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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Bari Weiss Shelves "60 MINUTES" Report On Deportations; Former Neighbors Of Brown University Shooter Offer Views As Search For Motive Widens; Kansas City Chiefs Announce Move To New Stadium In 2031. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 23, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: For instance, in Gaza, in the past couple of years since the war has been on there, more than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed in that conflict.
And so, you know, that's the context in which we can see these recent developments, Rahel.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Matthew Chance, appreciate the reporting live for us there in Jerusalem. Matthew, thank you.
All right. Still ahead, intense scrutiny on CBS as the news boss shelves a "60 MINUTES" segment. We'll bring you those details after this break.
(COMMERCIAL)
SOLOMON: Welcome back to EARLY START. It's 5:34 Eastern and this is your business breakout.
Let's take a look and see where U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. And it is green across the board although basically flat. Fractional gains looking at futures at the moment between the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq, basically trading near the flatline, but green is green. We'll take it.
All right. Checking on some of the other business headlines today, President Donald Trump is escalating his push against renewable energy sources and is suspending federal leases for all large offshore wind farms currently under construction. The administration is citing national security concerns for the move which could impact billions of dollars in investment, stall new electricity, and create job losses.
[05:35:18]
Larry Ellison says that he will personally guarantee $40 billion worth of Paramount's offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. The Oracle founder is the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. The board of Warner Bros. has rejected the Paramount bid several times. This guarantee is intended to counteract objections to the financing of the bid. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the pill
version of the popular weight loss drug Wegovy. Currently, patients need a weekly injection to take the drug. It's a manmade version of a hormone that the body -- the body produces naturally to regulate food intake. The daily pill will be available by prescription in the U.S. in January.
All right, now to turmoil inside CBS News. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss made the decision over the weekend to shelve a "60 MINUTES" piece. The story was on Venezuelan deportees, and her decision has sparked a crisis inside the news organization. It's also attracting intense public scrutiny outside of the organization.
CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHARYN ALFONSI, CORRESPONDENT, CBS "60 MINUTES": I'm Sharyn Alfonsi.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: It was a report from Sharyn Alfonsi shelved by Bari Weiss that has put "60 MINUTES" under the microscope again. Viewers were supposed to see this report on Sunday night. CBS released this videoclip ahead of time encouraging viewers to tune in.
ALFONSI (voiceover): The deportees thought they were headed from the U.S. back to Venezuela.
STELTER: Alfonsi interviewed men deported by the Trump administration to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador.
ALFONSI: Did you think you were going to die there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought we were already the living dead, honestly.
STELTER: Alfonsi said in an internal email to her colleagues, "These men risked their lives to speak with us."
CBS put the segment to bed on Friday, but then Weiss weighed in on Saturday. She said the segment didn't sit right with her, sources told CNN. One of Weiss' main concerns was the lack of response from the Trump administration. She wanted someone like Stephen Miller on camera, on the record.
In an extraordinary internal memo Alfonsi decried "corporate censorship" and said she had "asked Weiss for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity."
Alfonsi went on to say, "Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and standards and practices." And "We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO."
And here is the key quote. "If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a 'kill switch' for any reporting they find inconvenient."
Weiss criticized the story on Monday morning, telling staffers on a conference call "While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball."
That comment created even more indignation inside CBS with staffers wondering if the Trump administration is pressuring CBS parent company Paramount.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I beat CBS for much more money than that.
STELTER: Trump sued CBS over "60 MINUTES" last year and the old owners of Paramount agreed to settle, stoking outrage. Then Trump praised the new owners, the Ellisons.
TRUMP: Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great. They're friends of mine. Big -- they're big supporters of mine.
STELTER: But this month Trump has been blasting them.
TRUMP: "60 MINUTES" has treated me worse under the new ownership than -- they just keep treating me -- they just keep hitting me. It's crazy.
STELTER: That comment coming just hours before Weiss intervened in the Alfonsi piece.
Weiss, a New York Times opinion desk veteran, launched The Free Press website in 2021 and sold it to Paramount this year for $150 million. Paramount CEO David Ellison put her in charge of the CBS newsroom while she's still running her startup, causing concern that she's overstretched.
Former CBS reporters like Harry Smith say Weiss is now being tested.
HARRY SMITH, FORMER CBS REPORTER: Who does she need to please, and what does she need to please? And if that's not journalism as the number one answer then there really is a problem at CBS.
STELTER: And all of this is happening while CBS parent Paramount tries to buy CNN's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. On Monday, Paramount revised its hostile takeover bid offer and said Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison will personally guarantee the financing.
