hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you're watching cnn newsroom.

i'm rosemary church. just ahead, the ukrainian president zelensky travels to washington this week. we will look at the challenge he faces when it comes to getting more funding for the war with russia. former u.s. president donald trump reverses course when it comes to testifying in court later today. this, as he doubles down on startling comments about being a dictator if he gets in the white house for a second term. and homes turned to rubble and ash in gaza after an israeli air strike. what the u.s. has to say about civilian protection in the beleaguered enclave. thanks for joining us. we start with the ukrainian president making his third trip to washington since russia invaded his country nearly two years ago. a statement from president zelensky's office says he will

meet with u.s. president biden about further defense cooperation. but right now, aid for ukraine is bogged down in congress amid a long-running domestic debate with some lawmakers saying, it comes down to a matter of priorities. >> reporter: president zelensky's visit to washington will come at a critical time as lawmakers are working on a package that could include aid for ukraine and rules on migration in the united states. the fact that president biden invited zelensky to washington tells you the administration is looking for a way to break the impasse on capitol hill. while he is in d.c., he will meet with president biden at the white house, to discuss what president biden's aides say is vital support for ukraine. he will be on capitol hill. he will meet, as well, with the republican house speaker, mike johnson.

his challenge will be in convincing that the $60 million that president biden is requesting for ukraine, on the battlefield, as ukraine is bogged down in a counteroffensive that hasn't changed the battle lines so far. you're hearing republicans oppose j.d. vance. zelensky will come to washington and demand that congress care more about his border than our own. our talks are tied together with the conversation of tightening the rules of migration into the united states. we heard sunday from the senators that are leading the discussions. it did not appear as if they were any closer to an agreement. listen to what they said.

>> this is one of the most dangerous moments i've ever faced in american politics. i wish republicans weren't holding israel aid and aid to ukraine hostage to the resolution of immigration reform. >> can you get ukraine aid passed, separate from this? >> no. the focus is, why would we deal with other people's national security and ignore american national security. why would we allow people across our southern border, this administration. we have individuals that are labeled national security risks in the country. >> reporter: president biden said he was open to significant compromise when it came to border provisions. he is caught in a bind here, feeling pressure from both sides.

from republicans and democrats that want to do more. also on the other side, worried they could amount to some of the restrictive policies that president trump enacted in office. it remains unclear whether presidential involvement will break tim pass. let's discuss this further with jill dougherty and adjunct professor at georgetown university. she is also a cnn moscow bureau chief. good to have you with us. >> hey, rosemary. >> president joe biden will host president zelensky at the white house tuesday to discuss further defense cooperation. hanging over that series of planned talks is the reality

that congress is not fully onboard for additional funding for the war-torn nation. what all can be achieved? >> i think zelensky has a very difficult job. and this may be the biggest, most important pitch he has to make for his country. right now, as we noted in that report, everything in the united states has been highly poli politicized. we have an election coming up. any issue, especially ukraine, where you're talking about big amounts of money. you have an overall package of $106 billion, $60 billion of which would go to ukraine. the rest would go to israel, to the border. and some other, taiwan, in fact. $60 billion is a lot of money. as american lawmakers look at it, they don't believe there's

much progress that the ukrainians are making. also, they know, or republicans know, that joe biden is over the barrel on this. he needs to continue that funding that is a major purpose he set out to do. they can hold him and pressure him on this issue on the border. the border is security. you would have to say, a difference between armed invasion of another country. albeit another country and people coming into a country. they are different issues. but in the united states, they are connected. it's very difficult i think zelensky will have to rely on the power he has emotionally to connect to people. and also, to make that -- get across the idea, which he's made before.

