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Russia Launches Massive Drone, Missile Attack On Kyiv; Trump- Netanyahu Meeting Pivotal To Next Steps Of Gaza Ceasefire; Poll: Economic Concerns Highlighted As A Key Issue Among GOP; 2026 And The Future Of AI; U.S. In A High-Stakes Race To Dominate A.I. Tech Before China; At Least 15 Killed, 19 Injured In Guatemala Bus Crash; Ashlee Buzzard Pleads Not Guilty To Daughter's Murder; AAA: Year-End Travel Setting New Record. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 27, 2025 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[18:00:36]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Hi, everyone, I am Jessica Dean here in New York.

And tonight, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet with President Donald Trump in Florida tomorrow. That meeting between the two leaders is set to take place just a day after Russia carried out one of its longest sustained attacks on Ukraine this year.

Russia launching nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine overnight, primarily targeting civilian and energy infrastructure in Kyiv.

Despite Russia's latest attacks, the kremlin is still engaging in talks to end the war. However, Zelenskyy, who was in Canada earlier today for talks with that country's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, says Russia's attack speaks for itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: And this attack is again Russia's answer on our peace efforts, and it really shows that Putin doesn't want peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's senior White House reporter, Kevin Liptak is joining us now, and Kevin, Zelenskyy is headed to Mar-a-Lago tomorrow and appears willing to make a series of compromises. So what do we know about the plan that is on the table? And what are we looking ahead to tomorrow?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. He is coming armed with a 20-point plan essentially, the Ukrainians revision of the multi-point plan that President Trump has put on the table to try and bring this conflict to an end.

What you see them doing is trying and going to all of the parties here, the Russians, the Ukrainians, and trying to come up with an agreement that all sides of this can sign off on. It is not clear that Moscow is ready to agree to a ceasefire. That's something that Zelenskyy has said is necessary.

You know, he says he is willing to put this proposal up for a referendum in his country, but only if Russia stops the fighting and I think the events of today in Kyiv just underscore, one, that Russia does not appear anywhere close to agreeing to a ceasefire; but two, that it is becoming more and more urgent that Zelenskyy and Trump and Vladimir Putin are able to come up with some kind of deal now.

What Zelenskyy has also said is that he and his country would be willing to agree to some land concessions, or at least he is not a ruling that out altogether, which is something that he had been doing for so long. And so when you talk to American officials, they do say that that amounts to some significant progress and that is kind of the mood music as Zelenskyy flies now down here to Palm Beach to meet with President Trump.

You know, there has been intensive talks down here over the last week or so, as Steve Witkoff, who is the President's foreign envoy, Jared Kushner, his son-in-law who is also working on this try and speak with all of these sides to come up with a finalized plan.

President Trump, though, sounded somewhat tepid about the chances that this was going to result in an ultimate peace, saying that Zelenskyy doesn't have anything until I approve it. He says, we will see what he has got -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Kevin Liptak there with the very latest from West Palm Beach. Kevin, thank you so much for that reporting and I want to turn now to CNN correspondent, Nada Bashir, who has more on that latest Russian attack on Ukraine -- Nada.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, overnight into Saturday, Russia carried out a deadly large scale aerial assault on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Ukraine's President said the attack saw some 500 drones and 40 missiles launched at Ukraine, lasting almost 10 hours, making it one of the longest of the year.

At least one person was killed and dozens injured in the assault, which struck both energy infrastructure and residential buildings, leaving thousands without heating amid freezing temperatures.

Many spent much of Saturday taking shelter as air raid sirens continued to sound across the city.

OLENA KAPENKO, KYIV RESIDENT (through translator): All night long, there was an air raid siren. And then in the morning, we heard a very loud explosion at the thermal power plant. Then we heard when the drones flew in and there was an explosion and flames broke out.

The house shook. We went to the window even though you shouldn't. We got dressed, ran out of the house and heard a man burning on the fourth floor begging for help. It is horrible. BASHIR: The attack comes ahead of a planned meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, in Florida on Sunday.

