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Five People Stabbed At Hanukkah Celebration; Man Kills Two People Before Parishioners Shoot Him; Thousands Ordered To Evacuate In Victoria; U.S. Hits Iran-Backed Militia Sites in Iraq and Syria; U.S. & Somalia Hit al-Shabaab after Deadly Car Bombing; Civil Rights Icon John Lewis has Pancreatic Cancer; Big Ben to Ring in the New Year. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired December 30, 2019 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: 1:00 in the morning here in Atlanta. We're coming to you live from CNN Center. I'm Natalie Allen. Coming up next here on CNN NEWSROOM, A Jewish community is traumatized after a man with a knife shattered a Hanukkah celebration. The attack comes after a string of anti-Semitic incidents this month.

Tens of thousands of people are being urged to leave popular tourist areas in Australia as bushfires rage. And look who's back. Big Ben and his tower had been hidden from full view for a few years but the British landmark is back and ready to ring in the new year.

Thank you for joining us. Our top story. Two U.S. communities are shaken after separate attacks during religious celebrations. In Texas, a man open fires killing two people at a church service before he was shot by armed parishioners. We'll have details on that in a moment.

And in Monsey, New York, the man accused of stabbing five people during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home on Saturday is being held on $5 million bail. He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and first-degree burglary. His attorney says his client has a long history of mental illness and no known history of anti-Semitism.

And now we must warn you, the images you're about to see may be disturbing. These are photos from inside the rabbi's home right after the attack. You can see blood on the floor and chairs overturned. But the Jewish community in the area continued on with celebration Sunday on the eve of the final day of Hanukkah. An Israeli official says something needs to be done about this spike in anti-Semitism in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANI DAYAN, CONSUL GENERAL OF ISRAEL IN NEW YORK: In this Hanukkah, we suffered more anti-Semitic incidents that the (INAUDIBLE) that we live, and that it's impossible to be here. We are in a completely different game. In every single meeting with federal, state, or city authorities, we will raise this issue, the need to struggle anti- Semitism effectively.

It's not only law enforcement but it's education, it's community activities, many more things that have to be done. And without that -- what we saw now has to be the last time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Surveillance video from a neighbor's home appears to show the attacker running toward his car after the stabbings. We also have video of the moment the suspect was arrested as he crossed into New York City. Two officers stopped his cars as you can see there and handcuffed him without a struggle. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo met with some of the victims and was quick to condemn the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): I consider this an act of domestic terrorism. Let's call it what it is. These people are domestic terrorists. And the law should reflect that and they should be punished as if it was an act of terrorism.

Look, it is a nationwide problem, and I refer to it as an American cancer and I believe that. You see it against members of the Jewish community, you see it against members of the LGBTQ community. What's happening is this nation's diversity, which is our greatest strength is turning into a weakness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio tells CNN that schools need to talk more about the consequences of hate.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: There's a fear that anti- semitism is growing in America and becoming more and more violent. And for folks, that's very personal. It's literally, if their kids go out in the street, are they going to be endangered? If they themselves wear a symbol of their religion, will they become a target? It's getting very, very personal.

What the Jewish has been asking for is support and protection and what I announced today was three things, one more NYPD presence in Jewish communities, more security cameras, the physical measures, but also the community-based measures.

We're going to have patrols of community, folks who go out working with the NYPD from a variety of ethnic backgrounds to make sure particularly if young people are in any way, shape or form thinking of getting involved in hate crimes and anything negative, that there's intervention, that there's community members out there to find them and put them on the right path and stop them from doing the wrong thing.

And then lastly, in our schools, we have to continue to improve our curriculum to talk about the consequences of hate. If someone commits an act of anti-Semitism, well, they may think that's against a different community. But you know what, that's eventually going to come back to hurt you and your own community because that hatred spreads and it never ends up in a good place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:05:50]

ALLEN: The attack on the Hanukkah gathering is one of a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the New York area recently. With this month, two men and a child were threatened with violence. A woman allegedly scratched a subway passenger's face and yelled anti-Semitic slurs. There were reports of several other assaults including that on the elderly and children.

There were also reports of attacks on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. All this leading up to Saturday's stabbing attack. U.S. President Trump has weighed in on the knife attack tweeting death on Sunday. "The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York on the seventh night of Hanukkah last night is horrific. We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism. Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery."

