the piano, and his voice would be drowned out, and in 1994 when john harrison was still working on the track, that technology did not exist, and they stopped working on it, because it was supposed to be for the "red and blue anthologies" and now we have the technology and it is incredible. >> it is incredible, and i am not arguing with you that it is no the best idea -- >> i have not had time, and you are clearly better. >> while you were preparing for the rest of the show, i was listening to "now and then" by the beatles, but it is haunting to hear something that you never heard before, and as a beatles fan i have heard everything that they have sung, and to hear something that i have not heard before, it is moving, and look, you know they are notare not go produce any more music, and hearing paul mccartney say it is the end, it is poignant and something to last for

generations. >> there a real romance to the moment, no doubt. and to end the beatles, if you could say this, to sort of end on this note as opposed to the note in 1970 when they broke up, and there was everybody fighting with each other, here they are all together with that classic beatles' harmony and nobody had harm onies like those guys, and there is a romance to the moment no question. >> is there any hesitation, and have you heard of any hesitation about how this has come together from mccartney or any of them? >> well, famously george harrison called it rubbish in the 1990s, but the question that i am asking is was he referring to the demo, the quality of the demo or was he referring to the

song? i choose to believe that he was referring to the technology. >> me, too. i am going with that option. >> okay. we will go with that one. mark, thank you for being with us, and appreciate your time, and let's all go listen to it again as soon as the show is over. >> thank you, john and kate. i appreciate being on. >> thank you. ♪ the israeli military chief just said that the israeli troops are in a significant part of gaza city, and we are getting the new details just in on the offensive as the estimate of the number of hostages is rising. >> the gates at the rafah crossing are open once again, and we have just learned that 20 to 25 americans have arrived in egypt from gaza through that crossing. we have an update to come. happening now, donald trump jr. is testifying in court. we just learned the questioning so far this morning has been about the trump tower penthouse

ap apartment. i'm john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner is off. this is the cnn "news central." ♪ all right. just into cnn, the israeli military chief of staff says that the troops are in very significant areas of gaza city. he says that israeli troops have been operating within gaza city for days, but what we had heard up until now is that the troops were heading to gaza city, and the gatesf gaza city, and this is the first confirmation that they are within the city itself, and they have been moving in from several directions, and jeremy diamond is live right near the gaza border in the israeli city of sderot. jeremy? >> yeah, john. as you said, the israeli military chief of staff is saying that the forces are inside of gaza and have been operating inside of gaza city

for several days now, and operating in quote very significant areas of gaza city, but even as he says that, we are witnessing some active fighting here on to northeastern most edge of gaza city. you can see it behind me here, there is still some smoke hanging in the air which is in large part because of the way that the air is today and the smoke is hanging, there and the streaks are rockets coming out of gaza, but instead, it is artillery fire fired from here into gaza, and the streaks are remain pg ining because of the that the sky is holding the smoke. but all afternoon, we have been listening to the active battles of israelis and hamas, and mortar fire inside of gaza, and small arms fire, and battles between the hamas, and israeli forces inside of gaza, and what that is telling us is that as

they are moving deeper into gaza strip, and hamas's strong hold, they are still confronting the hamas soldiers here, and that is because of the tunnel structure that they maintain inside of gaza. we know ta lashat last night, we told by the id, iff they weey w ambushed by the hamas because of that structure. >> and so, now for everyone, where gaza city s and we have heard from the idf staff that there are troops inside of gaza city, and jeremy is outside of gaza city in sderot, and what he is seeing over his shoulder is that there is activity there in

beit hanoun and now not just encircling gaza city, but now according to the chief they have troops there inside of gaza city. >> those are significant developments, and also tracking the israeli military staff says they are responding to gun fire from the northern border. and now, earlier our colleague jim sciutto, he got a look at israeli special forces conducting live fire exercise, and we will get to jim sciutto now in northern israel, and jim, shooting coming in from lebanon? >> yeah. so the live fire exercise ended a short time ago, and as we are driving back to where we are staying, we heard two consecutive booms in the sky, and the reason that i have my gear on now, and this is because

