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US And Chinese Presidents Work Out A Truce, But Not A Resolution In Their Countries Trade Dispute, Stocks Surge Across The Globe; A Final Farewell To The Late President George Herbert Walker Bush, Memorial Services Will Begin In Washington In The Hours Ahead; A CNN Exclusive, Text Messages That May Have Led To The Murder Of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Aired: 8-9a ET
Aired December 03, 2018 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST, "NEWS STREAM": I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to "News Stream." Now, the US and Chinese Presidents work out
a truce, but not a resolution in their countries trade dispute, stocks surge across the globe. A final farewell to the late President George
Herbert Walker Bush, memorial services will begin in Washington in the hours ahead. And a CNN exclusive, text messages that may have led to the
murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Months of sharp rhetoric, a series of punitive financial measures followed by retaliatory actions, and now a truce of sorts in the ongoing trade war
between the US and China. Investors on Wall Street evidently cheering the news as futures point to, yes, a higher open over there, and this comes as
Europe's major markets are all showing green arrows right here.
You can see the FTSE 100, Xetra DAX, Zurich MSI, Paris CAC 40 all measuring gains between eight-tenths of 1% and over 2%, and those numbers are
actually down a bit from what we saw at the start of the opening day in Europe, but as you can see, they are still going strong.
And of course, this all follows gains being made here in Asia. Earlier in the day, Hong Kong and Shanghai each ending the trading day up more than
2.5%. And this comes after the two largest economy in the world announced the agreement at the G-20 in Argentina on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump said he will press pause on his plan to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for now. In return, the
Chinese President Xi Jinping says his country will buy large amounts of US products to help narrow that trade imbalance. CNN's Alexandra Field is in
Hong Kong. She has been monitoring the story. She joins us now and Alex, could you just tell us more exactly what was agreed to at the G-20?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, Kristie, if you ask President Trump he says that this is an incredible deal struck between Presidents
between China and between the United States, but essentially what you have right now is a broad strokes agreement, a grace period during which
negotiators can work to reduce the trade imbalances that have driven these countries so far apart, that have put us on the path that we have seen
unfold over the course of the last year.
Essentially, President Trump has offered this 90-day grace period where the negotiations will happen. What he's saying is that the increase in tariffs
on $200 billion worth of goods which was supposed to go up from 10% to 25% on January 1st that won't happen. Negotiators will have their time to work
out the issues that are on the table, but those higher tariffs could take effect if no deal is reached in the 90-day period.
In order to get this 90-day grace period essentially, the Chinese also had to make the agreement you pointed out that the White House is saying that
China will purchase what is being described as a very substantial amount of US products including energy and agriculture products, not clear exactly
what those products will be.
The Chinese statement differing a bit from the US statement in terms of the fact that it lacked some of those details, didn't specify what kind of
markets would be opened and didn't talk about this 90-day period that the US has made very clear is the timeline during which negotiators have to
work on some truly monumental issues here, Kristie.
LU STOUT: Yes, still a number of issues at large. What we have for now is this temporary truce in the trade war. No additional economic friction
here, but the tariffs are still in place and that means still a toll being taken on these two big economies.
FIELD: Sure and you saw that markets were cheering some of the news as it broke over the weekend and this morning as we saw the markets open.
Certainly there was positive reaction to it, but there will be a period of uncertainty in these next few months to actually see what is and what can
be accomplished.
The thorny issues that are still dividing us when it comes to this trade war, the forced transfer of technology, issues of cyber theft and theft of
intellectual property, not to mention the issues of trade imbalance that really motivated President Trump in his words about China on the campaign
trail when he was a candidate and certainly in the early stages of his presidency.
So these are all things that negotiators on both sides have just 90 days seemingly to work out, it's something that they haven't been able to work
out yet, that's why you have seen these escalations over the course of the last year. So a tight timeline on this before higher tariffs would take
effect, perhaps sparking retaliatory effect. Kristie.
