hawaiian woman, whose family members feared for her safety after she went missing, says hannah kobayashi is safe and wants the public to know that this morning, kobayashi's disappearance launched a frantic search for her. last month, after she never boarded a connecting flight to new york from los angeles. but los angeles police later said she intentionally missed that flight and was actually in contact with some of her family members and active on social media. and just moments before disaster. you got to look at this. a driver's dash cam is capturing these incredible pictures as a small plane begins to drop from the sky in southeastern texas before it crashes. despite slamming into a busy roadway, hitting multiple cars, and then splitting in two. cnn affiliate kvue says everyone involved survived that, but several people have been hospitalized. authorities say the plane lost contact with air traffic

control shortly before crashing. the faa and ntsb are, of course, investigating this. a new hour of cnn news central starts right now there are new details on the killing of unitedhealthcare ceo. >> this morning, police revealing what they now say directly connects luigi mangione to the murder and fear and frustration. dozens of sightings of drones flying over parts of new jersey over the past month, all still unexplained. now state officials are starting to demand answers as the fbi investigates. and three brothers brothers are charged with baiting and sexually assaulting dozens of women. prosecutors say they conspired together in what became a sex trafficking scheme spanning more than a decade. i'm kate baldwin with sara sidner and john berman. this is cnn news central.

>> important new details that may prompt new charges in the case against the suspect in the murder of the unitedhealthcare executive. police overnight revealing they have now matched the gun found on suspect luigi mangione to the weapon used to kill ceo brian thompson, the top prosecutor in manhattan, telling abc news new charges could come as they keep fighting to get mangione extradited back to new york. also, new details from the suspect's mother as well. brynn gingras brynn gingras is leading us off this morning with a lot of new details. there's a lot of things happening here. some big revelations from police and also some revelations from his mother. what more are you learning this morning yeah. >> sarah. >> so this is the evidence that the nypd wanted to get their hands on. >> ever since luigi mangione arrest on monday, the gun, the fingerprints. and we now know,

according to the nypd commissioner, that both connect to mangione. so this gives a direct link between luigi mangione in philadelphia, in pennsylvania, where he was arrested, and the crime scene here in manhattan, according to police. of course, there's other evidence that they have been collecting ever since his arrest. and before that surveillance evidence, the fact that there's a fake id that was on him, all of this is going to be, of course, used as they continue to fight for his extradition back to new york. and, of course, the broader case in general. now, we did hear from mangione defense attorney, who originally, when he first gave that news conference after his arrest, said, i haven't seen anything that links my client to this crime. he updated that a little bit. i want you to hear from him. >> i'm actually using different news reports as my source of information because nobody's sharing these evidentiary things with me. i'm, you know, biting at the bit, so to speak, you know, waiting to get my hands on this

stuff so we can start attacking it so it's clear that he will continue to fight this extradition as prosecutors. >> the top prosecutor, as you said, sarah alvin bragg here in new york says it's possible that mangione could face more charges. one thing more to note from that interview that his defense attorney gave erin burnett he did say that he had or he wouldn't say rather if he had spoken to mangione family at all. now, what we have learned and what investigators are also trying to piece together are mangione his whereabouts prior to this killing, not directly before this alleged killing, not directly before, but months, weeks, days before. and we learned something from his mother that she filed a police report with the san francisco pd because she believes that is the last place that she knew of where her son was. she had told police at the time that on july 1st was the last time she actually spoke to her son, she filed that missing persons report on november 18th. again with san francisco pd, and at

that time she did tell police there that she didn't think that her son was a threat to himself or anyone else. >> sarah. wow. lots of new details in the country is following every single one of them. brynn gingras and i know, so are you. appreciate it. >> john. all right. with us now is defense and trial attorney misty marris. counselor, thank you so much for being with us. so we've got this physical evidence now. forensic evidence. you've got the motive. evidence. a lot of it. if you are going to put on a defense here, how would you do it? >> you know, john, the the way that it's going to be leveraged as a defense is to look at all of this evidence, which is right now very forensic. right. we've got fingerprints. we've got the video evidence that's basically following now, the forensic evidence where mangione is now on the trail that the video is showing this individual. but whenever you have that scientific evidence, there's two ways to attack it from a defense perspective. one way you have your own experts review it and try and undercut it. the other way you see how it was collected, how it was handled, and work arguments to

