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Inferno During New Year Celebration; California Expected to See More Rain; U.S. Military Strike International Waters; Zohran Mamdani Sworn In; Pink Ladies Echoes Far-Right; European Leaders Finalize Peace Process for Ukraine; Bulgaria Now Uses Euro; Technology Affects Movie Industry. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 02, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta and it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on the show. Around 40 people killed and more than 100 injured. We're learning more about the chaos that unfolded inside a Swiss ski resort on New Year's Day. California trying to catch a break from rain. Details on what the state is bracing for after what's already been a holiday season of flooding. And New York City officially has a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani. What the city's youngest mayor in over a century said and did on his first day in office.

UNKNOWN: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. Let's begin in Switzerland, where new video is shedding a light into how a New Year's party turned into a tragedy that killed about 40 people and injured more than 100 others.

In this video, obtained and verified by CNN, you can see the initial moments of fire broke out in a bar at the Crans-Montana ski resort. The flames appear to start on the roof and someone tries to beat them with a cloth. A warning, some of what you're going to see and hear next is disturbing.

This video shows the flames spreading. Survivors say things quickly turn chaotic as the fire rapidly engulf the room and people rush to get outside. Here shouts fill the bar as people pull themselves out of windows and away from the smoke-filled room. Others try to get down a set of stairs towards the street.

The president of the Swiss Confederation said this was one of the worst tragedies that the country has experienced. He offered his condolences to the victims and their families too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUY PARMELIN, PRESIDENT, SWISS CONFEDERATION (through translator): Our thoughts are with the families who are in anguish. Some still do not know whether their children have died. Some are in the hospital in difficult conditions and we will do everything we can to ensure that everything proceeds as quickly and as effectively as possible. But today our thoughts and our prayers are truly with all those who have experienced this tragedy.

I would also already like to thank all foreign governments, particularly the neighboring countries, who are showing solidarity and who will work with Switzerland to help care for those who are among the most severely injured. Now it is a matter of speed so that these people can be taken care of as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: CNN's Nada Bashir joins me now from London. Nada, it is just past 9 a.m. in Switzerland, so we're hoping to get some more updates from officials over there. What's the latest that you're hearing at the moment?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think we'll be waiting to hear more on this ongoing investigation. We did have quite an extensive press conference offered yesterday by officials, including the Swiss president detailing the efforts that were underway not only to provide support for the family members, of course of the victims and those injured, but also still to try to identify some of the 40 killed in this devastating overnight fire which took place just after New Year celebrations had taken place in this popular bar in Crans-Montana.

And as we've heard from officials, many of those who were injured, many of the casualties were young people celebrating New Year's. Many of them, they have said, were badly burnt. Now, the effort is of course, to try to ensure that those who were injured do receive the treatment they need. We know that some in a more critical condition have been transferred to specialized hospitals. Some have even been evacuated to neighboring countries, including France and Italy.

We know that France has also prepared some 19 beds for those injured in the fire. And of course, the French government has confirmed that there are French nationals who are still missing and among the injured. But what we've been learning over the last few hours and overnight is more about the actual events which unfolded. Authorities have, of course, described the scene and the horror which unfolded as that fire broke out and spread quite rapidly, according to authorities who described it as a flash over with the entire room of the bar engulfed in flames and as we saw Ben, that dramatic video of people trying to escape. We've also been learning more from witnesses. Take a listen.

[03:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL RAPP, LOCAL RESIDENT AND WITNESS (through translator): There were people screaming and then people lying on the ground, probably dead. They had jackets over their faces. Well, that's what I saw. Nothing more. Then I received videos where people were trying to get out, but they were trampling over each other. So, it was hard to get out through the exit. And there were people shouting, saying, help me, please help us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now of course it is still very early stages into the investigation into what caused the fire according to officials. No clear confirmation just yet. We've been hearing from witnesses who have spoken to our affiliate, BFMTV, who have said that they saw waitresses carrying champagne bottles with sparklers in them. We've heard from one parent who said that his teenage son who was at the bar at the time of the fire, had also ordered a champagne bottle with sparklers of flame inside of it as was customary for parties and celebrations taking place in this popular bar.

