on overtime. >> it drives me crazy because there's only so many rich white guys that republicans knew could vote for them. so they got to go figure out how to get workers. and it's smart as a strategist. >> it's smart because we don't know how to. i've been banging this drum. you don't know how to communicate. the democratic party has no idea how to communicate to normal people anymore every community has got a master's degree wrong well, i have a i'm a consultant. i have a master's degree, and i don't have it figured out. but i also know how to speak to people like they're normal and not like i'm sitting there, focus grouping, talking to you in one way because you're a latino guy from texas and talking to you in a different way. >> i mean, she raised one point up to the general public. >> it would be there. >> she raised 1.3 billion in 100 days. >> let me give you let you get in here. >> the hard truth is that democrats need to marginalize the people on their fringe. the people that don't know how to talk, the people that the people that are the reason why that they them and that trump did, did so well. they have to they have to make those people feel extreme and politically homeless and then win back the center. >> all right, guys great show. thank you very much for being here. and thank you for

watching news night, cnn's coverage continues next this was a premeditated pre-planned, targeted attack. >> we just heard sirens going off. i thought, oh gosh, what's going on? >> shocked that somebody would be killed in the in broad daylight in new york. that's really quite shocking. we're putting the warfighters first. >> that's what donald trump asked me to do. >> none of this behavior from pete hegseth will give any confidence to the troops. >> i think pete has an uphill climb to get confirmed. >> the delta stowaway is back in the us, where it started. >> we saw police and all kinds of officials waiting at the gate, which is something that you just never see live from london.

>> this is cnn newsroom with max foster and christina macfarlane hello, warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world, including the united states. >> i'm max foster and i'm christina macfarlane. it's thursday, december 5th, 9 a.m. here in london. 4 a.m. in new york, where police may have a potential clue in the killing of the ceo of a major health care company in the heart of manhattan. >> abc news is reporting that police say they found shell casings at the scene with the words deny, defend and depose written on them. >> unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson, was shot outside the hilton hotel in the heart of manhattan as he was walking to an investor's meeting on wednesday morning. police say the motive is unclear, but thompson's widow told nbc news that he had received quote, some threats brian was a wonderful person with a big heart and who lived life to the fullest. >> he will be greatly missed by everybody. our hearts are

broken and we are completely devastated by this news. he touched so many lives. we ask everybody to respect our privacy during this time. >> well, the suspected gunman was caught on multiple security cameras near the site of the shooting, including this image obtained by the washington post. that appears to show him on the subway before the attack. >> he made one stop just minutes after this image was taken. cnn's shimon prokupecz has more on the suspect's movements and a warning. some of the images you're about to see are graphic 6:17 a.m.. >> the alleged gunman came to this starbucks. according to law enforcement sources, where he made several purchases just two blocks away from where the shooting happened. 6:30 a.m. in new video obtained by the new york times, the shooter walks less than 200ft away from the soon to be crime scene. he appears to be on the phone at 6:44 a.m.. brian thompson leaves his hotel, which is just

across the street. he comes this way to enter the hilton hotel, where the conference is. and as he's making his way, the gunman is here waiting for him. >> many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target. >> seconds after thompson passes him, the gunman begins what police call a targeted attack. cnn obtained this video watch as the gunman comes from behind and raises his handgun within feet of thompson. what happens next is too disturbing to show. the assassin opens fire, shooting thompson in the back. thompson stumbles and looks back at his killer as the gunman walks towards him. police say the gun malfunctions, but the shooter clears the jam and continues to fire. >> i was paying attention. i was holding my phone. then i heard the shot. i saw him after he shot him. he ran across the street. this way. >> seconds later, police say the gunman flees through an alleyway towards 55th street, makes

a right, and then gets on an e-bike and goes north on sixth avenue. at 6:46 a.m., the first 911 call goes out. there's been a shooting outside the hilton hotel. two minutes later, 6:48 a.m. officers arrive on scene to find thompson, a 50 year old male, lying on the sidewalk. gunshot wounds to his back and leg. at the same time, the shooter is seen riding his e-bike into central park into center drive. >> the last we see with him on that bike is in central park. >> officers recovered three live, nine millimeter rounds and three discharged nine millimeter shell casings at the scene. >> every indication is that this was a premeditated pre-planned, targeted attack. >> this does not appear to be a random act of violence. >> thompson is transported by ems to mount sinai west hospital and pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m. and a citywide manhunt begins. >> we will not rest until we

