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South Korea To Impeach Park Geun-hye; Widespread Doping Allegations; Endangered Species; Unending War; The Donald Trump of Holland. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 09, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: South Korea's parliament votes to impeach its president. We'll talk about what's next for Park Geun-hye.

Widespread doping allegations. The World Anti-Doping Agency will release its final report on Russian athletes.

Later, vulnerability an extinction. Disturbing new report shows the number of giraffes is plummeting around the world.

From CNN headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN Newsroom starts right now.

Good day to you.

We are following breaking news out of South Korea. Lawmakers there have just voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye for her alleged ties to a corruption scandal.

Protesters have been out in the streets in Seoul, South Korea, calling for her to step down for many weeks now. Lawmakers voted 234 to 56 to impeach. The president denied doing anything wrong -- any wrongdoing.

She is meeting though, with her cabinet at this hour.

Her executive powers are now suspended and the country's prime minister becomes the acting president.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul, South Korea following developments this hour. Paula, let's talk more about this meeting that the president called with cabinet. What more do we know about it?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, this is a meeting that should be ongoing right now in the Blue House, the presidential office. We understand that the President Park will speak briefly at this meeting.

But of course she is now not the one who is in this control of the company. We know that there will be the cabinet members there. We understand the man who is now in control of the country, the Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ah will also be there.

And we have just heard that he has already made one of his first calls as the leader of South Korea or is the caretaker of South Korea. We understand he's called the defense minister saying that he wanted to make sure the military was on alert that they were maintaining a readiness state as they call it here because he's concerned that North Korea may take advantage of the instability in South Korea at this point.

So, we understand from local media he's made other calls, as well, to try to rally the troops around that he has to move forward now. But we know that there is a meeting of the cabinet going on right now. George?

HOWELL: I want to get into the particulars of what comes next. But before I do so, we all hear the background noise there in your live report. We know that there are many people who have come together to lend their voices to this decision that has been reached by parliament, this vote.

But what are you hearing? These large crowds that we have seen for many weeks now. What is the general reaction to what's happened on this day?

HANCOCKS: Well, there were certainly hundreds, possibly thousands behind the gates of the perimeter of the national assembly. They have been here for many hours protesting and calling for the resignation of President Park.

There was delight when the announcement was made that lawmakers have decided that she should go. That she should be impeached. I also saw a few little fireworks, as well and there were some cheering.

But the fact is most protesters want her to resign immediately. They don't want to have to wait another six months until there's a decision from the constitutional court on whether or not the evidence holds and President Park should, in fact, lose her position as president.

So, there's certainly joy that something is happening. That she has been impeached that there is some movement but certainly most of protestors have out spoken too over weeks would much rather that she step down immediately.

HOWELL: Paula, so as this now goes to the court, help our viewers understand exactly how this process plays out. How long could it take before the court to reach a conclusion?

HANCOCKS: So, what happens now is this goes to the constitutional court. There are nine judges within the constitutional court. They have 180 days or around six months to decide whether or not President Park should be impeached. Whether they approve that impeachment and whether she should step down if there is enough evidence against her.

Now, six out of nine have to vote for her to step down. But the fact is that there's a technicality, there is a computer -- the complication because two of those are actually going to retire before that six months is up.

[03:04:57] So, it's really six out of seven have to agree that she should step down. So it's a fairly tight vote. So, it's not absolutely guaranteed that President Park will be completely impeached. It's up to them if she is, though, and if they agree there's 60 days and then there is a new election for a new president. If they don't agree, President Park Geun-hye will be reinstated. George?

HOWELL: I just want to clarify, though, because when it comes to the court many of the members of this court were selected by her, yes?

HANCOCKS: Two of them were, yes. And that will be interesting to see whether or not they do feel particular feelings toward her that they feel some requirement that they to stand by her.

But of course, bear in mind that an awful lot of lawmakers behind in the national assembly that are part of President Park's party voted against her. So, technically you wouldn't imagine that that is an issue and certainly a constitutional court should be seen as independent from the president. But an awful lot of her ruling Saenuri Party voted against her today. It was a very convincing vote. George?