CNN's Oren Liebermann has more reaction to the attack from Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: News of the attack broke early Sunday morning in Israel just as the country was starting its workweek, getting ready for the eighth and final night of Hanukkah. The chairman of the Jewish Agency says the attack in Monsey, New York turn the Festival of Lights into dark days.

On the holidays when Jews are supposed to be able to feel their safest, whether they're celebrating at home, or to synagogue, or with a congregation, these are the days when Jews are being targeted. We saw it obviously with the attack here in Monsey, New York on the seventh night of Hanukkah, and we saw it in Pittsburgh and in San Diego, two attacks that happened on the Sabbath.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack at his weekly cabinet meeting.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL (through translator): Israel strongly condemns the latest surge of anti-semitism in the brutal attack in the middle of the Hanukkah holiday at the rabbi's house in Monsey, New York. We send our wishes of recovery to the wounded.

LIEBERMANN: Beyond simply offering well wishes, Netanyahu pledged Israel's aid not only the local authorities in New York, but also to any country that's interested in looking for help and fighting anti- Semitism. Next month, Israel will host a conference about anti- Semitism at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum.

The conference will coincide with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Heads of state will be here world leaders and dignitaries trying to figure out and discuss how to fight anti-Semitism. For Yad Vashem, at least part of that answer is education. Education about anti-Semitism and about the Holocaust. But it'll take more than that.

This conference has taken on added significance in light of the attack and Monsey and all of the other anti-Semitic incidents in New York and elsewhere. As the chairman of the Jewish Agency pointed out, anti- Semitism is a symptom of a bigger problem.

He said it begins with the Jews, but it never ends with just the Jews. This isn't a problem only a Monsey, or New York, or America, and it should be treated as a much bigger phenomenon. Oren Liebermann, CNN Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Joining me now is Deborah Lipstadt. She's a professor of Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta and has authored several books including Anti-Semitism Here and Now. Professor, thanks so much for coming on.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT, PROFESSOR, EMORY UNIVERSITY: You're welcome.

ALLEN: First of all, the title of your book is sadly a reality Anti- Semitism Here and Now. It is here and now. There's a resurgence. And it's just not in the U.S., it's in Europe. What is happening and why here and now in 2019?

LIPSTADT: I think what we're seeing is a perfect storm of anti- Semitism. We're seeing it from the right, the political far-right. We're seeing it from portions of the progressive left, we see it from Islamist extremists, and we see it from other groups as well and tragically from certain minorities who themselves have been the victims of prejudice, but turning on the Jews and expressing anti- Semitism. It's coming from all sides in a way that nobody really anticipated.

ALLEN: Right, what's underneath it?

LIPSTADT: I think that number of things. I think first and foremost, we live in an atmosphere certainly in this country and in many other countries where there is a division amongst groups. There are politicians who want to divide, who won make it us against them. I think people have the internet now which is a much easier delivery system.

Before when I first started to write about Holocaust denial, if you wanted to get materials on Holocaust denial, you had to get them in a plain brown envelope to a post office box. Now you just go to Google, and you can get them in a minute. So I think that's part of it as well.

And I think something else that has a cascading effect. People say, oh, it's OK to do that, things they would never think of saying, now they feel free to say. Graffiti, they never would have thought of putting up, now they feel free to put up. Pushing people on the street, which they wouldn't have done, they feel free to do. So one thing builds on another. And it doesn't leave me very optimistic about the future. [01:10:46]

ALLEN: Right. And you've also written that. As a result, Jews are going underground. They're afraid. With the stabbing story broke this time yesterday, I was interviewing someone at the scene that said the Orthodox community doesn't report acts of violence because they don't want to bring attention to themselves.

LIPSTADT: That's happening in certain places, in certain places like what happened yesterday in Rockland County in New York State, you've got to report it because there are five people who were injured. There was a couple of -- two of them, I think, or three of them critically injured.

But people don't want to call attention. I wouldn't say that Jews are going underground everywhere. But we're seeing phenomena of someone saying to their child, when they go outside, if they wear a Kippah, that they should wear a baseball cap. Someone just not wearing open symbols of their Jewish identity.

