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Powerful Tibet Earthquake, Near Nepal, Kills At Least 53; Trudeau Announces Resignation As Canada PM; Congress Certifies Donald Trump's Election Win, Paving Way For January Inauguration; Biden Speaks At Service Honoring New Orleans Attack Victims; Venezuelan Opposition Leader Gonzalez Asks Military To End Maduro's Reign; Opposition Leader Asks Military to End Maduro's Rule; Lebanon: Israeli Forces Withdrawing from Southern Town; Deadly Winter Storm Sweeps Across Eastern U.S.; "Tomorrow Golf League" Debuts; "Dune: Prophecy" a Bold Prequel to Historic Franchise. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 07, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:24]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York and here coming up on the CNN Newsroom, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hits Tibet. Chinese state media says dozens are dead. We will have the latest from Beijing.
And Justin Trudeau says he's quitting as Canada's prime minister in response to bad polls, party infighting and the looming threats of Donald Trump.
Plus, the Venezuelan opposition leader was in Washington as part of a political tour just days before dictator Nicolas Maduro is set to be inaugurated for another term.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
SANDOVAL: I want to take you straight to breaking news out of Tibet where Chinese state media report at least 53 people have been killed in a powerful earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 7.1 quake struck just after 9:00 a.m. local time followed by dozens of aftershocks. You see those pictures of people combing through some of those heaps of rubble.
Chinese authorities say the shaking could be felt as far away as Nepal and northern India. Let's get right to CNN's Marc Stewart who's live in Beijing. Marc, you've been following this death toll that continues to climb. What else do we know now?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Polo, the death toll is rising. And now we are hearing from Chinese leader Xi Jinping who is calling for all out efforts in the search and rescue after this devastating earthquake.
There are a number of challenges, really three big challenges right now, infrastructure, communication as well as weather. Let's first talk about infrastructure. As we look at some of these pictures, you can see the damage is extensive, not only inside of businesses like that grocery store, but also on many of the roads. There is a tremendous amount of rubble and debris not only on highways but also many of the streets in these smaller villages. That certainly is going to make getting rescue workers as well as just general search and rescue efforts. It's going to make things very difficult. So that's one big challenge.
Another issue is communication. In fact, we are getting reports that three villages have lost their phone signals. That's according to CCTV, which of course is China's broadcaster. And then there is of weather. It is wintertime, so by nature it's cold. And of course, nightfall still a few hours away. But that is going to add to the challenge.
As leader Xi Jinping calls for the mobilization of resources, we are now getting reports from CCTV that four helicopters as well as hundreds of soldiers and military personnel are ready to deploy. A drone has also been made available.
So as you can see from some of these pictures, it is it's going to take some time to get a full assessment to the scale of all of this. A lot of these areas are very remote. So that's why it's going to take some time.
To give you some geography, this area where this happened (INAUDIBLE), it's about 100 miles away from the epicenter, but it is where there is a scenic area to view the iconic Mount Everest. That scenic viewing area has now been closed. It was closed about one hour after the quake first struck. And as far as reopening, not clear.
A lot of people this time of year do try to make this expedition to Mount Everest. This is perhaps a time when conditions are favorable. We've been seeing reports on social media that a number of people have canceled their trips.
So, Polo, hopefully we will get a better idea as to the size and scale of destruction. But as we have seen over the last few hours, the death toll has been rising. Many of these areas are very remote. And that is obviously adding a very big challenge as we piece together the story from here in Beijing. Polo.
SANDOVAL: Disruptions in communication, the weather, and as you point out, soon, nightfall as well. Marc Stewart with a clear breakdown of what rescuers are up against. Thank you for that.
All right. Now to the end of an era in Canadian politics. After almost 10 years in power, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing that he is resigning as head of the Liberal Party, which also means he's going to be giving up his premiership.
His successor will automatically become Canada's next prime minister, but Mr. Trudeau will stay on in a caretaker role for just a little while longer.
[01:05:00]
He's succumbed to pressure from members of his own party who had been loudly calling for him to quit. Among them his once close ally, the finance minister, who resigned herself last month. The Liberal Party in Canada, widely expected to lose the general election later this year to Canada's Conservative party, and Mr. Trudeau's departure is seen as an attempt to control some of the damage.
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JUSTIN TRUDEAU, OUTGOING CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: I'm a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians.
This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: The Canadian Parliament will be suspended until late March while the Liberal party picks Justin Trudeau's replacement. More now from CNN's Paula Newton.
