tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN December 27, 2024 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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hole in the roof of a worker dormitory at alabuga. but neither that strike nor international sanctions could stop the breakneck pace of expansion here. between march and september this year, two entirely new buildings appeared next to the original ones. and this image from late november seems to confirm they're connected. new covered walkways link old and new buildings. another looks set to join the factory to the worker dormitories, now fully repaired. >> they started to create, we thought, drone cages over the buildings. and then as the as they built other buildings, it looks like they're expanding the security perimeter. >> nato told cnn it is, quote, well aware of alabuga and expects it to ramp
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clare sebastian cnn, london. >> wow. thanks so much for joining us. ac360 starts now. >> tonight on 360 breaking news. the president elect tells the supreme court that only he has what it takes to make a deal to head off a tiktok ban before it goes into effect. the day before he's sworn into office. also tonight, what cnn is learning about the possibility that russian anti-aircraft fire brought down a passenger airliner and what may have triggered the deadly chain of events. later, with a massive lottery prize up for grabs tonight. why winning big all too often comes at a mega dollar price. good evening to you, jim sciutto here sitting in for anderson tonight. we begin tonight with the breaking news and what appears to be another flex of sorts by president elect trump. just days after pushing for the purchase of greenland. you heard it right. the repossession of the panama canal and by his own suggestion, annexing the
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country, canada. he inserted himself into the supreme court case over tiktok, which is used by scores of millions of americans. the court is set to hear the chinese owned social network's challenge to a new law, which would ban operations in this country if it does not divest its ownership by january 19th. the law gives a sitting president broad power to enforce that ban, and joe biden is, of course, president until the 20th. but donald trump, who is not yet president, wants the high court to take that power from biden by pausing the law until he's in office. his brief saying, quote, president trump alone possesses the consummate deal making expertise. the electoral mandate and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government, along with that mouthful, the brief also refers to the president's quote, commanding presence as a quote,
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one of the most powerful, prolific and influential users of social media in history. joining us now is cnn's alayna treene, who is just down the road from mar-a-lago. so, elena, tell us more what the president's specific argument is to try to get this state well, jim, what donald trump is essentially asking the supreme court to do is put a pause on this very controversial ban on tiktok, arguing that such a delay of its implementation would allow his incoming administration to try and work out some sort of negotiation to save the app now. >> to be clear, donald trump's position on this puts him at odds with the biden administration, which in itself filed its own legal briefs on friday urging the supreme court to make sure that this ban is implemented. they warned of, quote, grave national security concerns if this app is continued allowed to continue to operate in the united states, noting, of course, china's influence on the
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platform. now, one of the key things that the supreme court is going to have to weigh is whether or not this ban violates first amendment rights. in this briefing from donald trump, it did not really address the first amendment questions posed in this case. but donald trump did say this. he wrote, quote, he suggested that the court paused the bans effective date to, quote, allow his incoming administration to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of tiktok, thus preserving the first amendment rights of tens of millions of americans, while also addressing the government's national security concerns. now, let's be clear tiktok is very popular in this country. it has 170 million monthly users. that is something that donald trump recognizes. it's also something that he kind of alluded to earlier this week when he spoke in arizona and essentially said he is warming to the app because so many young voters voted for him and they used this app. take a listen to what he said. >> so i'm going to have to
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start thinking about tiktok. i think we're going to have to say we're going to have to start thinking. because, you know, we we did go on tiktok and we had a great response. we had billions of views, billions and billions of views. they brought me a they brought me a chart and it was a record. and it was so beautiful to see. and as i looked at it, i said, maybe we got to keep this sucker around a little while. you know, who wants to? >> so, jim, clearly, as you can hear there, donald trump is saying, maybe we should keep this around because it's so popular and i'm so popular with its users. but i want to argue as well that we know donald trump has not always believed this in the past. he's actually been all for supporting a ban. he actually issued an executive order during his first administration that would effectively ban the app, citing its national security concerns. however, i will also note that just a couple of weeks ago, donald trump met directly with
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tiktok ceo at mar-a-lago. all to say, it's very unclear about what is going to happen here. but what it looks like is that donald trump wants to kind of be viewed as the savior of this app, but it's very unclear exactly how that could happen if this ban is allowed to be paused. elena. >> this puts him not just at odds with the biden administration, but with a bipartisan act of congress. he may reference the popularity of the app. he does not address the national security concerns as identified by the u.s. intelligence community. how does his team explain that contradiction well, i think it's you know, it's definitely something they're going to have to address. >> what i believe they are going to try to argue with this is that he is asking for a pause on the ban. he is not necessarily saying that he doesn't want the ban to go through, or that he believes that bytedance, the chinese owned company that owns tiktok, should be able to continue owning the app. what he is saying is that he wants some sort of negotiation to be worked out between his administration and the company,
