hello april i'm john holmes, coming up here on cnn. you will fall.

ian to day by team trump and what could be face 20, 24 campaign with the outlook oak assad is now just two weeks away. desperate search for survivors after japan was hit by a series of powerful earthquakes and pulling out. israel announces a new, phase of the war in gaza and the drawdown of thousands of troops. >> bases, cnn newsroom with shown bowles. back in the coming house lawyers who don't, trump accent to appeal decisions by colorado and may both states. it banned the former presidents name from the pellets in the republican presidential primary legal challenges. successfully augmentee 14th amendment insurrectionist ban all wouldn't should see trump removed from the palace so those decisions will have a whole unintentional peels feels challenges. in several other states have been rejected though and now oregon, supreme court will decide whether to ban trump from the boat there of his alleged role in the january six

surrection she's days expected. appeals are coming of the south of the busy moh trump which includes closing argen in the new york civil fraud trial and the start of the presidential primary season presidential prefaced test of this years. presidential election comes in just two weeks the eye will caucuses, trump has maintained inconsistent. late in the polls that despite mounting legal troubles but his rivals, byhalia already government desantis have been through a strong showing -- begin our coverage. cnn's kristen holmes reporting in from what interest and kristen holmes putting in from washington. it >> is officially that final sprint looking at unique. and the candidates are going to all be on the ground at least most advanced trying to do that every last-minute voter that they can talk to any kind of island who might be on the fan in really going, into that we look at the poll numbers he. still see that donald trump according to the polls i have a jerry substantially in the front-runner. and they are the four. it's to keep that in large a really high between him and, 11 second police person is now the coal show that that. would be rhonda shan't as right

now and after that. nikki haley, and king miranda. santa that i wait for, three to iraq to the florida governor he has made. this essentially is making three no with all of. his arms are almost an, denial a basket and is really focused. on that however we have seen them. substantial rise in the polls from nikki haley but still looks, though that would be the order now whatever -- happens in iowa is really going, well that is tone to suffer the rest of the primary and caucus season right now i'm donald trump. is leading in new states but there is, eight but then horror there are several, public in the upper hand to leave that if donald trump is still down an aisle at the margin is known as being, is those or show it's positive, someone else could take the lead ethan out right now is just still. very early in the big vote, it still remains on aisle on the christian. holmes cnn, biden, washington.

please join us now live from los angeles as long as genevieve klieman and listened -- ulta as well as president of the global policy institute and low mariana university got to save money. obviously,, michael here. >> teton opinion it, let someone. ottawa this >> is where republicans, the caucus system kind of you strange, for many here today what i mean the, basically they don't fill out a ballot for the safety, physically attend a meeting in person and then divide up into different groups backing each candidate each different correlate yet right now. trump is about 30 points, ahead of the kayleigh enriquez so if it is a moment of truth to commit this, it'll essentially come down to the, liberal supporort trump proceeds in the courts and the caucus. i >> think it really think the drama isis going to be whether desantis can be in second place he's got all in on iowa and ifif he fails there if you can haley -- and i don't know this, continue

along the other interesting thing in. iowa is how much damage might have nikki haley doing to herself ski when she was going to softball question about slavery and -- completely cut off label, and you can use humiliating, response and takes given a chance to correct it didn't collect, and so donald. trump's got the lead he's gonna win the league. i was working with the question. is they coonskin to be, therefore the if scenario if trump crumble rio? who's gonna electrify hoboes, right now to desantis? when alien i think, tomorrow the. to which nothing i was, gonna have a mix not to say about the answer to that question about to say the will of at least trump. is on the >> ballot in our largest fun how about a not so the case in maine, and chloride offering a review through successfully sued his removal idling violation of article 14 the constitution from all that he is colorless secretary of state. for more on that here is colorado secretary of state i begin. poor and turnout >> with except that we are only theory because donald trump incited the insurrection died at the he has created more. situation for him down there is a clear language. in a constitution in section

