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Barack Obama On His Last Tour; Donald Trump Transition Team; France's Nicolas Sarkozy Says Goodbye To Being President; Police Shootings in Cities; Chlorine Gas Killed Families in Aleppo; Trail Derailment in India; British Woman in Dubai's Jail; Corruption Involves President Park Geun-hye in South Korea. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 21, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: His final trip abroad, on the books. The President of the United States wraps up his last overseas trip holding that offers -- office and weighs in on his successor.

Also building up, the cabinet, who Donald Trump is eyeing for the top jobs in his administration after flurry of weekend meetings.

Plus, knocked out of the running, Nicolas Sarkozy says goodbye to his chances of his another term as France's president.

Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN newsroom starts right now.

Three a.m. on the U.S. East coast, Barack Obama is back in Washington now after completing his final foreign trip as President of the United States. During his visits to Greece, Germany and Peru, much of the attention, though, was on Mr. Obama's successor, President-elect Donald Trump.

CNN's Athena Jones reports one area of major concern, is international trade.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Obama in his last press conference on the last leg of his international trip as president once again made the case for trade deals, deals like the Trans-Pacific partnership trade deal, one his successor, President-elect Donald Trump opposes.

President Obama said that deals like TPP, hi-standard deals are important and benefit the U.S. They allow America help write the rules of the road when it comes to trade, and it said that absent U.S. engagement in such deals it allows other countries, countries like China to step in and fill the void, a right rules of the road that do not benefit American companies.

The president also spoke more broadly about the need for continued U.S. engagement on the world stage of calling the U.S. an indispensable nation when it comes to dealing with global issues.

Of course, the president was also asked about domestic politics, he was asked specifically about potential conflicts of interest that President-elect Donald Trump could face because of his business dealings. And while President Obama declined to respond directly to that question, he did talk about how he approached the issue when he was elected president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: We made a decision to liquidate assets that might raise questions about how it would influence policy.

I basically had our accountant put all of our money in treasury bills, the yields, by the way, have not been massive over the course of the last eight years, just because it simplified my life. I did not have to worry about the complexities of whether a decision that I made might even inadvertently benefit me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATHENS: The president also said it was important to him to follow not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law in order to avoid any potential ethics issues.

It was one area, out of many, where the president provided a bit of indirect advice to his successor as he wrapped up this last press conference, a wide ranging press conference on his last major international trip as president. Back to you.

HOWELL: Athena Jones, thank you. Now while in Peru, President Obama also said that he is not optimistic about Syria in the short term. Mr. Obama met briefly with his Russian counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sideline of the APEC Summit.

He said that Ukraine and Syria's conflict did come up in their discussion, but at allegations of Russian influence on the U.S. election did not come up. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The issue of the elections did not come up because that's behind us and I was focused in this brief discussion on moving forward. I had already made very clear to him our concerns around cyber-attacks, generally, as well as specific concerns we had surrounding the DNC hack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:05:03] HOWELL: Mr. Putin, though, did speak about relations when Donald Trump takes office. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (TRANSLATED): As to the newly elected president of the United States, we all clearly understand, everyone knows that there's a big difference between the pre-election rhetoric and actual politics actually in all countries.

He's a newly American president confirms his intention to normalize Russian-U.S. Relations, naturally, I did the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: In the meantime, the President-elect has another likely cabinet pick to announce very soon. A source close to the transition process says that billionaire investor Mr. Wilbur Ross, a man seen here, is being considered for commerce secretary.

CNN's Phil Mattingly has more now on two other high profile meetings with Donald Trump took on Sunday.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a weekend of marathon meetings, meeting after meeting, cabinet potential official, after cabinet potential official, and some advisers in there as well. But it really was all about reading the two leafs trying to get a sense of who will fill out the top positions in the Trump administration.

The President-elect coming to the door greeting every single one of his visitors. But on Sunday, there's a key focus on two individuals, Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani. Obviously, one of the most important early endorsements of Donald Trump's campaign.

But it's fall out of favor in recent weeks and was actually been removed as head of transition team and all of his top allies have gone as well, leaving a lot of question as to whether or not Chris Christie will actually have a job in the Trump administration.

