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CNN International: DeepSeek A.I. Model Sends Shockwaves Through U.S. Markets; R1 is Replicating ChatGPT on Under-powered Chips at Fraction of the Cost; More Than 2,000 Arrests in Two Days of U.S. Immigration Sweeps; U.S. Justice Department Fires Officials Involved in Trump Cases; Thousands Flee Goma as M23 Rebels Advance in DRC; Palestinians Begin to Return to Devastated Northern Gaza; Altadena Woman Alleges Utility Company Started Eaton Fire; Storm Herminia Triggers Flood Warnings in Northwestern France; Ukrainian Troops Take DNA From Dead in Order to Prove Pyongyang's Involvement; South Korea Reports Initial Findings on Jeju Air Crash; French A.I. ChatBot Taken Offline After Spewing Nonsense. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired January 28, 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]
AMARA WALKER, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Hi, everyone, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Amara Walker. This is "CNN Newsroom". Just ahead, Chinese A.I. company, DeepSeek, sends tech stocks deep into the red. We dig into the A.I. advancement sending shock waves through U.S. markets. And President Trump fires Justice Department officials who prosecuted him, launching a "Special project into the January 6th cases." Plus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be Mr. Trump's first foreign visitor. We're going to discuss what a potential meeting next week could mean for the ceasefire in Gaza.
The U.S. market opens in about 90 minutes from now, and we will see the effects of a new disruptor in the market called DeepSeek. It is a Chinese A.I. company that's only been around for a little over a year, but it's a new A.I. model and it rivals the big tech names like Meta, Google and Microsoft, but at a fraction of the price. It's being called a breakthrough in China. While U.S. President Donald Trump says it should jolt U.S. tech companies into action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The release of DeepSeek A.I. from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: U.S. stocks seem to be running scared Monday after DeepSeek unveiled its new A.I. model, lots of red there. Tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Meta, all took big hits. Chipmaker Nvidia took the biggest hit, losing nearly $600 billion in market value. That is the largest single-day stock market loss. Matt Egan joining us now from New York with a closer look at DeepSeek. Matt, so I guess the question is, can the U.S. tech sector rebound from this wake-up call as Trump is putting it?
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Amara, DeepSeek certainly spooked investors really around the world yesterday, raising so many questions about the state of the A.I. arms race, what it means for investors, and also how President Trump is going to respond. Now, the big key yesterday was the fact that DeepSeek is saying that this new A.I. model only cost a fraction of what it cost other A.I. models to be trained, and it only uses far fewer leading-edge computer chips.
And so, that's why we saw Nvidia lose more than $0.5 trillion yesterday because DeepSeek's advancement suggests that maybe there won't be so much demand for Nvidia's high-priced, cutting-edge computer chips. And it does really make people start to wonder about the effectiveness of those export controls the United States has imposed on China.
Remember, the whole goal here was to prevent something like DeepSeek, to prevent a Chinese A.I. model that could go toe to toe with the U.S. A.I. models, right? That's why they have all these restrictions around the technology, the software, the computer chips that can go to China. And there are some experts that I talked to who are saying, look, these export controls, they backfired.
They essentially gave Beijing maximum incentive to innovate around the restrictions and that the U.S. accidentally upped China's game. But there's also a number of analysts and A.I. experts and researchers who don't really believe what DeepSeek is saying, right? They don't believe that DeepSeek only spent $5.6 million and that they use very few advanced chips. They suspect that DeepSeek may have stockpiled chips before those restrictions took place or bought a lot of them on the black market or maybe both.
I talked to market veteran, Art Hogan, and he told me, yeah, China says that they've had this silver bullet on A.I., but it could be like the guy in high school who says he has a girlfriend but she's just at a different school. So a lot of skepticism there.
Now, if you believe that China got around those export restrictions, then that suggests that maybe they need to be toughened. I talked to analyst, Ed Mills over at Raymond James and he said that there are a lot of loopholes here, that the black market is active, and there's a lot more that can be done on enforcement here. And so when you look at some of the officials that President Trump has surrounded himself with, people like Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, China Hawks, it is easy to see how the president could end up deciding to go even bigger and double down on these restrictions because of DeepSeek.
Look, Amara, there's a lot at stake here. Washington knew that the U.S. was in this A.I. arms race with China, but it does appear that that arms race is closer than we realized.
[08:05:00] WALKER: Well, let's, see how the markets react in an hour and a half from now and how long it continues to be a disruptor in this industry. Matt Egan, thank you very much.
EGAN: Thank you.