three of the 14th amendment for this exact situation this iwg is a threat to democracy. the right to vote in the future stability of this nature said trump teamed up plans to appeal that decision which is actually holding colorado a big plate of election the u.s. supreme court -- will witness quote in vain, a similar decision will be, appeal to the states supreme court so there's a lot of anglers going on here a little. legal cases flying around this also other it all the rule is yet to be made in about a dozen or so all the. states about the 14th amendment so how solid court. is it at this point to the supreme court to make a very quick ruling on this so there is continuity to all the states know where they're essentially heading with this -- with this. weijia >> as you know we have, not one, 04, president-elect we have. fift h --

of course the kind of considered well, in an election and should heed that they? question it, it's ideal to have the people. decide but the law has to take presidents in the united states were nation of laws and those laws, and protect us and those of, the things that are gonna decide at least initially whether donald trump is gonna be the next president donald trump will also on that note from the. eagle point bay the supreme court is also looking at the question --

because if donald trump is granted by the courts trump is granted about iran, immunity absolute immunity, that means it's present is above the, law donald trump -- argued against that notion victims in recent cases trump versus vance strength so that is a 19 -- and gone trump, was trying to get out i was being subpoenaed of in state of new york's lawyers. argued in court marketing court, mainly said well said we only want to temporary immunity and that immunity exists while he's -- president donald trump the president and, it will endure worth his lawyers expire left office when so donald trump has all. and you are the courthouse

against his own position now left of ocean, donald trump's broadens roughly move immunity is laughable it doesn't pass the smell test because in no way with the president the framers and no have said everybody basically is is thisis every person drives to the law so the president if when it, he's present confronted murder can do anything that some, certificate, instill the corporate. we have a tough time what's a broadening of trump's immunity even if the supreme court, wants to this town to. so >> also what you through the city, take from wayne speaking of the weekend, about the threats, we should be made as total post remove trump from the republican primary belichick's primary ballot. i certainly. >> i worry about the safety of people that i live people around me, and people who are, charged with protecting the working alongside me we have received threatening. communications those are unacceptable, unacceptable. regardless guard my consideration, like

consideration in this proceeding in this is to adhere to that process process.

>> he encourages supporters to fight, fight and be tough. rather than trying to say we need to tone down the, rhetoric we need to calm people, down there is no room for violence, donald trump is gaining -- the intimidation will probably temper down opposition to him. >> michael, good to have you with, us especially at the start of the new year. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> now to bhutan, and south korea, the leader of the main opposition party has been stepped in the neck with a knife. he is in hospital and is said to be conscious, and, warning her but i see images of the attack and some viewers might find it disturbing. >> [speaking in a non-english language] >> let's go live now to, so

cnn's marc stewart has more details on this. what do we know about the attacker, and also his condition right now? >> well,, john let's first talk about his condition. that is the big question we are asking. there's also concern here is an issue of bleeding, so efforts are underway to mushroom -- likely fly him by helicopter here to seoul where he will get treatment. this happened at a very open of, and this happened at a tour of a construction site unlike other parts of the world where distances between the public and politicians, himself where this is a very open event, a very typical open event. he was touring a construction site when this man came up to him with a knife, jumped in front of, him and then attacked him. as far as this attack recording people on the scene, he was wrestled to the ground, and

then restrained by several people. in fact, i saw one photo of him earlier where mr. lee is lying on the ground. someone has a handkerchief to his neck, presumably to stem the bleeding. so, right now, he is supposedly being transferred to a hospital in seoul, where of course there is talk about medical facilities here, in this major city here in south korea. it is important to give you some context as well, the political atmosphere right now in south korea is extremely divided. lee is a liberal current president, yoon is a conservative. in fact, lee lost to you in the bid for the presidency in 2022, in a very slim margin. so these politicians, they are both very prominent. the president of south korea, it is notable to point out, is very quick to respond to all of this. emphasizing that violence

