tv CNN News Central CNN December 27, 2024 5:00am-6:00am PST
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police say she stabbed a woman 14 times in front of that woman's five year old daughter. and here is why the violent incident allegedly started over an argument about a tip on a pizza delivery. 22 year old briana alvelo is who you're looking at delivered the pizza, then left and allegedly later broke into the victim's motel room and then stabbed her in the chest, arms, legs and stomach. the woman was taken to the hospital, is recovering and in stable condition, according to police. alvelo, though now facing a bunch of charges, including for home invasion with a firearm, attempted murder, kidnaping and aggravated assault. a family in florida had their christmas wish come true with their beloved dog, who had been missing for a week, showing back up on their doorstep christmas eve. and not just that, the dog rang the doorbell. >> it was about 2:30 a.m. and she came pawing at the door, ringing the doorbell, which was
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christmas eve. and then that morning i woke up to she had made it on everybody's camera. she's like, i think this is her. i think this is her. >> the family says their community really stepped in to help search for athena. the german shepherd went through hours of doorbell camera video in hopes of finding her. and it's hysterical. every time she pushes over the ball and they called her return home a christmas miracle. of course. a new hour of cnn news central starts now. >> we have some new details on that christmas day plane crash that killed 38 people in kazakhstan. we'll have that for you in just a bit. and then for the second time in a matter of weeks, delta has discovered someone had sneaked onto one of their flights without a ticket. what? the airline is saying this morning about the stowaway and heading home today from a holiday trip. millions of
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people will be right there with you in the airports and on the roadways and severe storms just might have an impact on your travel plans. so check in with those airlines and a suspect. boston resident. call the tom brady of stealing packages is behind bars now. what police say they found on her when she was arrested. i'm sara sidner with kate bolduan. john is out today. this is cnn news central. all right. for the second time in a matter of weeks, a stowaway without a plane ticket managed to get through tsa and on to a delta flight. this time, it happened at seattle tacoma international airport. the flight was headed to honolulu, and taxiing out for takeoff when the stowaway was discovered. this all comes weeks after this woman that you're seeing there traveled
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all the way to paris. after sneaking on to a delta flight in new york. cnn's carlos suarez is at atlanta's hartsfield international airport, one of the busiest in the world. carlos, what can you tell us about this latest incident? she managed to get on a plane and go through security, but she didn't have a ticket. >> that's exactly right. sarah. good morning. so this passenger was able to get past a tsa security checkpoint without a boarding pass. the night before the flight. and so this passenger, it appears, was able to spend some time at the terminal before boarding this delta flight on christmas eve without a ticket. and so, as you noted, the flight was about to depart. it was taxiing out from the gate when the crew members on board the flight realized that they had a passenger without a ticket, and so they were able to get back to the gate. however, this passenger was able to get off the plane before authorities arrived at the gate. although we're told that they were able to take the passenger into custody at a bathroom at
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seattle's airport, there, delta did put out a statement that said, in part, that they of course, nothing is more important to them than safety and security. and so delta people, according to them, followed the procedures to have this unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended the passenger's identity has not been released, though we're told that the passenger was charged with trespassing. sarah. >> okay, so today is known to be one of the busiest travel days of the year. i think monday is where what is the traffic been like there? it doesn't look too terrible behind you right now. >> yeah, it's not too bad right now, sarah, though we expect a lot of this traffic here at atlanta's hartsfield international airport to pick up throughout the day. and of course, as we go into saturday and sunday, as you noted, the next three days are really considered among the busiest travel days of the entire year
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here in atlanta. the folks here expect us, tell us that they expect to see well over 357,000 passengers make their way through this airport here in atlanta today alone, making it the busiest travel day of the year for the folks here in atlanta. of course, we are going to see some cancellations and some delays. the latest numbers that we have from flightaware in the u.s. show that about 934 flights as of this hour have been delayed, though only 64 of them have been canceled. and of course, sarah, if you're not flying, you're going to hit the road. there are some, you know, some better and worse times that you might want to get behind the wheel to where you need to get going over the next couple of days. if you're going to hit the road, chances are you're going to want to do that in the morning. the worst time to travel is really the next, you know, today is going to be really mid-afternoon into the early evening. and then on saturday, anywhere between 130 and 7 p.m. is when you're going to want to avoid trying to get out onto the road. and then on
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sunday, the worst time to travel then, we're told, is between the noon and 6:00 hour. your best bet, sara, just try to get your traveling done early in the day. in the morning, carlos. >> like it used to be when i was a kid leaving before the sun comes up. didn't like it then. don't like it now, but it does get you there. carlos suarez. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> kate says the woman who has to get up every morning to do exactly this, but she does it with such joy, joy and happiness. of course, spreading cheer all around. let's talk about one of the things that we're talking about is when it comes to delays and cancellations is, of course, weather. and we are looking at severe storms threatening the south today, just as as you're seeing millions of people are hitting the road and heading to the airport. tornadoes and hail already hit parts of texas and louisiana yesterday. cnn's elisa raffa is tracking all of this for you, alisa. tornadoes in december is not something that i'm generally familiar with, but where are the biggest concerns right now?
