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Globalization Meets "America First" in Davos; Trump "Looks Forward" to Talking to Special Counsel; Davos Puts Focus on Refugees; Leaders Gathered for World Economic Summit; Nassar's Statement in Court; Pope Francis Calls out "Fake News"; Pope Journalists The Protector of News. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 25, 2018 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause, live from Los Angeles.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: I'm Becky Anderson, live in Davos in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. Globalization meets America first today here in Davos. Delegates will hear from the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. president Donald Trump arrives in just a few hours.
Now Wednesday the German Chancellor Angela Merkel told world leaders they must all work together to solve the day's pressing problems. And she took a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump.
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ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): We think that shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world, isolating ourselves, will not lead us into a good future. Protectionism is not the answer.
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ANDERSON: French president Emmanuel Macron echoed the virtues of globalization and he, too, made reference to President Trump.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: For sure, with Davos, when you look outside, especially coming and arriving in this building it's -- I mean, it could be hard to believe in global warming.
(LAUGHTER)
MACRON: Obviously and importantly thing you didn't invite anybody skeptical with global warming this year. (LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Emmanuel Macron. Well, Donald Trump will be bringing his America first agenda to Davos but his Treasury Secretary says that also means working with the rest of the world. Mr. Trump left Washington late on Wednesday amid talk of a possible trade war with other countries.
CNN's Alex Marquardt has more on what the U.S. hopes to accomplish here.
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ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a gathering of the elite of the elite. The name of this small Swiss alpine resort, Davos, synonymous with the global 1 percent.
The World Economic Forum's annual gathering bringing together the politicians, business leaders and artists who shape the world's agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That ends extreme poverty.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): The White House previewing the trip laid out what the president hopes to get done.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is very much looking forward to delivering the message to the world that America is open for business and that there is no better time in history to invest and create jobs here in the United States.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): From Chinese president Xi Jinping, to Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie, participants championed globalization and issues like fighting climate change, not exactly where you'd expect to find someone who routinely says this:
TRUMP: Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Former chief strategist Steve Bannon led the charge with that populist economic nationalist message, once describing a global revolt by the working men and women in the world, who are just tired of being dictated to by what we call the party of Davos.
So why would President Trump, who rode to victory on that message, want to go mingle with the very people he has railed against, the elites that his passionate base so deplores?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump will reiterate that a prosperous America benefits the world. When the United States grows, so does the world. The president will continue to promote fair, economic competition and will make it clear that there cannot be free and open trade if countries are not held accountable to the rules. MARQUEZ (voice-over): And while those at Davos are certainly happy to
have the power of the American presidency at the forum, the president himself is widely disliked around the world and will likely get a frosty reception.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You go to Davos, which is Ground Zero for globalism, and you will see, at best -- I'm being generous -- 5 percent approval for Trump. They don't like him personally and, while they like what he's doing economically in the United States, globally they can't stand him.
MARQUEZ: Sitting U.S. presidents don't normally go to Davos. President Trump will be just the second after President Bill Clinton first went in 2000. This year President Trump is taking 10 cabinet secretaries with him, including Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, who is already in Davos and already ruffling feathers, defending the America first policy by saying about those in Davos, we don't need to worry about this crowd -- Alex Marquardt, CNN --
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MARQUEZ: -- New York.
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ANDERSON: Let's bring in CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson.
We have heard from the rest; now let's bring on the best is tentatively what the U.S. delegation is flogging ahead of the president's speech on Friday. Look, there was a sense of anxiety ahead of President Trump arriving here.
But his guys are saying, look, don't worry about it. America first, which is what President Trump will be talking about when he gets here, can coexist perfectly well with globalism.
Can it?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: That's not really the view that we heard -- and, again, the jibe from Macron about the climate change and said no one invited here doesn't understand climate change gets a laugh from the audience.
And I think that tells you the mood here. There's the economy; there's climate change. And this dealing with the economic pullout (ph) of globalization that the Italian Prime Minister was talking about. And I think from the different European leaders and from others, that has been the message, that America first doesn't sit well, particularly in Davos, particularly the views here.
Yet having said that, we've heard from various business leaders coming here and saying, yes, the tax breaks, the tax cuts in the United States is building confidence in the United States, hoping a broad- based economic revival across the globe. So that there is a positive message for President Trump but, no, I think when you put him in that political arena, the resounding message has been one of we're giving our message before you get here, even though we know that your message is going to be entirely different.