The two leaders are expected to continue to hammer out the details of a 20-point peace plan to bring an end to the nearly four-year war.

[18:05:10]

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy signaled his willingness to make some key concessions on issues that have so far stalled the U.S. mediated peace process with Russia, including withdrawing Ukrainian troops from parts of the Donetsk region not currently occupied by Russian forces, though any withdrawal of troops would, according to Zelenskyy have to be reciprocal, with Moscow expected to give up as much Ukrainian territory in the Donbas region as that ceded by Kyiv. Those pockets of the Donbas region would then become demilitarized zones as a result.

While Moscow has yet to offer a formal response on where the peace plan currently stands, kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov has told CNN that the prospect of Ukraine "giving up the rest of Donetsk could contribute significantly."

President Trump has also said he expects to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon.

For now, all eyes will be on Florida on Sunday as President Zelenskyy and President Trump meet once again.

Nada Bashir, CNN in London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Nada, thank you.

President Trump has told POLITICO that he thinks affordability or as he called it, pricing, will be the defining issue of the upcoming midterm elections. That sentiment is mirrored in a new CNN poll, which found among Republicans and Republican leaning Independents, 40 percent mentioned economic or cost of living concerns.

We are joined now by CNN senior analyst, Ron Brownstein.

Ron, good to see you on this Saturday night.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Jessica.

DEAN: We know the President -- hi! The President has been trying to recalibrate his economic message in recent weeks. Do you think its breaking through?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, he is right. This is going to be the critical issue for swing voters. He has got a big hill to climb in terms of changing perceptions. You know, the history of off-year elections, whether it is the odd year like 2025, 2017, 2021 or the midterm, is that views of the President are the dominant factor, much more than assessments of the party that is not in The White House.

I think the history of the last few decades is pretty clear that almost everywhere where a majority of voters approve of President Trump, Republicans are very likely to win those races and in places where a majority of voters disapprove of his performance, Democrats are highly likely to win almost all, if not literally all, of those races next year.

And as a result, the key dynamic is where he stands. And right now, views of his management of the economy as we've talked about before, are consistently weaker than they were at any point during his first term.

In his first term, the economy was a floor lifting him up no matter what other controversies were engulfing him in his second term. It is an undertow pulling him down, and that is the dynamic that Republicans will be running against in 2026.

DEAN: Yes, and as far as the Democrats go, there is this kind of, I think, theory of the case that if Democrats can just stay on message with the economy like we saw in these past elections in November, and it didn't matter if they were a more moderate Democrat like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia or Zohran Mamdani here in New York City. If they were talking about cost of living, they were very successful.

What do you think about that?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, obviously, that is the point of vulnerability for the President, you know, and really everything revolves around those views of the President. You would be hard pressed to say that Democrats have put forward, you know, some magic agenda to reverse the deterioration in people's cost of living.

And yet, if you look at polling over the last year, there has been a remarkable shift in Republicans losing trust on their ability to handle inflation and cost of living and gains for Democrats. And again, that's largely the hydraulics of American politics.

When one party goes down, the other goes up. So that is clearly the point of vulnerability. Voters tend to, you know, have said in polls all year that they think Trump is two things -- they think Trump is not paying enough attention to the problem, which was the principal reason why they elected him, and to the extent he is paying attention to it, more people say his program is increasing their costs than controlling them.

So, to some extent, what Democrats have to do is simply say, I am not going to do what he has been doing, right? I am just going to reverse course. But that doesn't mean there is a license to nominate candidates. You know, any ideological persuasion everywhere.

Cultural issues are still really important for Republicans, and particularly in places with a lot of blue collar voters. And really, the job for Democrats in 2026 is going to be to neutralize those wherever they can to make it a referendum on the economy, because Trump right now is losing that referendum. DEAN: And so, Ron, what can the President do? I mean, he has, you know, a little less than a year. Obviously, there is messaging, but I would assume people need to be able to feel it. They need to feel like things are getting better.