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but again, he doesn't address these concerns head on, and it's very unclear what sort of negotiation this could lead to. but for now, all he is asking for is a pause on the ban. not necessarily. he doesn't want the ban. >> alayna treene treen, thanks so much. joining us now is massachusetts democratic congressman jake auchincloss. he sits on the house select committee on the chinese communist party, and is one of the many members of congress who voted for this law. democrats and republicans. so, congressman, thanks so much for joining us this friday night during a holiday week. i wonder what your reaction is to this. as you know, it's quite a bipartisan position that tiktok is a national security threat. what's your answer to the president's argument here? >> not just bipartisan, jim, but also tripartite. congress, the president and an appeals court have all said that this law is valid. and the reason that this law is valid is that it is meeting and national security
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imperative. xi jinping has called influence operations the smokeless battlefield, and tiktok is his most important weapon. it is the dominant media and information platform for gen z. they are consuming huge amounts of content on that platform, and that content is being brokered for them by an algorithm that the chinese communist party controls. now in china, that algorithm shows chinese children educational content, and it limits the amount of time they can spend on the platform in the united states. it shows american kids anti-western, anti-american content, and it keeps them scrolling for hours on end. this is undermining the ideological coherence of the next generation of americans, and we have every reason to insist that while people can post whatever they want, the the manner by which that content reaches eyeballs is not going to be dictated to us by a foreign adversary. >> as you know as well, the ic found that tiktok interfered in
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the election by prioritizing content to to influence or attempt to influence the outcome. here, president-elect trump is making the argument. it seems that i alone can negotiate a better deal here. is there a way to negotiate out of this so that tiktok is no longer a threat, but that americans keep access to it short of requiring china to divest its ownership? >> no. the bill says precisely that there is not going to be a media platform as dominant as tiktok in the united states, owned and controlled by our greatest adversary. it needs to be owned by a company that answers to the united states congress, because we need comprehensive social media regulations not just for tiktok, but also for instagram and meta and and the rest, because we have to protect our children's sense of self and society, which has been eroding for the last decade. what trump is saying, jim, about he alone can negotiate a better deal just doesn't pass the common sense test. if you were
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negotiating with somebody, why would you remove the greatest leverage that you have over them to accede to your position? i mean, the, the, the impending ban is the leverage that any deal maker would need to get a better deal for the american people. >> so how does your on you sit on the ccp committee, and i've interviewed you a number of times on china, as i have republican members of the committee. and and this is one of the most bipartisan issues in this country. the approach to china viewing china, in many respects, the chinese government, i should say, as a threat, particularly from a national security perspective. how do how does congress, how would congress respond, which has passed this law if the supreme court were to grant this stay and in effect, saying that law you passed, forget about it for now. how would you react to that? and how would your republican fellow members of the committee react i think it would be important for congress to issue a resolution stating that we stand by the
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original law, and then if he tried to issue an executive order that undermined the effectuation of the law, that congress would override that as we have the right to do now, whether or not my republican colleagues have the the spines to stand up to donald trump remains to be seen. >> i would say their track record over the last decade does not inspire confidence in that regard. but i absolutely know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, with whom i helped draft this law understand that allowing gen z to develop their sense of american society from an algorithm dictated by the politburo in beijing is a really bad idea. and donald trump himself understood that. and the fact that he's changing his mind now makes me think that his inner circle has been bought and paid for by the tiktok lobby. >> we should note that president-elect trump met with tiktok ceo this month, and we just learned, according to two people familiar with the matter, that the tiktok ceo spoke with trump this evening after he filed this request with the supreme court. and
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earlier this year, before trump reversed his position on tiktok, he met with republican mega-donor jeff yass, who has a multi-billion dollar trump, it's always some combination of two things, jim, it's one flattery and inflating his ego. hey, you're so popular on tiktok and you're a dominant social media presence, and the young people love you. and then number two is the soft corruption and sycophancy of his inner circle. those two threads can intertwine and they can change american policy. and it's up to congress and in particular, republicans in congress, to put the well-being of the country ahead of donald trump's ego on this issue. >> we'll see how they stand up to that test. congressman