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>> yeah, on the rare side for sure. and we could be looking at some pretty strong tornadoes as we go into tomorrow. so problem spots across the south because of that, the pacific northwest has continued to be a problem spot from seattle to portland and san francisco because of an atmospheric river, rain, snow, gusty winds have really just been nonstop and that continues through the weekend as well. the severe storm threat across the south is not too terrible today, but really ramps up going into tomorrow. we have a level three out of five enhanced risk from eastern louisiana across parts of mississippi. that's where we can find damaging winds, large hail and strong tornadoes. likely we're talking ef two or greater. and then this risk starts to shift east as we go through the rest of the weekend. now you're mentioning december tornadoes again, not that not that common. if you get them, they would be along the gulf coast. that's where we could find them this time of year. we already had some yesterday, but overall december is our least likely month to get tornadoes
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averaging only about 40in the entire month, much less than about the 200 that we get in march and april. so again, very rare, not impossible. and it's already been a pretty active year for tornadoes. more than 1700 tornadoes reported already this year, way above the average. so staying pretty active. so again, the storms will continue to blow up across the south today. the rain stretching up the east coast. but they get even more severe going into tomorrow. and intense line of storms capable of those tornadoes. even if you don't find too many major airports in the way here, any planes would have to fly around all of this. you cannot fly through a storm that is capable of creating a tornado. that thunderstorm would be tall and pack with a lot of lightning, so flights would need to detour around all of those storms around the south. so as we go towards tomorrow, you can see where some moderate delays are possible because of all of those storms even stretching towards atlanta. and then as we get towards sunday, it stretches up the east coast, washington, d.c., new york, where all that rain is possible. and then again,
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notice the pacific northwest just continuing with these problems through the weekend. >> kate. lisa, thank you very much for that. coming up for us. still breaking news this morning. azerbaijan airlines says preliminary investigations have already found that the deadly plane crash of the passenger jet occurred as a result of physical and technical external interference. more on that. and one sheriff's deputy agrees to plead guilty. now, several more have been relieved of duty, accused of trying to cover up an investigation into the use of excessive force. and holiday spending surged this year. a new read on how much shoppers shelled out and why it blew past expectations. >> andy, it has been one wild year. >> i know that whole live stream was crazy. >> what you have been following actual news right? oh, boy. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live
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are under investigation for their role in possibly covering the incident up. a warning this is some of that disturbing video that sparked the investigation. >> come here. >> i just stopped you. >> no you didn't. yeah, i did. get your hands off of me! drop! him! >> oh my god! >> cnn's security correspondent josh campbell joining me now. um, this started, i think, with a hand gesture, gesture and ended that way. how did this all unfold yes, sir. >> you know, it might be uncouth and disrespectful, certainly, to flip off a police officer, but it's not illegal. and officers across the country are continually trained to not let that kind of behavior get under their skin. here it appears that a flip of the bird led to a full on assault that started when the victim here, emmett brock, was driving by a deputy that he saw, joseph benza. brock says that the deputy was gesturing aggressively towards a woman, and he flipped him off and kept
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driving. benza then actually abandons the disturbance call he's on, starts following brock. turn by turn gets concerned. he calls 911 says, hey, there's this cop behind me following me. the dispatcher said that as long as he doesn't have his lights and sirens on, just continue as you will. the brock then pulls into a convenience store parking lot. the deputy pulls in behind him, turns on his lights. an altercation ensues. again, we warn our viewers that this is very graphic and disturbing, but this is that incident. >> come here. i just stopped you. >> no you didn't. yeah i did. get your hands off of me! drop! him! >> oh my god! what the. >> is happening? what the f are you doing? get the off me! get the off me! you're gonna kill me! help! i'm not resisting. okay. >> and, sarah, we actually heard from the victim himself speaking about this incident. have a listen.
