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Alarming Rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe; Russia and Ukraine's Standoff Escalates; Martial Law Takes Effect In Paris Of Ukraine; Trump Tells Washington Post He Might Not Meet Putin At G20; Crash Of Lion Air Flight JT610; U.K.'s Messy Divorce; Anger In France; Trump Slams G.M. For Plans To Close Plants; Trump Skeptical Of Climate Change Warnings; Syrian Living In Airport Finds Refuge In Canada; Facebook Under Fire. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 28, 2018 - 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] WILL RIPLEY, CNN HOST: A shadow over Europe. Inside the rise in anti-Semitism, hate speech and crime in Germany and what must be done to fight it.

Rising tensions and martial law in Ukraine as that country's president warns a full-scale war is possible after a naval clash with Russia.

Plus, the crash of Lion Air flight 610, investigators revealing what happened in the cockpit in the minutes before the plane plunged into the Java Sea.

Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Will Ripley, live in Hong Kong. And this is CNN Newsroom.

We begin with a shadow over Europe. Our extensive CNN investigation to the rise of anti-Semitism on the continent. CNN has spent months looking into the surge of hate crimes and hate speech targeting Jews across Europe.

And unsurprisingly, the ugliest examples are coming from a country that birth the Nazi movement surprisingly so the Nazi leaders who killed six million Jews during the Holocaust.

Germany has pledge in the decade since and gone to great lengths to atone for the atrocities and remember the victims. But there is new polling commissioned by CNN showing that 55 percent agree that anti- Semitism is once again a growing problem in Germany.

Fifty percent say that Jewish people are at risk of racist violence in that country. And 16 percent unbelievably believe that most anti- Semitism is a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people who are living their lives there.

Germany has seen a surge in neo-Nazis and far-right nationalist groups over the last few years but they are not the only ones behind this rise in anti-Semitism.

CNN's chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward continues our investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a sight you don't expect to see in Germany in 2018. Hundreds of right-wing extremists, many neo-Nazis marching through the nation's capital.

"Close the border" they shout. "Resistance, resistance." The far right is enjoying a major come back here, bringing with it a troubling rise in anti-Semitism.

According to government figures, anti-Semitic attacks have increased by 20 percent in the last five years. The number of violent right-wing extremists has gone up by nearly a third. This man tells us a shadowy cabal of globalist controls the world.

So, when you talk about elites and you talk about finance is that another way of saying Jewish people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: It is.

"Let me say it this way. The banking system, for sure. Banks, finance, the economy, mainly Jews," he says. We had more questions but our conversation was cut short by one of the march's organizers.

I think we have someone who is following.

Making anti-Semitic statements can be punishable under German law. But Christian Weissberger explains that neo-Nazis are finding new ways to express the same old hatred. And he should know, Weissberger used to be a right-wing extremist himself.

CHRISTIAN WEISSBERGER, FORMER NEO-NAZI: I would say that it is a form of anti-Semitism that disguised itself, so they don't talk about the Jew anymore, they talk about the Zionist, or the globalist or the bankers.

WARD: And they are growing more brazen. One man flashes a quick but unmistakable Nazi salute right in front of us, a crime in Germany. It's important to remember this isn't any country, this is Germany.

Just a few hundred yards from the march is a memorial for the millions of Jews murdered here in the Second World War. More than 70 years after the Holocaust, Germany is still haunted by its past, and yet remarkably anti-Semitism is once again a growing problem here with 50 percent of Germans agreeing that Jewish people are now at risk of racist violence.

The statistic comes from a CNN poll that also found half of Germans believe Jews are at risk of hate speech. At Feinberg's Israeli restaurant, owner Yorai says he gets threats every day.

YORAI FEINBERG, RESTAURANT OWNER: From murder, to I'll break your knees, I'll break your arms, I'll break your teeth, they're very creative in everything. All of the options that they want to break.

[03:05:01] WARD: He was recently accosted by a man who told him Jews will end up in the gas chamber.

"It's only about the money for you, you will pay," the man says to him. "Nobody wants you here."

He told you to go to the gas chambers or that you will go back to the gas chambers?

FEINBERG: Yes.

WARD: You've heard things like that before?

FEINBERG: I heard it very often.

WARD: Germany acknowledged it has a problem, recently appointing its first anti-Semitism czar. Felix Klein is focused on creating a nationwide system for reporting anti-Semitic crimes and on improving integration of Germany's different communities.

FELIZ KLEIN, ANTI-SEMITISM COMMISSIONER, GERMANY: Anti-Semitism always existed in Germany and also after 1945, and now though, it is showing its ugly face more openly. Things that people would never have dared to say in a bar or in a restaurant and a private surrounding do it so now using social media or the internet.

