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Cuba Commemorates Life of Revolutionary Fidel Castro; Beijing Says Lost Friend with Castro Death; Celebrations of Castro's Death among Exiles in Miami, Florida; Author Describes Talks with Castro; Syrian Government Ground Assault in Eastern Aleppo; Israeli Air Strike Kills 4 ISIS-Linked Militants; England's Football Association Launches Abuse Probe. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 28, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:36] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm rosemary Church.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm George Howell, from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. NEWSROOM starts right now.

CHURCH: Cuba is mourning its long-time leader, Fidel Castro, this week. 21-gun salutes will be fired at the beginning and end of the mourning period with his funeral next Sunday. Cannons will be firing several times a day through most of the week as well.

HOWELL: Starting Wednesday, Castro's ashes will take a ceremonial journey across the country, retracing, in reverse, the same route the former leader and his rebels took in order to seize power back in 1959.

CHURCH: But the grief in Cuba is being matched by outright celebrations. At home, Castro is considered a hero, a father figure to a nation.

HOWELL: It is a very different story in the Cuban exile community. Castro is a hated figure and he's described as a brutal dictator responsible for pain and suffering.

The world may never agree on the man that Castro was, but the mark that he leaves behind is undeniable.

CHURCH: Our Ed Lavandera has more on Castro's funeral and how people in Havana are responding to his passing.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The streets of Havana, Cuba, a muted and subdued response to the news that Fidel Castro has died. We have seen this play out over the weekend. We have not seen an outpouring of grief or any kind of real emotion taking place on the streets. In many ways, you get the sense that people are being very cautious, trying to figure out what they can and can't do, what they should or shouldn't do. That is something that Cubans here in Havana are trying to figure out.

Whereas, the government said it is officially beginning the process of a nine-day mourning period that will begin on Monday with the ashes and remains of Fidel Castro, who was cremated Saturday morning, not many hours after the official announcement was made Friday night that he had died at the age 90. There will be a procession of people who come to the Plaza of the Revolution. The is the plaza where popes had held mass and this is where tens of thousands if now hundreds of thousands of Cubans are expected to appear and pay their respects.

After that, the remains of Fidel Castro will be caravanned across the island, from Havana to Santiago, Cuba, on the far eastern edge of the island where Fidel Castro's remains will be interred on Sunday. This is beginning of long week of memorialization of Fidel Castro.

It has been interesting, in the initial hours of the first day after Fidel Castro's death, state-run television has played very little. It's just now we're beginning to see constant coverage on state-run television and memorials that have been playing on the broadcast television here for quite some time. All of that beginning to play out here in Cuba.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Havana, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And Communist leaders in Asia are paying their respects to Fidel Castro, among them China's president.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now with more from Hong Kong.

Hi, there, Alexandra. A number of governments across Asia have expressed their condolences to Cuba for the loss of Fidel Castro. And none more than China. What does the country's president have to say about the former Cuban leader's passing?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a global impact to the death of Fidel Castro here and there has been a global outpouring. You've seen it run the gamut, from somber to celebratory. But what we are seeing in Asia and from China is a note of solidarity, a tone of support.

You've got the Chinese President Xi Jinping calling Fidel Castro a great leader for the Cuban people, an intimate and sincere friend who made historical achievements for the world of Socialism. Castro made one state visit to Beijing, that was back in 1995. It was just in 2014 that President Xi Jinping traveled to Cuba and he saw Fidel Castro. It was earlier this year that China's second in command also went to see Castro in Cuba. That was really a sign of the warming of relations that you have seen between these two Communist countries in the past two decades or so. There were some strains, tensions to the relationship between Cuba and China during the Cold War era, but that has healed. China is now Cuba's largest trade partner. So, some shared interest there and an expression of grief from China's leaders.

It is very similar in tone to what we have seen from other leaders in Asia, specifically Vietnam. They put a statement through their state news agency, coming from the Communist Party leaders there, also expressing condolences for Castro's family expressing solidarity and unity with the Cuban people. The Vietnamese president made a trip to Cuba just a few weeks ago, and it's believed he may have been the last state leader to meet with Castro. Castro had also traveled to Vietnam a number of times, once during the war, again in the '90s, and a third time early in the 2000s, around 2003. That was a trip meant to strengthen the ties between these two nations that have been close for so many decades. The Vietnamese putting out a statement calling Fidel Castro a close comrade and a brother who stood side by side with Vietnam during its past struggle for national independence and reunification as well as its current national development. China, Vietnam voicing their support and their sorrow right now.

Also, some words from North Korea, where a three-day mourning period has been put in place out of respect for Fidel Castro. Kim Jong-Un, the leader of North Korea, issuing his own statement from state news there, saying that Castro was a prominent political activist who made distinguished contributions the cause of independence against imperialism.

You've got a device figure like Fidel Castro, really the same tone being struck by Communist leaders right here in Asia -- Rosemary?

[02:06:40] CHURCH: Certainly, a contrast to other parts of the world and reaction there.