Some speculation of whether that had met late may have led to the fire on the ceiling initially, but again, no clear confirmation just yet. Ben?

HUNTE: Okay, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you, Nada Bashir. I appreciate it.

Well, let's keep talking about this awful, awful incident. Sandro Zulian is a reporter at Blick, and he's joining me now from Crans- Montana in Switzerland. Sandro, thank you so much for being with me.

We have seen emotional vigils and people gathering to lay flowers and candles. How is the area feeling today? And what questions are people still asking about how this could have happened?

SANDRO ZULIAN, REPORTER, BLICK: The area is still in shock. In fact, the entire canton of Valais is in shock. Switzerland is actually in shock at this moment. The most pressing questions is the one that the relatives might be having. You know, there are still people that have died in this terrible fire right behind me. They just lifted the cordon about five minutes ago. And the people that are related to people that have died here and have not yet been identified they must be in the worst amount of pain humanly possible.

HUNTE: Authorities say that they still don't know how many people were actually inside the bar.

ZULIAN: Yes.

HUNTE: From your reporting, how crowded was it compared to a normal night?

ZULIAN: Well, there is no way of knowing for sure because the authorities haven't really said anything about this, but, you know, judging from videos, it looks like it was crowded, potentially overcrowded, and that might have led to people not being able to get out from the downstairs area of the bar through this sole staircase that was there.

HUNTE: This is a resort town that's very used to welcoming tourists from all across the world. What do we know so far about who was actually inside the bar that night and how international this tragedy may be?

ZULIAN: This tragedy definitely is international. I've been hearing reports about Italian people being amongst the victims, the ones that have died, the ones that are injured as well. French people, potentially Swiss people, English people. There is no way of knowing for sure because as well, you know, the authorities are having a really hard time identifying this sheer amount of victims dead, and also injured, to actually know who this even is because all of them are Swiss. So, I think this will take some more time for the Swiss authorities and it will take a grand deal of energy for them as well.

HUNTE: We have been hearing about how emergency services delivered a massive response with helicopters and ambulances and crews from across the region. From what you've seen so far, how stretched were local services though in those first critical hours?

ZULIAN: With Swiss services are usually well prepared for something like this. They train on an annually, on a monthly basis. Some of them in this case, this has been, the scale of that is still not yet determinable because we've been hearing reports about ambulances coming from other cantons, from other counties. There have been helicopters, services helicopter ambulances coming flying over into Crans-Montana on a minutely basis in the night of New Year's Eve.

But I think historically, after the dust settles here, this will be going down in history as one of the biggest rescue operations in Swiss history.

HUNTE: Okay, we'll leave it there for now. But thank you so much for your reporting. Sandro Zulian, I appreciate it.

ZULIAN: Thank you.

HUNTE: Police are investigating what caused a massive blaze that damaged a historic church in Amsterdam. Officials say the fire at the Vondelkerk church started right after the new year was rung in. The building has been in the heart of the city since the late 1800s.

[03:10:03]

Twenty-twenty-six is off to a pretty rough start in the Netherlands with two people killed in unrelated fireworks incidents. More than 250 others were arrested for what police describe as rioting. Setting off fireworks is a Dutch New Year's tradition, but the country is now moving to ban fireworks sales.

People in Southern California are getting a short break from days of heavy rainstorms, but another line of storms is set to impact the waterlogged region starting late on Friday. Thursday saw widespread flooding in the San Diego area. Two interstates were swamped and many cars were submerged under high water in the streets.

Teams from the San Diego Fire Department had to rescue people trapped in their cars by the flooding. All of that rain is dampening spirits for people across Southern California.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has that and the forecast for the rest of the U.S.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All week we've been watching this upper-level low pressure system move into California. It brought the heavy rain to Southern California, but now it's starting to move on and we'll get this brief lull in the precipitation before another round of rainfall moves in late on Friday and into the day on Saturday.

So putting this forecast radar into motion, you can see the second kind of slug of moisture first impacting northern and central California by Friday evening local time and then we'll start to see some of that rain move into Southern California into some of those harder impacted areas for not only Christmas week storms but also the most recent storm throughout the course of the day on New Year's and New Year's Eve.