WARD: Germany has seen upticks in neo-Nazi activity before. Most notably in the 1990s. While official statistics show that more than 90 percent of anti-Semitic attacks nationwide are from the far right, there's a new element of concern for the Jewish community. The arrival of 1.4 million Muslim refugees in the last three years.

Doron Rubin is the leader of Germany's small Orthodox Jewish community.

DORON RUBIN, HEAD, KAHAL ADASS JISROEL CONGREGATION: A lot of coming, the incoming of a lot of immigrants, a different history and different background and especially obviously coming from the Middle East also because of Israel, a different attitude towards Jews.

KLEIN: When we talk about Muslims originated anti-Semitism, I think we can only win that battle with the help of the moderate Muslims, without them, this wouldn't be a successful fight.

WARD: Overall, the Jewish community remains anxious.

RUBIN: I think much more Jews now think again like can we call Germany our home. And is it possible to live in this society. You can know that that's question that might not have been asked five years ago are starting to pop up again.

WARD: It's a question few in this country ever imagined would have to be asked again.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Just remarkable. And of course, this is being watched very closely in Israel where CNN's Oren Liebermann is and with us now from Jerusalem. So, Oren, you sat down with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Was there anything in this investigation that surprised him?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I wouldn't say surprised. He pointed out that Israel does its own tracking of anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere. So, he's aware as not only Israelis but Jews all over the world that their remains sometimes strongly so anti-Semitism in Europe and other places, anti-Semitism in the U.S. and around the world.

He did say he was concerned but what surprised me about the interview is, he was optimistic about the efforts taken by European governments, Eastern Europe and Western Europe and he was optimistic about the work being done to combat anti-Semitism. We sat down with the prime minister in this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Prime Minister Netanyahu, thank you for sitting down with us.

Anti-Semitism in Europe is nothing new, but the results of our survey are still quite striking. More than a quarter of Europeans believe that Jews have too much influence in politics and finance. Twenty percent believe that anti-Semitism is a response to the everyday actions of Jews.

You travel to Europe often and you meet the leaders there, are you surprised?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm concerned. Because I think anti-Semitism is an ancient disease and when it rears its ugly head, it first attacks the Jews, but it never stops with them and then sweeps entire society. This happened obviously in the mid- century Europe, first in Germany and then throughout all of Europe and the consequences were horrible.

Yes, I'm concerned. But I think we have to fight it. And we are fighting it. And some of the -- most of the European countries and governments I commend them for fighting anti-Semitism. They're right.

LIEBERMANN: It's easy to sit here and make statement and say never again every Holocaust Memorial Day, but that's not going to end this. Do you see the concrete actions that need to happen here on the part of European countries?

NETANYAHU: Well, it looks to (Inaudible) between two things. First, the sources of anti-Semitism. There's old anti-Semitism in Europe that came from the extreme right and that is still around. But there's also new anti-Semitism that comes from the extreme left, and also the radical Islamic pockets in Europe that spew forth these lies and slanders about Israel.

The only democracy in this entire region, the only one that has courts, human rights, right for all regions, gays, everything. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous.

[03:09:59] I mean, the attacks on Israel, the one carrier of European values in in the Middle East is absurd and it is absurd twice. Not because of what I said but because six million Jews annihilated on the soil of Europe and to have anti-Semitism in Europe is a particular -- particularly offensive absurdity of history.

So, yes, I'm concerned with that. But again, what do I see? Number one, I see European governments, I spoke to Merkel, Macron and May and they were -- and others. They're putting up a fight. I'm seeing this in Eastern Europe.

I saw Viktor Orban in Hungary. He's opened up a center against anti- Semitism. I saw Sebastian Kurz in Austria. He just held a conference against anti-Semitism. And that's encouraging.

But the other side of it is, of course, education. You also have to educate people. In your survey, you know, a good chunk -- a third of the people hardly knew anything about the Holocaust. I think education is important. And I think a strong forceful position is important.

I'll tell you what else is important. The state of Israel is important, because when we had no state, we were completely defenseless against anti-Semitic forces that annihilated a third of our people. Every third Jew was destroyed.

Well, today we have a state, we have a capacity to stand up for ourselves and to defend ourselves and that ultimately is the best guarantor against anti-Semitism.

LIEBERMANN: You mentioned Hungary, one of the countries in Poland as well. These are countries where anti-Semitic imagery dog whistle anti- Semitism was used in everyday politics, yet, nevertheless, they have good relations with Israel. Their leaders seem to have good relations with you. Is there contradiction there, how do you reconcile that?

NETANYAHU: Look, there are old tendencies that have to be fought and they keep coming back, it's like a, I describe anti-Semitism as like a chronic disease. It can be fatal if you don't challenge it. And it can be contained and reduced if you do. That's what I expect government and leaders to do and mostly of them actually they do do it.

