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CNN International: Time Names Donald Trump ""Person of the Year""; Man Believed to be Missing U.S. Citizen Found in Syria; New Jersey Lawmakers Demand more Answers after Drone Briefing; Donald Trump Rings Opening Bell on Wall Street; Warner Brothers Discovery Announces Business Restructure. Aired 9-9:45a ET

Aired December 12, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, Donald Trump just about to speak at an event for Time Magazine in New York, which has just named

Donald Trump "Person of the Year". Let's get you straight to New York and listen in. Accompanied there by some family members and some of those who

are his picks for his new administration.

After this, he will be ringing the opening bell on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange, the markets, I have to tell you, in the red, or at

least that is what the futures are indicating as a start for the trading day, not most auspicious of start for a president who is so wedded to what

happens on Wall Street, of course.

But before that, as I say here at Time Magazine's event honoring the President-Elect as the 2024 "Person of the Year", an extended interview

with the president in the magazine this month talks about his election victory, the economy, the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East, also

talked about his plans for a second term.

So, one would expect that we may hear some of that as the president is about to speak there in New York with Melania, his wife, standing next to

him. As I understand it, we haven't got any sound from that event. Yes, we have. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: Well, thank you very much. This is an honor, a tremendous honor. I brought

some of our compatriots along with us. They're going to do a beautiful job for you for the next four years, and it's really been something very

special. And I have to say, Time Magazine getting this honor for the second time.

I think I like it better this time, actually, because we did a good job. We had a great first term, despite a lot of turmoil caused unnecessarily and

but the media has tamed down a little bit. They're liking us much better now I think if they don't, we'll have to just take them on again, and we

don't want to do that.

But I do want to thank Time Magazine. I've been on the cover many times. I don't know who has the record, but I can only probably talk well about 25

percent of the covers. 25 percent are great the others, I just sort of hide, but it's been an honor. And every time it's an honor, I will tell

you, and thank you very much for doing it. And thank the whole group of time, really very professional people. Thank you very much.

And to Jeff and all of the people from the New York Stock Exchange, he knows how much I like it, because many years ago, I bought a building

across the street. I wasn't going to buy it. Then I said, you know, it's right next to the New York Stock Exchange. I'm going to buy it. We've had

great success 40 Wall Street.

We've had tremendous success with it, but you've really had success with the New York Stock Exchange. It's an incredible group of people. And Jeff,

you have done an incredible job you and your group. And what a beautiful speech you made. Thank you very much. That was some introduction of all of

us.

But we've gone up since the election. I was just told by Scott everybody said, you have to speak Scott. Scott Bessant, he has to be the one chosen

for Treasury. Where is Scott? Let's see. He's around here someplace. He's around here. He told me, we picked up $3 trillion since the Election Day.

And I said, well, that's good, but what about before the Election Day? He said we picked up some money there because they thought you were going to

win. I said, I like this guy. He's going to be my Treasury Secretary.

About it straight it's, I think we're going to have a tremendous run. We have to straight down some problems, some big problems in the world. It's -

- when we left, we didn't have any of these problems. We didn't have Russia, with Ukraine. We didn't have Israel October 7th.

[09:05:00]

We didn't have the Afghanistan disaster. We didn't have inflation. We had no inflation, and we had a very strong economy. And we're going to do that

again, but I think we're going to even up it, because now we have experience that we didn't have. Now, I know everybody.

You know I -- when I first came in, we came down Melania and I a great First Lady was very popular, by the way. She rang in, she rang in the bell,

she rang in the bell. But we came down, and we're driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, and it was so beautiful. I said, you know, I've never done this

before. I didn't know anybody.

I got to the Oval Office, and I'm picking all these big positions, and I didn't really know the people in Washington, but boy, did I get to learn

fast. And now we do, and I think we have an incredible staff behind me and others that aren't here, and we're going to do a fantastic job. We're going

to create the incentive theory again.

In fact, I just announced yesterday. I didn't announce it for this reason, but anybody investing a billion dollars or more gets a very expedited

approval process. Because, you know, the approvals, when people come into the country, it takes them, in many cases, 14, 15, 16, years to get the

approval.