identify and apprehend the shooter. >> and now a new clue for investigators. they have found new video of an individual they believe to be the gunman from early wednesday morning, around 5 a.m. with an e-bike battery and what they're trying to figure out now is whether or not he brought the battery here to this location, to this area where perhaps he had stashed stored the e-bike in preparation for his getaway. shimon prokupecz cnn, new york a retired senior fbi agent says the gunman made some mistakes, which she believes could help investigators no matter how perfectly it seems that this was executed. >> he will have made mistakes and that started with leaving the casings at the crime scene. and i'm also interested in whether or not those hands are really bare in starbucks, because if they are, he could have inadvertently touched something. we touch things probably upwards of a thousand

times a day. so those are the things that detectives will be looking at. where did he make mistakes? because he did donald trump's embattled pick for us defense secretary is vowing to fight on despite growing controversy over a series of misconduct allegations pete hegseth met with key republicans on capitol hill wednesday. >> even as sources told cnn that trump is already considering other options. but hegseth assured cnn that he still has the president elect's support. >> i spoke to the president elect this morning. he said, keep going keep fighting behind you all the way well hegseth denies all the allegations against him, including claims that he mismanaged a veterans group was publicly intoxicated at work events and sexually assaulted a woman. >> the former fox news anchor told reporters what his priorities would be as defense secretary we're putting the warfighters first. >> that's what donald trump

asked me to do your job is to bring a warfighting ethos back to the pentagon. your job is to make sure that it's lethality lethality, lethality, everything else is gone. everything else that distracts from that shouldn't be happening that's the message i'm hearing from senators and that advise and consent process. it's been a wonderful process. >> cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju has more on the allegations against hegseth and his damage control efforts on capitol hill. >> there are a number of republican senators who simply will not say if they will support pete hegseth nomination for secretary of defense, because of all the misconduct allegations that have come out in the past, as well as questions about whether he can actually do the job. what are the people who is most skeptical about him right now? is the republican senator joni ernst. she is someone who has pointedly undecided about whether she will get on board. could actually vote for his nomination. she's actually someone who has endured sexual assault herself a victim of sexual assault, and is trying

to push to change the practices of how the pentagon deals with these sexual assault claims. now, hegseth, of course, has been accused of sexual assault. he's denied those allegations, but leaving a meeting with him for about 45 minutes on wednesday afternoon, she refused to say if she would support him for the position. she only said she had a thorough conversation and a frank conversation with him. really would not say anything else. when i asked her if she would vote for him now. there have also been questions about some of these allegations of misconduct, including excessive drinking on the job. he has denied that, but he did tell senators including senator roger wicker, who chaired the critical senate armed services committee that would take up his nomination, that if he's confirmed, he would no longer drink. >> you told me earlier that he said that he would not drink on the job. well, how did that come up in? >> well i really i normally don't discuss what we have talked about specifically but, you

know, the allegation was made about him being intoxicated at several times and so the the questions that every member will be asking him led to his statement. >> and he categorically said he would stop drinking altogether if he becomes secretary of defense. what do you see the whistleblower report. >> absolutely. well, i will see whatever the fbi investigation provides us. i assume it will be comprehensive and the last part that wicker was referring to was what was revealed in the new yorker investigation that came out over the last couple of days, saying that there was a whistleblower investigation into his conduct when leading a veteran services organization. >> several years ago, and that whistleblower report, as you heard there from senator wicker, he believes that the committee will see some form of that, whether it's the report itself or he says, through an fbi investigation, that a lot of republicans and democrats are demanding before they consider voting for him. manu raju, cnn capitol hill.