WALKER: So what is so great about DeepSeek over the rest of the A.I. offerings? Well, as CNN's Clare Duffy shows us, it's the top-tier performance with low-key resources.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yeah. DeepSeek is an A.I. ChatBot that's essentially a direct competitor to the advanced A.I. models from American tech giants like OpenAI, Meta, Google. Like those other platforms, it has this really user-friendly interface. You type a question, it takes a few seconds and starts to generate a response. It'll look really familiar to anybody who has used the other mainstream ChatBots.
But what's different about DeepSeek is essentially what it took to build this technology, and that is really what's shaking Silicon Valley this week. Silicon Valley, who has spent billions of dollars to build their A.I. models, by comparison, DeepSeek is a year-old Chinese startup. It says it spent $5.6 million to build this model. The company also said it used less advanced chips because of U.S. export restrictions on China. And what makes this model different is that it requires less computing resources. Each query puts less of a strain on the data center power resources than other big models.
And this is all raising really big questions, not just about U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, but also the whole evolution that the American tech companies have said this industry needs to take. They've said, we need to have the most advanced chips. We need to spend billions of dollars building out these massive power-hungry data centers in order to get and stay ahead. And I think DeepSeek is really challenging that assumption.
I think we are going to start seeing shareholders asking really tough questions of the American tech companies about whether they've been overspending and whether they need to rethink their strategy. Now, one interesting thing about DeepSeek is that the platform appears to have some of the same censorship restrictions that we see on other Chinese platforms.
For example, I asked DeepSeek to tell me about what happened at Tiananmen Square. And the platform said, I can't tell you that. So, I don't know that we'll necessarily see DeepSeek continue to be on the top of the Apple App Store, the top choice for consumers. But the technology, the underlying technology raises big questions for Silicon Valley.
Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.
WALKER: All right, Clare, thank you. Federal law enforcement agents in the U.S. are not slowing down in their efforts to round up undocumented immigrants. Raids in Illinois, California, Georgia, Colorado and elsewhere resulted in over 2,000 arrests on Sunday and Monday. For perspective, last year, the Biden administration arrested about 300 undocumented immigrants per day.
The man behind all this, Donald Trump's border czar, he says his goal is to arrest as many public safety and national security threats, as he calls them, as possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: We're sending a message. It's not OK to be in this country illegally. It is not OK to enter this country illegally. It is a crime and there's going to be consequences. There's no safe haven for public safety threats and national security threats. People say, well, where you really going to a high school? Well, people need to look at the MS-13 members and (inaudible) members who enter this country, majority in between the ages of 15 and 17. Many are attending our schools and they're selling drugs in the schools, and they're doing strong-arm robberies of other students.
So, we not go into schools or hospital as a matter of practice, but if it's a significant public safety threat or a significant homeland security threat, there's no safe haven. We'll go where we need to go and take them off the street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: While the U.S. Department of Justice has fired officials who were involved with the investigations into Donald Trump, the move took down more than a dozen DOJ officials, many of them career prosecutors who the acting Attorney General said, could not be trusted to faithfully carry out Trump's agenda.
It comes as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. is launching an investigation into the decision to file obstruction charges against some of the January 6th rioters. All of this is seen by some prosecutors as the first steps in Trump's threat to investigate the investigators. CNN's Katelyn Polantz is tracking all of this. She's joining us now live from Washington. Yes, Trump making good on his promises. What do we need to know?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Making good on his promises, but this is a level that was stunning to see play out yesterday in Washington. So the people that were fired, there was more than a dozen people who had left the office of Jack Smith. They had been career prosecutors, line attorneys, the people just doing the day-to-day work on assignment at Smith Special Counsel's office.
They had gone back to their home offices to work on the types of cases the Justice Department is always doing, fraud cases, public integrity cases, crime, just general crime. They were fired.
[08:10:00]
The reason they were fired is that the Justice Department says that they played a significant role in prosecuting Donald Trump, and that those people could not be trusted by the leadership of the Department of Justice to carry out Donald Trump's agenda "faithfully." So Amara, this is quite a move in that this is not something that is typically done ever at this level, firing of career officials. These people will have the ability to appeal if they want.
It is very likely that they will want to challenge something like this. But it does affect the type of people who -- I can't emphasize enough, were career officials. These are not political appointees that come and go as an administration changes. It is very, very different. This did not even happen when Donald Trump was president after the Mueller investigation, when those prosecutors went back to their home offices to become significant prosecutors on other types of crimes, the type of work that is done day to day at the Department of Justice across the country.