We have Lee is around here some places in charge of the environment, and that's Lee Zeldin, who ran an incredible race for governor in New York. Was

a very, very successful guy before that, he was a great Congressman, and he's a fantastic lawyer. He's in charge of environmental and we'll try and

push him as much as possible to get those permits very quickly, like a nuclear power plant, I would say a week would be enough time.

What do you think? Said, OK, we'll get -- we're going to get fast approvals. And it's great that we have Lee and all of the people behind

they're all stars in their own way. But it is an honor, and this is a double because usually they don't coordinate the men of the year or the

"Person of the Year" with the ringing of the bell, and brilliantly, you picked them both at the same time, and you were all friends, and you said,

let's do it.

And you only -- it takes one trip. It doesn't take two trips. That's OK. We like to save we like to -- we like to be able to do it properly. But this

is a special group. So many friends in the audience, too John (ph), great job you've done at ABC. I'm really proud of you, and you've been so nice to

me otherwise I wouldn't actually acknowledge you at all.

But you -- you have -- you have been that really is. It's a terrific job you've done. But again, I want to thank you. We're going down to ring the

bell now, and I could just say that the economy, I believe, is going to be very strong. We do have to solve some problems. We have wars going on that

we didn't have.

We have a lot of things happening that we didn't have, that would have never happened, that would have never happened. But now they have happened,

and I want to get them solved. We have to get them solved because ultimately, the power of weaponry today is the biggest threat we have in my

opinion. It's not some of the other things that you read about is the power of weaponry.

The weapons are so powerful, so devastating, and I rebuilt our military. I got to know every one of them, including nuclear weapons. I hated to do it.

Actually, I hated to do it, but we did some nuclear weapons that are so devastating and almost makes you very sad when you -- as you get them and

as they come online, it makes you very sad, because you know what the purpose of them is, and you just hope to guide that you never have to use

them, because if you do, the world will never be the same.

So, we have to be very, very smart. We have to be very sharp. We have to be -- we have to be very special to do a job. And I think we'll get it done,

and I think we're going to get a lot of people in the room. We've seen it. We were in France where President Macron did a fantastic job with the

Cathedral, an absolutely fantastic job of Notre Dame.

And it was beautiful. The opening was the opening. And I just got back, and it was something really beautiful. And a lot of world leaders there. We had

about 80 world leader different countries, and they were all coming together. They all wanted to meet us and meet me as representative of the

U.S.

And there was a lot of good will, but we're going to get some really tremendous good will. I was even thinking about inviting certain people to

the inauguration, and some people said, wow, that's a little risky, isn't it? And I said, maybe it is. We'll see. We'll see what happens.

But we like to take little chances. But that's not a bad chance. Here's a gentleman that's going to do a great job at -- good luck, my friend. Right?

He's going to be a say -- he's been my friend for a long time. I haven't shaken his hand yet, really to you going to be great.

And Ben Carson is your biggest fan in the world. You know that Ben has been with us for a long time and has done a fantastic job. Thank you, good. So,

ladies and gentlemen, go on. We're going to put it straight. We're going to give tremendous incentive like no other country has. We're cutting your

taxes. We're going to cut them very substantially.

[09:10:00]

We got them down to 21 percent from probably 42 or 44 percent depending on where you are. We got them down to 21 everyone said that was a miracle. Now

we're getting them down to 15 but only if you make your product here, otherwise you pay 21 which is not bad. It's in the -- in the middle of the

pack. But 15 brings you down to among the lower.

And for those that are running the big companies, those great, big, beautiful companies, nobody's going to be leaving us. You're going to be

coming back. You're going to be bringing it back to the United States. We are incentivizing everybody to come back to the United States. We want you

back here.

Car manufacturers, everybody. And we have one product that nobody has really to the extent that we do. It's called oil and gas. There is no

country in the world that has more we're number one. I brought it to number one during my first term in terms of production. We're going to be number

one, plus we'll do numbers that nobody will really see before.

And when that happens, prices are going to start coming down because people can't afford their groceries, and they're going to be affording their

groceries very soon. I tell the story about a woman who -- an old woman, an old woman no money, went to a grocery store, had three apples, she put him

down on the counter, and she looked and she saw the price, and she said, would you excuse me?

