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join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. in deadly explosions in iran. more than 100 people killed and more injured in two separate blasts earlier tapered officials are calling this a terror attack. in on the offensive with 12

days left before the iowa caucuses. how to get haley and ron desantis are sharpening their attacks against the far and away from one or, former president trump. we will be on the campaign trail covering it all. no details on what went wrong in japan moments before that deadly airplane collision. just released transcripts say about who may have been responsible. we are following these stories and many more coming in right here, cnn news central. we start this hour with worldwide condemnation being called a terror attack in iran as violence has escalated over the israel-hamas were. two lasts about 20 minutes apart killed more than 100 people and wounded more than 180 people in the iranian city.

one explosion caught on a state media broadcast. watch this. the significance here of the geography is important. the explosions took place near the burial site of iranian commander. state media reports that the first bomb was in a suitcase, inside a car. >> they say it went off about 2300 feet from the grave site. the second explosion was about half a mile away from there. that killed people who were running to help folks who were hurt in the initial blast. this was according to iranian state run media reports with the interior of ministry says that most the victims were killed or wounded in the second explosion. he was killed by a u.s. drone

strike in iran four years ago today. we will turn out to retired army major for more of what may have happened? i want to note that we heard from the state department that they said there was no u.s. role in the attacks today. that there is no reason to believe that israel was involved either. that's according to the spokesman, matt miller. when you see what happened today, 100 killed, 180 wounded, what are your immediate thoughts about who might be behind this? ? i would suspect isis or one of the terrorist organizations inside iran. the number one state sponsor of terrorism now has come back toward them. he exported it from iran into iraq. killed many u.s. soldiers. it's a internal challenge. the

distance a severe, the southern and eastern portion of iran, where the organizations can easily come over the border from iraq and set something up. is likely that it came from this. when israel strikes like this, they go after leadership. they make the strike surgical. this was a terrorist shot against civilians. >> we're seeing from israel in the past, a lot more targeted than what we have seen today. talk about the timing. this is the fourth anniversary of his death. you have the speech by hassan, that had of hospital lot today. that came after the assassination of the killing of a top hamas leader just yesterday in a root, in the lebanese capitol. how do you think today will

play into the broader regional fears and tensions about the possibility of the war expanding beyond what we are seeing right now? >> number one, u.s. forces have to be on high alert right now. these are the kinds of things that cause the escalations. we see what is happening come back to lebanon. has a lot, i do not think they want that fight with israel right now. they took out the leader in a surgical strike. from their operations, they're going after military leaders feet if you go around the world there, u.s. forces have been under attack in iraq and syria. i would not be surprised if the iranians try to do something and come back to the proxies in yemen. to do the same as they virtually control what is going on in the red sea. if you look at the maritime shifts, they are avoiding the

u.s. canal. things are escalating. the question is, how much of a fight do the iranians want? if the united states decides to get in, if something escalates and they hit a u.s. destroyer, we could sink the iranian navy like we have done in the past. we do not believe the iranians want to escalate to that point, but they might light a fuse to trigger something they cannot control. >> it's important to highlight that we do have the iran backed groups across the region. the u.s. has been trying to tell them to not escalate. to not let it get out of control. i want to ask you a bit more about the killing of the senior hamas leader in a root, yesterday. i was told by a u.s. official that israel was indeed behind this strike. the biden administration is saying that they did not know about it ahead of time. israel, has not claimed responsibility. do you expect israel to at some

point admit it was them? what extent do you think this is the beginning of a potential israeli campaign as they have telegraphed to take out hamas leaders around the world? >> i think it is the beginning of that campaign to take them out around the world. this was going after this person in particular surgically. his position was given away their inside of lebanon. there obviously is human intelligence on the ground. somebody got paid off in somebody let the word out. they are checking over their shoulders of where the positions are, because it looks like the israeli intelligence operations is working effectively to find out where the leaders are. they do not care if they are inside gaza or the west bank, they will go after them where they are. i do believe this is part of a new phase of their operation. we saw the move some of the thanks in gaza. the operation is going to be holding and rebuilding as they let some reservists go home. this is the kind of thing that

