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Transportation Lockdown Imposed In Outbreak's Epicenter; WHO Hold Off Declaring A Global Health Emergency; Trump Hints He Doesn't Want Bolton To Testify; World Leaders Gather for Holocaust Forum; Environmentalists Across the Generations. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 23, 2020 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Studio 7 at CNN's World Headquarters in Atlanta. Ahead this hour, the fifth largest city in China now on lockdown. Buses, subways, and ferries halted, desperate measures to try and contain the deadly coronavirus.

Democrats lay out their impeachment case against Donald Trump for hours detailing what they say is overwhelming evidence, but at the same time arguing for witnesses to testify, and documents to be subpoenaed. And the world's richest man falls for the oldest cell phone hacking the book, and the guy who did it might just be a real Prince.

We begin in Wuhan China, a city of 11 million people now under lockdown. Extreme measures to try and contain the outbreak of a killer virus. In the past few hours, all outbound train traveling flights was suspended. Some bus services, ferries, and subways were canceled. All 17 deaths from the virus had been in the same province, Hubei, which is the provincial capital.

Across China, almost 600 cases have now been reported while the virus has been found in at least four other countries. Let's go to Beijing with CNN's Steven Jiang and David Culver who's just returned from Wuhan. Both of them standing by for us, but David, we'll begin with you.

You made this journey back from Wuhan. You've been able to see these health checks, these measures that the government's put in place. How would you describe you know, just what these measures are? How severe are they?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we were subject to some of those health checks because as you mentioned, we were among the passengers who left Wuhan to come back to Beijing just a few hours ago really. And we were among the last trains to leave before that lockdown went into place. Now it's pretty basic as far as what the screening in and of itself looks like.

I mean, as soon as we got off the train here, it was one by one that they would put a thermometer to our heads and check to see whether or not we had a fever. And then let us continue walking. Those are what we see. I can also tell you as you're going through security to get on to the train leaving Wuhan, we noticed they had a kind of a system set up where they had monitors and they were doing thermal detectors instead they were looking without folks even realizing it at that moment.

And all the folks who are now staff members in those stations, and even the police and the paramilitary who are there are noticeably covering their faces as well. And Wuhan in particular, that's now mandatory, this wearing a face mask to protect not only yourself, but others.

The journey for us was interesting. I mean, it was a 3:00 a.m. wake up that really got us mobilized to realize that this might be the last time in a good number of days that we will be able to leave Wuhan pretty easily. And so we did book a train. We managed to get out but so did I would say hundreds of others who are along with us who got up earlier, who are with their families, who got together the luggage they had and got into long lines waiting to try to get a ticket on the train. And most that we saw, were able to do that and able to get on.

There was one instance that stands out to me that was we were boarding and we noticed a couple standing there. And they went all the way up to the platform, John, and they did not get on the train, but they were waving at their son and his grandfather. They sent the two of them on here to Beijing. And CNN asked why did you not join them? And they said they didn't want to risk exposing their loved ones who live up here to any potential threats.

So that tells you just how divisive it is even with families. And this is a time when families are supposed to be together. It's the Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year. And so it's causing for some, separation, John.

VAUSE: Yes, it's tough. And for some of them, it's their only time of year when they actually get to spend time with family and that's being disrupted. To you, Steven. What is unusual or different these days about Chinese social media, access to the internet where people have a certain amount of freedom to vent, to have their say about what's going on. So what have you noticed about sort of the public's reaction to all this?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, John. We are certainly seeing a growing number of posts of really people voicing their frustration or even anger, as well as fear about the situation. Because, you know, we are glad our colleagues are here, we're back here safe and sound, but the fact that the government only putting this kind of travel lockdown overnight, was very concerning, disturbing to a lot of people.

Because remember, the first case was more than a month ago. And even after the first cluster of cases were discovered, traced back to that one seafood marketing Wuhan, that market remained open for weeks teeming with people. And then, of course, coupled with the fact that hundreds of thousands of people, students, migrant workers have been leaving Wuhan in the past few weeks with very little protection to go back there to their hometowns for celebration of the Chinese New Year.