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>> the punches were so hard, and it just felt like there's no way i'm going to get out of this without dying. i couldn't breathe. i was screaming for help with every breath that i had. and i just was like. there's no way that that i live through this. >> now, the deputy here, joseph benza, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge. and i'll read you part of that plea agreement that they say that the victim here sustained serious bodily injury, including suffering a concussion, contusions and abrasions, and experiencing vomiting and head pain. we're also learning from that plea agreement about what authorities accused the deputy of doing. they say that he admitted to another deputy at the time that he was intending to use force as he drove after the victim here, brock. authorities also say that there was a conspiracy of sorts, that this officer, this deputy had with other deputies to essentially alter the police report. other deputies coaching him to leave out the fact that this all started because the victim here flipped him off. in fact, with the deputy, ended up writing, is that he pulled over
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this individual because of an air freshener that was hanging from his rear view mirror. he's also been accused of lying to the fbi. we also hear in this plea agreement, just some really troubling details. it appears some of these deputies actually texted each other saying, hey, let's delete all these messages before this federal probe. so a lot of concerning behavior there. we're learning that other potential deputies could also be relieved of duty. if convicted. benza faces up to ten years in federal prison. >> what's the sheriff's department saying about all these? not just this. the fact that one of their deputies has pleaded guilty to this, but that there was a potential cover up. >> yeah. and i should note that we've tried to reach out to benza's attorney for comment on this, but the sheriff in los angeles coming out, slamming these allegations in this case, saying that this does not uphold the values of the sheriff's department reaching part of sheriff luna's statement. he said that based on statements and reports provided at the time, the department deemed the use of force to be within policy. however, the ongoing federal
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investigation has revealed disturbing evidence of false statements and egregious actions to cover up misconduct. luna says that his department continues to work with the feds as this investigation continues. as you know, sara, this is a department that has faced some past challenges, including allegations of deputy gangs within the ranks, something that luna has tried to root out, but obviously very serious allegations here. if this actually proves out you had several deputies that were essentially involved in a cover up. >> josh campbell, i appreciate you. thank you so much. have a great rest of your holiday weekend. all right. new details this morning, a second black box has been recovered in the deadly plane crash overseas. as some of the survivors are starting to now finally make it back to their homes. and a massive sinkhole. look at that. takes out a whole section of highway. and that's going to have to. it's going to hurt if you're driving that way, man. we'll talk about it coming up.
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now. >> do you one of these things? yeah, it sounds fun. this looks wild. >> i went to this last year, the winter classic outdoors, wrigley field. i'm having a new year's eve party. >> wrigley field. >> december 31st blues, blackhawks on tnt and streaming on max. >> breaking this morning a preliminary reason for that deadly christmas day crash russia tried to blame on a bird strike. azerbaijan state media is reporting that the airline has initially found the plane that crashed in kazakhstan experienced, quote, physical and technical external interference just before it plunged to the ground, killing 38 people on christmas day. also overnight, we are learning that the second black box has been recovered from the wreckage. cnn's nadia bashir is joining us now from london. what are you hearing about this sort of preliminary report that talks about technical and physical interference? >> well, this information is coming from the azerbaijan airlines officials. sara, we are still waiting to hear more from the commission, which has
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been set up by the kazakh government to essentially carry out an investigation into what led to this crash. but as you mentioned, there has been a lot of speculation, a lot of questions swirling around what may have caused this fatal plane crash. and of course, earlier reports had been suggesting that there may have been a collision with a flock of birds that was coming from russian aviation authorities. then, of course, there had been questions around nearby drone activity. the plane actually crashed shortly after a drone strike hit southern russia. so questions as to how that may play into it all. and then, of course, yesterday we heard from a u.s. official telling cnn that the plane may well have been downed by a russian anti-aircraft systems, and that would be a huge point of concern. and that line also echoes reporting that we had heard earlier in the day from reuters, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with the ongoing azerbaijani investigations that essentially this may have been caused by russian air defense system. so that will certainly be a huge
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point of focus as this investigation continues. the fact that azerbaijan airlines is now saying that the plane faced external physical and technical interferences has also raised concern. and we've seen the videos and the images emerging from the aftermath of that crash. images of the wreckage as well, holes and perforations in the fuselage, which seemingly suggests that there may have been some shrapnel hits there. that has also raised questions. but again, this is all at this stage. speculation and analysis. we have not had any firm conclusions, and the discovery of those two black boxes or recovery rather, will play a crucial part in piecing together this puzzle. with flight data being available as well as potentially recordings from within the cockpit. so that will be an important focus for investigators. we know, of course, that as well as that commission that has been set up, aircraft manufacturing officials will also support in this ongoing investigation. a