So, all in all, only another inch or so of rain expected through the course of the early weekend across Southern California. Heavier amounts where it's more persistent across northern and Central California. And of course, several inches of snow for the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. Some of that moisture will spill over across the Rockies into Colorado. Much needed snowfall for them.

Impulsive precipitation moves through the upper New England region and that could bring in some additional lake enhancement of snowfall downwind of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, maybe up to a foot in some of those favorite areas across the southeast in and around Birmingham as well as Atlanta. A quick moving storm system will bring rainfall to that area, but behind it we're going to see temperatures start to rebound to above average for many locations over the eastern half of the country.

Watch this. We've been locked in the cold air across the northeast. Look at how the reds start to get welcomed into this forecast.

Things looking warmer as we head into the first week of 2026. Back to you.

HUNTE: The 34-year-old democratic socialist who took the political stage by storm was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City. And he didn't waste any time getting to work. One of Zohran Mamdani's first acts as mayor was to sign orders aimed at tackling the city's housing crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NY): We will not compromise on housing quality. If your landlord does not responsibly steward your home, city government will step in. These are sweeping measures. But it is just the beginning of a comprehensive effort to champion the cause of tenants too long ignored and homes too expensive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Sherrell Hubbard has the details on his inauguration and what it means for the progressive movement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAMDANI: I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the mayor of the city of New York. Of the office of the mayor of the city of New York.

SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former state assemblyman turned New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's public inauguration ceremony Thursday, ushering in what he calls a new era. Mamdani was sworn in on the steps of New York City Hall by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Very befitting as both men are progressives whose views run in contrast to today's politics.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): When working people stand together, when we don't let them divide us up, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

HUBBARD: Mamdani captured the world's attention in the Democratic primary last summer. Then-Mayor Eric Adams and President Donald Trump urged voters to support former New York governor Andrew Cuomo for the job. Critics said the 34-year-old was too inexperienced and idealistic.

MAMDANI: I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist.

HUBBARD: During the campaign, he promised to create a universal child care program, freeze the rent for roughly two million rent stabilized tenants and make city buses quote "fast and free."

MAMDANI: These policies are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom.

HUBBARD: A message that appears to be resonating with New Yorkers.

FERNANDO RESTREPO, MAMDANI SUPPORTER: I think that we are looking at the possibility of a lot of progressive policies being put into place. And I think that that means a safer society for all.

HUBBARD: I'm Sherrell Hubbard reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:14:58]

HUNTE: Many elements of Mayor Mamdani's proposed agenda would be paid for by increasing corporate taxes and taxing wealthy residents and would likely hinge on the support of the state legislature and the governor.

Okay, still to come. Tensions keep escalating between the U.S. and Venezuela, the latest on President Trump's pressure campaign against the country's leader next. Plus, this group adds a soft touch to anti- immigration movement in Britain, which macaques its message.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HUNTE: That is newly released video. You might see that in a moment of

former special counsel Jack Smith defending the criminal cases he brought against President Donald Trump. Those cases included the mishandling of classified documents and the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK SMITH, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL, U.S. DOJ: The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine. But the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: The video was of a deposition with the House Judiciary Committee that was held last month. The interview lasted more than eight hours, where Smith was asked to defend his indictments against Trump. Republican lawmakers have criticized Smith's investigations, claiming they weaponized the justice system.

As tensions escalate between the U.S. and Venezuela, we are now learning the Venezuelan security forces have detained at least five Americans in recent months. That is according to a U.S. official who says the Trump administration believes Venezuela is trying to build up leverage against the U.S. by detaining American citizens.

[03:20:02]

This comes as the pressure campaign against Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro, has intensified in recent months, with the U.S. carrying out strikes on alleged drug boats, implementing an oil blockade, as well as the CIA striking a Venezuelan port.

And just on Wednesday, the U.S. announced the latest strikes it carried out targeting two alleged drug boats killing five people. U.S. Southern Command confirmed the operation, but didn't say where the strike took place. Earlier in the week, the U.S. also carried out separate strikes on three other boats.