And what I read recently, what prompted the article I wrote in The Atlantic this week, or just today, was the synagogue in the Netherlands which is not even posting the times of prayers. So if you want to know what -- if you want to join them for prayer, you have to find someone who's a member of that community. Find out what time they're praying. Let them know you're coming.

I myself have been turned away from synagogues in Rome and in other places, even with my passport just because they're nervous and they don't want to take any chances. People are nervous. People are frightened.

ALLEN: And also, you pointed out the Civil Rights Act doesn't cover religion. We even saw a shooting at a church in Texas hours after this stabbing. Two were dead there. Jews have been gunned down at two synagogues this past year, and this year was also the most mass killings we've had in American history. 2019 was horrific.

So you take racism, anti-Semitism, and our gun culture, and you wonder, the perfect storm you describe, you wonder what will make things better in 2020?

LIPSTADT: I think that people have to take this seriously. The gun culture is a whole, you know, it's a terrible, terrible situation. But even besides that, the anti-Semitism, I think there are a lot of people who don't take anti-Semitism seriously, who looked at Jews and say, what are they complaining about? They don't present like another group but gets prejudices directed, they look very comfortable, they can pass as white, etcetera, etcetera.

Well, Jews in other places have looked comfortable and it doesn't always turn out that well. So it's something that really has to be taken seriously, as do other prejudices. But what we're seeing right now is a rash of anti-Semitism. And it's not -- it's not good for Jews, certainly, but it's not good for society. It's not good for the democratic societies in which we live, in which we sell treasure. ALLEN: Final question. You mentioned the political spectrum. What's

going on in our political culture right now that is perhaps feeding into this and what could politicians do?

LIPSTADT: I think politicians have to be very careful with what they say. Words counts. Words count for a lot. There is no genocide in history against Jews, against Armenians, against Rwandans, any place in the world that didn't begin with words. It always begins with words.

Politicians have to be careful. Their words matter. They have a very big microphone. I think that's one thing that has to be done and taken care of very carefully. And I think we also have to recognize that this is a problem not associated only with one political side. It might be more violent on one side, it might be more structural on the other side, but it's coming from all directions.

ALLEN: Such great advice from somebody that is so important in this topic. Thank you so much, Professor Deborah Lipstadt for your insights.

LIPSTADT: Thank you for having me.

ALLEN: And now to the deadly church shooting in Texas. CNN has obtained video of the attack just outside of Fort Worth. We warn you, it is disturbing. Watch the top of your screen. The shooter dressed in dark clothes gets up from a pew, approaches someone and appears to talk with them.

Then the gunman pulls out a shotgun and opens fire on the band hitting a second person. That audio is chilling. Authority say two parishioners who are also volunteer members of the church's security team returned fire killing the suspect, but not before he killed two people.

[01:15:29]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEOFFRY WILLIAMS, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Unfortunately, this country has seen so many of these and we've actually gotten used to this at this point. And it's tragic, and this is terrible situation especially during the holiday season.

I would like to point out that we have a couple of heroic parishioners who stopped short of just anything that you could even imagine and save countless lives and our hearts are going out to them and their families as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Investigators are trying to find a motive for the shooting. Next here, it is time to leave. Authorities tell thousands to evacuate a popular tourist spot in Australia as deadly bushfires rage. But the problem is it might be too late that the try and get out. We'll go live to the region next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

IVAN CABRERA, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: CNN weather watch, I'm meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. We're tracking a storm that has provided us with issues really for the last several days. It's trekked its way from California and made its way all the way across the eastern seaboard, and there's cold enough air at the surface. So we're raining and then that freezes on contact.

And so we're accumulating ice across the Northeast so not a typical winter storm here that we see with a snowfall. There will be snow but all that warm air that pushes up to the north, you see the areas and pink there could be significant (INAUDIBLE). It'll bring down power lines. We're going to have issues at the airport certainly with delays through the day not just because of the rain, the ice, and the snow, but you add in the wind as well, and that can wreak havoc across not just the Europe metros but heading into D.C. and then, of course, the domino effect, the rest of the airports. One flight gets delayed, the second one gets delayed, and so on and so forth.

14 in Atlanta, that's nice there, hot, sunny skies. We're going to continue to see temperatures mild and then eventually getting into more seasonable temperatures have been rather warm. 27 in Miami, certainly warm there. Denver above zero at this point after quite significant snow event last week recovering from that. Everything has been across the west but now we're shifting that cold air further east and so the temperatures will be tumbling at least temporarily in places like New York and in D.C. for the rest of the week.