ANDERSON: Should he be worried about his reception here, do you think?
Or should they -- enormous U.S. delegation. Let's remind ourselves, as Alex did, this is the first U.S. president to come and talk to those gathered here in 18 years.
ROBERTSON: Look, there have been very small protests here already and some of them aimed against President Trump. But in terms of what we've seen in the past at Davos, they're not huge; they're not that big. They're not going to get in the main arena.
There is a rumor circulating that some delegates from Africa may decide to get up and leave the room when he begins to speak but they also know that could be counterproductive for them. And many of them have got beyond President Trump's recent comments.
So I think the sense is he's got a thick skin. He may be walking into the lion's den in that regard. But he's got a very thick skin and is very clear about delivering his own message. So not to worry, I would say, for him.
ANDERSON: We know meet European executives this afternoon when he arrives. And he arrives here about -- viewers about midday that is clearly early morning still here in Davos at present.
What do you think his message to European executives will be?
ROBERTSON: That, again I think the message that he delivered when he was in Asia recently is very clear that this is the platform that he is leading the United States on and that they can lobby their own political leaders to do, to strike these, what he sees as fair and balanced trade deals with the United States.
So I think there is going to be a message there that America is open for business. It might be -- it might be America first but we're open to doing business and so many of the leaders here represent global companies as well. So I think that is a message that they already understand.
But he can lobby them to lobby their own political leaders, to take perhaps a different tone with him.
ANDERSON: Fascinating. All right, Nic, we will wait to hear that speech and you and I will talk again in the hours to come.
More from Davos still ahead. Right back now, though, to John Vause, who is in Los Angeles -- John. And you've got the other day's news.
VAUSE: Indeed I do, Becky, thank you very much. Just before he left for Switzerland, President Trump surprised a group of reporters at the White House and briefly took questions. The headline from that impromptu news conference, Donald Trump says is he looking forward to meeting special counsel Robert Mueller and testifying under oath in the Russia investigation.
For more on this, our political commentator and talk radio host, Mo' Kelly and Republican strategist Chris Faulkner joins us now.
Good to see you both.
So this was weird. This is how it all played out. Around 5:00 pm Eastern time in Washington the president walks unannounced into the office of his chief of staff, reporters had gathered there for a briefing on immigration.
And then the president says this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to talk to Mueller?
TRUMP: I'm looking forward to it, actually.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to?
TRUMP: I'm sorry, just so you understand, there's been no collusion whatsoever. There is no obstruction whatsoever. And I'm looking forward to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have a date yet?
TRUMP: So here's the story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have a date set, Mr. President?
TRUMP: I don't know. I think -- yes, they're talking about two or three weeks. But I would love to do it.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: You know, again it's -- I have to say, subject to my lawyers and all of that. But I would love to do it.
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VAUSE: Three hours later, reporting from a number of news agencies, including CNN, but here's the quote from "The New York Times," "Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer, leading the response to the investigation, said Mr. Trump was speaking hurriedly and intended only to say that he was willing to meet. He's ready --
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VAUSE: -- "meet with them but he'll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel," Mr. Cobb said. "He said the arrangements were being worked out between Mr. Mueller's team and the president's personal lawyer."
Mo', is this a good example of why Trump's lawyers want to keep him as far away from Robert Mueller as possible?
Because he just blurts stuff out.
MO' KELLY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. It was a naive statement to say he would actually look forward to speaking with Robert Mueller. I'm not sure the president understands the scope of this investigation. I'm not sure if he understands history, how Monica Lewinsky connected to Bill Clinton had no connection at all to Whitewater.
There is really no telling what Robert Mueller would ask this president or what could trip him up and so he would be wise to listen to his lawyers and not rush into this.
VAUSE: OK, Chris, I want to give you the possible other scenario here. Could the president have said -- made that promise, said what he said, knowing full well that it will get a lot of play, adding in there subject to what the lawyers tell me to do, knowing that they would be the ones who walk it back -- and they have -- but that wouldn't get as much play.
Oh, my goodness, this (INAUDIBLE) makes sense to me --
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VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) way too much credit.
