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New California Wildfire; Trump Targets Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Protections; Trump's Immigration Crackdown; Same-Sex Marriage Law Takes Effect in Thailand; Trump Turns Up Pressure on Russia to End Conflict. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired January 23, 2025 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main priority is to slow this fire down and eventually stop it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not over yet. We still have a couple of days to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the kind of fuel moisture we see in July and August, not in January.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Trump administration is deploying additional active duty troops to the U.S. southern border in a show of force.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you are thinking about breaking the laws of the United States of America, you will be returned home, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe the DEI is just an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not about dictating hiring decisions or billing quotas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I disagree with his decision, but, you know, I've never had a constituent tell me his or her highest priority is DEI.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Thursday, January 23rd, 9 a.m. here in London. And 1 a.m. in Los Angeles County, where fire crews are once again scrambling to stop a wildfire.
The Hughes Fire, burning north of L.A., has ripped through more than 10,000 acres and about 4,000 hectares in less than a day, and it's only 14 percent contained. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate, and the National Weather Service has extended a red flag warning for most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties until early Friday.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is not good, guys. Not good at all.
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MACFARLANE: Well, students attending the Castaic Middle School and High School were among those evacuated Wednesday. The California Highway Patrol says they wound up in a supermarket parking lot.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE STUDENT: It happened real fast. Like, it was, like, a little bit of fire, and then we went outside like that, and there was a lot of fire. Like, it was crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, dark plumes of smoke also providing an eerie backdrop to the rides at an amusement park in nearby Valencia, which was forced to close. The fear is that growing winds overnight and dry brush will provide new fuel for the flames.
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BRENT PASCUA, BATTALION CHIEF, CAL FIRE: Right now, our priority is the front of the fire, the fire front. We have engines at the houses that are in front of this fire there to protect those structures. We're concentrating the aircraft where you see the orange glow.
That's our main priority, is to slow this fire down and eventually stop it, and then we'll worry about getting a fire perimeter cut around the whole thing once we get the main head of this fire slowed down and put out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, CNN's Veronica Miracle has our report from the fire zone.
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VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, 31,000 people are currently under mandatory evacuation orders. We are just 45 minutes away from the last deadly and destructive fire that burned in Los Angeles just a few days ago, the Eaton Fire. This is the Hughes Fire that you're looking at, and you can see the flames roaring behind us over that hillside.
Luckily, the fire is burning right now in an area that is desolate. It's just shrubs and a lot of plants, and it's not moving toward residences, but there is, of course, major concern that winds could shift, winds could pick up, and blow embers in the direction of houses, of businesses. There's also an RV park just right over the hill there.
So firefighters have descended upon this community coming from the Eaton Fire and the Palisades Fire, moving over here. About 4,000 of them are working to make sure that they can contain this overnight and take advantage of cooler temperatures and lower winds.
Veronica Miracle, CNN, Castaic, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well, a retired CAL FIRE operations chief spoke to CNN earlier about what worries him the most about the Hughes Fire.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSEPH TEN EYCK, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS: Several thousand people have had to be evacuated because you're running into conditions that have extreme wind coupled with steep terrain and heavy fuels. And access points in rural areas are more difficult as well. And so the conditions for doing the direct fire attack, doing perimeter control operations are challenging right now until those winds subsided.
[04:05:00]
And I believe that that's the case that they have subsided somewhat since the daytime. But what is expected is that they're going to come up again tomorrow. And so the work that they're trying to do right now is going to be key during the night to make sure that they can try to get this contained ahead before the wind speed picks up in those areas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has been tracking bone dry and windy conditions in Southern California.
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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it was certainly a windy day on Wednesday. Winds gust 35 to 40 miles per hour right in the fire zone. Kind of give you some perspective here.
Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire go up the 405 to the 5 and go past Santa Clarita and you get to here, Castaic Lake. And most of the fire today was in the forested land in the recreational area. And the fight was to keep it away from the interstate and keep it away from the people and where they live.