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TRUDEAU: I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONENT (voice-over): Canada's Justin Trudeau announced he would step down as both Liberal Party leader and prime minister when his party chooses a new leader. Trudeau ending months of turmoil about his future with a reluctant goodbye.
One of the country's youngest ever leaders, Trudeau promised to usher in when he was first elected in 2015. But nearly a decade later, members of his own party recently joined a growing chorus of Canadians who wanted the sun to set on his tenure.
Amid plummeting opinion polls, Trudeau's Liberal Party was widely expected to lose a general election later this year if he remained as prime minister. Still for months, he said he had no intention of resigning.
TRUDEAU: Like most families, sometimes we have fights around the holidays, but of course, like most families, we find our way through it.
NEWTON (voice-over): Despite calls to resign from his own members of Parliament, Trudeau insisted that he was best placed to fight Canada's corner as President-elect Donald Trump threatens 25 percent tariffs on all goods imported from Canada, which is home to about 40 million people and one of America's largest trading partners.
But last month, even Trudeau's finance minister and longtime ally Chrystia Freeland resigned from his Cabinet, leaving him on even shakier ground with a blunt resignation letter accusing the prime minister of using costly political gimmicks at the expense of Canada's fiscal health. Freeland added that the government needed to start pushing back against America first economic nationalism.
A former high school teacher and the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada's most well-known prime ministers, Trudeau was elected three times. He became a poster child for the country's progressive agenda on the global stage, seen as antidote to Trump during the incoming U.S. President's first term.
His government pursued policies on alleviating child poverty, gender equity, cutting middle class taxes and the legalization of cannabis. And while he was generally praised for his handling of the pandemic, voter sentiment has soured since, high inflation and affordable housing crisis and an increase in legal immigration have tested Trudeau's government.
TRUDEAU: We continue to handle migration seriously.
NEWTON: And will that include taking migrants that sometimes even present themselves at the southern border or taking migrants directly from the United States?
TRUDEAU: Canada is always willing to do more. We just need to make sure we're doing it in responsible, proper ways to continue to have our citizens positive towards immigration, as Canadians always are.
NEWTON (voice-over): Now that Trudeau is resigning, once a new Liberal Party leader is in place, an election will follow by summer or early fall at the latest. Former bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Christopher Freeland and Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie are all considering a run for the Liberal leadership.
Pierre Poilievre's opposition Conservative party currently holds a more than 20 percent lead over the Liberals in polling averages. Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
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SANDOVAL: Ian Austen is the Canada correspondent for the New York Times. He joins us from Ottawa with more. Ian, thank you so much for spending some time with us.
I want to hear from you a little bit more about these disapproval numbers that we've all seen for Prime Minister Trudeau, which show really a downfall of what was once a glittering premiership. So help me and our viewers around the world really understand where things went wrong for the soon to be former Prime Minister Trudeau.
IAN AUSTEN, CANADA CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: Well, it's been a true arc because when he first came to power in 2015, everybody had written his party off and thought that he was going to his party would finish third in that election.
[01:10:09] And they ended up winning. It was a huge majority. But it's been a succession of sort of scandals, some minor, some major, which have left him with declining popularity for several years and minority governments where he didn't control the votes in the House of Commons for several years.
But that trend really, really accelerate treated in the past year was driven by a number of things. But the inflation that swept the world was blamed on him. And the out of control housing prices in some parts of Canada, like Toronto and Vancouver also came back to haunt him.
SANDOVAL: Obviously the big question is what his party is doing right now in terms of a succession plan. We know that they didn't really leave a plan behind here, at least isn't planned to right now. So I'm curious what his party's doing right now to try to find a successor who could potentially stand a chance against a Conservative candidate come the election.
AUSTEN: Well, you know, that may be a tall order because they're more than 20 percentage points behind the Conservatives right now. So that's a very big hurdle to recover. I mean, the Liberal Party as it is today is Justin Trudeau's party. His celebrity and his political skills, communication skills, you know, salvage the party. It was remade in his image, controlled by a very small group of people around him. So not only is there not a succession plan, it's hard to see what there is in the Liberal Party right now beyond Justin Trudeau.
So, I mean, there are a number of people out there who are likely to run somewhere within his cabinet, like Chrystia Freeland, the former finance minister who triggered all of this a month ago with a very stinging resignation.
She was upset about some government measures she would been told to implement, like sales tax holiday on some items over Christmas and giving out $250 checks to every Canadian. They dropped that one. So she's a potential contender.