WALKER: It's extraordinary, that we're talking about career civil servants. Crime and Justice Correspondent, Katelyn Polantz, thank you. So, as Katelyn said, the Trump administration's moves against career prosecutors has some Washington watchers worried that government agencies are being bent to the will of the president in an unprecedented way.
Our colleague, Stephen Collinson writes this, the history of Trump's first term when he, for instance, fired FBI Chief James Comey over the Russia investigation, and then turned on Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself hints at motives for his recent actions. It seems clear he is trying to intimidate career officials who might investigate him or block his expansive use of executive power. He's also sending a signal to aides in his new administration that they could end up like Pompeo or Bolton if they turn on him.
And CNN Politics Senior Reporter, Stephen Collinson, joining us now. Really, these are extraordinary moves, Stephen. If you can talk about the signal that this is, of course, sending but also the chilling effect that this will have on the checks and balances potentially on -- in our federal government.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Pompeo and Bolton, who I referred to there, were former Secretary of State. Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, the former National Security Adviser -- these were officials who helped Trump during the period when he was in a showdown with Iran, culminating in the assassination of General Soleimani, the Iranian Intelligence Chief, by the U.S. in Iraq.
Those two officials have now had their secret service security details withdrawn by the president. He says that once you are a -- officially, you don't get to keep security forever. The problem here is that both of them were still and are still threatened by potential Iranian action in reprisal for the Soleimani assassination. So what you're seeing is happening is that the president is sending a message to sitting officials saying, if you cross me, if you leave the administration and become a critic, your safety could be in jeopardy.
More broadly, these firings of prosecutors that Katelyn was talking about, I think are a symptom of a much wider effort by the White House to grab power, to challenge perceptions of how much power a president has over the federal government. And these lawyers can file appeals, but by the time they work their way through the system, the damage has been done. The power has been taken. So I think this is a much wider attempt by Trump to shape the government and his own image and to do -- and to allow him to push forward his more hard-line elements of his agenda.
WALKER: (Inaudible) to my next question, because there have been questions about the legality behind a lot of these moves, including Trump firing the inspectors generals and several federal agencies. I want you to listen to what former Federal Prosecutor, Jeffrey Toobin, said last night on CNN about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: The idea that they could lose their jobs simply for doing their jobs in an appropriate way is genuinely shocking. And it may well be illegal because assistant U.S. attorneys, unlike political appointees, do have civil service protection and you just can't fire them because you don't like the cases they've been working on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: So in terms of the reaction then, you don't expect, I mean, I guess there will be appeals like you say, but perhaps they won't go anywhere.
COLLINSON: Yeah. And even if they do go anywhere, they'll take so long that the facts of the case would've been established. And those facts will be that the President is all powerful. We know that Trump believes that the office of the presidency has very few constraints.
[08:15:00]
He doesn't have a Congress that is likely to check him in many ways, at least until the next two years because there are Republican majorities in both chambers of commerce. And I think it's pretty clear that the White House doesn't really care about legal constraints on the President's power.
In the first term, Trump made that clear. He's given us no reason to believe that he'll be any different in the second term. Furthermore, the supreme court ruling that gave president substantial immunity for official acts, which arose out of one of Trump's legal cases, that I think convinces Trump and those around him even more, that they've got massive leeway to expand the office of the presidency and no one is going to really stop them.
Sure there are going to be legal challenges, but I think there are going to be multiple occasions in the coming days and weeks where the administration could be perceived to have broken the law or at least pushed it to its full extent. You are going to get legal challenge on legal challenge piling up, but that doesn't stop the administration operating in real time. Perhaps there could be some sanction when all of these cases get through to the supreme court, but that's going to take months and by then the power is already taken.
WALKER: Yeah. So when I said asking you, that these potentially will go nowhere, will likely not have an impact on Trump's absolute power that we're seeing. CNN Politics Senior Reporter, Stephen Collinson, thank you very much for the conversation. And still to come, a river of humanity, tens of thousands of Palestinians head back home to Northern Gaza for a second day in a row. Their emotional journey is ahead. Plus, thousands of civilians flee the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Rwanda- backed rebels claim to have taken control of the city. We're going to have a live report on this developing situation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: Gunfire continues to ring out in the city of Goma in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Thousands of panicked civilians fled Goma on Monday after M-23 rebels backed by Rwanda claimed to have seized the city. Videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN show protests and a fire outside the U.S. Embassy in the capital, and a fire near the French Embassy. Salma Abdelaziz joining me now from London with what's going on. What is the latest, Salma?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's begin in Goma of course, because that's where pitch battles appear to still be going on between Sudanese armed forces and this militia group, the M-23 rebel group, which has claimed control of Goma in recent days. Now, they've been advancing on this city for weeks. I want to remind our viewers that M-23, this militia group is accused of really horrible atrocities of human rights violations, including rape, murder, and looting.