So look at here, look at the Santa Clarita area for now. Temperatures are still very cool. Winds are so far so good, but for the afternoon later on today and into tonight, things are going to get breezy again.
In fact, I certainly don't like that number, Santa Clarita and just North of there is where the fire is -- 41 miles per hour. So it not only was it a windy day today, but it was a dry day. The relative humidity today was 7 percent. It hasn't rained one 0.1 of an inch in Los Angeles for 259 consecutive days. Now we will get some rain on Saturday and Sunday.
We hope it's not too heavy because we don't want flash flooding, but we'll take the rainfall when we can get it because we should have had about five and a half inches of rainfall so far this wet season, this water year, we call it the wet season. Five and a half inches is our deficit. We've only had 0.3 of an inch of rain and we are certainly in severe drought.
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MACFARLANE: Now four years after the U.S. Capitol insurrection, the Trump administration is in talks to host some of the newly pardoned rioters at the White House. Sources say no visit has been scheduled and it's unclear who might be invited. Oath Keepers leader, Stewart Rhodes, visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after his release.
He was serving an 18 year prison sentence for leading the plot to keep Trump in power. Rhodes says he regrets saying he wanted to hang then House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So bottom line, no regrets.
STEWART RHODES, OATH KEEPERS FOUNDER: Well, I don't regret standing up for my country. I don't regret calling out the election as what it was, which was stolen, illegal and unconstitutional. We violated many, many state election laws.
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MACFARLANE: Now meanwhile, President Trump defended his controversial pardons and commutations during a Fox News interview, saying the violence against police was very minor.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were in there for three and a half years, a long time. And in many solitary confinement, treated like nobody's ever been treated. It's treated so badly.
They were treated like the worst criminals in history. And you know what they were there for? They were protesting the vote because they knew the election was rigged and they were protesting the vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: The president also addressed his predecessor, Joe Biden's pardons for his family and others, but not himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is he didn't give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him. I mean, the money went to him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should Congress investigate that?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you order the --?
TRUMP: I've always been -- look, he didn't give himself a pardon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well President Trump is moving to fulfill another one of his campaign promises, getting rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has those details.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: On his third day in office here at the White House, one of President Trump's biggest executive orders is already taking effect in Washington and indeed at federal agencies around the country. It also could have a sweeping effect in the private sector as well. That is effectively ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, known as DEI, of course, so common in the government and indeed the private sector as well.
Now, all staffers who work on those programs were ordered to go on paid administrative leave Wednesday beginning at 5 p.m. And as of next week, their jobs could be in question. All diversity-related programs were ordered to be canceled. The websites were wiped clean of this kind of language.
This certainly has been one of the centerpieces of the president's campaign promises. It's a piece of the Republican cornerstone of their agenda as well. They believe that hiring practices simply have become overrun by these DEI programs.
But so many questions about this are still yet to be answered.
[04:10:00]
This effectively rewrites President Lyndon Johnson's executive order establishing affirmative action. Now, many of these protections are still going to be in place in federal law, but these programs will not be. So it certainly is one of the biggest, most tangible effects of the new Trump administration. There is no question about that.
Also at the White House, the president holding a variety of meetings with congressional leaders as well, a sweeping beginning first part of the week here to his new administration as he returns to power. But this executive order on the DEI program certainly will have far- reaching effects.
Also ordering the Justice Department to investigate private sector companies that do business with the government on these DEI programs. So certainly one of the big effects of the new Trump administration.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well 1,500 U.S. troops are being ordered to the southern border with Mexico, with thousands more to follow in the coming months. The first wave of deployments comes just days after Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the border, but it's not clear whether the troops will be armed. Trump's border czar says there are already targeted raids happening in cities to arrest and deport undocumented migrants.
The White House press secretary says it's a clear signal that they are not welcome.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: President Trump is sending a very strong message to people around this world. If you are thinking about breaking the laws of the United States of America, you will be returned home. You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. Do not come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Priscilla Alvarez brings us up to date on the latest on Trump's plan for the U.S.-Mexico border.