All signs right now are pointing to, no, not so much for Rudy Giuliani, though. The former New York Mayor also a very close confidant, adviser aid to the President-elect throughout the campaign. He's been angling for secretary of state job. We asked the President- elect if that's what he's looking to the mayor for. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT-ELECT: And other thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: A little bit of hedging there, maybe some other position that he may be looking at. And this is all coming in the wake of Saturday's meeting with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential nominee. We are told very definitively is under consideration for that state job.

But we're told from Trump advisers is Donald Trump is very intrigued by the idea, the perception of what it would mean to have Mitt Romney in his administration, particularly in the wake of their 14, 15, 16- month battle back and forth. So, it will be interesting to see how that all plays out. One key

thing to keep an eye on as this week goes on. Starting today, there will be a focus on economic jobs, the economic transition landing teams landing at all the agencies throughout the day. Then domestic policy as well.

Obviously, we're all keeping a very close eye on who the next week cabinet appointments will be. Trump advisers some are coined about that, but definitely making clear announcements will be made soon.

HOWELL: CNN's Phil Mattingly, thank you. The Vice President-elect, Mike Pence says that he's not offended by the surprise political message that he received from the cast of the smash Broadway hit Hamilton, the audience gave Pence a mixed reception when he showed up at the performance on boos, on boos and jeer.

But after the show, one of the actors delivered a statement to the vice President-elect and the rump administration. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON VICTOR DIXON, "HAMILTON" ACTOR: We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights

But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: From that, President-elect Trump was outraged and took to Twitter, tweeting Saturday that Pence was harassed and and that the cast owes Pence an apology and Trump added to that just a little later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(OFF-MIC)

TRUMP: They were very inappropriate. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Pence though, says, the cast was only exercising their right to free speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: I heard the remarks that were made at the end and, you know, what I can tell you, I wasn't offended by what was said, I'll leave to others whether it was the appropriate venue to say it.

But I want to assure people who were disappointed in the election results, people are feeling anxious about this time and the life of our nation, that President-elect Donald Trump meant exactly what he said on election night, that he is going to be the president of all the people of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The actor who delivered the statement tweeted that he appreciates that Pence stopped to listen the statement.

Now, to tell you about a rash of shootings against police officers in the United States happening in several cities, first in San Antonio, Texas.

[03:10:04] An officer was fatally shot making a traffic stop Sunday morning, then in Sanibel, Florida, a similar, another officer injured the same night. In St. Louis, Missouri, an officer was ambushed and shot twice in the head at the same time. And a fourth officer, this time in Gladstone, Missouri, that's near Kansas City, was also shot Sunday evening.

It is still unclear whether there is any connection to the shootings that happened again in these various cities in the United States. Police in North Dakota are reporting a standoff with hundreds of protesters against the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.

Officials say an estimated 400 people are trying to get on to a closed bridge and have set multiple fires in the area. Protesters report that police are spraying the crowd with water cannons and that it's all happening in sub-freezing temperatures.

Those opposing the project say the oil pipeline will contaminate drinking water and that it will destroy sacred tribal land in North Dakota.

The crisis in Syria we continue to follow the situation there, activists say that a barrel bomb lays with chlorine gas killed a family of six people in eastern Aleppo. They all died together.

The death toll also, continues to rise, six straight days of bombing now, and more than 300 people have been killed since Tuesday when the Syrian government launched its new wave of air strikes on rebel-held areas.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is following the story for us live in Amman, Jordan. Jomana, six days of bombing and we're hearing that this is the worst that they have seen since this conflict began five years.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And there's no sign of let up in the violence, George. This horrific violence that we are seeing in rebel-held parts of Aleppo, and also in the regime-held western Aleppo.

Now, before we show you our report about the situation in the city of Aleppo, we want to warn our viewers that some of the images they're about to see are disturbing.

His father in disbelief, in denial that his teenage son is gone, he tried to wake him up. Refusing to hand over to be placed in a body bag. He finally agrees, but clings to his boy's breathless body. "I swear," he is pleading, he says.