What can the President do, do you think?

BROWNSTEIN: I think, first of all, time, as you note, is running out. I mean, you know, the ability of events to change people's perceptions, you know, it has got a time limit on it.

[18:10:07]

So the idea that people are going to be feeling a lot better about the economy by November, they probably have to be feeling better by it fairly soon in order for that to be happening. I suspect they are going to look at some way of trying to give people tax rebates, calling it a tariff refund. Obviously, he is going to make the case that he is improving things from where Joe Biden left it, although, you know, the indications on inflation is that we are almost exactly in the same place. And in any case, voters tend not to accept that argument for any President after only a few months in office.

Honestly, I think the best the best chance for Republicans is to polarize the electorate around other issues than the economy to kind of go back at some of those cultural issues that have caused voters in some of these swing areas of the country to be hesitant about Democrats, because right now, by and large, voters are saying that the Republican agenda is compounding the problem, not solving it and that is just a very difficult place for them to be in.

DEAN: And, Ron, we've got about 30 seconds left, but you've got a new piece out in Bloomberg, and you say the last five times the President has gone into a midterm election with unified control of the federal government, The White House, House and Senate voters have revoked it, the longest such streak in American history.

You think that's likely to happen again?

BROWNSTEIN: You'd have to bet on it right now.

Look, we are living through the longest period in American history where neither side has been able to establish a durable advantage over the other, going back to the late 1960s. There has really been nothing like this period in American history as that statistic underscores. And what we are seeing from Trump is what we've seen from other presidents.

They come in and they have been unable to consolidate their gains and that creates an opening for the other side.

DEAN: All right, Ron Brownstein, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, a major winter storm threatening New Year's Eve travel this holiday weekend. Stay with us.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:16:06]

DEAN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon head to the U.S. to meet with President Trump, that's happening Monday. The meeting comes at a critical point as the Gaza ceasefire nears the end of Phase One. And under the deal, Hamas was required to return all living and deceased Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, but one set of remains has still not been located.

CNN's Matthew Chance has more on the family's push to bring home their son.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

A.I. GENERATED VIDEO: President Trump, my name is the son of Ran Gvili Talik and Itzik.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's an extraordinary message generated by A.I. from beyond the grave in Gaza, recreating the image and voice of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza, authorized by his relatives and released by the Hostage Families Forum.

A.I. GENERATED VIDEO: Mr. President, I am asking you to see this through.

CHANCE (voice over): It is a carefully crafted message his mother tells me she will personally deliver to President Trump when she meets him with the Israeli Prime Minister in Florida.

Hamas is keeping hold of her son's remains, she insists as a cynical bargaining chip. The group says they just can't find his body.

TALIK GVILI, MOTHER OF LAST HOSTAGE IN GAZA: We don't go to the second part of the agreement until Ran will come back, because everyone in Israel understands it.

CHANCE (on camera): U.S. officials, including the Ambassador here in Israel from the United States has suggested that the peace process can advance while the search for your son continues. Would that be -- would that be acceptable?

GVILI: No, no. It is not acceptable because we don't want that Gaza will build on my son.

CHANCE (voice over): Under the ambitious second phase of the Trump plan, Hamas would be expected to surrender its weapons and power, something the group, which has survived an Israeli onslaught, may be reluctant to do.

Israel would also have to make painful concessions, like withdrawing from Gaza while handing control to an international force. Both sides, it seems, may share a common interest in stopping Trump's peace plan in its tracks.

But frustration in Washington is growing amid concerns both Hamas and a skeptical Israel are dragging their feet.

A.I. GENERATED VIDEO: Mr. President, finish what you started. Bring me home before it is too late.

CHANCE (voice over): While the unknown whereabouts of the last Israeli hostage is further complicating Trump's Gaza peace plan.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Matthew, thank you.

