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Italian PM Renzi to Resign After Referendum Defeat; Hofer Concedes Defeat in Austria Presidential Election; California Warehouse Fire Kills at Least 33 People; U.S. Army Blocks Dakota Access Pipeline Route; U.S. President-Elect Slams Chinese Policies; Regime Troops Continue Aleppo Advance; Heavy Smog Strands Thousands at Chinese Airport; Cuba Lays Fidel Castro to Rest. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired December 05, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:09] CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: A bruising loss for Italy's prime minister -- voters forced Matteo Renzi to resign boosting Italy's anti-establishment parties.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: But a populist movement in Austria takes a hit as far right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer concedes defeat.

VANIER: Plus a reason to celebrate for demonstrators in North Dakota. A decision on a controversial U.S. pipeline hands protesters a rare victory.

ALLEN: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, we're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

VANIER: And I'm Cyril Vanier. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

ALLEN: And we begin in Europe. The European populist movement suffered one setback on Sunday but scored a major win as well. We'll have more on Austria's presidential election in a moment, but let's start with Italy where Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says he will resign in the coming hours.

VANIER: Renzi tried to mend the country's constitution, but nearly 60 percent of Italians voted against him. Our Ben Wedeman reports from Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has suffered a crushing defeat in the referendum to amend Italy's 1948 constitution. And as a result, the Italian prime minister made good on his vow to resign if Italians rejected his referendum.

MATTEO RENZI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Therefore, I take all responsibility for this defeat. And I say to the friends in the F camp (ph) that I lost, not you. Who fights for an idea cannot lose. You had a wonderful idea, especially in this season for European political life. You wanted to bring the citizens closer to the public's sphere, to fight populism, simplify.

WEDEMAN: Already the markets are showing some unhappiness with this vote. The euro has fallen against the dollar and we shall see when the Italian and European markets open in the morning how unpopular with the financial markets this vote has become.

Now what comes next for Italy, the Italian President Sergio Mattarella will have to appoint somebody to form a new government. It's not clear whether it will be a technocratic government or some sort of coalition cobbled together between the largely mutually-hostile parties that make up the Italian parliament.

But for those opponents of Matteo, this was a night for victory. Of course, one of the leading parties or movements in the movement against the Italian prime minister was the so-called Five-Star Movement led by former comedian Beppe Grillo who vigorously campaigned against this referendum and also the Lega Nord -- the Northern League -- a very anti-migrant party led by Matteo Salvini. They are celebrating this defeat as well. In fact, the leader of the Lega Nord tweeted "Viva Trump. Viva Putin, Viva Le Pen, and viva la Lega" -- the Northern League.

Clearly, this is seen by at least those nationalists and those anti- establishment groups as a huge victory, but it isn't necessarily a Trumpian victory over the establishment keeping in mind that the opponents of this referendum -- the amendments to the constitution were from the left as well as from the right.

Some Italians were simply worried that they, that the Italian constitution should not be tampered with. But this does send a message to the establishment in Italy and elsewhere in Europe that the status quo is in trouble.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN -- reporting from Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Well, for more on this, let's speak now to Dominic Thomas who joins us from Los Angeles where he heads the Department of French and Francophone studies.

Dominic -- the argument in support of the constitutional referendum was that it ends political gridlock. And that's pretty compelling in a country that is notoriously unstable -- 60 governments in 70 years. So why did Italians reject it?

DOMINIC THOMAS, UCLA PROFESSOR: Right, it's a great question. And also, you know, Matteo Renzi happens to be 41 years old, he's the 41st prime minister of Italy since the Second World War. You can understand why this young, dynamic, ambitious politician set his heart and in fact his prime ministership on trying to make reforms to this country. This is a country that has struggled with the economy, with high unemployment, banking system, and so on.