of israel's iron dome missile defense system engaging the incoming rockets coming from lebanon, due north which is here to my left. we have sensored from the id, if that 25 rocks fired in from southern lebanon, and most of them as far as we know now landing in the open areas, but the two big booms again engaged some of them, and it destroyed the missile defense system in the air, and that is a higher pace of rocket fire than i have experienced here at least in the last several days of being up north. it has been a daily event, sporadic fire, rocket, artillery, some attempted ground incursions, but that pace is higher, and this is notable, because as you and i are, and all of us are talking, the concern is that nas rallahnasra

leader of a hamas may encourage the forces to enter this direction, and so it is a slow boil kind of threat up here for the last couple of weeks since october 7th, and over three weeks now, but it is enough to have really emptied out large parts of the northern part of the country, because the folks are making the calculation understandably, they don't want their family living under this threat. right. we know this happened and threw our kit on, and we know that the threat happened, and you don't want to do this everyday, and that is why many portions of the country have decided to move south. >> jim, so glad to have you there and what you are seeing in the box next to jim is what some of what he and the crew saw earlier in the morning during the show which is this live, this training exercise of the israeli special forces which was fascinating to see. john? >> yes, this is where jim was in golan heights here, in the live

fire exercise, and he is talking about the situation of the border between israel and lebanon and seeing the large number of rockets going back and forth. i want to move the focus back to gaza, itself, where we are getting new information with retired general peter zwack, and we are hearing that there are israeli troops inside of gaza city, and explain the significance of that. >> john, good to see you again, and yes, what we have seen and wondered in the beginning why the israelis were seemingly so slow in getting the forces pushed into gaza proper. i think that first of all what we didn't see, and we heard about, there has to have been a lot of reconnaissance operations, and special operation, and kind of getting in there and filling in,

identifying, and obviously with the air as well, and then the you will start to see the israeli heavier equipment, the armor and things like that beginning to push into gaza and on the edges of gaza city built up, and one reason they are so careful is that we are, while there are casualties, you know, they have had about, and they are reported to have 15 dead and a bunch of wounded, and seven of those killed in action were in an armored personnel carrier, and another ied, and this is the slow nasty fight within the city especially when you are in vehicles. as we have seen in the past, they are vulnerable, and the israelis are doing this dismounted now with the tanks and the armored personnel

carriers, and it is slow, and fast to go in where the enemy is well armed, you will get a disproportionate amount of casualties, and this is one of the reasons that the israelis have been so careful. >> so we are our best estimation is the three operation, the one from the south and the east and the north. and now, again, the one from the south is to move troops into gaza city. specifically, day-to-day here, what are the troops in the city going to be doing? >> well, now, you are in a three-dimension and actually four or five if you add the cyber to it. they are in nasty business of clearing every structure and that means to getting in there

and going to clear all of the way up, because if it is a high-rise, up to the roof. and then digging down into the basement, and clearing every room, and then getting into the awful tunnel complex that is built. you have read and read the reports that just now israelis will be in the fight, and then all of the sudden, the hamas fighters can pop up behind them in cellars and buildings they thought they had cleared. so it is methodical, and manpower and no easy clean way to do it, and the heavy vehicles are generally there to provide the backup and firepower when the infantry hit a structure, and the infantry also protects the tanks and armored personnel carriers that they get out too far in front, they are helpful.

also, we have ieds and drones, and so there is a lot going on, and there is only one way to do it is slow and methodically. and that is what going on, on several fronts. >> thank you, brigadier general peter zwack, and the limited reports that we are getting from gaza city and piecing it together. and now, donald trump jr. is back on the stand in the civil trial against his family, and these are system of the limited images or video that we can get from the beginning of the trial where he is this morning. he is facing questions about donald trump's penthouse apartment, and even the size. we have a report on the fraud. and now, also republicans calling out other republicans, including tommy tuberville blocking hundreds of military

promotions, and why it is coming to a head now, and where is that is going today? we will give you the update on that. and one of the five former memphis police officers charged in the beating of tyre nichols plans to change his plea. we will have an update on that. be back.

