Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
CNN International: New Jersey Business Owner Describes Shock of ICE Raid; Palestinian Journalist Freed after Months in Israeli Jail; Trump to Visit Fire-Damaged California after Slamming State's Fire Response, Setting Conditions on Federal Aid; Slander Conviction Upheld Against Amanda Knox in Italy; Superman's Enduring Stem Cell Legacy; Giant Pandas Make Public Debut at Washington's National Zoo. Aired 8- 9a ET
Aired January 24, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and this is the CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, is Donald Trump's approach to immigration working as the U.S. President wraps up the first week of his second term will go to Washington for answers.
And firefighters in California battle another massive blaze, authorities ordering tens of thousands of people to evacuate. And an anxious wait tomorrow, four more Israeli hostages set to be released by Hamas. We'll have a live report from Tel Aviv. Donald Trump says he's done more in four days than many administrations have done in four years.
That was his comment as he wraps up the first week of his second presidency. He has taken executive action on a range of issues, like releasing January 6 rioters, pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate deal. But it's his immigration reforms that are getting the most attention right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm also taking swift action to stop the invasion at our southern border. They allowed people to come in at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It was ridiculous, and it was really an invasion. We will not allow our territory to be violated. After four long years --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The president also put a stop to all diversity, equality and inclusion programs in the federal government that his predecessor put in place, and Trump is promising a swift end to the war in Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now hopefully underway. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when you're back here in Davos next year, will there be, then a peace agreement with Ukraine and Russia by then?
TRUMP: Well, you're going to have to ask Russia, Ukraine is ready to make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: In the coming hours, Mr. Trump will make his first trip to -- of his new term. He'll travel to North Carolina and California, two states hard hit by natural disasters. Alayna Treene is at the White House with the tales of Trump's trip.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It's very clear that people are trying to make this about the communities that have been affected, those in Asheville, where he is going to visit, first today in North Carolina and then later, of course, in Los Angeles, that has been ravaged by these wildfires.
When I talked to one White House official, they said, look, Donald Trump does want to appear statelier. You know, he is president now, and the goal is to keep the focus on the communities. Even though, and this is what the adviser told me, that the attacks are justified this White House official's words.
Now I will add as well that it is unclear whether or not Donald Trump is going to meet with California Governor Gavin Newsom, someone he has also used derogatory words to describe and has criticized his response to the handling of the wildfires as you showed earlier.
Newsom said that he plans to meet him on the -- but when I talked to the White House last night, they said it's still unclear if the two will actually meet today. But look, this is something Donald Trump has talked about both of these visits for a very long time.
He has heavily criticized the handling from local officials and specifically Democratic leaders in these states for the recovery efforts and also what they have done to better prepare these cities for these types of disasters. Now, we also have heard Donald Trump talk a lot about FEMA and their role in this.
There could be some sort of announcement today about having FEMA, I'm told, to streamline some of the process that resources can be provided to these states, and how they do that. So, all things that we should watch for. But again, this is something Donald Trump has been wanting to do for a long time.
And I think it's really a question of whether we will see him continue to kind of issue these sharp attacks against some of these leaders, like Schiff, like Newsom, or if he will appear as the White House official told me kind of statelier for these visits.
WHITFIELD: Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Donald Trump's pledge to go after undocumented immigrants is rapidly turning into action. In the last few minutes, we learned from the White House, deportation flights aboard U.S. military aircraft have begun. Also, a seafood market in Newark, New Jersey was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Thursday. According to the owner, he says about a dozen ICE agents showed up and detained a couple of employees who could not show proper identification. He said he's worried.
I'm talking about the store owner. He said he's worried that other employees may now be afraid to come into work.
[08:05:00]
The Newark Mayor expressed anger that the ICE agents did not show a warrant. He said his city is being unlawfully terrorized by ICE, adding that a U.S. military veteran was among those detained. CNN could not verify his claims. Between pardons, executive orders and now immigration raids.
It's been quite the first week for Donald Trump to help us assess all of it. We welcome Bryan Lanza. He was a Senior Adviser on Mr. Trump's 2024 Presidential Campaign. Great to see you this morning, Bryan. So, day four of Trump's Administration, and that overnight ICE raid in that New Jersey plant sweeping up undocumented people. And according to the mayor, U.S. military vet. Will there be more outcomes like this in your view?
BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER ON TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: First of all, good morning. Thank you for having me. The answer is yes. I mean, this is what the mass deportation is going to look like. Not only you're going to be able to, you know, we're going to be targeting, you know where all these illegal aliens are, where they work, you know where they sleep, you know what cities they think they passed sanctuary.
