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Trump's Address to the World Economic Forum; Trump Pushes to End Fighting Between Russia and Ukraine; Serious Contenders Emerge as Potential Buyer of TikTok; Some North Carolina Residents Displaced by Storm Slam FEMA; Elderly in Japan Choose Life of Crime Over Lonely Existence. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 24, 2025 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Eleni Giokos. If you're just joining us, here are some of today's top stories.
Two Palestinian men are dead after Israeli forces raided neighborhoods in the occupied West Bank. The deadly operation comes after Israel's Prime Minister declared the start of a close large-scale military operation targeting terrorists in the West Bank. Palestinian officials warn Israel is trying to replicate its Gaza offensive in the occupied territory.
President Donald Trump has long promised to crack down on immigration. And now that initiative is underway. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies are arresting people and suspected undocumented migrants in states such as Massachusetts and New Jersey. Cities across the country are bracing for more action and mounting a legal response.
Mr. Trump also revoking the security detail for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The move follows a similar decision he made for his former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Both Pompeo and Bolton have received threats from Iran for their hardline policies during the first Trump administration.
Now President Trump is offering a deal to countries around the world. During his address to the World Economic Forum, he promised lower corporate tax rates to businesses that move production to the U.S. and tariffs on countries that export goods.
Mr. Trump demanded that interest rates in the U.S. and around the world drop immediately, even though he doesn't have that authority. And he said lower energy prices will help to end the war in Ukraine. Here's a bit more of his remarks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Biden totally lost control of what was going on in our country. My message to every business in the world is very simple. Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth. From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly.
I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended. And that's not from the standpoint of economy or anything else. It's from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, the World Economic Forum wraps up later today in Davos, Switzerland. CNN's Richard Quest asked business and government leaders at Davos for their take on the global outlook.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: QUEST: What word would you use to describe as you see it the next four years? The board is all yours. Turbulent and prayer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Predictable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disorder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is Zeitenwende.
QUEST: Zeitenwende.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Zeitenwende. Times are changing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know a word I want. Realignment.
QUEST: Digital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Digital. Labor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's an American lesson and a European necessity.
QUEST: Go on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Self-confidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to put two. Someone -- come on. Growth potential is two.
QUEST: They tried to fool me on that one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, realistic optimism.
QUEST: Oh, oh and enthusiasm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the thing that powers everything else that we need in order to be able to pay for the other things that we want as we bring everybody along on the journey? It's growth.
QUEST: Growth potential.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a long word.
QUEST: And by the way, I'll say it's a lot harder writing on this board than you think.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Well, the Trump administration is sending a signal about its foreign policy priorities. Officials say Marco Rubio will head to Central America and the Caribbean on his first trip as the U.S. Secretary of State. He'll visit Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
Some of those countries have a high immigration rate to the U.S., which Mr. Trump has pledged to stop.
[04:35:00]
Officials say Rubio also had a phone call with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and spelled out Mr. Trump's immediate foreign policy goals. Rutte called it a good call.
U.S. President Donald Trump is doubling down on his threat to use economic pressure on Russia to try to end the fighting in Ukraine. On Thursday, he said he would push for lowering oil prices, which he said would help stop the conflict and perhaps compel Moscow to make peace. Matthew Chance has more from the Russian capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Kremlin is stepping up attacks across Ukraine, seizing as much territory as possible ahead of a potential ceasefire in this brutal war. This is the U.S. president speaking to the World Economic Forum in Davos, made an impassioned call for peace.
TRUMP: Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now hopefully underway. It's so important to get that done. That is an absolute killing field. Millions of soldiers are being killed. Nobody's seen anything like it since World War II. They're laying dead all over the flat fields.
It's a flat field farmland and there's millions of Russians and millions of Ukrainians. Nobody's seen anything like it since World War II. It's time to end it.
CHANCE (voice-over): The remarks come amid expectations in Moscow of a Trump call with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. And after Trump's scathing social media post telling Putin to reach a Ukraine deal or face more sanctions, a threat which left the Kremlin unfazed.
We don't see any new elements here, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov tells reporters in a conference call. In the first iteration of his presidency, Trump was the American president who most often resorted to sanctions. He likes these methods, Peskov adds. But the Kremlin and the Trump White House have left the door open to a presidential summit to discuss Ukraine's future.