happening right now, donald trump's eldest son is back on the stand for the second day.

he is implicated in a trial for him, his father, his siblings and business empire. this morning the questioning has centered and donald trump's penthouse apartment in new york, the value, the size even. cnn's brynn gingras is there, and bring us up to date. where is the testimony right now? >> well, don jr. is not on the stand right now, because they are on a break, and he will return to the stand, and feeling confident that one of the colleagues inside asked how it was going, and he came out, and gave two thumb up, and overlooking the sketch artist to see how she is doing of the artwork of him, and in a confident mood. all of the questioning has been about what he knows about the preparation of the financial documents when it is coming to the penthouse apartment in trump to tower, but also other new york properties owned by the trumps not just here in new york, but around the country. and he is remaining confident and direct and keeping to the

story, his story that he has nothing to do with the preparation of the documents and this is what accountants are paid for according to him and his words. so that is really it. he is sticking to the story, and he said at one point when the state's attorney tried the go through years of documents he said, rinse and repeat. he is not going to waiver from that. and the state attorney is trying to prove that he and his brother and father and the organization worked together in this larger fraud scheme to perpetuate fraud for decades and which fraud the judge already has determined that the company and they are liable for. so, it is important that the testimony be heard in the courtroom. now, when he is finished with this direct examination from the state, we don't expect the defense lawyers to ask him any question, but we then expect eric trump to get on the stand, and he is in the courthouse, but not in the courtroom yet, and we

expect the questions to be more pointed as we have heard his name mentioned several times by witnesses in the case, and when directed by the financial documents, and we will see what the testimony looks like, but it is a long day of both the trump oldest sons here, and trying to answer for the fact that these financial documents which were, you know, said by the state's attorneys were inflated for better insurance premiums, and better tax rates. kate? >> we will get back to brynn for more updates. >> and we have word that he is back in the courtroom, and more testimony to come. >> standby. >> and counselor jen rogers is here with us, and a smiling donald trump jr. is testifying for hours, and he didn't know much or anything about the accounting of the trump corporation here. so what is the state, the attorney general's office getting out of the testimony? >> it is interesting, john, because as brynn reported that he is seeming confident and thumbs up, and don't worry about

that, and the same answers for this, and as if he is killing this examination going on, and he is giving the attorney general everything, that he had substantive knowledge, and yes, it says that he signed that, and he is responsible for the accuracy of it, and substantive knowledge of the fraudulent deals with the numbers, and they are getting the accuracy of what they need, and this false sense of what he knows is not going to go with the judges. >> yeah, left it to the accountants. >> yes. >> and i am wharton educated person, and left it for the accountants. >> and there is a what you should have known, and also, swearing by your signature that you did review the information and that you did give the accountants all of the information and that a big part of it, because the trump

organization swore by the signature that they had handed over all of the documents, and the attorney general is proving otherwise. >> it is small thing, but is that a strategy of the upbeat tone, confidence and approach that he is having on the stand as opposed to when donald trump was brought to the stand, and not really the full testimony, but that momentary thing, and very different. >> it can be with the jury, and you can fool the jurors sometimes to say, hey, my attitude suggests that i don't case, and you should see that they are not getting me, and here, there is a judge. the judge not fooled by anyone's sort of attitude or tone of voice, and he is focused on the actual evidence on what is coming in, and he has decided fraud here, and the question is how much they have to give back. >> you keep getting to something that i have number one, this judge has found them liable for fraud, and two that it is a judge and not a jury, and everyday when we cover this, i

am reminded that you must have to go at this in a different way as a lawyer and plaintiff and the defense. >> you really do. and that why when we saw that donald trump was in the courtroom how different everything got, because the lawyers know that they don't have the play to the judge in the same way that you have the play to the jury, but the client, and that is why you saw longer examinations, and that you don't have in a bench trial, because the judge is not impressed by it. >> does eric trump seeing the testimony of his brother, does it impact what his, like what his advice and approach of what he needs to accomplish or not needs to be when he takes stand. >> he knows what is coming with don jr. and all of the witnesses have been deposed and so he knows what is coming, and he has a strategy, and it is largely the same, and it was not my job and i did what i was supposed to

do, and the judge has determined otherwise, and it is not about the otherwise, because it is about the numbers. >> it is going to be interesting for donald trump to be on the stand, because he is the one running for president, so i am told. >> yes. >> and so, now, on the floor, the republican on republican battles over military promotions, and in a month's long standoff might be about to end. a former memphis police officer accused in the death of tyre nichols signaling he is going to change his plea. iger