CHRIS FAULKNER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, listen, listen, the president (INAUDIBLE) many, many things. Number one, we should all -- he has no inner monologue. He's going to say exactly what he thinks. OK. And this continued search for some sort of trace of evidence that there is some sort of collusion between the president's campaign and Russia is sad and it's desperate because it continues to go on without any actual proof.
VAUSE: Well, there has been and there is proof of collusion already.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- whether or not it was a criminal act involved --
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KELLY: -- people have pleaded guilty that --
FAULKNER: -- lied to the FBI, yes. But not actually collusion with the Russian government, which is what the charge is. And the seriousness and the charges what everyone gets very hyped up about and it is so tantalizing to so many people who still -- here we are, 13 months in, still can't grasp that Hillary Clinton lost.
And it's very, very --
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VAUSE: I think people grasp that.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- I think collusion is the description of what happened but the crimes, in --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- the alleged crime are many. It could have been money laundering. It could have been FCC violations. It could have been --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- which then followed -- anyway. But, you know, that's (INAUDIBLE) collusion itself, we all agree --
(CROSSTALK)
FAULKNER: -- obstruction of justice actually been shown and proven was the two undersecretaries of the FBI, who were involved with the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation who clearly were trying to put the best face on it and actually change some of the public statements.
VAUSE: OK. The president added in there his Pavlovian response there was no collusion, there was no collusion. But we've heard from the White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday that Donald Trump has a very specific definition of collusion.
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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the accusations against the president is that he had help winning the election and that's simply untrue. I think he is stating for himself and anything that he would be a part of or know about or have sanctioned. But that would be something that, again, I think he's very clearly laid out, he and his campaign had nothing to do with.
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VAUSE: Mo', it is fairly narrow definition, right?
KELLY: Yes. And I appreciate the strategy being employed because you're trying to define the public arguments as far as what it is or what is isn't.
But to your point, Chris, Robert Mueller's not made the public case for his charges. We are guessing; we are estimating; we are assuming. But Robert Mueller has yet to say this is what I have on these individuals, including Michael Flynn and so forth, and how that connects to the other members of the inner circle.
I'd be willing to bet that there is something having to do with his finances; albeit, it could be money laundering or something else. It could be something -- much larger connections than just the election quote-unquote "collusion."
FAULKNER: Let's walk that conspiracy to its (INAUDIBLE). What does money laundering have to do with it?
KELLY: A compromised president and quid pro quo, it could be any number of things.
FAULKNER: How would money laundering have changed the outcome of the U.S. presidential election?
VAUSE: It's not about the outcome of the election. It's about -- it's about colluding and conspiring --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- conspiring with a foreign adversary.
KELLY: Robert Mueller was hired to investigate the relationship between the Trump campaign and any Russian government intermediaries.
FAULKNER: For the purpose of what?
(INAUDIBLE) the outcome of the election --
VAUSE: Well, this is (INAUDIBLE) but there are crimes on the books. You cannot have a foreign country giving money to a campaign.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: But that's why they're looking at the money laundering thing.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Suffice to say, Robert Mueller knows a lot more about this than we do.
(CROSSTALK)
FAULKNER: And Robert Mueller is a great American, decorated Marine --
(CROSSTALK)
FAULKNER: -- and we look forward to the full extent of revealing all those --
VAUSE: OK. The president only spoke for about a minute but he managed to bring up Hillary Clinton.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you do it under oath, Mr. President?
TRUMP: You mean like Hillary did it under -- who said that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said that.
TRUMP: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you do it under oath?
TRUMP: Oh, you said it.
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TRUMP: You did say it. You say a lot.
Did Hillary do it under oath?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no idea but I'm not asking that.
TRUMP: I think you have an idea, don't you have an idea?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Wait, wait, wait. Do you not have an idea? Do you really not have an idea? I'll give you an idea. She didn't do it under oath. But --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: -- listen, I would do and you know she didn't do it under oath.
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VAUSE: Yes, she was not under oath but it's a moot point because lying to the FBI is a crime in and of itself. And people are not usually put under oath unless they've already been charged with a crime.
So to Mo''s point, Chris, shaping the argument here, it seems that the president is implying that somehow Hillary got preferential treatment; he's being treated unfairly.