But the images matter as well. The coverage matters. The coverage matters critically because it sends a message on our TV screens across the international community that illegal aliens are not welcome to the United States, legal people who want to come here legally and follow our rules and follow our process in an organized way, welcome.
President Trump said you'll have a huge, beautiful door, and I believe him. But if you're an illegal alien, look at those images. Those are not the images you want for you and your family. You should find the normal process, the way everybody else comes into this country, and we should have a civilized society to sort of have this discussion without the hyperbole that you see from the mayors taking place all across the country.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's talk about the images, because whether you call it hyperbole, or whether it is indeed, you know, an account, because, again, CNN hasn't verified what the mayor is saying, but you have the images of people being swept up. But if there are people swept up who should not be swept up because they have its -- there's an assumption being made that they are illegal. Isn't that problematic as well?
LANZA: It absolutely is. It absolutely is problematic, and they will work through whatever kinks exist. But if you're going to look at the vast majority of people who are going to be deported, I would say nearly everybody who's going to be deported is an illegal alien. Is there collateral damage?
They like that, as the administration likes to call it, I hope not. You know, I'm a Latino I -- in theory, could be collateral damage if I'm on the wrong neighborhood, but I also walk around with my ID, I have a driver's license. I have papers to sort of say who I am, but, yeah, you don't want collateral damage.
I hope that the administration exceeds with great caution to make sure that we don't have collateral damage. But the country has been very clear on this. I mean, they're very clear today they want mass deportations of the vast tens of millions of people who come in the last four years, and they want them out.
And the only get them out is you got to find them where they are. They're working illegally in our communities. Some are committing crimes in our communities. They're displaced in our people. And so, you know, President Trump is going to honor his promise, and the images are gruesome.
But the images should be steered into the eyes, into the memories of people who want to come into this country illegally. Don't do it. There's a process, follow it.
WHITFIELD: Trump believes that this kind of shock and awe kind of approach is effective. It has been a priority for him, immigration. Is there also the potential that it might backfire?
LANZA: Yeah, I mean, shock and awe is going to work. But what's more critical so that it doesn't backfire, so that you can -- is that the administration communicates what's taking place, legal immigrants. People who want to come to this country in a legal process work here legally, be part of our communities.
You're more than welcome. You're absolutely welcome. If you're an illegal alien who wants to break the rules to come in here, you're not welcome. So yes, there is the potential, you know, for the message to get lost. I was -- listen, I'm from California. I was there when Proposition 187 took place, where the proposition targeted illegal services for illegal aliens.
And that message got completely screwed up, so that the Latina community thought, people in my community thought that Republicans wanted to deport legal aliens, absolute lie, and the left fed into that. So, you know, I've urged this administration. I've gone through this experience of California.
I've talked to this administration during the campaign in recent days, the communication is key. We need to have our Latino leaders who believe in this, who represent Republicans, who understand the truth, going to these communities and telling them exactly what's happening.
Legal people who want to come into this country legally are more than welcome. President Trump's been saying it nearly 10 years. There's a huge door that you can stand the line and you're welcome here. If you're an illegal, don't -- we don't want you here.
WHITFIELD: OK.
LANZA: It's not a difficult --
WHITFIELD: All right. Trump, you know, he said he's done more in four days than other administrations have done in four years. I could just kind of tick through some that has happened just in the last four days.
[08:10:00]
It's been a pretty busy week with these executive orders, but his challenge on birthright citizenship is now on hold after a federal judge says it's unconstitutional. His pardons of January 6 convicted criminals, was one of the first things that he did. He set a tone appearing virtually at the World Economic Forum that it's America first.
He doesn't apologize for being a disrupter. You said communication is key. But will this get him the results he's looking for?
LANZA: Well, I think so. I think listen, just as what I said, you know, when President Trump said he's been -- he's done more in the first four days, the most presidencies have done four years. I think that's it pretty, clear on the immigration side, like, if you're part of the international community.
If you're looking at these images, you've got to be saying, wait a second, it doesn't make sense for me to come into this country illegally. Look what they're doing. You had 12 years of -- you had eight years of Obama, you had four years of Joe Biden, and they could have once delivered that message effectively.
So, if you want to look at that, yes, President Trump has been effective. Listen, I think, when he's in the international stage, when he's having these conversations, and he's on the stage. It matters what he says, and he's saying the right things right now, the executive orders demonstrate that this is a president that's ready to go full speed ahead.
There's no learning curve for him this time. He had four year -- he and his team had four years as president. They had four years to analyze what they did wrong in the first administration, and now, in the four years that they have left, they know exactly how to execute.