>> well, texas defenders are closing ranks in an attempt to fend off the controversy. his attorney spoke with cnn and insisted some aspects of the media reporting have been exaggerated reporter after these events, they oftentimes do get together for an after party, and that part of it is true. >> but the rest of it is not. and that's where the best lies come in, is you take something that is true, and then you add additional facts to try and make it more nefarious than it is. and so all of these claims of what he allegedly did during these after parties, and, you know, the alcohol fueled environment is really exaggerations on something that actually did happen. you know well, his mother went on fox news wednesday. >> she said she regrets sending a 2018 email to her son accusing him of mistreating women, which was the subject of a new york times report. >> i wrote that out of love and about two hours later i retracted it with an apology email. >> but nobody's seen that.

he's a changed man, and i just hope people will will get to know who pete is today, especially our dear female senators that you would listen to him, listen with your heart to the truth of pete earlier, nebraska republican and retired air force brigadier general don bacon spoke with cnn about some of his concerns and the questions he has pete hegseth there's two areas of concern. >> one is he prepared to run an organization of 2 million people, and he's going to have to make that case to the senators. but two, all these allegations, i think are worthy of being looked at because in the military if you have an affair, you get kicked out. i've known many people who've been fired and removed out of the military for having affairs. so i think it's a relevant issue that he's going to have to convince the senators that that that that's all in the past. he's a changed man and that's the challenge he's going to have. being

loyal to your wife being faithful in marriage. people make mistakes. i don't want to be overly judgmental, but if there's a long history of it, a long record of it for some people, that's a red line. character does matter the military is going to be watching this, too, and i think mr. hegseth is going to have to convince the senators. but the military men and women are going to be seeing this, too, because we want to we want the same standard up and down the chain of command a russian woman who stowed away on a flight from new york to paris will appear in court in the coming hours. >> the fbi says 57 year old svetlana dali was arrested after being flown back to the us on wednesday. she is expected to face a federal charge of being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent, and could face up to five years in prison. cnn's saskya vandoorne flew to new york on the same flight as dolly on wednesday and has this report a pretty uneventful

flight with that 57 year old russian national svetlana dali, who remained compliant throughout. >> now it was just earlier today that i took a flight from paris. charles de gaulle airport to jfk, the same one that svetlana dali was on. she was sat at the back of the aircraft, and she was flanked by two french security officials who would escort her all the way to jfk. now, she was not in handcuffs. when i got on the flight, i was four rows in front of her and i was able to watch her as we took off she was incredibly calm. at one point she rested her head against the seat in front of her. now french officials were determined to get her on that flight today. one official telling me this morning that they sent a negotiator onto the onto the flight to speak with the delta crew to try and make them feel comfortable with the idea of dolly being on that flight. now, since we landed, we were greeted here by at least 15 officials. us

officials, port authority border police. we do know that officials are looking to interview her to try and find out how she was able to evade all those security checks at jfk airport. saskya vandoorne cnn new york. well delta airlines has not provided any specifics about how the woman was able to stow away on its flight, but the airline issued a statement saying, our review affirms that delta's security infrastructure, as part of our safety management system framework is sound, and that deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event to not sound is sound no, i'm just saying it's not sound. >> if it didn't work. >> well that's true. i mean, i think the issue around this was they were saying was the christmas season, right? and the swell of the number of people enabled her to get on board. but yes, to your point christmas season is quite predictable a fast moving and powerful winter storm is threatening millions of americans across the midwest and northeast. >> the intense burst of snow

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>> martial law order has been met with persistent protests and south korean police have now launched a treason investigation into yoon, another top officials but as of now, opposition lawmakers say they don't have the votes to force him from office. >> we are trying to contact the members from pgp personally especially for we. of course, i have in person good friends in pgp, so i'm trying to persuade them and trying to tell them, please vote for this impeachment proposal so we can um, kind of like make this nation better. but, um to be honest with you, at this time, we are not sure if we can have eight votes from pgp but i am sure that if we do this process over and over again, the crack in pgp will get bigger and bigger and we will be able to get even more than eight votes