FAULKNER: Well, he's certainly implying that any evidence that Hillary used The Clinton Foundation for access to foreign governments, the money laundering inclusion that people have been alluded to about the president, there's certainly a lot more evidence from what we know so far that Hillary Clinton was a lot more involved with something like that than Donald Trump ever was.
Donald Trump -- he is so certain of it. And this is something I think we can all agree on. Donald Trump was Donald Trump's campaign manager. Donald Trump is Donald Trump's senior advisor. Donald Trump's -- his job -- is Donald Trump's senior strategist.
So if he didn't -- if he knows that there was no collusion, that's why he's so emphatic about it.
VAUSE: It does seem to me, Mo', that bringing this up with Hillary Clinton and previous FBI investigations, it's this ongoing (INAUDIBLE) undermine the credibility of the FBI.
KELLY: Not only that but it's a false equivalence. We saw that Larry Nassar, ex-USA gymnastics doctor, was sentenced today. It's almost like he was trying -- Larry Nassar was trying to say but I'm not Jerry Sandusky. Jerry Sandusky was treated a certain way.
It does not absolve the president in this instance and in no way does it serve as exculpatory evidence as far as what is being investigated for.
VAUSE: OK, let's get to the Republican latest talking point about a secret society within the FBI, plotting to undermine the Trump administration, this is all based on a text message between the FBI agents, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. They were assigned to the Mueller investigation. They were having an affair. They both made derogatory statements about Donald Trump as well as others.
But they were removed from the investigation. But here is the text they sent the day after Trump was elected.
"Are you (INAUDIBLE) give out your calendars?" Page asked Strzok.
"Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should be the first meeting of the secret society." And so by Tuesday, that came out over the weekend, so by Tuesday, we get this theory from the Republicans.
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SEN. RON JOHNSON (R), WISCONSIN: More than biased, the corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, now a secret society? We have an informant that's talking about a group that were holding secret meetings offsite. There's so much smoke here, there's so much suspicion --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boy, let's stop there. A secret society? Secret meetings offsite of the Justice Department?
JOHNSON: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you have an informant saying that?
JOHNSON: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK, (INAUDIBLE) by Wednesday Senator Johnson was saying (INAUDIBLE) walk that back a little.
But Chris, if they're going to come up with an effort to discredit the FBI, they've got to do better than this, right?
FAULKNER: I don't think the Republicans and the Republican Party have always been pro-law enforcement, especially the FBI and federal law enforcement. No one is trying to undermine, at least on the Republicans elected official side, certainly there are some folks on the Right who are trying to undermine the credibility of Bob Mueller and his investigation.
But no one's trying to undermine the credibility of the FBI into this, especially any elected officials. I think that what's really troubling is we just don't know. We don't know because there's all these missing text messages because there was some sort of glitch.
So we don't know what they're referring to. It sounds like an offhand joke or something like that. We just don't know.
VAUSE: OK. Let's finish up here; we're almost out of time. The president, as we know, traveling to Davos without the first lady, pretty sad for the couple. They've celebrated, what, their 13th wedding anniversary, I think it was --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- on Monday. Saturday was also the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration. And to mark that day, the first lady tweeted this.
"This has been a year filled with many wonderful moments. I've enjoyed the people I've been lucky enough to meet throughout our great country and the world."
But unless I'm mistaken, that's not Donald Trump, right, that's another guy; that's a military escort on her arm.
Mo', is Melania Trump trying to tell us something?
KELLY: Well, as far as conspiracy theories go, we've always been theorizing about the real status of their marriage and in light of the Stormy Daniels revelations, I'm quite sure, if we think back to what happened between Bill and Hillary, it may be a bit contentious. But I notice that Donald Trump, who tweets every single day, had nothing to say about Melania or his --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- trouble in the White House with the president and the first lady?
FAULKNER: I don't know and I doubt any of us actually know. All I know is that being under that kind of scrutiny and that kind of spotlight, I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
VAUSE: That we all agree on, absolutely. (INAUDIBLE) days of Bill and Hillary Clinton. OK. Chris and Mo', good to see you both. Thank you.
FAULKNER: Thank you.
VAUSE: OK. Now let's get back to Davos, Switzerland, and our very own global elite, Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: Thanks, John. Any discussion --
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ANDERSON: -- in Davos about global prosperity must ultimately address the price of millions of displaced persons around the world. This is important. When we come back, we'll speak to the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees. That after this.