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auchincloss, thanks so much for joining. >> hey, happy new year, jim. >> you too. >> all right. so more on the law. joining us for that is trial attorney misty morris. so let's begin with the focus of trump's argument here. i mean, there's a lot in here. he's a trailblazer in social media. therefore, he knows more. he's a great negotiator, which is something that he says about really virtually every issue on the planet. he could find a better way forward. he sets aside the first amendment arguments for now, arguing for this delay here. what's your review of the legal arguments he makes? >> well, jim, very unusual legal arguments, to say the least. and let's talk about what the legal standard is to seek a stay. the legal standard is irreparable harm. that's one aspect. that's one prong. there. you can talk about the first amendment issue. that is a very valid concern and something the supreme court can take up as this case works its way through the appellate courts. the second is likelihood of success on the merits. we see him actually in writing. put that aside and
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say, we're not really going to comment on whether or not this is violative of first amendment, whether or not national security concerns actually overcome that burden of strict scrutiny. we're not even going to talk about it. that prong that's required. instead, we hear about his negotiating skills. instead, we hear about how he had great success using tiktok during the election. so to me, and from the legal perspective, that is not sufficient to fulfill that second prong, seeking a stay. and again, this doesn't mean that there isn't an inquiry by the supreme court as this case works its way through the courts and the appellate the appellate system as to whether or not there's an issue with that first amendment concern. it's just about whether or not it's actually put on pause against the will of congress. and the most recent decision at the appellate division, the president has a role. >> the sitting president has a role in enforcement in this. is that, in effect, the president elect's best argument here, that this goes into effect on january 19th. and guess who's
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president on january 20th? >> well, certainly that would be of a practical concern because the doj is going to be very different as soon as the trump administration takes over. and will there be a directive to say, okay, this law is on the books. congress has passed it. it's signed into law, but don't enforce it because enforcement is left up to the branch to the department of justice. in this instance, i've i'm not a lawyer, but i've watched this court a lot in recent years because this court has been involved in a lot of stories. we've covered quite a few. >> yes. and i've seen this court regularly say it wants congressional action, right. when they don't want things decided in the courts, they want congressional action. they tend to have deference to that. they have a lot of deference as well to executive power. we've seen that as well. here you have a case where this was bipartisan congressional action. are they going to be swayed in that direction, or are they going to be swayed in the president elect's direction? yeah, certainly. >> separation of powers issues, right, that we've covered many
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times. and, and, and deference to those congressional acts. and jim, especially when you talk about issues of national security, that's even a heightened level of deference to the president and to congress to act under those those issues and those concerns. so what will they do here? i think we've seen some interesting decisions come out of this court. but if they're following what we believe these prior decisions are and what the law is on a stay, i would say it's denied, but i can't make any guarantees on that. >> and we should note that the national security basis of this has not changed. the intelligence community has not changed. its assessment of tiktok's threat. all that has changed is the president elect's view. misty marris, thanks so much. thank you. coming up next, new signs of what may have downed a passenger jet as one survivor speaks about what it was like inside the plane when it was hit with more than $1 billion at stake in tonight's mega millions drawing. why? winning it all is sometimes not the ticket. >> hi, i'm greg, i live in
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plan. >> having a plan in place, it was a huge relief. >> create your estate plan at trust and worldcom new year's eve live with anderson and andy. >> live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> new details tonight about what may have brought down an airliner with 67 people on board. a u.s. official now tells cnn that russia's air defenses may have misidentified the passenger jet as ukrainian drone during a ukrainian attack on the south russian city of grozny. this official also says that holes peppering parts of the aircraft's fuselage are consistent with shrapnel damage from an exterior. exterior
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explosion last night on the program, we showed you footage of a man saying what he believed to be at the time. his final prayer. tonight, we're happy to report that this man you see there was among the 29 survivors. and here he is recounting the moment of the crash. >> we have what we see. >> i was conscious when i felt the impact. i was thrown up, hit down, thrown up again. i was strapped in. i was being thrown back and forth. it all lasted a few seconds and then everything went quiet and silence. everything was quiet, calm. and i realized that was it. we had landed. >> in a moment, a veteran air safety expert and crash investigator will join us. first, cnn pentagon correspondent oren liebermann, on the christmas day catastrophe on this azerbaijan airlines flight may have come from confusion in the hours before the crash, russia's air defenses in the region were active, trying to repel a long
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range ukrainian drone attack. >> a u.s. official says russian air defense units potentially misidentified the commercial airliner, believing it was an attack drone instead of a passenger jet. whatever the cause, it proved deadly. >> in this case, the aircraft had what we call a 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 from the fiery wreckage. >> a key piece of the puzzle emerges. the second black box recovered from the crash of azerbaijan airlines j2, eight two, four three. authorities now have two key pieces of information the instrument readings and the cockpit voice recording. >> i do think that will show that the pilots will say that they were hit with something that came out of nowhere. likely air defense systems and the pilots miraculously were able to save some of the passengers. there.