And she walked one of the apples back to the refrigerator and came back to pay for the two apples, and she left with two apples. And the woman at the

counter said, that was so sad. And -- when I heard about the story, I said, that should never happen in America, and it's not going to happen in

America.

We're going to do it right, and we're going to take care of our people, and we're going to do things that nobody ever thought even were possible. But

we're going to have an economy the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, and everybody is coming back to America.

I saw that the other day at the Cathedral. They're all saying, we want to come back. We want to come back, and with a couple of changes done by

Howard and Scott and some of the great people up here with me. We're going to bring them all back. They're all coming back. So, thank you very much.

This is a great honor, and ringing the bell will be fantastic, and go out and get them. We're with you all the way. Thank you very much. Thank you.

ANDERSON: All right, Donald Trump speaking at a Time Magazine event thanking the folks at Time for making him the 2024 Time "Person of the

Year". This event honoring him and he took the opportunity to talk about where the U.S. economy is and where it is headed under what will be his new

administration flank by many of those that he has picked to join him on the administration, not least Scott Bessent, who is, of course, his pick for

Treasury Secretary.

Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, another pick, and a number of other people, and J.D. Vance there, his Vice President, Ivana and Melania Trump,

his wife and his daughter and others from the inner circle, as it were, of the president-elect. He is now headed for the New York Stock Exchange

floor, where he will be ringing the opening bell about 15 minutes from now.

We do that at the bottom of the hour. Of course, every day, 09:30 New York times 06:30 here in Abu Dhabi, we will be back for that in 15 minutes. It

is just before quarter past six in Abu Dhabi as we speak. Let's focus on the news of the day, which is regional Syria's new government and its

uncertain future.

The focus of urgent talks today involving U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, back in the Middle East for meetings in Jordan and in Turkey.

Blinken set to head to Ankara after sitting down with Jordan's King and other top officials there in Amman, the State Department says that they

discussed U.S. support for an inclusive transition to a new government in Syria that includes members of minorities and respects human rights. So,

I'm going to just correct myself that was Aqaba in Jordan of course.

The U.S. also scrambling to prevent resurgence of ISIS in Syria after the fall of President Bashar Al Assad. Blinken set to address reporters. I will

get that for you live just as soon as he does that important stuff. There is new video out of Syria today that shows a man believed to be a missing

U.S. citizen.

In the video, he says his name is Travis, and he had been recently freed from jail. Now he is believed to be Travis Timmerman, who had gone missing

from Hungary in June. He was found wandering barefoot just outside Damascus. And he told CBS News he was detained after entering Syria without

permission, after having gone there for, in his words, spiritual purposes.

[09:15:00]

Well, the U.S. Secretary of State, not the only top American official in the region today, National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan is in Israel

talking with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the war in Gaza and indeed, developments in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. Much of this, of

course, is interconnected.

As you know, the Prime Minister's Office says. Mr. Netanyahu told Sullivan that Israel will do whatever is necessary to protect itself from any

security threats coming out of Syria. Well, this visit coming amid word that negotiators for Hamas and Israel have been back in Qatar for, quote,

serious discussions on securing a ceasefire hostage release deal for Gaza.

Let me get you to the White House now Arlette Saenz joining me from there. And sources that I've spoken to in region today telling me that Donald

Trump wants a deal on a ceasefire and hostages, effort done before he takes office January the 20th. What's the extent at this point between the

coordination between the Trump and Biden team in coordinating to try and get a deal over the line Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Becky, the one thing that President Biden and President-Elect Donald Trump agree on is the fact

that they want to try to get these hostages back home. And that is why the two teams for here at the White House, but also Trump's incoming team have

been working increasingly closely -- closer trying to achieve some type of ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

That is part of the reason why National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is in Israel today to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

trying to talk about ways to potentially advance these talks. Now, as you noted, there are negotiators for Hamas in Israel, back in Qatar, so far,

the White House hasn't, you know exactly described what their expectations are of those talks, or spend any specific optimism around this -- these

talks.

But it does come as the U.S., the White House and the Trump side are both eager to try to push this along. There have been calls from the American

hostage families for the two sides to work together. We know that President Biden and Trump talked about this personally when they met in the Oval

Office last month.

