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tv   CNN This Morning  CNN  November 13, 2023 4:00am-5:01am PST

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not. they are trying to sort of impose this as a strategy on a country that has already seen a lot of disruption, a lot of uncertainty, not just with the economy, but with the pandemic. it was that level of disruption that helped to contribute to his defeat. it looks like they are beginning to try it again. i don't like it as a political strategy, but that sounds what they are going to attempt. >> and a whole host of new lawyers. thank you. appreciate it. "cnn this morning" continues now. worsening humanitarian crises in gaza as israel faces growing pressure to take civilians more into consideration. >> the health care system has been on the brink of collapse. gaza's largest hospital facing relentless bombardment. >> the only cease-fire we would consider is one in which we have
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our hostages released. senator tim scott announcing he is spinsding his presidential campaign. >> it's a surprise, but it's also not a surprise. >> i'm going to hold on and keep working hard and look forward to other opportunities. >> chaos and finger pointing among house republicans as the u.s. barrels towards another spending dead laine. >> mike johnson unveiled an unconventional plan. >> whether all democrats will oppose this proposal. donald trump will launch his defense against him, his two adult sons and his business. >> the son back on the stand, they will continue to be the notion, what are we doing here? >> the defense has already concluded they are going to lose. good morning, everyone. there's a the lot of news to get to, but we start with this. this just in from israel's military. president the idf says another evacuation corridor has been opened today, even as fighting intensifies and the medical
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system collapses. some of the images you're about to see are disturbing. medical officials report they are running out of fuel, supplies, and water and doctors are overwhelmed as thousands seek refuge from airstrikes at hospitals. newborn babies have been taken off incubators ands placed next to hot water to keep them alive. >> the largest hospital, the lights are out and the director there tells cnn that all essential units have collapsed. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says that hospital is being used as a hamas command center. the group has denied that. the idf says it advanced its ground operation deeper into gaza. that's what you're looking at arresting 20 operatives, including terrorists involved in the october 7th attack. let's go straight to oren liebermann, live from tel aviv. tell us what happened on the ground and how dire these circumstances are. >> reporter: a lot of the focus on the hospital right now, both
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what's happening inside and outside. the hospital director says all essential units have collapsed. the operating units went offline. the nicu went offline because the generators couldn't power the incubators to keep the oxygen supply running. now official there is have had tos put the babies near hot wart and tinfoil. thousands more taking shelter inside. a dire situation there as they run out of water, fuel, electricity and food. here is a window into what's happening inside the hospital. >> there was a direct injury in the head, international bleeding. we can't do surgeries. surgeries, no oxygen, no electricity. we workman yulely. we are using a manual
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resuscitator. it's a clear injury. it needs an urgent surgery. he's less than a year old. >> reporter: doctors without borders says the health care system is past the point of no return. the idf tried to drop off fuel. they say hamas got in the way. the hospital says that should have been delivered through the red cross because the staff is too afraid to go outside to get it. >> there's still ongoing negotiations related to the 230 hostages. it was striking yesterday. the white house in a read out of a call between president biden and qatar's leader tucked into it that there's a hostage being held that's a 3-year-old american toddler. there's been so little information about american h hostages. what more do we know about this? >> reporter: this is the the first we have learned there's such a young american citizen who is being held hostage. 3 years old. president biden said in his call with the leader of qatar that he insisted all the hostages should be released.
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affirming that u.s. support for a future palestinian state and said hamas has been an impediment to the future of a palestinian state. that's the youngest american citizen who is held hostage in hamas. the families of the hostages demanding that the red cross be allowed access to them, as they should under international law. there's a 9-month-old baby being held hostage. hostage negotiations ongoing, but very difficult to see progress at this point. >> orren liebermann, thank you. the united states has ca carried out a new round of airstrikes against iran-backed targets. this strike was in eastern syria. lloyd uaustin says the strikes were directed by the president and targeted a training facility and a safe house there. the united states believes iran's islamic guard is responsible for at least 46 rocket and drone launches against u.s. troops in iraq and syria over just the past month.