CNN's Zachary Cohen has the latest for us.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: The U.S. military has killed at least eight people over the last two days, announcing a strike against alleged drug boats in international waters on New Year's Eve and one on Tuesday. Now, the strike on Tuesday is different from many of the strikes that we've seen the U.S. military carry out to date, in part because they say that these vessels were traveling in a convoy, multiple ships traveling together. along with the U.S. says was a known narco-trafficking route. They were targeted and destroyed according to the U.S. Southern Command.

But interestingly, there were, do appear to have been survivors from that initial strike, two individuals jumping overboard and abandoning their ship before it was destroyed by a second strike from U.S. forces. The status of those individuals though remains unclear. The military calling in the Coast Guard to initiate a search and rescue operation that remains ongoing. So far, those individuals have not yet been recovered, but that is a different handling of survivors than we've seen from the military in the past.

Obviously, there was the September 2nd strike where the military killed two survivors from an initial strike in what is known as a double tap. That has prompted allegations of an alleged war crime against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the commanders involved. We've also seen the military detain two survivors on a U.S. Navy ship before repatriating them back to their home countries.

And in a third strike, we have also seen them essentially call the Mexican authorities and have them lead a search and rescue mission that ultimately did not recover the individual. So, this is really the latest in this month's long campaign that we've seen the U.S. military carry out targeting alleged drug traffickers in international waters, but it also comes as President Donald Trump is escalating a pressure campaign on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who he's gone to great lengths to connect to this drug trafficking operation and to drug cartels that have been designated as foreign terrorist groups.

We reported last week that the CIA conducted a covert strike inside Venezuela itself. That was really an escalatory move by the Trump administration. So, we'll be watching to see both how these strikes in international waters continue to play out, but also if the Trump administration decides to take additional action targeting Maduro himself. Back to you.

HUNTE: The Trump administration's new expanded U.S. travel ban came into effect on Thursday. You can see here a list of the countries impacted. People from the countries in red like Afghanistan, Haiti, and Sudan are completely banned from traveling to the U.S. now, while citizens from the countries on the list in yellow like Angola, Cuba, and Nigeria face partial restrictions.

As you can see from this map, many of the countries affected are in the continent of Africa. It also raises questions about this summer's World Cup, which will mostly take place in the United States. For example, Iran qualified to play in a tournament, but it's on the list of countries facing a complete ban.

It's being called a soft face of Britain's anti-immigration movement. The Pink Ladies, a grassroots women's group, says it's protesting against dangers that illegal migrants pose to women and girls in the U.K. The group isn't explicitly partisan, but as Jomana Karadsheh finds out, its rhetoric is very much an echo chamber of Britain's far right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meet the Pink Ladies, a new face of Britain's growing anti-immigration movement. We went to one of their pink protests just outside London to try and understand what this is all about.

ORLA MINIHANE, ORGANIZER, THE PINK LADIES: We got our own scum bags, our own predators, and our own sex (inaudible). We do not need to bring in more every day. Men from cultures that do not think like we do who treat women like third class citizens and who think it's acceptable to marry eight or nine-year-old girls.

KARADSHEH: This is not racism, they say, and they're not the far right. But a lot of what we heard sounded an awful lot like the far right's narrative.

UNKNOWN: They need to get the army involve. We've been invaded.

UNKNOWN: It's bloody terrible. It's all over Europe, you know, being invaded.

KARADSHEH: By?

UNKNOWN: By illegal migrants.

KARADSHEH: Advocacy groups say exploiting the issue of violence against women and genuine safety concerns is a common far-right tactic.

[03:25:00]

The pink ladies say they're grassroot women concerned about mass migration and what it means for their safety and the future of their country. Putting out catchy tunes like this one that market their agenda. The so far small group emerged a few months ago at a time of rising tensions over migration with the far-right seizing on that.

A lot of people looking at what's happening in the U.K. from the outside, they might say that a lot of the things that you are seeing are the talking points of the far right. How would you (inaudible) to that?