[00:04:59] And I think that, you know, what we really saw here today is that Matteo Renzi learned very little from watching the Brexit vote is that he wanted the people to weigh in on this. But somewhat paradoxically, the people did weigh in on this, and they weighed in, in support of the populist views of a more closed society, a protectionist society, a society that is afraid of opening up to the world.

And the polls were all wrong up until the last two weeks before when they stopped doing them. And this was a crushing defeat. 17 out of the 20 regions voted against them. One of the regions that he won was the area of Florence and Tuscany where he was a former mayor. So this really has sent a very powerful message both to Italy and to other European countries that have upcoming elections.

VANIER: If I could just rephrase my question though, why were they against a streamlined democracy -- a faster legislative process?

THOMAS: Yes, ok, let's be more -- let's be more precise. I think the same thing happened with the Brexit vote. Folks were not essentially really voting on whether or not to remain in the European Union that were expressing anti-establishment and sentiments, a frustration with a particular system. And obviously, you know, when I asked the question, but here was somebody who was trying to go about changing that to sort of free up the gridlock and so on.

But the fact remains that in European countries today, there's been a dramatic move towards these kinds of populist tendencies that are rejecting the establishment. And that Grillo's party, the Northern League as well, were able to construct this as a kind of anti- establishment, anti-people party that was not really looking out for their broader interests. And they stood up and they voted against these kinds of policies, probably voting against their own very interests. But it reveals this degree of frustration that we see running through Europe today.

VANIER: So tell me more about that Beppe Grillo -- you mentioned his name. He's an outsized character, former comedian. In Italian politics, he heads this anti-establishment party, the Five-Star Movement. What role do you see his party playing in Italian politics now?

THOMAS: What they're trying to do essentially is this they saw that the big mistake that Renzi made was to link the future of his political office to this particular referendum. And so from that moment on, it did not become really a vote about complex reforms to the constitution, but it provided an opening for Grillo's party and for Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord to essentially force a general election which is most likely what is now going to happen.

And the sitting president will have to put together a kind of makeshift cabinet, but this will lead to general elections. So Grillo is somebody who's interesting as your commentary leading up to this discussion mentioned. He's neither really from the left nor from the right. He's a populist leader. He's anti-globalization, anti- establishment.

To a certain extent, you know, these parties are all Euro skeptic because they're interested in sort of, you know, nationalistic questions, making Italy great again. But he's an outsider. He's a non-establishment figure, and he's been very successful at building upon that reputation.

He also has strong pro-environmental policies. He's very connected to questions of the Internet. He's himself a blogger. So he's an unusual figure and he's managed to capture people's imagination -- and, yes.

VANIER: All right. Dominic Thomas -- thank you very much. Dominic Thomas there from Los Angeles.

THOMAS: Thank you.

ALLEN: Well the wave of populism across the western world did suffer a setback in Austria. Voters chose left wing candidate Alexander Van Der Bellen as their next president on Sunday.

VANIER: And his opponent, Norbert Hofer had a chance to become the EU's first far right head of state.

CNN's Atika Shubert has more on the results.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first time far-right candidate Norbert Hofer for Austria's presidency in May, he lost by just 31,000 votes. This time it was a clear defeat that could not be contested.

Alexander Van Der Bellen, a 72-year-old economist backed by the Green Party beat him again, by a decisive margin. Exit polls showed 53 percent for Van Der Bellen, 47 percent for Hofer.

Behind me now, you can see both candidates, Norbert Hofer and Alexander Van Der Bellen giving interviews to state broadcaster ORF, explaining exactly why they believe voters chose the way they did.

ALEXANDER VAN DER BELLEN, AUSTRIAN PRESIDENT-ELECTION: I think it is a historic (inaudible) for Austria for several reasons. For the first time a presidential election had to be repeated. And it was not just a repetition, in fact, it was a new election because, you know, conditions changed.

[00:10:02] The world around us has changed. You had the Brexit vote in Great Britain, in the United Kingdom, you had the election of Donald Trump in the United States, and so on. In six months, many things happened.