LU STOUT: A lot more ground needs to be covered before this can ultimately be resolved. Alexandra Field reporting. Thank you. And while investors
may be cheering the trade truce, analysts say it doesn't really resolve the underlying issues as we were talking about just then with Alex, but
President Trump, he struck an upbeat tone after his big meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's an incredible deal, it goes down certainly - if it happens - it goes down as one of the largest
deals ever made and what I would be doing is holding back on tariffs, China will be opening up.
[08:05:08]
TRUMP: China will be getting rid of tariffs here and China right now has major trade barriers, they have major tariffs and also major non-tariff
barriers, which are brutal. China will be getting rid of many of them and China will be buying massive amounts of product from us, including
agricultural from our farmers, tremendous amount of agricultural, and other products. So it's been really something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: So we have a trade war truce at least in the short term and for now we have a little bit of political breathing room between the United
States and China after this handshake deal was struck between the two leaders, but let's get some analysis now.
Let's speak to Frank Lavin, he is the former US Ambassador to Singapore and Chairman and CEO of Export Now and he joins us here in Hong Kong. Thank
you for joining us and as you heard just then, Donald Trump, he is upbeat, the markets apparently liking the outcome of the Xi/Trump meeting but was
anything more than a ceasefire achieved in Buenos Aires.
FRANK LAVIN, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO SINGAPORE: There was no real substantive gains out of that dinner, Kristie, however, it is reassuring
that the two leaders do have open communication. There appears to be a reasonable chemistry, reasonable professionalism. President Trump did go
out of his way to praise President Xi. There were no cheap shots, there was no denigration.
So at least, it projects an image of a functional relationship, although as you point out all of the work lies in front of them. So that's a big, big
question mark.
LU STOUT: Yes, but as you point out, the G-20 meeting, it was much better than expected, but on Twitter, well after the meeting and after the
headlines went out there, US President Trump said something interesting, he said Beijing will reduce and remove the 40% tariffs it places on US cars.
There's since been no comment from China on that. So how do you interpret that unilateral announcement by Trump?
LAVIN: Yes, and it's hard to tell sometimes people use imprecise language, so let's try to give the - President Trump the benefit of the doubt here,
but we should note that China's auto tariffs have been 25% and President Xi had already announced this year that he would be reducing it to 15% by the
end of the year. So that is the tariffs.
Now, there could be other taxes, there could be VAT, there could be other elements that take it up to an effective 40% rate or something near that,
but the tariffs themselves were never 40 and they had already been announced they're going from 25% to 15%. And by the way, that's a global
policy, that's not a courtesy to the US or something to throw Washington, but that's President Xi himself saying we've got too high tariffs and let's
take them down unilaterally. So I think there is good news in the autos. I don't know what he might be referring to beyond what I just articulated.
LU STOUT: And Frank, we have a new Trump tweet. He is already up tweeting, six minutes ago, he filed this one, he posted, quote, we will bring it up
full screen for our audiences as well as for you. "Farmers" - oh, goodness, this is a new one. No, this is "My meeting in Argentina ..."
sorry, " ... in Argentina with President Xi of China was an extraordinary one, relations with China have taken a big leap forward. Very good things
will happen. We are dealing from great strength, but China likewise has much to gain if and when a deal is completed. Level the field."
Okay. He also filed an additional tweet, he posted something else on top of that. But let's talk about this tweet just then. You know, again the
outcome of this meeting, better than expected, yet the trade war remains, a lot of additional ground needs to be covered, can there be a resolution in
sight here?
LAVIN: Well, and there is a little bit of a risk or potential risk by premature celebrations and we saw this, I think, with the Trump/Kim meeting
vis-a-vis Korea when President Trump said, "Look, this is all solved," well, it hasn't been solved so be careful because the risk is the other
party views they're taken off the hook, they no longer have to perform.