SANDOVAL: Regardless of who will be the next potential Prime Minister here, they will sit at the table with Donald Trump eventually. So with the prospect of a tariff war, there's Trump's pitch to make Canada the US's 51st state, which, as you know, some Canadians don't even take that quite seriously.
So then how does the next Canadian Prime Minister actually navigate what could be a very tense diplomatic relationship with the Trump administration who's about to be installed?
AUSTEN: Well, you know, I mean, before we go on, actually a lot of Canadians are really angry about the 51st state. I mean, I don't think people think seriously going to annex the country, but his complete disregard for its sovereignty angers people, worries people. I mean, there's a lot of concern. Trump during the election talked about bringing water down from Canada. Well, the idea of exporting fresh water from Canada is a real no go for a lot of Canadians.
Trudeau's approach the first time around, which he started again with a Thanksgiving weekend trip down to Florida to meet with Trump, has been not so much appeasement, but taking him seriously, not fighting with, pushing back like we've seen from the president of Mexico. We don't know. I mean, it's conservative -- the leader of the Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre have talks a big line. We'll see.
I mean, Canada is in a very, very weak position. The economy is heavily dependent on exports to the United States, oil and cars in particular. So any disruption of that could be crippling to the economy. But Canada doesn't have like a lot of tools to retaliate with.
I mean, there's some loose talk of cutting off energy, cutting off oil and gas and electricity. That would create a huge internal constitutional crisis with the provinces who prosper, whose budgets depend on those exports. You know, otherwise Canada putting tariffs on American imports, even though we're the United States biggest trading partner, it's not really going to affect the U.S. economy that much. It's, you know, the Canadian economy is rough, a bit smaller than California's.
SANDOVAL: We're already learning that Donald Trump, not yet back in office and already his words with some serious consequences and as you correctly point out, some real anger for many Canadians. So we do want to thank you Ian Austen for your critical reporting through all this. And let's see where this goes.
AUSTEN: Yes, indeed. Lots to come.
SANDOVAL: The U.S. Congress has officially paved the way for Donald Trump's inauguration as the nation's 47th president later this month by certifying his electoral victory on Monday.
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Lawmakers braving a snowstorm in the nation's capital to attend the certification. And that's Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, fulfilling her role in that constitutional duty as president of the Senate and oversaw the proceedings that made her opponents win official.
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KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes. Kamala D. Harris. Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes.
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SANDOVAL: We see how it was supposed to work four years ago. Harris praised the peaceful transfer of power as, quote, what should be the norm. And then you have these pictures from four years ago. January 6th becoming a day of infamy in the U.S. with Monday's proceedings coming exactly four years after some of Trump's supporters violently stormed the Capitol, interrupting the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential victory. Security was heightened both in and around the U.S. Capitol building on Monday. One Democratic lawmaker lamented this mass of unprecedented security presence, saying the capital resembled, quote, the embassy in Baghdad. CNN's Manu Raju bringing us the latest on what happened from Capitol Hill.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the end, January 6, 2025 ended rather quickly. About half an hour to go through all 50 states and to certify electoral results ensuring that Donald Trump will take the presidency on January 20th. Clearly a much different display than what we saw four years ago, the violence, destruction of that day, upending years and years of a peaceful transition of power at the time in the aftermath of Trump supporters coming into the Capitol.
A lot of Republicans made clear of their disgust, their disdain with then president's handling of all of this. Some believe that Trump was done, would never come back again. We're ready to move on. But as we know, time has changed. Trump well on the way to becoming president again. And a lot of Republicans simply don't want to relitigate what happened January 6, 2021, want to move on.
And that's including this message that the Senate Majority leader, John Thune gave me in the aftermath of the of this week's election certification, saying that he's ready to move forward. He doesn't want to go back into his view of that day.
Now, Trump has said repeatedly that it was a day of love, calling that January 6, 2021. Some Republicans, however, disagree with that assessment.
President-elect refers it to as the day of love. Was it a day of love?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not for me, no.
RAJU: Why do you say that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not our country's best state.
JOHN KENNEDY, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: I was here on January 6th what I saw was a peaceful protest that turned into a riot.
RAJU: Now, a big question for Trump is how does he deal with the January six prisoners? He has said on day one he would pardon the January six prisoners, but who exactly will he pardon? Will he once part pardon ones who are engaged in serious violence, attacks against police officers, conviction of seditious conspiracy and the like? All big questions.
