Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Canada's Monster Wildfire Doubles Within Last 24 Hours; Alberta Residents Continue To Flee The Blaze; Kim Jong-un Says North Korea Won't Use Nuclear Weapons Unless "Sovereignty Is Threatened"; Presidential Showdown Between Clinton And Trump. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired May 08, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:11] NATALIE ALLEN, ANCHOR: Canada's monster wildfire, doubled in size in just 24 hours and it's still growing. We'll bring you the latest at Alberta residence continue to flee.

Kim Jong-un say's North Korea won't use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is threatened. Our Will Ripley is in Pyongyang.

And as a presidential showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was ever more likely will consider the ways of billionaire might confront its competition. It's all ahead here on CNN Newsroom, thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

Our top story, the wildfire continuing to rage in Western Canada, it has gained more ground, and now threatens a neighboring province. Alberta government officials they claim now cover some 200 square kilometers. The fire has destroyed the entire Fort McMurray community. These photos from the international space station show the shear size of this fire. Wind is expanding the flames to the northeast and they cold soon reach neighboring Saskatchewan Province.

Our Dan Simon has been following developments, from Fort McMurray.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can see some of the thick smoke behind me. This fire is still very much of our control and you still have so many people who are evacuated nearly 90,000 people evacuated. That is an unprecedented situation here in Canada.

In terms of the weather, it's pretty hot today, the conditions remain dry, it can be windy, so terrible conditions for fighting this fire. There is a chance that there could be rain in the forecast tomorrow, so that will be welcome news, but even if it does rain, this fire is going to go on for some time perhaps several weeks. In terms of the damage, the numbers were staggering 1600 homes, and businesses destroyed, most of that destruction in the Fort McMurray community.

All the people who have been evacuated, a lot of them are staying at shelters. Of course many also staying with relatives, but if that's an option, if you can't stay with a friend or a family member, perhaps you're going to a hotel, but it's pretty much impossible to find a hotel room in the area. Of course, people are anxious. They want to know if they have a home to go back to, and right now they're just dealing with them now. They're trying to get the essentials in place. Food, shelter and water, as this fire continues in Canada. Dan Simon, CNN, Fort McMurray, Canada.

ALLEN: Our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is following the fire conditions, they may get some rain but, will that help?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not enough to deluge the flames. That's for sure. The winds will pick up before it drops off on the day late on Sunday. And there are cooler temperatures coming that way as well. So, there are few factors here but nonetheless this is extreme fire conditions. It will burn regardless of what type of weather is happening within Alberta at the moment.

I want to put this in the perspective of once again, did the map a few moments ago. This fire, 2,000 square kilometers, it is comparable to adding up the square kilometer of Boston, Chicago and Houston. This thing is massive, and it's no wonder as you can see the thing from the international space station of all things.

Look at this plume of smoke that has traveled so far south that even saw at here in Atlanta Georgia. And the Southeastern United States. More on that in just a second.

Look at this, this is highway 63. We've been talking about this because this is where authorities have been leading the convoy of evacuees in and out of the Fort McMurray region. You can see there's the smoke blanketing the horizon. Now that really is the only way in or out of that particular city.

Now, what I've done here is I've zoomed in the Fort McMurray. Here's Interstate 63 or highway 63, running North to south through Alberta and into Fort McMurray, and these are all the hot spots that have taken place. The 200 square kilometers of burned area, notice fire spreading through the north and east as well. Thanks to the wind directions, by the way, that shading of red or the red dots that indicates the fires that have flared up within the past six hours or so.

But there is some relief insight, look at the fire dangerous starting to be suppressed over the next 24 to 48 hours. We have a cold front sweeping through, but this doesn't diminish the threat of fires across Alberta or even neighbor in Saskatchewan. It is extremely drives extremely timber. And we have the potential for these fires to continue to spread, especially when winds gust over 50 kilometers per hour.

Temperatures however, have started to cool down in Fort McMurray, only a day time high of 18 today, 12 degrees on Monday to start of the work week.

[02:05:02] And well, that is going to help the firefighters, but I don't think it's going to be the answer because as you know, you talked to somebody earlier, this is the potential to burn for several of weeks if not, months.

ALLEN: It's unreal. All right, Derek thank you. Other news that we're following, North Korean leader Kim Jung-un says he will not use nuclear weapons unless he's nation's sovereignty is threatened. According to state media, he made the remarks to the countries ruling elite at North Koreas first workers party Congress in 36 years. He added that North Korea will be a responsible nuclear power and contribute to non-proliferation efforts.