Alexandra Field joining us from Hong Kong, just after 3:00 in the afternoon. Many thanks to you -- George?

HOWELL: A very different reaction, Rosemary, in Miami, Florida. That's where Cuban exiles have been celebrating since hearing the news of Castro's death.

CNN's Boris Sanchez has the mood in the city's Little Havana neighborhood for us.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to believe from the response that we've seen here and the response that we've seen in Cuba, both communities are responding to the death of the same person. An extremely stark contrast.

As I step out of the way, we're standing here on Garocho (ph) at a cafe. This is the heart of the exile community in Miami. The demonstrations are still going at it. They had a D.J. playing music a short while ago. The group noticeably smaller than it was Saturday and Friday night when news of Fidel passing away first broke. I should tell you, Elian Gonzalez, the boy who was at the center of the custody battle between his family here in the United States and his father in Cuba, has come out and spoken favorably about Fidel, and reflecting upon his passing away, saying that he was a father figure to him. Of course, Elian Gonzalez being a central figure in what many saw as a saga, a drama between the United States and Cuba. His voice is certainly an interesting one. Here is him again, reflecting on the passing on Fidel Castro.

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ELIAN GONZALEZ, FOCUS OF U.S./CUBA CUSTODY BATTLE (through translation): He is a father, who like my father, I wanted to show him everything I achieved, that he would be proud of me. That's how it was with Fidel. If I learned something and wanted to show him, and there are still many things I want to show him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Of course, Elian Gonzalez was forcibly taken from his family's home here in Miami and sent back to Cuba. People here don't really care for him as much as they use to when he was a child. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they see him as a propaganda tool for the Castro regime as a prop. Is that an objective voice when it comes to valuing Castro's legacy? They also say it's hypocrite that his mother and several other people that he cast his hopes and dreams into the ocean with to try to escape Cuba would try to get him off the island only for him to fully embrace the exact system that his mother died trying to get him out of.

Despite that, the celebration here continues here in Miami. It will continue probably for the next few days. Though it will likely continue to diminish as we've seen today.

Boris Sanchez, CNN, Little Havana.

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HOWELL: And earlier, our colleague, Natalie Allen, spoke to Ann Louise Bardach, an author and journalist, who is intimately familiar with Castro and his family. She describes her talks with Castro decades earlier.

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ANN LOUISE BARDACH, AUTHOR & JOURNALIST (voice-over): He was by then in his early 70s. What he was saying in that interview, which was quite a big "Vanity Fair" piece at the time because he had stopped giving interviews for a period, but he was saying was I met my greatest challenges as a leader after the age of 60, because he was referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been a very generous sponsor and patron of Cuba, to the tune of billions of dollars for decades. And he had lost that. And Cuba was very at risk and the poverty was everywhere. He was loath to give interviews. And eventually, two trips, I met him first for like a half hour, then he gave me the second one, a kind of long, three-and-a-half-hour interview, which covered many, many topics.

[02:10:38] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: He liked to talk, for sure. And since you've interviewed him twice, I'm wondering what your take away was from whether he was spinning you or could you see through that because he was a master of P.R.?

BARDACH: Yes, he was. He was a public relations genius. One of the wonderful comments in one of his letters to a comrade, he said, "Never underestimate public relations. "Propaganda" is actually the word he used. He said it is the soul of our struggle. It is the soul of our resolution. And believe me, he never forgot propaganda.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: And at this point, Cuba taking time for nine days of mourning for the loss of the former leader there.

Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, civilians are on the run as government forces push into eastern Aleppo. Why the tide could be turning in Syria's civil war, ahead.

CHURCH: And in the disputed Golan Heights, Israeli soldiers come under fire. Details on the response by Israel just ahead.

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[02:15:47] CHURCH: Syrian government has launched a long-threatened ground assault on eastern Aleppo.

HOWELL: They broke through rebel lines and entered into two eastern neighborhoods over the weekend.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more on the offensive from London.

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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These are arguably some of the most significant gains of the Syrian government military forces have made that over the past five years of this civil war has been going on. Now, eastern Aleppo for both the Syrian government as well as the opposition is one of the main battlegrounds in this civil war. It's the last urban stronghold where the rebels still hold a significant amount of territory and, therefore, the rebels want a to defend it at all cost. The Syrian government and allied forces, that include Hezbollah, also include Iraqi Shia fighters, and Iranians, they want to take it almost at all cost. That's why you have seen a major bombing campaign happening on the eastern district of Aleppo. Some 46 people killed in the Aleppo and surrounding areas on Saturday alone. You also have artillery shelling, as well, which leads to a dire situation for the civilians that are still trapped inside that area.

The United Nations believe that up to 250,000 people might still be trapped inside eastern Aleppo. And UNICEF says 100,000 of those can very well be children. Of course, for them, more than more than any of the others trapped in there, the situation is catastrophic. Of course, they can't go out and play. Of course, they can't go to school. Apparently, in some cases, people have set up playgrounds in basements to try and allow these children to have at least a little bit of respite from the civil war.