HOWELL: And Paula, I do want to just give some background here on how this got started. With Park's confidant Choi Soon-sil, she does not hold an official government position but was charged with abuse of power and fraud and coercion. What is the background to this complicated relationship?

HANCOCKS: Well, this is a woman who is a close confidant of President Park Geun-hye whose father started a cult-like religion and was involved with the family, Park's family for many, many years. So it's believed that this family has had some influence over Park Geun-hye for decades, for at least 40 years.

And we understand that this close confidant was shown classified documents by the president. There's allegations that she was shown speeches before and was able to, as prosecutors say, meddle in state affairs.

Prosecutors are looking in to whether she extorted some $60 million from some of the big companies here in South Korea. We've heard from those big companies, as well. They have had to go to a very public hearing which was televised live around the nation on Tuesday where they were grilled about whether or not they had given money to these foundations that Choi Soon-sil owned. And whether or not they knew that it was extortion. George?

HOWELL: Again, the headline here, the breaking news that we are following here on CNN, that lawmakers have voted to impeach the President of South Korea, 234 to 56. Now this goes before the courts and we also know that the president is meeting with cabinet.

Paula Hancocks is following this story live for us. Paula, we'll stay in touch with you. Again, the breaking news this hour here on CNN. Thank you.

Moving on now to Syria, the brutal civil war rages on there. Russia says that its ally, the Syrian government has halted military action in Aleppo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made that claim on Thursday,

but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that shelling is happening right now in rebel-held area of the city.

And earlier, our CNN crews inside Aleppo told us they could still hear mortar fire, as well. Lavrov also said the Syrian regime was not focused on the evacuation of civilians.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is inside of Aleppo and has more for us.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As the rebels increasingly lose their grip on Aleppo Syrian armed forces continue to pound the besieged areas, many killed and wounded in the crossfire.

We came to this frontline crossing just as a man was being evacuated claiming he was shot by rebels as he tried to flee." They shot me as I was running out," he says. "They don't allow anyone to get out. They said are you going to the regime areas?"

The opposition strongly denies its fighters would harm civilians but the rebel do acknowledge they won't be able to hold out in Aleppo much longer and that realization is leading to an avalanche of people trying to flee the rebel districts.

Syrian troops throwing some bread but not nearly enough to quell the hunger of many who had been starving for months.

The Syrian military has made major advances once again in the past 24 hours. And we can see that as the army moves forward more and more people are coming out of those former besieged areas.

Many of those fleeing, families with small children. Struggling to carry the few belongings they were able to take. Many overpowered by emotions. Some with barely enough strength to walk. Others too frail to walk at all.

The Syrian army has amassed a massive force at this front line, the local commander with a clear message to the rebels.

[03:10:01] "Look at the siege," he say, "these are your families, "surrender yourself and drop your arms and come back to the country and hopefully our leadership."

But for now, the fight goes on, this family one of the many to cross into government-controlled territory now in safety but still in agony.

"Things used to be good," this elderly woman says, "may God act out revenge on those who brought us these difficult circumstances and may God protect us."

And so, they walk on. Weak and traumatized, moving into an uncertain future.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Aleppo. HOWELL: That was Fred Pleitgen inside Aleppo. And now we have CNN

correspondent Muhammad Lila following the story live for us this hour in Istanbul, Turkey.

Muhammad, thank you for being with us. Let's talk about this situation despite the claims that civilians are being given an opportunity to leave, we are still getting reports even from our crew that they are hearing mortar fire. What more can you tell us about that situation on the ground that you're hearing?

MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, we've spoken with a number of rebels and activists in eastern Aleppo. They say that there has been no ceasefire that the shelling continues and our crew on the ground obviously said they've heard explosions, as well.

One of the challenges of course, with mortar fire is that it's imprecise so it's very difficult when you hear explosions to know which side they are coming from, how many explosions there have been within a short period of time. It's a very fluid situation from what we understand.