The anguish of one father, one family out of hundreds who buried their loved ones in what seems to be a never ending cycle of grief, death, and destruction in eastern Aleppo.

The Syrian regime unleashing a devastating new wave of aerial bombardment this past week. Syrian state media says this is a preliminary operation that includes a ground push on to eastern Aleppo. They described this as being part of zero hour operation going after so-called terrorist groups across the country.

Backed by the military muscle of Russia, the Syrian regime seems to be on the offensive in other parts of the country as well. In this conflict with no red lines, schools on both sides of the front line have been hit.

Hospitals targeted, leaving a desperately needed health sector in eastern Aleppo teetering on the edge of complete collapse. The month- long seize taking its toll on the quarter of a million residents. Aid groups are warning of mass starvation as everything they have is running out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no more water, no more food. We are maybe, we are going to look and everything in the city and foods and water -- we are going to very, very starvation in Aleppo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARADSHEH: Civilians trapped in this living nightmare, terrified and desperate.

And George, the United Nations says it has a humanitarian plan that it has presented to the different parties in that conflict. Now that is not the difficult part. The complicated part here is to get the regime, the rebels and the Russian allies at the regime all to agree to this United Nations plan, something that we have seen fail time and time again and it is the civilians who end up suffering. George.

HOWELL: Civilians who continue to be starved out, bombed out, gassed out, schools targeted and hospitals as well. Jomana Karadsheh following the story in Amman, Jordan. Thank you for the reporting.

[03:15:03] Officials are trying to determine the cause of a deadly train derailment that happened in northern India. Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, we have the very latest on the investigation and the rising death toll.

Plus, the presidential field in France it narrows down more on two men still buying for the conservative nomination and the presidency of that nation as CNN Newsroom continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT REPORTER: Hi, there. I'm Patrick Snell

with your CNN World Sport headlines.

It really has been quite the year for British tennis player Andy Murray, he won his second Wimbledon title, added a second Olympic gold in Rio, and now he can proudly having to the New Year as the youngest featured world number one after beating Novak Djokovic Sunday at the ATP World Tour finals in England winning 6-3, 6-4.

The Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson Sunday having quite the year too. He won the Open championship in July, he won a silver medal at the Olympics and Sunday was looking to win the European golf procedures and raced to buy crown for the second time in three years.

Stenson doing what he had to do then to seal the European Tour Order of Merit after holding up his rival, the 40-year-ol closing with 7 under 65 to seal in his style to keep nearest challenge Danny Willet at bay and another triumphant to add to his 2013 title.

And finally, we head to the top of the table in England Premier League a position where you'll now find Chelsea Football Club sitting pretty after the blues reported a slender 1-nil victory at Middleborough on Sunday.

The only goal of the game coming just four minutes before the half time break and it came from Diego Costa, the Spaniard's tenth of the season, too. And as it turned out it was enough to send the men from West London home with at all three points at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday.

Thanks for joining us. That's a look at your sports headlines. I'm Patrick Snell.

HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm George Howell.

In India, an investigation is underway in to what caused the deadly train derailment in the northern part of that country. The death toll now stands at 142 people killed in the incident, 14 cars of the 23-car carriage train jumped the tracks early Sunday.

Dozens more people were injured and what's become India's deadliest train wreck that happened in six years.

CNN's Mallika Kapur is following the story live in Hong Kong this hour. Mallika, good to have you with us. If you could, just explain to our viewers around the world where things stand now when it comes to identifying the dead and also looking to see if there might be other survivors.

[03:20:04] MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities are saying that there are no more survivors. They have completed the rescue operation, the area of the train crash has been cleared. And as you mentioned, the death toll, unfortunately, the number is very grim, it is 142 people confirmed dead.

Out of those 142 people, they have been able to identify most of the bodies. They have been able to identify 110 victims. This death toll, as high as it is, may continue to rise even further, George, and that's because many more people are in the hospital and being treated for their injuries.

We did hear from authorities, 49 people are still in the hospital, some of them are seriously injured, so we won't be surprised if we do see this number of 142 people dead continuing to rise.