should not be tolerated under any circumstances in order for police to investigate this swiftly. this is a reflection of the fragile political atmosphere that south korea as witnessing right now. in fact lease own spokesperson called on party members to remain calm and not to make any political interpretations. finally, john, this is not the first time we have seen an attack like this. back in 2000 and, six former president park was attacked while she was on the campaign trail. also in recent years, the u.s. ambassador to korea was also attacked by someone wielding a knife. so the priority right now for us, at least, year is to find out the condition of mr. li, we expect him to be arriving at a hospital very shortly if he hasn't already arrived, and hopefully doctors in the hours ahead will give us a briefing. >> mark, thank, you mark stewart live with the very latest reporting in seoul. now we go to japan where the

death will has risen to 30 after a succession of powerful earthquakes on new year's day. the epicenter of the initial 7.5 magnitude quake was on japan's west coast, causing extensive damage to many buildings including some which went up in flames. >> rescue operations continue at this hour -- chopped under rubble and debris. the quake hit just after four pm local time monday on the peninsula on the prefecture. u.s. geological survey has reported more than 35 aftershocks. those shocks could and will likely continue for days and even months. all tsunami advisories have been lifted, but the quake did cause a number of waves just over a meter height moving up to four feet in some parts. nhk reports more than -- after large fire broke out and tens of thousands of people are still without electricity. here is how one tourist

described the moment the quake hit. >> pretty massive if you ask me, so the tv was shaking, and it was quite scary, and definitely you know, when you hear about earthquakes in japan, you wouldn't expect one to -- win cnn's -- has been following developments and filed this report. >> frightening scenes as japan woke up to the new year. homes and businesses destroyed by the powerful impact. this woman pleading for aid as she showed the damage to the town of -- please come help us, she says. >> my city is i'm a terrible situation. the epicenter near -- on japan's western coast causing water levels to surge.

raising fears of a devastating tsunami potentially to come. authorities issuing immediate warnings, and evacuation orders for the areas closest to the shore. in nearby mountains, tourists rachelle tide as the quake struck. >> suddenly it gets pretty strong earthquake as you can see. all of the snow from the electric wire goes down, so everybody was panicked at that time. >> monday's impact rekindling memories of the strongest quake ever recorded in japan. the 2011 shock which unleashed deadly waves and caused a nuclear catastrophe as it impacted the fukushima nuclear plant. more than 22,000 were killed. authorities saying this quake, nothing like that one. >> beginning with the powerplant closest to the epicenter, there are currently

no reported irregularities with nuclear power plants. >> the full scale of monday's powerful quake still difficult to assess. as thousands were left without water, or power. many remain trapped underneath the rubble. cnn, tokyo. when we come back, an unprecedented ruling from israel supreme court that could have major implications from the war with hamas. also ahead, after launching unprecedented them of attack drones on ukraine, russia promises much worse to come. the very latest on ukraine's or inin a moment.t.

israel's supreme court has struck 80 plea devise different controversial law caused by benjamin netanyahu's far-right government, raising fears of return of domestic turmoil which is around the country into chaos for months. -- wartime cabinet, which include two opposition lawmakers, both

prominent in the judicial reforms. it comes as israel's military announces a drawdown of thousands of troops in gaza this week, for a new phase of the conflict. they indicated he pull out in israel shifting to a lower intensity military campaign, which will also mean thousands of israelis forced to leave communities close to the gaza border may soon return home. >> in accordance with the recommendations given by the idf and the defense establishment, we will soon be able -- when she for two 70 kilometers north of the gaza strip. >> won't now on the israeli supreme court decision, and at the implications of the war with hamas from elliott gotkine in tel aviv. >> the supreme court 8 to 7 ruling to strike down the one part of the government's judicial overhaul managed to get past was unprecedented. the supreme court has never