We do know according to statements made by Russia's foreign minister that they claim to have stopped and their exact words are that "they've ceased all combat operations to allow for the evacuation of civilians from eastern Aleppo into the government held western part of Aleppo."

And you saw on Fred story there so many people are fleeing from the east side to the west side just to get to safety. Because they haven't had food for so long and they haven't had any medicine and a lot of them need medical care.

So we understand the situation on the ground is still very fluid. George.

HOWELL: Muhammad Lila, following the story, live in Istanbul, Turkey. Muhammad, thank you so much, and we'll stay in touch with you again and our crew there in Aleppo.

The World Anti-Doping Agency will release its final report into doping in Russian sports within the next few hours. This is part two, quite frankly.

Back in July, an earlier report found that Russia helped its top athletes use performance enhancing drugs. And as a result, the agency recommended to the international Olympic Committee that Russian athletes be barred from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Some of the Russians were later cleared to participate. That earlier report cited widespread doping in Russian sports. It also allege that laboratories in Sochi and Moscow swapped samples and covered up failed tests by Russian athletes.

The operation was overseen by the Russian ministry of sport with the active participation of the Russian Secret Service, the FSB. The doping covered 30 sports in both summer and winter Olympics from weight lifting, to swimming, to football and even table tennis.

And the operation began after a disappointing team performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

CNN's Jill Dougherty is following this, contributor in Moscow, she's a CNN contributor and the CNN former bureau chief of Moscow. Jill, let's talk about the situation. You know, what can we expect to learn from this final doping report that is due to release soon?

JILL DOUGHERTY, WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS FELLOW: Well, George, you know, remember the first one. It was pretty sensational because there were a lot of details that were pretty surprising, swapping urine samples through holes in the wall, et cetera.

So, with the second report by Mr. McLaren, there could be more details like that, at least more specifics, about why and how they can prove that the Russian government actually had a major doping operation underway.

Now this has become, as you can imagine, very politicize and very political. Russians have been reporting some on it. But you know, just in terms of what actually happened, the Russians tried to overturn that ban that you mentioned by the IOC. They fall at that. The IOC did impose -- did not impose a blanket ban. They actually left it up to the individual Olympic committees of basically each country.

So, it was kind of a mixed bag. And I think now we have the most recent wrinkle was just a couple of days ago, the IOC continued that ban. But I was looking at reaction from Russians. Pretty much at this point they are saying the report will be coming out.

[03:15:02] But the head of the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Mr. Zhukov is saying the most important thing about this is that the IOC will give the opportunity to each individual athlete who might be named in this a chance to speak out and state their position.

So, I think overall, that is that they are being careful but they want the rights as they have said all along of each individual athlete to be protected.

HOWELL: CNN contributor and CNN former bureau chief to Moscow, Jill Dougherty, live for us. Jill, we'll stay in touch with you as we learn more about this second part of this report.

Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, live from Atlanta, details on the unprecedented part-time job that Donald Trump plans to have while in the Oval Office. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sports headlines.

Manchester United have progressed to the Europa League knockout stages after beating Zorya Luhansk 2-nil in the Ukraine. The Red Devils did not disappoint as one of United most recent signings Henrikh Mkhitaryan got on the score sheet from the very first time after just starting just his fifth match. Their lead doubled in the second half, thanks to a late goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The global community has been truly affected by the Chapecoense tragedy. And as a mark of solidarity, one of the biggest clubs in the world have reached out to the Brazilian side. Barcelona extended an invitation to the southern Brazilian club to take part in an annual competition for Gamper trophy next year.

The fund will be used to help pay tribute to the victims and offer an opportunity for the team to rebuild after their difficult loss.

And the final days of last year's U.S. Golf Open was completely overshadowed by highly contentious rule that may have caused Dustin Johnson a one-shot penalty but the title. The American was penalized after it was ruled he was responsible for removing his ball on the fifth green albeit accidentally.

Now the sports authorities are bringing a new rule to eliminate that very penalty. Johnson went on to win his first major by three shots.

And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: The Trump transition. Donald Trump's thank you tour rolled in to Iowa on Thursday. At a rally, the president-elect introduced his choice for ambassador to China.

