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Crane Collapsed at the Grand Mosque in Mecca; Historic Flooding Hits Japan; Britain's Labour Party Will Pick a New Leader; Serena Williams's Hopes for a Grand Slam Crushed. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired September 12, 2015 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[02:00:10] LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: A catastrophe in Islam's holiest site where a bad storm is being blamed for a crane collapse at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. It's left more than 100 people dead.

Plus Japan ordered tens of thousands to evacuate because of rising flood waters. We'll take you live to one of the hardest hit cities.

And could this man be the UK's next opposition leader. With an announcement only hours away, we ask who is Jeremy Corbyn?

Hello, I'm Lynda Kinkade and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

We begin in Saudi Arabia where an investigation is underway after a crane collapsed on the Grand Mosque in Mecca killing at least 107 people. More than 200 people were injured when the crane came down during a storm around 5:30 p.m. local time on Friday. The tragedy struck 10 days before the Hajj which is the annual pilgrimage which draws millions of visitors to the mosque.

Senior international correspondent Nick Payton Walsh has the details.

NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Saudi officials clear the reason behind this tragic collapse of a crane over what is becoming an increasingly busy construction site around the Grand Mosque was bad weather, rain, severe rain and heavy winds that cause the temperature according to CNN's weather experts to drop from 42 degrees centigrade to 25. So powerful were these gusts.

Now this is the holiest site for the Muslim faith. It contains the Kaaba, a key black cube which was said to be the beginning place of worship. Around which to complete the Hajj pilgrimage, Muslims or able-bodied must travel to Mecca walk around the Kaaba seven times counter-clockwise. The Grand Mosque is a building that surrounds it. It's being expanded at a fast pace to try and cope with over two million people potentially at just one time. And this tragic event came just about ten days away from the beginning of 2015's Hajj.

Already over 850,000 pilgrims recorded inside Mecca traveling for this most sacred of occasions in the Muslim calendar. Now the figures have risen quickly over the first hours after which the disaster occurred but many of course now still working around the wreckage to give as much treatment at anyone who may have been injured from the collapsing crane. The picture showing how tall lumps of concrete down with it. This is such a busy construction site. And so Saudi officials now, they'll determine whether it was behind the crane falling. They'll also be looking into quite the level of safety adhered to that particular site.

But already condolences coming in from the French Foreign Ministry, who assure Saudi authorities and people that they are with them in solidarity at this very tragic time. The Indian Exterior Ministry saying that some Indian pilgrims were in fact among the injured. This is an international event, not just purely one for Saudi Arabia.

But it is such a vital and sacred moment for the Muslim faith and to see the terror that you can hear in the background of the amateur videos that captured the event itself. It just shows you really how this will sadly, I'm sure, overshadow this year's Hajj and of course alter irrevocably the lives of those injured and know those who died today. A very tragic moment indeed.

Nick Payton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.

KINKADE: Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now to talk more about this. And Derek if the weather caused this crane to collapse, why are all the other cranes still standing.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You look at some of the video of footage there. And there are several cranes in and around the Grand Mosque there in Mecca. And just take a look at the footage. And I think to answer your question, Lynda, the best answer I can give here is that they certainly need to have a thorough investigation of what happened because look at that.

It's clear that the winds were strong. I mean, you can see the wind and the precipitation associated with the intense thunderstorm that moved through. But why is it that only one crane fell and not the other cranes? It's a good question. And I'm sure those answers will come out in the upcoming investigation and subsequent days after that.

But I want to talk about the weather that took place during that time. Here's a radar or a satellite estimated thunderstorm activity over the western sections of Saudi Arabia. There is Mecca and the Red Sea. You can see that intense shading of yellow and red that's indicating the higher cloud tops and the thunderstorm that formed there.

And this is a satellite loop. So this is actually what took place. And I want you to notice this little rotation in the cloud cover. That is called a surface low pressure system. So let me draw that on here so you can see what it does.

There is the low, counter-clockwise rotation in the cloud cover, that also spins off this trigger mechanism, which is a cold front that allows for that up draft to form with the thunderstorm. There it is. Moving across Mecca, locally right around 5:00.

[02:05:11] Remember the -- 5:23 p.m., in the evening, was the time of the actual collapse. And then you can see the thunderstorm just basically dissipate as that cold front and subsequent low pressure dissipated as well. But what's amazing about this is temperatures drop with this cold front over 15 degrees in a period of two hours.

I mean, I find this absolutely astounding to see the capability of Mother Nature to change its weather condition so drastically and so quickly. Basically with thunderstorms, they have a very cold, intense downdraft that occurs with the rainfall. And that spreads out in all directions. And with these intense thunderstorms, in a typically dry area, that wind as it reaches the surface of the ground spreads out and it can become very intense. In fact, some of the reported wind gusts in that area were well over 40, even 50 kilometers per hour. So that's enough to bring down a crane.

