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President Obama and Prime Minister May Meet; Pope Francis to Canonize Mother Teresa. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired September 04, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Live video here of the U.S. president in a meeting with the head of Turkey. Their first meeting since the failed coup. And there we'll have a live report from Hangzhou in just a moment.

Becoming a saint: this portrait of Mother Teresa will soon be displayed at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican at the start of her canonization ceremony in just a few hours.

Also the storm that won't go away: Hermine is expected to strengthen Sunday. Widespread flooding may throw a big damper on U.S. East Coast holiday plans.

It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: Well, as you just saw, the G20 summit is underway in China. The British prime minister and the U.S. president met earlier and say ties between their countries will remain strong, despite Brexit. Theresa May and Barack Obama spoke earlier at the G20 summit in China. It was their first meeting since she became Britain's leader.

And Mr. Obama, again, holding bilateral talks right now with the Turkish president. There he is, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is speaking and this the first time, as I mentioned, that they have met since the failed coup in Turkey.

Mr. Obama does not have an official meeting set with Russian president Vladimir Putin. But if they happen to meet at the summit, the Syrian civil war would likely come up.

Mr. Obama addressed that when he met with the new prime minister of Britain. Our Matt Rivers is joining us now live from Hangzhou. He's covering the summit from there.

Matt, first of all, let's talk about the meeting between the prime minister of Great Britain and President Obama. MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, the first thing that came out from that meeting was a discussion about Brexit. And while there was no announcement of a new trade deal between the United States and Great Britain, both the president and the new prime minister said they were committed to this relationship moving forward and that the British prime minister would do all she could to make sure that the trading relationship that existed between the United States and Great Britain remain strong.

So they were laying the groundwork for the negotiation of a new trade deal. Not entirely unexpected to hear that from the long-time allies. But the other thing really that came out from that joint statement earlier was President Obama was asked about a possible new deal about Syria that could be negotiated here at the G20 between the United States and Russia.

Now both sides have suggested that perhaps a new deal could come to fruition here, about a ceasefire and some kind of cooperation in the ongoing fight against ISIS.

But the president said there remains significant differences between both sides. There's still a large gap. But he did leave open the possibility that there could be some sort of deal reached between both sides although he did express a little bit of hesitation about that.

Let's play some sound that we have with the president talking about this deal.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not there yet. And, understandably, given the previous failures of cessations of hostilities to hold, you know, we approach it with some skepticism.

But it is worth trying to the extent that there are children and women and innocent civilians, who can get food and medical supplies and, you know, get some relief from the constant terror of bombings. That's worth the effort.

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RIVERS: Well, the president went on to say that both sides were not there yet but still that does leave open the possibility that something could be reached here in Hangzhou.

And if something were reached, we're told that Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would be the ones to make that announcement, something that everyone here at the G20 is closely watching for -- Natalie.

ALLEN: All right, Matt Rivers there for us in Hangzhou, China, and we'll continue to stay in close contact with you as there are more developments from the summit. Thank you, Matt.

In the coming hours, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather at the Vatican for the canonization of Mother Teresa. Crowds are already forming; known as the Saint of the Gutters, the Roman Catholic nun devoted her life to helping the poor in India.

She received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in 1979. She died in 1997 at the age of 87.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now from Kolkata, India, where Mother Teresa founded her --

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ALLEN: -- organization, Missionaries of Charity.

And, Alexandra, what's the reaction from people who work in her charity now and who knew her about this upcoming sainthood she's receiving?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Natalie, this city is so closely tied to both the life and the legacy of Mother Teresa. The house behind me is the place where she lived for more than 50 years. It's where she died. It's where her tomb is today. So this is the heart, you would say, of the Catholic center of this city.

And it's a largely Hindu city. So when you talk about that fact that Mother Teresa is becoming a Catholic saint, you have to take into consideration the context of this (INAUDIBLE) city.

But there's clearly a lot of pride from the people here in Kolkata, knowing that this canonization will be happening in Vatican City later this morning, that she will be recognized in the eyes of the Catholic Church as a saint.

But the people here have a regarded her as a living saint through most of her life. And they recognize her for the good deeds and the good works that she did in this city, tending to the poor, the dying, the destitute, the children, the lepers.

That was really her legacy, that was her life's work here, that's what people here want to recognize her for. And they do regard this formal canonization, which is of course based on Catholic regulations that require a saint to have committed miracles in the afterlife, they consider that to be just recognition of her legacy, a further elevation of a woman who they take great pride in.

There are a lot of people who are gathering outside of her house today. They're going to watch the canonization on the big screen that's been set up here. They will have their eyes on what's going on inside Vatican City.

But what we're hearing as people take to the mike this morning in a program that involves local dignitaries is just a certain local pride, a certain national pride. They're saying, "One of us is becoming canonized."