Some Republicans say that it's up to Trump, but they don't want him to give a blanket pardon to all these prisoners. Instead want him to pick individual ones that he believes justify a pardon. It's uncertain which route Trump will go, but that's something to watch in the weeks ahead as some Republicans, they want to move on from January 6. They don't want to go back into it. But it's unclear how the incoming president will deal with all of this. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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SANDOVAL: And earlier, I did have an opportunity to have a pretty fascinating conversation with CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein on whether Monday marks a return to normalcy in Washington or the beginning of a new norm.
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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: What is the anomaly like? So today was what we have seen in every other certification in except for 2020, you know, kind of a non-event, a ceremonial event, a ministerial event.
The question going forward is, was 2020 the anomaly or will this be the anomaly? Was 2020 unique because you had Donald Trump whipping up, you know, this fervor that ultimately 147 Republicans in Congress joined in voting to overturn the election, or is this anomaly where it all went peacefully only because Republicans won the election? I don't think we know the meaning of today until we see how it plays out in 2028 and 202032.
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SANDOVAL: Ron Brownstein always with some critical insight. Still to come here. U.S. President Joe Biden visits New Orleans to honor the victims of the New Year's Day terror attack. What he said to their families just ahead.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I know events like this are hard and the shock and pain is still so very raw. My wife Jill and I here to stand with you, to grieve with you, to pray with you, let you know you are not alone. And if there's one thing we know, New Orleans defines strength and resilience. You define it. Whether it's in the form of this attack, from this attack or hurricanes or super storms, this city and his people get back up. That's the spirit of America as well.
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SANDOVAL: Listening to U.S. President Joe Biden once again taking on the role of consoler-in-chief, he spoke to the families of the victims of the New Orleans terror attack. He and the first lady honored those victims at an interfaith memorial service on Monday where the president promised to make every resource at his office's disposal available to the families of those killed.
The Bidens also visited Bourbon Street, where it all happened, to lay flowers at a temporary memorial, a tribute to the victims of the terror attack. They bowed their heads in a moment of silence before moving on. Our colleague Rafael Romo has more on the Biden visit, as well as the investigation into the man who carried out the deadly attack.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden landed here in New Orleans at 3:41 p.m. local time. They attended an airfield service here at St. Louis Cathedral honoring the 14 people who died in the New Year's Day terrorist attack. The president also met with local officials as well as the families of the victims, perhaps the last time he will be in the role of comforter-in- chief.
Meanwhile, the FBI has released crucial details about what the attacker was up to way before using a pickup truck to kill innocent people. Among the new details, the FBI says Shamsud-Din Jabbar visited New Orleans twice before the attack, the first time in October when he recorded video of the streets in the French Quarter, and the second time in November. The FBI also said he traveled internationally. He was in Cairo, Egypt, in the summer of 2023, and a few days later he traveled to Ontario, Canada.
We have learned through a report exclusively obtained by CNN's Pamela Brown that politics and bickering hindered security in the French Quarter here in New Orleans. The 2019 report, prepared by international and commissioned by the French Quarter Management District, or FQMD.
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Identified internecine politics and bickering as a significant hindrance to the good efforts by stakeholders to address security in the district. In a statement to CNN on Saturday about the public version of the report, FQMD said that the strength of our ongoing partnership with the city and the New Orleans Police Department allows open communications of resident and business concerns and the results of any studies of reports completed. Rafael Romo, CNN, New Orleans.
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SANDOVAL: The U.S. has now transferred 11 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Oman in the latest detainee transfer in the final days of the Biden administration. The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress in September of last of his intent to transfer those detainees. According to one human rights organization, at least one of the men transferred this week. He was never charged with the crime and has been in custody for more than 20 years.
The U.S. has transferred four other detainees in recent weeks to Kenya, Malaysia and Tunisia. Only 15 detainees remain at the detention facility in Guantanamo, with three of them eligible for transfer.
Venezuela is set to inaugurate the dictator Nicolas Maduro again this week, but the man who claims to be the rightful president elect wants the military to step in. Details just ahead on CNN Newsroom. Also coming up, the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is
holding so far, but a deadline is looming for the terms of the deal to be fulfilled. More details to come.
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SANDOVAL: Hey, welcome back to our viewers around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York City. And you're streaming CNN newsroom. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will be sworn in for his third term this Friday, but exiled opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez urging the military to recognize him as president and also to put an end to Maduro's leadership.
Several countries, including the U.S. have questioned the validity of last year's election in Venezuela and recognized Gonzalez as the rightful president elect.
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EDMUNDO GONZALEZ, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): Our National Armed Forces is called to be a guarantor of sovereignty and respect for the popular will. It is our duty to act with honor, merit and conscience.