from pgp sooner or later. >> you're talking about a scenario where you could have multiple impeachment votes. >> that's kind of what you're threatening right now. >> we will do it until we make it. okay. >> well, south korea's defense minister is the latest political casualty from the debacle. president yoon accepted his resignation earlier today. >> now france is now facing its own political crisis. president emmanuel macron is expected to address the nation today as he works to name a new prime minister. we're now learning that prime minister michel barnier is at the presidential palace to formally submit his resignation. this will leave france without a stable government or a 2025 budget. at the end of this year. >> he is ousting came after left and right wing lawmakers united to support a no confidence vote against him, mostly over his proposed annual budget for next year. members of parliament blame macron for the political chaos and some are calling for him to resign. >> mr. president i am not pushing for i am not asking for

the resignation of president emmanuel macron. >> i am saying there will come a moment when, if we don't take the route of respecting the voters and political forces and elections, well then the pressure on the president will of course, be stronger and stronger. but he's the only one who will make the decision, who will have the last word on whether he wants the french people to vote again before 2027, or whether he wants to stay in the horse at any price. so to speak now, brutal government crackdown against protesters is intensifying in georgia one opposition party says a lawmaker was severely beaten by police and detained. >> georgia's interior ministry tells cnn the opposition leader was arrested on charges of what they call, quote, disobedience to the police. >> massive protests began last week after the ruling georgian dream party decided to suspend

talks to join the european union. critics are accusing the government of moving towards authoritarian and pro-russian positions top diplomats from ukraine, russia and the u.s. are gathering today in malta for a meeting of the organization for security and cooperation in europe. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, arrived a short time ago, and the trip marks the first time sergey lavrov has visited a european union country since russia invaded ukraine in february 2022. well ukraine boycotted last year's osce meeting in north macedonia. >> its foreign minister is not expected to meet with lavrov. >> the optics alma will be interesting seeing lavrov there and blinken. >> yes, first time in the european union for russia's foreign minister lavrov since russia's invasion. >> that's extremely important. i know just a short time ago we saw secretary of state antony blinken arrive. i know we have those images to show you at this osce meeting. absolutely they are going to face off if you will. but in some ways, this is just a technical

meeting. what they're doing is setting up the budget for the next year, deciding who holds key positions. but ukraine will absolutely be at the top of the agenda. now, in the past, of course, russia has criticized the osce, including the foreign minister lavrov, who's called it essentially an extension of the european union. sees it as what russia calls part of eu expansionism. eu aggression against russia. of course, secretary of state antony blinken will take the opposite view with this. now as you mentioned, ukraine's foreign minister is not going to attend most likely these meetings. but we're already hearing ways in which president zelenskyy is trying, yet again, to shape europe to shape europe in a way that supports ukraine's fight. and i am talking about georgia. i know that was the top of that story. we were talking about those demonstrations in georgia. president zelenskyy is watching those closely and he has imposed sanctions. >> yeah. well, i was going to ask you about that. i mean, he has been very vocal in you know, the harsh crackdown that

we've seen on protesters there. the fact that the country's leadership, in his view in many views, is bowing to moscow. so what are these sanctions and what will they achieve so he's gone right to the top he has sanctioned the country's prime minister. >> he is a billionaire. he is perceived as being someone that is pro-russian. i want you to hear it from president zelenskyy himself the sanctions. >> these are sanctions against the part of the government in georgia that is handing over georgia to putin this is what the protests are against in georgia. it's important that our partners also speak out about their position and honestly declare what is happening. and we need to act. this is what happens in international affairs. if you don't react in time or if you don't react in a principled way then decades are lost and countries are deprived of their freedom now, i think it's the second part of that soundbite that's key. >> of course, sanctions from ukraine on the georgian prime minister will not make a huge deal. so what he's saying

there is this is kind of symbolic. i need you, my partners, to take similar measures, especially when you're seeing what's happening on the ground. again, summarizing president zelenskyy there, who is saying you are looking at demonstrators that are pro eu and a government that he perceives of course, as being pro-russian? we need our partners to step in. >> okay selma, thank you so much. now, a police manhunt is underway in new york after the killing of a major health care ceo. still ahead, new clues at the scene that could potentially lead investigators to the gunman. >> plus, a scathing new amnesty international report accuses israel of carrying out genocide in gaza. those details coming up