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>> on board the doomed jet. this passenger prayed for that miracle. recording this video in the flight's final moments, at least 38 of the 67 people on board the flight died in the crash. this man was one of the survivors. >> i started saying words. i started to remember the almighty. i thought that those were probably my last words. so i thought, i need to get ready for a meeting with the almighty. >> the airline says an early investigation shows the jet that crashed on christmas day experienced what they called physical and technical external interference. though the cause of the crash has not been confirmed. potential evidence of that interference visible even after the crash holes peppering the remains of the fuselage. early indications of what the u.s. says were the result of a russian air defense system. >> the amount of holes in the side of the airplane in the aft part of the airplane tells me that this was an air defense system, and certainly not a bird strike. >> the debris from the crash littered a field. the blue cloths each covering a body.
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the search for evidence now running together with the hunt for answers. there is already a multinational investigation underway into the cause of this crash from azerbaijan, kazakhstan and russia. the u.s. has said it's ready and willing to assist in that investigation, although so far it doesn't look like they've been taken up on that offer. it is certainly worth watching this space because the russians fairly quickly put out what has been a quickly dismissed explanation of bird strikes as to the cause of this crash, so it'll be interesting to see if they update that explanation or are willing to accept any responsibility. if there is further evidence that this was a russian anti-aircraft system that downed the azerbaijan airlines jet. >> jim, thanks to oren liebermann there. perspective now from david soucie. he's a cnn safety analyst and former faa safety inspector, author of several books, most recently safer skies an accident investigator on why planes crash and the state of aviation safety. also with with us is william taylor. he's former ambassador to ukraine. certainly knows russia's
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operations well. first. ambassador taylor, i want to start with you, because it's impossible to look at these images of the fuselage, those puncture holes, bending inward into, indicating an exterior event. and you see there on the left side of the screen, the downing of malaysian airlines flight 14 over ukraine by a russian missile, as you know from your own, your own time in ukraine and testifying following. do you see a similar scenario here? russian missile strikes a passenger jet. >> jim, the similarities are that the russians deny it. the russians deny it every time. they, as you've reported, they come up with these odd explanations. incredible explanations. the bird strike. in this case, there were some really wild ones in the 1 in 2014, as you said. they blamed it on the cia. they blamed just amazing. so they and they to this day, continue to deny
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their responsibility. what normal civilized nations do is accept responsibility and try to remedy, but not the russians. >> yeah. >> i mean, they're also saying now that ukraine may have shot down this jet, which is in with mh17 in 2014, they said ukraine tried to take this down. of course, the evidence pointed very much in the opposite direction. david, i wonder, based on what we know now, how much control do you think the pilots maintained over this plane when it diverted from grozny all the way across the caspian sea to land in kazakhstan? and is there any reason why aircraft controllers in and around chechnya grozny where this hit took place, wouldn't have prioritized getting that plane on the ground quickly? >> well, you're right, you would have thought they would have. now what i've heard the explanation for that is that the first alternate airport that they had selected was closed that day, but if it was closed that day, they wouldn't
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have had it as an alternate. so the fact that it went over to where it went. there's no real explanation for why they didn't allow it to go where it was, except as the ambassador was just saying a moment ago that they were just they have stories, wild stories about why this happened or that happened. but not only did they ignore. jim, i wanted to point out that they not only are ignoring and making things up at the end, they're not responsible for what happened in the first place. the same thing with mh 17, when they did not put out any kind of notice to air missions, that this area was a dangerous area. so airplanes continue to fly. yeah. >> and listen, ukraine has closed its airspace to passenger air traffic because of this very risk. russia has not. ambassador taylor, when mh17 was shot down, you called for the united states and other western countries to increase pressure on vladimir putin to end his aggressive actions against ukraine. what actions do you think the united states should take now, if it hardens up this assessment that this was a russian missile?