This is among the first major details to come out of North Koreas biggest political events in decades. The country's ruling elite have been meeting in Pyongyang for a few days now. But as our Will Ripley reports, what's happening inside has been largely kept secret.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Given that North Korea has a reputation for being one of the most secretive countries on earth. It shouldn't come as any surprise that the political process here is also veiled and a real act of transparency to say the least.

The past two days of this historic workers party Congress, the first in 36 years, as we know that it's been happening. In the April 25th, people's house of culture in Pyongyang a building that we are not allowed anywhere close to aside from on the first day we took some pictures form across the street.

We've been taken on sightseeing tours and shown around the city while the work of the party Congress has been happening behind close doors. And each evening now, around 10:00 at night, there's been a surprise news broadcast. And unannounced broadcast, proclaiming to the people what has happened at the parties Congress of that day. It's only about 30 minutes long.

Today, we were told that the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un gave apology speech, although the narrator didn't specify which policy is he talking about other than to say that he's continuing to hold very true to the policy that his late father and grand father before him.

And then we heard form about 10 different party officials form different sectors, that nuclear science, even in textile in manufacturing, all of them saying they wholeheartedly support their supreme leader, and they encourage people to do the same.

So it is really -- although we don't get a whole lot of information, it certainly as a window and into how things work here. The government tells the people what they need to do, what they need to think, and then the people wholeheartedly applaud, and they celebrate what the government and their leader is doing.

Another day of life here in the North Korean capitol.

Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang.

ALLEN: Every single politician in Australia must now run for re- election on July 2nd. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the double Dissolution election Sunday. Both Houses of parliament will be involve (ph) until after the outcome of the election. Mister Turnbull has seeking a mandate for his political coalition. The Philippines presidential election is just a day away in the controversial leading candidate is drawing comparison to Hitler. The vile mayor and presidential front runner Rodrigo Duterte is the favorite to win Mondays race, but the countries current president warns, he's a dictator in the making, much like Germany's Adolf Hitler. Duterte has been accused to running vigilante squads that he killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals.

In the race, for the White House U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sander says that he is the one to beat Donald Trump. He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he's the strongest candidate against the presumptive Republican nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS: I know that Donald Trump is staying up nights worrying about Bernie Sanders. I mean, I now this is just coming from his heart, and I know that he doesn't have any ulterior motive in saying those kinds of things. But let me just give Donald Trump some bad news. And that is number one, if I am the Democratic nominee, I am going to defeat them and defeat them by a very large margin. If I am not the Democratic nominee, I'm going to do everything that I can, to see that he does not get into the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Hillary Clinton is a frequent target of Trump. He's taken to calling her "Crooked Hillary," and attacked her record on women. But now Trump taking aim at her husband, former President Bill Clinton and trying to link her to his infidelities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's married to a man, who was the worse abuser of women in the history of politics. She's married to a man who hurt many women. She's married to a man, who got impeached for lying. He was impeached.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: But that's not the first tie Trump of course has gone after Bill Clintons history to get at Hillary. Jake Tapper looks it all the ways the two leading candidates are likely to try to out due each other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So here are the cards the nation has dealt itself, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. A new CNN/ORC poll shows these two would be the least popular nominees in modern history.

[02:10:03] So in a matchup between the nation's first female nominee and perhaps the most unpredictable candidate ever, the deck would be stacked with wild cards as well.

TRUMP: I haven't even started on her yet. TAPPER: Wild card number one, Donald Trump has given fair warning that his attacks on Clinton will only intensify.

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary and wonderful Donald.

TAPPER: After all, she's now his biggest competition. CNN's newest poll shows Trump lagging behind 41 percent to Clinton's 54 percent in a hypothetical matchup.

TRUMP: She is the worst secretary of state in the history of this country.

TAPPER: But will the kinds of attacks that have worked so effectively for Trump in the Republican primaries ...

TRUMP: The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.

TAPPER: ... work in a general election?

TRUMP: She called me sexist and I hit her with the husband.

TAPPER: When Hillary Clinton called him sexist a few months ago, Donald Trump doubled down, calling out Bill Clinton's infidelity, and Hillary did not put up much of a fight. What will her strategy be now?

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me. He can say whatever he wants to say about me. I could really care less.

TAPPER: Wild card number two, Trump says he will redraw the electoral map by appealing to working-class voters. Trump will likely try to outflank Clinton on the left on trade.

Can industrial states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin turn the election? Romney lost those states in 2012, and so went the race.

Wild card number three, Trump has made many comments that folks have found offensive, but their remarks that have offended women and Latinos might be the most consequential electorally. Just to focus on Latinos, the question is, will this gin up minority turnout in swing states such as Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Florida?