We never had this situation. We haven't had this situation over 100 years where there was a gap in between presidencies and people had the ability to learn, come up with, you know, stress test what they can do going forward and see how fast they can go.
WHITFIELD: Except --
LANZA: You've -- you've seen --
WHITFIELD: Except Bryan, we know that executive orders doesn't necessarily mean it's mission accomplished, because there are legal challenges. We're seeing that already legal challenges on some of his executive orders.
LANZA: Yeah, I mean, but you have to start the process somewhere, right? I mean, you can't just say this might get legally challenged. Let me think about it for six months before I do something. This guy moved. I mean, President Trump moved, and his team moves.
And so, they're unafraid of the legal challenges going forward, because, you know, they just know they've got to start somewhere. You know, I listen. I don't agree with President Trump on their position on birthright citizenship. You know, I know the legal theory that's, I've heard that legal theory coming from California for the better part of 20 years.
It was wrong in California. It's going to be wrong at the national level, and I think President Trump's going to lose, but what he's willing to do is he's willing to execute and go forward. He's not a politician that's putting his finger in the air and saying, I wonder where everybody's going.
He feels he has a mandate. He has Republicans in the House, Republicans in the Senate, and he's going to accelerate the whole way through this. And we shouldn't be surprised by it, and we should be actually happy, because when Trump came here in 2016, the D.C. did not welcome the disruption.
They did everything they can to stop Donald Trump's disruption. Here in '24, they're embracing this disruption, and this disruption is going to mean a lot to the American people, and I think speed is part of that disruption.
WHITFIELD: A Former Trump Campaign Adviser, Bryan Lanza, thanks so much. All right, still to come the waiting game, Hamas is expected to release more hostages this weekend. We'll have a live report from Israel when we return. Also, ahead a Palestinian journalist now reunited with her family after spending months in jail. She's speaking out about her ordeal in Israeli custody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:00]
WHITFIELD: American President Donald Trump says the Gaza hostage ceasefire deal should hold, and if it doesn't, there will be a lot of problems, he says. His remarks coming as families anxiously await more hostages to be released this weekend. Sources say Hamas will provide mediators with the names of four hostages to be freed on Saturday.
Phase one of the complex ceasefire deal calls for 33 hostages to be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. 90 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli detention as a ceasefire deal took effect earlier in the week. And in exchange, Hamas freed three Israeli hostages among the newly freed Palestinians is a West Bank journalist who was jailed over her social media posts. Now, after 10 months in Israeli jails, she is reunited with her family, and her young daughter, who says she barely knows her mother's face. CNN's Nada Bashir reports from Bethlehem in the West Bank.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Little Elia is still adjusting to finally having her mother back home. Rula Hassanein, a Palestinian journalist from the occupied West Bank, was arrested by Israeli security forces when her daughter was just nine months old.
Now, after 10 months in detention, she is among the first Palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
RULA HASSANEIN, PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST AND RELEASED DETAINEE: Of course, my daughter forgets what I looked like. My husband and family members would show her photos of me. They would tell her that this is your mother but a photo is nothing like the real thing.
I would dream about my daughter a lot. My first Ramadan after having Elia was spent in prison. I was in prison for her first Eid and I also missed out on the memory of her first birthday.
BASHIR (voice-over): This was the moment Rula was reunited with her daughter and husband last week, having suffered from health complications in the first few months of life. Rula says it was a relief to see her daughter doing well after almost a year of agonizing separation. But Rula herself has also been through unimaginable suffering while in detention.
HASSANEIN: During our transfer, we weren't allowed to drink water, eat any food, use the bathroom or even to pray.
BASHIR (voice-over): Rula says that the day she and 89 other prisoners were transferred for release as part of the ceasefire deal, they were subjected to hours of psychological and physical abuse. She recalls that they were pushed down to their knees, dragged across the ground while handcuffed and dressed only in thin layers while out in the cold.
They were then made to watch hours of Israeli propaganda video before being released. But like so many other Palestinians in Israeli jails, abuse and harassment had become a daily occurrence for Rula.
BASHIR: What were the conditions like inside the prison?
HASSANEIN: Regarding the female prisoners they violated all international human rights to protect us. We were also deprived of our most essential private needs. During our time of the month, male guards would say we don't need to change our sanitary pads every hour, only every four or five hours.
They confiscated our underwear and left us with only one piece to wear. We saw female prisoners from Gaza who were brought to Damon Prison. Some of them looked like they were in a very difficult state. During their time of the month their clothes would be covered in blood. It was horrifying. The guards were mocking them.
BASHIR (voice-over): The Israeli prison service has told CNN that they are not aware of any such claims. But the harsh conditions faced by Palestinians in Israeli jails has been widely documented. In a report published in July 2024, the U.N. Human Rights Office said, Palestinian detainees are subjected to systematic beatings, humiliation and threats.