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>> you're right, jim, the the 2014 event did galvanize serious sanctions, which had not been imposed really by at least by the europeans prior to that. but but it did that. and now it's a good question. the the azerbaijanis understandably outraged. and that will lead to a broader expectation of some accountability. and so there are sanctions that we still have to put on. some have gone on this week on the oil coming out of russia, and those need to be tightened up further. what we need to do is put maximum pressure on putin so that he finally realizes that he cannot win this war. >> we'll see if that follows. david, kazakhstan has possession of the two black boxes. this crash took place on kazakhstan soil, but it was an azerbaijani airline. it's a brazilian air frame, embraer and of course russia involved
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because it was coming out of russian territory. it was on its way there. who runs this? investigation? >> kazakhstan will run the investigation. everyone else will be present. they'll be part of it. but the control of the box. and what happens there is the point of impact. that's what's the most important place to start. and there's a lot of information there. and we'll see how much gets out about it. >> can we expect kazakhstan to to run a fair, free, fair, honest investigation without pressure from russia? >> you know, i was really impressed with the first meeting that they had and what came out and what they were very staunch about. the fact that all that information is going to be available, all of it's going to be investigated down to the original cause. the azerbaijani lead on this was very firm about what it is that he wants them to do, to report to him and all the other authorities. so i'm i'm pretty confident we're going to get a good investigation here. >> certainly those passengers and those families of those who died deserve answers. david
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soucie, ambassador taylor, thanks so much and we wish you both a happy new year. >> thank you, jim and you. >> coming up next, how artificial intelligence is being used to generate fake nude photos of real people, including minors. anderson's 60 minutes report on so-called new defi apps and websites. that's coming up. >> i want to be the greatest player that i can possibly become. ken howery. >> i didn't do this for the lights or the fame. i did it to pay it forward to the next generation of athletes and pass on the support my family gave me. i believe in sofi because they gave the same support to millions of members helping them bank, borrow and invest for their future. because for most people, it's not about the lights or the fame. it's
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enter $5 and get $50 instantly with code tv. prize picks. run your game. >> come in january 2025. founded by the stars of women's basketball, a new style of three on three six clubs. more action, more access. unrivaled. coming january 17th. >> in october last year, a 14 year old girl named francesca monti was sitting in her high school history class when she heard a rumor that some boys had naked photos of female classmates. she soon learned her picture was among them, but the images were doctored, created with artificial intelligence using what's known as a new defi website or app, which turns real photos of someone fully clothed into real looking nudes. anderson and his 60 minutes team found nearly 30 similar incidents in schools in the u.s. over the last 20 months, and plenty more around the world. we do want to warn you
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that some of what you'll hear in this report and see is disturbing, but we think unveiling these new defi websites is important, in part because they're not they're not hidden on the dark web. they are openly advertised, easy to use, and as francesca mani found out, there isn't much that's been done to stop them. >> when you first heard the rumor, you didn't know that there were photos or a photo of you. >> no, we didn't know. i think that was like the most chaotic day i've ever witnessed in a school. >> somebody gets an inkling of something and it just spreads. >> it's like rapid fire. it just goes to everyone. and so then when someone hears, hears this, it's like, wait, like, i like no one thinks that could happen to you. >> francesca mani knew nothing about new defi websites when she discovered she and several other girls at westfield high school in new jersey had been targeted, according to a lawsuit later filed by one of the other girls through her parents, a boy at the school
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uploaded photos from instagram to a site called clothes off. we're naming the site to raise awareness of its potential dangers. there are more than 100 of these new defi websites. a quick search is all it takes to find them. clothes off is one of the most popular, with more than 3 million visits last month, according to graphika, a company that analyzes social networks. it now offers to notify males as well. but female nudes are far more popular. have someone to undress clothes website asks. you can upload a photo or get a free demonstration in which an image of a woman appears with clothes on. then a few seconds later, her clothes are gone. we're blurring it out, but the results look very real. francesca mani never saw what had been done to her photo, but according to that lawsuit, at least one girl's a.i. nude was shared on snapchat and seen by several kids at school. what made it worse, francesca says, is that she and the other girls found out they were the
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victims. when they were called by name to the principal's office over the school's public address system. >> i feel like that was a major violation of our privacy. while like the bad actors were taken out of their classes privately. when i left the principal's office, i was walking through a hallway and i saw this group of boys laughing at these group of girls crying. and that's when i realized i should stop crying and be mad, because this is unacceptable. >> that afternoon, westfield's principal sent this email to all high school parents informing them some of our students had used artificial intelligence to create pornographic images from original photos. the principal also said the school was investigating, and at this time, we believe that any created images have been deleted and are not being circulated. francesca's mom dorota, who's also an educator, was not convinced. do you think they did enough? >> well, i don't know, anderson. you work in television. is anything deleted
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in the digital world? >> you feel like even if somebody deletes something somewhere, who knows where these images may be, who printed, who screenshotted, who downloaded it, you can really wipe it out. dorota says she filed a police report, but no charges have been brought. she was shocked by the school's handling of the whole incident. >> the principal informed me that one boy received a one day suspension and that was it. so i asked her if this is all. are there going to be any other consequences? and she said, no, that's for now. this is all that is going to happen. >> the school district wouldn't confirm details about the photos. the students involved or any disciplinary action. in a statement to 60 minutes, the school superintendent said the district revised its harassment, intimidation and bullying policy to incorporate. a.i., something that marni said they spent months urging school officials to do. do you feel like the girls paid a bigger cost in the end? >> yeah. they did.