That was also very disturbing to a lot of health experts as well as now the general public because that could mean that all these people had been walking pathogens for a long time. So a lot of people think even this drastic measure of a city of being quarantined, the entire city being quarantined, maybe too little too late.

Now another issue right now, of course, based on what we have seen on social media, as well as from people, we have talked to on the ground is the facility -- the hospital facilities, the health care system in Wuhan seems to have been overwhelmed. We have been hearing stories of people lining up outside of hospital for hours, only to be turned away by nurses and doctors, even though these people were displaying the symptoms of this coronavirus.

So this, of course, John is very, very concerning, disturbing, even with the government putting on a very brave sit face, still saying they're confident they're able to contain this outbreak. John?

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VAUSE: Steven, thank you very much. Steven Jiang, we appreciate the reporting. Also, David Culver there recently returned from Wuhan, thank you for being with us. We appreciate you both. Thank you. The World Health Organization has delayed a decision on declaring a global health emergency for later Thursday, when officials will make for a second day.

WHO guidelines list three criteria for an emergency declaration. The situation needs to be serious, sudden, unusual, or unexpected. It has to carry implications for public health beyond the affected state's national borders. It also may require immediate international action.

So on that first criteria, yes, this was sudden, it was unusual, it's also unexpected. And then on the second criteria, essentially, the virus has traveled well beyond the epicenter of Wuhan. It's spread across almost every province in mainland China, to the capital Beijing, to Shanghai, Guangzhou.

But then, away from the mainland, Taiwan is treating at least one case, so to Macau, and there is a case in Hong Kong as well. A 39- year-old man highly suspected of having the coronavirus. And then it spread to Japan, South Korea, two cases in Thailand, at least one case in the United States as well.

And keep in mind, a public health emergency was declared just last year during the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo, which killed more than 2,000 people. Now, since it was discovered in the 1970s, Ebola has claimed more than 13,000 lives for a fatality rate of just over 40 percent. Almost as deadly, the MERS outbreak back in 2012. Almost 35 percent the fatality rate there, almost 900 people killed.

That then brings us down to SARS, another deadly viral outbreak but almost one in 10 people who caught SARS ended up dying, not obviously as high as the other. Now, this is what we're dealing with at the moment with this outbreak in Wuhan, a fatality rate just over three percent, not especially high. That number could go up. It's a number which officials will keep a very close eye on in the coming days.

To talk more about this now, with me now from Hong Kong is Ivan Hung. He's a clinical professor at Hong Kong University, also the chief of the Infectious Diseases Division. So, Professor, thank you so much for coming in. I just want to talk about this declaration of a global health emergency, if you like, but WHO. Are you expecting it will happen sometime today? And if so, what are the implications? What does that actually mean in practical sense?

IVAN HUNG, CLINICAL PROFESSOR, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY: I think we're expecting the declaration to come pretty soon, given the extents of the -- of the outbreak currently affecting many provinces and cities of China and also affecting many cities over the world. I think the measures, the declarations, the indication is mainly on traveling especially affecting the tourists or other people who are traveling to and from China. And this will probably carry a so-called an alert list especially to people traveling to and from China, doing business or other things.

So I think the main impact is probably on Tourism and also in -- to certain extent it might affect the economy as well in the long run.

VAUSE: Well, Beijing has classified this virus is being in the same category as SARS, and the city where it was first detected, Wuhan, is now sort of under lockdown, you know, clearly a decision which is not made lightly. But as far as the head of the WHO seems to be concerned, this is precisely what needs to be done. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WHO: So, based on the situation, taking the action that they think is appropriate, it's very important we stress to them that by having a strong action, not only they will control their out -- the outbreak in their country, but they will -- they will also minimize the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: If that does not significantly slow the spread of this virus. Do they have any options left here? What else could they do?

HUNG: I think the most important thing currently is a rapid or prompt isolation and rapid quick diagnosis confirming the patient has been infected or individual has been infected with the novel coronavirus. So basically, a quick diagnosis, a quick isolation is the most important measures.

Given that the virus has already spread to other cities and other part of China, so a quick isolation will help to control the infection from spreading further.