if ukraine loses -- whatever lose means at this point -- and russia is perceived as winning, it can be a danger to europe and to the united states. it's a very difficult task for him right now. >> let's look at that. what will the likely consequences be if conservatives dig in their heels and refuse to approve more aid for ukraine? what will be the consequences? paint us that picture. >> it's pretty dire. right now, the whole thing, the whole fight right now is how much armaments you have. how much ammunition do you have? how many weapons do you have? and ukraine is running out of this. it's predictable that in weeks or months, they could run out of equipment to fight this war.

meanwhile, russia is getting drones and ammunition from iran and north korea. this is the difficulty right now. if ukraine runs out of ammunition, the russians will come in. they are beginning the winter offensive on the energy resources in crew crane. tryi trying to cut down on the heating and electric for ukrainians, making it difficult as they did last year. it's a pretty dire, serious situation. biden knows that. zelensky knows that. making a last-minute pitch to the united states on capitol hill. the problem is, when he talks to the senate, there are some republicans who support him.

when you get to the house, that's where the conservatives are. and you can say far-right con servetives, who are opposed to ukraine entirely. do not want to aid ukraine. they can make the argument that can seem convincing, american security. that's difficult when you try to say, helping another country will help the united states. it doesn't appear to be a direct link, to some americans. >> jill, while we have you with us, what is your take where the relationship stands right now between russia's president vladimir putin and israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu, after their talks on sunday, when putin offered to help de-escalate the conflict in gaza in response to civilian

casualties there. >> certainly, netanyahu is not happy with putin. there's no question. in fact, they invited hamas representatives to masako moscow a while ago. putin has been critical of the israeli operation. i think what you're seeing is russia trying to exploit divisions between the united states and, let's say, israel. the problem that the united states has in the arab world in general. and putin trying to look like a power broker, showing they have influence. over the past few years, the influence has waned. right now, you have to say that putin is making the pitch to be perceived as a power brooker in

the middle east. >> jill dougherty, many thanks. appreciate your analysis on this issue. mr. zelensky spent sunday in argentina, congratulating the new president on his election. the ukrainian president posted that argentina and ukraine are united by their love for freedom. writing, we truly cherish it, protect it and stand ready to strengthen it together. zelensky made time to meet with the presidents of ecuador, paraguay and uruguay. donald trump changed course on sunday, announcing on social media, he will not testify today in his $250 million new york civil fraud trial. just friday, trump had declared that he would take the stand in the case once again, against the advice of his attorneys. on social media sunday, he said he won't testify after all. trump, his adult sons and his

company are accused of inflating the value of their properties to receive better loan and insurance terms, allegations he vehemently denies. the presidential front-runner has been taking heat for a second-term agenda that would wield executive power in unprecedented ways and for his recent comments on whether he would be a dictator. former democratic vice president al gore told cnn that trump's statements should be taken seriously. >> i saw the other day when he promised to be a dictator on day one. you wonder what it will take for people to believe him when he tells us who he is. >> on saturday, trump tried to reframe the narrative, he would be a threat to democracy, calling the accusation a hoax.

>> reporter: well, donald trump speaking at an event last night, doubled down on comments he made with fox news earlier in the week. he essentially said he would be a dictator for one day if he reclaimed the white house to build a wall and, quote, drill, drill, drill. but trump attempted last night to undercut the narrative that he would be a threat to democracy by characterizing it as a new hoax cooked up by democrats. take a listen. >> and the past few weeks, the radical left democrats and their fake news allies have unveiled their newest hoax, that donald j. trump and the republican party are a threat to democracy. do you believe this? it's a hoax. we call it now the threat to democracy hoax. that's what it is. >> reporter: the former president repeated claims last night he thinks joe biden is the, quote, real threat to democracy. there's a couple things worth pointing out here.

