direct action, president biden says the strikes were defensive, meant as a deterrent. the houthis are vowing to not back down and experts in the region believe them. is this the moment israel s war officially expanded into a regional war. if so, who else might get dragged in. turkish president erdogan slapped the u.s. and the uk for what he called a disproportionate use of force and so did iraq, warning such strikes don t deter but rather expand the scope of the war. like hamas and hezbollah, the houthis are backed by iran to which the white house issued another warning this morning. here was nfc s john kirby. we re not looking for conflict with iran, and there s no reason to escalate beyond what happened over the last few days by the houthis, they are the ones who have been escalating. we re not looking for conflict with iran. that said, we know that iran supports the houthis, we know that they supply them with the missiles and drones, the same things they have been using
with christmas eventually cancelled in bethlehem, we ll get a live report from that region coming up. former president donald trump releasing a new ad in states where primaries are set to begin in weeks. could he be worrying about his opponent s gaining ground? plus, 2023 was a year of weather extremes. record heat across the country, with phoenix sweltering for 31 days with temperatures over 100 degrees. and from blue ivy to barbie, some of the moments that blew up on social media this year. all that coming up. we begin with the escalation in the israel-hamas war. right now, the israelis are fighting on multiple fronts. first in gaza, where idf forces are taking casualties as ground and air operations killed dozens of palestinians, including civilians caught in the cross fire. israeli troops are also taking fire to the north in fresh exchanges with hezbollah forces while iran-backed militants in yemen ramp up attacks on u.s. military and commercial ships, all signs
hamas war escalating just days after the u.n. approved a watered down resolution calling for aid to the embattled region as the toll of the war caused christmas celebrations to be canceled in bethlehem. and getting down to the wire in iowa where a gop presidential candidate spent the holiday weekend trying win over voters. did he make any headway? we re going to find out. and if you ve been dreaming of a white christmas, you re probably going to be disappointed. we re going to tell you why most people around the country will just have to keep dreaming. we begin this hour with the growing fight over whether former president trump can claim immunity to election interference charges. trump s legal team filed a brief with a federal appeals court in washington over the weekend asking it to toss out the federal election interference case against him. his lawyers arguing quote this. president trump has absolute immunity from prosecution for his official acts as president. so, they s
life and how that should be private and he said that any conversation we do have in future with the other parts of the family should remain private. the buffalo bills win in their emotional return to the field. hospitalized teammate damar hamlin tweeting play-by-play reactions. just wanted to come out and play free, play loose, play for him. and obviously the first kickoff you couldn t have scripted any better. i m pamela brown in washington. you are live in the cnn newsroom . tonight, election deniers in brazil break down the barricades and take over the heart of the country s government, the congress, the supreme court and the presidential palace. and now a senior government official vows to punish those involved saying, i m in the field walking on the streets and personally commanding the security forces fulfilling the mission i received from the president of the republic. nobody will go unpunished. the democratic rule of law will not be walled up by criminals.
around the world. max foster is on world assignment today. just ahead on cnn newsroom what happened on sunday shows that brazil is clearly a deeply divided and polarized country. this was a crowd whipped into a frenzy by a leader that refused to accept an election result. the president spechbding the day with border patrol agents and elected officials. this is the reality on the ground right now. we re anticipating some very intense weather coming in. trees down, degree in the roadways, flooding, and we ve seen people lose their lives. it is monday, january 9th, 9:00 a.m. here in london, 6:00 a.m. in the brazilian capital where hundreds of supporters of the president have been arrested after storming key government buildings including congress. the protest drawing comparisons to the january 6th riots at the u.s. capitol. hours ago the president surveyed the damage from sunday s unrest which also took place from the supreme court and the presidential palace