third gop presidential debate. new air strikes in the syria, u.s. officials calling it a move in self-defense against iran. but also raising questions are u.s. deterrent efforts working? this. >> lights, camera, action, a deal to end the months long actor strike. so when will your favorite shows be back on the air? this i'm john berman with sara sidner and kate bolduan. this is cnn "news central." tick tick tick, the clock ticking for republican presidential hopefuls to make an impact in a race dominated by the front runner former president donald trump. five candidates took the debate stage last night and things got really nasty. they clashed over everything from abortion to foreign policy. trump, though, wasn't there. instead he held his own rally trying to get eyeballs a few miles away. but that didn't stop his republican rivals from finally going after him. >> i'll say this about donald trump. anybody who's going to be spending the next year and a half of their life focused on keeping themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party. >> i can tell you that i think president trump was the right president at the time i don't think he was the right president now. >> he should explain why he didn't have mexico pay for the border wall, why he racked up so much debt. he said republicans are going to get tired of winning, we saw last night i'm sick of republicans losing. >> the attacks weren't just directed at donald trump. they were directed at each other. >> do you want dick cheney in 3 inch heels? we have two of them on stage tonight. >> mr. ramaswamy, thank you. >> i'd like to say they're five inch heels and i don't wear them unless i can run in them. >> she made fun of me for using tiktok, but her own daughter was using tiktok for a long time. so you might want to take care of your own family first. >> leave my daughter out of your voice. >> the next generation of americans are using it. you have her supporters propping her up, that's fine. >> you're just scum. >> that was political wwe in case you missed it. steve joins us from miami this morning. steve, it got quite personal. and did anyone sort of differentiate themselves, though? we're getting down to the smaller group of people who have made it onto the stage, five people, what did you take away from this? >> reporter: sara, with so much turmoil in the world right now, there was a lot of focus last night on foreign policy and a lot of topics there was agreement between the candidates. how much to support israel and the war with hamas. how to handle china and iran as emerging threats. but there were deep divisions over how much the u.s. should be supporting ukraine in its war against russia. you have vivek ramaswamy who says that the u.s. commitment should end and he went so far as to cast e spergss on volodymyr zelenskyy and you have nikki haley saying that rhetoric em emboldens putin, and china. and clinton camhris christie sa turn our back now it's going to turn into world war iii. and then abortion is another issue that was topical given the election results on tuesday night. all the candidates are anti-abortion but how they use the governments to defend that position going forward. there was widespread disagreement. listen to what they had to say about the issue last night. >> when we're looking at this, there are some states going more on the pro-life side i welcome that. there are states more on the pro-choice side i wish that wasn't the case but the people decided. >> we need a 15 week federal limit. three out of four americans agree with a 15 week limit. >> you have to do a better job on the ref renda. all the time that's happened to the pro life cause they are caught flat-footed and they've been losing. >> reporter: now desantis has signed a six week abortion ban in florida. however he has dodged the question whether or not he would support that at the national level. he's kind of flipped a little bit in the second debate he said he would support a 15 week abortion ban if it reached his desk as president. however last night he said it's mostly coming from the states, sara. >> saw what happened on tuesday so we have to watch and see what happens going forward. thank you so much. with me now republican strategist doug high. discuss the ways that this debate altered the course of the race. >> there are no myriad ways. there are zero ways. sara likened this earlier to political wwe. let me quote rick flare the 16 time champion from north carolina who said famously to be the man you have to beat the man. if you look at the polling right now, not just right now, all yearlong donald trump has been the man in the republican primaries. what we've seen is a battle royal of people trying to come in second, or rocket into third place. they're not directly taking on donald trump, worse they're shoring up donald trump's core messaging when he gets indicted, the first time, second time, next time. it's why donald trump is as strong as he is in the primary and everything we saw last night is the political equivalent of one hand clapping. >> lonnie, i can see on the smile on your face you're trying to come up with a rowdy rod dy piper quote. in the absence of that if nikki haley and ron desantis were trying to differentiate themselves, maybe emerge as the clear number two, to what extent did either of them do that? >> i think they're both in the conversation. i think what they made clear is that it is the two of them. it is ron desantis, nikki haley. and everybody else in the field, the time may have come to get out. i think that may have been the message after last night. that may be the single best thing that republicans who do not want donald trump to be their nominee could do. now it may not come quickly enough to make a difference, i think that's the point. but fundamentally what last night was was a demonstration that both ron desantis and nikki haley can be credible candidates as the nominee. i thought ron desantis had a more steady night than the prior debates. nikki haley emerges as someone who can compete in a primary and general election. both did what they needed to do last night but will it matter for the longer term dynamics of the race. and it may not make a difference in terms of how this race develops and who ultimately becomes the nominee if people don't get out of the race now. >> the candidates, except a little bit at the beginning, took on donald trump. do they need to do that more, especially nikki haley and ron desantis? >> i think they need