TRUMP: We're going to build a wall.

TAPPER: And then there's wild card number four, the Justice Department.

CLINTON: I never sent or received any material marked classified.

TAPPER: What will the FBI investigation into Clinton's e-mail server turn up? A former State Department staffer has been given immunity and is cooperating, and Clinton will soon be interviewed by the FBI. It's a question terrifying many Democrats.

Jake Tapper, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: And that's our news for now I'm Natalie Allen. Marketplace Africa is next. See you soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:15:22] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to marketplace Africa we cover the biggest economic trend impacting the continent. This week we are focusing on Utopias beer industry. It's an industry that is growing very, very quickly thanks to arising middle class and an influx of international brewing companies.

Walk me over here so we can have a better look at beer consumption in the country according to Euro monitor beer sell in Ethiopia rose at a rate of 30 percent between 2009 and 2013 going from under 300 million to more that $750 million, that is way more that double in such a short phase of time and even though is growth is expected to slow down to 21 percent between now and 2018.

Sell, are actually expected to rise to nearly $2 billion. Both local and international brewers are getting thirsty to get a share of that growth and challenges in the market aren't stopping them for making major investment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what you would expect in most of urban basin. A lot of drinks being poured served and consumed but here in (inaudible) this is a relatively new trend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are now a days with a lot more of disposable income to spend on spirit and beer it's definitely a blooming market.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) seize on that opportunity when he opened this lounge in late 2015 there is one thing he quickly notice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The beer market is very completive, over competitive enough when issued up there. They're establishing players out here and then also no entrance into the market.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New entrance such as global brewing company Diageo who bought state-owned Meta Abo brewery for $225 million in 2012. The company has since spent $144 million to triple the brewing capacity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there's a lot of competition in Ethiopia but also Ethiopia has got one of the lowest battle consumption of alcohol in Africa. So the opportunity for growth is very big.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diageo joined nine beer companies competing for market share in Ethiopia. This includes one of the world's most popular brewing companies Heineken. Like Diageo Heineken entered the market by buying brand the Ethiopia government owned during associative days ended in 1997 but there are challenges. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the big one is access to foreign exchange we fought quite a bit of stuff so that's the big costing that all of us out who are running business in Ethiopia at the moment. I think the second thing is supply chain because we are land looks (ph) that's a big one that we have to deal with.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the main ingredients for most beer is malted barley and there are questions over whether or not Ethiopia can meet rising demand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ethiopia like many African countries is importing some of the barley that goes into the beer industry. In this regard we've been working very closely to the brewers as well as (inaudible) the farmers to make sure that our farmers are actually growing the quality, consistency, and type of barley that the beer industry requires.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to Diageo locally source ingredients come with huge benefit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main strategy towards the conditional theories to compete on quality. We want to make sure that our consumers tasting the beer that we produce. The more we work with local farmers saying the more we are able to source locally it means that we are close to our supplies chain and pay are ingredient are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diageo pledge to source 100 percent of its barley from local farmers for its Meta Abo brewery by the end of 2017. It's a bold commitment considering they only source 65 percent locally now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are giving free financing of seeds fertilizer from our own pockets free of charge. We are giving farmers training and all that is part of the huge model that very beneficial to the farmers but -- this should come up within time. Where, you know, micro financing institutions whose core business is to give free financing for such arrangement coming to the future. So that, you know, we do have sufficient support within that model.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to the World Health Organization Ethiopia per capital consumption of alcohol was that four liters in 2010, not much considering that South Africa was at 11 liters and Nigeria was at 10.

For Ethiopia GDP rose more than 85 percent between 2010 and 2014 creating a growing middle class to beer companies to cater too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Its one of the reasons we bought this property because we truly believe in the potential for growth behind this bar. And like anything goes categories will always show up where opportunities for innovation will allow us to go into other categories that they not exist well, we bought this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diageo hasn't release sales numbers for the Meta Abo brewery but last year Africa accounted with 13 percent of it's more than 15 billion in world wide net sales. With stake up for grab like that, the Ethiopia populations of almost 100 million looks appeasing to Breweries Company for guzzle of the beers will surely continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those beer companies need strong financial backing to survive. It's such a competitive environment. When we come back. We'll hear from the investment group behind one of Ethiopia's largest breweries. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome back everybody. The Abraaj group manages more than $9.5 billion in asset. They focus on emerging markets and say they've invested more than $3 billion in Africa alone. Therefore earlier includes companies such as Dashen Brewery in Ethiopia and the popular West African Dairy Brand, Fan Milk. Wahid Hamid is a partner with the Abraaj group. He's also a former senior vice president of PepsiCo.