maybe get some of that precluded. so it would never make it into the courtroom. is that going to happen here? i don't know, but i would imagine the defense attorney is going to look at it from that perspective to see if they can keep something out. whether or not the gun in the backpack that was found, the ids, is there a way to keep that out and create a fruits of the poisonous tree argument that would make it more difficult to connect those dots? >> one of the big problems you would have as a defense attorney, the writings, the extensive writings. you can't wish those away. >> yeah, that is a huge problem, especially since the writings not only talk about what a motive is, you don't even need a motive to prosecute a case. but it also says, well, by the way, just to let you know, i acted alone and please look at my spiral notebook because you'll learn more information about how i actually went about planning this crime. and again, john, so difficult. there's a mountain of evidence here. but from a defense perspective, you're going to look at ways to potentially keep that ultimately out of the courtroom. >> so i want to be careful how i talk about this, because this

guy is not a hero at all. if in fact, he did kill the ceo, this was a heinous act, a violent act here. yet there are people out there who are supporting him in different ways. as a defense attorney. is that something you could try to use? get people on a jury mad at the health care industry? >> well, certainly, i think from a from a jury perspective, a jury is ultimately going to make a determination if you have some folks on the jury that might be angry at the health care industry, and your job is to raise reasonable doubt, that could be a strategy. so a million years down the road when we're at trial, but for the purposes of extradition, it's almost certain that he's, you know, he's coming back to new york. >> i'm not even asking you about that because he's he's coming back to new york. the question essentially is when i'm just trying to look down the road and see what the defense here is playing out here and what fears they may be trying to put on the prosecution about how the prosecution investigators handled this. if this suspect wants to put on a show. right.

and we have seen evidence that he does the markings on the shell casings, the shouting, going into prison. obviously, the various ways he's sending messages to the world here, how uncomfortable could he make this for a prosecution? >> yeah. monopoly money and all of his writings. well, so, john, a couple of ways that defense proceeds one way is what we've been hearing so far. it wasn't me defense. right. but as that evolves and it becomes impossible based on all of this evidence, to say it wasn't me, then it's it was me. but. and so that it was me. but is the way that the defense is going to try and posture this at trial. and to your point, is absolutely heinous crime. he's a suspect right now, but trying to raise reasonable doubt or trying to say that there's for some reason why this should not be charged at that higher level murder. you know, maybe jury don't find him guilty of that because of all these reasons. so those are the two strategies right now. tough defense case. obviously a lot coming together for the prosecution. >> thank you very much, kate. >> coming up still for us anger

boiling over in new jersey after weeks of still unexplained and disconcerting drone sightings, some state officials have gone from asking questions to now demanding answers. what are these drones doing? who is behind them? a new study suggests that seniors falling for financial scams, mismanaging their money could be an early sign of alzheimer's disease, and no, that is not santa. but a police chase does end with the suspect stuck in a chimney 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. >> it's the most wonderful time with the kids.

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>> the first reported sighting was on november 18th. according to the department of homeland security, some have been described as being as big as the size of a car. dozens of mysterious nighttime flights, some over critical infrastructure. all now raising growing concern among residents and state officials. so yesterday, state lawmakers met with police and homeland security officials about all of this. but some left the briefing still looking for answers. >> it was ridiculous. there were no answers. every question that was asked by a member of the state legislature great questions, no answers, no resolution. they don't know where the drones are coming from. they don't know who's doing it. they don't know why they're doing it. but they say there's no credible threat. it was annoying to be there