If one side is already declaring victory and success and it was a huge win, then the other fellows say, well, then I guess we don't have to do anything
more. What we ought to be saying I think, what I would advise any US President to say is, "Look, this was a promising initial discussion but
there is a lot of work in front of us," is a more prudent way, I think, of framing the issue, but President Trump just by his own inclination, his own
personality he enjoys the sort of grandiosity of rhetoric and that's where we are.
LU STOUT: That's right. Additional rhetoric on his Twitter feed, you could check it out afterwards, but, Frank, we will leave it at that. Thank
you so much for joining us here on the program. We'll talk again soon.
LAVIN: Thanks, Kristie.
LU STOUT: And we will have much more on what came out of the G-20 talks in Argentina as well as the opening bell on Wall Street coming up on "First
Move" with Julia Chatterley, that starts in about 50 minutes.
[08:10:10]
LU STOUT: Right now, the US Presidential plane Air Force One is standing by for a special mission, to take the body of George H.W. Bush from his
adopted home state of Texas to Washington. A week of memorials and events will honor the late former US President who died Friday at the age of 94,
following a life of service to his country and a long career shaping global politics.
Now, CNN's Ed Lavendara joins me from Houston where Mr. Bush spent much of his life and where he passed away at his home. And Ed, we know that
funeral services are due to begin shortly for the former US President. What can you tell us?
ED LAVANDERA, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, we are going to see a very poignant sendoff here for the former President and it begins this morning
here in the city of Houston where the casket of the former President will be boarded up on to the plane that normally when it carries a sitting
President it is known as Air Force One, but for this flight, it will be known as Special Mission 41, of course, 41 referring to President George
H.W. Bush's stand as the 41st President of the United States.
His casket will be put on the plane along with his son, former President George W. Bush and other family members and close friends. They will
accompany the casket as it flies to Washington, DC where later tonight, it will be taken to the US Capitol and the casket will lie in state there
until Wednesday morning when a state funeral will be held at the national cathedral in Washington, DC.
After that, the President's casket and body will be returned here to the state of Texas, there will be another memorial service on Thursday morning
here in the city of Houston, in the same church where his wife Barbara was memorialized earlier this year and then there will be a short train ride
from the city of Houston up to the city of College Station, Texas, which is on the campus of the university - the Texas A&M University and that is
where the Bush Library stands, and that is where the former President will be buried alongside his wife and their three-year-old daughter, Robin who
died in the early 1950s of leukemia.
So, Kristie, here the beginning of a very poignant week of tributes and solemn reflection on the life and times of this former President.
LU STOUT: it will be a week of moving tributes to bush 41. Ed Lavandera reporting live for us in Houston, thank you. George Herbert Walker Bush in
just four years as US President took on some of the toughest issues both at home and abroad. After becoming America's unofficial ambassador to china
in the mid-1970s, he developed an understanding of Chinese government and culture that would later help steer US-China relations through several
tumultuous decades. Ivan Watson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
IVAN WATSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: George H.W. Bush is being remembered fondly in China. It's perhaps surprising in a communist
country in the middle of a trade war with the current US administration. Former President Bush was an old friend of the Chinese people, Chinese
leader Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump on Saturday.
He witnessed and promoted the historic development of China-US relations for over four decades.
Bush first arrived in China in 1974 as the unofficial US envoy, not long after President Richard Nixon's own historic first visit to the country.
At the time, the US and China had no diplomatic ties, but Washington was keen to pull Beijing into its camp against the Soviet Union.
China was still engulfed in Chairman Mao's tumultuous Cultural Revolution, economically backward and diplomatically isolated and yet Bush saw a future
rising power.
As he famously bicycled around Beijing, the future US President studied China firsthand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICTOR GAO, FROMER TRANSLATOR TO DENG XIAOPING: That's when he got to know the Chinese leaders including Chairman Deng Xiaoping and this helped him in
his many subsequent years of dealing with China.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: After a brief power struggle when Mao died, Deng took over and launched economic reforms that would transform China. Victor Gao was his
translator, he remembers the rock star welcome Bush received when he stopped by Beijing in February 1989.