Any deal will need Trump administration approval, and Trump has said he'll be personally involved, which means CBS News coverage is really under a microscope right now.
Brian Stelter, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Still ahead for us, former neighbors of the suspect in the Brown University shootings and the killing of an MIT professor paint a mixed picture of someone who was once a brilliant student. A report from Portugal when we come back.
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[05:44:20]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon. And here are some of the stories we are watching for you this morning.
The U.S. Justice Department has released a new heavily redacted set of the Epstein files. They were posted on the department's website overnight. CNN teams are currently reviewing them. In the meantime, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers say that they are threatening to hold the department in contempt for failing to release all of the files by the legal deadline.
President Trump says that he hopes to build 20 to 25 new Navy ships over the next few years. He unveiled plans for the so-called "Trump Class Battleships" to be partly controlled by artificial intelligence. The president says that he wants to be involved in designing the ships because he is a very aesthetic person.
[05:45:05]
The U.S. military has struck another alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific. Southern Command says that one person was killed. That brings the death toll now to 105 in what the Pentagon calls "Operation Southern Spear." The mission is aimed at stopping the shipment of narcotics, mostly from Venezuela.
Brown University has placed its campus police chief on leave following that mass shooting that killed two students and wounded nine others. The university announced the action on Monday pending a review of the shooting. A former Providence, Rhode Island police chief will take over in the interim and will also head up that review.
Now separately, the U.S. Department of Education is launching its own review of the university's security procedures. In the 10 days since the shooting many questions have been raised about safety on the campus.
And the search for a motive in those shootings and the killing of an MIT professor has widen. Former neighbors of the deceased suspect say that he was estranged from his family in Portugal. People who knew him there paint a mixed picture, calling him very bright but also calling him reclusive.
CNN's Vasco Cotovio has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VASCO COTOVIO, CNN PRODUCER (voiceover): A brilliant man, the best of students. As authorities continue to piece what may have led Claudio Neves Valente to allegedly open fire on a class at Brown University and then kill MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro, the picture emerging is of a careful and meticulous man, which seems to tally with the memories people have of Valente growing up in Portugal.
In Torres Novas, his hometown, just an hour outside the capital Lisbon, Valente's physics teacher shocked to hear him named the prime suspect, had only the best to say.
JOSE MORGADO, CLAUDIO NEVES VALENTE'S FORMER TEACHER (through translator): He was the best of his class. A brilliant person -- really, exceptional. As a human being he was excellent as well. I used to tell my colleagues that Claudio was the perfect student.
COTOVIO: Morgado says he helped Valente prepare for the '95 Physics Olympics in Australia before he went on to study at one of Portugal's most elite and competitive universities. It's there he met MIT Professor Loureiro.
BRUNO SOARES GONCALVES, PRESIDENT, INSTITUTE FOR PLASMA NUCLEAR FUSION, INSTITUTE SUPERIOR TECNICO: We need to have in mind we are in the -- we were and they were in the best physics course in the country.
COTOVIO: Loureiro and Valente attended the same course at the same time. Colleagues who knew both have described Valente as the smarter of the two but also was arrogant and argumentative.
Those who lived near him while he was studying in Lisbon speak of a polite teenager but one who they say was estranged from his close family.
MARIA MARGARIDA BAPTISTA, NEIGHBOR (through translator): I really liked Claudio. He was very quiet. He was a bit strange, but he was a really bright boy, but nothing else. I know that he would disappear and his parents were always looking for him.
COTOVIO: Neighbors say he eventually sold his house in Lisbon after finishing his degree.
GONCALVES: Now we know that he -- that Claudio was the best in class -- in the -- in course from that amount of students. So it's surprising that someone that had so much apparently to give also to physics end up doing something of this sort.
COTOVIO: He moved to the United States enrolling in a PhD at Brown only to drop out shortly after. He returned to Portugal at one point but his last known address in Florida.
A lot still unclear about his life and what his motive may have been.
Vasco Cotovio, CNN, Lisbon, Portugal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Still ahead for us, we'll join CNN's Richard Quest in Oslo for a little Christmas magic and a glimpse behind the scenes of Norway's National Ballet production of "The Nutcracker."
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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[05:53:20]
SOLOMON: All right. We want to update you on some breaking news we've been following throughout the hour. A document from the Justice Department's latest release of the Epstein files says that flight records show Donald Trump traveled on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet at least eight times from 1993 and 1996. Ghislaine Maxwell was also listed as present on at least four flights. That's according to an assistant U.S. attorney who wrote that was "many more times than previously has been reported or that we were aware."
Authorities have not accused Trump of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein, and Trump has long tried to distance himself from Epstein, calling him a "creep."