[08:20:00]
And so this group, again, has been advancing on Goma in recent days. It's been this lightning-fast offensive. It has forced some 400,000 people to flee, some of them being displaced yet again because this is part of an ongoing conflict. Well, why is all of this taking place? It may have something to do with your telephone because what is so precious, what is so valuable in this part of the DRC is these minerals that are used to build our cell phones and other electronic devices. That's what rights groups warn is the ultimate goal for M-23 rebels, who again are trying to seize Goma.
But just last year, according to the United Nations, were able to illegally acquire tons, 150 tons worth of these precious minerals illegally. Who are they backed by, these M-23 rebels, by neighboring country, Rwanda. That's part of why you're seeing those images outside of Western embassies, including the American Embassy in Kinshasa. There is this sense among people there, among those protestors that Rwanda is supported by Western countries.
Now, there's a glimmer of hope, a sign of progress here. The Kenyan government has arranged a meeting between the leaders of Rwanda and the DRC to take place tomorrow. All parties, of course, are appealing for calm with the United Nations saying that some 2 million lives, the lives of those in Goma, hang in the balance.
WALKER: All right. Salma Abdelaziz, thank you for your reporting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Donald Trump on his election victory. And now, sources say he may be the very first head of state to visit the White House following the U.S. President's inauguration. U.S. and Israeli officials describe the plan for a visit as preliminary, but the president says it will happen very soon.
Meanwhile, for the second straight day, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning home to Northern Gaza, a region that has been reduced to rubble following 15 months of brutal bombardment. CNN's Jeremy Diamond joining me now live in Tel Aviv with more. Jeremy, talk to us more about the scenes and of course, what the Palestinians are coming home to.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, listen, it has been an incredible mixture of emotions and of sights that these people who are returning to their homes in Northern Gaza are seeing. On the one hand, you have these incredibly emotional reunions, the joy that people have to finally be able to return to a place that they call home. But at the same time, they are under no illusions about what they are returning to, absolutely enormous destruction in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (voice-over): Today, the masses of people trekking up Gaza's coastal road are not being forced to flee. They are returning home.
[Foreign Language]
The Palestinian people are going back to their homes, this man shouts, announcing his joy to anyone who will listen. It's a great happiness. We feel like we can fly.
After being displaced for months on end, tens of thousands of Palestinians are finally returning to Northern Gaza, shielded by the guarantees of a six-week ceasefire. This river of humanity flows for miles and miles, underscoring the magnitude of the last 15 months of war.
For many like Ayad al-Masri (ph), their journey began in southern Gaza, taking down their tents they hope forever. I'm taking these four bags and going back to my house, Ayad (ph) says. I don't know if it is still standing or not, but I'm going back to Beit Hanoun.
People quickly crowd around the few buses heading north, babies and belongings hoisted with urgency. Others carry what they can, taking their chances on foot, trudging through this uneven coastal road, young and old alike, are determined to push past fatigue and return home. For the first of many, that moment came shortly after 9:00 a.m., crossing an abandoned Israeli checkpoint where masked Hamas militants now stand watch.
Israel agreed to open the road to Northern Gaza only after resolving a two-day dispute with Hamas over the fate of an Israeli hostage, Arbel Yehud. Hamas now set to release her alongside the captive Israeli soldier, Agam Berger and a third hostage on Thursday.
Back in Gaza, this is what most are returning to, bombed-out buildings and heaps of rubble now line the streets. [08:25:00]
Even amid the destruction, there is joy as family members separated by war reunite. Thank God, Motao (ph) says as he kisses his mother and embraces his daughter. He hasn't seen them in 10 months.
Amid the reunions, there are also tears as people set foot on the lands they call home once again, I'm crying right now out of happiness, this man says. I don't want anything except to enter my homeland.
The enormity of the destruction in Gaza prompting President Trump to call for moving Palestinians out of Gaza.
TRUMP: I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people. I can -- I mean, you're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Among those who camped out for days near the checkpoint to Northern Gaza, waiting for it to open, Trump's idea is quickly rejected.
We say to Trump, no, and a million and one nos. We will stay here. We will stay in Gaza, he says, even if it is a pile of rubble.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (on camera): And that idea by President Trump is not just being rejected by Palestinians on the ground in Gaza, but also by both Egypt and Jordan, the two countries that Trump said he would like to send Palestinians to. What's clear is that the only people in this region, Trump is, seems to be echoing in suggesting this are far-right politicians in Israel, far-right lawmakers who have consistently advocated for displacing Palestinians from Gaza, so that they can build Israeli settlements over there.
