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Trump Threatens Tariffs on Iran as the Regime Cracks Down Protesters; Lawmakers Voiced Frustration on the Criminal Investigation into Fed Chairman Jerome Powell; Australia's Victoria State Are Now Hit Hard by Ongoing Bushfires. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 13, 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)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church, Just ahead.

Protests roil Iran as President Trump puts pressure on the country's leaders. But Tehran says it will retaliate against any U.S. attack.

U.S. lawmakers are voicing their frustration as President Trump pushes ahead with his fight against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

And the best football player on the planet talks to CNN as he sets his sights on winning the World Cup this summer.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

And we begin with the brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iran. The U.S. President is sending new warnings to Tehran.

Donald Trump says he will issue a 25 percent tariff on countries that do business with Iran. He has also said he's considering some very strong military options if protesters are killed.

In response, Tehran is reiterating its threat to target U.S. military bases, ships and personnel in the Middle East if the U.S. launches strikes. But the White House Press Secretary says Iran's private messages to the Trump administration are quite different from their public tone.

Meanwhile, Iranian protesters show no sign of stopping despite the harsh government crackdown. According to a U.S.-based human rights organization, at least 512 protesters, including nine children, have been killed so far. CNN cannot independently verify those numbers.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Abu Dhabi, she joins us now. So Paula, as President Trump weighs his options for responding to Iran's deadly crackdown on protesters, Tehran is threatening retaliation while Trump threatens tariffs. What is the latest on all of this?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, if we start off with those tariffs, this extra 25 percent tariff on any country that's doing business with Iran, the details at this point are fairly basic. We haven't heard much more beyond that social media post.

We don't know when or how they would be implemented at this point, the post saying that it would be effective immediately, whether it's goods and services. But what we do know is the sort of countries that are going to be affected.

China, for example, we know that they are one of the major trading partners with Iran. And if this 25 percent tariff were to go ahead, it means that China would effectively have a 45 percent tariff on any goods coming in and out of the United States.

Now, it is a significant trading partner. As I say, there was exports of $6.2 billion from Iran in the first 11 months of last year, $2.85 billion coming the other way, according to Chinese customs data. And analysts think that about 90 percent of Iranian oil is used and taken by China through various means.

So this could have an economic impact, not necessarily immediate. But also you're looking at countries like India, Turkey, the UAE, who are also believed to be close trading partners.

If this isn't as far as the U.S. President is going to go, though, the other options, he says, is that he is looking at strong, very strong, military options. He has, we understand from the Trump administration, been briefed on all those options by the military, different chances and plans for intervention, which presumably have been in place since June, since the last time that the U.S. carried out bombing and strikes against Iran itself.

And then, of course, there is the diplomatic option, which we have heard President Trump say is an option because he has claimed that Iran has already called him. He claims that they want to talk. That is not what we're hearing from Tehran, although we did hear from the foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, saying that they would be willing to talk so long as the U.S. said that it was based on mutual respect and interests.

[03:05:03]

But of course, what the U.S. President has said publicly is that if the regime were to kill innocent protesters, they would step in. We do know that there is a brutal crackdown that has been underway for several days since that internet blackout on Thursday last week. And at this point, we are still hearing about other options that are being considered, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Paula Hancocks for bringing us that live report.

With me now is Siamak Akram, director of the National Solidarity Group of Iran. He joins me from Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for talking with us at this difficult time with your family and friends still inside Iran.

SIAMAK AKRAM, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SOLIDARITY GROUP OF IRAN: Thank you for having me, Rosemary. The scary reality is that we are largely disconnected from our family members, from friends and relatives. There is no connection.

We only have some connections and some contacts through some activists and some people that they have access to. The regime has pulled on a digital curtain. And the history tells us that, like the previous movements, previous protests, they don't do it just to stop the communication or negotiate with the protesters or solve the problems or fix anything, they just do it to hide atrocities.

And they turn off the lights so the world cannot see the mass killings happening in the dark right now inside Iran.

CHURCH: And as U.S. President Donald Trump considers whether to use military options in response to the hundreds of protesters killed in Iran and thousands arrested in the last 17 or so days, there's also talk of possible negotiations with the country. What do you make of those very different outcomes? And should the U.S. be negotiating with the regime?