And we are joined now by CNN global affairs analyst, Kim Dozier.

Kim, thanks so much for being here with us. We look ahead now to Monday and this meeting between the President and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Set the stage for everyone where we are in this process and what the goals will likely be for both sides.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, what The White House needs to see is some move forward on the peace process towards Phase Two. At this point, there are arguments over every possible modality you could think of, who is going to make up the Palestinian government, who is going to patrol the streets as a peacekeeping force from the Arab nations, and most importantly, where will Israel withdraw to and when will Hamas disarm?

What you've got the main thing holding everything back is that Israel wants Hamas to disarm first, and Hamas says Israel should pull out first.

DEAN: Right. Right.

And so, as Phase one nears completion, what would you say is the appetite for all sides to move forward with Phase Two? And how likely do you think it is that we get to that point?

DOZIER: Well, from Hamas' perspective, the closer they get to handing over to some sort of a civilian authority means the closer they get to losing power.

[18:20:10]

So they want to maintain power as long as possible for the Israelis. They still have no trust that whatever they withdraw from in Gaza won't present a threat to Israelis afterwards. Also, you've got elections, legislative elections in Israel coming in October. And two members of Netanyahu's coalition have threatened to pull out if Netanyahu goes through with Phase Two before then. DEAN: And so you mentioned, you know, what a civilian authority might mean and there is -- you know, there is a lot -- there are a lot of questions around what any sort of different governance in Gaza could look like as we get into Phase Two.

Do we have any working understanding of what that could potentially look like?

DOZIER: Something like a bit over a dozen technocrats have been identified who could take this role. But the problem is, you know, you always hear about negotiations. The devil is in the details. And none of these details were decided before the signing of this deal.

So right now you've got negotiations going back and forth from Cairo to Doha, now to Miami, and you have various parties to this that don't really want it to move forward. From Netanyahu's perspective, it is better if it stays frozen until those October elections. And one of the things that he is going to bring up when he comes to meet Trump is that you've just had a couple of IDF soldiers killed in Gaza by an explosion, they're going to say shows that Hamas is still active and actively targeting Israeli soldiers, even though Hamas says it was just a leftover bomb. It didn't -- it wasn't targeted.

You'll also have Netanyahu bringing up Iran's attempts to rebuild its ballistic missile program as sort of a -- you know, we've got bigger things to work on theme and that's some of the things that Netanyahu will use to say, it is not time yet to hand over more power to the Palestinians.

DEAN: What does it say, if anything, in your mind that Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to Florida, that he is meeting with the President here in the U.S.

DOZIER: Well, there has been some reporting, including by CNN contributor Barak Ravid, that many of the negotiators involved have gotten very disillusioned with Bibi Netanyahu. But the only person still in his corner is Donald Trump.

So this, in a sense, is going over the heads of all the negotiators to the top guy and trying to win him over to his point of view. Will it work? Netanyahu often does manage to charm Trump in person, but he is going to have to come with a really strong case to explain why Hamas can't be trusted to move forward at this time, because as long as Gaza remains unstable, Trump can't move forward with the expansion of the Abraham Accords and that is key to him possibly winning the Peace Prize next year.

DEAN: Right. And it is interesting, as you lay that out, the push and pull here on both sides, because Trump certainly has his eye, as you note, on expanding the Abraham Accords, that's quite important to him and it has been something that's very important to his administration.

DEAN: Yes, and you know, the thing I have to bring up is the people with the least amount of power in all of this are the Palestinians in Gaza, who, according to the U.N. and other aid bodies right now have inadequate food and shelter and if you've ever been to Israel during the winter, it is like -- it constantly rains and the chill just gets into your bones. I can't imagine being under a piece of tarp trying to keep children warm in that situation, and they're stuck between two sides that don't have any real impetus right now to move forward.