[01:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: The Australian Government is issuing frequent emergency warnings telling 10s of thousands of residents in the southern state of Victoria to evacuate as bushfire spread. For some, it may be too late to leave. Authorities are telling them to shelter in place. Simon Cullen is in New South Wales for us to state hit hardest by the fire. She joins us now live.

And Simon, it doesn't sound good when people aren't able to evacuate. What can you tell us?

SIMON CULLEN, JOURNALIST: That's right, Natalie. So the fire threat is now so intense that authorities have changed their advice from evacuate to in some cases, saying it is now too late to leave. Several major roads have now been closed. There are -- there is a prospect of further road closures in place. Many people can no longer leave the fire threat area. And so those people are being urged to stay behind and seek shelter where possible.

Obviously, it's a scary situation for those in the area. For 24 hours, authorities have been warning people to leave if they can. Here's a bit of what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDREW CRISP, COMMISSIONER, VICTORY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: This is a high-risk day for Victoria. This is a day we do not often see. Our state is dry, it is going to be very hot, it is going to be very, very windy. People get out now. If you don't you've got to stay across the conditions and listen to those warnings through the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CULLEN: So that's five authorities there in Victoria urging people basically to take notice of what their -- what authorities are saying, and in this case it is stay in place if possible or evacuate if the roads are still open. Now the small glimmer of hope for fire authorities is a cooler change that is sweeping through parts of Victoria but it is not -- it is not expected to get to the major fire threat until about midnight, local time.

But even though it's cooler temperatures, that does bring up with it some other threats, and that is, of course, erratic wind conditions. So it is not over yet. And the hot weather, of course, is moving northeast. That, of course, is New South Wales, where the fine thread here is still extreme.

Authorities are still battling dozens of fires, many of which are out of control. More than 900 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales alone this bushfire season, which of course, is an extraordinary number. And authorities in this state are still urging people to be prepared to evacuate if that fire threat gets even worse, Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes. And Simon, I was also reading. I'm not sure what area that there are some tourists who are choosing not to evacuate. You know what that's about?

CULLEN: Yes. So parts of Victoria, in a (INAUDIBLE) where that evacuation order has been in place, of course, the number of people in that region is into the tens, if not hundreds of thousands. It is just too many people for police to actually go around and force people to evacuate. There are reports from that region that some people, some tourists have chosen to stay. Now, of course, they do so at their own risk.

Part of the issue, of course, is too that to evacuate some of these roads now are so clogged with traffic because so many people are trying to leave. That is causing its own problems. So in eastern Victoria, that's where some tourists have chosen to stay. That's where the fire threat at the moment in that state is most intense.

ALLEN: All right, it's just unreal, Isn't it? Simon Cullen for us, we appreciate you bringing us the latest. We'll talk with you again. Let's go now to our meteorologist Ivan Cabrera to add to this. And it's interesting right there in Simon's live shot, you can see the gold of smoke and the fire that is just turning that whole area that very odd-looking color.

CABRERA: Yes. So the odd color and, of course, you imagine what this smells like. You breathe it in. And it's just not healthy to be outside now. You have 100 fires, 41 of which are uncontained. And so basically that means that that it's out of control. That particular fire is not under control at all by firefighting efforts that have been, well heroic, of course, over the last several days.

And as Simon mentioned there, we are going to get cooler temperatures but we have to trade this off with gusty winds coming from the other direction. So the cooler temperatures can help but then you add the wind and that just kind of cancels out the benefit there.

By the way, this is the radar showing you typically rainfall. And as the radar picks it up, right now we're picking up a smoke. And this is some significant particle basically information coming back to the radar saying hey, there's something out in the atmosphere that is big, and it's basically the ashes coming down. All of that gets picked up by radar and get sent back to the weather center.

There's the high. We have a front that's moving in. So we're looking at 20s (INAUDIBLE) already so that's through there. Melbourne, we'll see an improvement 37 to 21. That is going to be dramatic here as far as the numbers.

But the problem is what you don't see there is the wind. And that's what we have to contend with as we advance to the next several days. Temperatures, there you go, mid-30s, sunny, windy for today, a 10- degree drop for Sydney. That continues Wednesday, Thursday. But we're in this pattern where we have a low and then we have another system that is going to begin to build in.