So, the search and rescue operation has been completed and the death toll at 142. The question now turns to what caused such a horrible train crash to occur in the first place.

Now, the junior railway minister he said a few hours ago that on preliminary investigation, it seems it may have been caused by a fracture on the tracks, a formal investigation has been ordered, but at the moment it does look like it could have been caused by a fracture on the tracks, George.

HOWELL: Fracture on the tracks. You know, this reminds me just of the issue of transportation infrastructure in India. I think back just a couple of months back to the overpass that collapsed and so many people killed and injured in that situation. And now this train derailment. Talk to us about why these accidents like this train accident why they are so common in India.

KAPUR: Yes. Infrastructure does remain sort of the weakest link in India's growth story. And it's always been a recurring problem, you mentioned the highway, the overpass that collapsed in Kolkata just a few months ago, train accidents, like this, unfortunately are quite common.

When you look at India's railway network, though, one of the reasons these train accidents are common is because of the sheer size of the network and also because of how old the network is. But if you look at the sheer size, if you took the tracks that make up India's railway system and you line them up one after the other, it would go around the earth equator one and a half times, that's how big it is.

If you looked at the burden on this railway network, imagine the entire population of Australia, 23 million people, that's how many people are moved by the Indian railways every single day, that's a massive burden for this network to bear.

And then on top of that, you add the problem of subsidies. Now the Indian railways which is state run has been subsidizing passenger tickets for years. So when you look at the revenue of this railway network, by the time the revenue comes in the chunk of it almost all of it really goes towards just the operational cost, and there was very little left over to use towards modernizing it.

And the Indian railway system is in desperate need of an upgrade and it needs to be modernized. Prime Minister Narendra Modi just earlier this year during the budget has earmarked a chunk of money to modernize the Indian railway system so that accidents like this are not repeated again in the future. HOWELL: The great deal of concern, just given how extensive this rail

system is, and just the difficulty in making sure that safety, you know, is maintained.

Mallika Kapur following the story in Hong Kong. Thank you for your reporting.

Moving on now o Dubai where a British woman who went on vacation there could end up in prison after telling police that she was gang raped. The U.K.-based legal advice group says that authorities have charged her with having extramarital sex.

CNN's Muhammad Lila is following the story and joins us now live from Dubai this hour.

First of all, what do we know so far about this, what are we hearing from the United Kingdom in response?

MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, we do have the statement from the consulate here in Dubai where the office says that they are providing assistance to this woman and they're hoping that this case can move very quickly through the UAE legal system.

A lot of the information that we have on this comes from reporting from this NGO called detained in Dubai. Now they provide legal advice specifically to foreigners who were in cases like this, where they either visited Dubai or they're living here and they've been caught up in Dubai's legal system.

And for those who were outside of Dubai's legal system, this clearly comes across as an outrage, in fact, in many ways it's a tourist's worst nightmare. What we're able to gather so far, what we've gleaned from the information is that this woman who was from the U.K. in her 20s was visiting here on vacation, when she reported she had been raped.

She took that complaint to the police and she said she had been raped. Now, as part of the police investigating the case, they also turned around and detained the woman, the alleged victim in this case, was detained and her passport was confiscated and she was charged with having sex outside of marriage, which is a criminal violation here in Dubai.

[03:25:13] And so because her passport has been confiscated, she is now effectively trapped here in the country until this case gets resolved. As far as official comment goes, the Dubai government is not commenting on this, the Dubai police are not commenting on this because it's before the courts.

And clearly, what we found here on the ground is that this has become a very sensitive case because it deals with foreigners and it deals with an image that Dubai really may not want to publicize. Dubai is a place of amusement parks and beaches and sky scrapers and business, and all of those other things that draw so many foreigners here.

But when you have a case like this that runs counter to that narrative, it's something that people here like to keep under wraps and certainly treat very sensitively.

HOWELL: And Muhhamad, when you consider the number of people that travel to Dubai, so many visitors and so many tourists, this is certainly a story that many people around the world will be watching closely.