[01:29:47]
Many of you have manifested your desire for change, along with the rest of the Venezuelan people. You expressed it by voting against this administration that does not represent a guarantee of stability, nor a future for Venezuela.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Opposition leaders remain vocal. They are calling for street protests ahead of Maduro's inauguration.
Meanwhile, authorities have arrested at least 125 people from several countries for links to what they're calling "acts of destabilization". Gonzalez met with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday as part of a tour across the Americas to gather support. His team says it is also in contact with President-Elect Donald Trump's team.
Benjamin Gedan joins me to discuss this further. He's the director of the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center. Benjamin, thank you so much for joining us.
I want to get straight to a post that I read on your X account last night. And I'm summarizing here that it's extremely critical that Gonzalez make a final attempt to really fulfill a promise that he made to those who supported him in last year's election.
So could you just tell us a little bit more about that promise that he made.
BENJAMIN GEDAN, DIRECTOR, LATIN AMERICA PROGRAM, WILSON CENTER: Yes. Look, Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez last July.
He is meant to be sworn in on the 10th of January. That is coming up soon. And so far, he has said that he will find a way to do so against all odds.
SANDOVAL: So Benjamin, you've also expressed some doubt that Gonzalez White House stop will actually lead to democracy in Venezuela. As you've said, the U.S. doesn't alone get to determine when or if there's going to be an end to the country's years long political crisis.
So then what really is the message that he hopes to send by visiting not just Washington, but other Latin American countries?
GEDAN: Yes, I think we have to be realistic. Unfortunately, it's been clear under several U.S. administrations that the U.S. can't control political outcomes in Venezuela, no matter how hard it tries.
We have imposed on the Venezuelans some of the most severe sanctions ever implemented by the United States against an adversarial government. And the regime in Venezuela has shown itself to be extraordinarily resilient, brutal but resilient.
And so the question is, why is it so important that he's traveling the region, meeting the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay, later to meet the presidents of Panama and the Dominican Republic, visiting the White House, getting a meeting in the Oval Office.
It's important because it keeps the regime isolated. It's important because it means it's less likely governments in the region and elsewhere will recognize this illegitimate third term that begins January 10th, that will send emissaries to Caracas for the inauguration.
It means that big countries in the world are sending a very clear message about how they view the last election in Venezuela.
SANDOVAL: I also want to talk a little bit about Gonzalez's fellow opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado. She's still in hiding, but she's also very vocal. She's been calling on supporters to demonstrate in the streets against Maduro.
So I'm curious what your thoughts are in terms of how likely it is that we may actually see that happen, given that I just read a short while ago that at least 125 people -- at least 125 people were just arrested by Venezuelan authorities, many said to be so-called, you know, supporters of the opposition. Of course, we should mention the government not really presenting evidence in those -- in those arrests.
So are we likely to see protesters take to the streets before the Maduro inauguration?
GEDAN: Look, you're right to be skeptical about the prospect of a political transition in Venezuela in the next several days. But you're also right to point out that the opposition is highly-
mobilized before this election, and especially since. This is despite the arrest of over 2,000 Venezuelans who had protested the theft of the election last July.
The fact that Maria Corina Machado, though banned from running in the election, remains active in Venezuela, that the opposition famously divided over many decades, now remains united despite extraordinary repression by the government.
All of that is reason to be optimistic that even if we don't have a political transition in the short term, the government in Venezuela is increasingly isolated both at home and abroad. The opposition is increasingly united and has shown some ability to mobilize against a government that is quite brutal in its tactics.
SANDOVAL: And with that, can you also just help me encapsulate just the extraordinary nature of this situation right now, Benjamin. You have the Venezuelan, at least a Venezuelan opposition leader who has been recognized by several countries as the legitimate winner of the election, including by the United States.
However, you also -- and he's also, I should mention, been welcomed by countries like Argentina with honors that are usually reserved for a head of state, basically, welcome to countries as a president.
[01:34:50]
SANDOVAL: Yet Nicolas Maduro, who was declared winner by his loyalists, will be the one or at least is expected to be the one to remain in power.
So what will be the next six years for Venezuelans, those who have not been able to flee their home?
GEDAN: But we might see as many more fleeing their homes, unfortunately. Already Venezuela has lost 8 million of its citizens in the last ten years or so.
That's about 20 percent of the country, half of which or more are still in places like Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, even Argentina. And so polling before the election showed that a very large number of Venezuelans would leave if there was no prospect of a political transition. So one possibility is that more flee.
On the other hand, again, there's always this potential for an unexpectedly rapid change, right? We're not ever able to predict or rarely when regimes like the Venezuelan government topple.