But a few months later, things took a dramatic turn. The Chinese military brutally crushed pro-democracy protesters in Beijing and elsewhere, killing
hundreds and perhaps thousands. The Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989 forced Bush to take a hard line stance.
[08:15:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We deplore the decision to use force and I now call on the Chinese leadership publicly as
I have in private channels to avoid violence and to return to their previous policy of restraint.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: But bush's private channels proved instrumental. He saved bilateral ties from total collapse by sending a secret envoy to Beijing to
keep top level communications open.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAO: President Bush took tough positions against China in those difficult days, however, he had the wisdom of the long-term development of China-US
relations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: For that Deng and his successors appeared to still be grateful. Bush's last trip to China was with his son, President George W. Bush,
during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: A gift to the world to see China as it is. There's a lot of misunderstanding about China in the world and I think this Game
helps to delay some of those concerns. So it's very good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 41st President of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: That sentiment in the eyes of many Chinese people speaks to the true legacy of the 41st US President on what some call the world's most
important diplomatic relationship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: And so with no further ado, the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LU STOUT: Three years ago, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement pledging to take measures to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius,
but as this year's COP24 Summit kicks off, how are we actually doing on combating climate change? That just ahead.
Also residents of one Indian island are living on the front lines of climate change as it causes their home land to sink and to shrink. We will
take you there, next.
It is the beginning of a new week here in Hong Kong, welcome back, you're watching "News Stream." World leaders are gathering deep in the heart of
Poland's coal country to talk about, of all things, climate change. Now, coal accounts for almost half of energy-related CO2 emissions and Poland is
trying to help to end some of that.
The Paris Climate Accord signed three years ago amidst ecstatic cheers was also meant to keep a lid on rising temperatures. Nick Paton Walsh takes a
look at what has happened since then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: December 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement gave those sounding alarm bells about the
future a renewed hope for the planet. Nearly 200 countries pledging to do their part to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels with hopes of capping that number at 1.5.
[08:20:09 ]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This agreement represents the best chance we have had to save the one planet that we've
got.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PATON WALSH: The call to action say most experts not a moment too soon. Hurricanes and typhoons are growing in strength and frequency, leaving
paths of intense devastation in their wake. Wildfires, too. Blazing hotter and scorching the earth more often with more severity. And then
there are glaciers, the colossal structures NASA warns are melting at an alarming rate causing sea levels to rise, one of the most visible results
of the dramatic effect of warming temperatures.
Leading to loss of habitat for not only animals and sea life, but creating a very real threat to life and livelihood for the nearly 40% of the world's
population that lives within 100 kilometers of the ocean.
The Paris agreement, it seemed, the best chance to stave off this march toward planetary disaster, but the euphoria over the world's commitment to
fighting the looming climate threat quickly began to fade as implementation struggled to find its footing.
With the new US President in 2017 came a change in belief and course of action for the nation's second only to China at the top of the list, in
total carbon emissions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding Paris Accord.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PATON WALSH: A climate report just released by Donald Trump's own administration outlined $400 billion in cost to the US since 2015 from
natural disasters strengthened by climate change, a number that is expected to increase as the world grows warmer. Trump's response --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't believe it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't believe it?
TRUMP: No, no, I don't believe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PATON WALSH: The tectonic shift and position by the US government not the only worrisome trend. Brazil has rescinded its offer to host a UN Climate
Conference next year with the incoming foreign minister calling climate change, quote, "A Marxist hoax." But the World Meteorological Organization
says otherwise, warning the planet's long term warming trend has far from abated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETTERI TAALAS, SECRETARY GENERAL, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION: 2016 was the warmest year on record and 2017 was the second warmest in recorded
and this is 2015 was number three and this year is number four.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PATON WALSH: The situation is so dire scientists say if a real change is not made imminently, the planet is on track to warm three to four degrees
centigrade by the end of the century, likely causing widespread food and water shortages, economic catastrophe and large scale loss of life.