All right, turning to sports. The NFL playoff picture is taking shape after Monday night's matchup between the Colts and the 49ers. Now, despite a close first half, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy ending the game with a career-high five touchdowns. San Francisco's defense showing no mercy either. It solidified their fourth-quarter lead with a pick six against Colts quarterback Philip Rivers. Linebacker Dee Winters ran it back 74 yards for a touchdown to close out the win over Indianapolis 48-27.
The 49ers have now won five-straight games as they battle for the top spot in the NFC West.
The Kansas City Chiefs will be moving across state lines before kicking off the 2031 NFL season. They will leave behind Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri for a new domed stadium to be built in Kansas City, Kansas. The enclosed facility, along with a retail and entertainment district, is expected to attract a wide range of year- round events because it's domed.
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The deal is seen as a huge win for Kansas lawmakers but it's a blow to Missouri efforts to retain the Chiefs franchise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE KEHOE, (R) MISSOURI: I think it's safe to say that I join Chiefs Kingdom in my disappointment to the decision that was announced earlier about the Chiefs' intention to go to Kansas.
You know, Arrowhead Stadium -- I think Clark Hunt said it the best in his statement -- that his father brought that team to Arrowhead because it was the best venue for fans in the United States. Arrowhead Stadium is still the best venue for fans in the United States. Every game at Arrowhead is like going to a Super Bowl. It's more than just a brick and mortar facility. It is what Lamar Hunt built. It is his legacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Just so long as the Eagles stay in Philly.
And staying in Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, the Steelers' star wide receiver DK Metcalf has been suspended without pay for two games after an altercation with a fan. NFL officials ruled that he violated league rules after footage appears to show Metcalf grab a man's shirt before taking a swipe at him during Sunday's game against the Lions. It's still unclear what triggered the incident. And Metcalf has elected to appeal the NFL's decision.
All right. Just a few days now before Christmas and "The Nutcracker" is a Christmas tradition on stages across the world. It's a winter fantasy filled with magic, movement, and childhood wonder.
CNN's Richard Quest takes us backstage with Norway's National Ballet in Oslo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voiceover): In the world of ballet it doesn't get more Christmas than "The Nutcracker." The ballet tells the story of a magical world in where toys come to life, fall in love, all while engaging in battles and daring adventures.
The Norwegian National Ballet's interpretation of this famous story is an essential part of Christmas in Oslo.
Before watching the performance, I was invited backstage to meet the company's artistic director. A former dancer, she made sure I stretched properly before the show started -- and I'm only in the audience.
QUEST: This is the big one. "The Nutcracker" at Christmas. How important is it?
INGRID LORENTZEN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, NORWEGIAN NATIONAL BALLET: It is important in so many ways because it gathers people -- kids, adults, even the older ones. And really, it's the moment for everyone to come together. It is more than a ballet. It's a Christmas tradition.
Of course, you have the frame. You have Tchaikovsky. You have everything that people want to see, and then you give them something they didn't expect, which is our little way of Christmas offering.
QUEST: What do you think is a particularly Norwegian way of interpreting?
LORENTZEN: First of all, we are a national ballet, but we are an international ballet. And I'm so proud of that because we carry history -- each one of us -- and we are 75 dancers, full orchestra. And then what is our identity? What is our DNA? And I think that is to give the not suspected. It's to say some hints back to our own history but also maybe also daring to reflect history in our very special way that can't be told but has to be danced. QUEST (voiceover): "The Nutcracker" is in so many ways the perfect Christmas ballet. And if I hadn't injured myself stretching, I probably could have danced all night.
Richard Quest, CNN, in Norway.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Our thanks to Richard Quest for both the story and the visual of Richard stretching. Thank you, Richard.
All right. You could call it a holiday gift for fans of the artist Banksy. This new artwork from the anonymous British street artist appeared in London -- in London on Monday. It shows two children wearing winter hats, lying on the ground with one pointing to the sky. Banksy painted the black and white mural on the side of an old building in the Bays Water District.
Now, an identical mural also appeared on another building in Central London, however Banksy's representatives have only confirmed that this one work is his.
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The Powerball jackpot has jumped to an estimated $1.7 billion for Wednesday's drawing. That's after nobody won the grand prize on Monday. The new jackpot still short of the all-time U.S. Powerball record of $2.04 billion. That was in 2022. Monday's drawing still produced nine million-dollar winners, so check your tickets. The numbers are 3, 18, 36, 41, 54, and a red Powerball of 15 -- of 7, excuse me. Got to get that right.
All right. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. I will see you tomorrow. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