previously struck down a basic law, wore an amendment to a basic law. these are the closest things that israel has to a constitution. so that was unprecedented. it is also a blow to prime minister benjamin netanyahu who made this judicial overhaul almost like a flagship policy of his withstanding months and months of protests, sometimes tens of, thousands hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets, protesting against this judicial overhaul plan, because they, said it would do irreparable damage to israel's democratic character. indeed, in justifying its, ruling the supreme court said it did so because of the severe and unprecedented blow to the core characteristic of israel as a democratic state. of course the other major implication is that it threatens to reopen and he's a very deep and severe divisions that the government's initial overhaul plans sewed throughout israeli society. now those divisions seem like a

lifetime away now that israel is fighting this war with hamas after the militant group terrorist attacks of october the 7th. there are concerns it could reopen these divisions and maybe even has the potential to split the government of national unity that was formed as a result of this war. we have heard from the justice minister, assailing the court that the timing of the ruling, even though it was in the courts -- make this, ruling we heard from national security minister -- one of the most rivaling members of the government coalition saying that this decision by the supreme court was illegal. we have a member of the war cabinet saying now this verdict must be respected, and israel must remember and internalize 88 efficiencies that it saw in the run up to october the 7th, and remember that israelis are brothers, and that they have a shared destiny. elliott gotkine, cnn, tel aviv.

kyiv remains under our radar law, at the city's mayor reports here and number of explosions. earlier, the air force -- an unspecified number of missiles entering ukrainian airspace from russian territory. ukrainian officials say 35 jones were intercepted and destroyed overnight. all of this after both sides appear to launch attack on new year's day. ukraine's air force as dozens of jones fired from russian territory sunday into monday were destroyed and at least one person killed in the city of odessa. russian-backed officials unoccupied did not say four people were killed after ukraine launched attacks starting at midnight january 1st. in the meantime russian president vladimir putin is promising to continue with the pressure on ukraine. >> for our part, we are going to intensify these strikes. of course no crime against

civilians will rest unpunished, that is for certain. and from the president and russia and ukraine, a very different new years message to the countries. clare sebastian has details. >> one gave a detailed account of the war. the other never directly mentioned it. in very different ways, this was two leaders calling on their conflict weary populations to stay the course. >> and just like that, december 31st, today we say we do not know for certain what the new year will bring us, but this year we can and whatever it brings we will be stronger. >> we have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems, and will never back down. >> vladimir putin's speech was pared back, less than half the length of the previous year, this time no assembled company and military serviceman.

still >> it was an opportunity to project strength and confidence at the positions himself for a fifth term as russian president. >> we were proud of our common achievements, rejoiced in our successes, and reform in defining natural interest. our freedom and security our values which have been and remain an unshakable support for us. >> and yet, russia's security has been shaken. increasingly brazen attacks on russian territory have brought the war closer to home. the year closing, one of the deadliest attacks on russian civilians yet in a border region of belgrade. and putin faced one of the most direct threats to his -- afghanani pick oceceans march on moscow in june. a plane crash to most later closing that chapter for good. >> we defeated the darkness. >> amidst a stepped up russian aerial campaign and waning western weapons supplies,

president zelenskyy stuck to his work tactic of accentuating the positive, including ukraine taking one small step closer to eu membership. this process will definitely have a logical conclusion, for fledged membership in strong in europe, a powerful one from lisbon to luhansk. and yet this past week has shown ukraine enters 2024 increasingly vulnerable. that message even spelled out by putin and his first appearance of the year, promising a group of wounded russian soldiers strikes would intensify. clarissa bastian, cnn, london. >> in a moment on cnn, the race to find survivors in japan after a powerful and that late earthquake on new year's day. more on that in a moment.