. israeli forces and hamas fighters are engaged in intense battles in gaza as israel expands its operations in the south. the palestinian news agency says dozens of civilians were killed in air strikes sunday across gaza, including in the southern city of khan younis and in the jabalia refugee camp in the north. and we do want to warn you the next video contains images that are disturbing. it shows the wounded being rushed to a hospital in khan younis. according to wafah, medical sources say those arriving for treatment are having to lay on the floor because there are no beds or medical supplies available. the palestinian crossing authority says 100 aid trucks

arrived in gaza from egypt on sunday, which is consistent with the daily average that's been allowed in over the past week. but it's still less than a quarter of the aid that was going into gaza before the war according to the u.n. the world health organization says the lack of basic supplies is allowing diseases to spread and warned that gaza's health care system is, quote, on its knees and collapsing. >> as more and more people move to a smaller and smaller area, overcrowding combined with the lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and sanitation are creating the ideal conditions for disease to spread. health needs have increased dramatically, and the capacity of the health system has been reduced to one-third of what it was. >> cnn's clare sebastian is

following developments. she joins us live from london. good morning to you, clare. what is the latest on the fighting across gaza, the tragic loss of civilian lives, and of course the dire humanitarian situation? >> this seems to be a very intense phase in this war. now we're in the second week after that seven-day truce. so we're seeing fighting in multiple areas. it has expanded to the south, as you say, but it is still happening in the north. one of the key focuses is the jabalia refugee camp where the news agency reports that 45 civilians were killed in an attack on a house on sunday, and there were 9 in a square in that area. israel is saying that so far, it has killed some 7,000 hamas militants. it says it found significant weapons in the area of the jabalia refugee camp, including in one case ak-47 rifles and an rpg hidden in bags in a civilian

residence, making the case that there are, you know -- there's infrastructure and officials hiding in these civilian areas. separately in the south, khan younis, that second biggest city in gaza, continues to be a key focus there. the idf issued an order called an urgent warning on saturday to tell civilians to evacuate. they published a map on x, formerly known as twitter, showing five small blocks within that city for civilians to leave. you can see them there highlighted in orange, saying they needed to go to shelters to the west of the city. we got reports of significant artillery shelling in that city over the weekend. but israel is being very closely watched for this tactic of publishing these maps. you can see the qr code there. all the way communications are very patchy in gaza, and the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken spoke about this in an interview with cnn on sunday, about whether israel is doing

now in this phase to protect civilians. he signaled quite clearly he doesn't think they are. take a listen. >> i think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves. we see that both in terms of civilian protection and humanitarian assistance. even as israel has taken additional steps, for example, to designate safe areas in the south, to focus on neighborhoods, not entire cities in terms of evacuating them. >> reporter: so he wants to see more pauses so civilians can get out. multiple routes for them to leave through. the u.n. humanitarian coordinator in the middle east went even further, questioning whether you can call what she said were quote patches of land where there is no infrastructure, food, water, health care or hygiene safe zones. and in terms of the humanitarian situation, rosemary, the key thing now to understand is that aid agencies are saying they simply cannot carry out humanitarian work. the u.n. office for coordination of humanitarian affairs saying that rafah in the south is

really the only area where aid distribution is able to take place. at the moment, the world food programme says that humanitarian work is basically impossible now because of the breakdown of law and order in gaza. we do now know that there will be an emergency session of the united nations general assembly on tuesday to discuss a joint arab/islamic draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. that, of course, follows the u.s. veto which prevented the u.n. security council from passing a similar resolution last week. rosemary. >> all right. our thanks to clare sebastian, bringing us that live report from london. on israel's northern border, the idf says several soldiers were wounded after, quote, suspicious aerial targets crossed from lebanon into israeli territory. israel says it happened in the western galilee area and two targets were intercepted. hezbollah claims it targeted an israeli headquarters using

drones earlier on sunday, saying the attack was in support of palestinians in gaza. israel says hamas is likely still holding 137 hostages in gaza, but 20 of them are believed to be dead. some of the hostages released by hamas joined a hanukkah gathering with displaced residents from the kibbutz kfar aza, a community devastated in the attack on october 7th. this mother and daughter spoke to the crowd, saying they were thankful to be freed, but they still feel the pain of the remaining hostages. >> translator: it took us a lot of time to understand what happened when we weren't here and all you did in order to get us home. until we understand everything, we want to say a huge thank you. thank you for returning us. thank you for succeeding throughout all the pain and mourning to return us. we lost people who were so dear and everyone we knew, and everyone we will remember