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lot of questions as to what led to this. but if, in fact, it is found that this has been caused by russian air defense systems, that will really bring into question the safety measures that are in place for commercial airliners flying in this region, as we know, of course, 38 people killed, remarkably, 29 people survived. but some of those survivors are still said to be in a critical condition. sarah. >> yeah. nadia bashir, you can see for yourself some of the damage to that plane. those holes just from the video. so it will be interesting to see what investigators find. ultimately. appreciate it. kate. >> joining us right now is cnn aviation analyst miles o'brien. miles, on this new line that we're hearing from the airline via state media that the disaster occurred as a result of physical and technical external interference. does that close off any possibilities on the cause? >> i it's such an interesting and kind of flowery phrase to
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describe what is quite obvious from the wreckage that this was struck by, you know, surface to air missile, the shrapnel tells no lies here. >> and i think it's very difficult to come up with another scenario in the tail section of the aircraft. so i do think, you know, some of the things to consider here is, you know, if there was an active military activity in that area, why wasn't the airspace closed down? and on the airlines part, that's part of their responsibility as well. before you dispatch an airliner, one of the issues that the dispatchers should consider is the security in the area. and so the airline has to account for this as well. >> i was actually that's exactly what i was going to ask you, because the airline has now suspended flights from the country's capital to baku to seven cities in russia. but that highlights this exact question that you've raised, which is why did not why didn't russia close the airspace if military activity
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was in the area? and what is the responsibility of the airline with regard to that? where is the line there? >> there's responsibility on both sides here. russia didn't close down the airspace to civilian activity. i could speculate and presume that russia didn't want to, you know, cause any great attract attention to the fact that it is in the case maybe on its back heel in that ongoing conflict in that region. that's possible. as for the airline, um, you know, it might have been a situation where they've been flying so long in that context of an ongoing conflict that they assumed it would be okay. i will say this, that generally speaking, the way that surface to air missile batteries avoid civilian airliners is making sure they know the schedule and the flight corridors. in this case, the aircraft had what we call a
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missed approach, which means it would have had a deviation from the norm. and so the aircraft would have been in a place that they would not have expected it. and in a hair trigger environment that could have led to what you saw. >> a lot to learn here. this investigation continues. they now have a recovered second black box. so there will be much more flight data that they will be able to gather from that. while i have you, miles, i want to ask you also about a very different incident. but the second incident of a stowaway on a delta airlines flight. you're reporting on it this morning? this happened in seattle. it was a flight departing for hawaii. they the the stowaway did obviously did not have a ticket. got got through security, got on the plane. they were taxiing, had left the gate and then discovered the stowaway and returned. i mean, this is pretty wild for delta, pretty wild for tsa. i mean, the second time in just a matter of weeks.
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>> yeah, that's all kinds of holes in the swiss cheese here. you know, i will say this. we should not forget that the individual, according to tsa, was screened as all passengers were for prohibited items. so that's that's the good news that we can take away from this. there's a lot of bad news, though. the tsa evidently did not do an i.d. check on this person. and part of the reason we do an i.d. check is to see if that individual is on a no fly list, or might be in any way suspect as a potential causing harm to the to the flight. as for delta, uh, you would think after what happened three weeks ago, or i guess it was around thanksgiving on that flight to paris. uh, that where the individual actually made it to paris, having flown across the atlantic without a ticket, you would think they would have upped their game a little bit. uh, you know, it seems to me that that that busy jetway entrance at the time of flight
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is boarding, with one individual being responsible for making sure the right person gets on at the right time. that is definitely a weak spot in the in the web of security. and not just delta. all airlines need to really take a look at that and think if there are better ways. i know delta in many cases is now using facial recognition at those checkpoints. maybe that's something they need to do more of. >> yeah, that's a good point because we have seen delta implementing that. it is great to see you myles. thank you so much. coming up coming up for us shoppers flocking to stores spending even more than expected this holiday season. what the end of the year spending spree says about the economy to come in 2025. and it's been one big nightmare. that is how one annual animal sanctuary is describing the last few weeks. 20 big cats killed. what they're trying to do now to find out how all of those animals contracted bird flu.