They're saying this is somebody who is of Kolkata; this is someone who they consider to be from Kolkata, even though she's an Albanian nun. And in Kolkata there's just really a tremendous amount of pride in the fact that this is happening. And they do again see it as further cementing her legacy as somebody

who made a very deep impact not only in this city but around the world as her organization, the Missionaries of Charity, spread to 133 different countries -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Absolutely. She was world renowned and she certainly is and was a saint. Thank you, Alexandra Field, for us there in Kolkata, India.

There are no reports of damage after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Southern Philippines and also in the U.S., Tropical Storm Hermine is gaining strength along the East Coast. Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, is following both of these stories for us.

Let's I guess start with the earthquake.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I've been very busy, yes. The earthquake that happened roughly two hours ago. We just want to keep you up to date on this because it was a relatively strong earthquake. It happened in a sparsely populated area.

But, nonetheless, we still /have not found any serious damage from this, which was good news, but it definitely shook the residents there. And just seeing some of the reports on social media.

You have chandeliers swaying from side to side, water inside a bottle shaking as well. Scary moments for anyone to say the least.

Take a look at the graphics and you can see the details about this magnitude 5.9. This occurred at a depth of about 12.4 kilometers in the island of Mindanao which is just to the south in the southern portions of the Philippines.

By the way, Davao City is roughly about 400 kilometers to the south and west of where the epicenter actually took place. This is according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And you can see that roughly 235,000 people felt either strong or very strong shaking out of this magnitude 5.9 earthquake.

And what USGS is able to do is look at previous earthquakes with similar depth and similar magnitude and calculate the estimated projected fatalities from a similar earthquake like this.

And they have put a high probability of having either no fatalities at all or 1-10 fatalities. So something to take into consideration as we continue to assess this situation.

Let's bring you to the other side of the world because if you're traveling to the East Coast of the United States, you want to listen up because, wow, they have had a rough go from Florida to the Carolinas and now Tropical Storm Hermine is exiting the Atlantic Ocean or exiting into the Atlantic Ocean and slowing down, 65 miles per hour sustained winds. That's roughly 100 kilometer per hour winds.

It's considered post tropical. I don't want to get into the detail because that's not important. It's all about how will this impact the major cities along the New England coastline?

As it slows down considerably, it will meander back and forth. Nothing to push this thing on. The wind field is large enough and this is generating large waves as well. They will feel storm surge from Atlantic City into New York as well as the New Jersey Sound and --

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VAN DAM: -- even into Chesapeake Bay, 3-5 feet above normal tide values. And really the bulk of the rain will stay off shore but looking at the wind, you can see that is getting closer and closer. If it gets any further westward, that could be a major concern for Atlantic City to New York City as well.

ALLEN: Beach not the place to be.

VAN DAM: No, not on the holiday weekend here in the States.

ALLEN: Yes, unfortunately. All right, Derek, thanks.

More than 30 people have been arrested in Venezuela for mocking President Nicolas Maduro. Mr. Maduro was inspecting a state housing project when scores of people started banging on pots and pans, jeering him. His popularity has declined as a result of the country's economic crisis. Saturday's arrests followed a massive anti- government protest on Thursday.

Police in the Philippines are looking for three people they want to question about Friday night's deadly explosion in Davao City. The blast killed 14 people at a crowded market and wounded nearly 70 others.

The national police chief says it was caused by an improvised explosive device made of mortar rounds. And he says that points to involvement by extremist groups. People in Davao have been in shock and mourning those they lost. They came to a vigil to lay flowers and pray for the victims of the blast.

Turkey is opening a new line of attack against ISIS in Northern Syria. Turkish tanks helped sweep militants from several villages and rebel forces captured more villages farther east in a separate push around the same time.

Turkey also made headway on a border wall it's building near the Kurdish town of Kobani. Angry demonstrators have been protesting against the wall and clashing with police.

Inside Turkey, officials say security forces killed more than 100 Kurdish PKK militants. And the southeast state media saying at least seven Turkish soldiers were killed.

In neighboring Iraq, security forces dropped thousands of leaflets south of Mosul on Saturday.

The messages read, "Our goal is to clean your town from ISIS soon. Protect yourself. Don't be human shields for the enemy. Leave the town immediately. You don't have enough time."

A warning to people in Mosul.

And finally, Zoo Atlanta is welcoming not one but two newborn giant pandas, little itty-bitty baby pandas. That's 19-year-old Lun Lun, who gave birth to twins Saturday. We're seeing her now with her cubs, the babies those tiny pink things you see.

It's a second set of twins for Lun Lun. They are her sixth and seventh cubs with Zoo Atlanta's Yang Yang, her boyfriend.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next.

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