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we have -- >> the republican colleagues say that you are weakening the military. >> oh, really? well, that is your opinion. >> are you at risk of weak epping epp i -- weakening the military? >> no. if i thought that there was a problem of that, then we would not be doing. this is all going to be over one day and i don't know when. that is interesting to me last night. >> and the criticism that you got last night? >> yes, it was a little character assassination at times, but you have to remember what i did for a living for a

long time, and so i am used to that, but we have to get on the same page on this, and i think that we will. it is just that we went through something last night that for 17th time, and 16 of them democrats and not one republican, but we will work on it. >> has any of this caused you to change your approach? >> no. >> reporter: you will not drop your holds no matter what? >> no matter what. we get some resolution from the president, and first of all, we don't know what the policy is. they won't give it to us. we went through the briefing, and we have no definition of what they changed it to. so they are shooting from the hip. we need to sit down, and talk about the policy, and see if there is anything that we can agree on and get on with life. >> reporter: you have heard each of the senators say one by one that these people, these military personnel have anything to do with the policy?

>> i know it. but it is the only way to get their attention, and hate to do this, but somebody has to listen to us. i work for the people of this country, okay. i don't work for another senator or president, i work for the american public. we polled and 60% of democrats and republicans don't want to pay for the abortion, and they don't want the money the go for it, so it is not a republican issue, but a taxpayer issue. >> and some have described this as a suicide mission. how do you describe that? >> i don't know what that is, but he has been in the military and i have not, and i have told you all along, we are living in the most dangerous time in the history of our lives and we are in danger, and if i thought that we were in any bit of danger, we would not be doing this, but things are being done, things are going as normal, and i mean,

it is just, i hate it that a lot of the officers are having to go through this, but i work for the american people, and we are trying to get something done, and again, all they have to do, all they have to do to get confirmed is schumer to bring them at the floor one at a time, and i have three coming today and who did it? you are looking at them, and chuck schumer is doing it, and i forced him to do it. i am not holding up individual nomination, but a group. and so point to people like joe biden and others for not -- that is our chief capitol reporter heat-seeking missile manu raju with republican senator tommy tuberville with the months' long military

promotion hold because of reproductive rights for military rights, and it was overnight contentious with the republicans fed up with tuberville, and the republicans turning on him, and demanding that he remove the block, and today, senator chuck schumer, the democrat, obviously, he is trying to take some measures and maneuvers to get around the block. we will see how much progress they make on confirming the service members in key crucial positions in this crucial time. kate? >> we are tracking this. one of the former police officers who is accused of beating and killing tyre nichols. desmond mills had plead not guilty to charges in nichols death, but today, he could be changing plea. we go over to cnn's ryan young following this for us. ryan, what is going on here? >> well, kate, we are monitoring this as we speak and coming

through as we are talking maybe. we think that desmond mills is going to plead guilty in federal court, and get a plea deal from the prosecutors and this after saying that he is not guilty. back to january, and lot of people remember the video of tyre nichols trying to get home, and we are not sure why they wanted to pull him over, but in the video that is so shocking to people across the country, and what you are seeing is the officers hitting him over and over again, and kicking and punching and hitting him as he was close to home, and this resulted in his death while he was being beaten, he called for his mother, and this is what sticks out to so many people. and there was a police camera on top of a pole near this beating, and it recorded all of this, and it was shocking to the country. the obviously the police department has had to reorganize to look into this case, but right now, desmond mills is to walk into the court to take this plea deal, and maybe it is the start of many plea deals, but right now, we are not sure what it will do, but we know that ben

crump and some of the attorneys for ty nichols family will be getting more plea deals. >> this is maybe coming out, and as ryan said, it could be happening as we speak. john? this is just coming in, new u.s. citizens processing the paperwork at rafah crossing as american citizens are getting out of gaza. starplay is a streaming service in abu dhabi that brings you television whether to the television or mobile phone. and with our talent we need a