if someone bankrupts the company , i believe they will see a side start to do more of these strikes throughout the middle east where they find hamas leaders, they will try to kill them. >> the israeli leaders are making it clear that they need to close the accounts of those hamas leaders who they hold responsible for the horrific attacks on october 7th. we will leave it there. thank you for your time. in the race for the white house, republican candidates are making the final pitches. we are 12 days from the very first votes of the 2024 election season. today, nikki haley, israeli voters across new hampshire

while in iowa, ron desantis is crisscrossing the state. both of them have new ads targeting each other in what is shaping up to be a battle for second place right now. of course, they are still taking swings at the front runner, criticizing donald trump for skipping past and future republican debates. >> healy and desantis will take the scene in des moines. trump is saying that he will not take part. cnn is on the campaign trail. steve is following desantis in iowa. first let's bring, in new hampshire, where haley was at townhall. what are we hearing from the former governor of south carolina? >> reporter: she's telling new hampshire voters that she can win. that they should tune out the noise, disregard all they hear from the political pundits. she still is a viable participant or candidate in this republican primary and certainly in the state. she fielded a question from a

woman who has not yet been convinced. she suggested she would be concerned if haley would go on to be donald trump's running mate. what would she do to preserve our democracy to uphold the constitution? here's a little bit of the exchange. >> we are going to win. no doubt about it. these political pundits are trying to tell you what to do. i know the momentum in iowa and new hampshire, they want something different. they are wishing for it and i think everybody is going to be surprised and the pundits will have political egg on their faces. we will always follow the constitution. that is the best part about our country, we have to protect it. >> reporter: there was standing room only at the event she held. lots of momentum for her here on the ground. she's got two more events today.

the governor, a top surrogate for her as telling supporters this is crunch time. >> let's do that now to steve, who has been at the desantis campaign. he is speaking right behind you. what is his message? >> reporter: that is right. he's been addressing the republicans here. he's been sharing a message about his track record in florida. talking about his successes in policy victories. saying that he sick of republicans losing to democrats. we've had enough of rhetoric. it's time to see results. talking about trump, he continued to do this to give contrast. some republicans do not think he has drawing that contrast strong enough. listen to this exchange from earlier today. >> i do not think donald trump

can ultimately win an election. there will be so many voters that are activated to come out to vote against him, it's not even related to policy. is related to other things that we have seen how many times, 2018, 28 team, 2020, 2023, the whole election will end up being a referendum on his behavior. he is running on the same issues that he ran on in 2016 and did not deliver on. the border wall with mexico paying for. deporting illegal aliens. draining the swamp. holy politicians accountable. all of these things were promised. >> reporter: that's what he is trying to get across to iowa republicans across the state. he has two more events today and will be here throughout the rest of the week. his team is dark on the airwaves in new hampshire now.

they are spending money trying to influence votes to benefactor momentum to finish strong and get to know new hampshire. >> it could be make or break for his campaign. thanks. let's dig into this with our political commentators. >> a former state representative from south carolina. scott jennings was assistant to george w. bush. thank you for joining us. scott, i want to start with you. the question of endorsements -- we see desantis right there in iowa. haley on the ground in new hampshire. in d.c., the former president has gotten endorsements from all republican house leaders. what kind of impact does not have? we seen haley rack up some significant endorsements lately. do voters look at these kinds of endorsements from congressional leaders?