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natasha berth tran trand joins us with more. there's been attacks on u.s. forces. 46 injured. so this is the u.s. responding. tell us about the new strikes. >> reporter: exactly. so this is the third straight in three weeks that the u.s. has launched against the irgc, tand its proxy groups targeting a training facility and a safe house in eastern syria that the u.s. says these iranian-backed groups were using in order to carry out these attacks on u.s. troops. as you mentioned, there have been over 46 attacks in recent weeks by these groups. over 56 injuries of u.s. personnel, including traumatic brain injuries. so the u.s. taking this very seriously, sending a message to these groups that this is unacceptable, sending messages directly to iran that they expect them to reign in their proxy groups. and retaliating by trying to degrade their infrastructure, trying to degrade the facilities
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they use, the weapons they store in order to prevent these attacks from happening in the future. however, so far, the groups have not been deterred. after these strikes, we have continued to see those attacks on u.s. bases in iraq and syria. but here's what lloyd usa stun said about the strikes and how the u.s. is prepared to defend itself troops. >> we will take all necessary measures to protect our troops. the safety of our troops and our civilians are utmost importance to the president of the united states and to me. >> reporter: now at least 25 of these injuries suffered in recent weeks by u.s. troops have been traumatic brain injuries. others have been fairly minor, but this is really an example here of how the tensions in the region are escalating. the u.s. is launching these self-defense strikes to try to prevent them from spiraling out of control. these groups have not been d
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deterred. >> while we have you, five service members were killed in an accident in the eastern mediterranean. what more do we know about what happened there? >> so far, we know very little. the defense department has not released a ton of information because they want to give the families of the five service members some time to grieve. so we don't know their names or identity, but we know this was an aircraft mishap. that's what the pentagon is calling it. it happened in the eastern mediterranean during a training refueling exercise just last week. and the pentagon said in a statement that, quote, during a routine refueling mission, a u.s. military aircraft carrying five service members suffered a mishap and crashed into the mediterranean sea. the president, as well as the secretary of defense, sending their condolences, but this is a very serious moment. something that they want to give the family some time to process before they relice their names. >> thank you. new overnight, tim scott
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dropping out of the race for president. he made the announcement during a live tv interview. it caught many of his staff members by surprise and very clearly taught the tv host off guard. it's his former friend and congressman trey gowdy. >> when i go back to iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. i am suspending my campaign. i think the voters who are the most remarkable people on the planet have been really clear that they are telling me not now, tim. i don't think they are saying no, but i do think they are saying not now. >> here's a look at the gop field as it stands. scott suspending his campaign just two months before the iowa caucuses. sources say his team was worried about if he would qualify for the debate next month, and that he's leave ing the race allows m to return to the senate without
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an embarrassing finish in iowa. let's bring in eva mcend, who has been following all of this. you know this so closely. the fact that trey gowdy was surprised on that live announcement says a lot. >> it does. good morning to you. i was watching this back this morning. it really seemed like no doubt that this was a decision that was informed by his faith. the timing was a surprise, but the not the announcement itself. that's because there were several warning signs, but most of the people in his campaign have been telling me that they were going to press on until iowa. but you were right. they were worried about qualifying for the fourth republican debate next month. he was the last candidate to meet the donor and polling thresholds to make last week's debate. he clearly wants to pursue perhaps another run again. he really indicated in that
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interview. it seem as though by leaving now, he's best positioned to do so was his reasoning. but don't expect him to endorse anyone else in the field quite yet. didn't seem like he's going to, for instance, endorse nikki haley, liej wlike some of his fundraisers have overnight. he says he thinks it's best to keep quiet. let's listen. >> i'm going to recommend that the voters study each candidate and their candidacies, and transly, their past. make the best decision for the future of the country. the best way for me to be helpful is to not weigh in on who they should endorse. >> reporter: so scott centered his campaign on hope and optimism, but that was not a message that republican voters had an appetite for at this time. >> eva, we appreciate it. thank you. house speaker mike johnson facing his first big test as speak er. his olympian to prevent a major government shutdown in four days
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already facing right wing resi resistance. and the trump legal team will mount its defense. don jr. is set to take the stand with his family's empire on the line. that's next.