Back on the front lines, Russia's special military operation -- what the Kremlin calls its conflict in Ukraine -- continues to take an appalling toll in blood and treasure. An early end to the fighting is something that President Trump himself pointed at, was in the Kremlin's best interests.
I'm going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin a very big favor, Trump -- wrote in his social media post.
Publicly the Kremlin leader insists Russia's economic situation is under control, but indicators like soaring inflation and interest rates suggest otherwise.
And if for Trump brokered ceasefire also lets the Kremlin consolidate territorial gains, that may prove a very big favor indeed.
Matthew Chance, CNN Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Contrary to what President Trump said in his speech, millions of soldiers have not been killed in the conflict. The Pentagon estimated in October that more than 600,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in Ukraine. And in a post in December, President Zelenskyy said 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action and 370,000 wounded, many with light injuries. CNN cannot independently confirm these numbers.
Several potential buyers are emerging as serious contenders to become the possible new American owner of the social media site TikTok. The U.S. law to impose a ban if the website was not sold to an American was delayed for 75 days by President Donald Trump. And any deals still must be approved by TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance. CNN's Brian Todd has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a 75-day clock well past its starting gun, the outlines of a possible deal to purchase TikTok are starting to take shape, driven in no small measure by President Trump, who's pressing potential buyers to purchase 50 percent of TikTok.
TRUMP: What I'm thinking about saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we'll give you the permit.
TODD (voice-over): On inauguration day, Trump gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve before being banned in the U.S., unless the platform's operations in the U.S. are sold to an American buyer.
Until now, TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance has rejected a sale, but a board member of ByteDance now predicts there will be some type of deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe a deal will get done?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do believe it will get done.
TODD (voice-over): So who are the best known potential buyers?
JIMMY "MRBEAST" DONALDSON, YOUTUBE INFLUENCER, POTENTIAL TIKTOK BUYER: I might become your guys' new CEO. I'm super excited.
TODD (voice-over): MrBeast, the super influencer on YouTube with more followers on that platform than anyone, almost 350 million, claims he's putting in a bid for TikTok.
DONALDSON: Just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires. TikTok, we mean business. This is my lawyer right here.
[04:40:00]
We have an offer ready for you. We want to buy the platform. America deserves TikTok. Give me a seat at the table. Let me save this platform, TikTok.
TODD (voice-over): The engaging 26-year-old star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has made a fortune and a gigantic following, posting videos of contests, stunts and huge giveaways.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: It makes sense why you would want to have an influencer who understands these platforms so well, what makes them work, what makes users attracted to them.
TODD (voice-over): Another potential purchaser? None other than the first buddy, Elon Musk, who Chinese officials have been thinking of selling at least a portion of TikTok to, according to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.
TODD: Why would the Chinese want to do that?
SARA FISCHER, MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Because they would have an in with Trump. Elon Musk has become such an ally to Donald Trump, there's no question that China wants to develop that relationship further.
TODD (voice-over): President Trump, Musk's new boss, was asked about that idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you open to Elon buying TikTok?
TRUMP: I would be if he wanted to buy it, yes.
TODD (voice-over): Trump says he's also in favor of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
There's also been a bid from a group including Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
How anxious are TikTok users in the U.S. for anyone to step up and buy it?
DUFFY: I mean, it's huge. These are people who rely on this platform for not just dance videos and cat videos, but in many, many cases for their careers, for their livelihood.
TODD: CNN's Clare Duffy says any American buyer would most likely have at least one big challenge. They would probably have to buy TikTok's U.S. operations without the app's successful algorithm, the formula TikTok uses to feed you the best videos to keep you hooked, instead of videos and pictures from your friends like you see on Instagram and Facebook.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Ahead, crews try to get their upper hand on the massive wildfire that's threatening the Los Angeles area. We'll have the latest on containment efforts.
Plus, months after the devastation of Hurricane Helene, North Carolina residents are still coping with fear and uncertainty and the damage.
Those stories coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom are facing hurricane force winds, Storm Eowyn. A so-called bomb cyclone is expected to peak in the morning hours over Ireland and Northern Ireland. The worst of the winds will then transition into Scotland and Northern England. Red wind level warnings have been issued, the highest level of warning.
A bomb cyclone is a mid-latitude storm that has a rapid pressure drop or strengthens quickly.
Now the risk of wildfires igniting in parts of Southern California remains high in the coming hours with much of L.A. and Ventura counties under a red flag warning from the National Weather Service until later today.