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ANDERSON: A handful of celebrities are here in Davos to lend some star power to this year's World Economic Forum, namely singer Elton John, actor Cate Blanchett and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, also being honored for their humanitarian work.
Blanchett, who is Goodwill Ambassador to the U.N. High Commission on Refugees says wealthy countries should do more to help the world's millions of displaced persons.
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CATE BLANCHETT, ACTOR AND GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Certainly in Australia, and I'm sure in America, there's a misapprehension that the developed world shoulders the burden of refugees. There's upward of 66 million people around the world displaced and 22 million of those are refugees.
And half of that number are women and girls and only 1 percent have been legally resettled in developed countries like Australia and Europe and the U.K. and the United States. And so it's the developing world that is actually shouldering the deep burden.
And yet countries that I come are being told this narrative that somehow that these refugees that have so much to offer, we're going to be burdened by them economically or they're a terrorist threat.
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ANDERSON: That's Cate Blanchett. With me now is Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Just how important it is that you have a voice like that of Cate's?
FILIPPO GRANDI, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: It's very important because we need to convey this message in a clear manner that is understood to everybody, by somebody who has communication power because this message is crucial.
The refugees are not the rich world's problem. The poor world's problem; 90 percent of the refugees are in poor or middle income country but this is often forgotten. I'm often asked ,well, you know, there's the less refugees arriving in Europe.
Is that the end of the refugee crisis? The refugees in Africa, are in the Middle East, are in Asia. This is
message that we should always remember.
ANDERSON: And many of those leaders are here at the top of the mountain in Davos in Switzerland and you will be talking to them and those others from the developed world, I'm sure, including the U.S. delegation who are here ahead of Donald Trump's speech. You made a very strong speech back in October of --
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ANDERSON: -- last year when you said simply that the global community isn't doing enough. Explain.
And what do you need?
GRANDI: Well, first of all we need more resources to address both the emergencies but also the root causes of (INAUDIBLE). Then and perhaps even more importantly we need political action. I said -- I spoke to the Security Council just a few months ago and I said we have become unable to make peace and war, conflict, violence, these are the main drivers of refugee flows.
And then since unfortunately this will not go away, this world, to use the Davos jargon, will remain fractured, I fear, for quite a while. Then we need to share the burden more equitably.
Of the millions of refugees, only 1 percent is transferred, is resettled, as we say, from poor countries to rich countries every year. This number has to increase.
ANDERSON: How damaging is a U.S. President Trump to your message?
GRANDI: Well, we should not forget that the United States is the biggest contributor to UNHCR. It has been for always and it continues to be. And this is very important. I don't know about America first but I do know about America humanitarian leadership and that's very important and it has to remain.
What is worrying is, of course, the reduction in the number of refugees that are resettled in the United States. These are the most vulnerable, the weakest, often single women, women with children, often people that have suffered very specific persecution.
So we hope that once the administration has satisfied itself that the security checks that they want to add to the screening of refugees, once they're satisfied that this is enough, that number can grow again. It's very, very important.
ANDERSON: Filippo, the agencies are well represented up here. There are some that say, to a certain extent, they ofttimes provides a veneer of respectability to many of those who are gathered here, who simply, you could say, just don't care about the work that the agencies, which I think a little bit unfair.
But this is cap in hand moment to a certain extent, at the beginning of what is 2018 after another very difficult year for an organization like yours, Yemen, the Rohingya, a litmus test, if you will, on where we are as we go into this new year of 2018.
What are you concerned about most?
GRANDI: Well, I am concerned about these new big emergencies, the Rohingya emergency, Myanmar refugees going into Bangladesh, the colossal emergency in South Sudan, over 2 million refugees, over 2 million displaced people inside the country.
I'm going to Uganda and Kenya next week to review this situation. So these are -- these are worrying situations. But you know, being here -- you talked about cap in hand -- I think it's a bit more. I think Davos is also a business forum. There's lots of business leaders. Many of them are interested in partnering with us.
Many of them have valuable ideas, tools and resources to contribute. And this is an important aspect of being here.
ANDERSON: Which is -- which is something that's important to understand. These are also leaders of big global organizations. You'll recognize a bloated, inefficient organization. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting that is yours. But there are organizations in the U.N. which are, quite frankly.