[01:10:27]

VAUSE: Do you think this to get worse before it gets better? HUNG: I think it will get worse given that it's now Chinese New Year and there's a lot of movement of the population going back home for the Chinese New Year. So we expect the number to rise, especially at people traveling in a very confined transportation like in the plane or train. So the number perhaps will rise in terms of, you know, thousands after Chinese New Year. But I think gradually, with the infection control measures, the number is going to come down.

VAUSE: And there's a lot which remains unknown as of the moment, like the incubation period, the time between the infection and someone noticing symptoms. That's when someone can be contagious and they don't know it. Also, the WHO has warned for the possibility of what they call sustained human to human transmission, which means the virus would be more infectious than bird flu, for example. If that is confirmed, does that raise the stakes here in terms of the overall health emergency?

HUNG: Yes, the problem I think is that we know from the SARS coronavirus is that the viral load or the peak number of viruses in the -- in the lung or in other system is actually peak in the -- from day seven, rather than like in France at a peak within 48 hours from symptom onset. So that carries a possibility that many of these affected individuals may be so-called asymptomatic or very mild symptoms and they could be missed, especially while they are going through the infrared temperature detector.

So, as a result, these poses a chance of further transmitting the virus before they are being diagnosed and isolated. So, these are things that we have to take into consideration when we're dealing with the infection control.

VAUSE: You know, we see a lot of people in the region now wearing surgical masks. At this stage, you know, are they effective in terms of prevention?

HUNG: Yes, because the virus is 80 percent similar to SARS, so basically, they spread by droplets. So, as a surgical mass will be sufficient to protect especially in you know, transportations and other areas. The only exception of course, is that if there is a so- called super spreader or if that -- in a hospital environment where the patients undergoing like you know, incubation where there'll be aerosol generation and the virus could be transmitted via everyone.

VAUSE: Professor, thank you for being with us.

HUNG: (INAUDIBLE).

VAUSE: OK, we appreciate you being with us. Thank you. Thanks, sir.

HUNG: Thank you.

VAUSE: House impeachment managers have started to lay out what they call overwhelming evidence against Donald Trump in the first day of opening arguments in his senate trial. Democrat Adam Schiff says the president abused his power by withholding vital military aid from Ukraine in exchange for dirt on his political opponent Joe Biden. And when he got caught, Schiff says, Trump tries to cover up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The only conclusion consistent with the facts and law, not just the law, but the Constitution is clear. As described by a constitutional law expert's testimony before the House if this conduct is not impeachable, then nothing is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Early Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump praised that his legal team did a very good job adding, we have all the material, they don't have the material, then came this dodge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So for future presidents, is abuse of power an impeachable offense?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it depends. But if you take a look at this and from what everybody tells me, all I do is I'm honest. I make great deals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: With us now from Los Angeles, former Assistant U.S. Attorney David Katz. David, good to see you again. This was a very lengthy detailed opening argument by Schiff. He was clearly becoming emotional towards the end. He wrapped up with this question for Republican senators. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: More e-mails are going to come out, more witnesses are going to come forward. They're going to have more relevant information to share. And the only question is do you want to hear it now? Do you want to know the full truth now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:15:06]

VAUSE: And then even more emotional state with this because he went on to speak with the career bureaucrats who basically put their careers on the line to testify. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: They risked everything, their careers. And yes, I know what you're asked to decide may risk yours too. But if they could show the courage, so can we.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Is that now essentially the choice for Republican senators, if they vote guilty, they'll be voting to end their careers?

DAVID KATZ, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, actually, I mean, the judgment of history will be that Adam Schiff was a hero, that Trump was guilty as sin. And so, it's very frustrating for him to stand in front of these senators, John, and to realize that, you know, they're going to vote in a way which is totally inconsistent with the evidence.

And of course, we can be cynical and think that, you know, the main interest that they have is to prolong their careers, but some of them are retiring from the Senate. And you really wonder why they want to take this place in history as a cover-up, as someone who voted against the weight of all the evidence. It was so clearly laid out today.