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>> all new sundays at nine on tbs. >> mortgage rates are going up for the second week in a row. even though the fed has cut interest rates in their last three meetings, the average 30 year fixed mortgage rate is once again nearing 7%, higher than the rates were at the beginning of the year. back with us now is cnn's matt egan bringing the pain. thank you for being here, matt. but this is annoying to so many people who are trying to see if they can afford to buy. and every time you see like, oh, they've lowered the interest rates, okay. you know, the mortgage rates are going to come down. it's going to be a little bit better. what is going on? >> yes, sir. this is so frustrating for homebuyers, but also for everyone who had been hoping to refinance their mortgage rates. so as you mentioned, the fed has slashed interest rates by a full percentage point since september. and yet mortgage rates are going the other way. the latest average is 6.85%. that is the highest since july, nearly triple where rates were at this point in 2020. of course, that was during covid.
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so why is this happening? well, first, it's really important to stress that the fed controls short term interest rates. but it's really the bond market that calls the shots for longer term rates on stuff like a 30 year mortgage. and the bond market has sent long term rates sharply higher since the end of the summer for three things they're anticipating faster economic growth, fatter budget deficits to potentially pay for trump, tax cuts, and also potentially hotter inflation due to the trump agenda. and if there's hotter inflation, that would force the fed to keep rates higher for even longer. but no matter the reason, sarah, unfortunately mortgage rates are ending 2024 on a high note, and there's really no guarantee that there's going to be dramatic improvement next year. >> all right. so the affordability, this crisis that we're in with housing, this isn't helping i'm assuming. >> no, sir. this is really the
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last thing that people needed. because it's not just that borrowing costs are high. it's that home prices are high. there's just too many people chasing too few homes. and so prices have nowhere to go but up. we've seen this across the country in the northeast. home prices are up by 8% year over year to almost half $1 million. that's the median in the west. the median home price is above $600,000. that's just the median. that means half of them are well above that price. of course, this cuts both ways, right? if you already own your home, you're sitting pretty. you're smiling every time you're checking the value of your home on zillow because it's padding your net worth and it's giving you some more financial flexibility, potentially to do a home equity loan or home equity line of credit. but we know that so many people just can't afford to buy right now. oxford economics has found that to buy a home and to afford property taxes and the cost of insurance,
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you need to make $108,000 a year as a household that is almost double where this income level was supposed to be back before covid. back then, you needed to make $56,000 to afford to buy a home. only 1 in 3 households today, sarah, actually make enough to afford to buy a home. and this is going to continue to be a problem until not just mortgage rates come down, but the supply of homes increases significantly. >> that is an insane number that it almost doubled in that short period of time. matt egan, thank you so much, i think, for bringing us that. thanks for the great explanation, though. really, kate. >> also, the numbers are in and holiday spending surged this year, blowing past expectations leading up to the season and even outpacing consumer spending over the gift buying season last year. this is coming from a new analysis by mastercard. they found that holiday retail sales rose almost 4% this year, and online spending was up even more
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compared to 2023, almost 7%. the boost exceeding the expectations that economists had laid out heading into this season. so what is going on here? all the answers will be provided by none other than cnn global economic analyst, associate editor for the financial times, rana foroohar. it's great to see you, rana. let's start with this holiday spending. why do you think it's so big? does it indicate anything about economic recovery and anything about what it could look like in 2025? >> yeah. >> great questions. >> well, first, kate, i mean, i got to just say hats off to the american consumer. >> you know, we we think that that there's going to be a stop to the spending, but that there never is. >> and i have to say, i was a little surprised by these numbers, in part because that safety, security savings cushion that had been built up during covid really has been spent down. so to me, what these numbers say is that consumers are feeling okay about their jobs, they're