Why how do you ensure that the resources and the support that you get is used most efficiently?
GRANDI: Well, we are constantly reforming the organization. You know, we are an organization working in the field. Most of our staff are in the deep field, out there, day and night working with refugees. So we can't afford being inefficient.
For us it's a matter of life and death of the refugees. So that's the effort that we're making and I think that the business community appreciates that. And that's a litmus test as well because they will go towards what is efficient.
And we can benefit from many of their technologies, many of their tools; think of sustainable energy. Think of the need that we have to improve communication, digital identity, as we call it. These are big themes here in Davos. And it's crucial to talk about them.
ANDERSON: It's a pleasure having you on. We wish you the best.
GRANDI: Thank you very much.
ANDERSON: More from Davos after what is this very short break including how women have taken a leading role here at the World Economic Forum. Stay with us.
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VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he's looking forward to talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation but he'll also listen to the advice of his lawyers. Mr. Trump says his attempts to fight back against the probe do not amount to obstruction of justice.
A Brazilian Appeals Court not only upheld the corruption and money laundering conviction of former President Lula da Silva, it added two and half years to his sentence. da Silva had been considered a front- runner in this October's presidential election. He can appeal this decision to higher courts.
At the Korean military zone, a symbolic moment as this bus crosses from the North to the South and on that bus, North Korea's women's ice hockey team. They'll be competing with their South Korean counterparts in the Olympic games in Pyeongchang, the unified team represents a moment of reconciliation because the two governments agreed to combine their teams.
Eight agencies Save the Children has temporarily suspended all operations in Afghanistan after an ISIS attack on its office in Jalalabad. Four people were killed, dozens more were wounded during a 10-hour long siege. All five attackers were killed.
For more now the World Economic Forum, we head back to Davos and in Switzerland and CNN's Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: Thank you, John. For the first time ever, the entire panel of co-chairs here is made up of women. In the past, the World Economic Forum in Davos has heard criticisms of gender in balance but not this year.
Among the seven-member panel, IBM CEO, Ginni Rometty, IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, and Norway's Prime Minister, Erna Solberg. She spoke with CNN's Richard Quest about what it means.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Do you know feel real change is taking place and has it jumped from a hashtag to a policy shift?
ERNA SOLBERG, NORWAY PRIME MINISTER: I hope it's a policy shift. We have all organizations, even mine have been having problems with MeToo and seen that the last weeks. And I really feel that there's now very thorough understanding that we have to move forward.
We will not get equal rights in our societies if we don't talk about what happens behind closed doors, what happens in offices, or what happens in political parties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well Sharan Burrow joins me now, she is one of Davos's 2018 co-chairs, the leader, of course, of the International Trade Union Confederation.
[01:35:15]
And I'm sure you will -- your words will resonate with many of the women here. The work that's being done to ensure, for example, panels on sexual harassment, it's time, isn't it?
SHARAN BURROW, DAVOS CO-CHAIR: It's beyond time, that's right. The great thing about this message is it brings the debate about women, an inclusive future, the fact that we really must stop silencing women, discriminating against women rally into the mainstream.
ANDERSON: How do we avoid the fact that this is a nod and a wink at a really visible meeting and then we just move on?
BURROW: Well, of course, that's what many would want it to be. But I think that women are speaking up, the marches in your country. I mean, country to kind of suppression that your president might have wanted. It actually raised the solidarity.
It's time we broke the culture of silence. It is about violence against women, but it is also about the fact that on any indicator, progress to woman has stagnated, that's just not bad for the economy, it's actually a disaster for a genuinely (INAUDIBLE) world and it contributes to those fractures that are simply making our world a more attainable place.
ANDERSON: Do you think ironically that the rise of Donald Trump then has been a good thing for women's rights and equality?
BURROW: I definitely would not say that I have to say.
ANDERSON: But the environment climate that it is empowered to a certain extent. And I know this sounds like an odd way of going about it. But if it hadn't been that he became president about 14 months ago and these women's marches began and #MeToo, the viral campaign, it's almost counterintuitive. I notice the gypsies.
BURROW: Yes. I actually think that's not the kind of world we would want to describe. The rise of the alpha male has unleashed a wave of misogyny that is just unacceptable. And it is courageous of women to come out, it's what we need to do, we need to organize.