DEAN: Yes, I did want to ask you about that, because I think sometimes you know, we see okay, ceasefire, check, that has happened. Everyone can move ahead now. And, you know, there is not an active war going on. But so many of the people living in Gaza are still suffering to your point and trying to still get access to aid et cetera, et cetera.

DOZIER: Absolutely, and it is also a dangerous situation for them. The Palestinian Health Authority says something like 400 people have been killed since this ceasefire was declared and the U.N. also endorsed it and that means that if you are a family who has survived everything that's happened in the past couple of years, and you've been displaced from your home and you're in some sort of a tent city, you're afraid to move forward back to wherever your house was, it is probably rubble. And aid agencies that would help you rebuild, they can't really move that freely right now either.

[18:25:21]

Because there are still the occasional drone attacks, mortar attacks, and there are still armed groups that aren't under the control of Hamas, as well as Hamas fighters who want to survive, to fight another day.

DEAN: Yes, so we look to Monday to see what we might see come out of that meeting. Kim Dozier, great to see you. Thank you so much.

DOZIER: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, what does the New Year hold for the future of artificial intelligence? We are going to talk to a leading expert about why this year's A.I. hype could fade faster than one might think in 2026.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:20]

DEAN: It's been a big year for artificial intelligence. Tech companies have been shelling out hundreds of billions of dollars, betting big on the technology and its future in our economy. Politics really are everyday lives in all shapes and forms. But all this hype has also sparked fears of a potential A.I. bubble. One A.I. expert predicts if 2025 was the peak bubble, 2026 will likely be the year it all falls apart. And joining us now is that expert, Gary Marcus.

Gary, great to have you. Thanks for being here.

In your Substack, you say the clues are everywhere. Tell us what you're seeing when it comes to some of your predictions for A.I. in 2026.

GARY MARCUS, LEADING A.I. EXPERT: Well, it all starts with generative A.I., with large language models and the inherent problems that they have. They're basically statistical mimicking machines. They regurgitate what they see. That doesn't mean that they're genuine intelligence. And what happened is in 2023, people had never seen these things before. They got very excited. They imagined they might be super intelligent. But what's happened over time is people have realized, no, they're inherently flawed. They hallucinate. They make stupid mistakes. You can't really trust them on their own. You can only really use them with humans in the loop. And that has a lot of implications.

Number one is you can't make that much money from them because they don't work as well for companies as companies imagine. So, companies aren't getting the return on investment that they imagine from these products. Meanwhile, there's a price war because a lot of people have figured out how to make them. So, they come down in price by a factor of a hundred, which is pretty impressive. It makes them cheaper to operate. But it means that except for NVIDIA who's making the chips, nobody is really making a profit.

And unless these things magically turn into so-called artificial general intelligence, which now seems unlikely, most companies who are building this stuff aren't going to make profits. And then a whole bunch of dominoes are going to fall. There's huge investments, you know, over a trillion dollars in all these data centers. It's not clear that those are going to make their money back. We may have an oversupply. We might get into a position where banks have lent too much money to these companies. We could wind up in a repeat of 2008.

DEAN: Yes. And some people, though, argue this isn't a bubble. It's different than, say, the dot-com bubble because this investment in a lot of cases is backed by these huge companies that have solid cash flow. They have billions in profits. Some of the startups are beginning to see real profits. What do you say to that?

MARCUS: I mean, most of the startups aren't actually seeing real profits. So, take OpenAI, they're losing a few billion dollars every month. They're losing a massive amount of money and they can't afford to do that indefinitely. You know, the latest funding round was about $500 billion. That means the next one has to be $750 billion. It's not clear that people are going to invest in them, especially with Google catching up.

Gemini is arguably better than anything that OpenAI has managed to put out. So, OpenAI had a big lead, but they're not making money and they've lost that lead. So, I think that they're actually in trouble.

DEAN: This month, the President signed this executive order to block states from enforcing their own regulations around A.I. And the White House has argued this is to make the U.S. more competitive by creating what they call a single national framework for all states to follow. And this has divided lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. How do you see the politics of A.I. unfolding in 2026?