KINKADE: Pretty strong, especially, if it perhaps wasn't fitting in on even ground.

VAN DAM: Or it wasn't secured properly.

KINKADE: Good point.

VAN DAM: That will call an investigation

KINKADE: Good point. Derek Van Dam, thank you.

VAN DAM: Thanks.

KINKADE: Well, Friday is when the mosque is most crowded, making the timing of this collapse that much worse. But this isn't the first time disaster has struck there.

CNN's Isha Sesay reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mecca's Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in the world. It's often most crowded on Fridays, the Muslim weekly day of prayer.

The mosque surrounds Islam's holy site, the Kaaba. A massive, cube- shaped shrine visited by millions of worshippers every year. Most of them come during the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca due to begin later this month.

Performing the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, required of every Muslim who is physically and financially able to make the journey, at least once in his or her life.

Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure to accommodate the huge numbers of people who take part in the Hajj. A massive expansion project is currently under way at the holy site, increasing the area of the Mosque by more than 400,000 square meters so it can accommodate some two million people at once.

The Saudis are also building new bridges, fly overs and tunnels around the site. The Hajj has largely been incident-free during the past few years, but a 2006 stampede killed at least 363 people. Another stampede in 2004 killed more than 250 Muslim pilgrims. The reason infrastructure improvements had helped make the Hajj safer in the past decade.

Isha Sesay, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Japanese emergency officials are warning nearly three million people in north eastern Japan to be prepared to evacuate if orders come. Historic flooding has hit the region over the past few days.

In just 24 hours, some areas have received more than double the amount of rain they normally get for all of September.

Will Ripley is following the developments and joins us now from Joso City. One of the hardest hit areas. It's about 45 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

Will, you have been speaking to people that have been rescued. Explain what they are telling you.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, people are very grateful that they survived this and that their families are OK. But, obviously, when this water goes down fully and they get back to their home, it's going to be quite a task ahead.

But the urgent need right now is to find the people who are still missing. And here in Joso City, we know that there are still more than a dozen people missing. You can see, this is the boat rescue that has been happening 24 hours a day on the back of this military truck.

There is a whole stack of boats that the Japanese Self Defense Force troops will be using. And you can see they are over here right now getting ready to deploy on another mission. This is a marine amphibious vehicle. This is something where they can drive right into the floodwaters. And they can deploy a large number of boats then.

What they are going is they are going house to house and they still have the aerial rescue ongoing, but they're also trying to actually search through buildings where they don't know if anybody is inside or not just to make sure that everybody made it out. Meanwhile those helicopters also are still in the air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): Japanese military helicopters deploy at daybreak searching for hundreds stranded in waterlogged Joso City. Dozens spent the night at this shopping center, rescued from the rooftop and places like this. One of 100 emergency relief centers caring for people like Hideko Yamamoto (ph), trapped on the second floor of her home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RIPLEY (on-camera): Up to here. The water. Wow.

But you are OK?

(voice-over) She says the water rose quickly, barely enough time to save the sewing machine she uses to make a living.

[02:10:02] "The water was completely black," she says.

Fast-moving floods took many by surprise. Transforming entire neighborhoods into islands.

(on-camera) That's your car right there?

(voice-over) Jin Kakuchi (ph) had no choice but to roll up his pants and wade home.

"I didn't know how bad it was," he says.

(on-camera) Even the rescue workers can be taken by surprise. Look at this. This is a police rescue vehicle that actually got stuck.

(voice-over) Property damage from the wall of water, staggering. Thousands of flooded buildings, submerged cars, infrastructure washed away along with people's livelihoods.

"I'm worried about the rice," says Shigeyo Tirada (ph).

Fields full of Japan's top crop wiped out. Just one month before the harvest. Destruction this lifelong rice farmer has never seen in his 66 years.

"The water is very scary," he says. That's why the ancient people named this river Kinugawa, it means, demons wrath.

For tens of thousands in its path, the river finally lived up to its name.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Right now we know that there are dozens of people who still need to be rescued and many of them will be brought into this area by boat. We have these disaster management personnel on stand by including, you see, a doctor ready to provide medical treatment to anybody who may be injured. Then this people will go to one of 100 emergency evacuation centers that have been set up throughout this region.

They continue to offer food, water, medicine, and dry clothing. Whatever people need. And there thousands of people who continue to be in need right now. But I do want to show you a piece of video that we shot earlier. When this vehicle behind me rolled up this amphibious vehicle on board, we saw a family and a dog as well. So we wanted to chat with them.

