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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Machado Suggests Sharing Nobel Peace Prize With Trump; Trump: Cuba Better Make A Deal "Before It's Too Late"; Backlash Mounts Over Musk's Grok A.I.-Generated Sexual Images; Greenland's Minerals in Focus As Trump Eyes Territory; Mattel Introduces First Ever Barbie with Autism. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 13, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:31:44]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A senior official tells CNN Venezuela's opposition leader is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump this week. Thursday's meeting comes after the president declined to endorse Maria Carina Machado to lead a post-Maduro government. Now Machado could be making a play for Trump's favor by offering something he's long coveted, her Nobel Peace Prize. She has suggested she would be willing to share it with the president. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she gives you her Nobel Peace Prize, will that change your view about her running that country?

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: Will 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)

FREEMAN: Though it seems President Trump will just have to wait for his own prize because 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.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition leader is asking the Pope for his support during her country's political transition. Maria Carina Machado confirmed she did meet with a pontiff at the Vatican back on Monday, see it right there, and the Nobel laureate asked the Pope to help secure the release of Venezuela's political prisoners. Pope Leo has said he is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela with, quote, "deep concern."

Meanwhile, President Trump is ramping up the pressure on Cuba urging its leadership to make a deal with the U.S. He's warning that he will cut off Venezuelan oil and money from Cuba in the wake of Maduro's ouster. That will likely worsen Cuba's struggling economy and ongoing energy crisis. The Cuban president though was quick to respond saying the country will not be bullied. Cuba -- Cubans themselves, I should say, also seem to be skeptical though of Trump's intimidation.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann has more now from Havana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Cuba and the U.S. must arrive at an agreement if Venezuelan oil will continue to flow to this island. It is something that Cubans take very, very seriously because Cuba is dependent on the millions of barrels of oil that it receives from Venezuela, that is received throughout the decades. Already Cubans are facing one of the most severe energy crises that they have ever faced.

Power is off in much of this island throughout most of the day and it can be cut off at any time and power cuts that can last, you know, four, six, eight, twelve hours. If you take away Venezuelan oil from that equation it's not clear who's going to step in to make up the difference. Mexico and Russia send shipments of oil here but it is simply not enough and Cubans are concerned that the economy artery teetering on the brink. This could be what is lacking to completely bring the economy in Cuba to a standstill.

So, while the Cuban government says that no one dictates on what this island does, that Donald Trump his idea that Cuban Americans would be able to return and take back some of their property is something that this government has always resisted since the beginning of the revolution but at this point under so much pressure it's not clear if Cubans have many options.

[05:35:08]

Patrick Oppmann, CNN Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Thank you, Patrick.

All right coming up ahead, Grok, Elon Musk's A.I. program is facing international backlash. We'll find out what's compelling multiple countries to ban the artificial intelligence tool. If you stay with us here on CNN.

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[05:40:06]

FREEMAN: Welcome back to "Early Start." This is your business breakout and here's right now a look at where U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures looking a little bit down, mostly fat, but again off of those across-the-board gains back on Monday as investors appeared then to shrug off the Justice Department's investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But soaring gold and silver and pressure on the U.S. dollar and

treasuries, those all indicate Wall Street is bracing for some volatility.

All right, let's check in now on some of today's business headlines. U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he will impose a 25 percent tariff on countries that do business with Iran. And the announcement appears to mean goods from China also would likely be impacted. Also India as well. China's Foreign Ministry has, though, denounced the move.

Also, Paramount is ramping up its push to purchase CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery. The company has now filed a lawsuit and is threatening a proxy fight as Paramount attempts a hostile takeover of the entertainment company. The 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.

And this story is fascinating. Wegmans, the supermarket with a cult- like following, is in hot water with its customers. That's because the beloved chain recently revealed it uses facial recognition technology at its New City stores. Now, the news caused enough of a stir online that it caused the notoriously tight-lipped company to issue a rare public statement. Wegmans says the technology is used only for security.