(CROSSTALK)

MINIHANE: What is far right? Far right is extremists. Far left is extremism. How am I extremist? I'm just a mum who's worked her whole life, who's bringing up three children, who lives in suburbia. I don't want my daughter to be sexually assaulted by men that have come over to this country that we've got no background checks on. If that makes me a far right, then there's something very concerning with the rhetoric, right?

KARADSHEH: That's Orla Minihane. She's a local candidate for the right-wing populist party, Reform U.K. Amid this show of pink solidarity and what was mostly a jovial and at times surreal atmosphere, we heard from women worried about their safety and that of their daughters.

UNKNOWN: Women are scared to walk anywhere and, you know, we live in a small town.

MINIHANE: This is the seriousness of what we're dealing with.

KARADSHEH: The government doesn't publish detailed figures on crimes committed by asylum seekers, but there have been some high-profile cases that have put women and girls on edge. On top of that, there are the twisted facts that go unchecked.

MINIHANE: These five women have died, have been murdered at the hands of an illegal migrant catastrophe that this government is letting happen.

KARADSHEH: Except two of the suspects in these five horrific murder cases are British nationals. But for Laura and others, what they heard here was enough for them to make up their minds.

What is it that is making you feel unsafe?

UNKNOWN: Well, it's all the rapes, murders, you know, what they've been talking about today.

KARADSHEH: Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Chelmsford, England.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Okay, Bulgaria has been waiting for many years to start using the euro, but now that the currency is finally adopted, why are so many Bulgarians still against it? That's ahead. Plus, Ukraine's allies are about to make a new push to get the peace agreement closest to the finish line. We'll go to Kyiv to get a Ukrainian perspective on where the peace efforts stand now.

[03:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Ben Hunte.

Let's check some of today's top stories.

About 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a fire at a Swiss ski resort. The blaze broke out at a popular bar in Crans- Montana during a New Year's Eve party. Authorities say many of the victims were young and it will take days to identify them all.

People in rain-soaked Southern California are bracing for more storms. Another line of storms is expected to impact the region starting late on Friday and again early next week. There was widespread flooding in the San Diego area on Thursday and some people had to be rescued from cars stranded in high water.

The 34-year-old democratic socialist who took the political world by storm was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City. Zohran Mamdani's inauguration on Thursday featured some of the biggest names in a progressive movement, including Congresswoman AOC and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who actually swore him in.

Diplomatic efforts to achieve a peace deal with Russia are moving to Ukraine this weekend. The so-called Coalition of the Willing will send its national security advisors for talks to Ukraine on Saturday. That's according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The leaders of those countries will follow up with their own meeting in France on Tuesday. Mr. Zelenskyy has said that a peace agreement is 90 percent done and

some documents could be ready for signing this month. But he also says that accepting what he called a weak agreement would only prolong the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want the end of the war, not the end of Ukraine. Are we tired? Extremely. Does that mean we are ready to surrender? Those who think so are deeply mistaken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Meanwhile, Russia claims it has provided the U.S. with evidence that Ukraine targeted President Vladimir Putin. It says the evidence is data from one of the drones launched at Mr. Putin's residence on Monday. But U.S. officials say the CIA assessed the allegation is not true.

Let's talk about it some more. We're joined by Oleksandr Merezhko, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee in Ukraine's parliament. He's speaking to us from Kyiv.

Thank you so much for being with me. I'll get right to it.

Moscow is calling recent alleged strikes a terrorist attack and promising retaliation. Given the volume of competing claims in this war, how important is independent investigation and legal accountability to this?

OLEKSANDR MEREZHKO, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CHAIR, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Thank you for having me. First of all, we shouldn't be expected to trust or believe Russians because they have proved so many times that they're liars and cheaters. And I believe that the president of the United States should believe CIA, his own special services instead of Russians.

As for this episode, it's absolutely clear that Ukraine was not interested in such attack for very simple reason, because we count on peace process or negotiations and we are not interested in undermining the whole process and disrupting it. So it's a pure provocation organized by Russia, by Putin, and it has been the same way for many years since the war started in the year 2014. So, it's not usual. It was expected that Russians, instead of openly rejecting a peace plan proposed by President Trump, will find pretext or excuse to disrupt the peace process.