AKRAM: I believe everything depends on what's happening on the streets of Iran. So it's a fight between the system and what they have been doing, the killings and the resistance of the people on the street inside Iran in different cities.

And based on what we hear from inside, the people and protesters, they are still on the streets fighting against the regime. So this can change the calculations, whatever the West or United States or Israel or even the regime inside Iran wants to do.

It's going to go to the deal or there will be a strike from the United States or Israel. So they all depend on the situation on the street in Iran.

CHURCH: And over the last 17 days or so, these demonstrations shifted from being all about high prices in the economy to this total rejection of the regime. What does that signal to you? And how different is this uprising to others that have come before it?

AKRAM: That's a very important point. This is the difference is the speed. Usually the different protests and movements in Iran, they had their own causes and reasons, like, for example, in 2019, Bloody November, it was about economic crisis as well, or during the 2009, it was all about, where is my vote? Green movement.

It was about the election right and the votes rights. But usually those protests could be able to take a few weeks to become political. But this one, this time, the shift was very quick from high prices, dollar currency, to down with Islamic regime.

The slogans were shift quickly to down with the Ali Khamenei, the supreme, so-called supreme leader. And in a matter of hours in the morning, the slogans were all about prices. But in the afternoon, everything has changed.

So it shows that people they don't believe in system anymore. It's been a long time. They don't believe that they can fix anything anymore, they are not looking for any reform or changes, they just don't want the regime anymore.

CHURCH: And as you mentioned, at the start of the interview, you have not had any contact with your family or friends in Iran over these last few days since the regime cut off internet connection to prevent all information going in and out of the country.

[03:10:08]

What is your biggest fear at this moment? And where do you see this going?

AKRAM: It is a massacre, it is a mass killing. We, back then, during the Mahsa Jina Amini movement, women's life freedom, we warned everyone that it's not just a moment. It was a shift of consciousness.

And the root of the causes never addressed. Not only this, I mean, the last movement we had, women's life freedom, Massa Jina Amini, even the previous movements, we are seeing now the flash revolution is the direct continuation of the previous movement.

And the anger didn't go away. And just more crisis and issues added to that. And it was just waited for a spark.

The concerns is that they continue killing people. That's why we had a big protest in front of the Capitol on last Saturday, because of the internet shutdown. We warned everyone to, aware the countries, governments all around the world, do something, push pressure on the regime, because they cannot continue this internet shutdown, but they can continue killing people and it is really dangerous and it is really warning.

CHURCH: Siamak Akram, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.

AKRAM: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: Lawmakers in Washington are up in arms over a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell. Prosecutors are looking into whether Powell mismanaged a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed headquarters and lied about some of the upgrades in testimony to Congress.

But some critics believe the president is trying to push Powell out as Fed chair because he hasn't lowered interest rates to Trump's liking. Others say the probe threatens the central bank's independence.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are coming to Powell's defense. And some Republicans are calling for an expedited investigation to avoid delaying other important matters.

CNN's Phil Mattingly has more reaction from Washington. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF U.S. DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's long simmering, mostly one-sided war on Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, has gone nuclear. There's no question about it. When you talk to officials here in D.C., both those aligned with the Trump administration, particularly on Capitol Hill, and those deeply opposed to it, there is unified shock at the fact that a criminal indictment may soon be looming for the Fed chair.

It is an escalation on top of months and months and months of rhetorical escalations that we've seen from President Trump and his top officials, but it is certainly one that takes things to a very different level. A level that the Federal Reserve, in its more than a century in existence, simply has not been a part of before.

Now, let's be very clear. President's pushing the Fed, mostly behind the scenes, to adjust interest rates to best lead to their desired political outcomes. That, in and of itself, not exactly new.

President Trump has taken it to a whole new level against the chairman that he actually appointed during his first term. We've seen it play out over the course of the first year, over and over again.

What we have also seen is those close to the President, particularly Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, try and keep the president from making any rash moves of trying to fire the Fed chair, a legal effort that many people have very real questions about whether it actually would reach any kind of outcome whatsoever.