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today dth's legal team will be launching its defense in the fraud trial against the former president, his adult sons and his business. now the first witness will be hearing from is the eldest son, donald trump jr. he already testified earlier this month when he was called by the new york attorney general's office. he and his brother eric are accuse d of knowingly participating in a scheme to inflate their father's net worth. joining nous now is elie honig. let's start with the witnesses. don jr. is up first. coming back for a second time, there's others that may do the same. >> the great philosopher said, deja vu. donald trump will be back in the courtroom today. now it's going to be different than the first time. because the first time donald trump jr. was on the stand, he was called to the standby the other side. by the attorney general's
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office, the way that works, they got to question him first. trump's own defense team could have cross examined him if it they wanted. they have to stay within the bounds of whatever the a.g. asked donald trump jr. now trump's own team is calling him to the stand so they can ask him whatever they want. they have chosen him str strategically as their lead off hitter. what other witnesses could we see? all of these bold-s faced names were called by the a.g. all of any of them could be recalled for the same reasons. i don't any we're going to see michael cohen again. they were reluctant to have her testify the first time. will donald trump himself take the stand again? we'll have to wait and see. eric trump, we could see take the stand for similar reasons they are recalling. but the real heart of the defense is going to be accountants, experts, valuation,
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people who aren't as known as these people. but that's going to be the heart of the witnesses. >> what are the core defense arguments? >> the first argument that the defense is going to make, they are going to try to defend some of their valuations of their properties. the core of the case here, the allegation is they vastly overinflated those values. we are not talking about just bridging a gap of a few percentage points. mar-a-lago is worth $20 million. according to trump's team, it's worth previously $500 million. then donald trump got on the stand and said it's worth $1 billion. so will there be, ert pert who is can justify these higher valuations? we'll see. that's an awful lot of dis discrepancy to bridge. the other main theme we're going to see from the defense, this is something trump's lawyer said in court just on friday. he said there's no victim. there's no complainant. there's no injury. what he means is the banks who gave the loans to the trump organization, they are
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sophisticated parties. deutsche bank knows what it's doing. they got repaid. so i think those are going to be the primary defense themes. >> can you remind people what's at stake? >> important to remember, the judge has ruled for the a.g. and against donald trump on one of the causes of action. the judge found that there was persistent fraud or illegality. but there's still a lot in play here. there are six other causes of action. conspiracy, insurance fraud, false statements, and finally the judge, and remember there's no jury here, the judge has to assess damages. the a.g. is looking for $250 million. and looking to suspend the trump organization's business certificate, which would put them out of business in new york. >> it would be close to the blow for the trump organization if that's how it comes out. >> thank you. the weight loss drug showing promising results after a landmark clinical trials. details ahead.
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this is just in. a democratic congressman could not run for reelection. we have new reporting on what she plans to do instead. that's next.
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risk of complications like heart attacks and strokes. this is great news. >> this is a really huge trial. we heard a ton about these drugs. they induce such large amounts of weight loss, but for the first time, we're seeing in a major clinical trial that that weight loss translates into a major benefit in preventing heart-related death. so they ran this trial in more than 17,000 patients. they followed them for an average of more than 3 years. folks in the study had a bmi of at least 27, putting them in the overweight category. it induced weight loss of just 10%. we saw benefits in blood pressure, blood sugar, markers of inmags and that main goal a reduction in the risk of the heart events by 20% compared with the pla seecebo. so does this finally show that losing weight can protect your heart? and while it's not completely clear that's the answer, is it the drug or the weight loss? this drug is having this really
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positive effect. >> what do we know about safety? >> they didn't see any new safety risks in the trial. that's really important to know. we did see high levels of gi side effects, so the nausea, vomiting, dire recent ya. 10% of patients stopped the trial because of side effects compared with 2% on placebo. those are do things you see. >> 10% is a lot. >> big question has been will insurance cover it. it's so expensive without it. >> it costs more than $1300 without insurance. the expectation is once they have showed a benefit beyond weight loss, because a lot of people consider that cosmetic, if you can show this will prevent heart attacks and other heart-related events, this could save them money. so there's a hope among the medical community this will lead to increased insurance coverage. >> you have done a ton of great reporting on these drugs.
