Hello, from CNN, I'm Chris DeBeau with the Five Things You Need to Know for Wednesday, November 8th. It's debate day for 2024 Republicans, after Democrats and issues they support one big on Election Day yesterday. Donald Trump is skipping the debate in Miami, but five Republican presidential candidates will take the stage. Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Vivek Rama-Swami, and Tim Scott have a chance to change the trajectory of the race, with the Iowa caucuses around the corner.
Trump is instead hosting a rally in South Florida not too far from the debate, with his sights set on the 2024 general election. A new CNN poll shows the former president narrowly leads President Joe Biden in a hypothetical rematch, 49 to 45 percent. And even though we're a year out from the election, it's not the only poll to show bad news for Biden. CNN's band Jones explains what most of last night's election results to say about the Democratic Party's 2024 momentum, and Biden's reelection chances writ large.
We've got the cause. We may not have the candidate, right? Washington's the cause, but we may not have the candidate in terms of people's concerns about Biden's age, et cetera. But there is a control.
If this grassroots momentum can be reconnected to Joe Biden, we've got a real Biden chance. Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump is testifying today in the civil fraud trial against her father, her brothers, and their family business in New York. She's no longer a defendant and fiercely tried to avoid taking the stand. Ivanka Trump's being pressed on her role securing financing for properties while she worked at the Trump Organization.
Her testimony comes after the former president took the stand on Monday, in which he badgered the judge and state attorney general with political attacks. Don Jr. and Eric Trump testified last week. The Trump men maintain they did nothing wrong.
New York attorney general LaTisha James said this morning Ivanka will be the last witness in her case. Here's what she expects to hear from Trump's daughter. Mr. Trump will do all that she can to try to separate herself from this corporation, but she's inextricably tied to the Trump Organization.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says, well, Israel cannot occupy Gaza, there may need to be a quote transition period at the end of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Blinken made those comments after a G7 foreign minister's meeting in Tokyo. In response to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments earlier this week, in which he claimed they would have the quote, overall security responsibility in Gaza. Blinken instead laid out America's plan for what he calls durable peace and security.
It is imperative that Palestinian people be central to governance in Gaza and in the West Bank as well. And that again, we don't see a reoccupation. As civilian casualties continue to mount, the G7 foreign minister's voice to their support for humanitarian pauses to allow for aid deliveries, civilian movement, and for the release of hostages. But the group stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.
Ukraine is ready to start the process of joining the European Union. That's what the bloc's executive body said today in a report, nearly 18 months since the EU accepted Ukraine as a candidate state. The country's president, Vladimir Zelensky, applied right before Russia invaded his country. He said today Ukraine deserves membership for their defense of European values.
Talks can't start until certain conditions and issues are met, like fighting corruption. 50 years of panda diplomacy comes to an end. I'll explain next. It's been a hard week and it's been a hard morning.
That was the director of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., which says goodbye to its giant pandas today, as they head back to China. Chinese pandas have been housed at the zoo for more than 50 years, and it was the first zoo in the U.S. to showcase the cuddly-looking animals as part of what's been called panda diplomacy. That's where the animals serve as an envoy of friendship between China and their host country, as part of China's loan program.
But with tensions high between Beijing and Washington, it's not clear if any will be coming back. If you're an animal lover, I'm sorry to say, Zoo Atlanta is now the only place with giant pandas in the U.S. Alright, that's all for now. I'm Krista Bowe, our next episode drops at 5PM Eastern.
Until next time.