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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Trump administration is deploying additional active duty troops to the U.S. southern border in a show of force. The Pentagon's saying that they will send 1,500 additional troops to assist border authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border. That's in addition to the 2,200 active duty troops who are already stationed there.
Now, some of their work is going to include, for example, operational readiness, assisting and command and control, as well as intelligence gathering when they are assessing threats or the flow of migrants. It also includes helping and augmenting with air operations.
Now, in addition to all of this, the military also lending its aircraft for repatriation flights. That means sending migrants back home. Now, they are targeting the population that is currently in Border Patrol custody. That is those who have recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, around 5,000 of them.
They're sending the aircraft to San Diego and El Paso, according to the Pentagon, which also says operations will start in the next 24 to 48 hours. All of this as the U.S.-Mexico border has been relatively quiet in recent months, but the Trump administration is trying to crack down, double down on their efforts to keep migrants from coming to the United States.
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: A female student died and another student was wounded in a school shooting Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee. Authorities say a student armed with a pistol fired shots in the school's cafeteria and then took his own life. It's unclear whether the victims were targeted or struck randomly.
Students and family members talked about what they saw and experienced.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE STUDENT: A lot of thoughts of just what if, like what if he didn't wait to lunch? What if he did what he did in the classroom? What if he did what he did to other people? I'm just thankful it wasn't a mass shooting, like he was just going out for everybody.
He was not a kid that you would think would do something like that. He stayed on task, he did his work, he was quiet. So I was really wondering what was going through his head. I feel like just the whole conversation could have ended all of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They need to take away guns and put metal detectors in schools and do more to protect the children. Like if we're not going to protect ourselves or at least we should protect our children from school shootings and gun violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He texted me and was like, I just heard something. And he was like, he mentioned a school shooting. He said, I think we're having a school shooting.
And I was like, are you sure? You know, cause you don't think it will happen to you. And he said, they just put us on lockdown.
And of course I, you know, are you OK? Are you OK? And he's like, yes, the windows are covered. The tables are in front of the door. I'm under a desk, I'm fine. It was so sad to hear him like text me just because he's like, it's fine mom, it happens.
Should it though? It's my 16 year old is like, oh, it's fine mom, it happens. It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart that it's normal. It should not be normal. So I'm just, he's really lucky he wasn't in the line of fire today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: It's heartbreaking. Wednesday's school shooting was the first in the U.S. this year based on CNN's database parameters. There were 83 incidents in 2024, the most of any year CNN has tracked. All right, still to come, a day of celebration for hundreds of same- sex couples in Thailand. Now the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality.
Plus, it's Prince Harry versus Rupert Murdoch. The Prince is claiming a monumental victory in his civil case against the British tabloids with a settlement just as the trial was set to start.
And a survivor of the Hamas attack in Israel will perform at the Eurovision Song Contest in just a few months. Details of that coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by phone on Wednesday. His first known conversation with a foreign leader since taking office. Saudi officials say the two discussed the conflicts in the Middle East.
And bin Salman told Trump the kingdom plans to expand its investments and trade relations with the U.S. by $600 billion in the next four years. Trump visited Saudi Arabia in his first term, you'll remember, and says he might do so again if the Saudis make those types of investments.
President Trump's Middle East envoy will head to Gaza to make sure Israel and Hamas uphold the ceasefire hostage release deal. Steve Witkoff says he'll join a group of monitors at the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors. The Philadelphi corridor is the strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border that had been a point of contention during the ceasefire talks. And Netzarim is a buffer zone established by the IDF bisecting the Gaza strip.
The first phase of the ceasefire deal is expected to last six weeks. When negotiations on the second and third phase are expected to begin, the U.N. Secretary General says the situation can now go two ways.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: The next phase is leading to a situation of permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a situation in which a transition can be established in Gaza, allowing for the reunification of the occupied Palestinian territories and allowing for a serious negotiation of a political solution based on the two states. This is the win-win situation, but there is another possibility. And the other possibility is for Israel, feeling emboldened by the military successes that it has had, to think that this is the moment to do the annexation of the West Bank and to keep the Gaza in a kind of a limbo situation with an unclear form of governance.