(CROSSTALK)

LIEBERMANN: What about when those leaders both use that anti-Semitic imagery--

NETANYAHU: Well-- LIEBERMANN: -- and are strong friends of Israel? Is there an issue there?

NETANYAHU: I don't think they should. I don't think they do. And I think that ultimately the -- the real issue is can we tolerate the idea that people say that Israel doesn't have a right to exist which I think is the ultimate anti-Semitic statement, you know.

The majority of the Jewish people are very soon going to be living in Israel. There are over six million Jews now living in Israel. So, the new anti-Semites say this. Well, we're not against Jews, we're just against the state of Israel.

It's like I would say, well, I'm not against French people, I just don't think there should be France. France wouldn't exist. So, anti- Semitism and anti-Zionism and anti-Israeli policies. The idea that Israelis doesn't have, the Jewish people don't have a right for a state. That's the ultimate anti-Semitism of today.

I talked about Zionism. You know, we're sitting here in this interview about 200 meters from Mount Zion. mount Zion is the mountain in the center of Jerusalem where King David proclaim Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people 3,000 years ago.

And Theodor Herzl, the modern Moses, led our people to reestablish a Jewish state here called this national movement Zionist based on this mountain right here.

So, when people say, well, I'm not an anti-Semite, I'm only anti- Zionist. They're basically saying, I don't think the Jewish people should have a state. And the Iranians say even more blunt, not only shouldn't they have a state but we're going to annihilate the six million who are here.

We're going to deny that there was a Holocaust that killed six million Jews. And while we're planning the next Holocaust for the six million who are here.

Well, as we say, that is not going to happen. Because we're not going to let it happen. But I think that anti-Semitism has to be exposed. Anti-Israel policies of the kind that say, not criticism, that we can accept, you know, everybody can be criticized.

But to say you don't have a right to have your own state, we've been here for 3,000 years, actually 4,000, closer to 4,000 if you include Abraham. We don't have a right to exist? Well, if we don't have the right to exist, nobody has a right to exist.

And I think be that that particular prejudice against the Jewish people has to be countered and I'm glad to see leaders like the president of the -- of the Czech Republic who was just here, Milos Zeman, saying, if we betray Israel, we betray ourselves.

And he said it in the previous speech, he said, "I'm a Jew because the Jewish people carried the values of western civilization and I identify with that." [03:14:56] And I think there's -- this is the deepest meaning of anti-

Semitism. It really goes against the whole idea of the development of western civilization and of human enlightenment and freedom.

Israel is not above criticism. But the idea, but we're slandered very often. And especially the idea that we don't have a right to exist, well, you know, frankly, I'll combat it and if people don't like it, let them not like it. We're here. We're going stay here.

LIEBERMANN: Are you confident about the future of Jews in Europe?

NETANYAHU: I think it has to be protected. And we expect every government to act to protect Jews as they would act to protect anyone living there and many are. Individual Jews have a choice. They can always come here but we -- we respect their individual choice.

But I also expect and actually see that the governments of Europe by and large I have to say just about every one of them acts to fend off these attacks because they're wrong in their own right, and also they're wrong, they're dangerous for the society at large. And I'm glad to see this policy pretty much across the board.

LIEBERMANN: Prime Minister, thank you for your time.

NETANYAHU: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Our survey did very much make big headlines here the moment it was released. This is the main newspaper in Israel from yesterday. The moment our survey was released, they had their own version, it says, "anti-Semitism survey from CNN" with some of the results on the front page, as well as a two-page spread inside.

And our survey continues to make big headlines today. This is today's Jerusalem Post with a result right in the front page. "A third of Europeans say Jews too influential, CNN poll 20 percent say anti- Semitism result of Jewish behavior."

So, this continues to be a major story here even if everyone here is already aware that anti-Semitism exists in Europe and elsewhere. It is the striking results of that survey and a slap in the face that the survey results give you that keeps the story ongoing.

What were of course be interesting to see is the trend here. Our survey has given us a snapshot of anti-Semitism at this moment or at least over the course of the past few months. To know where it was 10 years ago, to know where it will be in another 10 years would of course be a fascinating question.

Will, that would give us even more insight into the directions here especially as you see the rise in Europe of populist politics of far- right parties which is Austria's freedom party which has Nazi roots to it from decades ago.

The rise of that is that overpowering what Netanyahu has pointed out as the efforts of European government to try to combat anti-Semitism and to try to fight anti-Semitism and to try to educate against it. Will?

RIPLEY: Such an important conversation, especially right now and a fascinating CNN exclusive with Bibi Netanyahu. Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem for us. Thanks very much.

And on Thursday, we turn the focus to France. Home to largest Jewish population in Europe. Anti-Semitism has always been a problem there but attacks have been increasing in recent years.