>> i do not think there are too many voters who look at endorsements and say, i was going to vote for this person and then i saw this endorsement so i will switch my vote. with one exception, that is donald trump. his endorsement over the last several years had a measurable difference. this case, what the campaigns are trying to do, to create a sense of momentum. if these politicians are coming out for this person, it must mean that this person has a good chance to win. i think it has more to do with atmospherics and narrative, which also is affected by other variables. will give you two exceptions. governors make some difference and desantis has the governor of iowa. haley has the governor of new hampshire. they have built in organizations i could probably give them access to people. wholesale changes in voter behavior to individual endorsements does not show up too much at the polls.? i want to stay with you as a republican on the panel. haley is talking about the economy and challenges that

many americans are facing. she writes that she speaks hard truths. republicans and democrats are to both to blame. obama and biden look to waste money, but so did george w. bush and donald trump. everyone talks about the good economy under trump, at what cost? he put us $8 trillion in debt in four years. are these the hard truths on the economy enough of a dinged against trump? we know the economy is the number one issue, but will it be enough against the former president? >> what she is doing is a well- worn tactic for the last several years for the republican party. people think the way to get popular is to attack all of the other republicans that came before you for spending too much money or not being strong enough. the problem for her on this strategy, among republicans right now, because they are so disdainful of the economy under joe biden, there

is nostalgia for economic conditions under donald trump he displayed a hair or come up with a nuance argument that everything was not as good as you think it was under trump, it's interpreted that trump had it right and biden had it wrong. why not go back to trump? i do not know how far she will get with attacking trump or other politicians of the past on the economy? there are some out there that care about debt and deficits, but that's a smaller number than it used to be. all they care about is inflation. donald trump getting it right versus biden getting it wrong. >> you have been watching haley for a while now. you believe that haley fell out of favor with some voters in the past few weeks. which of voters are you talking about and why do you think that is happening? i do not think we are hearing him so we will try to get his

audio fixed. schema can you hear me now? >> we have you. start again. why do you think haley has fallen out of favor with voters? >> blame that on scott. i do think that she has fallen out of favor with more center- right and moderate independent voters, which will play a larger role in new hampshire than a state like iowa. her failure to rise to the challenge over the last week, how she fumbled and fumbled through answers to simple questions, people have a question about whether or not she could stand up to somebody like donald trump? and at the end of the day just in that the somebody like joe biden. donald trump wins the race, the question is by how much? to get on the page of spinning 20 point defeat or 15 point defeat. the danger for haley and desantis, someone who

apparently has a strong ground game in a place like iowa, vivek ramaswamy was able to eclipse one of them and come close in third place, that ends the race for one of them. they have to watch not only donald trump in front of them, but some of the people coming from behind them, as well. >> i also want your thoughts on how both parties are approaching the issue of immigration? it appears that appear come republicans stood their ground on wanting more restriction as immigration policies. democrats, some have shown an openness to things like limiting asylum claims and expediting deportation. it seems the white house is open to it. how big of an issue is immigration going to be for democrats in this election? >> it is a huge issue. i will take it from a 50,000 foot view in the way the

parties are addressing these issues. i will speak hard truths to quote nikki haley -- neither party is handling the issue of immigration well. the fact, republicans have no ideas about how to fix the immigration problems. democrats just are seemingly woke up to the issue. you have one party who has no ideas, they continue to lambaste immigration. they continue to use red meat and sometimes delve into the enough phobic areas. you have my party for a long time felt like this was not an issue that warranted our attention. we did not have the resources necessary. the past two years with kamala harris going down to the epicenter of where immigrants are coming from, having the robust conversations, someone like futterman not necessarily beaking on the same sheet of music but waking up

individuals. the mayors waking up many individuals who are in leadership. you're starting to see a robust solution flying about while republicans are having lack of ideas. >> very quickly, in a response to the allegations that you are muting his microphone? >> i want to hear from him. i would never imbued him. i want to hear what the democrats have to say about immigration which is killing joe biden right now. he needs a deal worse than any politician. republicans have no ideas and kamala harris has fixed emigration -- republican ideas are simple, build barriers, do not let people cross illegally and stay in the country years upon years. do not have policies that invite people to think that we have open borders. these are things that joe biden has done. if you want to have a debate, the american people are