In addition to severe restrictions on food, water and essential hygiene products. Like many Palestinians, Rula was tried before a military court rather than a civil court, and later charged with incitement on social media over posts shared where she had expressed frustration over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
[08:20:00]
HASSANEIN: It isn't a new policy to hold Palestinians accountable for their thoughts. Many Palestinians have been targeted for their art or writing. It has become so easy for them to arrest someone simply by accusing them of incitement on social media.
BASHIR (voice-over): For Rula, it is impossible to forget the suffering that she and other Palestinian detainees have been forced to endure, but she says her focus now is on enjoying each moment with her daughter and husband. Nada Bashir, CNN, in Bethlehem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: CNN Anchor and Senior Global Analyst Bianna Golodryga is joining us now live from Tel Aviv. Bianna, good to see you so, now three more hostages are to be -- Israeli hostages will be released in exchange, right about 90 Palestinians will be released this weekend. Do we know anything about the names of say the three hostages?
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Fred, good to see you. If all goes according to plan, it will be four Israeli hostages that Hamas will be releasing, as per the parameters of the ceasefire hostage deal. We are expecting that Hamas will release the names of those four, two mediators any moment now, within the next hour or so.
Now, remember, last week there was a 24-hour delay in terms of when they released the names of the three female hostages, and thus delaying the start of the ceasefire by three hours. But if everything goes according to plan, Hamas will be releasing the names of the four females today.
One is expected to be the last of two female civilian hostages, and the other three are expected to be female IDF observers. And then once they are released tomorrow, which is expected around 04:00 p.m. local time, is when Israelis once they are in Israeli custody, is when Israel will be releasing Palestinian prisoners.
It is 30 prisoners for the Israeli civilian hostage and 50 prisoners for each of the IDF hostages. We're also expecting Hamas tomorrow to release a status update to mediators as to the conditions of the remaining what we were expecting to be 26 of the 33 hostages in phase one of the ceasefire hostage deal.
Israeli intelligence believes that the majority of them are alive, but their official status is expected to be announced tomorrow by Hamas. So, a lot of anticipation here. You can imagine how long this week has felt for Israelis, who, for the first time in 13 months, last week, had a bit of news to celebrate seeing the release of those initial hostages, those three females.
But so many families here are saying the fight continues for phase two and phase three to be implemented of this deal, and seeing the return of all of the remaining 94 hostages. And that is something, that is a perilous situation here in this country, this government is facing a lot of pressure from far-right elements of their government, of the cabinet, to not pursue phase two and return back into Gaza.
So, a lot here still left to be determined, but we are expecting those names any moment now, and we'll bring them to you once we have them.
WHITFIELD: OK. All right. Meantime, we're also learning that a private American security company will take over a key checking point on the road to Northern Gaza. Is that right?
GOLOGDRYGA: Yeah, that's along the NetSuite corridor. It's a major corridor that divides Northern Gaza from Southern Gaza, and this was part of a deal arranged through Israel, Egypt and the United States, where you'll have included in these checkpoints overseen by U.S. contractors that will be providing some of those checkpoints, as the Palestinians are allowed.
Once these hostages are returned to Israel, tomorrow, we will see Israel allowing for the first time, Palestinian civilians to return to the northern part of the Enclave. So that is why this news is significant. Just getting more specificity as to who will be in control of those checkpoints, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Bianna Golodryga, thank you so much. Keep us posted there from Tel Aviv. All right, still to come, he's in line to become the next U.S. Secretary of Defense. We'll have more on Pete Hegseth and how his nomination advanced despite some opposition. And we'll go along as a U.S. immigration agents, look for one undocumented migrant who was convicted of a crime.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:25:00]
WHITFIELD: U.S. President Donald Trump is set to make the first trip of his second term later on this morning, when he visits two states ravaged by natural disasters. The president will start off in Asheville, North Carolina, an area still recovering months after Hurricane Helene caused widespread damage.
From there, he'll travel to Southern California to survey destruction caused by unprecedented wildfires that are still burning. And it's worth noting that Mr. Trump has threatened to withhold federal disaster aid unless California adjusts how it manages its water resources.
As we mentioned earlier, Mr. Trump's long promised immigration crackdown is now underway, but he suffered a setback on Thursday when a federal judge said his executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship is, quote, blatantly unconstitutional.
The judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, has now issued a temporary restraining order to block that executive order. Several democratic led states sued over the executive order, saying it violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil.