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what do we know? >> this is th one is in short supply. it can be hard to get the starter doses because the company can't make enough to satisfy demand. we got a second weight loss drug approved last week in the united states. it's a different medicine, but works very similarly. this doesn't have the he heart-related benefit trial results behind it yet. that is in the works. but we expect both of these drugs will probably be in super high demand. i was at this conference on saturday where the results represented room full of cardiologists. a lot of them if they are not prescribing this drug, they are going to start. >> fascinating. thank you. speaker mike johnson playin out a plan to prevent a shutdown. why his own party could hold up the progress. also child care providers facing a crisis is after pandemic-era funding expired. what does that mean for your family? ahead.
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we have some breaking p political news. a congresswoman from virginia announced she will be run ning for governor. the former cia officer made the announcement in a video posted on social media moments ago. >> some politicians in richmond focus on banning abortion and books, what they are not doing is helping people. i know how to bring people together and get real things done that improve lives. that's why i'm running for
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governor. >> time for the countdown clock again in washington. only four days left to prevent a government shutdown. the new house speaker mike johnson pitching a two-step plan to fund part of the government until january 19th. the second is until february 2nd. neither include additional aid for israel or cukraine. the house rules committee will take the first step in considering speaker johnson's unconventional stopgap bill. they meet at 4:00 p.m. lauren fox joins us from the capitol with more. walk us through this plan. >> reporter: essentially, this is sort of an unprecedented approach to government funding. what the republicans are godoin here and the speaker in particular is he's keeping funding levels at the same place they have been over the course of the last year. but what he's doing is having two separate deadlines for various government agencies to run out of that money. the first deadline will come on january 19th. the second deadline will come on
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february 2nd. now there are a number of democrats who had been warning this approach was complicated, that it was gimmicky, that it really didn't make sense in terms of how congress typically handles these kinds of showdowns. and yet, what you're hearing from democrats is they are keeping their options open, keeping their powder dry. and really staying on the sidelines right now because the likelihood is they are probably going to have to get behind this plan, if they want to avert a shutdown by friday. so all eyes are on what house democrats are going to do in the next couple days. the house rules committee is going to vote today. they are going to move forward with this proposal. then there's going to be a critical test for speaker johnson because in order to pass this on the floor, he's going to have to bring a procedural step t. tipically, it's up to the majority party to get those rule ace cross the finish line to get on to voting on the actual underlying legislation. in this case, the spending bill. it's not clear the republicans and conservatives are going to help him out on that rule.
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that opens the question of just how much help is he going to need from democrats in this first very critical step as speaker. >> right. democrats at least some of them, relieved to see that there aren't cuts to the levels that spending was at. what about tomorrow on the floor vote? >> reporter: that is the critical question. and like you said, the red line for democrats was that there could not be cuts on the spending bill. their argument is that this is just to continue funding, a larger fight can happen in january or february. but obviously, this two-step approach is unique. it's unpress dependented and it's something that democrats do feel like is going to cause multiple different shutdowns once the new year begins. so there's just going to be a little bit of a case where democrats are sitting back to watch what johnson can get in terms of votes on his own. i think we're going to see tomorrow what democrats finally do on the floor of the houses.