And National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan has said that he has remained in contact with Trump's incoming National Security Advisor, Congressman

Mike Waltz, to keep him abreast of all the developments in the Middle East, but also specifically on the status of a potential hostage release deal.

So, for president Biden this would certainly be a final feather in his cap, if he were actually able to achieve this hostage deal. But many are simply

now preparing for the arrival of Trump. Trump is trying to leverage his own relationships, his own team, to try to get this across the finish line, and

so we will see whether any of this coordination that the two teams --

ANDERSON: Yeah.

SAENZ: -- have been committed to in the recent weeks, which they could actually bring a deal to an end and have those hostages returned.

ANDERSON: Yeah. I know Arlette both sides are taking these talks seriously, and are, as we understand it, here at CNN, from speaking to our sources,

negotiating in good faith. And that is the reasons why the Qataris are sort of back in the effort again. Because, of course, they had pulled out some

weeks ago saying there was no good faith from either side as far as they were concerned. They, of course, are a key mediator in all of this.

Let's leave that file for the time being. I'm sure many of our viewers will say we've been here before we have and we've been talking about trying to

deal, the effort to get a deal done for months and months, of course, but it does sound as if things are really moving in the right direction at this

point.

On Syria what's the message from Jake Sullivan and the Biden Administration, two regional allies, including Israel. Of course, we've got

Blinken on the move and Jake Sullivan on the move around this region where I am.

SAENZ: Well, the White House team from National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are trying to figure out

ways to prevent what is happening in Syria from really in any way, trying to destabilize the region.

Now, Sullivan was met with Netanyahu a bit earlier today. We're still waiting to hear from the U.S.'s side exactly how that meeting went. One

thing that's been interesting is that so far, the White House has simply said that Israel has a right to defend itself when they have been asked

questions about Israel's moves relating to Syria.

[09:20:00]

And so, it will be interesting to see whether there were any specific conversations about the actions that Israel has taken, if the U.S. was

critical in any way in that meeting between Sullivan and Netanyahu.

Of course, Blinken is currently in Jordan. He will also move on to Turkey. One key issue for the Biden team is they don't want to see a resurgence of

ISIS, and so that is something that he will be having talking about in his conversations with these leaders as the U.S. is still trying to get a

handle of exactly what the fallout? What things will look like in Syria following the toppling of the Assad Regime?

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Arlette. Thank you very much indeed. A busy day in Washington, a very busy day in New York for Donald Trump, who

is currently at the New York Stock Exchange, he will be ringing the bell bottom of the hour. We will be back in New York for that. Coming up, as

well anger and fear mounting in New Jersey as swarms of drones swamp the state, leaving authorities baffled as to where they are coming from. That

story is just ahead.

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ANDERSON: Well, mounting frustrations across the U.S. State New Jersey, as mysterious drones been swarming the skies for weeks, and no one knows where

they're coming from. One local mess says that they are, quote, literally being invaded while drones keep flying over key locations across the state.

Officials say there's no known threat to the public, but residents are still feeling rather uneasy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible). So bizarre, I get everyone speaking out now. I think it's kind of spooky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, Homeland Security officials and the FBI met with New Jersey lawmakers yesterday to discuss the situation. Some were left frustrated by

the lack of answers. One New Jersey State Senator demands a stronger federal response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. JON BRAMNICK (R-NJ): New Jersey doesn't have the resources to follow drones and understand exactly what the drones are doing. We just

don't have that technology. So that's why I said, bring in the Department of Defense shut down the air space until we figure out what are these

drones doing in New Jersey. I can tell you what they're not doing. If they're Martians, I guarantee you they're not staying because the taxes are

way too high. I know they'd be in Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Coming up, Donald Trump set to wow the street that being Wall Street. We're going ahead there right after this.

[09:25:00]

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ANDERSON: Well, welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You are watching, "Connect the World" and wherever you are watching, you are more

than welcome. And the next President of the United States will today be ringing in the opening session on Wall Street. He will be ringing the

opening bell there. Donald Trump being honored at the New York Stock Exchange to help celebrate the President-Elect being named Time Magazine's

"Person of the Year".