[03:19:59] Trump also defended his controversial cabinet choices, among them, Andrew Puzder, Trump's pick for labor secretary. He is a fast-food CEO who is opposed to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

He's also against overtime pay for low earners. Many labor groups oppose his nomination.

In the meantime, Trump repeated his plans for the economy and to keep jobs from going abroad. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT-ELECT: I actually love calling these companies. I say, give me a list of 10 companies that are leaving. And I actually love calling these companies and I saying, hi, and I get the president of this company.

And I say, hi, how are you doing? Hello Mr. President-elect. Congratulations. Yes, congratulations. By the way, while we're on the phone, don't leave. Please don't leave. Please. And we have had great success. You will be seeing a lot more success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: To talk more about this let's bring in Scott Lucas, live from Birmingham, England. He is a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham. Scott, so, Donald Trump is hinting that we could see more deals like the Carrier deal.

This week, though, the Carrier union leader said that Trump lied about that deal and that he is not saving as many jobs as he said. So, then Trump attacked him on Twitter and now that man is reportedly getting death threats. Will we continue to see the president-elect the soon president of the United States punch down on Twitter?

SCOTT LUCAS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM SHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS PROFESSOR: Oh, yes. This is a new type of politics. And we've seen it from Trump as candidate in the primaries, running against Hillary Clinton and now as your next president. And that is rather than conducting policies as we would expect, you know, through meetings and through dialogue he hits social media and issues warnings.

The case is right. There were only 1,000 jobs saved at Carrier. Most of the jbs have not been secured. And so when he was called out on this by Chuck Jones he immediately said, oh, this is terrible, this is horrible.

And as a result many people who followed Trump on Twitter he mobilizes them. Whether or not he means to he mobilizes them then to issue threats to declare -- to issue insults. And in doing so he also steals the news cycle.

Instead of talking about the details of the Carrier deal we're talking about Trump's latest tweet. And of course it's not just the Carrier issue, he jumps from issue to issue.

Earlier this week it was the attack on Boeing over Air Force One. He -- last week it was the call to Taiwan which threw American diplomacy to a tail spin regarding relations with China. This is basically spectacle overtaking reasonable politics.

HOWELL: Trump tweets Twitter then weaponized. And we understand that union leader received death threats, threats to him. Also threats to his children given that tweet from the president-elect.

We also learned that Donald Trump will remain as executive producer of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice." Is this a conflict of interest?

LUCAS: Well, the law is unclear regarding the president's conflict of interest. Trump maintains there's actually is no law that actually defines this. So, he will continue to try to hold on as many business interests as possible.

And, remember, keep his family in control of those business interests even though there is a possible conflict because they are receiving privileged information from the government.

What you are seeing is, I think two things. One is that Trump is not going to back down on any issue. He's going to defy anyone who says he might be wrong or might want to reconsider. So, you might as well expect that. And secondly, we're not actually seeing the development of a coherent

cabinet that will check Trump. He is assembling a very interesting mix of people but he's not putting anyone in place that will really say, Mr. President, you really need to think twice before hitting that keyboard on Twitter or basically saying, I'm going to keep doing my business deals even when I'm in the White House.

HOWELL: Switching now to Trump's former rival, Hillary Clinton. She spoke today at the Capitol during a ceremony for a top democrat. Listen here to what she had to say about a big issue that has really come to the focus, fake news. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) FORMER NITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year, it's now clear that so so-called fake news can have real world consequences.

This isn't about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk. Lives are at risk. Live of ordinary people just trying to go about their days, to do their jobs, contribute to their communities. It's a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly.

Bipartisan legislation is making its way through Congress to boost the government's response to foreign propaganda.

[03:25:00] And Silicon Valley is starting to grapple with the challenge and threat of fake news. It's imperative that leaders in both the private sector and the public sector step up to protect our democracy and innocent lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Scott, you'll remember that Hillary Clinton was implicated in a fake news story, that pizza gate story. Completely fake, completely bogus and it resulted in a very dangerous situation that played out there in Washington, D.C.