to take on trump. i'm not sure the debate stage is a great place for them to do it. even if if you look at the nature of the arguments put forward, he didn't make mexico pay for the wall he wasn't the same guy as he was before. all the data we have shows us the attacks don't land on donald trump. it doesn't matter. it's hard to attack donald trump from the right. that's the reality of where we are. so for these candidates, yes, they have to go through donald trump. the question is, what is going to be your pathway. the debate stage, again, i don't know if that's the best way to do it. it may be the campaign and superpacks to do more on television, that's maybe what they have to do, and digital me media. but on the debate stage trump isn't conservative enough, didn't do enough, i'm not sure that's the right one. that's why this race is so far, there's not much you can say that will affect conservative voters' mindsets about donald trump as a candidate. >> it's not every debate you have the word scum tossed away. and the dynamic between nikki haley and vivek ramaswamy. i'm curious to what extent she uses him as a proxy for trump to show she's not afraid to mix it up with someone. >> that dynamic is true. we've seen nikki haley in the past have strong debate nights. the challenge is how do you capitalize on that. how do you build momentum from it. you mentioned rowdy roddy piper he said just when you think you know the answers i change the questions. debates are moments you change the answers and what the questions are. that's what you should be dole. we've seen republicans fail to do that. chris christie had a moment, he usually done, in which he capsulated saying donald trump is going to be distracted for next year and a half in courtrooms. it's an argument that's not right or left but a process argument that could work saying we need to be laser focused on beating joe biden next november and donald trump won't be able to. and, in fact, when donald trump gets indicted and gets in trouble they reinforce his core messaging on a two-tiered system of justice or the process is rigged. and donald trump is in a stronger position because his opponents haven't given republican voters anywhere else to go. >> thank you both very much for being with us this morning. kate. let's turn now to the middle east. we have new reporting about u.s. air strikes overnight in syria. the target officials say was a weapons warehouse connected to iran's islamic revolutionary guard corp. the motivation retaliation. u.s. forces in iraq and syria have been targeted 41 times by drones and rocket attacks. alex marquardt is joining us now from d.c. what are officials saying about the air strikes right now? >> reporter: retaliation, sending a warning to iran and its proxies and taking out weapons that have been used they say against u.s. forces across the region. the pentagon is describing this as a strike of self-defense against this irgc and iranian proxy facility in eastern syria. this weapons storage facility. it is aimed to send a strong message of deterrence to iran and iran-backed groups, to not expand the conflict we are seeing in israel and in gaza. they want to send that message, they've been doing so very overtly and covertly. so this strike served the purpose of not just sending that message of deterrence kate but we're also told taking out the weapon tri in that facility. you noted the more than 40 strikes against u.s. forces in the region, a senior defense official is saying they saw explosions after the strike ind indicating there were weapons in the that facility. kate? >> we're hearing about a u.s. military drone being shot down off the coast of yemen. what are you hearing there? >> reporter: this plays into concerns about iran-backed groups. hoothys are some of the most capable iran backed proxies in the region. we understand they were able to take down a sophisticated drone called an mq9 reaper. the pentagon said it was in international airspace, over international waters it shows the capabilities they have to take it down. not the first time they've taken down a drone. it does follow the firing of drones and missiles by houthis. that the u.s. had to strike down. so there's concern how that could play into escalation. so the u.s. is trying to send a message to iran and groups do not get involved with the conflict, doing it with moving the strike missiles in the region and direct conversations with iran and proxies out of the fear that the conflict could expand, kate. >> remains a question are these deterrent efforts enough to do what they hope they do. thank you alex so much. just in to cnn, u.s. intel officials have met with qatar and israel today to discuss new proposals to try to finally get the hostages out of gaza. what we're learning about those conversations just ahead. also former president trump's defense team now has its chance to present their case in the new york civil fraud trial. a look at the potential strategy. and your favorite television shows may finally be back in production soon much to the delight of actors across the country. listen. >> i'm so happy! i'm so happy! my god. >> i mean, that's some good acting right there, i think. what's inside the tentative billion dollar deal with hollywood studios. that's next. breaking overnight in a historic and grueling strike in hollywood is over. after 118 days sag-aftra announced a tentative agreement with the studios giving 160,000 actors the okay to return to work. officials call the scope of the billion dollar deal extraordinary. >> all of our fabulous actors can get back to work and it is a great deal. we voted unanimously to approve it. we're really excited about the a.i. protections and many other things that we fought hard for. >> cnn media analyst sara fisher is with us now. what did they get, sara? >> reporter: it's a huge deal, john. so this contract sees wage increases at a level that hasn't been done in 40 years. the streaming war right now has made it so actors really wanted compensation for some of those titles they're going to get it. and the big thing of course is that a.i. is included in this deal. a.i. has never been mentioned in an actor agreement with studios before. they're going to get protections, compensation and require consent to use an actor's likeness in a.i. >> what do the studios get out of this? it seems as if the actors got almost everything they were striking for. >> reporter: they did. they really did. the studios honestly get back to work. that's