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so, we have new video in moments ago of u.s. citizens processing paperwork at the

rafah border crossing and in southern gaza right on the border of egypt and one of the final steps to leave gaza, and some 20, 25 citizens have now crossed over the egypt we are told, and this is after qatar brokered a deal between hamas and egypt, and hamas had refused to let people out, and egypt was reluctant to let people in, and now people, thousands, are waiting to get out, and the list posted with the names of some 400 u.s. citizens who can leave today, but 20 ambulances are also lined up to bring injured palestinians to hospitals. kate? one aspect of the war appears to be playing out online and on social media, and hamas has seen the presence explode. on the telegram, we have seen the popularity that has been jumping since the terror attack on october 7th. one account linked to hamas has seen the following triple. telegram has moved to shutdown

several accounts linked to the terror group now, and this is coming after the hamas terrorists filmed the horrific raid with body cameras, and even the personal cell phones of the victim s and cnn journalists were shown a graphic compilation from the izsraeli officials who were showing shooting people still in their beds, and now, of course, we will not be showing the videos because of the natures of them, but the stories are so horrific that if the terrorists struggled to get inside of the home, they set fire it to instead, and one show s a hamas fighter firing into the body. and the fact that it is streamed online in certain regards at certain times and captured on body camera, but this is exposing a shift in the social media strategy, and important

aspect of this to discuss. for this i want to bring in devora who says that the social media strategy is key to the plans, and also has shifted. i am curious, how has this pivoted and why do you think? >> hamas has cared about the image for a very long time, and specifically since the 2007 entrance into governance. the group has tried to portray in english and arabic propaganda the governance strategy and how it is a good governing actor and implementing the governance domestically in gaza and the foreign policy strategy, but the group differs on how it focuses on the english and arabic propaganda. for example, the arabic emphasizes resistance which is a core pillar of the propaganda,

and english is emphasizing victimization of the group. >> now, the social media reach of hamas, and telegram is one of the key platforms they use, and they have suspended some of the account, and the official account was suspended like in late october, october 26th, and is that a big blow to their propaganda efforts? >> yes, absolutely. it is important to acknowledge that october 7th was a big pivot in specifically how hamas was portraying itself internationally. in english, it is a victim and october is the loudest of seeing hamas as a truly resistance actor carrying out the horrific acts of violence that it livestreamed and portrayed to the world which caused a riff in the organization, itself, because many of the kind of the political wing which had always

focused on this victimization, foreign policy and governance narrative was now shattered. so we have seen the removal of hamas' website in both english and in arabic, and the group even operated a twitter account, facebook, and all of those are gone. telegram was the last kind of the frontier of how it was getting information out to public, and with that down, it is a huge blow to the group and the public messaging. that being said, the hamas leaders are still on international media channels daily reiterating calls for violence and in fact, hamas political leader just yesterday said that they were going to carry out hundreds of october 7th again and again. >> it is not just about the horrific attacks and images coming out of october 7th, but it is also important this discussion about the future, and the immediate future of what the war is going to look like going forward, and the challenge it present, because when it is

coming to the information war aspect of any war, it is a key part of it, and general david por portrayes was on with me, and he said, the quote, unquote battlefield effect, with everyone having access to the smartphone, and how is israel cou countering the propaganda spread. how do you see that? >> i think that you have put it correctly, it is a livestreamed war, but it is a lot of information out there, and we are seeing a lot of disinformation, and we have seen already disinformation on twitter and other platforms where it is who is the loudest and the first to counter that information.