Now, however, this is a very different level of things, and it was a level that was laid very bare by the Fed chair himself, somebody who has gone to great lengths not to go and get into a back and forth with President Trump, not to get into a rhetorical war with the president, despite all of the insults Trump has lobbed his way.

That changed on Sunday night with a direct-to-camera, two-minute, and extremely blunt statement from the Fed chair about the fact that these subpoenas, as they were related to the potential for false congressional testimony made by Powell related to a $2.5 billion renovation of a Fed building, were not at all about that.

They were pretext for Trump's frustration over Powell's reticence to lower rates, something the Fed's actually done meeting after meeting after meeting over the course of the last several months, and something Powell in and of himself does not have the power to unilaterally control. It is the board that votes on that. However, this escalation clearly unsettling markets to some degree.

The dollar, stocks, bonds, all dropping. Very real concerns about what this means going forward.

One thing to be very clear about, the administration is not in full alignment about this process. Trump said he had no knowledge of it whatsoever. The Treasury Secretary, I'm told, not at all happy with the fact that this is playing out. [03:15:06]

Keep in mind, the President is in the midst of deciding his Fed chair nominee, a decision he's expected to make in a matter of days, maybe a couple of weeks at this point. Powell leaves the role in May. Most administration officials assumed Trump would be willing to wait that out, even if he was frustrated.

Now there's a very real possibility that might not actually happen. What happens next, though, that remains a very open question.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A senior official tells CNN Venezuela's opposition leader is scheduled to meet with Donald Trump this week. Thursday's meeting comes after the President declined to endorse Maria Corina Machado to lead a post-Maduro government.

Machado could be making a play for Trump's favor by offering something he's long coveted, the Nobel Peace Prize. She has suggested she would be willing to share it with the President.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: If she gives you her Nobel Peace Prize, will that change your view about her running that country?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I have to speak to her. I mean, I'm going to have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it.

I will have to speak to her. I think it's very nice that she wants to come in. And that's what I understand.

The reason is I can't think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me. And I don't want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: It seems President Trump will just have to wait for his own prize. On Friday, the Nobel Institute said the decision to award a Nobel Peace Prize is final and permanent, and the prize cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others.

Just ahead, Greenland and its untapped mineral wealth. As Donald Trump eyes the territory, researchers say a punishing Arctic environment would make it difficult to tap into its natural resources. We'll take a closer look after the break.

Plus, Grok, Elon Musk's A.I. is facing international backlash. Just ahead, what's compelling multiple countries to ban the artificial intelligence tool. We'll have that and more after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

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CHURCH: Grok explained this. The A.I. tool embedded in Elon Musk's X app is once again drawing controversy, this time for generating illicit images on demand, including sexually explicit content involving minors. In a world first, Grok has been blocked by Indonesia and Malaysia as international pressure mounts against Musk.

CNN's Hadass Gold looks into the latest allegations against the so- called everything app.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADASS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elon Musk defiantly defending his A.I. chatbot Grok's ability to digitally undress images of real people, as countries around the world take action against the A.I. tool after Grok's X account was flooded with requests to create deepfake, non-consensual, nearly nude images of adults and in some cases, children.

KEIR STARMER, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: This is wrong. It's unlawful. We're not going to tolerate it.

I've asked for all options to be on the table. It's disgusting.

GOLD (voice-over): X has said it is taking action against those who prompted Grok to create sexually exploitative images of children and has since restricted image generation requests on Grok's X account to paid subscribers, though users can still digitally undress images by chatting with Grok directly.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk repeatedly attacked U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on X and reposted A.I. generated images of him in a bikini. They want any excuse for censorship, Musk wrote, and reposted a claim that no similar action is being taken against other A.I. companies, though no other major A.I. model is woven into a social media platform like Grok is with X.

Musk's A.I. company is also facing challenges in Asia, where Indonesia and Malaysia are enacting temporary bans on the A.I. chatbot. Indonesia's digital minister saying over the weekend that the ban is meant to protect women, children and the broader public from the risks of fake pornographic content generated using artificial intelligence technology.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom's communications regulator Ofcom announced on Monday it is launching a formal investigation into X that could lead to fines or even blocking the platform in the country.