the big thing. you had some companies suggesting they could lose up to $500 million in profit this year alone, john. a lot of them had to move the big blockbusters out of the fourth quarter, so for them they get to go back to normal and a lot of pressure from wall street for the entertainment companies to get money. >> when do i get new episodes of matlock. i jest it's not matlock. when do we get the new shows? the. >> first of all they have to ratify the contract which means the union members have to vote to approve it. once that happens we look at thanksgiving and the holiday season and ramp up in terms of booking venues and getting sets moved. so i don't think we get into real production until january and you can see shows come back in the first quarter, which is great but i know people are eager to get them back now. >> you've been on it from the beginning, sara, thanks for helping us understand the deal. israeli troops expand their ground operations in the heart of gaza city. large explosions and air strikes can be seen and felt near the border and inside of gaza, plumes of smoke rose from the gaza skyline just this morning. in the past day, the israeli military claimed to have killed a hamas commander in p an air strike. struck anti-tank missiles, launching posts and taking care of a hamas military strong hold and destroyed 130 underground tunnel shafts we have not, at cnn, been able to verify some of the claims. this is while tens of thousands of people in northern gaza continue to flee what is being called a fierce combat zone. today's six hour evacuation window just closed this hour. cnn's jeremy diamond is joining us from tel aviv. we're learning new information about the hostage situation as all of this is still going on there. the bombing still happening, people still leaving. what can you tell us about the conversations happening between u.s. intelligence chiefs and those folks in qatar, the officials there, about what may be some solutions here to getting some of the hostages out? >> reporter: well, sara, as you know, the hostage negotiations have been ongoing for weeks and centered on talks mediated by qatar, involving u.s., israel, and hamas officials as well. we're told today, according to a diplomatic source familiar with the talks that the heads of u.s. and israeli intelligence sat down with qatari officials in doha today to discuss possible releases of hostages. the talks centered on a plan to release 10 to 20 civilian hostages in exchange for a three day pause in the fighting of gaza allowing for additional humanitarian aid in the gaza strip and hamas to compile and share a list of hostages being held inside the gaza strip. this doesn't mean there's an imminent deal that's about to happen here. but it means there are significant talks happening between u.s., israeli, and qatari officials. this is one of the plans potentially being discussed. we don't know yet how realistic it is whether it is something that the israelis or hamas would agree to at this stage. what we know is that israel has made clear it will not agree to a cease-fire unless hostages are released. a significant number of hostages are released. so that's apparently what these discussions are focused on can hamas release a significant number of hostages in order if for israel to agree to a cease-fire. we know that negotiations have also centered on exchanging hostages for palestinian prisoners. that's a point we know has been discussed but all as israel is still pressing forward inside of gaza. we know israeli troops are moving deeper and deeper into gaza city. overnight taking down a hamas strong hold in the western part. so this offensive is moving forward but we have seen an creasing number of palestinian civilians being able to leigh f -- to leave from northern gaza to southern gaza. just yesterday, 50,000 people were able to flee the destruction in northern gaza where we know the humanitarian conditions are worsening, hospitals are shutting down due to a lack of fuel and medical supplies. >> still a humanitarian crisis happening in gaza. we are looking at pictures earlier today of tens of thousands of people fleeing northern gaza to southern gaza. thank you for your reporting there, jeremy. kate? the state has rested. now it's time for donald trump's defense. and it's being described as a, quote, high end brothel network used by elected officials and even military officers. who the justice department is targeting in what it's calling a major sting. we'll be back. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. this morning donald trump's legal team is preparing its defense in the civil fraud case where he has already been found liable for fraud. the new york attorney general's office filed the letter asking the judge to block several of trump's expert witnesses from testifying because the testimony relates to issues already resolved by the judge. the ag's office rested their case after hearing from ivanka trump. cara, what do we expect to see now and what clues do we have about the trump defense strategy? >> reporter: john, this morning it's arguments over the motions and trump lawyers are going to ask the judge for a directed verdict to say the ag's office didn't prove their case and find in trump's favor. that's a hail mary because the judge found that trump's financial statements are are fraudule fraudulent and said already he thinks there's enough evidence. and then trump's team will be calling as soon as monday, the attorney general's office wants to block four of the expert witnesses saying the valuations and accounting rules they're going to talk about is something that's been reresolved by the judge when he found the values placed on the properties were fraudulent. that will take up the bullk of the day. and donald trump's defense team said they're going to call eric and donald trump jr. and bankers, who are going to say they did their own due diligence when making these loans. it's up to the ag's office to say the banks issued the loans after receiving the fraudulent financial statements and relied on them in some way. ivanka trump wrapping her testimony yesterday and during the cross-examination of her they even got into some of this where she testified the bank was excited to do deals with emthis. they sent a team of bankers down to the golf course in florida before they agreed to underwrite a loan. those were the initial building blocks. and the defense, could go until december 15th, assuming the judge lets the witnes