And then there are some that I think are watching the polls. So for the ones who are not going to be profiles encourage, the ones who are watching the polls, two-thirds of the country, which I assume is two- thirds of the people in their Republican states, want to have witnesses. And I think everyone knows that a trial has witnesses. And that, you know, the Republicans are acting like they don't want to hear -- you know, hear no evil see no evil.

There's evil out there. This was a quid pro quo. When Trump's defenders say oh, there was no proof of a quid pro quo, Article One is an articulate statement of exactly what the exchange was, what corrupt favor Trump wanted in exchange for ever releasing the $400 million.

And we know john the $400 million never would have been released but for the fact that a brave whistleblower came and that Trump and his top minions knew that the whistleblower was out there so they better finally at last release the money even though they didn't get the announcement against the political rival Biden that Trump and his advisors were seeking that whole time, Trump and Giuliani.

VAUSE: That number is 70 percent of America who want witnesses to be called before the Senate. 70 percent of Americans can agree on what day of the week it is. And among those witnesses they want called, the former National Security Advisor John Bolton. He's the one that described this military aid for the political investigations scheme as a drug deal.

In Davos, the U.S. President cited national security reasons why Bolton should not testify, but was notable because he then went on to add this. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't know if we left in the best of terms. I would say probably not, you know. And so you don't like people testifying when they didn't leave on good terms and that was due to me, not due to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Does this suggest you the president is at least kind of anxious about the possibility that Bolton will appear before the impeachment trial?

KATZ: Well, you know, the thing with bullies is that they're all scared. The thing with braggarts is that they're all worried about what's really going to happen. And so, they have a brave front because they're scared as can be. And Trump always runs scared. He's always worried about being a loser. That's why he calls other people losers.

Now what he says about Bolton is ridiculous. Bolton was a hawk. Bolted had very strong views about North Korea. Things like that, you can agree or disagree. But on this one, Bolton was absolutely clear. The minute he heard about this at the White House meeting, he stopped the meeting. He said this is a drug deal. I don't want to be a part of any of this. He ordered Dr. Fiona Hill to report it right away to the top lawyers to figure out whether it was legal or not. Of course, they thought it was illegal. Those opinions have been suppressed.

But the reason that Bolton would be a good witness is that people will get interested, John, if there's a witness. The problem that the Democrats have and as much as people watch this hearing today, witnesses would move people's minds more. Remember during the Kavanaugh-Dr. Ford hearings about the Supreme Court position for Kavanaugh, it was the witnesses. All the arguments in the world weren't as good as actually having Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford testify.

So, Bolton, Mulvaney, those would be exciting people that would really rivet the country and people would wake up and say, including in those Republican senators' states, wait a second, wait a second, this is not how I want the government to run. I wouldn't like it if a Democrat were doing this. I should stand on principle.

A lot of voters I think will think, this isn't right when my team does it. It's not right if the other team does it. It's just not right. Trump is doing things that are wrong. He's abrogating the Constitution. He's not doing what he's supposed to do. There's supposed to be a separation of powers. He's not a king.

VAUSE: They just see this as tightrope though for Democrats because they're laying out what is a very comprehensive case against the president while at the same time arguing they still need more evidence and witnesses and documents. And again, here's the president because it seems that he's very pleased so far with his T.V. lawyers.

[01:20:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're doing very well. I got to watch enough. I thought our team did a very good job. But honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And yes, Mr. President, that's the point, right?

KATZ: Right. That's a confession to the second article of impeachment which is the obstruction of Congress. No president, not Nixon, not anybody ever obstructed Congress that much and just said, basically, you're a co-equal branch of government, and I'm not giving you a thing. There would be no oversight. And that's why people are not exaggerating when they say we're not a

monarchy. We fought a revolution to not have a king and not to have somebody come in like Hamilton and Madison said and just act like a king. Congress has a very important role and Trump has refused to give them any documents. And to now crow that will my lawyers will do better than their lawyers, even though the lawyers I think from the House managers have done a wonderful job, all seven of them.

VAUSE: Very quickly, we're almost out of time. There's talk from the Republicans, they want to do a deal. They will allow the Democrats to call Bolton if they can call Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden about the Ukraine stuff. The Democrats have sort of rejected that saying that you know, they don't want any part of it. Is that a good idea? Should you just get those witnesses out there regardless of the cost?