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feeling good about where the economy is going to be in 2025. there, i think there is some excitement, um, uh, of animal spirits, let's say with the election of president trump, there are expectations that tax cuts and deregulation may, may buoy business, which then in turn would would, you know, keep job growth going. >> i think all of that is in play. but i also want to say, and, you know, not to be a cassandra here, but to sound a note of caution, we are overdue by historical standards for a recession and the kind of behavior you're seeing now is often the kind of behavior you see when you're at the top of a market cycle. you know, that's when you see, oh, wow, it's so great, and it can't get any better. and that may be true. so i just want to sound a little note of caution there. >> if it feels like it can't get any better, it won't. let's just put it that way. you can't. maybe you can. you know, we'll be the anti cassandra. um, listen, matt egan's reporting. i wanted to
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get your take on that mortgage rates continuing to go up, hitting the highest point since july despite the rate cuts coming from the fed. what do you make of this? >> yeah, well, you know, matt's reporting actually dovetails with what we just talked about. so animal spirits, huge people are spending. but that's inflationary right. and he pointed out that the bond market, the long term bond market is saying we think inflation is going to be higher. we think rates are going to be sharply higher. so that says this economy, which has been strong is is very strong. coming into the trump administration may potentially, in the short term get even stronger. there's going to be a lot of spending, um, you know, tax cuts could essentially keep the markets high. again, that's all inflationary. and it's again, it's great until it isn't. and i just want to say, you know, what goes up comes down. i mean this is how business cycles work. so i do think we're going to be in for a higher for
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longer inflationary environment. and if i were a consumer right now, i'd be looking at paying down debt. um, you know, getting getting lower interest rates, locking them in on anything that i can because i think in the next few years you're looking at higher rates. >> so this actually, again dovetails into what i wanted to ask you about as well, looking at a 2025 like what donald trump is going to do to bring down prices as he's he campaigned relentlessly on grocery prices right in the in the 2024 race. he vowed to bring down costs very quickly for the american, for the american people. i want to play just something he said on the campaign trail, just as a reminder from today and from the day i take the oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down and make america affordable again, no matter what you pay. >> but prices will come down. you just watch, they'll come down and they'll come down fast. >> he's couching that now, though, more recently in speaking in this interview with time magazine that was just earlier this month, he was asked about bringing grocery
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prices down. and he says if you look at them, it's going to they i'd like to bring them down. it's hard to bring things down once they're up. you know, it's very hard. what's the reality of this? >> yeah. well, you know, this incoming president has always been a great storyteller, and he told a good story on the campaign trail about being able to do all the things, you know, bolster the economy, spend whatever needed to be spent, put tariffs on inflationary tariffs or inflationary and bring down inflation. you can't do it all at once. um, there's a lot going into grocery prices. part of it has to do with the things we've talked about. more spending, uh, fiscal stimulus. um, you know, a lot of the things that we know about. but part of it is the fact that there's still been supply chain issues. you have big concentrations of power in in different kinds of the food supply chains. you know, these are complicated
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topics. and i'll say, kate, one of the things that i think we give presidents too much credit and too much blame, i mean, they don't have as much power as one might think to do things like control the economy because the economy is global. there's a lot of levers in play here. i don't think that grocery prices are going to be coming down fast anytime soon. >> it's great to see you, rana. thank you so much for jumping on sarah. >> she stole so many packages. one boston neighborhood started calling her the tom brady of package thieves. but this morning she's been caught. and top tippers. a group of friends worked together to make a real difference for one server. you got to see this story coming up. >> long after guests leave. viruses and bacteria linger. >> air fresheners add a scent, but only lysol air sanitizer helps erase the trace, eliminating odor and killing 99.9% of viruses and bacteria in the air. >> scent can't sanitize lice.