Clarissa Ward meets one woman who questions her family's future in France.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: Miriam and her family have considered moving from France. Joining the more than 55,000 Jews that who have left since the year 2000. In the sanctuary of their home they celebrate Shabbat, a ritual ushered in every Friday night by lighting candles and reciting a blessing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm scared for the future of my baby here, I hope that he will have a future here. And you know, Jewish communities are part of historical France. Really. And so, I think France without any Jews is not anymore France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Clarissa also speaks with officials from the French government to find out exactly what they're doing to counter this troubling trend. Join us for the next report in our CNN exclusive series, a shadow over Europe, anti-Semitism in 2018. That's Thursday, only on CNN.

And up next here in the CNN Newsroom, we go live to Ukraine where a standoff with Russia appears to be escalating. Martial law is now in effect in some areas. And Ukraine's president is warning there could be a full-scale war.

And more anti-government protests are planned in France, the third weekend in a row there by demonstrators, saying their president is ignoring their concerns.

[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RIPLEY: You're watching CNN Newsroom live from Hong Kong.

And at this hour, martial law is now in effect across parts of Ukraine. Russia seized three Ukrainian ships and detained more than 20 troops on Sunday near Crimea. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says it now faces the threat of a full-scale Russian invasion.

Many western leaders are condemning Russia's behavior. U.S. President Donald Trump telling the Washington Post he might not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, he's live in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

Nick, you were there in 2014 when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, what sense are you getting now? Is this rhetoric or is there actually a real threat of a full-scale war?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that really the point to the Russian (Inaudible), Will, is that you will never know what they're actually up to. That's just the general thrust behind what they've been doing here for the last four years. Nobody expected them to walk into Crime pretending to be a little green man and not actually Russian special forces.

Nobody expected them to use local separatist in Donetsk just a few months later and take over that part of the country too. Nobody really knows what's behind clearly that quite aggressive confrontation between, overtly this time, not in disguise, not through proxies, the Russian military and Ukrainian navy on Sunday that led to two dozen Ukrainian soldiers now being in Russian custody. Half of them sentenced to two months.

And now we have Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president beleaguered frankly, throughout his term by the slow Russian hiding off of parts of Ukrainian territory to declare martial law.

Today, it came into effect one hour or 20 minutes ago. Its in 10 regions far away from where I'm standing in the capital Kiev. But we're now getting a sense of sort razor wire suddenly dropping across the country. This is perhaps something a little subtler.

The nation already at war for the last four years, really, a daily death on the front line here. But now with extra measures for air defense, cyber security and troops on the ground and the possibility held out by President Poroshenko to CNN yesterday that they might restrict movement to Russian citizens into the country here.

But really the broader question has always been the case, is what exactly is the international community's red line here? What does the Kremlin think it can successfully, quote, "can get away with?"

Now, Russia have said clearly that it believes all of this is Ukrainian provocation because Petro Poroshenko is doing so badly in the polls ahead of presidential elections in March.

At the same time, Angela Merkel of Germany has called for deescalation. The U.S. on a cabinet level has called this Russian aggression, but we're still seeing Donald Trump saying he's not happy, quote, "either way," with perhaps that suggests Ukraine or Russia's behavior here. He doesn't like the aggression, he said last night he was getting a full report, two days staggeringly after the original incident in the Kerch Strait on Sunday.

[03:24:59] We have yet to hear him vehemently condemn Russian actions here. And I think if you're assessing this inside the Kremlin's walls, you're kind of looking at that as maybe, not a green light, but a sign of, perhaps, the sort of Obama era, wall of sanctions that were met after Crimea and Donetsk may not really be coming, and perhaps, there's a little more you might be able to get away with.

But as I say, the whole point of the Russian strategy is to leave you absolutely none there wiser about what they're really thinking. Will?

RIPLEY: So, what is feeling of people on the ground right now? Are they nervous? Or do they feel that this is just more politicians talking?

WALSH: This is a country that's been at war for four years. So, obviously, emotions have been heightened. They're exhausted. They're at a great point of anxiety because martial law are intended (Ph) and that's not something they've seen before. They don't really know whether that's going to affect their political rights. Does it mean the elections could get delayed for March?

That's obviously not something the government says is remotely a possibility because this martial law should be over in 30 days. But even on the separatist side, two residents of Donetsk held by separatists that we spoke to, they are nervous. They obviously have been in a state of warfare, as I say for months.

You just have to remember, Will, this is not a new war. This is a moment in the war which the world is paying attention to. Because it's different because it happened in the Kerch Strait. But fighting has been going on here since 2014.

People are concerned obviously that any blockade of separatist areas and any movements may give license to Russian-backed forces to try something new or different or move in other areas. Or that perhaps Ukraine's government feels it has to do something to save face.