inclined to speak to republicans because they think that joe biden has failed. the secretary of state antony blinken went down there on a mission to try to get control of this. where is vice president harris? she was put in charge and now she has been taken out of the game. we have had record crossings and failure on immigration. by the way, the american people see it on their tv every night. >> scott jennings, we have to leave the conversation. thanks. reminder to all reviewers, desantis and haley will take questions from iowa voters in back to back townhall events. it will start at 9:00 tomorrow night eastern. we were just talking about immigration and border negotiations are set to be pick up as mike johnson leads dozens

of republicans sell for a first- time look at the crisis. new air traffic control transcripts released in the collision between two planes on the runway in tokyo. what they show about a potentially fatal error.

from capitol hill to border towns, cities across the country, a record immigration surge has become a top policy priority. each of the last three years has set new highs for migrant encounters down at the u.s./ mexico border. there is no doubt the resources are buckling on the ground. joe biden has been begging congress for more border funds. >> is not just at the border, cities all over the map have received thousands of migrants and they are struggling to handle the influx for the last hour we took you to the southern border. this hour you want to take you to a city on the receiving end of one of the one with bus trips. veronica, what is the latest on the situation there? we're officials here in this region are concerned about a lack of resources, budget, and smaller communities outside of the city of chicago are trying to get ahead of the problem. back up a little bit in a

little over a year, greg abbott's office says they have dropped off 28,000 migrants in chicago. last month, the city of chicago, the city council, past tougher penalties against the countries companies that were dropping off migrants saying that they need advance warning or they could get fined or impound the buses. the company started to drop off the migrants in small suburban communities outside of the city. like hinsdale. it sits 20 miles outside of chicago. it has a direct train line into downtown. a few days before christmas, they received several busloads of migrants. these small suburban communities, city councils, they are passing their own measures similar to the chicago city council, suggesting that they will impose penalties against these penalties companies that they did not get warnings that they are coming to their communities. they pass the measure last night. take a listen.

>> this is a tough one because we do not want to look like we do not care. we have to move forward and get a handle on all of this. we're in the community of north chicago, also passed a secular ordinance, they have not received any migrants, but they do not have the budget or resources, so they are trying to take action in attempt the patient of what could happen. ack to you guys. >> thank you. we want to discuss this issue with a congressman from a border district from texas. thank you for sharing part of your afternoon with us. the visit to the southern border by your republican colleagues comes during negotiations working on a deal to get more funding to the border to put restrictions on asylum-seekers. any of the things republicans have been demanding for years, do you think if it passes

senate, it likely will be taken up by mike johnson? >> it's really the democrats who have been demanding it, not really the republicans. some of us delivered to raise the standards that somebody could come into the united states to ask for asylum. we do not have sanctuary cities on the border. we want to see law and order. treat migrants with respect and dignity, but right now it is too easy to come in and get bused or flown to the interior. we could put all of the water buckets down here at the border, but if we do not turn off the faucet, they will come in. we need to raise the standard. give them a quick hearing and deport them to the country of origin. otherwise, it will not stop and you will have city council folks all over the country

passing their own rules about not letting buses from texas and other places go to their areas. >> i want to ask you about the patchwork of state and local laws versus federal for immigration. the original question, do you think if the senate moves forward, that limits asylum- seekers that expedites deportations? that the house will take it up? what is the sense of where your republican colleagues are? >> i have an idea, but some senators are not from the border. cinema is and they need to make sure that the people that live within the border have an input on this. i do not think so? they have to make sure that it comes with the house. as long as we are talking to each other and we keep the communities in mind we can address this. it all goes back to adding more

border patrol, building a fence, which i do not support, you can talk about adding technology, but if you do not do something about the people coming in, they go into the interior -- they go and get processed and they go into the interior, they wait six years for immigration hearings. at the end of the six years, an immigration judge will regret, why are we allowing all of the people to come when 13% will be accepted and everybody out rejected? we have to put the resources and the right policy. not just do things that feel good about the border. >> on the question of who is negotiating this deal, you noted