[04:20:00]
It is clear for me that Israel is not fundamentally interested in Gaza. It's fundamentally interested in the West Bank.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MACFARLANE: Well, as the fragile ceasefire in Gaza enters its fifth day, Israel is pushing ahead with a military operation in the West Bank. A short time ago, Israeli officials said they killed two Palestinians suspected of gunning down three Israelis earlier this month. Israel's defense minister says the IDF is using lessons from the Gaza war as they operate in the Jenin refugee camp.
Israel's Katz says the Operation Iron Wall will eliminate terrorists there and ensure terrorism doesn't return. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed on Tuesday and more than 40 wounded, according to the U.N. agency UNRWA. The director of the Jenin hospital says the building is, quote, under complete siege by Israeli military and ambulances are not being able to get there.
Well, President Donald Trump has upped the U.S. classification for Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Wednesday. They are once again designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, one of the most important maritime trade routes, forced some of the world's biggest shipping companies to suspend transit along that route.
Also Wednesday, the Houthis released 25 crew members of a cargo ship after more than a year in captivity. The group was handed over to mediators in Oman, according to the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV.
Well, the easy way or the hard way? That's how U.S. President Donald Trump is spelling out Russia's options as he tries to push the Kremlin into making peace with Ukraine. And he's threatening Moscow with new sanctions and tariffs if it chooses the difficult option. CNN's Nick Payton-Walsh has more.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is the second time in about 48 hours in which President Trump has tried to strike a far from cozy tone with Vladimir Putin, a counterpart with whom his relationship during his first term many question as being too sympathetic. His lengthy statement talks about the need to end this ridiculous war, how he'd be doing Russia a favor by allowing them to strike a deal, and something Vladimir Putin should accept because of the economic damage that's been doing. And he says if this idea is not seized on by the Kremlin head, then he'll be left with, quote, no choice, but to implement tariffs, taxes, and more sanctions against Russia.
Now, it's unclear quite what tightening of the sanction screw there is left to do. Just in the closing days of the Biden administration, new tougher sanctions were placed on the Russian oil and gas industry. And I think many experts assess that the West is doing pretty much all they can without damaging themselves significantly through the sanctions that have already been implemented.
But still the threat is indeed there. And it's one I think designed to try and push Russia to the negotiating table. We haven't really seen a serious proposal emerge as to how those talks could potentially take place. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that Davos, that his team would meet Trump's team, and then eventually he would meet Trump. That's all part of the stagecraft of diplomacy here, policy makers getting together and trying to establish what a roadmap towards some kind of deal would be. But the big missing part of the equation here is exactly how Moscow feels about this.
They have welcomed Trump to office and sounded like they would be interested in serious negotiations around ending the war in Ukraine. But that is quite a contradiction. That's their conduct here, their statements domestically, much more maximalist at times in what they want to try and achieve.
And regardless, during all this wait for diplomacy to take shape, they are incrementally but steadily and consistently winning on the front lines. And that's the mood music, frankly, here.
We have Trump trying to sound, perhaps for his own domestic reasons, that it'll be tough on Moscow. Zelenskyy, tough on Europe, trying to get them to pay more for their own security to please Trump. And Putin welcoming Trump to office, but not at this stage, sounding like he wants to immediately engage in a process to end a war that he is slowly, frankly, at this point, but surely winning.
So a very complex road ahead here, despite this opening salvo from Trump that suggests he wants to provide potentially some tougher incentives for Russia to come to the table.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well, still ahead, we'll have details on the new wildfire burning north of Los Angeles and how it's expected to move in the next 24 hours. Stay with us.
[04:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Hi, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.
Fire crews in Southern California are battling a fast-moving wildfire north of Los Angeles. Right now, the Hughes Fire is only 14 percent contained, and more than 31,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes. A red flag warning for most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties is in effect until early Friday.