KATZ: Well, first of all, that really would damage any sense of integrity. It cannot be that the President gins up an announcement, a total phony-baloney on somebody like Hunter Biden, and then that makes Hunter Biden a relevant witness. What's important is what Trump did, what Biden's son did, not only has it been found never by anybody to have been criminal. But to drag him into a circus in order to get Bolton's testimony when Bolton is a clear percipient witness is a really silly deal. It would set a terrible precedent.

It should be Mulvaney, it should be Bolton, and they should get these documents. Schiff emphasized today that he could say this and say that, it would be very relevant to his argument. I'd like to read it to you but I don't have it. And he said to the Senators, why don't you snap your fingers, issue a subpoena, get it. Let's get the documents on the table. Let's get the facts out, John.

VAUSE: That would be nice. Facts, they're good things. And David, you're a good thing too. Thank you for being with us. We appreciate it. Twice in two days, it's been good. Thank you, sir.

KATZ: It's my pleasure.

VAUSE: Still to come. it's no secret that Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos was the victim of a phone hack. But now new investigation has found the person who sent Bezos the malicious software, well, he was actually a prince, a real-life Crown Prince. And a longtime environmentalist has his say at Davos. Ahead, Prince Charles on climate change.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: Good Thursday morning to you. I'm meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, CNN Weather Watch. And a storm system pushing right along the Gulf Coast here becomes the predominant weather story, at least for the eastern United States brings with it some showers, certainly, some snowfall to its North there and the area here has been under a significant smell of colder air. So, we'll watch the trends shift for a warmer trend here at least the next couple of days in the areas of Deep South at least.

But notice into the Midwest, cold enough air in place to support some snow showers. I wouldn't be surprised we see some brief disruptions out of St. Louis airport, work your way towards some of the airports across Chicago could see some disruptions. Snowfall amounts generally light here 10 centimeters or slightly less than that is what we expect across Chicago. Highs at around one which kind of tell us this is going to be a wetter, slushy snow that will fall across town which times could be more disruptive.

Back towards the west, San Francisco going with cloudy conditions the middle tens. Los Angeles, the place to be 24 degrees, sunny skies across the area, work your way south into Chihuahua enjoying the high pressure in place as well, highs around 18. And then Havana after the coolest day of the season, in the past 24 hours, that cold arctic air that's settled into 18, the trend now back up to 24 there, so warmer weather already restored across the tropics.

[01:25:24]

(INAUDIBLE) we go with a few scattered storms. Highs there should be into the upper tens, while in and around La Paz looking at cloudy conditions, comfortable afternoon though, highs around 15.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Breaking news this hour. Three people dead after an aircraft fighting bushfires crashed in Australia. The C-130 Hercules air tanker went down in a ball of fire shortly after 2:00 p.m. local time. That was after the Rural Fire Service has lost contact with the plane amid fighting the bushfires in Australia's Alpine region.

The Australian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities has told CNN all the casualties were Americans. They work for a company contracted by the Rural Fire Service to combat the bushfires that have ravaged New South Wales for months. More details as soon as we get them.

The U.N. is calling for a probe into allegations that Jeff Bezos, his phone was hacked by Saudi Arabia. A forensic team hired by the Amazon CEO says Bezos' phone was compromised after he received a WhatsApp message for the Saudi Crown Prince's account. CNN's Nina Dos Santos has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: U.N. experts are demanding an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the hacking of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon's phone. This after a report commissioned by a cybersecurity expert from Jeff Bezos appears to deduce with medium to high confidence that the origin of this hacking of his phone could have been from the very telephone of Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia himself.

Well, the story goes back to April 2018 when Bezos and Bin Salman met for the first time in Los Angeles. They exchanged telephone numbers, and soon after Bin Salman sent Bezos a message via WhatsApp. In the months that followed, Bezos received a video file from Mohammed bin Salman and it appears to be that moment that made his phone send large amounts of information out. So that appears to be the seminal moment for the hacking of Jeff Bezos

his phone according to various reports that site this cybersecurity report the U.N. is basing his demands for an investigation on. This incident is quite similar to something that CNN reported at the start of this year. Essentially an allegation by a Canadian asylum seeker, a dissident from Saudi Arabia whose phone had also been hacked and his WhatsApp messages including those which Jamal Khashoggi had been scraped and may have fallen into the hands of the Crown Prince and his entourage in Saudi Arabia.