All right, Grok, try to explain 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.

Now, in a world first, Grok has been blocked by Indonesia and Malaysia as international pressure mounts against Musk. CNN's Hadas Gold looks into the latest allegations against the so-called everything app.

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HADAS GOLD, CNN 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 deep, fake, non-consensual, nearly nude images of adults, and in some cases, children.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH 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 said it is taking action against those who prompted Grok to create sexually exploitative images of Children and has since restricted image generation request 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: 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.

TRUMP: OK, there we have it.

GOLD: 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 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: 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: Hadas Gold, CNN New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Thank you, Hadas, for that. All right, coming up in just a moment, Donald Trump says his desire to acquire Greenland is all about national security, but it's mineral rich land is also not lost on administration officials. We'll tell you why tapping into it all, though, would be a tall order, after a quick break.

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[05:49:27]

FREEMAN: Welcome back. I'm Danny Freeman. And here are some stories we're watching today.

Some Republican lawmakers are voicing concerns over the Justice Department's probe into the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. Many, though, 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.

And this, 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 all comes after President Donald Trump says he's considering some, quote, "very strong military options in response to Iran's crackdown on anti-government protesters."

[05:50:08]

And the issue of transgender athletes in girls and women's sports goes before the U.S. Supreme Court today. Justices are set to hear challenges to Idaho and West Virginia laws that ban transgender athletes from female competition. Lower courts have ruled separately that the bans violate the Constitution's equal protection clause and amounts to discrimination on the basis of sex.

To this now, 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.

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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 hostilely 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)

FREEMAN: And make no mistake, the Trump administration's interest in Greenland also tied to its untapped mineral wealth. CNN's Matt Egan takes a closer look.

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MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR 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 minds 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 forty five 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.

FREEMAN: All right, Matt, thank you for that.

Staying abroad now, 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 ultimately rescued from the rubble.

And coming up, there's a new Barbie hitting shelves this week. Just ahead, the addition to Mattel's line showcasing diversity and representation. Not going to want to miss it.

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[05:58:10]

FREEMAN: Mattel is bringing a new Barbie to life this week that's on the autism spectrum. Advocates are celebrating the doll for helping to raise awareness and representation. CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard has more.

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This is the first ever Barbie with autism and the doll is now on the market. It includes a fidget spinner, noise cancelling headphones, a tablet to support communication. The toy company Mattel, it worked with the nonprofit Autistic Self Advocacy Network to design the doll.

And this doll is part of a line of others that Mattel has launched that has the most diverse range of skin tones, hair textures, body types and medical conditions. It's estimated that roughly one in 31 Children here in the United States are diagnosed with autism by age eight. So, the new Barbie, she aims to reflect those real-life tools and experiences that many Children with autism use every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Thanks Jacqueline for that. And finally, a few sports headlines for you this morning. The final wild card battle of the NFL playoffs is officially in the books. The Houston Texans will advance after handing the Pittsburgh Steelers their seventh consecutive playoff defeat, just brutal.

Now, the Texans though, they turned in a dominating defensive performance, picking off Aaron Rodgers in the final moments of the game. That led to one of, count him, two defensive touchdowns. Incredible.

The Steelers quarterback facing questions, though, of course, about his potential retirement, saying he's not going to make any emotional decisions after a fun year, but admittedly a tough loss.

All right, we have big news for men's golf. Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA tour, but at a hefty price. The five-time major champions returned to the PGA comes just five weeks after his departure from LIV Golf.

Now, Koepka and the tour agreed to a financial penalty that could cost him tens of millions of dollars and could rank as one of the largest in sports. The PGA CEO said that Koepka's deal is, quote, not a precedent for future situations. We shall see indeed.

All right, thank you so much for joining us here on "Early Start." I'm Danny Freeman in New York City. "CNN This Morning" starts right now.