So, what does an ICE raid look like? CNN's Shimon Prokupecz recently accompanied federal immigration officers on a mission to apprehend one undocumented migrant in New York. Here's his report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, good morning, everybody on this cold New York morning. The first subject that we have is going to be a 22-year- old Ecuadorian male. He was convicted of rape of a minor here in New York City. We're obviously eager to apprehend this guy and get him back into custody --
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): In the pre-dawn darkness of New York City. Last month, men and women of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement team get briefed on that morning's mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just be safe, guys, and let's go do our job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, we're going to attempt to apprehend on the corner.
PROKUPECZ: We're now outside a home in Flushing, Queens. We're waiting for an individual to come out with the ERO teams here in Flushing. This is an individual who got into this country, was got away, meaning he didn't come officially through the border, and he has been here in the streets of New York City.
He actually was convicted of rape, and now the ERO teams, the ICE teams, are trying to take him off the streets.
[08:30:00]
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): ERO stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations. The work takes patience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You saw that guy across the street in front of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's not our target.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): But finally --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's walking through the corners with the backpack -- PROKUPECZ (voice-over): At the ICE offices in Manhattan, Ronaldo and Louisa is processed and fingerprinted. He chose not to speak to CNN. Despite the seemingly successful operation. Ken Genalo, the Head of ICE New York City is frustrated.
KENNETH GENALO, DIRECTOR OF ICE NEW YORK CITY FIELD OFFICE: We were able to take him down with no issues.
PROKUPECZ: This is the way you would prefer to be done?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is anybody in front of me.
GENALO: Actually, I would prefer to take custody of the individual from NYPD or the Department of Corrections.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): New York City has sanctuary laws that limit local law enforcement's ability to coordinate with federal immigration authorities, even in certain cases involving convicted felons in the country illegally, and Louisa pleaded guilty to rape and was released after serving his sentence of 273 days.
GENALO: If NYPD, or even in this case, the New York City Department of Corrections that just reached out to us, if we had interest in this individual, we would have taken them immediately from them, or from --
PROKUPECZ: Right --
GENALO: From Rikers Island -- It avoids having and that avoids this whole scenario that we're working on right now. Cases could take weeks, months, sometimes, and sometimes even longer, because we don't know where the individuals at.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Even New York City's Mayor is advocating for a change.
ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Those who are committing crimes in our city must be addressed, and we should change the current sanctuary city law to address that issue.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Genalo emphasized that ICE's focus is on those who pose a threat to the communities they are in.
GENALO: That's why I get disgusted and disappointed when I hear these false narratives about ICE's out doing sweeps. ICE's out doing raids. Once ICE is done, going after criminals, within like three to four months, they'll be going after and targeting a Weller. I mean, in my lifetime, I don't know what planet these people live on.
But it's going to take us a lot longer than three months, especially here in New York City and the other largest cities, to arrest the criminals that are at large in our communities.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): But Trump's borders are stresses that others could be deported as well.
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: They're going to be more collateral arrests than sanctuary cities could because they forced us to go in the community and find the guy we're looking for, when we go find our priority -- which is a criminal alien. If he's with others in the United States illegally, we're going to take enforcement action against him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: That was CNN Shimon Prokupecz reporting. All right, Donald Trump's controversial pick for U.S. Secretary of Defense is just one step away from being confirmed. The full Senate is set to vote on Pete Hegseth tonight, the Former Fox News Anchor narrowly cleared a key procedural vote yesterday despite opposition from Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
But the party has enough votes to confirm him, even if those two vote no, again. Hegseth faces a string of accusations, including that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017. He denies the allegation, but documents newly obtained by CNN show he told the Senate that he paid his accuser $50,000 as part of a confidential settlement.
Hegseth's attorney says it costs less to pay that amount than to fight the case in court. According to some Senate Republicans Hegseth's explanations are good enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Now I'm going through this last allegation, but unless I can point to specific, firsthand, corroborated testimony, I'm not going to take to pressure, I'm going to vote for his confirmation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Hegseth has also been questioned over comments suggesting that he's made suggesting that women should not serve in combat roles in the U.S. military. All right, could be the final chapter in an 18- year saga. Italy's High Court has upheld a slander conviction against Amanda Knox, the American who was jailed for murder while she was a student, but later acquitted of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Knox was also convicted of falsely accusing her former boss of being the murderer. Knox had put her signature to two accusations that had been drafted by police, though she later called her original statement into question. Knox was not at Thursday's hearing, but posted on social media. It's a surreal day. I've just been found guilty yet again, of a crime I did not -- I didn't commit.