But I think there's a broad calculation by most analysts that the Ukrainian military improves as it has no real chance against the Russian armed forces. And so, this is a careful game of stalemate where the Kremlin has the motivational upper hand. Will?

RIPLEY: A long simmering conflict, you've been covering from the beginning. I know you'll continue doing so. Nick Paton Walsh, live in Kiev for us. Thank you.

A Lion Air flight crashing just minutes after takeoff killing all 189 people on board. And now, there is a new report offering a glimpse of what went wrong in the minutes before that crash.

And CNN is on the road with Brexit, British prime -- Britain's prime minister trying to defend the deal to divorce from the E.U., but are business leaders buying it? We're live in London with a tough sell, next on CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RIPLEY: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. Live from Hong Kong. I'm Will Ripley. And these are the headlines at this hour.

Ukraine is now imposing martial law in areas it says are under the threat of invasion from Russia. [03:30:01] The two countries are trading accusations after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships near Crimea and Ukraine's President said his country could facing a full-scale war with Russia.

NATO is condemning Russia's actions against Ukraine and so are some U.S. officials, but the U.S. President Donald Trump says he is waiting on a full report from his national security team. He tells the "Washington Post" he may not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit.

And we're learning more about what went wrong in the minutes before a Lion airplane crashed in October, killing 189 people. There's a new report, a preliminary report that Indonesian investigators say, indicates that this Boeing 737 max aircraft experienced similar flight control problems on a previous flight, but the report said the pilots took different action. It suggests that Lion Air can do more to improve safety, but it does not offer a definitive cause of the crash.

And Boeing is now responding saying the report does not disclose what action was taken by the pilots on the doomed flight. It is a complex and sad situation for all of those families who want answers in this. CNN's Ivan Watson who is here in Hong Kong but was on the ground in Jakarta after the crash. Ivan, you had been in touch with investigators, so, what are the main take away from these report and where do we go from here?

IVAN WATSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, it fills in a lot of that blanks about the final flight and about a consistent problem that this particular aircraft was having on the last four days before it crashed. It was consistently getting the wrong altitude and velocity readings on its data instruments. We learned more about the final 11-minute flight on the morning of October 29th where 189 people tragically died. This is a graphic that we pulled from the report that shows the altitude of the plane during that 11-minute flight which dipped and dove and then ultimately did that sharp dive as you can see at the end of that 11 minute timeline.

But I want to show you a second graph that we pulled from the report which suggests that the pilots were battling the auto pilot system in the plane, basically when the sensors give you the wrong altitude and the wrong readings, this particular brand of Boeing 737 max eight, it kicks in a kind of auto pilot feature which set the plane into a dive. And that you can see on that graph there, that is the orange line there.

Every one of those dips is one of those dives, Will. And the blue line there is the pilot responding and trying to pull the nose of the plane up after every short dive there. If I could draw a comparison, Will, it is like if you're driving a car and the cruise control takes over and refuses to respond to you or if the accelerator continues to push down and you're fighting the controls of the vehicle.

And that is what the pilots were dealing with for 11 straight minutes, 30 separate moments where the plane tried to dive in the auto pilot. And what must have been a truly terrifying ride for the crew, and for the passengers as well? We know from the flight logs, that just 90 seconds into the flight, the co-pilot called in to air-traffic control saying they were having flight control problems, requesting what the altitude of the plane was and just 30 seconds before the plane ultimately crashed, the pilot spoke to air-traffic control and his final words were. Five thousand as in five thousand feet which is where he wanted to be altitude wise but instead the plane went into a deep and deadly dive. Will.

RIPLEY: Oh. I think 11 minutes of the plane going up and down and the terror that people must have felt. It must be heartbreaking for the families to see this report. Ivan, I know you'll stay on the story and you were with them there in Jakarta and experienced firsthand this tragic event, we appreciate you reporting live from Hong Kong today.

Britain's Prime Minister is taking her Brexit campaign to Scotland. It is the next stop of her tour of the U.K., but this controversial deal is likely to be a very hard sale there. Scotland, remember they voted to stay in the European Union. Theresa May met with business and community leaders in Wales and Northern Ireland and just a short time ago, Britain's finance minister outline the analysis that the treasury is to publish, examines the economic impact of various forms of Brexit from a pre-trade agreement to a no deal exit, just staying in the E.U. It is so much to break down and there's no one better to do it than CNN's Nina Dos Santos, live in London. Nina, good to see you. So help us understand here, what is about this deal that so many people seen to have big problems with?

[03:35:09] NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the one hand, Will, some people want to remain inside the E.U. say it is not the best deal and what it does essentially is make the U.K. right into laws in certain things that they're uncomfortable with. Those who want to -- wants to see Britain striking out on its own completely and dependently from the E.U. say that it will leave the U.K. beholden to the E.U. for many years to come and such doing that period, it won't be able to have its own free trade deals.