Muhammad Lila, live for us in Dubai, thank you so much for your reporting and we'll stay in touch with you.

This is CNN Newsroom. And still ahead, an ice rink in Manhattan built by Donald Trump many years ago, how it's led to his plan to heat up the U.S. economy.

Plus, the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as his comeback at tenth stop. How his own prime minister edged him out. Still ahead.

We are live in Atlanta broadcasting around the United States and the world this hour. This is CNN Newsroom.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom and it is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines that we are following for you in this hour.

In eastern Aleppo, Syria more than 300 people have been killed since Tuesday as the Syrian government relentless bombed rebel-held areas. Rescuers say that this is the worst bombing that they have seen since the war began some five years ago, schools and hospitals there are being targeted.

U.S. President Barack Obama back in Washington, D.C. after his final trip abroad as President of the United States.

In Peru, Mr. Obama emphasized the importance of U.S. influence around the world and he urged allies to take a wait and see approach with his successor, Donald Trump. And speaking of the U.S. President-elect, he has another likely cabinet pick soon to announce.

A source close to the transition process says the billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, the man you see here in video is being seriously considered for the commerce secretary. Ross supported Donald Trump during the campaign.

One of the main promises during of Donald Trump's economic plan is a massive investment in building and repairing the country's infrastructure.

CNN's Clare Sebastian explains he does have a track record of getting something done when government cannot.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thirty years ago this month Donald Trump opened the Wollman Rink in New York Central Park. The project the city has spent six years and $13 million working on. He completed in four months. He said, for less than 3 million. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The city couldn't get it built. They had no clue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Louise Sunshine was executive vice-president of the Trump organization in the early '80s.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUISE SUNSHINE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Number one, there are construction skills involved, number two, there are skills knowing how to deal with labor unions involved, number three, there are great political skills involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: The Wollman Rink was Trump's way of proving to many in New York that private investments could be more efficient as public. As president, his infrastructure plan relies on that very same principle, private money for public projects. The question is can he achieve this kind of success on the scale the United States has, perhaps, never seen before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, and hospitals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: The plan, as laid out in October by two of his economic advisers, proposes using massive tax breaks to spare up to a trillion dollars in private investment, in addition to public-private partnership like New York La Guardia Airport renovation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And then I get back to my plan and land at La Guardia with path holes all over them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Some experts worry relying on for-profit companies, though, might mean some crucial projects are left behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRY LEPATNER, "TOO BIG TO FALL" AUTHOR: We have merely 8,000 bridges scattered across the country that are both fracture critical and structurally deficient. And they have been ignored for so many years that maybe we're not going to find public-private partnerships, private interests who want to correct those projects. That's where government has to step in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The highway construction program initiated by Ike is the biggest piece that Ike Enterprise ever undertaken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Trump has compared his plan to Eisenhower's interstate highway system bold visionary cost effective.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNSHINE: He's a visionary and he's not a politician. And he's coming at this with a fresh point of view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: In the days after Donald Trump's election when unions and stock markets cheered the promise of major spending, the challenge come January 20th with keeping up that momentum.

Clare Sebastian, CNN Money, New York.

HOWELL: Now, to politics in France, Francois Fillon and Alain Juppe they'll go head to head for the French conservative Party's presidential nomination next weekend. Fillon emerged as the late favorite after playing the underdog for months to former Juppe and his old boss, the former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy finished third in the weekend's first round of primary voting, knocking him out of the running.

In his concession speech, he expressed support for Fillon, who once served as the prime minister. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLAS SARKOZY, FORMER FRENCH PRESIDENT (TRANSLATED): Francois Fillon seems to have understood better the challenges French faces. I will, therefore, vote for him in the second round of the primary. Whatever the verdict of the second round is, the one who will chose will be able to count on my support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: No way better to break this down than my colleague and CNN anchor, Cyril Vanier, new to CNN for our viewers in the United States from France, and it's a pleasure to have you with us.

[03:35:05] CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEWS ANCHOR: Thank you very much.

HOWELL: Let's talk, first of all, about Nicolas Sarkozy, this is a name that is very familiar to many people around the world, the former President of the France, now, he's out.