[08:35:00]
She does not face any additional jail time. All right, still to come. It may be good news for crews battling wildfires in Southern California, but bad news for residents. Rain is in the forecast, but it could do more harm than good. We'll explain. Plus, hurricane force winds hit Ireland and the U.K., knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people. The latest straight ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back in Southern California, an area already ravaged by weeks of destructive and deadly wildfires now a new threat. Residents are bracing for rain this weekend, which is normally a good thing, but it's expected to fall on charred land that can't absorb water and trigger possible mudslides.
It comes even as red flag warnings continue and as exhausted crews try to handle the massive Hughes fire now burning north of Los Angeles. So far, thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes. Meanwhile, two new fires are burning in San Diego County.
CNN's Julia Vargas Jones joining me now live from Altadena, which is just northeast of Los Angeles. Good to see you this morning, Julia, what's happening?
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. Well, the Hughes fire has burned more than 10,000 acres in just 48 hours since it began. Its 36 percent contained this morning, Fred, but it has prompted more than 16,000 people to evacuate another almost 40,000 under those evacuation warnings, so on standby for potential effect -- being affected for that by those two fires.
The border two fire. One of those fires that spawning in San Diego County doubled in size yesterday, so we're keeping an eye on that as well. Governor Gavin Newsom has directed signed into law yesterday, $2.5 billion to help with that response and to the recovery. Here in Altadena, it's still a disaster zone.
We are expecting some good news, but as you mentioned, that rain could be a double-edged sword. It could help fighting some of these fires that are still burning, but it could be disastrous for this community. The rain could bring mudslides, and with those mudslides, there could be toxic runoff that could come into these communities.
This is because Altadena, just like the Palisades, very hilly areas where at the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, this is where the fire that's part of why the fire just came down this community so hard with the lifting of those winds warning, of course that could help, but we are bracing for another catastrophe. Authorities here telling people to take sandbags and put it around their property.
[08:40:00]
250,000 of those will be made available for residents here as they prepare for something that could be as deadly, Fred, as those fires.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. I mean so much to brace for. All right. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much. Hurricane force winds are buffeting Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom this Friday. Storm Eowyn, a so-called bomb cyclone peaked in the morning hours over Ireland and Northern Ireland, as you see there, it's knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.
Scotland is also expected to be swiped with severe winds and rough seas and major waves are battering the coast of Wales. Meteorologists are issuing red warnings for wind, the highest level on the scale. Let's go to our own meteorologist, Allison Chinchar. Allison, I mean destructive weather everywhere you turn right now.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, and yeah, when you take a look at this video again, this is not a hurricane, but the winds are up to hurricane force with this storm that's over in the U.K. Yes, Storm Eowyn, again, here you can see all of that water being pushed up against these buildings, is there well, that's the same storm surge type of element that you would get even in a tropical system.
So again, lots of water, lots of very strong winds with this. Here you can see that system as a whole just kind of sliding over the British Isles and heading over towards Scandinavia. Now look at some of these wind totals so far, couple in the 90 mile per hour range, several more in the 80 mile per hour range.
So again, some pretty significant winds there likely to have already caused some damage, at least from a local standpoint. Now we're still seeing the bulk of those winds a little bit farther north into portions of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and then also Northern England as well.
Once we get into later on today and into the evening hours, you finally start to see those winds begin to break off. But it's a temporary break, because, look, we've got another storm right on the heels of it that will be bringing even more wind gusts as we get into the back half of the day Sunday and continuing into the day on Monday.
Now, overall, the main concern with this one really, has been winds, not necessarily rain. You can see most of these areas, you're looking at maybe up to about an inch or so, but a lot of areas still looking at maybe an additional 50 millimeters, or about -- had about an inch or so less for a lot of these areas.
Now, transitioning back to the United States, where we've been talking about the fire. So, here's that map of Southern California. Here's San Diego and Los Angeles, for reference. All of these red dots here, those are the active fires that we have that are not yet 100 percent contained.
So, there's a lot of them. You still have a lot of these wind gusts this morning into around the 10 to 20 mile per hour range and some slightly higher gusts. This red flag warning is still valid until 10:00 a.m. local time, so do keep that in mind, the event is not yet over.
You could still have some of those wind gusts up around 40 to 50 miles per hour, but we're going to start to see the winds decreasing as we go through the rest of the day today, and certainly into the weekend. You're also going to notice the temperatures beginning to decrease as we go into the weekend, but the most significant impact is really going to be in the form of rain.
Some areas could see it as early as Saturday morning, but the heaviest rain really holds off until Saturday night, will continue through Sunday, and some of them even kind of lingering into the early portion of the day on Monday, it's not just rain, but also snow. A lot of these higher elevations, especially say about 3500 feet or higher in elevation, could likely pick up several inches of snow.