It turns out the Hirosi (ph) family, they got out OK a couple of days ago, but they knew that their pet, they had to leave their pet behind. And Choppy (ph) was his name, I think.

He was standing on a pile of wet logs. They spotted him. They asked the soldiers here if they could go back and rescue him. And so they brought them back today. They brought back Choppy (ph) by boat. Reunited him with their elderly parents who are both in their mid 80s. Very, very happy that the family is back together even though their house is a total lost.

They were still smiling today, Lynda. So at least a nice scene out here in the midst of really so much destruction. And you can see the water still inundating so many neighborhoods here.

KINKADE: It's good to hear that Choppy (ph) is OK, Will and his family. Will Ripley in Joso. Thank you very much.

Well, Germany has 4,000 troops on stand by to help breathe another huge influx of migrants on the way. The German Defense Minister said the soldiers will be waiting to help in case of emergency with 40,000 migrants and refugees expected very soon. Parts of Germany are already struggling to cope with the surge of people coming across its border.

Meantime, this video out of Hungary has sparked outrage. It shows offices throwing sandwiches to migrants, scrambling for food at a registration center. Police say they are investigating.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is standing by his country's police force. He says they have done an excellent job handling people who he says refuse to cooperate with authorities.

Still to come, now that the Six Powers have agreed on nuclear deal with Iran and that deal is moving forward in the U.S., most Iranians are reacting with optimism. We will look at what they stand to gain.

Plus, Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump started out as political outsiders. Now each is a sensation in his own country, but the similarities don't end there. More on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:16:00] KINKADE: Across the United States, people marked the anniversary of the deadliest terror attacks on American soil. The September 11 attacks happened 14 years ago.

In New York, pillars of light from the site of the World Trade Center towers rose into the sky. The display honored the nearly 3,000 lives lost when terrorists hijacked and crashed four passenger planes on that unforgettable day.

Oil prices have been dropping for months. Now Goldman Sachs says the chance of oil plunging to $20 a barrel is rising. The investment firm said that's the worst case scenario for the oil producing countries, but it could happen if a massive supply growth continues to the end of 2016. Goldman Sachs projects an average price of $45 a barrel next year. That's down from its previous forecast of $57. Analysts say the surplus is larger than expected and prices will remain lower for longer.

The Obama administration is expected to begin implementing terms of the nuclear deal with Iran later this month. The Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday helped two votes aimed at airing the majorities' disapproval of the pact. The votes were only symbolic coming one day after the Senate secured the deal's future.

And as CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reports, the news is being met with optimism in mainstream Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): The nuclear agreement remains the biggest topic here in Iran and certainly all eyes here in this country. This week we're on U.S. Congress and the votes that took place there. And needless to say that the majority of Iranians were very pleased with the way things went down there.

Now the largest parts of Iranians want this nuclear agreement. They certainly want the sanctions relief that is bound to come with it. And many here have quite an optimism believing that the country's economy will take off once the majority of the sanctions against this country are lifted.

Now all of that is not to say that the nuclear agreement isn't also somewhat controversial here. You have some very powerful minority groups that are skeptical of the nuclear agreement and that they feel that the Iranians gave up too much in the negotiations.

Among them are the conservative clergy, as well as large parts of the military leadership as well, including the very powerful Revolutionary Guard. Now those groups are also the staunchest and biggest backers of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

And he, of course, made some comments this week that angered many in the international community saying, on the one hand, that the U.S. is still considered the great Satan here in Iran and that there would be no negotiations with America beyond a nuclear agreement. And also saying that he believe that Israel would not exist within the next 25 years.

Now all of this, of course, is something that here is not necessarily what the mainstream thinks. However, again, these powerful groups are the ones that do control large parts of public life here in this country.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Still in U.S. politics, Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is dropping his bid for the White House. He is the first well-known casualty in the crowded Republican race. Perry made the announcement, Friday, in St. Louis, Missouri and managed to sneak in a not-so-subtle swipe at Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY, (R-TX) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot indulge nativist appeals that divide the nation further. The answer to our current divider-in-chief is not to elect a Republican divider- in-chief.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Perry has been near the bottom of opinion polls over the course of his presidential campaign which lasted just 100 days.

Four months after a bruising election defeat, Britain's Labour Party will pick its new leader in just a few hours. Expectations are high that it will be left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn, who has become a political sensation in the UK.

And while his policies are noticeably different from the political sensation of the moment in the U.S., that is of course Donald Trump, the two have more in common than you may think.

Max Foster explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:20:10] MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two countries, two contests, two very different candidates. The man on the left, Jeremy Corbyn is an idealist, socialist, strict vegetarian and he wants to become the leader of the UK's Labour Party.