SHUBERT: Voters were worried and anxious, but not just about immigration which Hofer railed against, but also Austria's he place in the E.E. and fears that the so the-called Trump bump would bring populist and isolationist parties into power seems to have pushed voters the other way.

"My gut tells me to be worried," this woman said. "And I'm scared. I really fear that my daughter won't have the same opportunities as I did." This man told us, "I am worried about Austria and I hope it doesn't go the way of the U.S. or the U.K. And that it will be an E.U. for us all and continues to be that way and not destroyed by some people."

Immediately after the polls, a resigned Hofer insisted to CNN that he was working to unify Austria after a divisive and prolonged campaign season.

NORBERT HOFER, AUSTRIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't want to divide the country. Now it's on me and Mr. Van Der Bellen to tell the people who supported us that it's important to see that it would be one country. We're all Austria and we have to work together.

SHUBERT: Does this put an end to the sort of populist, nationalist surge we've seen in Europe?

HOFER: I came (inaudible) -- I have to say always, I'm not a populist. I don't want to be populist. I'm a pretty normal guy, level-minded man -- yes.

And I just want you to believe me. I'm really -- I'm right, but I'm not extreme right. I'm middle right. It's so important for me to show that I'm not an extreme end.

SHUBERT: Now the Austrian presidency is a ceremonial, but highly symbolic role. Hofer's loss has dealt Europe's populist surge a blow.

And now the professorial Van Der Bellen, a self-described child of refugees, is being hailed as a defender of an open, liberal Europe. But, Austria is just the first of a string of election challenges in the year ahead.

Atika Shubert, CNN -- Vienna.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: New Zealand's prime minister says he will not run for a fourth term. In a surprise resignation, John Key says he owes it to his family to step aside and has given everything he can to his job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KEY, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: I honestly don't think on a family basis and a lot of other reasons I could commit for much beyond the next election. So I've got no option but to do it now. Now's the right time to do it rather than -- I've just come too far to mislead the public. I'm not going to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Mr. Key has been in power for eight years. His resignation will be final on December 12th when national party will pick a new leader.

ALLEN: Coming up here, a Native American tribe in the U.S. has scored a big victory. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has blocked the last leg of a controversial oil pipeline from being built near tribal lands.

VANIER: Also ahead, Donald Trump is using Twitter to turn up the rhetoric against China. We'll have live reports from Beijing and Hong Kong next.

[00:13:15] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: Welcome back.

A criminal investigation team is at the scene of what officials are calling one of the deadliest fires in Oakland, California's history. The fire began as a dance party was getting under way. At least 33 people were killed when the blaze tore through a warehouse Friday night. Authorities are warning that that death toll is still expected to rise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. RAY KELLY, ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We're still not done. As you can hear behind me, they are working and pulling this building apart and dissecting it. And so we're really starting to get deeper into the building. As we do that, we continue to find more victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Only about one-third of the warehouse has been searched as firefighters comb through what is left. And it could take weeks to identify all the people who died.

Construction is stopping, at least for now, on a controversial pipeline project in the state of North Dakota.

VANIER: And the line is finished except for a segment that was originally-planned to run under a lake that sits near tribal land. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and supporters have protested the projects for months.

Sara Sidner reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Celebrations, tears of joy, chanting, and drumming. That's what was the initial reaction when the folks here found out that the Army Corps of Egineers was going to stop this pipeline by asking the Dakota Access Pipeline to be rerouted -- away from the thing that has caused the flash point here. Rerouted and kept from going underneath the Missouri River.

It is a very big victory for the Standing Rock Sioux and all of the people who have been here for many months trying to stop this pipeline from potentially going under the water and one day leaking.