And so now out ahead of that, we have temperatures going back in the other direction at around 32 for Saturday with gusty winds, and then behind it are some shower activity but also the wind continues to be quite strong. As we head, by the way, at that point into the New Year, it will be interesting to see if they do cancel the fireworks.

By the way, for whatever reason I don't see you, Natalie, on January 1st, it has been a privilege to have you as a friend and a colleague over the last 10 years.

[01:25:48]

ALLEN: Thank you, Ivan Cabrera. Moving on, same here, I really appreciate it. Good luck in Albuquerque.

CABRERA: Thank you.

ALLEN: Next here, the U.S. strike a militia group backed by Iran. We'll tell you where the attacks were carried out and why the U.S. warns it could do it again. Plus, Somalia takes action after a car bombing kills dozens of people in the capital, details on the operation that involved the U.S. military.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:29:43]

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories this hour.

The man suspected of stabbing five people during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and burglary charges. Police released video of the moment right here that they stopped him as he was driving into New York City. A law enforcement source told CNN he had blood all over him when he was arrested.

Authorities are telling tens of thousands of people in the Australian state of Victoria to evacuate as bush fires intensify. Visitors are also being warned to stay away from East Gippsland, a popular tourist spot. Officials are concerned fires could eventually cut off the region's main road.

The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin thanks his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for Washington's help in preventing terrorist attacks. The two men spoke by phone on Sunday. Russia's intelligence agency says a U.S. tip led them to detain two men planning a New Year's Eve attack in St. Petersburg.

The United States has carried out air strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting facilities linked to an Iranian-backed militia. A spokesman for the group says the strikes in Iraq killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 50 others.

The U.S. blames the militants for recent attacks on Iraqi bases, including one that killed an American contractor Friday. U.S. officials say saying the strikes are meant to deter further aggression.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The attacks that took place against an Iraqi facility threatened American forces. This has been going on now for weeks and weeks and weeks. This wasn't the first set of attacks against this particular Iraqi facility and others where there are American lives at risk.

And today what we did was take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months which is that we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions to put American men and women in jeopardy.

MARK ESPER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The Department of Defense took offensive actions in defense of our personnel and interests in Iraq by launching F-15 strike eagles against five targets associated with Kata'ib Hezbollah which is an Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia group.

The targets we attacked included three targets in western Iraq and two targets in Eastern Syria that were either Command and control facilities or weapons cache for Kata'ib Hezbollah.

The strikes were successful. The (INAUDIBLE) and aircraft returned back to base safely. I would add that in our discussion today with the President, we discussed with him other options that are available. And I would note also that we will take additional actions as necessary to ensure that we act in our own self defense and we deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: U.S. forces were involved in another series of airstrikes this weekend. On Sunday they worked with Somalia's government to target Al-Shabaab militants, the group is being blamed for a car bombing in Mogadishu that left 79 dead and more than 100 people wounded. Officials say Sundays strike killed four members of the group, including a senior operative.

CNN's Ryan Browne has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON REPORTER: The U.S. has been ramping up airstrikes in Somalia over the course of the last year, about 63 in 2019, a significant increase from the previous year.

But again, these strikes coming in just hours basically after this massive al-Shabaab terror attack in Mogadishu that killed over 75 people, one of the largest terror attacks in the world this year.

And so the U.S. and its Somali partners continuing to battle this terror group. They're saying that they killed several terrorists and destroyed several vehicles in the strike. The Somali government describing it as a response to the attack on Mogadishu.

The U.S. side not going that far. So we'll see if there is a link. But again just underscoring the fact that Somalia really is still dealing with this very kind of lingering terror threat from al- Shabaab, the al Qaeda affiliate there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: A U.S. Congressman who has devoted his entire career to advocating for civil rights now faces a new battle. John Lewis announced he has pancreatic cancer.

This is the statement he issued. "I have been in some kind of fight for freedom, equality, basic human rights for nearly my entire. I have never faced a fight though quite like the one that I have now. This month in a routine medical visit and subsequent tests, doctors discovered stage 4 pancreatic cancer. This diagnosis has been reconfirmed. Please keep me in your prayers as I begin this journey."