MARCUS: I think by the end of the year, Trump's going to change his tune. Right now, he's kind of all in on A.I. He's trying to keep there from being any regulation. He just wants to push the accelerator as fast as possible. He thinks it'll drive the stock market up. But the reality is that a lot of the left and a lot of the right don't really like the policies he's making.

A lot of the right people like DeSantis and Bannon are like, hold on, we still need to protect our citizens here. DeSantis actually proposed a bill of A.I. rights for Florida. There's nothing like that on a federal level. And now Trump is saying you can't do that on the state level. So, there's a schism within the Republican Party right now about how to handle A.I.

DEAN: Mm-hmm. And what about ...

MARCUS: And on the left, nobody's happy with a complete lack ...

DEAN: Yes. And what about ...

MARCUS: ... nobody is happy with a complete lack of regulation.

DEAN: Right. And then, what about this new kind of Cold War that undergo -- that we're seeing in the form of A.I. that's really unfolding between the U.S. and China? I mean, to your point, the President wants to make the U.S. the most competitive, and there are arguments among Republicans and Democrats about how best to do that. But how do you see that piece of it unfolding?

MARCUS: I think it's a little bit oversold. So, because the formula is fairly widely known for how to make these large language models, China is going to make their own. We're going to make our own. It's going to be more like Coke and Pepsi, you know? Coke has its part of the market, and Pepsi has its part of the market.

[18:35:06]

There's not going to be like a clear victory. A lot of people are using, sort of, fear of missing out or whatever, to say, oh my God, what if China gets ahead? Or, you know, can we dominate here? The truth is, both sides are building essentially the same product, and there's not going to be a clear winner. And it's not going to like, lead to this fundamental change in military strategy or something like that. Like, there was a big question, who was going to get GPT-5 first. And people thought, oh, my God, if China gets GPT-5 first, then they'll invade Taiwan, or all this kind of craziness.

And then, we got it first. And it didn't really make that much difference at all. Right? Each of these technologies is incrementally better than the last. Both sides have it. There's not going to be a clear winner here. And so, the race to try to win an unwinnable war, to me, seems a little silly. Obviously, we should participate, we should build some infrastructure. But it doesn't mean we need to put in so many trillions and leave our citizens vulnerable.

DEAN: And so, do you not think A.I. will play a big role when it comes to a military of the future, let's call it?

MARCUS: I think you have to be really careful to distinguish between generative A.I., which is what we know how to build right now, which is things chatbots like ChatGPT, and future forms of A.I.. Someday, we will have A.I. that really is as intelligent and as flexible as a human mind. And maybe that will make a big difference.

The technology we have is flawed. The generative A.I. that we have right now, you can't really plan a war with something that hallucinates. It's also not very good at dealing with unpredictability and complete information. War is about the fog of war, dealing with situations you haven't seen before. This technology just isn't very good at that. Some future technology might be, but that might be 10 or 20 or 30 years away.

DEAN: All right, Gary Marcus, thanks so much for your time. We do appreciate it.

MARCUS: Always a pleasure to be here. Thanks a lot.

DEAN: Thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:16]

DEAN: At least 15 people are dead and 19 others injured after a bus plunge into a ravine in Guatemala. Officials saying it took first responders hours to rescue those injured passengers who were taken to a local hospital for treatment. Road accidents are common in Guatemala. This crash happened in an area known for its dense fog. More Americans appear to be coming down with the flu. According to the latest data from the CDC, 4 percent of all visits to health care providers during the week of December 13th were from people suffering from respiratory illnesses. The agency also notes nearly 10,000 people were hospitalized with the flu during that time.