that it does not sound like you are getting the kind of input that you would like to see from leaders closer to the southern border -- one of the senators is from arizona, kristin cinema. we also have murphy, langford, of oklahoma, if you do not think they should be negotiating this, who should? >> i did not say that. i mentioned kristin cinema from arizona. again, a lot of it is close and they can do whatever they want to. keep in mind that the house will look at this and we have to make sure that people on the border get input. gonzalez, myself, and other folks, should be involved in the negotiations. we will wait to see what the senate does, but i hope they do not think that they know what all and that the house will accept what they send over to us. she met congressman, there is concern among democrats that

passing this would hurt president biden among progressions. you are an outlier in the democratic party. do you think a deal could potentially cost the white house going into resident biden's reelection effort? >> if you look at the polls, they show that democrats, independents, republicans, are not supporting what the president is doing. if we just listen to the immigration advocates, that is one thing. who is listening to the order communities, the sheriffs, the mayors, nobody is listening to them. you have to understand that when you look at the polls, i do not think i'm the outlier. i think they are the outliers and we are the ones according to the polls and the constituents that i represent, people want to have law and order at the border. they believe the legal migration, they do not like what is happening at the border.

the polls show that gratis weakness the president has, border security. he needs to make sure he does everything to work a deal out. otherwise it will affect him. it will affect other democrats. >> i did not mean outliers as a pejorative, i just mean that your stance is different from most democrats. i want your voice on sp 4. that's the one that makes it a crime in texas for migrants to cross the border from mexico. it gives local law enforcement the ability to arrest people who they believe are undocumented. how do you expect greg abbott will respond to the doj's demand? >> he will not listen to them at all. he will continue doing that. the legislator passed that.

i understand the frustration that the governor and other folks in texas have. this type of action does not solve the problem. i think that the supreme court has been very clear about this in the arizona case for 2012, no matter how bad the frustration is, immigration belongs to the federal government, not the local government. not to the military or local officials. it belongs to the federal government. the supreme court if they follow their own president they set years ago, they will say no matter how big the frustration is, immigration enforcement belongs to the federal government. a lot of the local officials do not have the training and i worry about mistakes being done where they are not given the training as border patrol is given. >> we saw and played out in arizona. we appreciate your perspective.

come back anytime. coming up, new details about the deadly plane crash on the runway in tokyo. warning lights meant to stop planes from entering the runway were not working. we are digging into transcripts that reveal more details about what went wrong. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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join the millions of people taking back♪ ♪eir privacy ♪ ♪ we have new details about the plane collision in tokyo that left five japanese coast guard crewmember is dead. we are learning that warning lights that are designed to stop pilots from taxiing on the runway have been out of service for days. >> that news comes as cnn gets their news on just released air traffic control. a transcript pointing to a potential error that the coast guard in that plane.

pete joins us with the latest. the transcript, what are we learning from it? >> reporter: we are getting more and more clues about how the holes lined up. first, the air traffic control transcript shows that the coast guard plane was not told to get onto the runway. second, the runway warning lights were not in use. they were broken at the time of this incident. that is the air traffic control transcript that that we handed out by japanese airline and aviation authorities that essentially lays out this tiktok where the tower told the japanese coast guard flight to hold short of the runway. to not go onto the runway. two minutes and nine seconds later, impact. i want to read you part of the transcript now where the tower.

taxied a holding point. the coast guard plane replied, taxied a holding point c5. clearly there was confusion there. the japanese airliner was already cleared to land. i want to show you one more really telling image. we are getting daylight images from the airport that shows where the impact was of these two airplanes. you can see at the 11:00 position there, that is the ground start. that's where the japanese coast guard plane was. the 6:00 position, that is where the japanese 350 came to rest like a runaway freight train down the runway. the other thing, the japanese coast guard plane was told to hold short of the runway. there are typically warning lights that make it so. the crew could see that the runway was in use.