forever. there are people who are here who are so close and so far from us. they are our hope in this pain. still to come, a show of support for harvard university's president as she faces pressure to step down over her testimony in congress about anti-semitism on campus. details next. plus, officials are assessing the damage after deadly tornadoes and strong thunderstorms roared through tennessee this weekend. we're back in just a moment.

welcome back, everyone. at least 600 members of harvard university's faculty have now signed a petition urging officials to resist calls for

the removal of university president claudine gay. the petition comes amid pressure on gay to step down following her testimony on anti-semitism before congress last week. she was among three university leaders who failed to say unequivocally that calls for genocide against jews would violate their school's code of conduct. a harvard petition urges officials to, quote, defend the independence of the university and resist political pressures. meantime, the university of pennsylvania has appointed new leadership after its now former president, liz magill, resigned on saturday over her testimony before congress. the chairman of the school's board of trustees also resigned. julie platte, the board's new interim chair, said the change of leadership was necessary and appropriate. cnn's polo sandoval reports. >> reporter: the university of

pennsylvania will begin final exams this week under new leadership after controversy resulted in the resignation of two university officials. among them, liz magill, the now former university president. she along with the heads of harvard and mit have been heavily criticized since last week for failing to recognize that calling for jewish genocide is a direct violation of the universities' codes of conduct. here on the campus, we have seen reaction and heard reaction from students, including one in particular, who is also the vice president of the jewish heritage program, who told cnn over the weekend that he felt that this was a step towards accountability for the university administration. separately, we also heard over the weekend from the governor of pennsylvania, who spoke at a local synagogue joining both jewish and non-jewish community leaders, strongly condemning violence against all faiths. this is what he said. >> in whatever form, whether anti-semitism, islamaphobia,

racism, homophobia, it has no place here in pennsylvania, in a place founded on the promise of william penn. we will not tolerate it. >> reporter: the governing organizations at harvard continue with their regularly scheduled meetings the last few days. this amid growing calls for their president, claudine gay, to step down. gay has issued an apology recently. a harvard spokesperson declining to comment. polo sandoval, cnn, philadelphia. in tennessee, at least six people are dead and dozens more injured after multiple tornadoes and strong thunderstorms tore through the state over the weekend. one tornado hit madison and nearby hendersonville with peak winds of 125 miles per hour according to a preliminary survey by the weather service. and another tornado devastated clarksville over an 11-mile path where officials say nearly 100 military families lost their

homes. cnn's rafael romo has more on the tornado recovery efforts. >> reporter: what we've been able to see is the devastation caused by those 13 tornados in tennessee. the office of emergency management said that's how many tornadoes were spotted here on saturday. what i can tell you is that in this particular neighborhood, in madison in the north side of nashville, many homes are a total loss. there are many downed power lines and trees. total devastation here. authorities say 22 structures have collapsed, and governor bill lee has declared a state of emergency. i was talking to a gentleman who lives here on this block earlier. he was telling me that him and his wife were watching tv when they realized after listening to the forecast that their area was in the danger zone, and they ran to the kitchen, a decision that ultimately, he says, saved their lives. let's take a listen.