However, what we have also heard from the tribe is that they are concerned that this may not be permanent depending on which administration is in place and worried about Donald Trump's role in all of this when he takes the presidency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today's decision from the Army Corps of Engineers to not allow the pipeline company to drill underneath the river and violate our treaty rights and to put our children's health at peril from cancerous waters is a victory. But it's a short-lived victory, one that we need to dissect, one that we need to analyze. We need to make sure that President-Elect Trump can't override this decision here today when he takes office.

SIDNER: We're hearing that from other members of the tribe, that even though this is truly a victory and people feel relief, there is also worry about what happens next. Right now, this camp is filling up. No one seems to be leaving.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Sarah Sidner for us.

And we just learned that the company building the pipeline says the Army's decision is just a political move and that it remains committed to seeing the project through to completion.

[00:20:01] So there you go. That's why they're concerned about where Donald Trump will stand on this.

Incoming U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump may be preparing to shake up U.S.-China relations when he takes office in January. First he set off a diplomatic earthquake on Friday by speaking directly to the Taiwan leader and that's in defiance of nearly 40 years of sensitive U.S. diplomacy. Now, he's going after Beijing's trade and military policies.

ALLEN: On Sunday, he tweeted, "Did China ask us if it was ok to devalue their currency making it hard for our companies to compete, heavily tax our products going into their country? The U.S. doesn't tax them or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea. I don't think so."

Let's bring in CNN's Alexandra Field -- she's in Beijing; and Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong to explore the President-Elect's tweets and reaction. Obviously he's not just tweeting about "Saturday Night Live" and things like that. He's taking on China in his tweets.

Alexandra, let's begin with you. Let's talk about the Trump tweets that are right on the heels of the phone call debacle. Will these tweets create tension with Beijing?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that depends on how seriously officials here in Beijing consider the tweets of a President-Elect. This is really uncharted territory, if you step back and look at this.

You've got a President-Elect who is taking to Twitter to share his views and nobody really knows if this is just part of the trademark Trump style. This sort of rhetoric that you saw on the campaign trail, or if he intends this to be a message about the policies that he would seek to implement as president when he takes office after the inauguration in January.

That's why you've got to just sort of calculate how to respond. It's worth noting that there hasn't been an official response from Beijing to these tweets this morning.

The content of the tweets themselves is not markedly different from the things that Donald Trump said on the campaign trail. He was known for going after Beijing for promising a tough line against Beijing. This is something that was attractive to his base and it did rally the crowds.

So he's put these messages out there that Beijing has seen before, but there hasn't been a response to them at this point. There have been previous op-eds that have run in state news, that have discussed how to handle a President Trump, how Beijing will interface with President Trump who has a very markedly different style than other U.S. leaders.

There was a previous op-ed in the "Global Times" that says that China needs to understand that Trump has two faces. On the one hand, he's bluffing and unpredictable they write; on the other hand he has no plan to overturn international relationships.

Beijing is certainly hoping that that is the case. They're banking that that's the case. But this does come after that very concerning phone call. It was met with concern here in Beijing. It toppled some 40 years of diplomatic protocol when you had President-Elect Trump talking to Taiwan's leader.

Beijing did send an official message to Washington expressing their regret but this is the President-Elect. So they're not really rebuking him directly, instead they're admonishing Taiwan's president for making that call and they're hoping that this is not a signal of a shift to long standing policy that' has protected the relationship between these two countries for so many decades.

ALLEN: Right. It is interesting though that right after the call, he just charged in with a tweet. So Andrew, the charges that he made in the tweet about China, can you help us fact-check them?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, yes, fact-checking is a quantitative industry these days, so when Donald Trump makes these sorts allegations.

On currency being -- on China being a currency manipulator, it's fair to say in the past two decades until about two years ago, China did have a policy where it did deliberately weaken it's currency to help it's exporters. But that changed about two years. In fact, the yuan until recently has been strengthening.