WALKER: Extraordinary to see these images in your reporting and hearing from the people and their resolve rebuild. Jeremy, we mentioned earlier that Benjamin Netanyahu could be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump at the White House since he won election. What do you know, what are you hearing about this potential trip?
DIAMOND: Well, listen, there's no question that for Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is a top priority to be on the same page with President Trump. It benefits him both in terms of his foreign policy goals as he looks towards potentially striking Iranian nuclear facilities in the coming years, but also, of course, in terms of domestic politics. Netanyahu has always staked his career on having a close relationship with the U.S. president, no matter who he is. And with Trump in particular, there is a lot that Trump can benefit him for in terms of the right wing of Israeli politics, as I was just mentioning, very similar kind of viewpoints there.
And we also know of course, that right-wing politicians in Israel would like to see Trump help with another element of politics and that is with annexing the West Bank. So there is potential for a lot of alignment there and for Netanyahu to also use that relationship to benefit him at home politically as well.
WALKER: Jeremy Diamond, always appreciate your reporting. Thank you very much. And still to come, back in Guatemala, more than 100 migrants are deported for illegally entering the U.S. We're going to meet some of them when we come back.
And a gas station security camera could help officials find the answer of what started this month's deadly Eaton Fire in Southern California. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:31:20]
WALKER: More now on the crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the U.S. More than 2,000 people have been arrested in immigration operations in several cities over the past couple of days. The raids are also being orchestrated for TV and social media with agents being told to show up, camera-ready, wearing full tactical gear. President Trump's borders czar, Tom Homan says, for now, they're focusing on criminals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOMAN: So, this operation right now is concentrated on public safety threats and national security threats throughout the country. We're focused on -- we're focused on criminals, but I think you and I discussed before, but in sanctuary cities, you're going to see a higher number of collateral arrests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Latin America and Caribbean leaders are set to hold an urgent regional bloc meeting Thursday to discuss migration in the region, among other issues. And in Guatemala, the vice president was on the tarmac to greet a deportation flight as it arrived from the U.S. And CNN's David Culver was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stepping off a commercial charter and onto Guatemala City's military tarmac, 124 migrants deported for illegally entering the U.S. now back home. They process past officials, including the country's vice president, and into a reception hall. Cookies and coffee await. One by one, they're called up to be officially documented. Now, that's a change from their status in the U.S.
CULVER: She lived 10 years in the U.S. in Alabama. She did roofing, construction, and car repair while in the U.S.
CULVER (voice-over): Here we meet Sara Toputhors (ph). At 43, she says she carries a criminal record related to child endangerment.
CULVER: She was shopping at Walmart with her grandson and she said, he didn't have a car seat. And she was pulled over as she was leaving the Walmart by a police officer in Alabama.
CULVER (voice-over): She went to jail for two months and was detained for five more months, she says, by immigration officials in Louisiana before being sent back here. She's actually grateful, thanking God for being back.
CULVER: Do you want to go back to the U.S.? No?
CULVER (voice-over): Sara (ph) seemingly uncomfortable though speaking with us in what she's wearing. She's eager to get to her bag which sits in a pile of plastic sacks and stapled shut. And as she heads into the bathroom to change, we meet Fidel Ambrocio.
CULVER: So how many years altogether did you live in the U.S.?
FIDEL AMBROCIO, DEPORTED FROM THE U.S. TO GUATEMALA: Almost 19 years.
CULVER: 19 years?
AMBROCIO: Yes. I'm scared. But that was now the Trump, they say go over the criminal, but we are not a criminal, you know.
CULVER: But you have a trespassing conviction?
AMBROCIO: Yes.
CULVER: Are you going to try to stay here or do you think you'll go back?
AMBROCIO: I have to go back, for sure.
CULVER: You'll find a way back?
AMBROCIO: Yes.
CULVER (voice-over): While Fidel walks freely here, others are pulled aside by Guatemalan police as soon as they arrive, accused of crimes not only in the U.S., but also here in their homeland. They require a lot of resources so as to reintegrate the returnees.
Guatemala's vice president tells me it's about the same number though that have been arriving in recent years under President Biden. Though she says the use of U.S. military planes, which Guatemala is permitting, is new under President Trump.