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more at stokoe comm welcome back to cnn newsroom. >> here are some of the top stories we're following today. police are searching for the man who opened fire on a health care ceo in midtown manhattan. nearly 24 hours ago. ryan thompson traveled to new york from minnesota for his company's annual investors meeting. he was walking to that meeting when the gunman emerged from behind him and shot and killed him. bitcoin soared past the $100,000 mark for the first time on wednesday. it surged to this new record after president elect donald trump unveiled

administration nominees seen as being friendly to cryptocurrency and its traditional sign of christmas in new york city. the likes of the rockefeller center christmas tree were turned on last night in front of a huge crowd. how pretty is that this year's trees, 74ft tall, weighs about 11 tons and has more than 50,000 led lights still not as big as christmas. >> back to our developing story, though. out of new york a manhunt is underway after unitedhealthcare ceo was gunned down in the heart of manhattan. police say brian thompson was shot and killed on a sidewalk near the hilton hotel, and the shooter fled, first on foot and then on an e-bike. abc news reporting that police say shell casings found at the scene had the words deny, defend and depose written on them. cnn's brynn gingras has the story. a warning some of the images you're about to see are graphic

stunning new video obtained by cnn showing the moments a gunman carries out a brazen attack in the heart of new york city at about 6:40 a.m., the suspect waiting for brian thompson the ceo of unitedhealthcare, and then firing several shots, killing him. >> i want to be clear at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated pre-planned targeted attack. >> police say that gunman camped out for about five minutes before thompson arrived. you can see from these images he's wearing a mask, hooded sweatshirt and backpack. sources say a silencer was attached to his handgun. police say he watched as people walked by. and then at approximately 6:45 a.m., fired at thompson from behind, hitting him before the gun jams. >> it appears that the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again. >> he fires another shot then the suspect fled, likely following this route. according to police, down a back alley of

a midtown theater before jumping on an electric bike. police losing his track after he entered central park. >> we're still tracking video. there are gps on those bikes. we'll be working with the company. >> investigators also recovering a cell phone, three shell casings at the scene, and are asking the public for help in identifying the gunman. police also releasing these images of what appears to be the gunman in a starbucks shortly before the shooting. 50 year old thompson was the ceo of the health insurance unit within the minnesota based unitedhealth group. he arrived in new york city on monday for an investor's conference. as of now police don't believe he and the gunman crossed paths until this morning and are still searching for a motive. thompson's wife, paulette, told nbc news quote, there have been some threats, but she didn't know why. thompson was a father of two boys. his wife also released a statement saying brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives. >> there are no words to

describe how so many of us are feeling right now. brian was a truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond. >> the brazen murder happening at the start of morning rush hour in an area of new york city crawling with tourists for the holiday season. >> so we just heard sirens going off. i thought oh gosh, what's going on? i did not think it was actually right here. >> you know, we really don't know what it was about, but we're shocked that somebody would be killed in in broad daylight in new york. that's really quite shocking. >> brynn gingras cnn new york. yeah a fierce fighting has erupted between syrian government troops and rebel forces in the countryside north of hamas. >> you can see the territory under rebel control here in green losing control of the strategic city of hama would be a massive blow to the syrian regime. >> opposition fighters recently retook aleppo reigniting syria's civil war. the main rebel commander was seen

touring aleppo's ancient citadel, a symbol of control over northern syria. >> let's bring in cnn's ben wedeman, closely following the developments. and ben and the rebels advance, no doubt, has been swift. and so far effective. i'm just wondering what capacity they would have to hold on to the territory that they've captured in the face of you know, the government forces counteroffensive, which has been slow, but is a building yeah, well, we haven't really seen it building in the sense of the ground forces of the regime. >> what we're seeing is that both the syrian and the russian air forces are intensifying their bombing campaign, but on the ground, they don't seem to be able to hold much ground at this point. we've heard this morning from the coalition of rebel forces saying that they have they're saying our forces have begun to advance inside the city of hama. now, the