Remember, Donald Trump, the U.S. president raised this earlier on in the week claiming according to Downing Street, erroneously that the U.K. and the United States would not be able to trade with each other after Brexit was done and dusted with the deal that Theresa May has on the table.

Now the problem with all of this, obviously is that -- it is a big weighty document, it is a big decision to try and put through parliament in about 14 days and -- it is subject to interpretation. Now to try to focus people's minds, as you quite rightfully said, Theresa May has been crisscrossing the United Kingdom to try to sell these plan to the people, to the regions, to the business community to try to get them to lobby parliament, so that she could get more M.P.'s on her side from all political creeds.

But I should point out, that there's a growing resistance obviously to this plan, particularly in places like Scotland. And in order to try to counter act that, she is reviving, according to some Brexiteers the so called project fear. Essentially saying that it is up to the treasury to try focus people minds on the nightmarish economic consequences of the so-called no deal Brexit.

That is what we have here later on today. The treasury is going to be publishing its own analysis of what is likely to happen if there is the type of deal that Theresa May is manage to negotiated. And if there isn't one and the U.K. crashes out without a free trade deal with the E.U.

Now, when it comes to no deal scenario according to the Daily Telegraph which claims to have a leaked copy of this treasury analysis, they claimed that GDP to the United Kingdom would fall by 7.5 percent if there's a no deal in the next 15 years. According to Theresa May's deal though, it would shave off only 1 to 2 percent of GDP. So there they are trying to say that if you look at the numbers, this is a much better deal than the nightmare scenario of a no deal. Will?

RIPLEY: What is the sense on the ground? Are people concerned about what could happen?

DOS SANTOS: Well, obviously they are, but I think at this point also, Theresa May has gotten on to one particular important trend among the U.K. populous and that is, they are lastly fed up talking about Brexit. They are the ones the (inaudible) in this subject or they want to see in some cases a reversal of Brexit or a second vote on the subject.

The point is that talking endlessly from one pro and anti-Brexit stance in parliament is really tiring the people. And She has -- she has repeatedly struck home that message on this tour that she is gone across the United Kingdom again, the push back that she is getting from politician is, that is not good enough argument for us to rip up the rule book and (inaudible) to U.K. law things that we are uncomfortable with especially when it comes to such a sensitive issue as I am picking more than 40 years' worth of a trading relationship and the legal relationship with the biggest trading partner.

So those are the arguments that you are hearing between the (inaudible) clauses and also the people on the ground who actually voted for Brexit and obviously it will all come to ahead in around about 14 days' time when we got the so-called meaningful vote. Just a reminder, yet again, it still looking as though she does not have the numbers in terms of managing to get the support from either the opposition Labour Party. The Northern Irish Party that she relies upon on for the confidence and supply agreements. As she said, she is heading to Scotland. It is looking unlikely that the Scottish National Party would have any of these reason to try and back this kind of deal.

So the question becomes will she open up the deal to allow politicians to change it in some fashion. We may well see a softening on that stance on that on the days to come, as she tries to get it through the parliament. Will?

RIPLEY: And to think this far along in the process, still really no idea how this is going to turn out. Nina Dos Santos, live in London. We keep following you. Thank you. Well, in France, the president, Emmanuel Macron said he will not lower

taxes on fuel, this is despite increasingly violent anti-government protests. There have been clashes for days between the police and demonstrators, they brought central Paris to a standstill and now the French President is insisting he will not change course on his goal to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (TRANSLATOR): I'm not leveling up hooligans with fellow citizens that want to send a message. I understand these fellow citizens, but I will not give in to those who seek destruction and disorder, because the republic is about public order as well as the freedom to express opinions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:40:06] RIPLEY: The so-called yellow vest movement began as protests against higher fuel taxes, but it has now widened. Demonstrations against President Macron's economic policy. His critics say he fails to understand that most people in France are just struggling to make ends meet. They say he only governs for the wealthy.

We're live in the CNN "Newsroom" and up next, just days after a U.S. report warns the world is on a collision course with climate change, the U.N. is joining the chorus of concern. Why President Trump though is still questioning his own experts? And the President's former campaign chairman is responding to a report that he met secretly with Julian Assange just months before WikiLeaks released Hillary Clinton's hacked e-mails.

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RIPLEY: U.S. President's Donald Trump former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is now firing back, that a report that he met secretly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange calling it false and libelist. Assange's lawyer is also denying the report, but the Guardian newspaper is saying that Manafort and Assange says they met inside the Ecuador embassy in London several times, including once around March of 2016. That is the same month that Manafort joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Also that month, Russian intelligence officers allegedly started hacking Democratic Party computers. And later that year WikiLeaks released those hacked emails. Now all of these coming on the heels of a bombshell report filing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleging that Manafort repeatedly lied to investigators and was after he had already agreed to cooperate. A top Democrat is telling CNN's Jim Acosta that if President Trump would even dangled a pardon for Manafort that would be dangerously close to obstruction of justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Handle with care. That is seems to be the White House approach to dealing with the allegations from the Special Counsel office that former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort violated his plea deal by lying to investigators. At the White House briefing there was no talks of pardons.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not aware of any conversations of anyone pardons involving this.