Women have power and they need to take it into their own hands. But I must say, what the MeToo movement has done is in fact, named the problem. Misogyny, harassment, violence against women, and this year we will negotiate a new standard, business, labor, government, at the ILO to eliminate violence, the culture of violence against men and women in the workplace.
ANDERSON: How do you enforce those just out of interest?
BURROW: Well, when you have -- well in the U.S., that's a good question. But globally, once you established a global standard convention, governments in ratified, U.S. doesn't ratify convinced or thinks it's ratified one in its history and -- but other government ratify it, put it into their laws.
Now, of course, it's cyclical. I was talking to women yesterday and some of us are old enough to know when we fought for sexual harassment laws, for any discrimination laws, for commissioners in the 1970s. But the culture of silence has meant that the -- that it's simply been allowed to rise in our workplaces, in our homes, it's got to win.
ANDERSON: I want to show you one of the most visited websites in the world, Sharan, Google has this doodle on its main page today, let's bring it up. Celebrating what would be the 136th birthday of Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest and most innovative writers of the last 200 years bar none. A small nod to the parent glory of us as women, it's not a better time than this?
BURROW: Well Virginia Woolf would be horrified. I mean, I'm horrified. We had these debates. When I was a very young woman at university in the 1970s --
ANDERSON: (INAUDIBLE)
BURROW: We saw -- no, no. Well, (INAUDIBLE) but no. The -- but the reality is we thought we'd solve these problems, that respect, that rights, that equal treatment, that a contribution to our economies. But I seriously got asked by journalists this week, weren't men and women different? And didn't they have to make different life choices? I must say, even I was sort of horrified because this --
ANDERSON: It's 2018.
BURROW: This is 2018 and I don't believe any parent wants a world for their daughters or their granddaughters that is not about the reality of equal treatment. But we don't have it, we have a culture of silence, we have the dominant pair of men and we have to fight that.
ANDERSON: I've been coming here since 1998to cover the meeting up here, I applaud you guys. This is fantastic, the first all-female co- chairs of the World Economic Forum, the top of this mountain in Davos in Switzerland, thank you.
BURROW: All power to you. Thank you.
ANDERSON: CNN covering Davos from every angle. And in the coming hours, some of our high profiled guests include Henrietta Ford, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Phillip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the U.K. and Chrystia Freeland, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada.
[01:40:23]
There you go, two out of three just in the next hour or so. We sat silent for seven days, is more than 150 of his victims described his sexual abuse. What former Olympic Sports Director Larry Nassar had to say before sentencing that? After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VAUSE: Well after listening to more than 150 of his victims, we heard
their horrific stories in court. Now, this (INAUDIBLE) sports doctor will now spend the rest of his life in prison. Larry Nassar was the USA Gymnastics Team doctor for four Olympic Games. He also worked for Michigan State University read his apology in court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY NASSAR, CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ABUSE: Your words these past several days, your words, your words have had a significant emotional effect on myself and has shaken me to my core. I also recognize that what I have feeling pains be comparison for the pain, trauma, and emotional destruction that all of you are feeling. There are no words and (INAUDIBLE) of how sorry I am for what has occurred.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The just made certain that Nassar would never see another day of freedom. Before she sentenced him, she read part of the letter he had written to the court. In it, "Nassar said the women were lying and he had been manipulated into pleading guilty."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSEMARIE AQUILINA, MICHIGAN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: This letter which comes two months after your plea tells me that you have not yet owned what you did but you still think that somehow you are right, that you are a doctor, that you're entitled, that you don't have to listen.
And that you did treatment. I wouldn't send my dogs to you sir. Sir, I'm giving you 175 years which is 2,100 months. I've just signed your death warrant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining us now, Melissa Leftwitz, Criminal Defense Attorney. OK. That letter from Nassar which the judge was reading out, he wrote it two months after he made this deal to plead guilty. I want you to listen a little more from the letter because this is the part which shocked many who were listening in the court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AQUILINA: "I was at the doctor because my treatments worked and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over and referred family and friends to see me."
[01:45:17]
"The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust." Hell have no fury like a woman's scorn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, this is incredible. He comes off as defined, he comes even thinking he's the victim. This guy doesn't think he's done anything wrong, right?
