DELL'ARCIPRETE, UNICEF COUNTRY COORDINATOR FOR ITALY: Thank you, Ben, thank you for having me here, for having me in the program.

HUNTE: You're so, so welcome. I first covered Lampedusa in 2017. The story was about Italian islanders turning against migrants and actually kicking out their UNESCO Peace Prize winning mayor, who supported the migrants at the time.

All of these years later, we're still talking about the same sort of situation.

How comes things haven't changed?

DELL'ARCIPRETE: Well, we know that most of the people who are trying to make it to Europe are fleeing conflict, violence, extreme poverty -- and those factors that push people out of their countries have not changed over the last few years. They've probably even worsened in some parts of the world.

So I think this is the main reason why we are still seeing many people arriving. And we are -- this is also the reason why the Mediterranean, as you pointed out earlier, remains such a dangerous route for migrants with children among the most vulnerable.

HUNTE: Break that down a bit more for me, though.

Why are we seeing so many people trying to make these journeys?

They know the risks. We know the risks. I remember a few years ago, I saw mobile phone footage of someone heading over on a boat that was going through a storm and it was horrible.

[03:40:00]

Why are people still pushing on with these risky journeys?

DELL'ARCIPRETE: Well, we know very well that it's very difficult to reach Europe with safe and legal pathways for most of these people. One of the key advocacy tasks we have is really to create safe and legal pathways for those trying to make it to Europe, particularly for children.

But also improving search and rescue operations so that we can minimize the risks and tragedies at sea. I think for many children there is an issue also of family reunification. And I think another important point is to facilitate the possibility for some of those children to reunite with their families.

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. According to Alarm Phone, an organization that runs a hotline for people in distress at sea, three boats have capsized off Tunisia since Tuesday. The organization posted on socials.

So many people have needlessly died and disappeared and what a horrible way to start the year.

What are the Italian authorities actually doing to help these people and their families?

DELL'ARCIPRETE: So it's very important to, first of all, start from the fact that what we see is a very high number of children or young people or women but also of families that have witnessed things that nobody should ever witness.

There is a lot of trauma. There is a lot of issues that can also have an impact on mental health. It's very important to support those who arrive with adequate reception conditions and also improving the access to services like psychosocial support.

What Italy is doing is that we, Italy, in fact, has one of the most advanced system for the reception of unaccompanied and separated children by the law. But those provisions are not always implemented fully.

And what we know is that, in many cases, children remain in reception centers that are not up to standards. They remain there for too long. They don't have enough access to education, particularly to learn Italian or to enter on or get back to school. And that can create additional problems as you can imagine.

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. And this is at a time when so many nations seem to be turning to the Right.

I just wonder what sort of impact is that actually having on people trying to seek asylum, especially in Europe?

Just this week, we saw president-elect Donald Trump double down on an incorrect claim that an attacker in the U.S. was a non-American migrant. But the man was firmly American and the president-elect doubled down.

Are these scary times?

What's going on?

DELL'ARCIPRETE: Well, I think we know what is to be done for children and those who are vulnerable. We know there is a need. We know there is an urgency. We also have opportunities to improve how we treat those people, how we make sure they have access to the services they require.

And the main opportunities in the European side is the implementation of the new European pact on migration and asylum. This year, in 2025, all member states will have to come up with plans on how to implement this new E.U. migration pact.

I think that is a great opportunity to review what is going on and to advance in a way that makes the rights of children better protected.

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. Well, I'm sure this story will continue and I'm sure we'll be coming back to you. So Nicola Dell'Arciprete in Rome, thank you for now. Speak to you soon.

DELL'ARCIPRETE: Thank you very much, Ben.

HUNTE: So welcome.

U.S. President Joe Biden is blocking a Japanese steel giant from taking over an iconic American steel company. His reasons why next, on CNN NEWSROOM.

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HUNTE: U.S. President Joe Biden is blocking a $14 billion takeover of the U.S. Steel company. He says it's a matter of national security. CNN senior White House correspondent Kayla Tausche has more.