VANIER: Yes, I don't think they'll be hearing that name more a whole lot more in the coming months and years. But you're right. He's been the driving force of French politics and in particular, of course French, the French conservative party for well over a decade in France and this is the end of his political career. There's only one small caveat to that, is that we may have had that

impression once in the past. I mean, he, after he lost his re-election bid in 2012 after his first term as president, he went under the radar. But it wasn't the same. It did not feel the same as it does today.

At the time, French people have the impression he wanted to come back and they were right. He had the driving belief that if he had not had the misfortune of presiding over the -- during the global economic downturn he could have been re-elected and that has driven him to come back into politic -- politics and seek a new run as the conservative party's nominee.

But he misread the public mood and he misread the French voters. They do not want him. They just voted him out of the conservative party's primary.

HOWELL: And giving a concession speech and throwing his support feet of Francois Fillon. Let's talk just a bit more about who he is and also his economic policies.

VANIER: Yes, Francois Fillon is the former Prime Minister to Nicholas Sarkozy, and that's what makes the whole thing even stranger. He's now the one knocking his old boss out of the French political field.

And the two characters really could not be more different. Nicolas Sarkozy, he was bombastic. Francois Fillon, a lot more reserved, poised, he was really the ice to Nicholas's Sarkozy's fire.

So in terms of style, extremely different. In terms of substance, there's difference as well. Nicholas Sarkozy ran a campaign on identity politics, something close to the populism that you've seen and immigration issues where a hot topic for Nicolas Sarkozy.

For Francois Fillon it's really all about the economy, reforming France, making it more pro-business, business friendly, aligning it more with some of the pro-business reforms that other successful economies in Western Europe have done.

And in his most radical policies are cutting half a million jobs in the French public sector, 500,000 jobs, that is huge compared to the size of the French economy. And cutting also public spending to the tune of 100 euros over five years. Those are -- those are huge.

HOWELL: Austerity.

VANIER: Yes.

HOWELL: I mean, just these cuts that, you know, you would think...

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: He's been compared to Margaret Thatcher in terms of his economic policies.

HOWELL: And his surge came as a bit of surprise. VANIER: Absolutely. He wasn't moving the needle. He was a distant

third or fourth candidate during most of the race. And all of a sudden over the last three weeks, the polls have been showing very different numbers and here he is coming out on top, 44 percent. Nobody could have predicted that.

HOWELL: Let's talk just briefly here about Alain Juppen, so who is he, and how does he fit into this picture.

VANIER: Alain Juppe has been one of the dominant forces in French conservative circles for more than two decades. And he was sort of preordained to go to the top of French politics, but something has always gotten in the way, and once again it looks like he's going to stumble before he gets to the top. Because he's 14 percentage points behind Francois Fillon.

When you do the arithmetic and you see that Nicolas Sarkozy in his 20 percentage points have -- he's put that way behind Francois Fillon. It's difficult to see how Alain Juppe could get there. Alain Juppe to answer your question, much more of a centrist and that's his main political gamble, speaking to conservatives saying, I'm a centrist, I will roll with them, I'm distancing myself from the far right. He'll live or die by that political gamble next Sunday.

HOWELL: Cyril, just briefly, I mean, as a reporter of course who covered this for, you know, a great deal of time, were you surprised by this?

VANIER: Absolutely everybody was surprised. All the French political commentators, experts, observers they got it wrong.

HOWELL: Cyril Vanier, a CNN anchor, new to CNN, it is a pleasure to have you on.

VANIER: Thank you.

HOWELL: Thank you so much for the insight and perspective.

VANIER: Thank you.

HOWELL: Now to Germany, the Chancellor Angela Merkel is going for a fourth term as the Chancellor, she announced her bid on Sunday. Ms. Merkel has held the country's highest office now for 11 years, and she said that the decision was anything but trivial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (TRANSLATED): When it comes to politics it is always about balancing interests, compromises, progress, steps taken forward step by step, and I always tried to do that on the basis of our values, democracy, freedom, respect for the law, the dignity of every human being, independent of background, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political position. That is what guides me, that is what I fight for again and again, but we can only be successful together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The German chancellor says that she does expect her upcoming campaign to be the toughest yet.