government is putting out repeated statements indicating that the fighting continues to be outside the city and what's known as the hama country side, claiming that regime artillery and missiles, as well as russian and syrian airplanes are continuing to strike and inflict severe casualties on the rebel coalition but it's hard to get a good, clear idea of what's going on inside the city of hama itself, because apparently the internet is down landlines aren't working mobile phones aren't working as well. so the amount of information coming out of there is limited. but certainly what visual evidence we are getting from not hama itself, but outside would indicate that the rebels continued to advance. i was just now looking at video of what appears to be a rebel

car going into what's known as brigade 87, with the base of the brigade 87 of the syrian military and they're driving around an abandoned base that is full of lots of armor, armored personnel carriers and tanks so despite the claims of the regime, about a counter offensive, it just doesn't seem to be happening. actually, quite to the contrary, it appears that the rebels are continuing to make significant progress in retaking territory from the regime. >> christina maxouris ben, are they on the way on the road to damascus? i mean what's the plan? do you think well, before they get to damascus, first, they have to actually take the city of hama. >> and then after hama, there's the city of homs, which is a larger city, and the highway between homs and damascus is quite a stretch of desert road. so it's still

some ways to go. but of course, the government really, in terms of what it needs to hold on to, to remain in power, is of course, the city of damascus homs is important because that is where you take the highway west to the coast. and of course, the coast is where the majority of alawites, which is the muslim sect to which bashar al-assad belongs and which is the real core of the regime's strength so as long as they can control damascus, homs and the coast they might be able to stay in power. ruling over a rump state. but what we've heard is that for instance, abu mohammad al-jolani who's the head of hayat tahrir al-sham which is the biggest group within the rebel coalition, has sent messages, has put out statements to the alawite minority, to christians in syria, reassuring them of the

rebels intention not to harm them. and to suggest that they join the rebels in their fight against bashar al-assad. it's important to keep in mind that there isn't much love for the syrian regime, but at the same time many of the minorities fear the consequences of rule by rebel groups that are dominated by sunni. in some cases fundamentalists. let's keep in mind that hayat tahrir al-sham used to be known as jabhat al-nusrah, which was an affiliate of al qaeda and of course, there's the bitter experience of isis ruling over parts of syria where they had no tolerance whatsoever for any religious minorities, whether christian or muslim max. >> christina. ben, thank you so much for your insights there. we're going to turn now to the situation in lebanon. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, says israel's ceasefire with hezbollah is holding and that despite some back and forth strikes, both

sides want the truce to work we get reports of violations. >> we look at them, we engage the parties. and that's exactly what we've done. the mechanism that we established with france to make sure that the ceasefire is effectively monitored and implemented is working well. >> meanwhile israeli attacks killed dozens of people in gaza on wednesday. the israeli military says it carried out a precise strike on senior hamas militants in the humanitarian zone of khan younis. >> a local hospital says 11 of the 20 people killed were children. gaza authorities say women and children were also amongst the ten people killed by strikes in gaza city. paul hancock is following all of this for us, and paula amnesty, now the latest group to accuse israel of genocide yes, this is a report, max, which has just come out from amnesty international. >> it's almost 300 pages long

and they say that they have gathered evidence over a nine month period and they say that they have sufficient evidence to believe that israel's conduct in gaza amounts to genocide. now, there have been a number of criticisms, a number of accusations to this length all of which israel has strongly denied. but this particular report. amnesty say that they have certain incidents, multiple incidents where the israeli military and government authorities had carried out acts which were against three out of five acts that have banned by the un genocide convention. now those three acts, they say, are mass killing of palestinian civilians causing serious bodily or mental harm and also deliberately instilling conditions of life on the palestinians in gaza that were calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole

or in part. now israel has strongly denied these accusations in fact, the idf has called the claims entirely baseless. we've also just had a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs in israel saying that the deplorable and fanatical organization amnesty has produced a fabricated report saying that it is entirely false. israel's criticism is that it doesn't take into account the operational realities they say, on the ground for the idf to be working in the fact that hamas is using humans and the civilians on the ground as human shields, and that they're embedding themselves in the civilian population. in fact, in this report, amnesty does acknowledge that hamas does base itself in densely populated areas where civilians are, but says that that does not absolve israel of the responsibility to protect civilian life. but as i say, it's not the first time that this accusation has happened.