that's from one state lawmaker. >> joining us now is another state lawmaker, republican new jersey assemblyman john dimaio. thank you so much for being here. your district is where some of these drones have been spotted. so you've been hearing this from residents. you wrote a letter to the governor looking for answers. and in the letter, i saw that you said that the leadership silence have only amplified fears. clearly, a lot is not known. what answers have you received about these drones? >> well, so far, no response to the letter from governor murphy. >> but the more i see this play out, the more i believe it's a federal issue. i was able to have a private briefing with the state police superintendent the other night. the colonel was pretty straight up straightforward, and he really doesn't give answers himself from the federal government. this is, in my mind, now become a federal issue. and if i were the governor, i'd be calling out to to the president and say, president biden, you need to take action. you know, in a post nine over 11 era, this has

been going on for weeks. you know, things that may be a threat to our country could be a threat to new jersey, new york, new york city. there's a great population base in this area. are they testing our our, uh, our ability to respond to this? i keep sending these things. they only come at night. you can't see them. uh, the state police took their helicopter out of the sky because they're afraid that they would. one of these things would hit it, and and bring it down. the federal government should be defending our shores. they can't even tell us where these things are coming from. they're coming from offshore coast guard. other assets that we have from the federal government should be stepping up to deal with this. or if this is our government, tell us, tell us we're working on something and everybody say, okay, fine, it's you. uh, it is just, uh, unconscionable. it's either they're complicit or they're just not able to do the job. uh, some things need

to be happening here. fbi is asking the public to help. fbi should be looking at parts suppliers. if there's a great supply going to people that are putting these together from within the country. or we should be finding where they are if they are coming offshore. we're hearing reports of police videos, body cams that are showing, uh, these things flying in over our beaches. so we need to get one on the ground. however way we can. the military can do that. they should do that. so we can take it apart and see who made it. >> the governor has continues to stress that the way he says it is, there is no known threat from these drones. what i hear from you is that's just not that's not good enough. that's not good enough for you. that's not good enough for the residents in your district. >> not good enough for the residents of the united states of america these things are flying over new jersey. with a population of 9 million. new york state next door, 8 million

big group of people. and you see and know that they're using drones in warfare in ukraine uh, both directions. they can put things on, on the on these devices. we need to get one of these things on the ground, take it apart, find out whose it is going forward. the faa should either make rules or change the rules where any of these commercial sized devices have some kind of transponder on it that will have a signal identifying itself. right now they're running around. we can't identify them. our government is telling us they don't know who they are. well, they should be grounded. and if they're if they continue to come, then we'll know for sure that they're coming from, uh, an adversary rather than from within. >> so let me ask you about that. and obviously, this is in the vacuum of the absence of

knowing anything, meaning that there are so many more questions than answers of what these really are and who's behind it. jeff van drew republican congressman from the state. he put he threw out a theory yesterday that the drones are a result of the way he said it is an iranian mothership. that's that, he says, was sitting off the coast and launching the reported drones. the pentagon was asked about this, and a pentagon spokesperson said it is not true. there's no iranian ship off the coast. there's no so-called mothership launching drones toward the united states. what's your reaction to that? well, look, um, people are hearing things all over the place, and i know that, congressman, you know, he's pretty straight up guy. >> uh frankly, uh, washington, d.c. is asleep on this. our department of defense should be engaged in this process. um, the federal government owes us answers. that they're there to defend our shores. i mean. we

can't thought. okay, ten, 15 miles from where i live, whatever. by air they might be testing things. fine. but they're saying they're not testing anything. they're not putting drones up in that kind of quantity or whatever. so again, ground them all. no more drones fly until you figure out what's going on. and if they keep coming, then they're not people that are listening to our darn it! >> and technology is messing with us again. but john dimeo, thank you so much for coming on raising a very important point, sarah, which is just have answers. if it's if it's someone we know, then know it. if it's not, then you take the next step. it's the absence of answers and the absence of knowing anything that's really disconcerting. >> people in new jersey and residents keep seeing them, and they're becoming fearful as to

what they are. i think everyone just wants to know what is going on above new jersey. kate, thank you so much. great interview. coming up, donald trump is getting his way as christopher wray will step down at the fbi. how much does this clear the path for controversial replacement. kash patel and scary scenes of drivers caught in flash flooding inside a tunnel in boston. look. 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 copd is an ugly reality. >> i watch as his world just keeps getting smaller. but then trelegy helped us see things a little differently. with three