Our chief political correspondent Dana Bash spoke with CNN's Jessica Dean about Lewis' stature in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to his role in American history and obviously more recently his 30-plus years in Congress, it is hard to overstate how much of an impact he has had first of all on that bridge in Selma, Alabama [01:35:06]

DEAN: I had the honor of going back with him. He does this every year. He takes -- he makes a pilgrimage, a bipartisan bill pilgrimage, takes some reporters with him. In order to tell the story of what happened in 1965 when he was walking across that bridge with so many other civil rights activists just for the sole purpose of getting the right to vote for African-Americans.

And he got his head bashed in. He almost did not survive. He said, he remembers feeling like he was going to die. He was 25 years old. And that that moment was really a turning point in the movement for African-Americans to get the right to vote that led to the Voting Rights Act.

And that was such a critical time that he, as I said, he makes a point of bringing people back every single year. Sometimes it is the President, sometimes it's, you know, first term members of Congress from across the aisle -- Republicans and Democrats. It's a really, really special event that he does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Lewis has represented the Atlanta area -- our area here -- in Congress since he was first elected in 1986.

Well, just in time for New Year's, Big Ben will toll again, even as the massive renovation continues on the London landmark. We look at what's been done so far coming next.

[01:36:33]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

The unmistakable sound of London's Big Ben. The landmark clock tower has been mostly silent since renovations began three years ago but on New Year's Even it will toll again to ring in the New Year.

Our Nick Glass has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The great clock tower to the right is sheathed in scaffolding. For the moment it could pass for a launch pad for a space rocket, without its usual silhouette that lost some of its romanticism. They gothic revival architecture is under a shroud.

You have to remember what it was like before that river setting that so appealed to a young Frenchman called Claude Monet. Monet wasn't so interested in precise dimensions, more in capturing the light.

Of course, we all know it simply by its nickname Big Ben, although strictly speaking that is the name of the great bell inside what's now officially called the Elizabeth Tower. Just two years ago we could still clearly see all the clock faces and hear all the bells.

[01:39:55]

GLASS: This was the last time that they were properly struck before restoration work began.

Big Ben and it's great hammer, at close quarters giving a tremendous ear-jangling reverberations. For 160 years, a timekeeper for Londoners and beyond.

And perhaps most famously in the Second World War heard on the BBC World Service -- a reminder that Britain was fighting on.

A masterpiece of mid-Victorian engineering, cogs and wheels and weights and springs, the great clock of Westminster, the most sophisticated clock of its time, a mechanism driving four clock faces.

Note the pile of Victorian and Edwardian pennies. Whenever the top loses or gains a second or two, they are move or add a penny to adjust the swing of the pendulum. The mechanism was fixed in place way back in 1859.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never had a whole lot in go so we're fairly confident and we won't have any major problems that it will come apart and we'll protect it with (INAUDIBLE).

GLASS: A great clock, 11 tons of it has since been dismantled and removed from site to servicing.

Up here in the belfry, all five bells are remaining in situ. The four chiming quarter bells and the great one-hour bell itself, Big Ben. The reasons are obvious, big Ben is nine feet wide and over seven feet high and weighs about the same as a pair of African elephant -- some 13 tons.

The most visible part of the restorations so far is on one clock face -- the so-called North Dial, 23 feet across, the lattice of (INAUDIBLE) has been blast clean and re-glazed some 300 bespoke pieces of opal-colored glass. The clock face is also reverted to its original color scheme -- gold leaf and a paint of Prussian blue.

Nothing much has stopped the clock over the years, the occasional mechanical gremlin, the odd flurry of snow and on one occasion a flock of roosting starlings.

Of course, it's had its dramatic moments in the movies. The actor Robert Powell hanging on for dear life in the spy thriller "The 39 Steps" in 1978 as the minute hand reached a corner to 12, the club tower would've been blown up by dastardly Prussian secret agents.

At midday in reality, Big Ben was silent again as it largely has been for the last two years. Restoration should be complete by 2021. So far everything has been picking along very nicely thank you, if rather quietly.

Nick Glass, CNN -- with Big Ben.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: Can't wait for New Years' Eve to sound in London.

Thank you for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. Follow me on Twitter @AllenCNN.

"WORLD SPORT" is next.

And Rosemary and George can pick things up in 15 minutes.

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[WORLD SPORT]