LIZ KENDALL, U.K. TECHNOLOGY SECRETARY: The government is crystal clear. We want those images taken down. They are despicable, they are abhorrent. GOLD (voice-over): In the United States, the Departments of Justice

and Homeland Security have said they will prosecute any producer or possessor of sexually explicit material of children.

Last year, President Trump signed the Take It Down Act, which makes it a crime to publish nonconsensual, intimate deep fakes and will soon force platforms to remove such images within 48 hours of notice.

Now, experts on A.I. and the law say more needs to be done so A.I. companies can rigorously test their models and prevent them from producing such content in the first place.

RIANA PFEFFERKORN, POLICY FELLOW, STANFORD INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN- CENTERED A.I.: The laws don't have any exception for good faith testing or research type purposes. And so we found that there's a real fear of these laws that was impeding what are called red teamers, people who are trying to act as a malicious actor would and test a model to see if it can be misused. From doing that kind of work in the context of child sex abuse imagery.

GOLD (voice-over): Hadass Gold, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Minnesota is suing the Trump administration and seeking a court order to stop the immigration crackdown in the state, calling it a federal invasion. Minnesota's attorney general says the lawsuit is over immigration operations in Minneapolis and St. Paul and that it just has to stop. Sources tell CNN that about 1000 more border agents are heading into Minneapolis.

[03:25:04]

The deployment comes as protesters clash with federal officers in the city following the deadly ice shooting of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, last week.

Well Greenland says it will not accept a takeover by the U.S., quote, "under any circumstances." The comment from the Prime Minister's office coming as President Trump again repeated his desire to acquire Denmark's self-governing territory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He wants to see the United States acquire Greenland because he feels that if we do not, then it will eventually be acquired or even perhaps hostility taken over by either China or Russia, which is not a good thing for the United States or for Europe or for Greenland as well. Let's not forget, it would not just be in the best interest of the United States, but perhaps it would be in the best interest of Greenland as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Trump administration's interest in Greenland also tied to its untapped mineral wealth. CNN's Matt Egan takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT EGAN, CNN SR. REPORTER: No secret that Greenland is at the top of the President's wish list. And yes, that is because of the island's vast untapped mineral wealth.

Officials in Greenland, they've identified more than 1100 mineral sites there, everything from zinc and iron and uranium to those rare earths that we hear so much about. And yet there is no mining boom in Greenland.

Look at this, just two active mines there right now. But researchers tell CNN that's not because Greenland is owned by Denmark. It's because of the harsh Arctic environment there, where a lot of these mines and these minerals are located in the Arctic, where there's mile thick ice sheet and where it's dark most of the year.

And that's why the founder of the Arctic Institute, he told me the idea of turning Greenland into America's rare earth factory is science fiction. He said it's just completely bonkers. And he went on to say, you might as well mine on the moon because that might be easier than mining in Greenland.

Think about that for a moment. And yet some people do think the U.S. could make a strategic acquisition here because look at this, over on the prediction market Kalshi, as recently as last summer, there's just about a 20 percent chance that the U.S. could take control of any part of Greenland, but that has surged to 45 percent now. And this surge occurred after the U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

But there's key differences of course, between Greenland and Venezuela, including the fact that you have a situation in Greenland where they're very much open to foreign investment, including from the United States. But the risk here is that all this talk of acquiring and taking over Greenland will end up damaging the U.S. relationship with the people of Greenland and creating a whole new obstacle altogether.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, human rights groups say hundreds of protesters are dead after a brutal crackdown by Iran's hardline regime. We'll show you how Tehran is dealing with dissent.

And the bushfires tearing through parts of Australia have turned deadly. We will go live to Melbourne for the latest details.

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[03:30:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

The Speaker of Iran's Parliament is vowing to target U.S. military bases, ships and personnel in the Middle East if the U.S. attacks Iran. This comes after President Donald Trump says he's considering some, quote, "very strong military options in response to Iran's crackdown on protesters." The U.S. president also announced a 25 percent tariff on countries doing business with Iran.