>> what i remember is, is we got into our safe place, and the next thing i know, all you hear is stuff started flying. glass was breaking. and it seemed like it lasted forever, but it was probably maybe 30 seconds. >> reporter: restoring power is another huge challenge authorities here are facing. according to officials, tens of thousands of people are still without power, and officials for the local utility were saying that it's not a matter of hours but days before they can turn everybody back on. >> we expect some of those outages to be prolonged, and we'll know more today as crews further assess the damage. we don't have an estimated restoration time but we do know the outages in the hendersonville area will be prolonged. >> reporter: and the damage to the power grid is so extensive that two utility providers are operating on generator power. rafael romo, cnn, nashville,

tennessee. the same storm that hit tennessee hard is now impacting the u.s. northeast with heavy rain, high winds, and snow. cnn meteorologist alyssa raffa has more. >> it's cooler now where some tornadoes struck over the weekend over parts of tennessee. that front, that same storm system, now exiting off the east coast. you can see the showers over the atlantic. but that parent storm is sending some heavy rain up into new england as we start that workweek where we've got some flood watches in effect from d.c. to maine as we go through our monday. you can see about 50 million people, major cities included in this flood watch, like boston, new york, and philadelphia. some 2 to 4 inches of rain could cause some flash flooding. you can see that showing up here on that future radar. some of the heavy downpours from the carolinas up to philly and new york. a messy commute for your monday morning. the pinks showing where that cold air meets the rain. there could be some mixing. the snow, though, will really start to pump for parts of

upstate morning and vermont where some widespread 6 to 8 inches of snow is possible. look at the heavy rain from boston. all of this happening monday morning. then by monday afternoon, the rain and snow starts to kind of swirl out. but notice the lake-effect snow showers that really start to get going across the great lakes. winter storm warnings in effect for all of this, for parts of upstate new york and vermont. the pinks where you have that warning, where you could see up to a foot of snow in portions of those areas there. you can see that showing up here on that future snow. the purple showing the widespread 6 to 8 inches. but, again, some of those isolated higher localized totals could be up to a foot. that yellow stripe there, that's where we can find some of that flash flooding, where that 2 to 4 inches of rain is possible. it could cause some ponding. all of this on top of some gusty indepen winds. gust from 50 to 60 miles an hour along the coast of boston up through maine. those reds are we we could find

peak gusts 50 to 60 miles per hour, where some high wind warnings continue through monday. a messy start to the workweek. much more to come here on cnn. we will go live to beijing for details on the latest confrontation between china and the philippines in the south china sea. back with that in just a moment. plus, argentina's new president promises chain is in store for the country's troubled economy. his plan for a new era just ahead.

tensions between the philippines and china are flaring once again in the south china sea. both nations are accusing one another of dangerous maneuvers and a collision that happened this weekend in the contested waters of the spratly island chain. the philippines has summoned the chinese ambassador to complain about what it calls aggressive actions. it's the latest in a series of

maritime confrontations between the two countries. cnn beijing bureau chief stephen jung joins us with more. what can you tell us about this latest incident? what's been the reaction to it so far? >> reporter: rosemary, as you mentioned, both governments blaming the other as the culprit that caused the latest incidents over the weekend. but remember the root cause of this is this long-running territorial dispute between beijing and many of its neighbors, including the philippines, because china claims sovereignty almost over the entire of the 1.3 million square mile south china sea. and there are strategic and tactical reasons that we are hearing more about these increasingly dramatic encounters because the philippine government under president marcos has been increasingly publicizing them, obviously trying to draw more global attention to and presumably more international support for the philippines because they do have the sense of urgency. part of what they have done was back in 1999, they deliberately

ran ashore a world war ii era vessel on part of the spratlys to stake their claim. but that of course for the most part has been able to become their military outpost as they rotate in and out, resupplying the ship with civilian ships. but that has changed with chinese leader xi jinping took power with china's foreign policy and military operations becoming more assertive and some would say aggressive in the region. that is the broader context here. remember that old filipino ship is literally rusting away, disintegrating structurally. that's why the philippine military really needs to repair it urgently to continue to shore up their territorial claim. that's why there are already some reports emerging about the u.s. advising manila on that front. but that's also why you have seen strategically president marcos has been really expanding and deepening cooperation with the u.s. by granting access to