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but obviously, so much of this is going to defend on them. >> it will. lauren fox at the capitol, thank you. child care providers are facing a crisis after pandemic era funding expired at the end of september. more than 70,000 child care programs could close and 3.2 million children could lose their spots. the child care subsidy programs, which ended on september 30th, were a band-aid for an industry that's long had very deep problems. now america's child care problem is about to get worse. much worse. our next guess writes, when these businesses do shut down, they can send shock waves throughout their local economies. joining us is a cnn political commentator and opinion columnist. i like d this column so much because it was on the ground. it was showing the microeffects. part of the issue in maintaining programs like this is the ability to show the
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macroeffects. do you feel that data exists? can you quantify what that looks like for people? >> it's hard to put specific numbers on it. it's easy to quantify the costs of spending money on a program like child care. it's harder to quantify the cost of not spending that money. you can see these kinds of ripple effects. when a child care provider shuts down, it affects the families that rely on that child care provider if their care arrangements for their kids. which enable the parents to work. in turn, that effects the employers of those parents, who are now losing workers or losing work hours because their parents lives have been disrupted. you can go a layer further from that and it affects the customers of those businesses. so you can seie these cascading kobs kwenss throughout the local economy. this will not be a surprise to anybody who has young children. it's very disruptive when child care arrangements fall through. this kind of texture of what
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happens when a provider goes under i think it not within the realm of imagination of most politicians. >> you went to wisconsin and took a firsthand had look at an example of someone who was a dental assistant and what happened when that as infrastructure. collapses. >> we think of infrastructure as hard, physical things like roads, bridges or even broadband lines. this is infrastructure too. it's a softer form, but it's the reason why so many parents are able to work. and if you look at the kinds of effects we have seen over the past few years, it's been fete thomasal. one of the bright spots of this economic recovery is the fact that women's labor force participation has been around record highs. and why has it been around record highs? part of it has to do with the
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fact that women are able to go to work because there is this infrastructure there that enables society, in some function or form, to help watch their children so they can go to work. and that's a collective responsibility. yes, the parents have to pay the tuition fees, but there's a gap between what child care providers are able to charge parents and what they are able to pay their workers, who are already low wage. and that gap in the last couple years has been filled in part by these federal funds. that has enabled the children to be looked after and enabled parents to work and enenabled employers to fill some of the labor shortages. >> the biden administration has asked for an emergency stabilization money to fill the gap for at least a short-term. it doesn't seem like it's going to be renewed. >> cost is the most salient factor here.
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biden has asked for $16 billion. congress is struggling to even keep the current level of funding. but beyond that, there are some form of cultural resistance as well. there are parts of society who don't like the idea that women should be working. it's a smaller and smaller e segment of society. there's a part of our electorate that thinks this is the responsibility of families. it takes a village to raise a child. forget that. families should be responsible for their own children's care arrangements. why should taxpayers have to fill that gap? but that ignores the downstream consequences to the rest of the economy. it ignores the fact that there is this fundamental wedge between what parents can afford and what the providers can afford to pay. already, as i said, child care workers are earning less than
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your typical animal caretaker, your typical parking attendant. they earn very little money. and yet child care is just f phenomenally expensive for families because of the structure of the business. it's a really entenable business model. >> if you have a better policy idea, bring it to the table. this is what i don't understand about any of this. letting it wither and not having a conversation about it, whatever side you're on, debate the damn thing. >> especially in the context of the debate over what it means to be pro life, what it means to be pro family, why is this not more central in those discussions. >> this is a really great piece. thank you. hospitals a across gaza are run ning out of electricity, running out of supplies. look at those images. staff are working in dire conditions. dr. cinczinn was stuck in gaza a month. she's with us to discuss this
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crisis.