Back in the reception hall, we almost don't recognize Sara (ph). She has changed into her indigenous wardrobe and feels more at home, now ready to step out, reunite with her daughter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:35:00]
CULVER (on camera): Obviously, there's a lot of emotion in that moment between Sara (ph) and her daughter. And I asked both of them if they have any interest for Sara (ph) to go back to the U.S. or for her daughter to go for the first time. And they were adamant, they do not want to go. And it seems that in many ways tends to echo what the Trump administration is hoping to put out there in their messaging from these deportations in part, and that is a deterrence factor to keep people from wanting to go into the U.S. in the first place.
However, when you meet others like Fidel who said it doesn't stop him, he's going to try as many times as possible to get back to the U.S., be it legal or illegal.
David Culver, CNN, Guatemala City.
WALKER: David, thank you. And actress Selena Gomez is sharing her emotional reaction to the immigration sweep on social media. The star of Oscar-nominated 'Emilia Perez', who is Mexican-American, posted a video to her Instagram Monday morning and then she quickly deleted it. But here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SELENA GOMEZ, SINGER/ACTRESS: I'm so sorry. How many people are getting attacked and children, they don't understand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: A lot of emotions there. Borders czar, Tom Homan, responded later by asking why she wasn't crying for children illegally smuggled into the U.S.
Well, a gas station security camera could hold the answer to what started this month's deadly Eaton Fire in Southern California. One of the people whose homes was destroyed has filed a lawsuit accusing a utility company of sparking the blaze. CNN's Veronica Miracle has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A flash on this gas station surveillance camera is at first hard to see, but a new lawsuit alleges this is the start of the deadly Eaton Fire that tore through Altadena. Video obtained by law firm Edelson PC
allegedly shows sparking electrical power lines, they say eventually erupted into the fire that killed 17 people and damaged or destroyed more than 10,000 structures. The video is a centerpiece in a lawsuit filed against utility company, Southern California Edison, on behalf of an Altadena woman who lost her home.
MIRACLE: At this point, are you confident that SCE is responsible for the Eaton Fire?
ALI MOGHADDAS, ATTORNEY, EDELSON PC: Absolutely. We filed a lawsuit against them. We believe they're responsible.
MIRACLE (voice-over): SoCal Edison has repeatedly denied claims that their equipment started the catastrophic blaze. Monday morning, the company filed an update to the California Public Utilities Commission saying they found a fault on a transmission line five miles away from where the fire allegedly started.
MIRACLE: Even though there was an issue five miles away from the alleged starting point, could that have impacted that area and caused sparking in that area and caused the fire?
KATHLEEN DUNLEAVY, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON SPOKESPERSON: So, this is an ongoing investigation and we will continue to inspect and review our equipment.
MIRACLE (voice-over): While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, more videos of the alleged origin of the blaze are emerging all around the same time. This new surveillance video is time-stamped at 2:10 a.m. coordinated universal time or 6:10 p.m. Pacific Time. Pedro Rojas took this video just a few minutes later at 6:24 p.m. It shows flames exploding at the base of an electrical transmission tower. Jennifer and Marcus Errico captured pictures from a similar vantage point at 6:15 p.m.
MARCUS ERRICO, ALTADENA RESIDENT: I can't say definitively that it was the power lines that caused it, but Eaton Canyon (ph) is right on the edge of Altadena in Pasadena. That's where the fire began. It was under that tower. It began as a small little blaze underneath. And within 10 minutes, the whole hillside was engulfed in the fire.
MIRACLE (voice-over): In court Monday, Southern California Edison agreed to keep this transmission tower and nearby equipment de- energized to preserve evidence. It gives Edelson's lawyers 21 days to have their own experts inspect these lines.
MOGHADDAS: What we learned today was that there could be potentially physical evidence five miles away in this other line that they reported experienced the fault at the same time as the fire.
MIRACLE: How is that possible if it's five miles away?
MOGHADDAS: All these lines are interconnected. These transmission lines, they all feed together. And so when one experiences an issue miles down the line, this is traveling at the speed of light. It has implications, it impacts lines down the way.
DUNLEAVY: Our hearts are with everyone who has been impacted by the wildfires, at Southern California Edison. Right now, this is an ongoing investigation and we're at the beginning of it, and we are committed to working with local investigators and finding out, you know, what happened here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:40:00]
MIRACLE (on camera): The judge in today's case says there are at least 19 other lawsuits against Southern California Edison. And when we spoke to the plaintiff's lawyer, he said that he's also representing hundreds of other people he expects to file more lawsuits. He also expects all of these cases to get folded into one big case, so that a bunch of different judges aren't making a bunch of different decisions.