[03:40:00] She needs support to win from an electorate that has divided over her open door refugee policy in that country. The chancellor will also face the aftermath of the Brexit vote in the forthcoming (Ph).

Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom. A corruption scandal is gripping South Korea and its reaching people who had ties to the president. Still ahead to where this investigation goes next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm George Howell.

In South Korea, a corruption scandal is deepening and it is getting close to the President of that nation, Park Geun-hye. Three people with ties to the president were officially indicted on Sunday and the president herself is now a suspect.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following the investigation, live this hour in Seoul, South Korea. Paula, we have seen the big crowds of people there. There's certainly a great deal of momentum among the protestors, to see this president step down or resign.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. Pressure is certainly building on President Park Geun-hye, George, it's been a bad start to the week, as you say, the fact that on Sunday, prosecutors changed publicly the way they are viewing it. They wanted to speak to her, originally as a witness, but on Sunday they did and actually she's now being investigated as a suspect.

We've heard from President Park's attorney saying as well saying, that the prosecutors suggesting that she's committed a crime is simply not true, they're questioning whether or not this is a politically motivated. They say it's not politically neutral and they say they won't be cooperating with this investigation.

So certainly more pressure on President Park, but when you look at recent South Korean history, she's not the only president to have been embroiled in a corruption scandal.

[03:44:58] Elected on an anticorruption ticket Park Geun-hye pledged to clean up South Korean politics has gone disastrously wrong. Hundreds of thousands are calling for her resignation in live protests.

Park has become yet another presidential face of what one of her predecessors called the Korean disease. Park now considered a suspect by prosecutors is accused of conspiring with a confidant who was not part of government but was part of cult-like religion.

Choi Soon-sil was indicted Sunday on charges of fraud abuse of power and coercion, accused of extorting millions of dollars from big conglomerate like Samsung for her foundations for personal use. She's apologized and denied the charges against her.

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JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERSITY EAST ASIAN STUDIES ASSISTANT PROFESSOR: One problem of corruption in South Korea is it does have its roots in the very same reason why it's such an economic miracle. That is the cooperation, which is also collusion between the government and big business.

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HANCOCKS: Not including Park, there have been six presidents in South Korea are officially became a democracy in 1987. Every single one of them has been linked to corruption either directly or through immediate family, two spent time behind bars, one Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide in the middle of an investigation into corruption.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASUNG JANG, KOREA UNIVERSITY DEAN & FINANCE PROFESSOR: Politics and the business growth linked and they created this whole corruption and also shaken the entire country from the fundamentals. So, we are very ashamed and we are very much worried about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Park's father, Park Chung-hee ruled South Korea with an iron fist in the 60's and 70's, some saw him as an economic savior, others saw him as a dictator. He trampled on human rights. Residents who supported the daughter now fear they have voted in a ghost of the father.

This protester tells me there's something happened with the father 40 years ago, the times have changed. The public will not put up with this anymore.

Now, President Park has publicly apologized twice so far to her people. She's also effectively offered to give up some of her power to parliament, but at this point it's simply not enough for protesters. The only announcement they want to hear is the announcement of her resignation. George?

HOWELL: And Paula, again we have seen these big crowds, you say that the protesters will continue, the crowds will continue to grow until they see what they want.

Our Paula Hancocks live in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you for the reporting.

Now to talk about some wintery weather that has arrived across Western Europe effecting millions of people, especially those who are met by powerful wind and snow over the weekend. Our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is here to tell us more about the fact that winter has arrived.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It feels like and absolutely great seeing you, George. You know, a month from today is the official start of winter across the northern hemisphere, and you take a look across portions of Europe, it's snowing, it's windy, it's very cold, and satellite imagery, George, it's very easy to pick out that big, spherical area right there in the corner of your screen.

That's our storm system that came through in the past 24 hours, and I would like to mention the method (Ph) like features these strata cumulus clouds, that's a tell-tale sign of extremely cold temperatures that are beginning to push in from this region of Western Europe.