ACOSTA: But notably no real push to urge Manafort to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the President recommend that Mr. Manafort begin to cooperate, offer full cooperation to the Special Counsel's office?

[03:45:03] HUCKABEE SANDERS: We could only speak to what our role is in that process. And not only has the President, but the entire administration has been fully cooperative with the Special Counsel's office and providing hours and hours of sit-downs as well as over 4 million pages of documents. We continue to be cooperative, but we also know there was no collusion and we're ready for this to wrap up.

ACOSTA: Press Secretary Sarah Sanders appeared to make a point only defending the President not the rest of the campaign.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Certainly we are confident and the White House is asserting that the president was not involved in wrongdoing, was not part of any collusion.

ACOSTA: Still with expectations building, Mueller could be closing in on new indictments in the Russia investigations. The President remains agitated with the probe tweeting, the media builds up Bob Mueller as saint when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing tremendous damage to our criminal justice system where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come out of this and it won't be Mueller. The White House is also standing its ground on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi with National Security Adviser, John Bolton dismissing questions from reporters about whether he should listen to the audio recording of the murder of the Saudi journalist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess I should ask you why you think I should -- what do you think I would learn from it?

HUCKABEE SANDERS: We have a national security adviser that have access to that or you may call it intelligence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many in these room speak Arabic? If you want me to listen to it, what am I going to learn from, I mean if they were speaking Korean I wouldn't learn anymore from it either.

ACOSTA: Sater push back on the notion that the President is rejecting the assessment of the CIA that Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's killing.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: We haven't seen definitive evidence come from our intelligence community that ties him directly to that. But what we have seen a number of individuals that we know are tied to that and those individuals have been sanctioned.

ACOSTA: As Sater was speaking, the President upstaged his press secretary breaking the news that he may punish General Motors over its plan to close car factory in the U.S. tweeting, we are not looking at cutting all G.M. subsidies. The White House is blaming G.M. not Trump administration economic policies for its current loads.

HUCKABEE SANDERS: They are making car frankly that people don't want to buy.

ACOSTA: The White House said the president won't be meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince when Mr. Trump travels to Argentina for the G20 Summit later on this week. The President however will be meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Russia's recent aggression against Ukraine is likely to come up in that discussion, but what the President plans to do about that, that remains a big open question. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEO)

RIPLEY: President Trump is wading further in to the climate change debate. He is dismissing warnings from his own administration about the effect that global warming could have on the economy. Not to mention the health of the global population and everyone's way of life. He told the "Washington Post" that one of the problems is that a lot of people including himself have very high levels of intelligence, but are not necessarily believers.

And he went on to say that whether or not it is manmade and whether or not the effects being talked about are there, he doesn't see it. He is the leader of one of the most important countries in the world when it comes to climate change.

Now the U.N., it is releasing a damming report of its own, on this very topic, warning that the world is coming up short on the goal to limit global warming to two degrees. Take a look at some of these key findings. Co2 emissions, one of the highest ever last year. And right now, the promises from the world largest economy are simply not enough to bridge the emission gap.

The report also says that countries would have to triple their current efforts to stay below the two degree threshold and triple their current efforts. CNN's meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri joins us now. So, if that does not happen, if countries don't triple their efforts, then what does that mean for life on earth in the coming years?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Especially when you consider not only we've not seen an increase, Will, our great seniors also seeing the conditions go downhill as far as the emission numbers increase over the past 12 months or so, but here's what happened. Essentially, we know that we've seen the fires increase across portions of the world. We've seen droughts become more extreme, we see storms intensify far more rapidly. That essentially that data suggest will continue to happen and the fact that nothing is done. Temperatures now are not going to rise by 1 1/2 or 2 degrees. The report that came out on Tuesday states 3.2 degrees Celsius is what

we'll see inside the next 70 to 80 years. Certainly a staggering finding. Of course, we know it has been dramatically rising in the past several decades, especially opposed the industrial era. But here's the perspective. As emissions rise, temperatures rise. That again has been the case for well over 120 years of recordkeeping. You take a look in 2017, 53.5 billion tons of co-2 were emitted into the atmosphere. Highest ever observed by humans and in fact 1 percent higher than 2016, a year after the Paris agreement was signed.