The Hughes Fire burning north of the metro area is now 36 percent contained.
[04:45:02]
It ripped through more than 10,000 acres or some 4,000 hectares near the community of Castaic and some 14,000 structures are at risk.
But so far there's been no loss of life. More than 16,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders and almost 40,000 others have been warned to stay away. Some rain is expected to help firefighters this weekend.
And later today, Donald Trump is expected to arrive in Los Angeles to assess the fire damage and California Governor Gavin Newsom says he'll be there to meet him despite receiving no information from the White House about the U.S. president's trip. Newsom said he is grateful Trump took California's invitation to visit to heart.
The governor signed a pair of bills Thursday allocating $2.5 billion for fire recovery efforts.
It's been nearly four months since Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. Thousands of households there have been helped by FEMA's transitional sheltering assistance programs. But many left homeless by the storm say the process has been confusing as well as stressful and now some are facing the possibility of another displacement.
CNN's Meena Duerson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEAGAN STELCHOOK, DISPLACED RESIDENT: There's another spot to you kind of do some schoolwork and eat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got our second bathroom slash closet.
STELCHOOK: Yes, yes.
MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right now, this hotel room is home for Meagan Stelchook and her daughters. In September, the house they just moved into flooded in Hurricane Helene, and they bounced from shelter to shelter until a FEMA housing voucher came through.
STELCHOOK: We stayed at La Quinta there for a couple weeks, and then they said they didn't have any more vacancies for us, so we had to move over to the Comfort Suites. And then that hotel decided to not participate in the voucher program any longer.
DUERSON (voice-over): They've lived in this hotel for the past month, but her voucher is set to expire on February 7th.
STELCHOOK: I'm terrified that I'll wake up and, you know, I'll just like get a phone call and -- and it'll be like, yes, your voucher's no longer active. It makes it hard to breathe. It's very difficult to sleep. It's the most, you know, disabling feeling I've ever, you know, ever felt.
DUERSON (voice-over): The voucher is through FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program. The agency says almost 13,000 households have used the program in western North Carolina since Helene, and benefits have repeatedly been extended. FEMA says it reassesses the need every two weeks, a process displaced residents say has been confusing and stressful.
STELCHOOK: I can't tell you how many hours I've spent down there thinking that I was making some progress here, you know, because I am really limited on funds and trying to, like, properly, you know, make sure that I'm filing correctly, you know, so that I can get the assistance that, you know, really, really need.
DUERSON (voice-over): Stelchook says she relies on updates from Mira and Brian Williams. They own the Blue Ridge Tourist Court, where she and other storm victims have been living.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, OWNER, BLUE RIDGE TOURIST COURT: Access to information for us as hotel owners is a little more straightforward. We're able to speak directly to the third party that oversees the FEMA voucher program, so we have a direct line to them that I'm not sure the displaced people do have.
DUERSON: How long do you think you're going to be able to be a participant in this program?
WILLIAMS: I think it depends on how long FEMA keeps the program active.
DUERSON (voice-over): FEMA's relief program in North Carolina has drawn a lot of criticism. False claims went so viral, the agency had to create a rumor page to debunk misleading information. In a letter to the governor, Sunday, FEMA said the voucher program is approved until the end of March and is still supporting over 2,700 people. The agency says it will call anyone whose voucher may become ineligible and give three weeks' notice instead of seven days.
But LeaAnn Bowlin says she never heard from anyone at FEMA before the hotel where she stayed told her that her voucher expired.
LEAANN BOWLIN, DISPLACED RESIDENT: They knock on my door on the 13th and said, FEMA just sent us an e-mail saying that tonight is the last night they're going to pay for you.
DUERSON (voice-over): She filed for FEMA assistance as a household with her boyfriend at the time and says she was told she could change it to an individual claim later. She says FEMA ended the voucher for the household 10 days ago, but she hasn't been able to get help filing for benefits as an individual.
DUERSON: You haven't been able to get a hold of anyone to untangle that situation?
BOWLIN: Nope.
DUERSON: Since then?
BOWLIN: No, I've called nothing.
DUERSON (voice-over): Out of money, she had to move out of the hotel and take everything to a campground.
BOWLIN: We got donated a camper not from FEMA. FEMA sucks.
DUERSON (voice-over): With the area already crunched for affordable housing and temperatures now in the single digits, displaced residents fear they'll have nowhere to go and that they've been forgotten.