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on things you don't need. take control of your money. download rocket money today. >> welcome to times square that's not in my life. >> cheers. that was so embarrassing. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. streaming live on max. >> breaking news out of syria this morning. a man identifying himself as a missing man from missouri was found just south of damascus. travis timmerman told reporters there had

recently that he had recently been freed from jail, and he was found. the search is still ongoing, of course, for missing american austin tice. cnn's salma abdelaziz is joining us now. what do we know about timmerman, who was in syria and why he was there? >> yes. so this american from missouri, 29 years old, appeared barefoot, wandering, disoriented, in a suburb just south of damascus. that's when he came to the attention with social media videos popping up of of him online. i want to show you one of those. you can get a sense of just his voice and his state. >> my name is travis. >> i'm from the. one minute. one minute. what's your name travis chavez. no. country. united states, united. >> the united states do not stay now.

>> timmerman has told journalists on the ground that he has spoken to, that he traveled by foot from lebanon to syria. to clarify this for our viewers, that is something that has not been possible under assad's regime. if you cross from lebanon into syria, you will be stopped by government forces. and that's exactly what seems to have taken place. he says. he was picked up quite quickly by security forces taken to a regime prison. now, he says, he was treated relatively well. he was kept in that prison for seven months, but given food, given water, given bathroom breaks. but he says he heard the sound of people being tortured inside that prison every single day. the u.s. says it is aware that he has been found in is working to provide support. >> sarah. incredibly bizarre case with lots of questions needing to be answered. thank you salma abdelaziz for keeping up on this. appreciate it john. >> all right. new this morning, fbi director christopher wray gives donald trump what he

wants and says he plans to step aside at the end of president biden's term next month. sources tell cnn that wray wrestled with the decision, but he ultimately wanted to go out on his own terms. now, this paves the way for trump loyalists kash patel to become the next director. if he can get confirmed. cnn's evan perez broke this story as it was all happening. he is with us now from washington. so what's the latest here, evan? >> good morning john. >> well, the fbi director, as you pointed out, wrestled with what to do about making way for kash patel and the incoming administration. >> the former the president elect obviously has made clear that he was unhappy with wray and with the fbi leadership, and that he had already nominated or planned to nominate kash patel to replace him. so in the last few weeks, what we had was the fbi director trying to decide whether it was better for him to wait until donald trump took office and be fired, or to try to find a way to make an orderly transition. in the end, you saw what he made, the decision he made yesterday. he

spoke to employees at the fbi in a town hall yesterday afternoon, got a standing ovation. listen to some some of what he said. >> i love this place. >> i love our mission and i love our people. but my focus is and always has been on us and on doing what's right for the fbi and you can see in recent days, john, some of the pressure building you saw republicans sending letters saying that they had lost confidence in chris wray and in the fbi leadership, making it clear that he had to go. >> evan, what does this mean for kash patel as he now tries to get confirmed? >> well, look, i mean, it definitely clears the way for the for the incoming president to remake the entire leadership of the fbi because in addition to chris wray leaving, he he lives in place. paul abbate,

who's the deputy director of the fbi, career fbi agent. but he's retiring in in april of next year. so really, what trump has a chance to do here is to remake the entire leadership of the fbi. and you can see on capitol hill yesterday, kash patel was making the rounds with some republican senators. and it's clear that they believe he has the votes to get through, at least at this point. we'll see what what the confirmation process still has in store in the coming weeks, john. >> yes we will. evan perez, great reporting as always. thank you very much, kate. >> new details about a decades long sex trafficking ring allegedly run by three brothers. investigators say they found many of their victims on dating apps, lured them in with promises of luxury vacations. allegations against them now are very serious. and a brand new interview with donald trump out this hour, weighing in with some important new quotes on aid to ukraine and also vaccines.