I was talking to one analyst today. He told CNN that if China actually just let the markets decide where the yuan should be and didn't interfere with the markets, the yuan would be much, much weaker than it is today. So you can say that the Chinese government is indeed manipulating the yuan but to the benefit of the U.S. because it's keeping the value of the yuan stronger than it would otherwise have been.

Take a look at these numbers here. Here's an idea, since the election of President-Elect Trump, the Chinese yuan has indeed depreciated by about 1.8 percent there against the U.S. dollar. But if you look at what the yuan has done against the euro and the yen, it's actually stronger.

So they're obviously not depreciating across the board here. So Donald Trump saying that it's manipulating the currency, it sort of resonated with the world view, if you like, Natalie, that Trump had in the 80s and 90s.

[00:24:59] And one of his senior policy advisors actually said -- he wrote earlier this year, that Ronald Reagan imposed big taxes on Japanese goods back in the 80s because the Japanese were selling cheap, undervalued goods into the U.S. And that is what Donald Trump is thinking that China continues to do today. Whether that's true or not, that's a whole different story.

ALLEN: You're right, fact-checking is a whole new cottage industry. I would imagine factchecking.com, dot-org, dot-net, if you can imagine because yes -- using Twitter for diplomacy questions and relationship questions with countries. It's a new day.

We thank you, Andrew Stevens and Alexandra Field for us in Hong Kong and Beijing -- thanks.

VANIER: All right.

And as we ask how Donald Trump is going to conduct the U.S. foreign policy with China, we have to ask another question as part of the Trump transition is who's he even going to have heading his diplomacy.

Well, the Trump transition team confirms that President-Elect is now casting a wider net as he looks for his secretary of state. Here's what Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said earlier on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: Well it is true that he's brought in the search and secretary of state is an incredibly important position for any president to fill. And he has -- he's very fortunate to have interest among serious men and women all of whom need to understand that their first responsibility as secretary of state would be to implement and adhere to the President-Elect's "America first" foreign policy and be loyal to his view of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: A source with the transition team says former Utah Governor John Huntsman, who also ran for president, is among the new names being considered. VANIER: Already in the mix, already in the mix are 2012 Republican

presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former CIA director David Petraeus and U.S. Republican Senator Bob Corker.

ALLEN: Syrian government troops continue to pour into rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

CNN Fred Pleitgen has a look inside the city coming up here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:40] VANIER: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier.

ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. Here are the top stories we're following this hour.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says he will resign after a crushing defeat on a constitutional referendum. Renzi thought to reduce the size and power of the Senate. But nearly 60 percent of Italians voted against that. It's considered another win for the populist movement sweeping across Europe.

VANIER: In Austria, however, voters rejected populist, electing left- wing candidate Alexander Van der Bellen as their next president. He won Sunday's election in a close race. The other candidate Norbert Hofer was vying to become the EU's first far right head of state.

ALLEN: In a surprise resignation, New Zealand's prime minister says he will not run for a fourth term. John Keith says he owes it to his family to step aside and has given everything he can to his job. He's been in power since 2008.

VANIER: A U.S. woman says she was gang raped during a trip to Delhi, India last April. Police there say the woman was part of a tour group when she was attacked. At least three suspects are said to have been involved. No one has been arrested. India's external affairs minister is assuring justice for the woman.

ALLEN: And breaking news just coming in. At least 11 people are dead after a hotel fire in Karachi, Pakistan.

VANIER: It happened at the Region Plaza Hotel and officials say the blaze has now been contained. A doctor at a nearby hospital says the victims were killed by suffocation. 75 people are also injured.

ALLEN: And we turn to Syria now. Backed by intense artillery and air strikes, Syrian government troops continue their advance against rebel held Eastern Aleppo.

VANIER: Regime forces appeared confident as clashes with rebels continue. The government even telling residents who fled that it's now safe to move back.

From Aleppo, CNN's Fred Pleitgen has this look at the devastation that they can expect if they do return.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Driving through a destroyed wasteland that until recently was one of the main battlegrounds in Syria. Aleppo's Hanano District was in rebel hands until last week when government forces moved in with crushing fire power.