One to four and then the highest elevations could even pick up maybe, say, 5 to 10 inches of snow, total. Rainfall, obviously, in the lower areas, most of these spots only a half inch, but a few areas could pick up more than an inch of rain, if you get that in a very short period of time, that could trigger some flash flooding.
And yes, as mentioned earlier, the mudslides, the debris flows, because especially over those burn scar areas, that water just runs right off. Also to note too, Fred, that some of these are going to be thunderstorms, you could have a lightning component, which is the last thing some of these areas want.
WHITFIELD: Oh no.
CHINCHAR: And even the potential for some small hail as well.
WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh. I mean, you want the rain to help put out some of these fires, but all that other stuff, we don't want that to go with it to help out the people there on the West Coast.
CHINCHAR: Right.
WHITFIELD: All right. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. All right. Still to come, he played Superman on screen, but his greatest role may have come after he hung up the cape. Now the Late Actor Christopher Reeve is continuing to impact stem cell research straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:00]
WHITFIELD: You'll of course, remember the Late Actor Christopher Reeve, for his big screen portrayal of Superman, but his greatest role may have come after that, as an advocate for spinal cord injury patients like himself. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look at Reeve's remarkable legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LATE ACTOR CHRISTOPHER REEVE: These cells have the potential to cure diseases and conditions ranging from Parkinson's and MS, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's, even spinal cord injuries like my own.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christopher Reeve wouldn't live to see stem cells possibly help with his own paralysis, but nearly 30 years after his accident, spinal cord injury patients like Jake Javier are now reaping the benefits.
JAKE JAVIER, SPINAL CORD INJURY PATIENT: So, it was actually my last day of high school, and was over at a friend's house, and we were swimming. I just jumped out a little too far and ended up hitting my head where it started to get a bit shallow, and made on the bottom and broke my neck.
GUPTA (voice-over): Like Reeve, Jake was also left paralyzed. Instead of walking with San Ramon Valley High Schools graduating class of 2016, Jake was weighing whether or not to try an experimental treatment based on stem cells.
JAVIER: Didn't know a whole lot about it, but I knew that it could potentially help me, or you know, potentially help others, and I didn't see a lot of risk in it, so I decided to do it.
BRIAN CULLEY, CEO OF LINEAGE CELL THERAPEUTICS: Stem cells can become, by definition, any of the cells of the human body. They just need the instructions and the information.
GUPTA (voice-over): Brian Culley is the CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics.
CULLEY: We convert those stem cells into the actual cells that comprise and make up the spinal cord.
GUPTA (voice-over): Think of the spinal cord as the nervous system's interstate with these electrical impulses sending messages from your brain to other parts of your body. Now, to send those messages more efficiently, a conductive sheath of fat and protein known as myelin, wraps around the nerves, but when the spinal cord is injured, the myelin can become damaged as well.
GUPTA: When you've actually injected these cells into the spinal cord and someone like Jake. What sort of results have you been saying?
CULLEY: To date 30 individuals have received these cells. The initial objective was to demonstrate the safety, but the data which we collected and the conversations that we had with the surgeons really encouraged us that there was some improvement that was somewhat unexpected.
GUPTA (voice-over): Improvements for patients like Jake, that now allow him to live his life, drive and work.
JAVIER: I ended up getting some return here in my right hand, so I'm able to wiggle this index finger just a little bit, which doesn't look like much, and there's not a lot of strength behind it, but actually proves to be very functional for me, because it kind of gives me a little bit more dexterity and the ability to kind of open my hand here and grab even small objects like this.
GUPTA: How big a deal was the advocacy of Christopher Reeve and all this?
CULLEY: Christopher Reeve is synonymous with this condition, and that's really important. Having someone who is connected as an individual to a condition can really help attract attention and interest in the space. JAVIER: I knew I would one day get to a point where I felt like I was living a very fulfilled lifestyle, traveling the world and going to school, moved down to San Diego, and after getting my masters in North Carolina, and I'm engaged. I have a wonderful fiance who's very supportive.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Wow, so nice and inspiring! All right, the BAFTA nominated documentary Superman, the Christopher Reeve story airs Sunday, February 2 at 09:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
[08:50:00]
All right. Well, it's pretty hard to believe that Donald Trump has only been in office for a few days now from the flurry of decisions he's made from the January 6 pardon just hours after his inauguration, to the start of his crackdown on undocumented immigrants and his staunch America first speech to world leaders at the Davos Forum.