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KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden's move to block the $14 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by its Japanese rival delivers on a campaign promise he made last spring, where he said that U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned.

Several months later, after a painstaking national security review that remained deadlocked among his senior most aides, Biden is taking matters into his own hands.

In a statement he put out following the decision, he said it's his responsibility to defend U.S. national security, including by ensuring that American companies continue to play a central role in sectors that are critical for our national security.

Nippon Steel, the company that planned to buy U.S. Steel, as well as the company itself, have both said that they would fight this decision in court. The Pennsylvania governor, the state where U.S. Steel is headquartered, said in a statement that this situation is far from over.

But it comes as this deal has been marred by political headwinds. Both Biden and president-elect Trump vowed that they would not allow this deal to go forward in a bid to protect American manufacturing jobs.

Several senior administration officials familiar with the review tell CNN that the merits of the deal did not necessarily point in the direction of it posing a national security risk and that the majority of members of the committee on foreign investment in the United States that had been reviewing the deal actually believed that it should go through.

It is one of Biden's final acts in office, certainly a shot across the bow to other companies considering receiving a foreign investment. And it all comes before he hands over the keys to his successor -- Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.

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HUNTE: There may be some good news emerging about popular weight loss drugs. Next hour, Sanjay Gupta speaks to one American woman who is seeing a positive side effect.

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HUNTE: One of the most popular New Year's resolutions is a pledge to lose weight. But that might be hard for some who are faced with so- called food noise. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains what that is and how popular new drugs may silence food noise and could even help with other cravings, such as smoking and drinking.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About four months ago, Sharon Mann's doctor prescribed her Mounjaro, a GLP-1 medication. The goal was to treat her type 2 diabetes and help her lose weight.

SHARON MANN, MOUNJARO PATIENT: I lost seven pounds in the first week.

GUPTA (voice-over): But Sharon also experienced something unusual, a side effect she didn't even know was possible.

MANN: Pretty much the next day, after starting with the Mounjaro, I no longer had food noise. And all of a sudden, I didn't have the cravings for, I'm going to say the junk food or the sweets. The cravings were gone.

GUPTA (voice-over): Food noise is now a term that is widely used to describe persistent, intrusive thoughts about food, compelling people to eat regardless of whether they are full or not.

MANN: For example, one of my go to reward places would be Chick-fil- A, you know, if I'd be on a diet like, OK, Chick-fil-A isn't a good idea. And then the next day something would happen like, oh, my gosh, I had some extra stress having Chick-fil-A today because I never forgot about the fact that the day before, I didn't go to Chick-fil-A when I really wanted to.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Giles Yeo, a biologist who studies obesity, says the amount that each of us eats to feel full is in part a function of our genetics.

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DR. GILES YEO, GENETICIST AND OBESITY RESEARCHER: It's sort of like a thermostat, OK?

Where for some people, a thermostat is set at whatever temperature it is in a house, OK, whereas for other people, that thermostat has set slightly higher, slightly lower.

GUPTA (voice-over): But the thing is, the environment has changed as well.

YEO: All these things are suddenly available. The susceptibility that's hidden is suddenly unmasked. So the genes have remained the same. The susceptibility has always been there. The push has only come now. And because of the push, we can now see the susceptibility. And for many people, that is obesity.

GUPTA (voice-over): Now the medications can't change that environment but they might change what's in our heads. And not just for food.

A study by scientists at Penn State and Dartmouth suggests that these medications, GLP-1s, may dampen food noise by acting on the reward pathways in the brain. And now scientists are studying whether these drugs impact on that reward response could also curb cravings for alcohol and nicotine.

For Sharon, laying that food noise to rest has been life changing.

MANN: I have lost 29 pounds. The food no longer has an emotional component.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

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HUNTE: All right. That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me. I'm Ben Hunte in London. It has been real. Let's do it again tomorrow, same time. Sounds good to me. CNN NEWSROOM with Fred Pleitgen, also in London, is next. See you in a bit.