Well, speaking before the U.N. experts delivered their verdicts and also that investigation, Saudi Arabia calls media reports suggesting that the Crown Prince is behind the hacking of Jeff Bezos' phone absurd and flatly denied the allegations. Nina Dos Santos, CNN in Davos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, some -- a server -- or some rather remembers of the past and the challenge for the present. Leaders from around the world gather to fight against anti-Semitism on a very important anniversary.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:50]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for staying with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

Three people are dead after an aircraft fighting bushfires crashed in Australia. The T130 Hercules air tanker went down in a ball of flames shortly after 2:00 p.m. local time. That was after the rural fire service lost contact.

The plane had been fighting bush flares in Australia's alpine region in the state of New South Wales. Those killed were Americans working for a company contracted by the rural fire service.

A public transportation lockdown is in effect in Wuhan, China to contain the coronavirus. Outward bound flights and trains have been suspended -- only (ph) local buses, ferries and subways.

Chinese officials have reported 17 deaths so far, nearly 600 infections. Cases have also been found in at least four other countries.

In the opening argument in Donald Trump's impeachment trial, House Democrats say there's overwhelming evidence the President abused his power and obstructed Congress in trying to cover it up. Those arguments will resume in the day ahead. Republican senators who voted against new witnesses or documents have complained they've heard nothing new.

This week in Jerusalem will see an extraordinary gathering of world leaders, heads of state, princes, prime ministers. They'll be there to mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest camp of all the Nazi death camps where Jews were killed on an industrial scale, more than one million. before Poland was liberated by the Allies.

CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now from Jerusalem with more on this.

You know, Oren, there will be calls of "never again" but right now, given the rise of anti-Semitism it seems "never again" should be replaced with "It's happening again".

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that of course, is one of the fears here and what makes this event so important. It's not just the timing. As you pointed out this the 75th anniversary the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. But it's also the situation we're seeing going on around here growing fears of anti-Semitism.

For example in Germany Dresden declared an emergency over what it saw as the rise again of Nazism. And then, of course, the attacks we've seen in the United States from Pittsburgh to San Diego, to Monsey, to Jersey City. And that is why this is so important.

Couple with that fear of anti-Semitism is a fear that the Holocaust is being forgotten. And in fact, this fifth World Holocaust Forum is entitled, "Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting anti-Semitism".

And we will have some of the biggest names in the world here speaking. More than 40 world leaders, this is arguably the biggest gathering of world leaders in the country's history here. And some of the biggest names are set to arrive here in the next few hours.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, Vice President Mike Pence, as well as Prince Charles will all be coming here. And those three will be among the speakers at the event which starts here in just a few hours.

We will all, of course, be listening to what they have to say and what they see as the problem of anti-Semitism and more importantly perhaps how they see or what they see as a way of solving or dealing with the rising fears of anti-Semitism in the U.S., in Europe and beyond.

Of course, beyond simply the meetings here will be a day of politics for Israel's leaders. President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have already begun meeting with many of the world leaders in attendance and will continue to do so throughout the day. There's a meeting scheduled between Netanyahu and Putin coming up shortly.

[01:34:55]

LIEBERMANN: And later on this afternoon Pence and Netanyahu will go to the Western Wall together. That will be the highest ranking U.S. official ever to go with an Israeli prime minister to the Western Wall.

So we'll be paying attention, of course, not only to the conference but to everything around this -- John. VAUSE: Oren -- thank you for that. I can't believe there was a poll which recently came out that most American know what the Holocaust was but they don't know how many people were killed. So that's something they've got deal with, I guess.

Thank you -- Oren Liebermann, live from Jerusalem.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, two environmental activists meet for the first time in Davos. Coming up a united generation -- Prince Charles meets Greta Thunberg.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: The heir to the British throne is adding his voice to urgent calls for action on climate change. Prince Charles has long been an advocate for the environment and on Wednesday he met with a leader from the next generation of activists. That is Greta Thunberg.