HUNTE: You've said that you're skeptical that current peace negotiations will actually produce any results. From Kyiv's perspective, what's missing from these talks that makes peace so impossible right now?

[03:35:03]

MEREZHKO: The key issue is pressure on Russia because Russians, they don't believe in negotiations. They don't know the word, the term compromise. They're using everything as a tool of war. And the only way a rational reasonable common-sense way to deal with them is by putting maximum pressure on Russia by providing military assistance for Ukraine to help us to defend ourselves our lives, and also by imposing sanctions including sanctions against so-called shadow fleet. The key issue is how to deprive Russia of its economic capabilities of its revenues from selling oil and gas which feeds Russian war machine.

HUNTE: When you hear President Trump talk about ending the war quickly, what specifically worries Ukrainians about that approach?

MEREZHKO: What is important on which terms the war can be ended? And I believe that President Trump should return to his initial ceasefire and conditional ceasefire proposal, because when we're talking about ending war quickly, it might be at the expense of the weaker party, which is right now Ukraine.

For us, it's totally unacceptable because we can never agree to such kind of deal which will allow Russia to destroy us in the future, which will be a shame for us and which will undermine our defense capabilities. We can never agree to something like that because we want to live and we want to survive.

HUNTE: You mentioned to my team earlier that Europe should be directly involved in any peace plan and that European leaders are currently doing more than the U.S. to support Ukraine. What would a truly united European position actually look like?

MEREZHKO: First of all, we are grateful to our European friends and allies for their unwavering support of Ukraine. They're doing their best and they promised to support us, to continue to support us as long as it takes. We need unity and we have this unity. We need leadership. We have strong leadership of European leaders of such countries as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. But at the same time, we strongly believe in transatlantic solidarity. We cannot have solidarity without American leadership.

This is the key problem to have the president of the United States as a true leader of the free democratic world. This is the only way how we can cope with evil.

HUNTE: Okay, we'll leave it there for now. Oleksandr Merezhko, thank you so much.

MEREZHKO: Thank you.

HUNTE: Some news just coming into CNN. U.S. President Donald Trump is reacting to reports of more deaths at anti-government protests in Iran. He posted on social media that if Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. And that Washington is, in his words, locked and loaded.

It is unclear what exactly Mr. Trump actually meant by that. But the reaction came after an Iranian news agency reported that five people were killed and 17 others injured in protests on Thursday. People across Iran took to the streets this week as inflation

skyrocketed and Iran's currency dropped to record lows.

Okay. From furniture to pasta. The Trump administration tweaking its planned tariff increases. All the details just ahead.

[03:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. This is your business breakout.

U.S. stock futures are kicking off the year on a positive note with early trading for the first day of 2026 starting off strong. A look now at some business headlines.

The price of many prescription medications is set to go up this year. According to data by healthcare research firm, 3 Axis Advisors, drug makers are planning to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medicines in 2026. The list includes vaccines against COVID, RSV, shingles, and even cancer treatments.

Millions of Americans will see their health insurance premiums go up after expanded subsidies on the Affordable Care Act expired on January 1st. The House is set to vote this month on a Democratic plan that would extend the subsidies for three years. But the deal faces significant hurdles in the Senate.

The Trump administration is changing some planned tariff hikes too, reducing levies on Italian pasta from 107 percent to between 24 and 29 percent. The move comes as President Trump is delaying new tariffs on upholstered furniture and cabinetry until next year.

There is a mixed reaction in Bulgaria as the country begins to use the euro as its new currency. It was formally adopted as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. More than 350 million Europeans are now using the same currency. But as you're about to hear, Bulgarians are still both in favor and against the euro.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: The clatter of newly minted coins rolls off an assembly line, shining with the national symbols of Bulgaria. These new euros represent the Eurozone's 21st member and a currency switch almost two decades in the making. It's already a historic new year in Bulgaria.

On January 1st, cash machines began dispensing euros instead of the old Bulgarian currency, the lev. Bank accounts were converted to euros and there is a one-month transitional period where both the lev and the euro can be used for cash payments, though change will be given in euros. Some people say it's off to a good start.