In fact, on satellite imagery, you can see what they left behind as of Sunday morning, where the white right there across the highest elevation of the Scottish island is showing you some snow fall that came down accumulating across that region, but very blustery as well, we're tracking 130 plus kilometer per hour winds. This is equivalent to a category one hurricane coming across the southern portion of the United Kingdom there.

And you take a look as you would imagine, plenty of damage left in place. We know everything from cargo ships that ran the ground, at least one cargo run the ground across portions of the waters out there and we have power outages as well through along with the blustery weather that was in place.

And you work your way out throughout Belgium. This is the scene across that region as well where we have scaffolding come down. That fact that American tourist was walking by in this region and suffered some serious injuries from this coming down with this powerful winds that put it up to category one hurricane force.

But notice that storm system exits the picture. Another one digs well to the south around portions of Spain. And you take a look at the track of this. This is going into tomorrow morning at this time, once again, East Anglia around portions of eastern U.K. there, begin to see some tremendous winds of the forecast across that region. A

And as you would imagine, you work your way into the ups, look at Zermatt, and also Germany (Ph) picking up 20 to almost 120 centimeters of fresh snow over the next couple of days across the highest elevation.

Speaking of fresh snow, here we go, lake effect snow across the northeastern United States, we're getting decent snow fall coming down as much as 60 centimeters, some areas more than one and a half feet across parts of upstate New York State.

And if you take a look at winter weather advisory in place, and again, the accumulations beginning to come down, couldn't see a few flurries this morning, George, in Central Park in New York. So, you know the transition is happening and of course, in Thanksgiving Day holiday for the United States is happening in a couple of days and you can have the storm country come through that, as well. Getting very busy.

[03:50:06] HOWELL: Oh, boy, winter is here. It's already cold.

JAVAHERI: Yes. HOWELL: So, here we go.

JAVAHERI: Here we go.

HOWELL: Pedram, so, Pedram, if you don't know, he is a runner. I'm a runner but not nearly as dedicated as Pedram. So if you want to stay in shape, take a look at this story that is coming up you have to see.

JAVAHERI: Yes.

HOWELL: But so, this person, you know, going into retirement, not exactly. This is a man who started an entirely new career, modeling. Stay with us.

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JAVAHERI: Well, it took its time, but winter-like weather finally reaching the United States over the past several days. In fact, late effect snow effect really large across parts of the north eastern United States where the lakes in place here with high winds, we have of course very mild water temperatures still relatively speaking compared to the air temperatures above.

So that energy transfer really cranks out significant snow accumulations across some of these favorable areas. It could even see even a few flurries around New York City believe it or not as this feature skirts by across that region.

But notice this, the Western United States, you get some heavy snow fall across the mountainous region, the Sierra pick up some snow, some of the snow fall we're seeing here finally something that we have not seen for this time of year, for several years, of course we know have significant drought in place, but we've gone many, many Decembers in a row, and Novembers in a row for that matter that we've not seen much snow fall come down.

So, certainly good news in that forecast there. Montreal, one below, windy, snowy, you're going to feel it a winter certainly there with snow showers in the forecast. Vancouver, look at this some morning cloud, it should be a way beautiful afternoon there the tempts around 10. And then the city of angels should make it almost 20 degrees.

And still watching this area of interest, this area of storm is certainly in place, just north of Panama over the last week, at this point, all but certainly here that this is going to become at least tropical storm, Autus if it does develop, and then we think Nicaragua the main area of concern for landfall.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom.

So, when you think of runway models, you probably think of people that are very young, maybe people that are even in their teens, those are many models these days. But one Chinese man is defying a lot of those odds, defying the stereotypes, refusing to let age define him. Catch that story here.

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HOWELL: All right. With that story I'm just inspired to head straight to the treadmill. So that's where I'll go. Thanks for being with us for CNN Newsroom. For our viewers in the U.S., Early Start is next. For other viewers around the world, Hannah Vaughan Jones continues CNN Newsroom live from London. Stay with us.

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