How big of a problem would you say this situation with fake news is and how can the government or even tech companies stop it without also hurting free speech?

LUCAS: Well, I think a bit of perspective, first of all. You'll probably realize being in the media, that the issue of fake news, or let's just call it false news, you know, this is not new. We are always fighting the battle to establish what is reliable from...

(CROSSTALK)

HOWELL: There is -- there is another word for it, Scott. Yes, there is another word for it but we can't use that word. But yes, fake news. Continue, I'm sorry.

LUCAS: No. I appreciate you chipping in.

HOWELL: Yes.

LUCAS: Yes, you know, it's been around for a long time. You know, whether we call it propaganda, disinformation. But what changed are a couple of things. I mean, the first is just the speed and pace. Because we're now in the age of 24/7 social media news media.

And the second is let's be honest about what has happened here. You have a president-elect who embraces false news and has promoted it. And you know, Donald Trump, remember, was one of the people who is the first to promote the idea that Barack Obama was born outside of the United States. The so-called birther scandal.

He helped to chip in with the idea that Barack Obama was a Muslim, which is also not true. He has a national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who actually linked people on social media to conspiracy web sites that are spreading wild, incorrect information.

Sophistication is just one example of this. Let's link the two parts of our interview together. The first is that you have the use of media to threaten people. And secondly those threats to people are tied to false or fake news to justify the fact that they are bad, that they are wrong. So this has personal consequences but it also has very widespread political consequences.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWELL: Scott Lucas, thank you so much.

LUCAS: Because you cannot (Inaudible) the president of the U.S. who can you believe?

HOWELL: Lucas, we appreciate you being with us. We'll have more to talk about, I'm sure. Thank you.

This is CNN Newsroom. And still ahead, we are following the breaking news out of Seoul, South Korea. Lawmakers there just voted to impeach the president of that nation, Park Geun-hye.

CNN is live from Atlanta broadcasting around the world this hour. Stay with us.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here and around the world. I'm George Howell. This is CNN Newsroom. With the headlines we are following fo you this hour.

Breaking news out of South Korea, lawmakers there have voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye for her alleged ties to a corruption scandal. President Park has denied any wrongdoing but she will now be suspended and the prime minister now becomes the acting president.

We will of course have more on this breaking news just in a moment.

The U.N. is calling on Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit the northern part of that country as part of an appeal to help stop the ethnic and religious violence that's playing out there. Myanmar's army has been accused of launching a deadly crackdown against the Rohinga Muslim minority in that country.

In Cameroon, at least two protestors are dead after clashes with police in the northwestern region of the country. This is according to state television. It reportedly happened after demonstrators tried to block a government meeting.

Cameroon's English-speaking minority has been protesting alleged discrimination by the French-speaking majority.

Now back to the top story we're following this hour, the breaking news out of South Korea. The president of that nation Park Geun-hye has called members for her own cabinet for an emergency meeting this hour.

Lawmakers there voted to impeach her just a short time ago over her alleged ties to a corruption scandal.

John DeLury is joining us now. He is an associate professor at Yonsei University, a graduate school of international studies. It's good to have you with us this hour to talk about this very historic situation happening in South Korea.

Fair to say that there was a great deal of pressure for parliament to impeach the president. We've seen weeks and weeks on end of protesters demanding that Park Geun-hye resign.

Talk to us about the implications of this particular moment where so many people demanded that their voices be heard.

JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: Yes. Well, I mean, you're right, George. The main thing is this was a remarkable step forward in a process that ultimately, is about South Korean citizens demanding accountability of their elected leadership.

It's been -- it's been a journey to be here and watch the process unfold. Six weeks by the end over two million people coming out in peaceful assembly with one message that this president had to step down.

So, you know, the political class here and the national assembly might not have done this action today. Were it not for this overwhelming national consensus and overwhelming pressure on them to sort of pull the trigger and start this impeachment process.

So, impeachment happened. And now we move in to sort of the next phase one of those will be that this impeachment will go to the constitutional court. The court does needs to approve the decision to finalize the removal of President Park. So that's one piece to look for, but there are other important agenda items that now open up.