A mother's not guilty plea in the death of her nine-year-old daughter created a stir in a California courtroom Friday. Ashlee Buzzard is now charged with first degree murder in her daughter, Melodee's death. Melodee Buzzard vanished on a road trip with her mother back in October and her body was discovered in Utah earlier this month by a couple who ventured down a nondescript road in a sparsely populated area. CNN's Marybel Gonzalez has been following this from Los Angeles.

Marybel, now that the mother has pleaded not guilty, what comes next in this case?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jessica. Well, Ashlee Buzzard is expected back in court in January for a preliminary hearing. Now, that is just the beginning of the legal aspect of this case. Now, investigators say they have evidence that links Ashlee Buzzard to the murder of her daughter, including cartridges cases found at the scene where the body of Melodee was discovered, which they say match a single cartridge found at her mother's home.

Now, they've also searched Buzzard's home, a storage unit she had rented and the rental vehicle she drove during the road trip where Melodee was last spotted. Now, prosecutors also later said Buzzard allegedly killed Melodee

using a nine-millimeter gun. Buzzard was formally charged with first degree murder on Christmas Eve and is currently being held without bail. Prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty if she is convicted, but would instead ask for life in prison without parole. Now, Melodee's paternal family responded to that announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARVIN MEZA, MELODEE BUZZARD PATERNAL UNCLE: The prosecution stating that they're not going to seek the death penalty, I don't understand why. I think -- I mean, they're going to seek life in prison, that's fine. But I think for what she's -- what she did, it should be a lot worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GONZALEZ: Now, investigators searched for Melodee for two months and across eight states, but it was ultimately a couple who ventured down a dirt road in the rural community of Caineville, Utah, who discovered the decomposed remains of the nine-year-old little girl. Now, authorities say she had died from gunshot wounds to her head.

And right now, investigators have not located a weapon or have been able to pinpoint a motive. But they believe Melodee's murder was planned before the duo embarked on their road trip. They say there's investigation was hindered by, quote, deliberate efforts to hide the truth, including clumsy disguises, swapped license plates and an uncooperative Buzzard who could not provide an explanation for her daughter's whereabouts.

Now, we have reached out to Ashlee's attorney for comment, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Marybel Gonzalez with the latest. Thank you so much for that.

A new CNN Original Series follows a crime story that shocked a small town. "Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders" takes viewers to Australia and inside the jaw dropping murder investigation into Erin Patterson and the lethal lunch that killed her in-laws and estranged husband's aunt. Was it a premeditated murder or a horrible accident? All episodes are now available on the CNN app. And here's a preview for you.

[18:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about an area down the South Gippsland where it's ideal for growing mushrooms. There's plenty of moisture. There's trees and cover and the soil is very fertile. It's easy to grow mushrooms.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was two types of mushrooms. There's mushrooms and there's toadstools. And you just don't go near the toadstools. And that's basically what the death caps are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me it's a toadstool, not a mushroom.

Mushrooms to us were -- they were pink underneath or black, but never white or yellow. They were toadstools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Don't miss it. You can stream all those episodes right now on the CNN app.

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[18:50:06]

DEAN: With 2025 coming to a close, millions of people will be traveling back home after the holidays. AAA expecting the end of year travel to set a new record with more than 122.4 million Americans traveling at least 50 miles this holiday season and here to give us some tips on how to avoid the travel headaches and how to get the best deal, yes, for the new year is Going.com travel expert Katy Nastro.

Katy, good to see you.

We are seeing a number, really thousands of flight delays and cancellations pile up in the northeast due to this winter storm that has moved through. So, if you or someone you know is dealing with that headache right now, what immediate advice do you have for them?

KATY NASTRO, GOING.COM TRAVEL EXPERT: Immediately, we want travelers to take advantage of the travel waivers that airlines have out. We typically see these during peak periods of really bad weather, where you can actually make changes to your flight without any additional cost to you, as well as it doesn't matter what ticket type you have.