The current data is far from encouraging. The Paris Agreement largely symbolic in nature had no tangible consequences for nations that fail to
meet their targets and many are indeed falling short.
2017 set a record for carbon emissions, a record expected to be broken again in 2018 as new coal power plants fire up across Asia and Africa,
joining the other fossil fuel plants still active around the globe.
And in a bit of ironic fate, Poland, this year's host nation for climate talks, gets 80% of its power from coal, something that they along with the
other industrial nations will have to change and change soon to give the planet a fighting chance for survival.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LU STOUT: Climate change is also swallowing up islands. In India, a tiny island at the Bay of Bengal is on the brink of disappearing due to rising
sea levels and soil erosion. Nikhil Kumar shows us how climate change has affected life there.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
NIKHIL KUMAR, NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF, CNN The Indian island of Ghormara, home so some of the world's largest mangrove forests, as well as rare and
endangered species, now the tiny island is on the verge of disappearing all because of climate change.
It's just five square kilometers, located south of the Indian city of Calcutta. It's part of the Sundarban Delta in the Bay of Bengal. Sea
levels are rising and soil is slowly eroding, swallowing up the island. Scientists say it's because of global warming. The island has lost nearly
half its size in two decades according to village elders.
Many of the villagers have lost their homes. One house stood next to these rice paddy fields, now flooded by rising tides. Reva Sett lost her home
three times in the last decade and had to move further inland each time. Now she fears for her survival as the land disappears, so do the crops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REVA SETT, GHORMARA ISLAND RESIDENT (Through a translator): We face a lot of problems. People have nothing to eat once the land is lost to the
water. The island is small now and people have left and gone away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KUMAR: On this island, there is no electricity, no cars, no cell phones, yet the residents here are forced to deal with the effects of a carbon
footprint from far away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANJIV SAGAR, VILLAGE HEAD, GHORAMARA ISLAND (Through a translator): The residents here, the 4,800 people who live here, we have to save them. We
have to increase the height of the embankment. We have to relocate the residents from here to another better place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KUMAR: A recent UN climate change report warned that global temperatures are on track for a three to five degrees Celsius rise this century.
Scientists say that it's crucial to limit the rise in global temperatures to avoid more extreme weather, rising sea levels, and the loss of plants
and animal species. They say the effects of that failure will hit the world's poorest especially hard, like the many villages on Ghoramara
Island, who say they want to leave the island, but can't afford to. Nikhil Kumar, CNN.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LU STOUT: You're watching "News Stream." And still ahead, two months after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, we have an inclusive
report that offers clues about why he was killed.
I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching "News Stream" and these are your world headlines.
The US and China are calling a temporary truce in their trade war and global stocks are soaring as a result. US President Donald Trump says he
will keep tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods at 10% for now while China will buy large amounts of US goods to narrow a trade imbalance.
Qatar says it will withdraw from OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next month. It's Petroleum Minister says the country
will focus on increasing production of natural gas. Last year Qatar produced an average of 600,000 barrels of crude oil, less than 3% of the
amount produced by all OPEC members.
A week of memorials and events to honor former US President George H.W. Bush begins on Monday. He died Friday at the age of 94. His casket will
be flown from Houston, Texas, to Washington. There will be a ceremony at the US Capitol where he will lie in state. On Wednesday, a memorial
service will be held at Washington National Cathedral.
While former President George H.W. Bush is honored in Washington, he is also being remembered in the Middle East where he came to the defense of
Kuwait and other gulf states against Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1990, a decision that ultimately left a lasting legacy in the region.
Our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins us now from Lebanon's capital, Beirut with more context here.
[08:30:05]
LU STOUT: And Ben, it was in the day a swift military victory in the Gulf under Bush 41. How did this leave this stark legacy in Iraq and across the
region?
BEN WEDEMAN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Certainly the US-led invasion or rather liberation of Kuwait was hailed as a masterpiece of
diplomacy. President Bush was able to assemble a large international coalition for that military operation and he was praised at the time in the
Middle East for not going all the way to Baghdad, even though he was criticized somewhat back in the United States, but what followed really did
pave the way for the chaos that has overcome many parts of this region and that was the severe UN-backed sanctions against Iraq.