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>> i hear bob is playing electric. >> not on our stage. he isn't. >> he just wanted me singing blowing in the wind for the rest of my life. how does it feel, bobby? >> what do you want to be? >> whatever it is, they don't want me to be. >> make some noise, bd. >> a complete unknown inspired by the true story of bob dylan. >> rated r this holiday season. >> find the perfect gift at cnn, underscored from the latest fashion to expert approved tech to the best beauty finds. discover it all at underscore. com and breaking this hour president trump giving an extensive new interview to time magazine, weighing in on everything from vaccines to ukraine to how he thinks he won this election. >> this is for the this is all linked to the fact that he was just announced as time's person of the year, the second time that he gets that designation. cnn's steve contorno went through all of it for us as it was just posted. he's here with us now. what's

there are a couple of things that really have stood out to you. take me through. >> and here it is. it's 50 pages, so there's a lot to get through and we'll be continuing. you said it was like a 65 minute interview. it lasted a long time. but as far as the january 6th, individuals who were arrested, trump gave extensive remarks about what he plans to do with those individuals. and he said that i'll be looking at jay-z six pardons early on, maybe in the first nine minutes of taking office. and he actually said, interestingly, that he was open to reconsidering whether or not to give pardons to people who did commit acts of violence on that day. quote, some of the people that were, quote, really out of control. he may not actually give pardons to, but he is anticipating that he will swiftly move to pardon those who are nonviolent on that day. and then he also spoke and was asked about vaccinations because he has robert f kennedy jr. now joining his administration and whether or not he believes robert f kennedy should go through with some of his proposals on

eliminating vaccines. and he was asked if rfk jr. moves to end childhood vaccination programs. would you sign off on that? and here's what trump said. he said, we're going to have a big discussion. the autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. if you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it. >> donald trump suggesting there that he believes the widely debunked theory that autism is linked to vaccinations. that's what just happened. >> that is what he said in this interview. and then he went on to ask, do you think optimism is linked to vaccines? he said, i'm going to be listening to bobby, who obviously has made very clear where he stands on this debunked link between bobby, who listened to andrew wakefield, the doctor non-doctor who came up with this damaging theory, faked a study, had to have it retracted, i believe. >> lost his license then and had created havoc in its wake. there is no link between vaccines and autism, but he's still saying that it's a

possibility. >> that's correct. he went on to say that he doesn't ultimately think what he does on vaccines is going to be very controversial in the end, but obviously, 75 nobel laureates have already come out telling the u.s. senate to reject rfk jr. because of their concerns about what he has said about vaccines. >> that is wild and dangerous. if what he does on vaccines, who cares what you say about it, as we have seen, is damaging enough. what about ukraine? >> ukraine? he continued to push his opposition to further u.s. involvement. in fact, he actually said that he believes that joe biden erred by allowing ukraine to shoot u.s. missiles deep into russia. he said, quote, it's crazy what's taking place. it's crazy. i disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into russia. why are we doing that? we are just escalating this war and making it worse. so very clear there how he views

what's happening now and in a critical moment, because as he takes office, we are going to see he has said he would end this war on day one. and what does that look like for ukraine? >> steve contorno much to come from those words from the incoming president. thank you very much, john. >> all right. this morning, back pain is no justification for murder, but it is one piece of information swirling around the background of luigi mangione, the man behind bars accused of killing health care. ceo brian thompson, mangione claimed in handwritten notes he was suffering from a back injury. cnn's chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, has some of the details in what he's talking about. >> so the condition that we're talking about here is something known as spondylolisthesis big word basically means that two of the bones in the spine are sort of slipping a little bit, one on top of the other. let me show you on this model of the spine and how well you can see that, but this is the neck area up here. the thoracic spine over here that's behind your