Some Republican lawmakers are voicing concerns over the Justice Department's probe into the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. Many are defending Powell and his character. And they're calling for the DOJ to quickly handle the investigation, with some threatening to withhold their votes for Powell's replacement if it drags on.

A senior White House official says Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will meet with President Trump on Thursday. The meeting comes after the president declined to support Machado to lead Venezuela after the U.S. capture of longtime strongman Nicolas Maduro.

The Iranian government is facing intense pressure from protesters whose demands have evolved from economic grievances into a broader movement against the regime. And it's trying to survive by harshly cracking down on the demonstrations.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has the latest. A warning, though, some images in her report are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From behind the walls of the Iranian regime's censorship, a chilling video has emerged. Every movement of what may be a hidden camera reveals a terrifying picture of what's been unfolding on the ground.

They butchered him, this mourner wails. The camera drifts past grief, not lingering long enough for us to be able to tell the stories of loss and pain of so many who gathered at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Center outside Tehran, searching among rows and rows of body bags that line the courtyard for loved ones missing.

[03:35:06]

At the same facility, lines of lifeless bodies are stored in a warehouse turned morgue. Inside the center, distraught family members stand anxiously in front of a screen that flashes photos of the dead.

They page the family of a man named Mohamed, who he and others were. How they were killed is hard for us to verify.

State media had its own pictures and narrative from the Kahrizak Forensic Institute, reporting the majority of the bodies are those of, quote, "ordinary citizens." They blame their deaths like the protest on foreign-backed terrorists carrying out what they say are indiscriminate killings. These pictures the regime decided to air, perhaps a warning to those who dare take to the streets. It's almost impossible for us to get real-time updates from Iran. The

regime's shutdown communications across the country on Thursday, just as nationwide protests against the clerical establishment drew larger crowds to the streets of every province. It's a tactic out of its playbook on crushing dissent, cover it's used in the past to unleash bloody force.

The little testimony and images that have been trickling out, only a small window into what a ruthless regime doesn't want the world to see. Video like this that purportedly captures the feared state security forces out on the streets is slowly surfacing, sent out by those who are risking their lives to get it out.

In this one location, an estimated 250 bodies, with hundreds more confirmed killed elsewhere, according to activists, the world now braces for what may come when Iran finally emerges from the dark.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Ukraine's capital is once again without power, following Russia's missile and drone assault earlier today. Kyiv's residents were forced to head into air raid shelters in below freezing temperatures during the latest bombardment.

Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, at least four people were killed and six injured when a postal service building was struck in overnight Russian attacks. Ukraine's emergency services say 30 people were rescued from the rubble.

Authorities say the bushfires scorching southeast Australia have now killed at least one person. We're told human remains were found by a vehicle in the town of Longwood, 110 kilometers or 70 miles north of Melbourne.

Dozens of fires in the state of Victoria have been raging out of control for days, burning down hundreds of buildings and homes and leaving thousands of people without electricity. These are reportedly the worst fires to hit the area in years and could take weeks to get under control.

Well now to Melbourne and Jason Heffernam, Chief Fire Officer with the Country Fire Authority, joins me now. Thank you so much for talking with us.

JASON HEFFERNAM, CHIEF FIRE OFFICER, COUNTRY FIRE AUTHORITY: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: So sadly, one person has died, as we just reported, as firefighters continue to battle dozens of fires. What areas have been impacted so far and how much longer do you expect these multiple fires to continue burning?

HEFFERNAM: Sadly, the fire events that started here, thanks to those catastrophic and dreadful fire conditions here in Victoria, southeast Australia, has unfortunately led to the finding of one male deceased as a result of the fires. And the raising of some 500 homes across the entire state. We do expect, as our building impact assessment teams are getting further into fire rounds, that that number unfortunately could rise.

These fires are huge. Thanks to the hot, windy conditions we had on 9 January, to give your watchers a bit of comparison, Wolpeup, a little town in country Victoria, of 45.6 degrees. But it was those winds that really did the destruction to communities across Victoria.

We looked at the wind gusts, the highest in the state was around 60 knots or 112 kilometers an hour, but the average across the state for gusts was 95 kilometers an hour or 52 knots. This led to mass devastation across the state and to give your viewers a bit of a comparison, that Longwood fire, which is one of 12 major fires burning across our state, is about approximately the size of Greater London.