Let me bring in my colleagues, Stephen Collinson in Washington, D.C., and Anna Stewart in London, who joined me ahead of this opening. And we've got

about 90 seconds before the President-Elect will ring the bell. He's flanked by some of the folks who will be working closely with him going

forward.

Not least, J.D. Vance there on the left-hand side of your screen, his wife, of course, I can't see whether that is -- I was thinking that was Lutnick,

but it's not. I think that is the -- that is the CEO of Time Magazine as well. This is a 78-year-old billionaire. He was Times' "Person of the Year"

in 2016.

He's just been joking that he feels like this is the 2024 moment is a better one as far as he is concerned. They are cheering him on Wall Street,

a comment from both of you with just 45 seconds to go before he actually rings that bell, Stephen.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: This is a sweet moment for Donald Trump, because he has a very tortured relationship these days with

New York. He was always kept out of the high society in New York when he made his name as a tabloid feature. So, this is a homecoming. Trump also

sees the stock market as a barometer of his own political performance. So, this for him, is especially significant, I think.

[09:30:00]

ANDERSON: Yeah. I want to tell you that the futures markets indicating a lower opening for Wall Street today. I would hazard a guess that would be

slightly disappointing for the president-elect, as we hear him ringing the bell. Not most auspicious of starts, perhaps on Wall Street, at least today

of all days for the president-elect.

Of course, he is a big fan of Wall Street. He's got Howard Lutnick in as a pick for his Commerce Secretary, a big guy on Wall Street, of course. And

Scott Bessant in as his pick for Treasury Secretary. We are expecting him to get down onto the floor. Let's have a listen to the way that he is being

received and the New York Stock Exchange.

Chants of USA, USA, there I was speaking over that. Apologies, Anna, what is Wall Street expecting from the president-elect?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chants of USA -- you know, you don't see that every day when someone rings the opening bell. Clearly, markets are

somewhat exuberant. We have seen record highs ever since the election. Clearly, a second Trump Administration will likely bring in tax cuts.

As you can hear this, it's good for corporate America. This is why we're seeing highs. It's good for things like Crypto. That's why we've been

seeing Bitcoin highs. However, Becky, what will be interesting is what a Trump Administration might mean for the economy. In many ways, he will be

inheriting a pretty robust economy. GDP growth is strong, unemployment is low.

That said, the unemployment picture is cooling and inflation isn't going down as quickly as many economists would like. There's likely to be another

rate cut next week from the Federal Reserve. And of course, many of Trump's policies could actually be quite inflationary, particularly when it comes

to tariffs, Becky.

ANDERSON: Let's talk about those tariffs. Because Stephen he was joking a little earlier today at the event honor him for being the 2024, Time

"Person of the Year". He was joking about some of the invitations that he has extended for his inauguration on January the 20th.

CNN learned some sort of 25 minutes before that, that the president-elect has invited, as we understand it, the President of China, Xi Jinping, to

that inauguration. If that is who he was speaking about at this event earlier on, he said, let's -- you know I've extended some invitations.

Let's see who turns up. What do you make of that invite for the Chinese President after all, we've had these threats of huge tariffs against China?

COLLINSON: Well, there were so many contradictions in everything surrounding Trump. There are people in his administration, Marco Rubio, the

designee for Secretary of State, for example, and Trump himself, in many ways, who believe that China represents an existential economic and

national security threat to the United States.

That's why there's talk of tariffs against China. It's less about a trade war. These people see tariffs as a tool of national security policy, yet

Trump invites Xi Jinping to his inauguration. He often spoke on the campaign trail that he had a great relationship with the President of

China.

Obviously, it would look to the rest of the world if Xi decided to come to the inauguration that he was coming to pay tribute to Trump. That is the

kind of situation Trump likes when we have negotiations with China, and when the relations probably will get worse when Trump takes office.

All of that could be undermined by Trump deciding that he wants to meet Xi and do a deal. That's what happened in the trade war on the first term.

That's what happened with his policy, hard line policy towards North Korea.

Look at Trump there on Wall Street. This is another contradiction. He came to power. He won re-election by highlighting the pain, economic pain, of

everyday Americans with high grocery prices. He's transformed the Republican Party from a Wall Street party to a populist working class

party, but there he is holding court in the New York Stock Exchange.