But we know that when they're isolated and the opposition is more unified and the international community applies pressure, there is some possibility of change.
SANDOVAL: And I've been hearing from Venezuelan families here in New York, and I speak to so many young parents who are hopeful that their children will be able to return back home. And it's really because of what you just underscored, that potential for change. That's what keeps them working here right now.
Benjamin Gedan, really appreciate this valuable insight. And let's keep following this together.
GEDAN: Absolutely. Thanks for the invitation.
SANDOVAL: The corruption trial of former president -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy is now underway. He's accused of receiving millions of dollars from the Libyan government for his 2007 election campaign in exchange for supporting the country's late strongman, Moammar Gadhafi. Sarkozy has long denied the accusations.
The trial is expected to last three months. If found guilty, he could face up to ten years in prison and nearly $400,000 in fines.
All right.
More than a month after signing a cease fire agreement, Lebanon says that Israeli forces are withdrawing from a key southern town.
Just look at the region here. The Lebanese military says that it's now started to deploy its own forces there in coordination with the U.N. interim force in Lebanon, which is now monitoring the end of the hostilities in the region.
The deal that ended the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah calls for the Iran-backed fighters to withdraw from south Lebanon, which Israel argues isn't happening fast enough.
CNN's Tamara Qiblawi reporting on why the Litani River in Lebanon is so significant to the truce.
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TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the Litani River. It flows from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley through its rolling hills and into the Mediterranean, just a few kilometers from Israel's northern border.
Now, this is also at the heart of a U.S.-brokered agreement designed to end the conflict that raged between Israel and Lebanon last fall, and to prevent another one from erupting.
To the south of here, this is where Hezbollah has maintained a robust presence of Iran-backed fighters for more than 40 years, facing off with Israeli forces in and around the Lebanon-Israel border.
But all of that is set to change dramatically if a fragile truce between Israel and Lebanon is to be maintained. Hezbollah has agreed to withdraw its forces to the north of this river, creating a de facto buffer zone with Israel.
Hezbollah has about 20 more days to carry out its side of the bargain. Israel says this isn't happening fast enough, that Hezbollah is dragging its feet.
And Israel has breached the agreement hundreds of times, mostly near the border, since the end of the war around 40 days ago. Israel is also meant to withdraw from Lebanon under the terms of the deal.
Now, Israel is also threatening to pull out of the ceasefire agreement completely and to keep Israeli troops in Lebanon until further notice.
It's an incredibly delicate phase that could trigger further violence or a lasting calm. And it could determine whether this river stands at the threshold of Lebanon's past or its future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: In just a matter of hours, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to hold a cabinet meeting following a deadly shooting in the West Bank. He's vowing to track down those responsible after gunmen attacked two cars and a bus on Monday, killing three Israeli settlers and injuring eight others, including the driver of that bus.
And no one has claimed responsibility for this attack but the militant group Hamas has praised it. In the hours that followed, the Palestinian news agency WAFA (ph) reported multiple Israeli settlers that were attacked on Palestinians across -- or rather they reported several attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank.
In a statement on X, Mr. Netanyahu promised to find the, quote, "abhorrent murderers and settle accounts with them and those who aided them," adding, quote, "no one will get away."
[01:39:54]
SANDOVAL: Well, still ahead, it is certainly feeling like winter in the U.S. with more than 60 million Americans who've been caught up in the path of a deadly winter storm. And also, many communities are dealing with hazardous conditions from the Midwest to the East Coast.
We'll break it all down, coming up.
Plus, a new golf league is launching in the U.S. and it's unlike anything that the game has ever seen.
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SANDOVAL: The first person in the U.S. to have a severe case of the H5N1 bird flu has died. Officials say that the person was hospitalized in Louisiana with the virus after being exposed to a flock of wild birds in their backyard.
The local Health Department has not disclosed the person's identity, but says they were over the age of 65 with underlying medical conditions as well.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating how the flu evolved in the patient's body. Still, the agency says the risk to the general public remains very low, with no reports of person-to- person transmission.
Well, hazardous winter conditions are disrupting life for millions of Americans this week as a powerful weather system makes its final push over the east coast. A lot of it looking like a snow globe on Monday. Many people in the region are grappling with heavy snowfall and thick layers of ice.
Here's CNN's Gabe Cohen with a breakdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A deadly winter storm creating dangerous conditions for tens of millions of Americans.
Snow, sleet and freezing rain blanketing large areas of the country from Kansas to the nation's capital.