STEFAN BISTREKOV, DRIVING INSTRUCTOR: Our money will be in a different currency. If I have 10,000 levs, now I will have 5,100 euros. It's all the same, and I think it will be better. HUNTE: But it's taken a long time for Bulgaria to meet the economic

criteria to adopt the euro after joining the European Union in 2007. It's one of the poorest countries in the E.U. And polls show that about half the Bulgarians surveyed fear the currency switch will drive up prices. There are also worries about who's in charge during this critical period.

The country's prime minister resigned last month after mass anti- corruption protests over a 2026 budget proposal, and it's likely Bulgaria will soon face its eighth election in five years. Some people say it's just not the right time for such a switch.

VANYA ILLEVA, CASHIER: Right now, it's probably the most inappropriate time given the situation in all of Europe. These are my concerns. I don't anyone has anything against the euro as a currency, but rather, to the timing.

[03:45:01]

And ultimately, I don't believe that erasing and eliminating the lev within the span of a single month is the best approach.

HUNTE: Other Bulgarians say they expect it will go smoother than some people think.

ANTONIA TSVETKOVA, JEWELER: Anyone who goes on a trip will not have problems exchanging currency. Now everything will be normal. Even the people in the shops are already prepared and have no worries about accepting the lev and giving euros back and change. These are normal things that we will get used to in a week.

HUNTE: National authorities have been set up to make sure business are fairly converting prices. And Bulgaria declared a public holiday on Friday with the hopes to ask people go back to work on Monday the euro will already be a part of their daily lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Okay, with streamers and media consolidation, the movie business is in enormous flux. After the break, we look at the struggle behind Hollywood's cultural dominance and how the experience of movie watching has drastically changed. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back. The way we watch films is evolving and Hollywood and the movie theater industry as a whole faces a state of flux and uncertainty as we enter 2026. Streaming consolidation and A.I. all continue to be issues for the entertainment industry is dealing with. That said the overall domestic box office grossed $8.87 billion in 2025. That's according to Deadline.

And while that is up from the year before it's down from 2023 when Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day, remember that? And is well behind 2019 before the pandemic when domestic earnings totaled more than $11 billion. [03:50:01]

Among the movies that the box office will look to for a boost throughout 2026 are Christopher Nolan's newest epic, "The Odyssey," "Avengers: Doomsday," and "Dune Part 3," which is from Warner Brothers, owned by the same parent company as CNN.

Seth Schachner is the founder and managing director of Strat Americas, a business development consultancy that deals with entertainment and digital media. That sounds very fancy. He's joining me from Los Angeles. How are doing, Seth?

SETH SCHACHNER, FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, STRAT AMERICAS: Great to be here, Ben. Happy New Year you and everyone.

HUNTE: Happy New Year to you, too. Thank you so much for being here.

Let's get into this. Looking back at 2025, do you think that Hollywood is struggling to make the cultural impact that it once did?

SCHACHNER: I do think it's in a period where it's got a ton of challenges, particularly in kind of its traditional vein, if you will, thinking in things like theaters and some of the classic blockbusters. And so, yes, it's been hit on all sides by everything from A.I. to labor strife and mergers and streaming. But when I really look at it, not just in 2025, but going forward, there's a lot of bright spots as well. And they're probably not getting credit for what those bright spots are. So, it's a little bit mix of both right now.

HUNTE: Last year, I have to say there were so many films I wanted to see in theatres, but just days after they were released, they just disappeared from schedules.

SCHACHNER: Yes.

HUNTE: What's driving that and why is it happening?

SCHACHNER: So weird thing, I mean, I think in general, you know, the public here is being kind of conditioned to wait and hang out on the couch and order a pizza for when it comes to streaming and not to rush to theaters right now. But, you know, we've had the town in particular, the traditional releasing model through theaters and out through different forms of home entertainment and pay TV has been completely shaken up.

And so, you know, the studios have their own streaming services. Obviously, you've got Netflix and its competitors out there. And I think everyone is kind of jumping into the pool to not only attract subscribers, but make things profitable. And it's impacted the traditional ways people get their entertainment. And sometimes there are parts of the ecosystem that really suffer. I think theaters are probably the biggest one. And it's a very weird thing.