HOWELL: I raised this question with our correspondent who's also covering the situation. I'd like to pose it to you, as well. Because when it gets to that constitutional court and the simple fact that members of that court some of them were selected by the president. Does that play into this? Is there a concern among people that there could be some loyalty to the president and that it could play out here?

DELURY: It does. It actually cuts both ways, though. It's important to understand that this constitutional court is relatively young. We're not talking about, you know, the Supreme Court in the United States which has a long history, which has a principle of judicial independence behind it.

Quite the opposite here. Most South Koreans liberal or conservatives sort of recognize that this court has not established its independence that it's subject to political pressure.

[03:34:57] So, on the one hand that means there's a lot of people are worried with one single vote the impeachment could be shot down. The flip side, tough, is that if this court wants to maintain any sort of integrity in the public eye with this overwhelming consensus and now an overwhelming vote in the national assembly to move forward with impeachment, you know, the court is skating on thin ice if it doesn't approve.

So, there will be a massive amount of pressure, not just to move the impeachment forward but also to do it in a timely manner. Because the court could take up to 180 days but there will be a lot of pressure for it to move much faster than that.

HOWELL: John DeLury, thank you so much for your insight. Obviously, we'll continue to watch what's happening in South Korea. History certainly being made and now it goes to a court to make the final decision. Thank you.

Now to the Iraqi military's battle to retake Mosul. It has been a grueling ordeal especially for the many civilians who have been caught in the middle of it.

We have a rare glimpse of conditions in eastern Mosul, thanks to a freelance photographer. Gabriel Shame, he accompanied Iraqi Special Forces in their final push, their push into the city.

CNN's Ben Wedeman has more.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dazed and terrified a young girl flees her neighborhood, now a war zone in eastern Mosul. Soldiers from Iraqi Special Forces try to console her as the battle rages nearby. The offensive to retake the city is almost into its third month but progress has been slow as this rare footage obtained by CNN shows.

ISIS is fighting back with the usual means. Snipers, suicide bombers and booby traps while hundreds of thousands of civilians are caught in the middle trying to survive one day at a time

"A woman was killed by shelling," says this man, "another woman was wounded. We just need this random shelling to stop and then we can get on with our lives." Prior to the offensive, Iraqi officials advised Mosul residents to

stay home if they felt safe. Those who stayed behind like this bearded young man, are able to provide Iraqi forces with real-time intelligence on the enemy just a few buildings away as he explains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill one from Daesh, now is just striking it, now is very good.

WEDEMAN: The battle for the city is now a street-by-street slog. Troops must clear every building and they never know what awaits them is an ambush, an IED or anxious family huddled inside. So far Iraqi forces have managed to drive ISIS out of around 30 percent of this sprawling city.

Residents have come out to greet the troops. This young man has a poem ready extolling the army and cursing life under ISIS.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

"Because there was no electricity, no fuel, no medicine," he says. He finishes his poem with a kiss.

While almost everyone is quick to curse ISIS or Daesh as they call it here. Bicycle repairman Yasser (Ph) has a nuance to view.

"Fifty percent of the people in Mosul don't have a problem with ISIS only recently it's been hard to make a living. Life was normal, that they imposed on us how to shave and how to dress. If you confirmed, it was fine but if you didn't, they whipped you."

Among the houses in one east Mosul neighborhood Iraqi troops found a training center for fighters. The walls full of diagrams of various weapons. "It's like a school for new recruits," says this officer. "Most were boys between the ages of 12 and 14."

"With clothing to match what many Iraqis insist is an alien ideology."

For now the authorities are struggling to provide the basics. This health care center is now up and running. But it's not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are many patients with renal failure, chronic disease, leukemia. We have no hospital for treatment of such cases.

[03:40:08] WEDEMAN: On the edge of the city relief workers hand out food, water, blankets and clothing. Volunteer Ma'an Ajed (Ph) is trying to repair the damage to the country's soul.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Mosul, I am Christian. I decided to help my friend, my brothers from Mosul after Daesh leave it.