chest. and then this is the lower back or lumbar spine. there's five bones here. and this is the fifth bone in the lumbar spine. and this is your tailbone. and it's in this area that we're sort of talking about where the bone appears to have slipped forward a little bit. so instead of being nicely curved in this area, this bone is sort of slipped forward. and that spondylolisthesis that can cause back pain, that can even cause leg pain if some of the nerves in the area are pinched. so that that is a sort of condition that we're talking about. back pain in and of itself is pretty common. i mean, 60 million people or so have episodes of back pain in the united states alone. there's billions of dollars in costs associated with back pain, both in terms of the treatment operations, but also all the days off of work that are lost as a result of back pain. sometimes an operation can be helpful. so take a look at this x ray. and again the caveat i just want to be really clear on this. we're still reporting still gathering

details. but this may be the the x ray that we're talking about. and you can see in the area that i was just pointing out all these screws. you see two screws that are in that l5 bone and you see two screws that are in the sacrum. those are the ones that are lower down. so again, get that x ray in your mind. now again look at the spine model. there are screws that are going into this bone here and screws that are going into this bone here. um, we don't know much more than that. we don't know how effective the operation was. we're only having that one lateral, that one side projection of the spine. so we can't even tell how well those screws have really been placed. although there's some, some concern about that. but that is as much as we can tell right now. spondylolisthesis associated with back pain sometimes associated with leg pain as well. and that x ray, an example of an operation to try and address that our thanks to sanjay gupta. >> all right. this morning, new

details emerging from a federal indictment against two prominent real estate brokers arrested now in miami. federal prosecutors say tal and oren alexander ran a sex trafficking scheme along with their brother, alan. that goes back more than 20 years to when they were in high school. according to court filings, the brothers would plot assaults well in advance, allegedly working with party promoters to find victims and pooling their resources to pay for the women's travel expenses. >> the alexander brothers sex trafficking agreement went beyond the planned trips and events on numerous occasions. >> one or more of the defendants drugged and raped or sexually assaulted women they encountered by chance at bars at nightclubs, social events and dating apps. these assaults allegedly had many of the same hallmarks as the rapes that occurred at group events. isolated locations, drugged

victims force and physical restraint they've been charged with sexual battery and each face 15 years to life in prison. >> attorneys for all three men confirmed that they had been arrested but had no additional comment. civil rights attorney areva martin is joining us now. these allegations are unbelievably serious. prosecutors allege that these brothers have been involved in sex trafficking, sexual assault of women since 2010. it's 2024. before this, there were also civil lawsuits that were brought by numerous women against them. so why would it take so long for authorities to go ahead and charge them? yeah, that's $1 million question, sara. why is it that we are 14 years later, after some of the initial allegations and now just seeing criminal charges brought against all three of these brothers, it appears that women have been making reports about sexual assault and

clearly making allegations in civil suits involving these brothers. >> we don't know what has transpired with respect to the investigation. maybe women weren't comfortable coming forward talking to law enforcement. we know that historically, it's been very difficult for women to make these kinds of allegations against high profile, wealthy men like these three brothers. but the good news in this case is that there is accountability. finally, because there are allegations, sarah, that they were bragging about running, quote unquote, a train against women even in their high school yearbook. so these are very serious and very heinous allegations made against these three men. >> when you see these allegations and you see in the indictment that there were others sort of named, they're called others in the indictment potentially involved. how likely is it that there might be more people indicted in this particular case? >> i think the likelihood is

great that we will see other indictments. as you said, there are allegations of party promoters, people identified as accomplices in the indictment. clearly, this was a well orchestrated, a well planned thought out attack against these women that involved more people than just the three brothers. so i would not be surprised. we know that the prosecutor said that the investigation is ongoing. they've asked other victims to come forward. so i suspect we're going to see a lot more women coming forward telling their stories and that there may be additional indictments against folks who had knowledge and participated in this sex trafficking scheme. >> i want to get your take. there was an article in the new york times in july on these allegations, and the real estate company douglas elliman acknowledged, per the report, that an incident had been raised casually and confidentially to a chief executive, without specifying who may have been involved. but