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>> the boy or boys involved in this did because they just have to live with knowing that maybe an image is floating, their image is floating around the internet, and they just have to deal with what the boys did. kolina koltai has been looking into clothes and other nudity sites for more than a year. she's a senior researcher who specializes in the misuse of a.i. at bellingcat, an international investigative group. this site, as soon as you get there, it says you have to be 18 or over to use the website. you can't use others photos without their permission. you can't use pictures of people who are under 18. is there any way for them to actually check if you're under 18 or over 18? >> you'll see as we click, accept that there's no verification. and now we're ready here and immediately you're getting very explicit photos. and then they have the poses feature, which is one of their new settings, which is the different sex poses, which is the premium feature. >> wow. so wow. >> and that's this is the preview. we haven't closed off. >> and other nudity sites encourage customers to promote
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their services on social media, and users often show off their favorite before and after i nudes i've even seen on social media platforms people showing before and after photos what are clearly like high school girls. >> and i've like reverse image search the original photo and they're like a high school girls like swim meets and see these are very clearly these are minors and adult content is being made of them. non-consensually then also being posted on social media. >> i think a lot of parents would be surprised to learn that you post a picture of your child on your instagram account. your child could end up naked photo of your child out there. >> yeah, and so you have a registration to notify a photo on clothe off is free the first time. >> after that it cost from 2 to $40. the payment options often change, but there are always plenty to choose from. >> it's given me everything from crypto to using a credit card for a variety of different credit cards. we got paypal here. >> google pay i would imagine some of these companies are not thrilled that their services
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are being used by these websites, and in many of these cases, it directly violates their policies to trick online payment services. kolina koltai says clothes off and other nudity sites redirect their customers payments through phony websites like these, pretending to sell flowers and photography lessons. >> say, for example, you want to pay through paypal. so we click this and it'll take a second. so it's now redirecting you. >> it's redirecting through a dummy a dummy website website. >> so that way on paypal's end it looks like you're maybe purchasing anything from motorcycles or beekeeping lessons or rollerblade lessons. and so now we got to a paypal screen. but we can see down here it says cancel and return to internet designs dot motorcycles. >> so that's what paypal is being told is the website that's asking for the charge. yes. paypal told us it banned chlothar from its platforms a year ago and shuts down the accounts for these redirect sites when it finds them. the problem is, chlothar often just
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creates new ones on this log in screen here. and that's not the only deception it relies on its website lists a name grupo digital, with an address in buenos aires, argentina, implying that's where chlothar is based. but when we sent our cameras, there was no grupo digital there. it turned out to be the office of a youtube channel that covers politics. and when we knocked on the door, we see your web site closed off. the employee who answered said she'd never heard of chlothar. >> no no no no no. >> on the company, chlothar also made up a fake ceo. >> according to kolina koltai, complete with what she says is an a.i. generated headshot. >> there is a really inherent shadiness that's happening. they're not being transparent about who owns it. they're obviously trying to mask their payments. but you look at the sophistication of these really large sites. it's completely different than, say, some guy in a basement that's set up a site that he's trying to do it on his own. when these sites launched and the way that
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they've been developing and going this past year, it is not someone's first rodeo. it's not the first time they set up a complex network. >> chlothar claims on its website that processing of minors is impossible. we emailed what the site says is a press contact asking for any evidence of that, and to respond to a number of other questions. we didn't hear back. >> a lot of people might say, well, these images are fake, but we know victims will suffer humiliation. they'll suffer, um, you know, mental health distress and reputational harm in a school setting. it's really amplified because one of their peers has created this imagery. so there's a loss of confidence, a loss of trust. >> urosaurus is chief legal officer at the national center for missing and exploited children. her organization regularly works with tech companies to flag inappropriate content on their sites. in at least three cases, snapchat was reportedly used to circulate these photos. one instance, a parent told us that it took
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more than eight months to get the accounts that had shared the images taken down their responsiveness to to victims. >> that is a recurring problem that we see across tech companies. >> so it's not as it's not as easy as a parent know. sending a note through snapchat, hey, this is happening. my child has been exploited. >> it's entirely unclear why it is not a faster process. we can actually notify tech companies as well and ask them to take that content down. >> and in the experience, do they? >> much faster than when an individual calls? yes, that isn't the way it should be, right? i mean, a parent whose child has exploitative or child pornography images online should not have to rely on reaching out to a third party and having them call the tech company. the tech companies should be assuming responsibility immediately to remove that content. >> why are they not doing that? >> because they do not think there are ramifications to them not doing so. >> social media companies are shielded from lawsuits involving photos someone posts