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welcome back everyone. i'm john vause. you're watching cnn newsroom. an update now from japan where the death toll has risen to 30 after powerful earthquake on the's day. rescue crews continue to search rubble and debris looking for survivors. this is the moment the 7.5 magnitude quake struck the -- prefecture. authorities are still working to assess the full impact of the damage of the quake, which has toppled buildings, dimitrov, set of, fires and the tens of thousands of homes without electricity. at least 1000 troops have been deployed to the quake zone to help with rescue and recovery. all tsunami advisories have now been lifted, but dozens of aftershocks continue to rattle japan. more details now from cnn's brian todd. >> inside this office in -- the shaking was violent and

went on for several seconds. tv monitors fell off the shelves of the entire room convulsed. in the same city, this parking garage is shaking so hard it seem to be on the verge of collapse. this building did collapse. its second floor smashing down onto the first. these shoppers huddled together as the supermarket they were in sakala round them. these were the scenes in western japan on monday as the 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the region. multiple lengths and serious injuries have been reported. one taiwanese tourist spoke of the panic they experienced their. >> suddenly it caught pretty strong earthquake. you can see all the snow from the electric wires goes down, and also falling on the roofs go down, and the car shaking. and so everybody was panicked at that time. >> the quakes epicenter was

near the peninsula getting to the u.s. geological survey. initially, tsunami warnings were issued, and people are urged to evacuate. tsunami waves of up to four feet hit several areas along the coast. here, a tsunami wave crashes over the harbor sea wall in -- the tsunami warnings were later canceled, but the quake in dozens of aftershocks caused fires, large fish isn't roads. several people were reported trapped under collapsed buildings. tens of thousands of customers experience power outages. >> a woman in -- screams and panic as she surveys the damage from an upper floor of a home. experts say the western coast of japan has rarely experienced earthquakes this large. instead they, say it has that smaller scale so called swarming quakes, not on the scale of the devastating earthquake off japan's east coast in march 2011. 9.1 in magnitude, which triggered a horrific tsunami. it hammers several nuclear reactors and killed about 20,000 people.

still, aftershocks someone's event, experts, they can be dangerous. >> it could easily have aftershocks biggerer than magnitude e six, so that is s gg to be a ---- >> and afterershocks could be evenen more dangngerous, because someme buildingsgs have already been structurally compromised. >> the damage that has been caused to structures in the fall, zone basically in the entire peninsula, is sometimes that, in and that can be further damaged by small earthquakes and smaller amounts of shaking. so the danger of maybe these collapses, or humans being a sidearm structures is still quite real. >> seismologists jeffrey parks, says japan has learned some valuable lessons from the devastating 2011 earthquake, especially regarding how to deal with a tsunami threat. he warns, the aftershocks from that earthquake will continue for several days, weeks, possibly even months, who are up to a year. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> --

following all of, this live from singapore at this hour. as far as rescue and recovery efforts have been ongoing, they have been some issues with getting access to these weather, japan getting the troops, in rescue services there. the prime minister now saying this is a race against time to get those people trapped into the debris. so what more do we know? >> yes, very much, john. that is right. one of the reasons it is difficult to get there is the roads getting into that area have been destroyed. so even though, as you mention, the prime minister making these statements, actually the disaster emergency meeting early in the morning in japan, we are now getting into the late afternoon in the country, he actually pointed to leveraging at the police fiber gates, regency rescue, services and getting them to those disaster zones. as soon as they could, but they are hampered by these aftershocks as well that we just heard about. so the u.s. geological survey has come out in the last hour saying that they have detected some 35 aftershocks in the 24

hours around the epicenter. so you can imagine the kind of pressure they are under to get to those incidents that have been reported. now as for the city, this is where local authorities have earlier in the statement said, you know, they had all these incidences reported overnight as daylight, came they were able to see the extent of the damage they need to get to all of those reported incidences, and try to get to people who might be trapped. now with earthquakes like this, the type of damage they cause it is often under collapsed buildings where you see the greatest worry, and the loss of life. you mention that ethel has gone up, we also heard from authorities that they will gradually likely to revise numbers. obviously who wouldn't want to see them go up anymore than they have, but like you, said it is a race against time. they're doing what they can in daylight hours to get to all of those who have been reported. i just want to give you some