red lights are embedded in the pavement. they are called runway stop bar lights. it turns out that these lights were not in service. they were out of service and broken for six days prior to this incident. including the day of this crash. that could've been one potential way that this crew could've noticed that they were taxiing under the runway. they are used at major airports in the u.s. these lights essentially worn pilots that the runway is in use. there could be an airplane clearing the one we cleared this is pertinent because it took place at night, so it's one more factor. >> that took five lives. thank you for breaking that down. on cnn news in central, not the milestone we want to hit. the national debt hit a record

$34 trillion. that news is ahead. stay with us.

two the u.s. treasury department says that america's national debt has clocked in for the first time at $34 trillion. for contacts, during the pandemic, the federal government spent heavily to try to stabilize the economy. that came right after massive tax cuts that shrink american coffers. >> it comes as congress is about to be spending again. matt, we are supposed to see a strong economy right now. yet, the u.s. is racking up debt. >> this is another bleak milestone for america's finances. $34 trillion, it is unthinkable. when you think about the fact that three months ago it was at $33 trillion for you can see from this chart, the mountain of debt continues to spike gratis liked again during covid and is still going up now.

the timing is noteworthy. normally borrowing goes up when economy is doing poorly. when unemployment is high. they have to pay for unemployment benefits and bailouts. here, the debt is going up, the deficit is high and unemployment is low, gdp is high. we should also note that it is no longer free for uncle sam to borrow. for years it was near 0% interest rates. now it's more expensive to finance u.s. debt. the government is spending $2 billion a day on interest. as you can imagine, this is invoking a lot of finger- pointing in washington. republicans are blaming the white house. the white house is blaming trump era tax cuts. there's more than enough blame to go around against republicans and democrats over many years. many people wonder how worried we should be? i do not want to be an alarmist, look at what goldman from the federal budget said.

things make it really awful in bad times. we cannot grow the debt faster than the economy forever. it's worth noting that investors are not freaking out about this. ultimately, everyone agrees this fiscal situation is unsustainable, but it's going to take republicans and democrats to come together on a broader solution, and in today's highly politicized world, that, of course, is not going to be easy. >> good luck with that. matt egan, thanks so much for the update. >> a lot of digits there. coming up, a 16-year-old is shaking up the world of darts, and the world dirt championship is happening right now. we will have more on that 16- year-old pre-match ritual, and how he is doing in that final. to duckduckgo on all your devie

duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre.

we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. now, as we speak, there is a young, 16-year-old, who prepares, feels himself with

the daily omelettes, followed by a pizza, competing fiercely in the world darts championship. >> the peak of athleticism. omelette followed by pizza. luke littler is the youngest finalist in the history of the competition. maybe not the youngest looking, though. walk us through what littler said ahead of today's final. have we confirmed on his birth certificate that he is 16? >> reporter: a lot of people think that he is a lot older than 16. he will be 17 in a couple weeks time, but it's just extraordinary what he has been doing. he has come out of absolutely nowhere, making his debut at the world championships, and he has just taken the whole thing by storm. he has already knocked out a couple of former world champions. he is young, fun, fearless, audacious in the way he plays, and everyone has fallen in love

with this young kid. he can't even drive yet. he can't even drink legally in england yet. he has already won a quarter of $1 million. if he wins the final today, he will leave town with over $600,000, which is absolutely incredible, and you have remarked on his diet and routine, ham and cheese omelette, pizza. if he wins tonight, he will celebrate with a kebab, which he would've been having anyway. it's just an incredible story, and so many people are rooting for him to go all the way. >> good for him. look at that crowd. a lot of omelettes and pizzas if he winds up winning. that stoic face, he is a champ. >> i wish i had that f facial hairir at 16. thank yoyou so much. we will bebe rightht back.