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): The most important thing that people can do today is to stay home and to stay safe.
COHEN: Thick ice and gusty winds, toppling trees and power lines knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes. On the road, at least four people killed in crashes and hundreds of motorists stranded amid extreme conditions. And misery for fliers with thousands of flights either delayed or canceled.
In D.C., at least five inches of snow have already piled up, the most the district has seen in at least three years, and there may be more to come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're asking people to stay off the streets as much as possible.
COHEN: Many schools across the region are closed, and federal government offices shut down in D.C. But not everyone is staying home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been telling people I am going to cross country ski on the National Mall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a nice day for a walk. You know, there's no traffic. So it makes it easy to kind of walk around everywhere. And yes, just enjoy it.
COHEN: After the snow moves out dangerous cold is moving in. An arctic blast bringing bone chilling temps to the same areas just starting to dig out from the snow.
[01:44:45]
COHEN: And as all this snow continues to pile up across the mid- Atlantic, many school districts across this region have gone ahead and announced that they are going to remain closed on Tuesday as crews continue to clear snow and concern grows about ice and bone-chilling temperatures.
Gabe Cohen, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: All right.
Tech giant Meta making an apparent move to the right with the appointment of a new board member. He is Trump ally and Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive Dana White. The selection is seen as yet another step by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to improve his relationship with Donald Trump.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, says that Zuckerberg wants to take an active role in tech policy conversations with the incoming Donald Trump administration.
All right. Golfers take note, a new high tech golf league will be making its debut in the coming days. The Tomorrow Golf League will take place at a first-of-its-kind virtual golf course in southern Florida.
It's a brainchild of golf greats Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and it will be including some of the game's best players in a weekly competition.
Here's World Sport's Patrick Snell with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIGER WOODS, GOLF LEGEND: It's going to be great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what we've been shooting for.
WYNDHAM CLARK, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: I'm really excited. I think this is something great for golf.
WOODS: We're trying to bring a new demographic to this game of golf and it's going to be exciting.
CLARK: I was blown away of the amount of moving parts there is to this, but it's going to be unbelievable on TV.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: The league comprises six teams of four players competing at a 1,500-capacity arena in Florida, ahead of a best-of-three final series showdown in March.
The message from 2023 U.S. Open Champion, Wyndham Clark, prepare to be entertained.
CLARK: We're in a massive arena. I would think of this as almost like an NBA game. We have walk up songs, we walk out to everyone cheering us on. We have a ref. There's a 40=second shot clock. There's a bunch of fun games within the game. And then they can expect us, we're mic'd up, they can hear us in between shots. Our strategy, the chirps and trash talk that we might have between players.
SNELL: The golfers enjoy a bit of trash talking from time to time. Tell us more.
CLARK: Yes. You know, that's the thing that, you know, I selfishly wish we had in golf because I do that all the time when I play practice rounds or rounds with my buddies. All we do is talk trash and chirp each other.
And, you know, you get inside the arena of a normal PGA Tour event and, you know, that's poor etiquette so you don't do that.
But in this setting, I think you're going to see a lot of it. Everything's fair game. Let's have a good time, play some good golf and provide some good entertainment.
Not too much on the hatred side, I would say, but the subtle jabs and some one-liners, who knows? I mean, there could be some situations where it could get heated.
SNELL: Golfers on each team will hit tee and approach shots into a 64- by-53-foot simulator before moving to a green that can be uniquely rotated and sloped on each hole, thanks to a turntable under its surface.
WOODS: The rotating green blew me away, and so, yes, I mean, I've seen greens be able to move and -- but I've never seen a rotating -- a rotating green. So that was a new experience. And I think that's going to be a lot of fun for not just us, but also the fan experience.
SNELL: The first session of each match is called triples. A nine hole, three-on-three alternate shot format before players then go head-to- head for six holes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is definitely new for the golf, going away from, you know, playing on, you know, a real golf course and not being in a simulator. But pretty good-sized arena that's housing, You know, there'd be 1,500 people basically right on top of us. And, you know, hitting shots into a massive screen and then hopefully hitting some good shots around the green because the people are pretty close. There might be a few in danger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: Now I just need to learn to play golf. All right. Still to come, something I'm personally really excited about. A new take on a classic sci-fi franchise. CNN speaking with the stars of "Dune: Prophecy" about new stories that are being told that take place thousands of years before the blockbuster films.
[01:49:13]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANDOVAL: All right.