I covered Iraq during those sanction years and it was clear at the time that the regime was not suffering, but ordinary Iraqis did, and that
bitterness continues to this very day and played a part in laying the ground, making it fertile for the development of ISIS. In addition, of
course, to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq by his son, something that apparently the father was not so enthusiastic about. Kristie?
LU STOUT: George H.W. Bush and his decisions left an immense legacy and impact on the region there. And George H.W. Bush has been called America's
last foreign policy President, he was the last person elected to the position with any foreign policy experience, so how does he compare with
the current President on the global stage?
WEDEMAN: I think there's just no comparison. Don't forget that President Bush was the US Ambassador to China at a critical time when that country
was opening up, he was the head of the CIA. The amount of - and of course then he was Vice President for eight years under Ronald Reagan. The amount
of experience he accumulated, the amount of contacts, personal contacts he had, his familiarity with the complexities of not only the politics in the
Middle East but around the world was substantial, certainly compared to anybody who followed him in that position because if you look at everybody
that did follow him as President including this current President most of them had very little in the way of international experience.
So his diplomatic touch which was so obvious during the buildup to the 1991 Gulf War was something that we haven't seen since. There were flaws, there
were mistakes by him, but certainly his mastery of diplomacy towers over anybody who followed him in the White House and certainly the current
occupant of the White House.
LU STOUT: Without a doubt. He was a man with very impressive CV and impressive list of foreign policy experience as you listed just then. Ben
Wedeman reporting. Ben, thank you.
Now, it is now two months since Jamal Khashoggi walked into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul never to reemerge. One question remains, why was he
killed? CNN's Nina dos Santos has exclusively obtained ten months of Khashoggi WhatsApp messages that he sent to a fellow Saudi dissident named
Omar Abdulaziz and the messages provided to CNN by the Canada-based dissident offers clues as to the motive behind the murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
NINA DOS SANTOS, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: These are words you won't have read in Jamal Khashoggi's columns, instead they are WhatsApp messages never seen
before sent by Khashoggi in the year before his death. They lay bare his disdain for Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, saying, quote, "He is like a
beast, like "pac man," the more victims he eats the more he wants." In another, "May God rid us and this nation of this predicament."
The words were exchanged with Omar Abdulaziz, a fellow critic in exile in Canada.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OMAR ABDULAZIZ, FRIEND OF JAMAL KHASHOGGI: He believed that MBS is the issue, is the problem, and someone has to tell him that you know, you have
to be stopped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: Talk like this is dangerous for those from a country with one of the world's worst records for human rights. And it wasn't just
political views that the pair was trading, but plans to hold the Saudi state to account, creating an army of so-called cyber bees on social media,
leveraging Khashoggi's name and the 340,000 strong Twitter following of his confidant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABDULAZIZ: In the beginning, it was a bit difficult for us to have this kind of relationship.
[08:35:04]
ABDULAZIZ: For me, I was a dissident and he was a guy who worked for the government for almost 35 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: Khashoggi pledged funds and Abdulaziz bought the hardware, hundreds of foreign SIM cards to send back home enabling dissidents to
avoid detection. In one message, Abdulaziz writes, "I sent us a brief idea about the work of the electronic army." "Brilliant report," Khashoggi
replies, "I will try to sort out the money. We have to do something."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: How much money did he originally say he would commit to the project?
ABDULAZIZ: He said 30,000.
DOS SANTOS: $30,000.00 US?
ABDULAZIZ: Yes.
DOS SANTOS: How dangerous is a project like that in Saudi Arabia?