environmental context as well, japan -- mike which is heard in the package there, this is a flank of japan that is not often affected by earthquakes like this. nevertheless it has knocked out power, so we know that from local power companies, more than 45,000 homes have lost power, not entirely sure when they are all going to get power back. it is in that region, i've checked the weather reports, so people will be struggling to stay safe, stay warm, but of course a lot of work to be done, john. >> thank, you take care, with the very latest in, japan reporting in from -- thank you. with that we take a short, break when we come, back artistic u.s. presidential election facing threats not just on russia, marchand and a, throughout but also under attack at home.

2024 is seen as potentially life or death here for the mark asit, with crucial elections being held worldwide. none more so than the u.s. presidential election in

november. key to election credibility is a secure voting process, and the u.s., officials are working to avoid a repeat of the problems experienced in 2020. issues like safety at polling places, and election workers, preventing cyberattacks from voting, systems also managing misinformation. the use of a.i., and false claims of election fraud from the former u.s. president donald trump and his many supporters. michael waldman is a constitutional lawyer and president of the nonpartisan britain center for justice at new york university. thank you for being with us. >> it is great to be with you. >> i want you to listen to donald trump, back in, august his campaigning for a second term here. >> they rigged at the presidential election in 2020, and we are not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024. >> that is not a great starting point for 2024 when the norms and traditions in particular the most fundamental element of

democracy which is the peaceful transfer of power have been under attack by a very vocal minority for the past four years. >> it really is quite extraordinary thing that in 2024 we are going to see the very elements of democracy tested in the united states, and we have not seen in a long time. you are exactly right. tens of millions of people have rallied behind donald trump's false claims of a stolen election in 2020. is insistence that he might suspend the constitution, that the next election is going to be rigged, and so on. we have the probable or certainly possible candidate of one of the major parties over and over again trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of american democracy. we have not had that in a long long time. >> and also, last november, a threat assessment from microsoft warned russia, china,

and iran are unlikely to sit out in next year's contest, the stakes are simply too high, so there is that red. there's also internal threats like the ones we have been talking about, here he is again, donald trump. >> joe biden is a threat to democracy. they are weaponizing law enforcement for a higher level election interference, because we are beating them so badly in the polls. you know donald trump and his never-ending life and institutions of government also many conservative legislatures around the country, around the united states have made voting harder for some groups. so out of all of these three things here, which poses the biggest danger, at what is the impact well, you are, right they old you can have a combine, both as threats and as threats to people's trust in the elections. the good news is that we have a track record now, over the last few years, of how to strengthen our democratic systems so that

they would withstand these kinds of things. if you recall, in 2016, russia interfered in the american election with hacked emails and got involved in that way. there have been a lot of improvements in the cybersecurity and other kinds of security of election systems all over the country, though there is more to do. as you said, this time, we have every reason to think that, not just russia, but china and iran and north korea, who else, knows, we'll have a reason to get involved. we do have new risk, though, of artificial intelligence. a.i., and the deepfakes that have been used to try to influence elections and other countries. we need to be ready for that. we need to stand by the election officials who are getting lots of threats of violence and harassment and make sure that they have the resources that they need, the money that they need. the law enforcement protection they need. if we do these kinds of things,

then we will have a smooth election that people can trust. >> having a smooth election, an election which is secure, is essential to having an outcome which has a credibility. most americans don't believe democracy is under threat and an nfc poll found 87% of democrats believe a second trump term will impact democracy, will 82% of -- should biden win. there is new poll from the public research institution, which found nearly a quarter of americans, 23%, agree that because things have gotten so far off track, a true american patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country according to the survey. is up from 15% in 2021. is it too simplistic to look at both of these polls and say right now the country is moving closer to some kind of outbreak of violence as we head towards these elections. we just don't really know what that would look like? >> well, of course we had an outbreak of violence in 2020