i always say, once information is out there, it is very hard to put it back even if it is not true. so there is a very difficult war ahead in the idea of how do we get out proper messaging and counter disinformation. >> this is important. this is important for everyone to take into account your expertise in this e area, and thank you so much, devorah. john? >> this is so interesting that moments ago, the beatles have released a new song. hallelujah.

a little breaking news here. we're just getting word that donald trump jr. has finished testifying in the civil fraud trial against trump in the trump organization, where they have been found liable for fraud. he's done testifying and now eric trump is on the stand. britain jin fwras is outside the courthouse. how did it finish up with don jr.? >> reporter: it finished up similar to how it started. basically, he continues to deflect on his responsibility of signing financial documents saying that it's up to his accountants. he wassen of the the stand directly examined by the cross-examination. did not happen as we had subpoena issed. he was asked about the valuation of a property here in new york. he said that, yes, he signed that document, but his brother had more conversations about that property. so now here we are. he's off the stand and his brother is now on the stand.

as we said before, we do expect more pointed questions toward eric trump because his name has been said a lot throughout this trial. in concert with the financial documents and conversations with other people at trump organization. so we'll see how this testimony goes. but now we have it. the second son on the stand of the former president talking about the valuation of these properties in the civil fraud trial. we'll keep you posted on what's happening in the courtroom. >> there maybe more questions for eric trump than his brother don jr. keep us posted. thank you so much. in the meantime, 53 years old, the beatles broke up. they are no longer with us. yet today my rack rously the boeatles released a new song. it's a song that lennon recorded the track for in 1978. george harrison did guitar for it and now paul mccartney put in vocals, base and drums.

listen. ♪ >> chris willman is joining us now. he's a senior music writer. thank you so much for jumping on. what you think? >> i think it's lovely. i think beatles fans are going to have arguments online. is this okay to sign off on it. but i think 90% of fans will love it. 10% are going to find something to argue about, but it's really

a beautiful song. at heart it's possibly a love letter from john to paul. you can see why it means so much for him to complete it. >> talk more about that. i do love it. i'm thrilled to have this. it really does feel miraculous to hear them together again, even with all the conditions placed on it. why do you say it is a love letter from john? >> well, there is talk that when john and paul met for the last time in the late '70s, supposedly the last thing john said was he patted paul on the shoulder and said think about me every now and then old friend. so that phrase was recorded long before people were really thinking about this song. so john isn't around to talk about it, but it does seem possibly to be where i want with paul in mind given that

phraseology popped up so many decades ago. >> you were talking to our producers and made a point of how this might be the only song ever released that includes almosts that were recorded in so many different decades. it really is. you add in how a.i. helped to clear up the vocals and make this roll possible. it's truly amazing. >> yeah. it's incredible feat. we haven't had a, quote, unquote, new beatles song in over 25 years since "now and then" was completed. this will be the last one. it couldn't have been done at the time. the director peter jackson came up with the extraction or separation technology that he used for the documentary to make the vocals and the chatter clear from the background noise. they were able to take this very, very muddy demo that john had had done.

people have herd the demo before. it was on a reside owe show. and so the whole world knows the problems with the tract. the piano sounds terrible. they had had to get that off there and extract the vocal. there's a mini documentary that actually has a little bit of the a cappella vocal. it really sounds like he's sitting there in a studio right in front of you. instead of the muddy thing people have heard for the last few decades. i think miracle is not too strong of word. >> we have to let you go, but there are no other tracks out there that we know of. so it really does feel like this could be the last beatles song. the finality of that is strange to sort of process. >> it is. it's very poignant. there's so many point yapt

things about that. george martin's son coproduced it with paul and did this beautiful orchestration very much in the tradition. so there's all sorts of sentimental things about this. and it's the last. it's the only song that has all four beatles on it that we'll ever get that's never been priestly released. we can take paul at his word when he says that's it. there are no more. we don't want to let it go. we want to believe there's something else in the canon. >> we really appreciate it. we know time is off. thank you for being with us. >> that's one way to end a setting the. thank you for joining us. this is "cnn news central." "inside politics" is up next.