Take a look at this extremely rare glimpse of one of the earth's most vibrant and beautiful natural phenomena. NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured the Northern Lights, which we also know as the Aurora Borealis, from space, from above, as the International Space Station orbited over eastern Canada this weekend. He says, it felt like, quote, "we've been shrunk down to a miniature dimension and inserted into a neon sign".
Pretty accurate comparison, I would say.
All right, "Dune", the science fiction universe, which began as a series of books and became a multiple box office blockbuster, has set its sights on the small screen.
A new prequel series called "Dune: Prophecy" is made by HBO, which is owned by CNN's parent company.
Our Richard Quest spoke with the show's lead actors. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am Paul Atreides.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: It was always a tall order, turning the beloved sci-fi classic "Dune" into a new feature film.
Expectations were high. Critics, dare I say, nitpickers everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can destroy a thing has the real control of it.
QUEST: In the face of this, the "Dune" films triumphed, achieving both box office and critical success.
The soaring desert scapes, drug-laced mysticism and heart-pounding action scenes, and the stars Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya won over fans.
Now, HBO seeks to expand the "Dune" universe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sisterhood draws women from many worlds.
QUEST: "Dune: Prophecy a six-episode prequel featuring two veterans of the stage.
EMILY WATSON, ACTRESS: I run a school for young women.
QUEST: Emily Watson and Olivia Williams.
OLIVIA WILLIAMS, ACTRESS: There are secrets we have gone to great lengths to keep.
WATSON: It rather took me by surprise the kind of sense of ownership of the material, of how everybody already out there already owns it and knows what they think it should be like, which is, which was it's kind of great but it's also, you know, you can't please all the people all the time.
QUEST: Coming off the back of the two movies, that adds an extra pressure because the preconceptions, rightly or wrongly, of what this should or should not be, are there. And you have to live with that.
WILLIAMS: In a way, I feel that they took the brunt of that. Having followed the David Lynch version and people saying that adaptations were doomed to fail. And so we really have to thank, you know, Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet for sort of taking it on the chin. And of course, (INAUDIBLE) but the greatest comeback for us is that we precede them by 10,000 years.
So from now on, really, they should be very alarmed and be taking note of what we're doing. And as the origin story for them.
QUEST: The two women play sisters leading a mysterious female sect known as the Bene Gesserit.
Its members employing spectacular powers to further their influence amongst the elite.
Emily, when you were given the role, what did you have in mind for it?
WATSON: I guess the answer that comes to mind, first of all, was to really investigate my own sense of anger and inner steel, because that's not usually the direction I'm asked to travel in.
And that was really interesting to me, just to be -- she's not a person who engages in a social contract.
QUEST: Same for you, Olivia. What were you thinking when you took the role?
WILLIAMS: I had a drama teacher at school who was old enough to be Prussian (ph), which ages both me and him. And he had a wonderful note, which was "Ducky, your subtext is showing".
[01:54:54]
WILLIAMS: And this note is the most important note for this character to not play my subtext and to let the subtext be revealed by actually the amazing young actress who plays my younger self.
She got the one -- one of the really astonishing punch lines of the series, and it IS my duty not To give it away before.
QUEST: While Watson and Williams first met at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1990s, this is the first time they've acted together.
I've got three sisters, all of whom, including a twin sister, all of whom have reached CEO and executive director level. So I've been around these issues my entire life.
But for actors and female actors of a certain age, a lot is being made of the roles that have been available in the past and now in the future and today.
WATSON: The landscape has definitely changed. I mean, for the better. Olivia and I, you know, when we've known each other for decades and when we were in our 20s, or we would have if we'd been, we'd looked at each other in the eye and gone, you know, when we're in our 50s, we're going to be leading a sci-fi TV show, we'd have gone really --
WILLIAMS: Together. Together.
WATSON: The two, the two leading parts. Yes. WILLIAMS: Because in our other interviews, we revealed how many
decades, in fact, we've known each other since the last millennium.
People said, why haven't you worked together before? And that's because there aren't -- There isn't space in most literature for two women of the same age, in the same stature --
WATSON: With strong, leading parts. Yes.
WILLIAMS: One of us would have been a wife, a mother, a girlfriend or a daughter. And another actress of another generation would have been the other.
But to get two of us for the price of one, and very particularly two for the price of two --
WATSON: Very particularly in this genre as well.
QUEST: They will have many more opportunities to collaborate.
HBO has confirmed "Dune: Prophecy" will return for a second season.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sacrifices must be made.
QUEST: Richard Quest, CNN -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: I'm hooked already.
Thank you for joining us tonight. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my colleague Rosemary Church.
[01:57:28]
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