13-year-old Hudei (ph) shows me where a rocket landed next to his house and describes the fear he felt.

"We were very, very frightened" Hudei (ph) says. Normally we would hide in the basement, but luckily that night we slept on the first floor because that's when two rockets hit right over here.

Hudei's (ph) little brother Abdul Karim (ph) is clearly traumatized by the horrors he's witnessed and still weak from living under siege for weeks with almost no food and water available much of the time.

As the rebels lost their grip on this place, many residents fled from trying to escape with their lives and not much more. Now, they're coming back. Some haven't seen their houses for years.

Khaled Chlorella left in 2012 when the rebels took this district. Now he's trying to salvage any belongings in what's left of his apartment.

"I am very sad because everything is either destroyed or ransacked," he says. "We found these pictures under the rubble. Even the walls are destroyed. But we will come back here and rebuild."

The battle for Aleppo is far from over, but Syrian government forces clearly have the upper hand. Taking about half the rebels territory in the past week alone, and continuing to push their offensive with massive fire power.

(on-camera): Like in so many districts that have been taken back by the syrian military, there is a massive destruction in this part of Eastern Aleppo. But there's no denying the shift in momentum in favor of the Syrian military and also the boost in morale that many of their soldiers have gotten.

(voice-over): Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad tell us they believe they could capture all of Aleppo, Syria's most important battleground, very soon.

"The rebel headquarters was right here," he says. "So the loss of this district was a big blow to them. You can see how our shelling is pounding them, and that shows that their morale is collapsing."

[00:35:00] Rebels left behind a makeshift cannon when they fled here last week. So far the opposition hasn't found a way to shore up their defences in the face of this massive and possibly decisive Syrian government offensive.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Aleppo. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Look at these pictures now. Filmed on Sunday at an airport in Central China. Thousands of people stuck because of thick smog. This was Chengdu's International Airport. It was forced to delay and cancel flights because of that haze as you see. And some planes have to land at other airports.

ALLEN: Chinese state news says the runway was closed for almost ten hours. The pollution is so bad, drivers have been told they can only use the roads on certain days.

And our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has more on this for us.

You know, we were doing a live shot with Steven Jiang in Beijing, I think it was yesterday, and he was talking about Taiwan, but I was just looking at the smog behind him the whole time.

VANIER: (INAUDIBLE), they really get you off guard, right, with what's going on.

ALLEN: Yes. You couldn't see anything behind him.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Can you hear, Natalie and Cyril, too, it's almost hard for us to comprehend the severity of what's going on here. And, you know, a recent, fascinating peer review journal study was done at this portion of the world saying 17 percent of all the fatalities in China are related to air quality concerns.

And when you think about this, the air quality you saw there in Chengdu, you step outside in such conditions, that same peer study journal saying that with these conditions. If you're to be outside for one hour, it would reduce your life expectancy by 20 minutes. In just one hour. If you're exposed to such elements as they're experiencing in this region of China.

So I want to show you exactly what's going on here. When you take a look, the air quality concern, again any time you're above the numbers, 50, that is considered moderate. And then beyond that, you get into unhealthy category. Chengdu left area of your screen there at 223. That's the air quality sitting there in the very unhealthy category in the reds. Of course you're in the unhealthy category.

We have several hours per day, almost every single day this time of year when we get to the hazardous category as well across this region of the world. But a lot of this has to do with not only the industry, because you not only have the largest manufacturing sector in the world, the largest population in the world.

Put them together and it's a bad recipe here. And, of course, the geography doesn't help with high elevation, kind of dividing the valleys to the east where the highest population resides.

So all of the pollutants get trapped right there at the surface. And as Natalie just told you a few moments ago there, driving restrictions in place. The last several years they've been trying to do this to help curve the emission over a few day's period.