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online due to what yossi sariel considers an outdated law. >> under section 230 of the communications decency act, a law from 1996. so very different world back then. online platforms have near-complete immunity for any liability arising from content that a user puts on their system. the section 230 protection is really what allows this very loose ecosystem to exist in terms of new defi apps and and websites that cause harm to children. >> we asked snapchat about that parent who told us the company didn't respond to her for eight months. a snapchat spokesperson told us they've been unable to locate her request and said in part, we have efficient mechanisms for reporting this kind of content and added, we have a zero tolerance policy for such content and act quickly to address it. once reported, i nudes of minors are illegal under federal child pornography laws, according to the department of justice. if they
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depict what's defined as sexually explicit conduct. but cargurus is concerned some images created by nudity sites may not meet that definition. >> there's this gap in the law around a nudity app that desperately needs to be shut. >> what are the gaps in the law? >> currently, a nude image of a child that does not include sexually explicit conduct is not illegal, and that is a serious gap that exists for real children. and that exists certainly for images of new children that are created by nudity. >> app sent a clear message that what the boys had done in the years since francesca mani found out she was targeted, she and her mom have urged schools to implement policies around a.i., and worked with members of congress to try and pass a number of federal bills. >> the taken down act does two things the take it down act, co-sponsored by senators ted cruz and amy klobuchar, made it through the senate this month and is now awaiting a vote in the house. it would create criminal penalties for sharing a.i. nudes and require social media companies to take photos
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down within 48 hours of getting a request. schools don't really know how to address this. police, in many cases, don't do much at this stage, and the sites are making presumed millions of dollars off this. so can it be fixed? >> absolutely. if we have the appropriate laws, we will have the criminal consequences. first of all, to deter offenders, and then they'll be held liable. if they're still using these apps. we would have civil remedies for victims. schools would have protocols. investigators and law enforcement would have roadmaps on how to investigate what charges to bring. but we're a long way from that. we just need the laws in place. all the rest will come from that. >> a final footnote you just heard, anderson mentioned the take it down act. the bipartisan legislation would make it a federal crime when sharing fake nudes created by a.i. and requires social media companies to remove photos within 48 hours of a request. the bill was attached to a bipartisan government funding
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deal earlier this month, but that agreement, as you may recall, fell apart and the version that eventually passed did not include that new law. still to come, lotto fever is hitting the nation with tonight's mega millions jackpot reaching a massive $1.2 billion. but beware when some win the so-called lotto curse can strike. we're going to dive into that next. >> kelli stump luther. >> never too much new year's day at eight on cnn. >> i told you, i don't need these anymore. i have sling. >> okay. morning. i only left sling. deliver the news. i need to stay informed. thank you very much. nice one. nope. >> sling gives us all the news we want in a quick and reliable manner. >> and at a wonderful price. >> this critical time calls for the critical news coverage that sling provides. okay. >> see you tomorrow. >> the most important news at
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>> emergency crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. and who doesn't love a good throwback? now, with vitamin d for the dark days of winter. >> some people just know they can save hundreds on car insurance by checking allstate first. >> like, you know, to check your school's saying first before saying it. high tide. >> high tide. chi tai tide. high tide. >> high tide. high tide. roll tide. >> all right. >> yeah. checking first is smart, so check allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. you're in good hands with allstate. >> it's the holidays at wayfair. y'all. it's a gift swap. >> look, it's our dream kitchen. >> totally brought that for themselves. >> okay, fine. just choose what you love. just my style. and i
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got a great deal. my turn. >> what the fudge. >> now, that's a holiday classic. >> just like you. you got a place for that? >> what about something to find? wayfair. >> every style, every home. i am tony hawk, and like many of you, i take a statin to reduce cholesterol. but statins can also deplete coq10 levels. that's what my doctor recommended. qunol. coq10. kunal has the number one cardiologist recommended form of coq10. kunal, the brand i trust with cargurus you can start your financing from home. >> if only you could do things your way all the time. dream. maybe someday. dad, i'll get it with gurus. huh? >> noom has glp one meds now. >> the psychology based weight loss company. >> yes, noom combines medication and healthy habits so you can lose the weight and keep it off. >> and they guarantee it.