So, you never know what you're going to get with Trump. Any assumptions ahead of time you make are likely to be contradicted by his behavior.

ANDERSON: Anna, you talked about inflation in the U.S., and as we see inflation drop in Europe the European Central Bank has just announced an

interest rate cut of a quarter of one percentage point. How is Europe preparing for Trump 2.0?

STEWART: Well, as Stephen said -- you know it can be a little unpredictable. You don't know what will come next. But I think from

Europe's point of view, you've got to prepare for the absolute worst. ECB President, Christine Lagarde is currently giving a press conference

following that rate cut.

[09:35:00]

They've had to downgrade their economic outlook both for next year and 2026 with political and political turmoil in France and Germany, I should add.

But she was also asked about what would happen if Donald Trump were to implement tariffs against Europe, as he has threatened in the campaign.

And her response to that was protections, measures are not conducive to growth. She actually went a few steps further recently, in an interview

with "The Financial Times", she said that Europe really needs to avoid a trade war, pretty much by any cost. She even mentioned a check book

strategy, IE if it's needed, Europe will simply have to buy more of certain products from the U.S., because it is so important that they don't become

involved in a trade war with their biggest trading partner again.

ANDERSON: I think it was the Italian PM who is on the front page of Forbes Magazine this month or this week. The Italian economy one of the kind of

standouts in Europe at present, as we see a real struggle, certainly for the German economy. And these growth rates in -- across Europe, not looking

particularly strong over the next decade when you look at the forecast going up.

This is a strong, or certainly relatively robust U.S. economy Stephen, that the U.S. President is inheriting, despite what he has been saying during

the campaign. He's right to suggest that in the end, it was how people felt about the cost of living, which is -- you know primarily one of the --

what, certainly one of the reasons that he won the election the way he did. But it is -- it's a good economy. The question is, what does he do with it

going forward?

COLLINSON: That's right, and there's been all sorts of speculation about, as Anna said, the impact of a tax cut that could be inflationary. We've

already seen mortgage rates recently go back up and the housing market tightening. Part of that may be due to the fact that it's winter and fewer

people buy houses at this time, but there has been no relief.

Even the economy is doing very well there's this gap between the way the economy is performing and the perception that people have. Having said that

there have been some interesting polls out this week showing that Republicans now believe that the economy is doing much better, and that

tells us that people's perception of the economy tends to align with their political views.

And Donald Trump right now, CNN poll this week said that about 55 percent of people are happy with the way he's handling his transition and are

optimistic. So, a lot of this is about the feel of the economy as well. But Trump, right now, he's effectively behaving as president. Biden has pretty

much failed from the scene.

He's still basking in the glory of his election. In a month's time, everything he does will have a political impact. He will be responsible for

everything and when things go wrong. So, we're in a little bit of a honeymoon phase. If Trump behaves the way that he normally behaves, it

probably isn't going to last very long.

ANDERSON: Basking in the security of not being responsible for the U.S. economy at this point and enjoying it, he seems. Thank you to both of you.

I'll be back with more news in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:00]

ANDERSON: Well, here is how Wall Street is faring at the start of the trading day after the tech heavy NASDAQ finished Wednesday above the 20,000

level for the first time. Just off those numbers, but you can see the DOW Jones up not a lot, some 40 percent nearly 0.1 percent a 10th of 1 percent

but that market doing Donald Trump a favor to a certain extent, because the President-Elect rang in the opening bell today.

I'm sure he would have been disappointed had that market not been going higher for his big days, just been named the Time "Person of the Year" for

2024 at an event at the New York Stock Exchange.

Well, big corporate news to bring about CNN's Parent Company, Warner Brother Discovery -- Warner Brothers Discovery has just announced a major

restructure. It is split off its cable networks from its streaming business into two separate divisions, starting in mid-2025. CEO David Zaslav says

this will provide more flexibility in an evolving media landscape.

Shares of Warner Brothers Discovery jump 9 percent at the opening, trading around about 11 percent higher as we speak, just hitting the 12 buck's

level. I'm going to take a very short break back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

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