rather than in the form of an official hr complaint, a company spokesman went on to say this, quote, that they had any such had any such complaints been received, those complaints would have been thoroughly investigated. what do you glean from the statement from the company that they once worked at, where there was something that was said to a ceo, but there was no official complaint with hr well, what i take from that statement is an effort by this company to cover its tracks. >> obviously, this has the potential of involving lots of individuals, including perhaps executives at that company, if not in terms of criminal charges. civil charges. because if someone is working for you and there's a complaint about their conduct, sexual misconduct, there could be liability, civil liability on the part of supervisors, executives and owners of this company. so clearly, anyone

involved with these brothers at this point, we should expect to see them trying to shield themselves from civil liability, as well as the potential of criminal accountability. >> i can't help but but look at this case when you see how it is written out and, you know, have it remind you of another case that's been going on where you're talking about lavish parties, where they're accused of of drugging their alleged victims, raping them. it sounds disturbingly similar to the sean diddy combs cases that have been brought. what do you see happening here on the timing of all of this? >> i think the season sarah is here and now for victims of sexual assault. and i mean, what i mean by season is the season to come forward to demonstrate bravery and courage to make these claims to be heard, to be believed. i remember just a decade ago when women would make claims like this against powerful men, whether it was a powerful record executive like sean

combs or in this case, real estate executives, it was very difficult. oftentimes, the women would be maligned. they would be, uh, you know, not believed. and oftentimes prosecutors were reluctant to file charges against powerful men since the metoo movement, we've seen a seismic shift in the way these cases are treated. we've seen more women willing to come forward to tell their stories, and we've seen more prosecutors willing to prosecute these cases. and we've seen convictions. so we've actually seen these cases tried in courts and convictions obtained by prosecutors. so i'm encouraged by this. as a civil rights lawyer, as someone who's done this work for decades to see this moment where victims are being believed and where they are able to hold predators accountable, even if those predators are rich, if they're famous, and if they are typically thought of as being untouchable. >> areva martin, it is always a pleasure to to talk to you and talk through these important

issues. appreciate it. john. all right. >> breaking just moments ago, new data on inflation. cnn's matt egan is with us now. and, matt, we were backstage. you got the news. your reaction was, these numbers are not good. >> no, john, this was not what we wanted to see. >> we got some hot inflation numbers. >> now this is producer prices wholesale inflation. it's inflation before it gets to all of us as consumers. >> and the big number here 3% year over year. >> that's how much producer prices were up in november. now the forecast was for 2.6%. not even close. this is a big miss and a step in the wrong direction, because this metric was at 2.4% the month before. look at this trend here. you can see clearly things have improved from where they were two and a half years ago. right. we had that inflation crisis. this metric was at almost 12%. but it's also clear that it is starting to creep higher. again, that is not what we wanted to see. now digging into why this happened in today's report. goods

prices were significantly higher, including food prices in particular, the bls called out vegetables, fresh fruit, chicken and the big one, eggs. egg prices more than 50% higher on the wholesale level, and we know a lot of that is caused by bird flu, right? more sick birds means fewer eggs, higher prices for all of us, no matter the cause. these inflation numbers from today plus yesterday's inflation report on the consumer end, which again moved in the wrong direction, that's going to cause some challenges for officials in washington. right. the fed which has got to consider if they're going to continue to cut interest rates, probably going to cut next week. but are they going to pause next year? and also for the trump administration as they consider whether or not to impose tariffs, which a lot of economists say could make prices go even higher? >> i was going to ask just about that question. this becomes a complicated, tenuous environment for donald trump, who does want to impose tariffs, which many economists say are inflationary. there's some new data on that.