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welcome back. a the catastrophic situation unfolding inside of gaza's l largest hospital. the director of the hospital tells cnn all essential units have collapsed. that includes the hospitals nicu. take a look at these images. premature babies moved out of their incubators because the power was out. a hospital director says they have started wrapping those babies in foil ands placing them next to hot water, a desperate tempt to try to keep them alye as critical oxygen needed to run the incubators has also run out. it is not the only hospital on the brink. hospitals in gaza are running out of electricity and supplies. their staff are working in dire conditions. the second largest hospital has ceased their operations. and those hospitals are still open are overstretched they are
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increasingly unsafe. listen to how one medic describes the challenges of treating patients. >> there was a direct injury in the head. we can't do surgeries. no surgery ises, no oxygen, no electricity. we workman y-- it needs an urget surgery. a life-saving one. he's less than a year old. >> somehow remark fwli so far that bay bay bihas survived, but his father did not. joining us now is dr. zinn, an american pediatrician who was trapped in gaza for 26 days on what was supposed to be a retune mission organized by the children's relief fund. she was able to cross into egypt earlier this month. you can see her at the border. she's back home in the united states. thank you for being with us. i know the home coming was very
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welcome for you. but at the same time, you're watching this as a pediatrician, and those babies can't even be in their incubators. what do you think? >> i have had some communication with doctors down in gz. both children's hospitals are nonfunctional. one of the dedicated staff, which had to leave, six babies in the intensive care unit and two in the newborn unit, they just had to leave them without any medical attendants because they feared for their safety. the main surgical hospital has a huge newborn intensive care unit. i visited it last year. it's got up-to-date equipment and they are striving just to keep the babies warm. they have no ox oxygen, no wate
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no electricity, they are just trying to keep these newborns warm. >> speak about that a little bit more since you were in the hospital and how advanced it is, particularly for neonatal care. without any power, what does it mean for these babies? >> you can't provide the medical care that you have the ability to provide. and i heard there were 46 newborns. it's a 30-bed unit, so even if everything was pucksal, they are dulk up babies on warmers. and now all you can do is keep warm president. the main thing they need is fluid, and they can't provide any of those. >> one of the big conversations has been allowing fuel from israel into gaza. that was a nonstarter. now the idf placed 300 liters of fuel outside of the hospital. there's video i'll show everyone provided to cnn.
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we can't independently verify the video, but the hospital's director said the staff was too afraid to go outside and even get that fuel. that's the idf bringing the fuel because of the strikes nearby. and he also noted that that amount of fuel would only run generators for about 30 minutes. >> i know that they have huge generators because they are used to power outages before the war in gaza. you would have four hours on, four hours off. so all the hospitals had their generators going. i'm not sure of the capacity or how much fuel it uses, but i'm sure they would use a lot. at this point, even the rooms are not functional. all the because of the bombing, the glass is broken. all the patients are in corridors, which doesn't have an on oxygen supply or all that you knead to care for patients. >> that would explain the
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images, why we see so many beds in the hallways and not in the rooms. we talked to you the day after you were able to leave. you were able to leave. we talked to you the next morning. i know you were very happy to be safe and be able to leave, but you also really were wrestling with grief for what continues inside of gaza and why you went there as a pediatrician to help children. how are you wrestling with this now at home? >> well, i'm just devastated to hear this news, to know -- this is not third world medicine. they have up-to-date intensive care units that are now destroyed, nonfunctional. it's difficult to hear. >> doctor, thank you as always. you really helped guide us through this crisis. i i appreciate you checking in. thank you very much.
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>> thank you. more than 180,000 people took to the street ace cross france to call out a sharp rise in anti-semitic acts since the war began. the largest demonstration was in paris with an estimated 105,000 people. you can see it there. local media said it was the country's lrgeest mobile anti-semitism. >> tim scott suspending his presidential race. what does that mean for the state of the party? and eric adams says he will cooperate with the fbi after his phones were seized. details emerged about what federal investstigators arare lookining into. we'll haveve more, nexext.