The British defense minister says the Royal Navy has been tracking a Russian spy ship in the English Channel. John Healey is promising robust action to protect undersea cables, which have been damaged recently by suspected Russian attacks. The Russian ship has since moved into Dutch waters.
And it will soon cost more to climb Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak. Nepal is raising permit fees by 35 percent. A permit to climb in the peak season from April to May will now cost $15,000. It's the first price increase in nearly a decade.
And returning now to our top story this hour, an intense new wildfire is currently burning in Southern California. The Hughes Fire has already consumed more than 10,000 acres, about 4,000 hectares, since it erupted Wednesday morning. It's being driven by strong, gusty winds, now forecast to peak overnight and into Thursday.
The fire that you're seeing here is only about 14 percent contained at this hour. While some 4,000 firefighters are still battling the blaze, 31,000 people are under evacuation orders and another 23,000 under evacuation warnings. One official told CNN that water drops are continuing during the overnight hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN HASKETT, SECTION CHIEF, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Right now, we are not dropping retardant at night, but we have our Chinooks flying, our Firehawks, and those Firehawks drop over 1,000 gallons. The Chinooks are able to refill within 90 seconds and they drop over 3,000 gallons of water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, hundreds of same-sex couples are getting married in Thailand as the country becomes the first in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality with full legal, financial and other rights. The landmark bill was passed by Thailand's parliament and endorsed by the king last year, seen as Mike Valerio is following the story for us from Seoul. And this is a happy and momentous moment, Mike.
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's huge, it's seismic, and it is great to be bringing you, Christine, and our viewers around the world moments of celebration from this side of the world. So we've been seeing exactly that all throughout the day, moments of elation for thousands of people with Bangkok being the center of the tableau. So let's go to show you what we've been witnessing all day.
Thousands of couples getting married, one by one, Christine, officials checking their paperwork methodically, one by one, to make sure everything is in order.
[04:30:00]
And we heard from Thailand's prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, earlier today. And she said, you know, in no uncertain terms that today was not a foregone conclusion.
She said earlier, quote, more than two decades, two decades of fighting to pass the marriage equality law and two decades of confronting prejudice and societal values have finally brought us to this day.
So for the past couple hours, we have been seeing whole myriad of couples showing us their marriage certificates quite proudly and been telling us, Christina, why this story matters. Now, from this point on, they can adopt like straight couples could. They can make decisions in the hospital for their loved ones, should their lives come to a chapter like that. They can inherit property like everybody else can.
And to that end, we heard from newlywed Nathnicha Klinthaworn, and she opened the aperture just a little bit more.
Listen to what she told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHNICHA KLINTHAWORN, LGBT SPOUSE (through translator): The most important thing is that love is beautiful, regardless of gender, no matter what gender someone identifies as, love is beautiful. Everyone wants to experience good love. So I hope people can stop limiting love to just men and women. People of all genders deserve to have beautiful love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIO: So when we're looking at the map, this is also why this story matters. We have Thailand and just two other places in Asia where same-sex marriage is legal. We're talking about Taiwan and Nepal.
And when we think of the region writ large, it seems as though, Christina, this club, this group is going to remain at three places, because when you think about the politics of South Korea, politics of Japan, China, Indonesia, the list goes on, there are strong foundational strains of conservatism that reign large and rule these places. So it seems as though this group is going to stay at three. And to that end, wrapping up here, it seems as though Thailand is going to capitalize on this moment.
We've been hearing throughout the day officials from Thailand saying that on the economic front, they are going to market Thailand as a friendlier place for LGBTQ visitors, residents, and absolutely future residents who could possibly find a friendlier, more accepting place for them to call home in this corner of the world -- Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yes, Mike, clearly more progress to be made in the region there in Southeast Asia. But for now, it is just a joy to see these images and the smiles of these couples who have waited so long for this moment. I appreciate you bringing this to us, Mike, thank you.
VALERIO: Thanks, Christina.