Eleni Giokos sat down with Hamid and asked him which sectors have boosted the company's performance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAHID HAMID, FORMER SENIOR VCE PRESIDENT OF PEPSICO: Generally, we focused on conserve a sectors that fairly resilience so they tend to be consumer products. They tend to be consumer financial services, health care education, all sectors that continue grow. So people drink milk or have frozen dairy such as Fan Milk. Products even when all prices are going down because it's part of nutrition in those countries.

ZAIN ASHER:, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In terms of bankable project. There's also a big concern that they aren't enough bankable project. There's a lot of money chasing, you know, opportunities in Africa but they just not investable. Are you experiencing this?

ASHER:: No, I think, you know, generally we're fairly selective so we've got a team on the ground that's been there for almost two decades. So the pretty well and ingrained into the business environment and we find -- so we have to safety out (ph). We have to -- we have a panel and we obviously find the right opportunities that I investable. There are many opportunities that are not but and, you know, hopefully developed in actually finding the ones that are.

ASHER:: How often that's fail? I mean, how often do you invest in project?

HAMID: Well, you know generally a failure rate who are lost something that we're very proud of is that our loss ratio, which means that the money that we got she lost for investors is very low. Its 2 percentage could be probably one of the top five in the industry. And the reason is that if there's a bad opportunity we'd usually gets kick out of the investment process very early before we go in. So generally, once we made an investment we put the resources behind it to make I work.

ASHER:: I'm curios about the returns on the continents because, you know, for it to be commercially viable economically viable, you need to see double digit returns.

HAMID: Yes, high double returns -- that's high double ...

ASHER:: Ah OK, so we're looking at 20 percent. We're looking at ...

HAMID: We're looking at -- well, you know, we don't underwrite anything that doesn't give a gross return of at least 25 percent on the continent. And by the way, I spent a lot of time in growth markets, the emerging markets from Asia to Latin America.

When I saw that looking in Africa, the level of profitability than these companies have is amazing, because these are businesses that are almost virtue and monopolies. It's almost white space in these categories. You can actually define a category and occupy a space that allows you to control pricing and, you know, obtained distribution and scale in a way that's not easy to do now in many other markets.

[02:25:05] ASHER: Yeah. I guess so tell me about some of the interesting projects that you be working on at a moving?

HAMID: Recently we've, you know, Fan Milk is an interesting one so that was a business started 50 years ago by somebody who set up an entire cold chain infrastructure to self frozen dairy to the African consumer the points to sale. So, you know, they have bicycles, with vendors and agents that go out into the streets of the Nigeria, Ghana, called divine (ph) Togo. And basically, provide, you know, nutritious dairy products all frozen through -- from manufacturing, through distribution all the way into the streets.

So that's a very interesting business. There's another business we've invested in South Africa called Libstar which is the largest private label manufacturer in South Africa and we're expanding it into Sub- Saharan Africa.

Now, the large retailers like (inaudible) like growing fairly rapidly and they need people who can manufacture for them and actually help them not only in providing products but in managing the categories and with innovation in marketing. And so, this is the largest business in Africa that can help these retailers grow and expand by providing them the categories and products that they needs. So it's a very exciting business.

ASHER: You've raised $1.5 million for Africa?

HAMID: Yes

ASHER: How much have you made from the continent since you've cooperated?

HAMID: Well, we've actually done over -- I would say if you include North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa about 50 exits in total. So we returned, you know, close to $2 billion, you know, to people from the continent so.

ASHER: That's a really big amount.

HAMID: That's a big amount.

ASHER: Are you expecting those to continue?

HAMID: Yes, absolutely. We're very excited.

(CROSSTALK)

HAMID: We are not -- no because, you know, if you look at the medium term five to seven years demographics of Africa where people don't realize that the average age in Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa is 19 and North Africa is 24. These people have aspirations they're growing, they're consuming and they're organizing.

And so, the trend of growth is not going to stop. I mean the volatility will be there and if you don't have the stomach for it, you shouldn't be in Africa. But the long-term prospects and the medium term prospects are very, very attractive.

ASHER: Hamid also have said, the Abraaj group recently raised $1.4 billion to boost their investment across the continent.

Don't forget the Ethopia Facebook page and our Website people with all of our stories and share your thoughts.

I'm Zain Asher. Thank you so much for watching I'll see you next week in the Market Place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:12] ALLEN: This is CNN News now. Hello, I'm Natalie Allen.