WEDEMAN: The process of healing, of reconstruction could take a very long time. But there is hope.

Ben Wedeman, CNN. HOWELL: In the coming hours, a verdict is expected in the trial of

far-right political Geert Wilders. He is charged with inciting racial hatred and insulting a racial group. But even if convicted, Wilders could become that country's next prime minister.

He's been compared to the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his nationalist rhetoric has his party leading in some polls.

Following the story let's bring in CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, live from Amsterdam with us this hour. Nic, let's talk more, first of all, about these charges.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, George. These go back to a couple of years ago, 2014 when Wilders was at a rally, a campaign rally, a political campaign rally and he's sort of -- he's accused of leading his supporters in a chant of Moroccans leave, leave, leave.

Now this has been brought to the court here on charges, as you said, of inciting racial hatred, hatred against a particular group. He's been in court before for things that he said on the campaign trail. Back then about five years ago, he won the case. It's not clear if he will actually show up today.

But what we found, talking to his supporters here, it's more than his nationalist populous appeal that is winning him support at the moment and building his, you know, building his support base in this country. It's even some sort of left-wing views, as well. This is what we found.

Times in Holland are changing. Political upheaval is gripping remote rural communities like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENK-JAN PROSMAN, CHURCH MINISTER: Wilders was a -- had a vote of about 20 percent of this area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Church minister Henk-Jan Prosman is talking about Geert wilders, Poland's bleach blond hair nationalist politician many compared to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROSMAN: I think it's the same in Holland with Wilders. His followers take it serious but not literally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Wilders compared the Koran to mind camp says Muslim immigrants are going to Islamize Holland and he is steadily gaining popularity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROSMAN: Wilders has explicitly refers to the Moroccan community as...

ROBERTSON: Criminals?

PROSMAN: As criminals but that's statistically true.

ROBERTSON: But in the same way that Donald Trump referred to Mexicans?

PROSMAN: For example, yes, yes.

CINDY VAN KRUISTUM, FINANCIAL ADMNISTRATOR: That they beat him up and they he has to give money, and he has to give his phone.

ROBERTSON: A half hour's drive away, Cindy van Kruistum, a financial administrator, shows me where she says one of her neighbor's son was beaten up by immigrants.

VAN KRUISTUM: The government establishment don't listen about people on the streets. They don't go on the streets. Wilders is near to people on the streets.

ROBERTSON: She too sees the similarities between Trump and Wilders.

VAN KRUISTUM: I support him because he dares to talk about the problems we have with Islamization.

ROBERTSON: But supporting Wilders is not easy. Comedy writer Haye van der Heyden tells me it cost him his job.

HAYE VAN DER HEYDEN, COMEDY WRITER: I've been excluded from work from various jobs.

ROBERTSON: What frustrates him is that mainstream politicians are trying to ignore and marginalize Wilders.

HEYDEN: I'm not really a fan of Mr. Wilders. I don't like many things he's saying but I'm a supporter of the democracy.

ROBERTSON: Wilders' comments have landed him in court more than once. Most recently accused of inciting racial hatred. And like Trump in the spotlight the attention isn't hurting him.

PROSMAN: The case is broadcast live on national television. He gets the floor. The media, politicians are really doing him a favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:45:05] ROBERTSON: So there's the criminality issue that wins him support. Social welfare, health care also brings him a lot of support, generally more in the sort of older rural community in the rural community. But his appeal is across -- is across a broad spectrum of people in this country. And his supporters, at the moment are taking a lot of -- are putting a

lot of faith in you, if you will, in polls that have him getting about 20 percent of the vote in March in the elections next year. That would make him the biggest or make his party the biggest party in Holland. George?

HOWELL: CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson following what has been dubbed the Dutch Donald Trump. Nic, thank you for the reporting. We'll stay in touch with you.

After the break, we have a dire warning from conservationists. Giraffes are at risk of extinction. Why it's happening and what can be done about it as CNN Newsroom continues.