It has indeed been a very busy week so. How popular are all those moves that Trump is making? And yeah, he's weighing it right now. How popular is Trump compared to in his first term? Let's bring in CNN's Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten with the numbers weighing it all. Deliver for us.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I'm weighing it all. I'm going to deliver for you, and we'll just that's what I always try to do. I always try to deliver for you, Fred, that's what my job is.
WHITFIELD: -- I --
ENTEN: I'm the delivery man of numbers. That's what I do. Look we'll run the numbers. The opening slide here kind of gives it away. Donald Trump is considerably more popular than he was during his first term, especially during the first approval readings of his first term, back in January of 2017, you can see it right here.
Take a look. Donald Trump's net approval rating. This is the Reuters episodes poll. So, I'm comparing apples to apples here. And you look back in January of 2017, and you saw that Donald Trump became the first president in American history who had more people disapprove of his job than approve of him right out of the gate.
What a different story we're dealing with right now in January of 2025. The first reading that was taken after the first couple days of the Donald Trump new second term administration. You see this at plus six. So quite the difference here, where more people are approving than disapproving of the job that Donald Trump is doing as president very different than what we saw in the first go around.
But here is the amazing thing, Fred. It's not just when you compare the first approval rating this time around to the first approval rating last time around. It's when you compare it to Donald Trump's entire first term. This is Nutter Butter. Donald Trump's highest net approval rating, Reuters, Ipsos among adults.
Look at this. The prior high for Donald Trump in his first term was March of 2017. It was plus three points. Donald Trump is already beating that. He's already beating that. It was six points. So, he's more popular than he was during the course of his entire first term.
Again, as someone who watched Donald Trump's popularity during his first term, it seemed like every few days he was breaking a record for being the least popular at that given point, this Donald Trump Administration is so much different, at least being seen in the eyes of the American public, whereby most folks, or at least the plurality of folks, like what they're seeing.
That's very much unlike what we saw the first go around. Now again, I want you to keep this in mind here that Donald Trump has a higher net approval rating now than he did during his entire first term. I'm a student of history. I love going back through history, Fred. I like jumping in the DeLorean, going back in time.
I'm like Michael J. Fox. I was wondering exactly. I was wondering, how unusual is that? So, I decided to look back.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
ENTEN: I decided to look back, second term, net approval rating in the first month, where he had a higher rating, the president had a higher rating than any rating during the first term. Guess what? Donald Trump is the only president to ever do it. So, Donald Trump making history yet again. Good history for him, Fred.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, maybe only up from here?
ENTEN: Well, see Donald Trump --
WHITFIELD: OK. OK, we'll let you keep weighing it.
ENTEN: Sounds good.
WHITFIELD: All right. Harry Enten, thank you so much.
ENTEN: I --
WHITFIELD: OK, well, now let's take you to one of my favorite places growing up, the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where two new residents are being seen for the very first time this morning. Yes, I talking about two giant pandas. They're back. They made, this pair made their public debut about an hour ago, after traveling all the way from China last year.
CNN's David Culver first met the furry pair back in China, and then he decided to visit them again, this time at the Smithsonian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, we're going to go see Bao Li and Qing Bao here at the National Zoo. Haven't seen them since China.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to go behind the scenes.
CULVER: OK
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to see Bao Li first. He's out. Bao Li.
CULVER: There he is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good boy. Oh, there he is. Oh, my gosh.
CULVER: -- I was expecting to feel what this is incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's pretty amazing. Can you fix this path here? Look your path. Good boy.
CULVER: -- He's so sweet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is extremely sweet -- good like, almost unusually sweet --
[08:55:00]
CULVER: -- it to have pandas back here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's incredible. And at first, I was, you know, are we going to love them as much as we love they sung in Tian Tian. But the answer is, yes. I know. Are you ready to go inside? Maybe go inside. All right.
CULVER: -- He is so sweet. Oh my gosh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh. So, I've never heard them before. OK, that is darling. Thank you, David Culver, for taking us there. And of course, you can catch more of David's reporting in the whole story. Operation Panda, that airs this Sunday, January 26 at 08:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.
OK. So finally, this week's rare record snowfall in Texas forced the Houston Zoo to close for a few days, and that little elephant looks very happy about it. The Winter Wonderland brought some of the animals outside for a bit of fun, and boy, were they having fun.
That young Asian elephant named Teddy went for a run, as you saw, and you saw, the zookeeper was trying to keep up. But what about this pride of lions? This is not what they're used to. They seemed a little unsure what to do with that cold stuff on their pause, the deep freeze that swept across southern states, from Texas to Carolinas this week will stick around through Sunday.
Some are happy. Some not so much -- They look kind of happy. Australia now they're, you know, enjoying some snow there. All right. Thank you so much for joining me here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "Connect the World" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)