when the candidate who lost the election, trump, egged on a violent mob to storm the u.s. capitol. we hadn't seen anything like that since the beginning of the u.s. civil war, if that. it is, of course, unnerving that democrats and republicans, in some ways for different reasons, are concerned about the future of american democracy. i think there is also, potentially, a silver lining in that. we have fought for a long time that the health of our democracy ought to be a central public issue, as it has been at other times in american history. people really care about this. voters at the polls, for example, in 2022, punished election in hires, people who claimed the election had been stolen. they actually did considerably worse than other republican candidates when they are running for statewide offices that could control and have a big impact on the elections like governor or secretary of

state. it turns out there is a big exhausted majority, i wouldn't call it a silent majority, that cares about democracy and represents people that they see as extremist people that they would try to undermine it. i'm hoping that this is a bipartisan coming together around first principles. >> from your lips to god's here. michael woman, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> still to come, please say he was kidnapped, but never actually met his kidnappers. how online extortion became a missing persons case, just aheaead.

now to college football playoff here in the u.s.. that michigan wolverines have booked their ticket to the championship game, with a thrilling win over the alabama -- michigan scored just minutes into overtime, the wolverines defend and kept alabama at bay. final score, michigan 27 alabama 20. they will face the washington huskies, who beat the longhorns 37 to 31. the college football

championship's game for monday, january 8th. a week away. major league baseball player, wanda franco has been arrested in the dominican republic. the tampa bay rays shortstop is accused with a relationship with a minor. franco has been on administrative leave from the rays since the allegations were made in august. at the time he posted a video statement on instagram received deflect the accusation and talked about his own efforts at self improvement. also in the united states, a victim of cyber kidnapping. a foreign exchange student from china has been found safe in the utah mountains. not as a student nor his parents in china actually met with the kidnappers, they just dealt with him over the phone. details now from cnn's nick watt. >> reporter: a floridian utah say they found the 17-year-old chinese national student at a high school in utah, they found him alone in a tent halfway up a remote mountainside in utah. he had no heat source in the tenth, limited supplies of food and water, and they described

him as very cold and scared. now, apparently he had been kidnapped but not in the traditional sense that we know it. cyber kidnapped. so you never actually came face to face with his kidnappers, he was just coerced over his phone and over the internet. so what appears to have happened is that he was contacted by these kidnappers and told that, unless you did exactly what he was told, his family back home in china would be in danger. they asked him for a photograph, which they then sent to his family in china with a ransom demand. they told 17-year-old, too isolate himself. that is why he was in the tenth in the middle of nowhere. the family, they said they paid around $80,000 into chinese bank accounts, they also contacted the high school in utah. the high school contacted the police, the police by looking at the 17-year-old spending patterns, they worked out that he was camping. search parties were sent, out and eventually he was found in this tent. apparently the cyber kidnapping is an increasingly common occurrence targeting foreign

exchange students, particularly chinese foreign exchange students. now, this story and did well the student was found alive and well. he asked to speak to his family, he asked for a warm cheeseburger, he is safe. but, as they say this is apparently an increasingly common trend seen in this country of cyber kidnappers, targeting these young, vulnerable kids, far from home. they never come face to face, all done online. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> so it is just two words. the lightest of changes of lyrics by -- under's new year's orcon eve, which seemed to cause upset among supporters of donald trump. you can spot the change. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> in case you don't know, the words redneck agenda were rough replaced with the maga agenda, a reference to downtown supporters. they did this before at 2019 at the iheartradio music festival in las vegas, and three years before that spoke out against trump at the american music awards yelling, no trump, no, no fascist u.n. -- american idiot was then president george w. bush. thank you for being with us these last few hours on cnn newsroom, i'm john vause. please stay with, the news continues with my friend and colleague rosemary church after a short break. see you back here.