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HOWELL: It's one of the most iconic animals in the world and now at risk of becoming extinct. We're talking about the giraffe. A conservation group has moved the giraffe up to vulnerable status. It was previously ranked at what is called least concerned status.

In Africa, the giraffe population has plunged by as much as 40 percent over the last 30 years. This according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. That's a drop from more than 163,000 to about 97,000.

Habitat loss and illegal hunting are being blamed for the decline. To talk specifically about those issues let's bring in Thomas Lacher, a professor of wildlife at Texas A&M University and joining now from college station, Texas.

Thomas, let's talk about that. Because again, this may be quite a surprise to many people to hear that the giraffe is in danger of extinction. Again, what's behind it?

[03:50:03] THOMAS LACHER, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY WILDLIFE PROFESSOR: Well, I think it is a combination of factors. As you mentioned, habitat alteration, the growing population in Africa with increasing demand for agriculture.

Certainly there have been a number of conflicts in South Sudan. The continuing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has also contribute to some of this decline. So, it's a combination to swift of factors all of which interact because to have resulted in this fairly dramatic decline in a relatively short period of time.

HOWELL: Given the fact there is clearly a decline, are nations coming together to work on the problem? I mean, what's being done to save the species?

LACHER: Well, I think the objective of the IUCN Red List is to present the sound of information to all the nations that are concerned with maintaining viable wildlife populations, those countries in Africa which have remaining populations of giraffes.

And the goal is to provide that kind of information so the countries that are signatories to the convention of biological diversity can now utilize that information to try and develop conservation action plans to more effectively protect the remaining populations.

HOWELL: When those different nations, though, when they are presented with this information, do some nations act more aggressively than others when it comes to trying to solve this problem?

LACHER: Well, I think in any circumstance, there are lots of national priorities that are going to affect how much action you take to protect a species like the giraffe.

There are many countries in Africa which is still considered to be developing nations that have issues associated with poverty, with trying to develop their economies, to try and enhance agricultural productivity. And so, I think all countries express, at least on the surface, a concern about these declines. But it's frequently very difficult to take the actions when you have all this other conflicting issues that you need to deal with.

HOWELL: Right. Given the priorities in that country. You say, you know, given some importance on a service level but, you know, what really happens. Look, the IUCN has also indicated, that scientists discovered 700 species of birds, bringing that total to more than 11,100.

But the troubling news here they claim that 11 percent of the newly animal species are threatened. That seems to go to that bigger issue that you touched on here, but biodiversity which has been on the decline for several years now.

LACHER: Well, I think when you think of these new species that have been discovered, you know, the first thing that you need to realize is that these new species that have discovered are probably are species that have very, very small ranges, relatively restricted in their distribution.

And so, as a consequence many of these are already going to be the species that are most susceptible to potential extinction because of their small population size. I think that one thing that was very shocking was that 11 at least of these new species are already extinct.

In fact, they were described probably from museum specimens using modern techniques of molecular genetics and these species have just been described as new and already extinct, have been extinct for a while.

HOWELL: Thomas, thank you.

LACHER Thank you.

HOWELL: Biologists say the planet is on the verge of a sixth era of extinction. That means three-quarters of all species could disappear over the next couple of centuries if we don't make drastic changes now. We'll explore five stories of endangered species in our special

"Vanishing, the Sixth Mass Extinction," you can see it Friday at 10.30 in London, 10.30 a.m., 6.30 in the evening in Hong Kong here on CNN.

Still ahead, the death of an American hero, John Glenn.

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HOWELL: He was known as an American hero who had the right stuff. John Glenn has died at the age of 95 years old. In 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. He had already served as a decorated colonel in the marines, flying 149 missions during the World War II and in the Korean War.

He later became a U.S. Senator from his home state of Ohio. As one of the Mercury 7 astronauts, Glenn orbited the earth three times at the age of 77. He was back in space, flying in a shuttle mission in 1998. Again, John Glenn has died.

We thank you for being with us. I'm George Howell at the CNN center in Atlanta. The news continues here on CNN with my colleague Hannah Vaughan Jones, live in London.

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