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this just in. europe's most active erupting this morning, spewing above sea level. loud explosions could be heard. now, nearby towns are covered in ash. and in saiceland, official say there's a significant likelihood near the world-famous blue lagoon. police officials now urging residents to evacuate around a thousand earthquakes have been
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reported in the region in just 12 hours. >> and as if traffic in los angeles needed to get any worse, a huge industrial fire, look at that, shut down parts of interstate 10 in downtown los angeles, that forced governor to issue a state of emergency. more than 160 firefighters battled that blaze. it grew at a storage yard with pallets, trailers, and vehicles. l.a.'s mayor says this is a transportation crisis and not sure when that road will be open again. >> unfortunately, there's no reason to think that this is going to be over in a couple of days. we cannot give you an estimate of time right now. >> fortunately, no injuries. we'll keep you posted. well, tomorrow, new york city mayor eric adams says he will answer questions from reporters as he faces growing scrutiny over links between the turkish government and his campaign. adams is cooperating with investigators, his chief counsel tells cnn, after "the new york times" reported that federal authorities are investigating if he pressured city officials to allow the opening of a manhattan
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skyscraper, housing the turkish government's consulate, despite safety concerns. >> and that report comes after cnn reported on friday that fbi agents seized phones and an ipad from the mayor last week, as part of their investigation into campaign fund-raising. that was a major escalation of the federal probe into whether foreign money was funneled into adams' campaign. here is what adams told cnn yesterday, as president, part of my routine role was to notify government agencies of issues on behalf of constituents and constituencies. i have not been accused of wrongdoing. and that's true. he has not been accused of wrongdoing at this point. chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller is here. he was deputy commissioner of the nypd serving under mayor adams. good morning. >> so, just to finish that full disclosure, mayor adams is one of the three mayors i worked for. we know each other well, he's a friend. but here's the story. >> that's referring to a
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development that the "new york times" reported on, which has to do with a major $300 million turkish building right off fifth avenue in the middle of new york city, that they essentially wanted to access to it. there were questions about was it safe, fire codes, et cetera. someone reached out to adams, he apparently went to the fdny, said, can you look at this, and then what? >> and then they were able to get temporary permits. now their alarm company said, we're not ready. the smoke detectors, the alarm systems, the sprinkler systems are not all working in tandem. what they had to do, and this is not uncommon, by the way, to get the building open under a temporary permit, they had to get fire wards and post them on various floors on fire watch, just to get there because for the u.n. general assembly, president of turkey was coming in, wanted to cut the ribbon. so they made it work. that, as the mayor says, is kind of the normal political machinery of getting on the phone and saying to somebody, can you get on the with the fire
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department and figure out how to work this out. but remember in this case, there's a plot, there's a sub-plot, and sauba subtext to subplot. the main plot is, the raid on the campaign finance manager's house more than a week ago, where they seized records, electronics, devices, and so on about bundling campaign money, getting matching funds from the city, and those are from straw donors, where people were paid back. so that's the way the fbi gets into the investigation. that is still in progress. the subplot is, how much of that, if any, was the turkish government behind, using their influence through the consul general and others here to ban turkish communities together to support the mayor and other things. that's the part we haven't seen yet. and that's the subtext of the investigation. >> in your experience, how rare is it for federal authorities to stop a mayor in the middle of the street or sidewalk and say, we're going to go ahead and take
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all of your electronic devices? >> that's pretty rare. and you know, phil, you raise an interesting question here. i was in the fbi when we arrested the governor, governor blagojevich in illinois and other, you know, senators, congressmen, but to write that application, you know, that affidavit from an fbi agent to a federal judge saying, i have probable cause, and to lay out what that probable cause is, to get a federal judge to sign a piece of paper saying, you can seize the mayor of the city of new york's phone, and ipads, and other devices, that has to be a very convincing document. which suggests, it's more than going over the campaign records and the contributions and the checks. somebody had to walk in and tell them a story that they were able to verify parts of. >> why didn't he tell anyone? when this happened, days ago, we didn't find out about it until friday, but i think it was the
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monday of last week, and yet he held press conferences, he was with reporters, he was speaking to the public. you know him, is that odd? >> well, that's another interesting question, because frankly, in my view, had he not interrupted his meeting at the white house, kocounseled it, an turned around from washington and ran back when his campaign finance minister's house was searched, we probably wouldn't have known this was going on for some time. why did he cancel the trip? was there a terrorist trip to new york city? and when all of those phone calls were made, it wasn't a terrorist threat, it was a public corruption investigation. so at that point, i think they were interested in saying less. >> well, reporters will have a lot of questions tomorrow when you speak to them. john, thank you for the reporting. "cnn this morning" continues now.

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