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is nearly $550 million, making it the fifth richest prize in the game's history. only three mega millions jackpots have been won this year, the fewest in any year since the game started. no one has won the grand prize in more than 100 days, so could that change tonight? and keep in mind for some, winning leads to new trouble with that. here's randi kaye. >> we want to present to you this check. >> his name was jack whitaker and he is the poster boy for problems often faced by lottery winners. >> i just want to thank god for letting me pick the right numbers. >> on christmas 2002, whitaker won a whopping $314 million. the 55 year old west virginia grandfather took the lump sum payout of 113 million. he had plans to buy a helicopter and start a charitable foundation. >> my biggest problem is going to be keep. keep my granddaughter and daughter from spending all their money in one week.
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>> whitaker, who died in 2020, was proof that money doesn't buy happiness. in the years following his big powerball win, whitaker was charged with drunk driving and allegedly threatened to kill a bar manager. he was sued for alleged sexual assault, had half a million bucks stolen from his car, and lost his granddaughter to drugs. his marriage also ended in 2006. abraham shakespeare won $17 million in a florida jackpot, but the newfound wealth for this on again, off again sanitation worker from florida was short lived. less than three years later, he was murdered by a woman who claimed to be his friend abraham. dorice dee dee moore shot shakespeare twice in the chest and stole his money. his body was found buried under concrete in her back yard. she was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. in 2001, david lee edwards and his future wife shawna won a quarter share of a powerball jackpot. after taxes, they walked away with $27 million. >> i was sincere when i asked
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god to help me because i was desperate. >> in the end, he lost it all and the pair divorced. edwards later died in hospice in 2012, 46 year old urooj khan won $1 million in an illinois lottery scratch off game. but before he could collect it, he was dead. the night he died, khan's wife said she made him dinner at home, then later woke to him screaming in pain. first, doctors said khan died of natural causes, but new information led to his body being exhumed. the cook county medical examiner found a deadly poison in his blood. cyanide. >> bruce khan died of cyanide toxicity, a lethal level of cyanide was detected in the peripheral blood. >> a homicide investigation is still underway, but more than a decade later, nobody has been charged. in khan's death. his wife and family denied any wrongdoing. given how lottery winnings turn out for so many, experts suggest keeping your winnings private. but that's not so easy. because of state
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law, many states require you to go public, but we did check in. at least 18 states do allow you to remain anonymous. still, experts suggest if you do win. the best way to avoid trouble, or even worse, is to seek out reputable legal and financial advice. >> jim randi kaye, thanks so much. coming up next, remembering a sports broadcasting legend. >> one of those soccer, swim and softball after school kind of days, huh? don't stress. hellofresh has dinner covered with tons of delicious recipes you can pull together in no time. no matter what your week looks like. so even on a barely time to eat type of day, you can still get a homemade meal on the table that the whole family will love. hellofresh homemade made easy.
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>> not again. you cold is coming. >> your cold is coming. >> thanks, revere. we really need to keep zicam in the house. >> only if you want to shorten your cold. when you feel a cold coming, shorten it with zicam. >> you make good choices. they've shaped your journey to leave all that your life built. rock solid for generations. with ambition like that, you need someone who elevates advice to a craft. at ubs, we match your vision with insight and expertise to shape a unique outcome for you. advice is our craft. >> if you have heart failure or chronic kidney disease, pozega can help you keep living life because there are places you'd like to be serious. side effects include increased ketones in blood or you're in and bacterial infection between the and genitals, both which may be
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fatal. severe allergic reactions, dehydration, urinary tract or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. stop taking and tell your doctor right away if you have nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, rash, swelling, trouble breathing or swallowing. tell your doctor about lightheadedness, weakness, fever, pain, tenderness, redness or swelling between the and genitals. ask your doctor about vasica today for s. e. cupp. >> nice to meet you. my name is david. >> i've been a pharmacist for 44 years and i'm from flowery branch, georgia. when i have customers come in, i recommend prevention number one because it's safe and effective, does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself, and i know it works. and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me, david, that really worked so good that?
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next. >> sad news tonight the legendary sportscaster greg gumbel has died. his family, in a statement tonight, said he died peacefully after a courageous battle with cancer. over five decades. gumbel was a play by play announcer and studio host at cbs sports and at nbc. he covered the nfl, including several super bowls and also the nba, college basketball, and the olympic games. david berson, the president and ceo of cbs sports, said in a statement that gumbel was, quote, beloved and respected by those of us who had the honor to call him a friend and colleague. greg gumbel was 78 years old. his family, certainly in our thoughts tonight and the news continues. the source with
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