The man on the right, Donald Trump, pragmatist, billionaire, TV personality. He wants to win the Republican nomination for president.

Whilst they might seem miles apart in political terms, they are both maverick, anti-establishment figures and if you believe the polls, they are both in the lead.

JEREMY CORBYN, UK LABOUR PARTY LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE: First of all, apologies that not everybody can get into the ball tonight.

FOSTER: And if you haven't heard of Jeremy Corbyn before, well, neither had many people in Britain before this summer.

Now this bearded 66-year-old packs out every venue he speaks at.

CORBYN: People have had enough of the politics of abuse and the politics of control. This is about the politics of democracy.

FOSTER: And he seemed to have gained a big following amongst millennials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a lot of young people who have become disengaged in politics. He's someone that young people can relate to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not the politics of envy. It's not the politics of fear. It's the politics of hope. FOSTER: In the U.S., Donald Trump's plain speaking style also has popular appeal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main reason why I support Trump is because he's not a politically correct person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is loud, he is boisterous and I want to hear somebody with a little guts to say yes.

FOSTER: Observers say both Trump and Corbyn are tapping into the same emotions.

PHILIP STEPHENS, CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES: I think what's given these parties and these individuals momentum is the austerity that followed the 2007, 2008 financial crash and the belief that's flowed from that. That globalization and international capitalism is basically there for the rich, for the one percent.

JANET DALEY, COLUMNIST, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The governing class has become of a professional club and there is a tendency to think maybe this is some sort of conspiracy against the people.

CORBYN: Well, this process of austerity is enriching the riches.

FOSTER: So could these two outsiders go all the way? Will we ever see President Trump welcoming Prime Minister Corbyn to the White House?

STEPHENS: I think the idea of Corbyn as prime minister of Britain is preposterous. I also think perhaps I'll be proved wrong. The idea of Donald Trump as president of the United States is preposterous. But they can damage, deeply damage the existing establishment parties.

FOSTER: However far they get in their campaigns, Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn and others like them are putting passion and polarization back into politics.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Still to come, newly released video shows how a former U.S. tennis star was mistaken for a criminal in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Welcome back. Serena Williams's hopes for a calendar year Grand Slam in 2015 have been crushed. The U.S. Open win would have given tennis' top-ranked player the fourth Grand Slam tournament victory in 2015 to match Steffi Graf's feat in 1988.

The Williams was upset Friday in her semi-final match with Italy's Roberta Vinci. Vinci will meet fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta on Saturday's final.

And on the men's side, second seed Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated countryman Stan Wawrinka in their semi-final match. Federer will face top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the men's final on Sunday.

Retired U.S. tennis star James Blake was on his way to the U.S. Open this week when he was abruptly taken down without warning by a New York police officer. The vision is quite amazing.

As CNN's Boris Sanchez reports, the New York police department released this surveillance video and it seems to support Blake's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The New York Police department now investigating one of their own after former pro-tennis star James Blake was mistakenly tackled and handcuffed by Officer James Frascatore outside Blake's mid-town Manhattan hotel.

JAMES BLAKE, FORMER PRO-TENNIS STAR: He picked me up and body slammed me and put me on the ground and told me I turn over and shut my mouth. There's not a badge in any way showing, not around his neck, not around his belt, anything.

SANCHEZ: Frascatore has been placed on desk duty. His gun and badge taken away pending the results of an internal affairs investigation. CNN has learned this is not the first time Frascatore has been accused of excessive force.

According to court documents, the officer was involved in two separate incidents in 2013. In both cases, Frascatore was accused of beating suspects, attempts to reach the officer were met with no response. A representative from the patrolman's benevolent association declined to comment on pending litigation, but did offer a statement.

Quote, "Placing this officer on modified duty is premature and unwarranted. No police officer should ever face punitive action before a complete review of the facts."

What would you like to hear from him?

BLAKE: An apology.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shouldn't thought it would happen.

SANCHEZ: Though he initially defended the officers saying that Blake fit the description of a suspect, New York City police commissioner Bill Bratton later apologized.

WILLIAM BRATTON, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, I had the opportunity yesterday to speak to Mr. Blake on the phone with his attorney and his agent. He agreed to meet with our internal affairs investigators to help us facilitate, move the investigation forward. At this time, I see this as a case of excessive force, inappropriate force.

SANCHEZ: The mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio also attempting to make amends.

BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I want to apologize to him on behalf of the City of New York. This shouldn't happen. And he shouldn't have been treated this way.

Boris Sanchez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: That does today's edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. "MainSail" starts shortly. But, first, we'll be back with your headlines. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)