CNN's Max Foster has this exclusive interview with the Prince of Wales.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: There is a fascinating moment to see you there next to Greta, two icons of the climate campaign really from very different generations. What do you make of her and her contribution to the debate?

CHARLES, PRINCE OF WALES: Well, she's remarkable. Well, she represents one of the main reasons I have been trying to make all this effort all these years because as I said I didn't want with my grandchildren to accuse me of not doing something about it at this time.

And of course, there they are or her generation almost my grandchildren. All desperate because nothing's happened. We've left it so late.

So I've always worried about the fact that so often in terms of humanity we (INAUDIBLE) too late. You have to get -- you know, to hit a brick wall and experience the catastrophe before anything happens but this time with this kind of disaster we've engineered, it takes a huge amount to turn the whole thing back to how it should be to restore the balance.

FOSTER: I was interested to hear your positivity around the Paris Climate Accords. A lot of people are being very negative about whether or not it's achievable at all.

Please explain to me why you think it is achievable?

CHARLES: Because I think partly, we have suddenly noticed, it was 35 years ago when I first started trying to encourage corporate social environmental responsibility and I had endless workshops, conferences, gathering seminars, dinners -- you name it to try and encourage them, the private sector executives, to take all these issues around (INAUDIBLE) seriously. We could never get the capital markets or the financial services sector to take it seriously. But in the last two or three years as I was saying, there have been this extraordinary change where suddenly there is a huge amount more investment, I mean vast amounts wanting to find, to save on investment, to put their money into the right things.

[01:40:04]

CHARLES: But of course at the moment there aren't enough sustainable projects that have been worked out. So how do they work out the investment model that is needed, for instance a nature-based solution which is one way of trying to tackle this and all -- and of course, the other ways, all the different technologies that's come and captured us, an amazing range of remarkable ideas and techniques which are there but under capitalized.

So this is an immense challenge. I've just been to a gathering we had where the former secretary of state John Kerry, was describing there just how and who are the barriers and the challenges are vast. But there is a real opportunity now, to link to, you know, the investors with the projects.

And I know just form the case of the commonwealth, there's such vast challenges there with deforestation and fisheries and agriculture but, what we could do, is transform a lot of this, particularly by putting a secular bio-economy at the center of all this.

And the bio-economy me is now even more possible, in terms of what, you know, the returns you can make, the difference it could make to people, and the environment. The use of wood, and what they can now do, the forestry sector, told me in terms of wood-based products being used to oppose us, the plastics, chemicals, aviation fuels -- everything.

And building materials, so the immense trade (ph). All these provides a real incentive to do the right thing. (INAUDIBLE). To put trees again where they're needed in order to capture carbon but also to help fuel an economy that centers around nature's own services.

The eco system serves as your defendant.

FOSTER: You talked about how the reason you're doing this is for the children, for the grandchildren -- but your grandchildren.

What vision do you see for the likes of Prince George if something isn't done now.

CHARLES: It's not very encouraging, is it. If you look at what's happening at the moment, I mean we can't go on like this. Every month another record in temperature is being broken, you know warmer and warmer and warmer last year as the (INAUDIBLE) ever.

And we're already seeing, you know, winter where it's even warmer. So just if we leave it too long, and we have done. Just growing things is going to become difficult. Even, you know, in many of these forests there is in other parts of

the world, if you deforest, below a certain percentage, you end up with breaking the hydrological cycle. And then you can't plant anything, because of their force -- you know, just keep the system going.

So we only have a very short window. And this is why it is so absolutely critical.

I feel, and with the help of the World Economic Forum, it's why we're trying to bring, many of these investors together, with many of the companies and sectors as much as possible, and try to do this each month from now on in order to try and see if we can create the right framework, and the right response, to make it possible for , you know. Your children and my grandchildren, to have a reasonable future.

FOSTER: Your Royal Highness -- thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Prince Charles there speaking there to Max Foster.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm john Vause.

"WORLD SPORT" with Patrick Snell is after the break.

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