there was a un special committee report just last month where they said israel's conduct in gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. and of course, the the international court of justice in the hague is is listening to accusations brought by south africa at this point of of genocide created by israel. israel has called that grossly distorted and probably one of the most views of what israel is doing in gaza at this point is from a former israeli defense minister, moshe ya'alon. he spent about three decades in the israeli military saying that israel's actions in northern gaza are what he considers to be ethnic cleansing. but as i say, all these accusations are strongly rejected by israel saying it is on hamas because they are using civilians as human shields and israel has a right to defend itself. max kristina okay.

>> paula. in abu dhabi thank you so much for that. now coming up the u.s. supreme court considers a tennessee law that bans gender affirming health care for minors. we'll have the details can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life has truly joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn. >> i had no idea i was still paying for in-flight wi-fi until i finally checked my credit card statement 14 months and $600 later. that's why i created rocket money, an app that shows you all your subscriptions in one place. see something you no longer want? you can cancel it straight from the app download rocket money today. >> they are trying to shut down this legal loophole to get 100mg generic viagra or 20mg generic cialis delivered to your door for just $0.87 in less than two minutes. do this first, scan the qr code to go to get friday plans.com. then

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always great. >> go to deal dash dot com right now and see how much you can save the us supreme court appears likely to back a controversial law from tennessee after conservative justices questioned a challenge to the legislation. >> the law bans gender affirming care for minors. but as cnn's paula reid reports, the top court's liberal justices seem ready to support trans youth. >> if you change the individual sex, it changes the result. >> and a law like that can't stand on bare rationality. >> that solicitor general elizabeth prelogar arguing tennessee's ban on medical care for transgender minors amounts to sex discrimination, which is unconstitutional under the equal protection clause. fight back. but tennessee

argued their law protects minors from irreparable harm. >> its application turns entirely on medical purpose, not a patient's sex. that is, not sex discrimination. the equal protection clause does not require the states to blind themselves to medical reality. >> conservative justices like samuel alito focused in on how other countries such as the united kingdom and sweden, have recently shifted policies to limit access to treatments for transgender youth i wonder if you would like to stand by the statement that you made in your petition, or if you think it would now be appropriate to modify that and withdraw the statement that there is overwhelming evidence establishing that these treatments have benefits that greatly outweigh the risks and the dangers. >> if the court wants to go ahead and look at what's happening in europe, the uk has not categorically banned this care. sweden, finland and norway. the other jurisdictions that my friends point to have

not banned this care and i think that's because of the recognition that this care can provide critical sometimes life saving benefits for individuals with severe gender dysphoria but liberal justice sonia sotomayor, highlighting the potential harm of withholding treatment some children suffer incredibly with gender dysphoria, don't they? >> yes, it's a very serious medical condition. some attempt suicide. yes. >> the rates of suicide are are striking, and it's a vulnerable population. >> and both sides closely watching chief justice john roberts, a potential swing vote as he suggested the court should leave questions of medical nuance to the states. >> doesn't that make a stronger case for us to leave those determinations to the legislative bodies, rather than try to determine them for ourselves? >> that line of questioning concerning justice ketanji brown jackson, i'm worried that we're undermining the foundations of some of our bedrock equal protection cases. aclu attorney chase strangio,

sharing those concerns as he made history as the first known openly transgender person to argue before the supreme court. >> tennessee claims this sex based line drawing is justified to protect children, but sb one has taken away the only treatment that relieved years of suffering for each of the adolescent plaintiffs. >> the incoming trump administration is expected to reverse federal support for transgender care for minors, which means the justices could dismiss this case. but there is another appeal out there asking the court to consider whether parents should have the right to make medical decisions for their children. so a similar question with a different framing that has divided conservatives and on wednesday, both sides agreed that question is when the high court could still consider no matter what they do with this case paula reid, cnn washington. >> still, to come, a new honor for japan's most famous alcoholic beverage hank used to

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