[03:40:05]

To give your viewers a bit of a comparison of the area that we're talking about here, that firefighters have been working day and night to try and contain.

CHURCH: And so what fire warnings are in place right now and what advice are you giving people living in or of course passing through these areas?

HEFFERNAM: Well, thankfully, thanks to milder weather conditions that we've had over the last two days, firefighters have managed to contain some of the most important areas that we've seen across these firegrounds, which has led us to downgrading a number of the warnings that we are giving to communities here in Australia.

Emergency warning is the highest level of warning that you can give, which essentially says there's imminent life threat. All fires now hold a Watch and Act rating, which is the one below that emergency warning, for the first time in many days. So a reprieve for a lot of communities, they're not out of the woods.

Tree fall, other hazards including downed power lines and the like are still affecting many areas and the long road to recovery has begun. But they need to keep an eye to the future.

We are looking at the weather modelling and later on in the month, we estimate between about 23 to 26 January, we are expecting another heat event as a result of all that hot air in the center of Australia being flushed out through Victoria.

The size of these fires, if I give you again a comparison, the Longwood Fire has a fire perimeter twice the length of the M25 motorway. So there's a lot of ground to be covered by firefighters to make sure that there's no active edge that when this next heatwave condition comes through that the fire then escapes and threatens further communities.

CHURCH: Yes, you mentioned those temperatures. They have been extraordinarily high in recent days, haven't they, and weeks. And what are the biggest challenges right now, would you say, for firefighters as they try to contain these blazes?

HEFFERNAM: I think the biggest challenges for firefighters is twofold. Obviously getting into a lot of the firegrounds as a result of those fire conditions. There's been a lot of tree falls across main highways, roads and tracks and trails. So every tree needs to be cleared before firefighters can advance a little bit further into the firegrounds to work, put the containment lines in, whether it be doing backburning or burnout operations as well.

Working with communities, you know, trying to restore normality. We're trying to get communities where it's safe to do so back in so they can see what's left.

And for those that have a home, to get them back in, to start living their lives. And to those that don't, allowing them to go and see what's left, try and recover what they can from the ashes and start the healing process and the recovery process with the support of emergency services and welding services here that we are providing in the state of Victoria.

Those conditions will go on. The state of Victoria is quite large. There's quite some distances between a lot of these fires and townships.

So sheer size, space and travel is one of the challenges that firefighters have to overcome as well. And as I said, we're a bit of a race against the clock until the next heat event occurs, where, again, firefighters will then need to turn their mind to if these fires escape their current containment lines, what other communities across Victoria might be at risk if these fires escape, if the weather worsens.

CHURCH: Jason Heffernam in Melbourne, thank you so much for talking with us and we salute you for the work you and your team do. Thank you.

HEFFERNAM: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, two tech giants are joining forces ahead. Ahead, we will tell you why Apple tapped Google to use its artificial intelligence technology. Back with that in just a moment.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Here are your business headlines.

The chief economist at Goldman Sachs is voicing concerns over the U.S. Justice Department's probe into the Federal Reserve. He says the investigation and possible indictment of Chair Jerome Powell will reinforce doubts over the central bank's independence. But he fully expects the Fed to continue making economic decisions based on data.

Paramount is ramping up its push to purchase CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery; the company has now filed a lawsuit and is threatening a proxy fight as Paramount attempts a hostile takeover of the entertainment company. A WBD spokesperson is dismissing Paramount's public campaign and says it continues to propose a transaction that their board concluded is not superior to the merger agreement with Netflix.

The U.S. government is working with tech companies to prevent high electricity bills for Americans due to the rise of data centers. President Trump says Microsoft is making major changes to address the matter. He posted on social media that more announcements will be made in the coming weeks.

[03:49:59]

Apple is giving Siri an upgrade. It's joining forces with Google to use its Gemini A.I. to power the new Siri. CNN's Clare Duffy has more details on the deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: This partnership to have Google's Gemini A.I. model run the new upgraded version of Siri for Apple is a huge deal for both companies. Let's start with Apple.