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>> you don't stop being you just because you turn 65. but you do face more risk from flu and covid. last year alone, those viruses hospitalized nearly 1 million people 65 and older. 1 million vaccines lower your risk of getting really sick so you can keep doing you. it. >> are you ready for this? are you ready for this? are you ready for this new alka-seltzer plus cold or flu? >> fizzy chews? shou chew fizz. feel better fast. no water needed. new alka-seltzer plus fizzy juice. >> your parents have given you some amazing gifts. celebrate the ones you inherited with ancestry dna. explore the detailed family roots, cultures, and traits that shaped who you are today. for only $39, you didn't get where
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>> i'm barbara and i'm from saint joseph, michigan. i'm a retired school librarian. i'm also a library board trustee, a mother of two and a grandmother of two. >> about five years ago, i was working full time. >> i had an awful lot of things to take care of. i needed all the help i could get. i saw the commercials for prevagen. i started taking it and it helped. i was better able to take care of all those little details. people say to me, barbara, you don't miss a beat. >> prevagen at stores everywhere without a prescription coming january 2025. >> founded by the stars of women's basketball, a new style of three on three six clubs.ger
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rocket money. can cancel it in just a few taps. you have my attention. how do i get in on this? download it today. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn breaking overnight, south korea's parliament voted just hours ago to impeach the country's acting president. >> this is happening not even two weeks after lawmakers there
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impeached the president and stripped him of his powers after he temporarily ordered martial law earlier this month. now, south korea has its second acting president in less than 14 days. cnn international correspondent hanako montgomery is joining us now. what kind of impacts is this political turmoil having on south korea? >> hi, sara, it's good to see you. i think if there were a word that encapsulates what a lot of south koreans are feeling right now, it would be uncertainty, because there's really no way of knowing what's going to happen next in south korean politics. and frankly, sara, we're going through uncharted territory right now. and again, there are still lots of questions that remain to be answered in this political saga. for instance, what's going to happen with its constitutional court? according to south korean law, a constitutional court ruling is needed in order to formally
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conclude an impeachment process, but an issue facing south korea right now is the fact that they don't actually have enough judges within its constitutional court to issue such rulings. that's why we're seeing a deadlock for the impeachment process of the president. yoon suk yeol and also the acting president. han duck-soo. now, in terms of impact, we've seen a massive, massive impact that this martial law has had on south korea's economy. the south korean stock market has taken a massive toll, and the u.s. one exchange rate has hit its lowest level since the 2009 financial crisis. and sara, there's also the question of how this martial law crisis will impact u.s., south korean relations. like many countries around the world, south korea is preparing to engage with the new trump administration. but there are serious concerns about how how south korea will be able to properly engage in diplomacy if its own political leadership is so unstable. now, in terms of south korea's future, next in line to step in
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as the acting president is the finance minister. but, sara, for how long? who knows? >> that is the big question since this is all unfolding within two weeks of the initial impeachment. i do want to thank you. hanako montgomery there for us, giving us the very latest on what's happening there in south korea. appreciate it. >> kate. some other headlines. 20 big cats at one animal sanctuary in washington state have died in just the last few weeks, all from contractin coug that how you say the plural of a lynx and a bengal tiger? the people running the sanctuary say it is not clear how the animals all became infected. they describe the last few weeks, though, as just a nightmare. they do hope to reopen the sanctuarybrady of st packages is now in jail. police say carrie flynn got the nickname because she was so good at stealing packages and stole so many in the area in the last few weeks. the officers were handing out toys on christmas eve when they
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spotted her and arrested her. authorities say flynn had two bags filled with unopened packages with her at the time. her lawyer says she denies stealing any packages. tom brady could not be reached for comment. an ihop server in iowa received the trip of a lifetime on christmas eve. just look at that. thanks to 70 generous donors. the server you see right there was handed $1,700 in cash as a tip while at work. the background here is, for the past five years, one woman, that delightful woman and her family and others in iowa have been surprising. a deserving person with a us tip nd theolids she is raising two young children and will use the money to help pay for nursing school. rock stars amazing. exactly. >> i love it. >> i love it. >> sarah, that was beautiful. all right. this year, not so beautiful. a port strike threatened global trade. one of the largest retailers in the united states went dark. and