[03:50:00] So, again, globally speaking, the emissions had been increasing not decreasing. That is one of the more concerning facts. The other signed on Tuesday's meet stated that peak emissions need to occur by the year 2020 and no later than that for conditions to be able to be maintained and also reduced, of course to keep up temperatures below the threshold of 2 or even 1 1/2 degrees. If that is not done, if conditions continue to peak beyond the year 2020, we're talking about of course, dramatic damage here with temperatures getting as high as 3.2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.

Of course, you bring the emissions downstream, you bring the temperatures downstream as a result and the way to do this, is analysis at least suggest that a 25 percent drop in emissions by 2030 would allow us to see those temperatures be limited to 2 degrees Celsius. If we cut the emission from today's rates down 55 percent, we could limit temperatures to 1.5 degrees. Again, a tall task. What is it going to take? We know of course, improvements in battery technology and renewable resources and we have to take essentially the electricity that we're currently getting which globally only 20 percent of which comes from renewable energy. We got to take that up 80 percent over the next several decades. So, again, a tall task and that is what we're being forced to do here over the next several decades to make things safe for a lot of people.

RIPLEY: And frightening to think about what happened if these changes are not made. Pedram Javaheri, live from the CNN weather Center, thank you so much.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

RIPLEY: Next on "Newsroom" live from Hong Kong, a remarkable journey. Seven months living in the Malaysian airport, but now, this Syrian refugee family finally has a new home.

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RIPLEY: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom, live from Hong Kong. You know who is feeling the heat right now, Mark Zuckerberg. A British parliament, lawmakers from nine countries shared their anger at fake news, Facebook and its CEO. There was a big reason for that. Zuckerberg didn't even show up, but (inaudible) was there listening to some of the testy exchanges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to ask you as my opening question, the corporate decision of Facebook to blow off these meeting with Mark Zuckerberg. How was that arrived at? Who gave Mr. Zuckerberg the advice to ignore this committee?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An empty chair for Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg as lawmakers from nine different countries convened in London on Tuesday for unprecedented international committee hearing on fake news and disinformation. The representatives wanted to question Zuckerberg like lawmakers from United States and the European Union have in the past year.

Instead a Facebook Vice President, Richard Allen took the hot seat and answering questions on Russian meddling, fake news and user's data privacy. The Facebook executive admitted that the company is not in a good place in terms of public trust, but said they were working to improve that and are open to future regulations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said earlier on that you -- you apologized for the decision for Mark Zuckerberg for not appearing here, you took responsibility to that. How do you think that looks as a member of these parliament?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not great. I guess is the answer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hearing came just as Committee Chairman Damion Collins obtained internal Facebook documents that had been under seal by order of a California court. The documents which includes emails between Facebook executives stem from the lawsuit brought against Facebook y small app company called 643.

[03:55:04] Facebook did not want the documents released, but they were seized in dramatic fashion last week when 643 CEO was escorted to (inaudible) after Sargent-at-arms appeared at his London hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's one document that I think considerable public interest, because it relates to the point you made. I want to put this to you, the engineer of Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that Russians ip addresses, have been using Pinterest api key to pull 3 billion data points a day through the api.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a statement Facebook said the engineers that flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity. Colin said the committee is going through the rest of the seize file and hopes to release them within a week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible), CNN, London.

(END VIDEO)

RIPLEY: The long journey is over for Syrian refugee Hassan Al Kantar. He was finally granted asylum by Canada after famously spending seven months stuck in the Kuala Lumpur airport. This is a complex story. It began while he was living in the UAE. Syria refused to renew his passport after the civil war broke out. When his passport expired he also lost his work permit and was eventually forced to leave the UAE. So he was granted a three month tourist visa in Malaysia hoping to eventually go to Ecuador, but he was denied boarding and he flew instead to Cambodia where he was also denied entry. So then he went back to Malaysia and there he was told his visa had expired. So at that point he simply had run out of places to go. And he tried to make light of his situation when we spoke with him back in April.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is exhausting. But you get used to it. I keep in mind to myself that it is OK. I need to focus on the big picture here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: He was eventually arrested by Malaysian authorities for being in a restricted area without a boarding pass. But human rights group's works for his release. And now, after his long strange ordeal he is finally living in Vancouver, Canada with a sponsor. And he had this to say to his new Canadian countrymen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be a member of this community and I will always respect their methods, their ways of life. I will educate myself about their history and about the conditions as well. And I will fit as soon as I can in this lovely community. One day when I have children, I will absolutely tell them that not to forget the Canadian people helped me and changed my life and theirs as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: You know, with so much bad news happening in the world right now, it is nice to see a story that has a happy ending. That is the end for us here, for this hour at least of CNN "Newsroom". Live from Hong Kong. I'm Will Ripley. Remember you could connect with me anytime on Twitter or Instagram @willripleycnn. And news continues here on CNN with Max Foster in London. Stay with us.