Apple made a big splash back in 2024 when it announced it would be releasing this new A.I.-powered version of its Siri voice assistant. But the company had to delay that launch last year because its own A.I. models were just not at a place where it felt like it could push out an update that was meaningfully new and useful for users. And that has contributed to concerns that Apple is behind the ball when it comes to A.I. technology.

Now, this partnership with Google indicates that Apple's own technology may still not necessarily be where the company wants it to be, but it doesn't want to wait on Apple's own A.I. models. It has decided to go with third-party technology.

But this, of course, is really important to Apple's core strategy. The company is betting that new A.I. features like this upgraded version of Siri are going to get more customers to upgrade to the latest versions of the iPhones. And that, of course, is important after a rocky few years of iPhone sales.

So key to Apple's growth strategy here. And this is also a huge win for Google in this ongoing race to create the most powerful, the most popular A.I. models.

Apple did reportedly consider other A.I. companies to work with on this Siri project, including OpenAI and Anthropic, but ultimately decided that Google's Gemini model was the most capable.

And this comes just weeks after OpenAI sounded an internal code red because the latest version of Google's Gemini model was so popular with users. So I think this deal does put OpenAI on notice, especially as we've seen Google's partnerships with Apple in the past. Its deal to make the Google Chrome browser the default on iPhones, that has led Google to be dominant in that market.

And it's going to be really interesting to watch whether that same trend, that same strategy can play out in the A.I. race. Back to you.

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CHURCH: Last year, he conquered the world of club football. Now, Ousmane Dembele has his sights set on the biggest prize of all, the World Cup. CNN speaks to this soccer star next.

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CHURCH: Now to the final wildcard battle of the NFL playoffs. It was neck and neck for most of the game, and then it turned into a blowout. The Houston Texans, who will advance after handing the Pittsburgh Steelers their seventh consecutive playoff defeat.

[03:55:00]

The Texans turned in a dominating defensive performance, picking off Aaron Rodgers in the final moments of the game. That led to one of two defensive touchdowns. The Steelers quarterback, facing questions about his potential retirement, says he's not going to make any emotional decisions after a fun year, but a tough loss.

Well, he helped his team win a host of trophies last year, but now French star Ousmane Dembele has his sights set on football's biggest prize, this summer's World Cup, hosted across North America. CNN's Amanda Davies sat down with the reigning men's player of the year.

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AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: How much do you think about the World Cup at this point? We are starting World Cup year.

OUSMANE DEMBELE, FORWARD, PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN AND FRANCE (translated): It's an important year for all football players, and especially for our team, the French team where we know we have a mission in the United States. We've been talking about this World Cup for a long time now, and I think we'll be ready for the occasion. We know what it takes to go all the way and we're going to try to do everything to bring the trophy home.

DAVIES: So how do you think the team compares today to that one in Qatar?

DEMBELE (translated): There've been a huge number of changes, especially the 2018 generation, which is particularly no longer here, except for me, Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Pavard. Who else?

N'Golo Kante. Yes, huge changes in this team. We've talented players who've adapted very well to the style and squad.

The French team will always play a leading role in this kind of tournament, so you'll have to count on us.

DAVIES: And I know you said you were going to watch the draw. It's a tough one.

DEMBELE (translated): Yes, it's difficult, but you ask the other teams, I think it too is going to be difficult for them to play against the French team.

DAVIES: What happens in your household? I know your mum is of Senegalese descent, and France against Senegal.

DEMBELE (translated): Yes, exactly. I received a ton of messages after that and people told me to score an own goal. Literally.

But there are several of us in this team who are Senegalese and French. It's going to be a very beautiful match.

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CHURCH: Well big news for men's golf. Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour, but at a hefty price. The five-time major champions return to the PGA comes just five weeks after his departure from LivGolf.

In order to resume his PGA career, Koepka and the Tour agreed to a financial penalty that could cost him tens of millions of dollars this year and could rank as one of the largest in sports. The PGA's CEO said that Koepka's deal is which many are taking as a warning to other top talent who left the Tour for the Saudi-funded league.

I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day.

"Amanpour" is next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Danny Freeman starting at 5:00 a.m. in New York, 10:00 a.m. in London. Have a great day.

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