So, if you purchased a basic economy ticket, for example, the most restrictive ticket type in this scenario with the travel waiver, you are allowed to make changes. And again, we want people to act quickly. If you are going to take advantage of one of these waivers and say take a flight in a few days, or maybe even, you know, try to get that first flight out, which typically see a higher on time arrival rate, you want to act quickly because so many more people are traveling over a peak time period like the winter holidays and 2025 has seen some record-breaking days. And this past week is -- is no different in terms of volume. So, act quickly and take advantage of the waivers when you can.

DEAN: Yes, those are good tips. I do want to ask you about these records. Every time I talk to you. I feel like we're saying it's another record-breaking travel weekend. Why do you think so many people are on the move right now?

NASTRO: Look, despite sort of a -- sort of pullback that we've seen across a few months in 2025. We've still seen those record-breaking days. Perfect example, over Thanksgiving, we saw that Sunday after over 3 million people traveling and that is the busiest day on record according to TSA ever. And it's really due to the fact that regardless of what the economy is doing, we prioritize travel around these peak moments, these holiday moments, when we want to spend them with family and friends.

So, regardless of what is going on in the greater market, we still want to spend that -- those coveted moments with loved ones and this year is no different.

DEAN: Yes, that's certainly true. And so now we look to 2026. I'm curious, what's on your radar in terms of people who are looking ahead to maybe taking that one great vacation next year, or if they're starting to plan ahead for what they might want to do? What are some of the trends you're looking at and noticing?

NASTRO: Yes, you know, what we've noticed in our going state of travel is that we are sort of seeing people being more intentional about where they travel and really answering that why they're traveling and partly in due to again, that theme of economic uncertainty, time constraints, as well as political concern is sort of rounds out the top three reasons why people might be slightly pulling back. And if they are going to travel, they're going to make each trip count.

And one way that we want people to take advantage of affordability in 2026, when it comes to travel, is trying to travel in January and February, one of the best time periods out of the entire year, arguably the best when it comes to savings. And we see fewer travelers in general during this period. And it's not just airfare that drops drastically. Also, we see experiences and hotels come down quite considerably.

So, some deals that you can take advantage of right now in the Going app, L.A. to Auckland (ph), get this 587 round trip, that's almost ...

DEAN: Wow.

NASTRO: ... 60 percent off average prices. Yes, Seattle to Tokyo, another very popular region that we're anticipating for 2026, that American travelers are interested in, Seattle to Tokyo 589. Again, very much more affordable than we've seen in past years coming out of the pandemic. And even closer to home, Chicago to Puerto Rico 159 round trip. Those are all on full-service carriers, by the way, not on budget carriers.

So, we want people to sort of not wait until just the summer to take a trip. Try to target taking your vacations earlier in the year, especially if you're looking for affordability.

DEAN: Wow, that's a great tip. And those prices, yes, you're right. Compared to what we see sometimes, it's really great deal.

Katy Nastro, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

NASTRO: Thanks so much. Happy travels, everyone.

DEAN: Thank you.

Chevy Chase helped define a generation of comedy and became a widely recognized name from his early days on SNL to becoming a movie star. And even the sometimes-complicated moments in his private life, the CNN film I'm Chevy Chase and you're not explores the man both on and off the screen.

[18:55:04]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lorne Michaels when he's given the job to develop a show for Saturday nights, he's got a blank slate.

LORNE MICHAELS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SNL: I spent my 20s in a television studio. So, I was comfortable in that environment. We were just filled with possibility of what we could do and what we couldn't do.

ALAN ZWEIBEL, SNL WRITER: When I met with Lorne, he described this new show, it spun my head around, said it would be live the 11:30 to 1 on Saturday night and go, "What? Who's going to watch that?" You know, angry people, people who are not getting laid.

CHEVY CHASE: I got a call. Lorne said, do you want to start this show with me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you could try to look at me instead of looking directly at the camera, unless you ...

CHASE: It's hard for me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

CHASE: Because I invented weekend updates, so I could look in the camera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not" premieres New Year's Day.

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