>> yeah, we have new research from the peterson institute talking about what things could get more expensive if trump goes forward with his tariffs, particularly his plan to impose 66 0% tariffs on china. and this research finds that, in particular electronics. think about smart phones like iphones, machinery, toys, clothing, sporting goods. all of them are particularly vulnerable because we get a lot of them from china. footwear in particular, we get from china 99% of all shoes sold in the u.s. are imported, and over half of them are from china, so it's easy to see how that could cause prices to go even higher. >> we've spoken to just about every footwear executive in the united states so far, and they are all concerned about these terrorists. thank you very much, sarah. >> all right. first this morning for president elect donald trump, why he's headed to wall street in the next hour and coaching legend bill belichick will be back on the sidelines, but not for the nfl. we'll tell you what shade of blue hoodies he'll be wearing

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on takeout. >> that actually would really help do your finances a favor. >> download rocket money today. >> the lead with jake tapper today at four on cnn this morning. >> falling for financial scams may be an early sign of alzheimer's disease and older adults. this is according to a new study out of the university of southern california. with us now is doctor duncan, professor of psychology and family medicine at usc. he's one of the lead researchers in this study. professor, thanks so much for being with us. in terms that i can understand, what exactly did you find here that if you fall for a financial scam, it might be an indicator of what? yeah. >> thanks for having me, john. so there have been many examples of older adults suddenly showing poor financial decision making or becoming the victim of a scam or fraud in the absence of any cognitive impairment. >> and this has been a mystery as to why, in the medical field for some time.

>> our study shows that thinning of a brain region known to deteriorate first in alzheimer's disease, called the entorhinal cortex, is also associated with financial vulnerability in older adults without any cognitive impairment. so our study therefore helps explain why some older adults may show poor financial decision making or may become the victim of a scam or fraud in the absence of any cognitive impairment, they may be showing signs of brain changes consistent with early alzheimer's disease. >> really interesting the thinning of that brain region. why might it contribute to bad decision making so the entorhinal cortex, excuse me, is a brain region that connects a brain network that helps us imagine future outcomes, and another brain network that helps us assess value. >> so you can imagine that if this brain region, which is important and helps these particular brain networks to communicate that someone might not be able to make the best

financial decision or may not be able to recognize a scam or fraud at the time. >> what are some of the implications of this? >> so we we believe that poor financial decision making in older age could be a risk factor for alzheimer's disease. now we need to also state that not everyone who shows poor financial decision making in older age is going to develop alzheimer's disease. not everyone with alzheimer's disease is going to show poor financial decision making. as a first sign of alzheimer's disease is a very, very heterogeneous disease, and it presents in a lot of different ways. but what we think is that if an older adult starts showing some poor financial decisions, it might actually be a reason to pursue further testing for alzheimer's disease. >> really is interesting to think about that it could be an early warning sign, and everyone wants to look for, in this case, doctor duncan. interesting research. thank you very much for coming on and sharing it this morning.

>> kate, another big story. we're watching more than 8 million people across massachusetts and other parts of the northeast are under flood watches. this morning in boston overnight, it was a wild scene. a major highway tunnel flooded after the city set a new daily record rainfall record. video showing the drivers just slowly, appropriately, slowly making their way through. the storm is moving across the northeast today, bringing with it more rain, gusty winds, more rain. up to two inches is possible in some areas. that's along with ongoing snow melt. it could worsen the flooding. we don't have snow here yet though. the university of north carolina announcing legendary nfl coach bill belichick is going to be the new head football coach at the school. the eight time super bowl winning coach and the university agreed to a five year deal. the team he is taking over has not won a conference title since 1980. this will be belichick's first coaching job since he left the new england patriots after the

2023 season. and down the chimney, with a total lack of care. a massachusetts man attempted his best santa claus impression. or maybe it was just the closest thing he could jump into while running from police. jumping into onto a rooftop and then into a chimney. and that is where he got stuck. they say the 33 year old man quote, police do invoked the essence of the seasonal icon and attempted to hide inside of a chimney, quickly became stuck in the chimney, and required the assistance of the very detectives he was previously fleeing from. that, kids, is how you find yourself. well, he was already on the naughty list, but, uh, you know, also just don't jump into chimney. that's my only suggestion. new hour of cnn news central starts now breaking news in syria. >> this morning. an american discovered in damascus. why was he there? what he heard while