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the richest man in the world went full maga. cnn's vanessa yurkovich counts down the top business stories of 2020 for. >> number ten. >> it's the end of free loading. costco cracks down on membership. moochers. >> costco is adding a brand new layer of checks to make sure that you are using your own membership. >> costco cardholders now have to scan membership cards at the door, and may be asked to show proof of photo i.d.. membership fees are the bulk of costco's profits, bringing in $4.6 billion in 2023, and disney cracked down on password sharing. >> disney ceo bob iger is pivoting from a bruising proxy fight to a new challenge. >> the password sharing blight. >> iger saying thursday that the disney plus streaming service will begin cracking down on pilfered passwords. >> disney started limiting how often customers can share their login information outside their households for their streaming services. the move came after
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rival netflix did its own crackdown and saw 100,000 new daily signups for the two days following the announcement. number nine. for the first time in nearly 50 years, dock workers on the east and gulf coast ports went on strike. >> now you start to realize who the longshoremen are, right? nobody cares. people never gave a about us until now. >> the international longshoremen's association was on strike for three days before it reached a deal on wages with the united states maritime alliance, with a new strike deadline set for january 15th. the union and the alliance agreed to 62% in wage increases over six years. and at boeing, workers were on strike for seven weeks, the first time in 16 years before they reached a deal. the company lost billions of dollars and will lay off 17,000 employees. members of the
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international association of machinists voted down two contracts before they accepted a deal, which includes more than 43% in pay increases for workers over four years. number eight. the blue light special now just a dim glow of nostalgia as the last full size brick and mortar kmart closed its doors this year in bridgehampton, new york. >> this marks the end of an era for kmart full size stores. >> kmart had a disastrous merger with sears, where very little was invested in the brand, while at the same time being beat out by more successful, bigger box retailers like walmart and target. the brand was founded in 1962 and once had more than 2300 stores. kmart still has its online store number seven president elect donald trump took truth social public in march. the stock initially surged 56% at the open, but has had a bumpy ride. the stock was halted twice on election day as
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it soared by 17% and then tanked. aya elamroussi. trump also launched a crypto business world liberty financial, with his family. trump made the rounds courting crypto voters. >> the united states will be the crypto capital of the planet, and he's surrounded himself with crypto friendly advisers like elon musk and his sec chair pick, paul adkins. >> number six. >> oh, no trouble. >> just sandwiches and campbell's chicken noodle soup. >> yay! >> an iconic favorite. losing its soup. no, not quite, but after 155 years, campbell's soup company is dropping soup from their name to reflect the brand's full portfolio. the campbell's company also owns snack brands like goldfish, cape cod and pepperidge farm's. while the soup will always be iconic, its sales grew by 3% last year versus snacks, which grew by 13%. number five tiktok dealt another loss today in its attempt to keep the app alive
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in the united states. a u.s. appeals court denied tiktok's argument that a u.s. ban was unconstitutional. instead, it upheld a law that says tiktok cannot operate in the u.s. unless it's sold by its chinese parent company, bytedance. by january 19th, 2025. tiktok has since filed an injunction to block it. tiktok has more than 170 million american users, many who have built entire businesses on the platform. >> and at least two of these to your cart. >> elected officials are calling for the ban over the belief the chinese government can use tiktok to spy on americans and collect user data. >> rest assured, we aren't going anywhere. we are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. the facts and the constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again. >> number four, the first rate cut in four years. the most talked about cut i think ever.
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the federal reserve made its first rate cut in september by a surprising half a point, the first since before the pandemic. the cut signaled a sense of urgency to provide americans with relief from elevated borrowing costs. >> the u.s. economy is in good shape. it's growing at a solid pace. inflation is coming down. the labor market is in a strong pace. we want to keep it there. that's that's what we're doing. >> inflation cooled to 2.4% that same month after 11 rate hikes in 2022 and 2023. and the fed is closer to the ever elusive soft landing and circling its 2% target. number three red lobster's endless shrimp is kind of a big deal a big deal that got a little too big. too much shrimp is not always a good thing. red lobster's annual $20 endless shrimp was successful for 20 years until they made it an everyday thing. >> they shouldn't have done. the all you can eat shrimp. you
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don't know how many people are pigs and they'll just keep eating. >> the company accounted for a 20% increase in customer traffic, but it ended up being 40%. it cost the company $11 million and they filed for bankruptcy. number two, the real estate world will never be the same after today's seismic court settlement that 6% commission real estate agents get for buying or selling a home is now no more. in a landmark case, the national association of realtors eliminated the rules on commissions and paid $418 million to plaintiffs who argued the fees inflated prices of homes. >> and analysts expect it to benefit home buyers. >> sellers were saddled with hefty fees and often baked them into the sales price of homes. the historic change could make home prices more affordable. the average home price is $407,200, near record highs. number
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