additional filipino bases to the u.s. military, by restarting joint air and sea patrols with the u.s., and also himself stopping in hawaii recently to visit the u.s. indo-pacific command to discuss such issues. so that's why from the chinese perspective, all of that meaning that the philippines is now doing the u.s. bidding to stir trouble, to challenge the chinese power and supremacy in the region. so the u.s. very much seen as part of this growing saga, and that obviously doesn't bode well for where the situation is headed. rosemary. >> all right. our thanks to steven jiang for bringing us that live report from beijing. police in spain have arrested a venezuelan citizen considered to be one of the alleged leaders of a major worldwide hacker group. they've not identified the suspect but say the person is linked to the hacker group known as kelvin security. investigators say it's connected to more than 300 high-level cyberattacks in more than 90

countries in the last three years. the suspect is accused of data breaching, hacking, and money laundering using cryptocurrency. kelvin security is also suspected of using the dark web to sell confidential data linked to countries, including the united states, germany, italy, and japan. argentina's new president promise the sunday it was the start of a new era for the country. the world is watching to see how he addresses an economic crisis of epic proportions. president javier milei claims no government has ever received a worse inheritance, telling the public there is no money. cnn has more on the ceremony and its special guests. >> reporter: javier milei is the new president of the argentina.

instead of giving his maiden speech there as other presidents decide decided to do, he decided to go outside and talk to the people. argentina faces a huge crisis with an inflation over 140%. at the congress, there were some special guests. the surprise there was volodymyr zelenskyy, the president of ukraine. he arrived early this morning in this historic visit to latin america. later they met again here at the government house. another guest here is viktor orban, the hungarian prime minister. milei also talked to the crowd here. he thanked them for becoming him the first libertarian president of argentina. still to come, the children of an iranian activist had to

accept the nobel peace prize on her behalf. here what she had to say from behind bars.

this year's winner of the nobel peace prize, narges mohammadi, describes herself as one of the millions of resilient iranian women who have risen up against oppression, repression, discrimination, and tyranny. that is part of the acceptance speech the activist wrote from her prison cell in tehran. she was awarded the prize back in october, but on sunday her children accepted it on her behalf and read her speech aloud. >> translator: i'm confident that the light of freedom and justice will shine brightly on the land of iran. at that moment, we will celebrate the victory of democracy and human rights over tyranny and authoritarianism. and the anthem of the people's triumph on the streets of iran will resonate worldwide. >> mohammadi has been sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison in iran for her decades of human

rights activism. france is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the declaration of human rights. president emmanuel macron urged the significance of supporting women, children, and the lgbt community at the palace in paris, where the draft was signed. the u.n. general assembly proclaimed the universal declaration of human rights in 1948, establishing the groundwork for international human rights law. bronny james, the son of nba star lebron james, has made his long-awaited college basketball debut months after a major health scare. james scored 4 points in 16 minutes of play for his team, the university of southern california, on sunday. the freshman suffered a cardiac arrest during a practice in july. he was later diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. but last month his doctors cleared him to return to basketball. his team lost on sunday, but

lebron james was there to see his son's big moment. dozens of swimsuit-clad people in santa hats endured the frigid air sunday in budapest, all for a good cause. participants of the 20th budapest santa speedo run chanted ho, ho, ho as they ran through the city. the runners jumped, skipped, and danced to stay warm and appeared to enjoy themselves despite the cold. >> translator: we love it. we are having a great time, and we support a good cause. what more can one want? we don't need any more. >> translator: at last we don't feel hot. we had enough heat. i've been running for 19 years. at first, we were just 11. now we have a good crowd, a good mood, and it's a good feeling to help. >> organizers of the rundo nate their participation fees, and this year the donations will benefit the tiny ray of hope charity, which supports families raising severely premature

babies with disabilities. and i want to thank you for your p can. i'm rosemary church. have yourselves a wonderful day. "cnn newsroom" continues next with max foster.

first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones

brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. ♪ hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and all around the