BOWLIN: I guess we're just mountain people that nobody cares about. That nobody tells our story or nothing about how bad it is here.
DUERSON: You're feeling left behind? BOWLIN: Very much so. I mean, we're just thrown out like garbage.
STELCHOOK: I hope that we haven't been left behind.
[04:50:00]
There's got to be a better way. I mean, I don't know it, but there's got to be.
DUERSON: FEMA told us they are still here and they are encouraging anyone who still needs aid to apply for it if they haven't received it. They insisted that they have been notifying applicants if their eligibility status for these vouchers has changed, but locals told us this is really an issue of people slipping through the cracks because of bad communication.
Meena Duerson, CNN, Boone, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Elderly people are a growing population in Japan's prisons. Ahead, how the fear of loneliness outweighs the stigma of jail. We'll bring you that story right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: With a rapidly aging population, Japan's prisons are becoming an attractive refuge for some elderly inmates. CNN's Hanako Montgomery goes inside the country's largest women's prison to find out why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite what you see, this is no nursing home, It's Japan's biggest women's prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I celebrated my 81st birthday in here.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Tochigi Women's Prison is on the front lines of Japan's loneliness epidemic among seniors. One in five inmates here are elderly. You see it in the wrinkled hands, gripping walls. Hear it in a slow shuffle of walkers. And you feel it too. A strange serenity blankets this place. Security more a formality than a necessity.
MONTGOMERY: This is the first and only security checkpoint that we've gone through to enter this prison.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Inside we see inmate after inmate with gray hair, bent backs.
The 81-year-old prisoner, who's anonymous to protect her privacy, tells me she's here for shoplifting. But it's not her first time behind bars. Twenty years ago, she was in for the same crime, she says. The only way she knew how to get back to prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When I got caught this time, I thought, I don't care what happens to me anymore. I want to die. I don't care if I live or not. I can't tell you how difficult it is to be alone.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Japan's crime rate is one of the lowest in the world, but its prison system is now flooded with senior inmates who increasingly see prison as home.
MEGUMI, CORRECTIONS OFFICER (through translator): There's no one to take care of them outside, and they're repeatedly abandoned. They come here because they don't have anywhere else to go.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): The Japanese government says the country's aging population means more lonely seniors and a surge in elderly crime. In the last 20 years, the number of elderly inmates has nearly quadrupled. And it's changing life here for everyone.
TAKAYOSHI SHIRANAGA, CORRECTIONS OFFICER (through translator): Now, we have to change their diapers, help them bathe, eat. At this point, it feels more like a nursing home than a prison full of convicted criminals.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): This inmate, in for drug use, tells me she earned her nursing license behind bars after spending so much time caring for elderly prisoners.
We are shown a workshop where guards don't bark orders but help elderly prisoners with their medicine, making sure they don't hurt themselves.
Meals are taken in cells alone and in silence.
[04:55:00]
But for some, just knowing someone is nearby is enough.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My son tells me to disappear. He says, I don't care when you die. They are very good people in this prison. I am very thankful that in prison I can live a regular life every day.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): With no one and nowhere to go, some of Japan's elderly are choosing a life of crime, as freedom is a cheap price to pay for the chance to not die alone.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tochigi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: A song Tina Turner recorded, but never used for the hit album, Private Dancer, was considered lost. But four decades later, it's been rediscovered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(Hot For You Baby recording plays)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
It's very rock and roll indeed. That is Hot For You Baby. Tina Turner recorded it at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Private Dancer was a comeback album and a huge hit for Turner in 1984. And Hot For You Baby will be included in an anniversary reissue of the album in March. After it was rediscovered, the song was played for the first time on the BBC's Radio 2 breakfast show on Thursday. Called the Queen Oof Rock and Roll, Turner died in May 2023 at the age of 83.
Two musicals and a post-World War II drama have topped the list of nominees for this year's Academy Awards. Emilia Perez led with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Leading and Supporting Actress, and Best Director. The film has weathered controversy over its representation of the transgender community and stars the first openly trans performer nominated for an Oscar.
The blockbuster Wicked picked up 10 nominations and that includes Best Picture, Best Leading Actress nod for Cynthia Erivo, and Best Supporting Actress for first-time nominee Ariana Grande.
The Brutalist, which won big at the Golden Globes, was also nominated for 10 Oscars and is a leading contender for Best Picture. The Academy Awards will be handed out March 2nd.
Well thanks so much for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up after this short break.