ABDULAZIZ: You might be killed because of that. You might be jailed. They might send someone to assassinate you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: Just like Khashoggi, Abdulaziz believes that he was also targeted, after two Saudi emissaries were dispatched to Canada, he says,
last May to coax him into the embassy there. He made these secret recordings of their meetings and shared them with CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through a translator): We have come to you with a message from Mohammed Bin Salman. I want you to be reassured. We don't
have to approach someone from an official department or the state security. The Saudi Arabian Embassy awaits you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: While Abdulaziz refused, they got to him another way, hacking his phone. According to a lawsuit Abdulaziz filed this week against the
Israeli firm behind the spyware. When the pair's plans were discovered, Khashoggi panicked. "God help us," he wrote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: How much of a target did that make both of you?
ABDULAZIZ: The hacking of my phone played a major role on what happened to Jamal. I'm really sorry to say that. We were trying to teach people about
human rights, about freedom of speech. That's it. This is the only crime that we've committed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: Nina dos Santos, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LU STOUT: Saudi officials have not responded to CNN's request for comment regarding Omar Abdulaziz's allegations. The Israeli company behind the
spyware says its technology is licensed for the sole use of governments and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime. The company says it
does not tolerate the misuse of its products.
Ambulance workers are the latest group to go on strike in France. They are protesting finance reforms in their sector. This comes as the French
government tries to deal with the fallout of riding in pairs over the weekend. What began as demonstrations against rising fuel protests, some
three weeks ago, descended into violence on Saturday.
France's Justice Minister says there will be a, quote, "very firm response to the rioters." On Sunday, the French President Emmanuel Macron toured
the damage at the Arc de Triomphe. Mr. Macron has asked his Interior Minister to consider adapting security forces to contain future protests
and asked his Prime Minister to meet with representatives of the so-called "yellow vest protesters."
You're watching "News Stream." And still to come, right here on the program, when in Rome, bring an umbrella. It's not about the rain. We
will tell you why, next.
[08:40:00]
LU STOUT: All right. Coming to you live from Hong Kong. Welcome back. This is "News Stream." In Rome, the coliseum at night, it is a thing of
beauty, but imagine it being marred by bird droppings. Bird droppings are raining down on Rome and the problem is getting so unwieldy that the city's
government has employed some unusual specialists to take on the birds. Barbie Nadeau reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBIE NADEAU, CONTRIBUTOR, CNN: Rome is being overwhelmed by a new wave of migration, you could almost say the city is going to the birds. Every
evening around sunset, skies over Rome start to darken with clouds of starlings heading south for the winter. And they're ruffling the feathers
of every day Romans.
Around four million of them munch all day on the country side and then descend on the eternal city at night on a wing and prayer to do their
business, pelting the city with rock hard bird droppings.
Starlings are a protected species in Italy, so Rome City Hall has enlisted specialists to take on this crappy job. A bird in hand is exactly what
Mauricio Swandwini (ph), this hawk handler has, but their squawk is worse than their bite. Mauricio tells us they're using the hawks together with
recorded distress calls to deter the birds. They are not trained to kill, he said, just to scare. But who is scaring who?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm running away from it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NADEAU: Some people even like them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're fantastic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NADEAU: Not everyone agrees with introducing predators to scare the migrating masses away, but something has to be done to make Rome safe
again.
While the experts debate this messy problem yet to be solved, it's better to just stay prepared for this rather unpleasant rain. Barbie Latza
Nadeau, for CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LU STOUT: Now it's a movie that had parts of the world going crazy for it, but now one of this year's biggest hits has itself hit something of a brick
wall. I'm talking about the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" the first major Hollywood movie in decades to feature an all Asian cast. And it also
happened to be a box office smash, but if you were expecting movie lovers in China to share the same enthusiasm, uh-uh, think again. The film opened
to a bad weekend there. Taking in just over a million dollars. That's just over 1% of what "Venom" made in its opening weekend. Beijing was slow
to give the movie the go ahead, it's already out on DVD and streaming in other parts of the world.
And that is "News Stream." I'm Kristie Lu Stout. But don't go anywhere, "World Sport" with Rhiannon Jones is next.
(SPORTS)
[09:00:00]