And typically this works out such where you have the poorest air quality actually take place during the morning and afternoon hours as industry wakes up, businesses begin, thriving across the area, pumping a tremendous amount of carbon into the atmosphere and then you see into the overnight hours, the air quality drops back down to unhealthy only for sensitive and sometimes it even gets down to moderate. But right back into the morning hours and the forecast kind of shows you what we have in store into the reds there being unhealthy over the next several days.

Here's what it looks like at this hour. The wind patterns also dictate where the pollution moves to so the pollution doesn't just disappear. If the winds are coming from a certain area that's cleaner, they'll move it and move it downstream to another area. You can clearly see that from Beijing and points to the south and really a fascinating way to look at this is just thinking about the size of these particulates.

Combustion particles which are what makes the haze that you see outside are about less than 2.5 microns in diameter. That is about 30 times smaller than the diameter of your hair. This is why this is dangerous. They can easily get into your bloodstream. And, of course, it will cause significant health issues.

Estimates put 7 million people losing their lives in the world every single year due to air quality issues.

Guys, that's equivalent to four fully loaded aircraft falling out of the sky with passengers every single day. You know, these numbers. And every single hour I should say. Every single day. That's how many people are losing their lives because of air quality.

ALLEN: Well, bring on the electric cars. There is a first to do that.

JAVAHERI: Absolutely.

ALLEN: Beijing government. We'll see. My goodness. Wouldn't that help.

JAVAHERI: That would help, a little bit, for sure.

ALLEN: Thanks, Pedram. I guess.

JAVAHERI: OK. Yes.

ALLEN: Pretty disastrous numbers there.

Well, Cuba's tribute to Fidel Castro have been loud and full of energy. But the final ceremony for their long time leader was far more muted. We'll look at Cuba's final farewell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:25] ALLEN: Fidel Castro was buried in Santiago de Cuba, Sunday. The country said goodbye to the man many consider its father figure.

VANIER: But the final ceremony was nothing like the celebrations that we saw throughout the course of the last week.

Our Patrick Oppmann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN Havana=based CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Santiago de Cuba known as the cradle of the revolution, tens of thousands of the faithful give Fidel Castro his last public send-off. The crowds of Castro admirers pledged the devotion to the fallen leader until La Victoria Siempre, the eternal victory.

But Raul Castro said his brother would not be immortalized in the way so many strong men before him.

RAUL CASTRO, CUBAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He was consistent with that attitude until the very last hours of his life insisting that once dead, his name and his figure would never be utilized to named institutions, plazas, parks, avenues, and other public spaces. And neither build in his memory monuments, busts, statues, and other similar forms of tribute.

OPPMANN: Castro was laid to rest on Sunday in Santiago. A private ceremony for a leader who for six decades lived the most public life. Only members of the secretive Castro Family and a small number of guests were in attendance.

Just weeks before his death, Fidel Castro's son and personal photographer predicted his father's final wish.

ALEX CASTRO, FIDEL CASTRO'S SON: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

OPPMANN (on-camera): And why doesn't he love them?

A. CASTRO: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

OPPMANN: But hundreds of thousands led highways and roads across Cuba as Castro's ashes were transported past to worship the leader who changed their lives and island forever. Housewife Purveley (ph) Santos Garcia waited alongside the road for hours to catch a final glimpse of the Cuban leader she said she loved like a father.

PURVELEY SANTOS GARCIA (through translator): Thanks to him, we have what we have. Our education, health care, that all thanks to the commander.

OPPMANN: But Castro also left behind a host of problems for Cuban's to grapple with. An outdated Soviet-style economy, a heavy headed police state, the exodus of some of the island's best and brightest. As the massive memorials for Castro die down, Cubans are left alone to face an uncertain future.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Santiago de Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And that is CNN NEWSROOM for this hour, I'm Natalie Allen.

VANIER: And I'm Cyril Vanier. Thanks for watching us.

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