And just for reference, that video that you saw at the beginning of this story, this is the ARCO Gas Station where that surveillance video came from. The transmission tower in question is over a mile from here. Obviously, that spark would've had to been very large and very big for it to be picked up on this camera.
Veronica Miracle, CNN, Altadena, California.
WALKER: All right, well, warnings for flooding are in place for Northwestern France as Storm Herminia brings heavy rain and gusty winds to much of the country. France was already impacted by Storm Eowyn last weekend, which left the ground saturated and more prone to flooding.
Let's bring in Derek Van Dam from the CNN Weather Center with more. I mean, just incredible rain and flooding that we're seeing.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, and Amara, you said it too because that's more of the compounding factor of storm after storm after storm impacting the same region. So, we're seeing this flooding unfold because of the current storm, but remember, it's last week that really set the stage for this flooding to actually occur.
I mean, just imagine if this was your home or your business or your livelihood, that is serious flooding that will take weeks if not months to clean up as the water slowly recede. Unfortunately, there is yet another storm that will impact the region later this week, and I'll highlight that in just a moment. Satellite loop very, very busy. But this is the area in question here across Western France, there is a storm that's rotating across the U.K. right now, so that's bringing in a lot of moisture from the Atlantic across the area of northwestern France that continues to see the flooding.
The next storm system here is just on the outside perimeter of our satellite imagery. So that's the next one we'll be watching. In the meantime though, this current storm, Herminia has actually dropped the most amount of rain that this particular location just west of Paris, here in Northwestern France, has ever experienced in the month of January. That's incredible. Three times its average monthly rainfall for this particular month.
So it's really saying something, sets the stage for additional flooding because we have another storm coming. Here's the radar. Very active, especially to the south of this region. Again, the main area of low pressure is across the United Kingdom as we speak, but as that drives in the wind and the rain, we continue to have these red alert levels for the potential of flooding throughout Northwestern France. And there's a lot of wind associated with this.
Some gusts could top 100 kilometers per hour quite easily. That's tropical storm force winds to near hurricane force gusts. So incredible amount of energy. There's the first storm incoming with a second storm system that will bring additional rainfall from Wednesday into Thursday across some of the of the areas that have been greatly impacted by this flooding, particularly Northwestern France, just west of Paris, where you saw the video.
The last thing we want to see, Amara, is more scenes like this unfolding as the rain continues to pile up and add up here in centimeters across Northwestern France. Amara?
WALKER: All right, Derek Van Dam, thank you. And still to come, the harsh tactics used by North Korean troops fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine. Our report from the battlefields is coming up next.
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[08:45:35]
WALKER: CNN has gained rare insight into the battlefield tactics of North Korean troops fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Kyiv's special forces say the troops from Pyongyang will fight to death rather than surrender. Nick Paton Walsh filed this report and we do warn you, some images are disturbing.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the first images on the ground of the capture of North Korean troops by Ukraine. The soldier is injured, can hardly walk, but they spirit him away. Russian shelling intensifies to prevent capture. A wild prize pulled through their wires here from brutal fighting in Russia's Kursk region against a radicalized, near- suicidal enemy, but one who'd never seen drones in war before.
The special operations forces who fought them told us.
POKEMON, GROUP COMMANDER, UKRAINIAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES (through translator): They are all young, fresh and hardy. But they're only prepared for the realities of an Eighties war. Despite all attempts to call them to surrender, they continue to fight.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): There's a unique challenge here. Ukraine wants to take captives, but the North Koreans seem to prefer to die. They shoot one here in caution. In the distressing images that follow, they pull one injured Korean's leg, then realize he has a grenade. He detonates under his chin. His last words were to scream North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's name, South Korean officials say.
We meet the Ukrainians who show us the faked Russian military papers he was carrying, suggesting he was from Russia's Far East and his military radio codes. Another paper, handwritten pledges of brainwashed courage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The hammer of death to the unknown and the puppet trash is not far off. We wield the powerful force that makes them tremble in fear. World, watch closely.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): These notes from a soldier killed really a snapshot of the mindset inside the hermit kingdom, declarations of loyalty, even tactics on how to fight Ukrainian drones, and also the suggestion that their presence here is about helping North Korea prepare for war. It's a remarkable insight --
PATON WALSH: But also a reminder of how this biggest land war in Europe since the '40s is becoming more global.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): But also a glimpse of the fear they live under, how they inform on each other. Notes from an officer writing a critique of his fellow soldiers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He engaged in an unimaginably disgraceful act by stealing supplies. Another solider failed to uphold the Supreme Commander's dignity and placed his personal interests above all.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Ukrainians film themselves taking DNA samples from the dead, which they say prove these were Korean. Ukraine says up to a third of the 12,000 here are already dead or injured, and more are coming.