Pictures come in, they vanish. They'll be there for a couple of days at weird times. And if it's not a really big blockbuster, particularly if it's an independent, an arts picture, or even something in between, it's hard to catch it and find it, so people are waiting for it to scream. So, it is a little bit of a mess in terms of thinking about it that way.

HUNTE: I guess price comes into that as well because I recently paid more for a date night in Atlanta to see rental family at the theater than I did for a date night on Broadway in New York to see a show. So, wild.

Let's talk about A.I. because synthetic actors aren't just sci-fi anymore, right? A.I. is now part of production too. How could that shift affect box office performance and audience turnout?

SCHACHNER: Well, so I think this is, you know, I think there's a bit of a making a mountain out of a molehill stuff with A.I. right now. I mean, you know, Tilly Norwood and I think there's going to be 40 other actors from that studio are scaring people. She looks really real. And you know, this new technology that's come out from an open A.I. called Sora 2, is I think very disruptive and frightening people basically.

So, you know, it's reasonable to expect that there will be more artificial intelligence incorporated into the production of motion pictures and TV shows and music, by the way. I'm not someone that comes out and think it's going to turn everything on its head basically. And I kind of see it, as do a lot of people as a tool that will help things, whether it's production costs or things look cooler and better.

It's already all over lots of products, you know, Ben. It's gone everything from old Beatles re-releases to sci-fi picks and people don't realize it. So, it'll increasingly be a part of the landscape. I don't know if Tilly Norwood is going to replace Brad Pitt, but I do think there are things like influencers that are probably threats as well.

HUNTE: Yes. Let's have some optimism as well, start of the year. We are seeing faith and family studios and boutique players finding their own audiences. Do you think that these are isolated successes or could they be a blueprint for how Hollywood is actually going to make money going forward?

SCHACHNER: I think that's the biggest part of the landscape right now in terms of what's promising. And you know, there's these interest groups that I think certain of these pictures or groups of pictures are hitting. I mean, you just mentioned faith-oriented stuff, David, Sound of Freedom, there's something out here called Angel Studios, which is kind of a crowd supported enterprise and it's doing particularly well.

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And people, you know, with families and children want to bring the families to theaters and they don't want to see lots of stuff blown up, have a positive productive experience, you know. And so, I think that's a very, very real, happy development, something I'm keeping my eyes on. I mean, the other stuff I'm seeing, "Minecraft" has been one of the

biggest stories out here all year. It comes from a game. It resonates with certain generations, basically. It had some kind of ridiculous things in it. The chicken jockey, but people loved it, had that communal experience in the theaters, you know, and it really worked as does "KPop Demon Hunters," which, you know, came out of Sony and Netflix, but, you know, has become kind of the biggest thing on Netflix, I think, ever in terms of its streaming. And it's got a really cool music soundtrack to it as well. And that's very multinational, hits a lot of different interest groups well beyond just Asian Americans. It's a really positive story.

So, I think when you look at, you know, I mentioned "Marty Supreme," which is young adults are loving it. And I think if you look at these developments, that's a really promising thing. You know, A.I. and robots can't do that, basically. Mergers aren't going to produce that. That's just good old creativity that's coming out.

HUNTE: I love this as well, because I've just made a list of films I still need to see. So, I'm very excited to get through them. For now, Seth Schachner, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

SCHACHNER: Thanks, Ben.

HUNTE: Thousands of people kicked off the new year with a dip in a freezing bay in Washington State. The Polar Plunge in Birch Bay saw nearly 5,000 very brave and cold souls jump in for a dip. The previous record set in Norway was around 3,000. The rules state each swimmer must wear a bathing suit, no wet suits for warmth and shoes. They also had to stay in waist-deep water for a full minute. Guinness World Records will soon announce whether the plunge is one for the record books.

Okay, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. For our audience in North America, American Pulse is next. For our international viewers, it's Amanpour. Then stay tuned for early start beginning at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. in my hometown of London. See you later.

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