Amur shows us the newish AK-12 rifle and backpack Russia gave the North Koreans. They are overladen with ammo, he says, but sometimes no body armor or warm clothes and minimal water.
AMUR, COMPANY COMMANDER, UKRAINIAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES (through translator): We have seen cases when fighters from North Korea ran without body armor which we find strange as well. They are very maneuverable. They run and move very quickly. They are hard to catch, especially with a drone.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): This thermal drone video shows that speed of attack. Below are seven Ukrainians in a trench facing 130 North Koreans above who race at them and then try to flank them. Many died here, but they seemed to be learning.
BANDIT, BATTALION COMMANDER, UKRAINIAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES (through translator): They have a plan of what to do if they are attacked by a drone. It's one person who takes the hit. Two or three people stand on the side and shoot directly. It is worth noting that they shoot quite well. This suggests that they were trained.
[08:50:00]
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Ready to die, everybody checked for grenades, but not ready for this modern warfare. On a training mission, many won't survive for a future war not even glimpsed yet.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Sumy, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: South Korean investigators have reported their initial findings on the fatal Jeju plane crash. Officials are focusing on a bird strike and the report says, avian blood and feathers were found on each engine. But authorities are also examining concerns over a landing guidance structure near the airport's runway. The crash was the deadliest on South Korean soil. 179 people were killed on December 29th. The tech world is focused on one thing this week, DeepSeek. So how accurate are the A.I. companies claims it can compete with the big boys? We're going to take a look after the break.
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WALKER: Welcome back, everyone. We've got 30 minutes before the U.S. opening bell and investors are hoping there won't be a repeat of Monday's market. You can see a mixed look at the futures. Dow Futures are down while NASDAQ and S&P 500 Futures are up. Also, take a look at Chipmaker Nvidia. Their stock took a record-breaking tumble, as did all the tech giants which brought the NASDAQ down.
It's all thanks to this man's company, DeepSeek, and its new, cheap, yet powerful A.I. model. Liang Wenfeng is being hailed in China as a tech visionary who could help China rival Silicon Valley. Now, A.I. analysts are skeptical though of the claims that DeepSeek has made surrounding the revolutionary A.I. model. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has a latest from Hong Kong
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: DeepSeek and its A.I. claim has spooked markets and stunned the world. But, is it for real? Now, last week, DeepSeek unveiled a generative A.I. model called R1. It's much like ChatGPT, except the company said that it can operate at a fraction of the cost.
Now, according to DeepSeek, it spent only $5.6 million on computing power for the base model. And compare that with U.S. companies like Meta, like OpenAI, or Google that have paid hundreds of millions or billions of dollars on their A.I. technology. Now, DeepSeek's announcement rattled America's tech sector. The tech-heavy NASDAQ lost more than 3 percent. Shares of Nvidia fell nearly 17 percent. But analysts are questioning DeepSeek's claims.
In fact, according to Strategy Risks Founder, Isaac Stone Fish, he says this. "How much did it actually cost DeepSeek to train its model? We won't know that until someone has properly audited its claims and the research paper it released."
Meanwhile, we've been learning more about the founder of DeepSeek. Now, Liang Wenfeng recently spoke at a symposium hosted by the Chinese Premier Li Qiang and according to Chinese state run media, his lab is based in Zhejiang province. It reportedly has a small team of fewer than 10 people. And Liang believes China must shift, it must shift from imitation to originality to build its own high-tech ecosystem.
In fact, this is what he says. He says this, "We often say there's a one or two-year gap between China and the U.S., but the real gap is between originality and imitation. If this doesn't change, China will always be a follower."
[08:55:00]
Liang ads that China cannot be in a follower position forever.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong. WALKER: Finally, not all A.I. startups are as successful in the beginning as DeepSeek. A French language artificial intelligence ChatBox named Lucy has been taken offline after giving some pretty crazy answers to some very basic questions. Now, Lucy said there was such thing as cows eggs, "edible eggs produced by cows, a healthy and nutritious food." I'd like to try that. Well, there is no such thing though. And Lucy incorrectly said that the answer to this mathematical equation was 17. But as you know, if you do the math there, five times five is 25. And the ChatBox said, "the square root of goat is one." Now, Lucy's developers say it remains an academic research project in its early stages and that was released prematurely.
Yeah, a lot of kinks to work out there. Thanks for being with me here on "CNN Newsroom." I'm Amara Walker. "Connect the World" with Eleni Giokos is next.
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