At the same time, food is running low, water is running low, medical supplies are in very short supply as well. And the U.N. said there have been many people wounded, many people with medical conditions who can't get any treatment, and also who can't get out to get any sort of treatment, as well. So, a very difficult situation.

But for the Syrian government forces, taking this one district in eastern Aleppo and also being able to enter and take parts of another district that is a key military victory. Some of those places have been held by the rebels since July of 2012. And the Syrian government forces haven't been able to get in there. Now it seems as though they're making progress. And many people we've been speaking to they say how surprised how fast that progress seems to be going. At this point in time, it looks as though the tide seems to be really turning in favor of Syrian government forces, not just in the battle of Aleppo but, generally, in Syria's civil war.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN London.

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HOWELL: Fred Pleitgen there, explaining the broad strokes of this story.

Now, let's bring in CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, live from Jordan, also following the situation in Aleppo.

Jomana, first of all, let's talk about this situation. We've talked about it for so many weeks and months, now, it seems the rebels in east Aleppo have been surrounded for some time now and losing ground.

JOAMAN KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have, George. The rebels have been surrounded, eastern Aleppo has been under seize since July for months, and this seize has been taking its toll. We saw them back in August, break that seize briefly. It was a few days but then the remine managed to regain ground and put eastern Aleppo and 250,000 or 275,000 residents under seize yet again. This is a tactic that the Syrian regime has been accused of, described as starve or surrender. We have seen this in other parts of Syria.

The United Nations, George ex-estimates there are about nearly a million people in Syria who are living under seize, in eastern Aleppo and other parts of the country. The vast majority of these people are in rebel-held areas. And we are seeing this seize taking its toll. And when you talk to people there, and we have been talking to so many residents in eastern Aleppo for the past few weeks, and there has always been this fear that what is going to happen to Aleppo is what happened in other places like the Damascus suburb where it is going to be the starve or surrender, where people will have no option but to surrender. There was always this feeling that it was a matter of time before we saw this playing out in eastern Aleppo -- George?

[02:20:15] HOWELL: Jomana, there's a statement from UNICEF that points out an estimated half a million children who are trapped in war-torn parts of Syria, and of that, 100,000, possibly, in Aleppo itself, children who are trapped in what is just a hellish situation.

And we also saw this image -- if we can take the image full screen. Jomana, I'm sure you've seen this image of the little girl who has gained traction online on Twitter, some 100,000 followers, but what do we know now about her situation?

KARADSHEH: Well, George, this girl and her mother have been an Internet sensation. For months now, they have been tweeting from Aleppo, trying to give the world a glimpse into the life of one family, on child in eastern Aleppo. We have been in touch with this family for more than two months now. We've done reports extensively on the family.

What happened, George, was yesterday over the past week, we've seen these tweets her mother saying that the bombs were falling closer and closer in their neighborhood. They posted videos of the aftermath of these bombings. Yesterday, those chilling messages saying, basically, what sounded like a good-bye. They had a feeling that this was it for this family. And I messaged her to check on the family and she told us that their home took a direct hit. Her house was destroyed and the family was on the street at that point. They survived, everyone was fine. But as you see from that picture, you're looking at the girl covered in dust, absolutely shell shocked, as you can see from that picture. This is a girl who is so full of life, even with all they've been going through, all the images and video that has come out of the little girl. who is smiling and full of life no matter what. That image yesterday. I asked if she had a message to the world, if she wanted to say anything. For the first time, George, in a couple of months, she said that there's nothing left to be said. The world watched and was silent.

HOWELL: Nothing left to be said. UNICEF even pointing out, Jomana, when you talk about the situation with these children, underground libraries, these hidden playgrounds for children, it's a terrible situation for these families, these children. Again, we're learning more about this little girl that so many have followed online.

Jomana Karadsheh, live for us in Jordan, thank you for the reporting. We'll stay in touch.

CHURCH: Well, Israel is stepping up surveillance of southern Syria after militants linked to ISIS fired on Israeli soldiers in the disputed Golan Heights.

HOWELL: CNN's Oren Liebermann reports that Israel responded with a deadly air strike.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's significant about this is it's the first time there's been a major confrontation between ISIS, or ISIS loyalists in southern Syria, and with the Israeli military. The military says the group, a group that's pledged loyalty to ISIS, intentionally targeted the Israeli military, first with gunfire and then with mortar fire. Israel called it an air strike that struck the vehicle these terrorists were in. Israel said they confirmed the hit and confirmed the four kills there.

This is a change that's what's been happening there. Most of the exchanges between Israel and Syria have been in the northern part and they've been between either the Syrian regime or Syrian rebels, and it's been stray fire that's crossed into the Israeli-occupied Golan. Israel responds to that stray fire but there it ends. This is different because the army says it was intentional that those ISIS loyalists targeted Israel. It now remains to be seen where this goes from here and if they're targeted again.

Again, it marks the first confrontation between this group in southern Syria and Israel. On the Israeli side, there it's agricultural lands, so Israel pulled farmers out of that area and increased surveillance to see what happened next. It's a sensitive area, it has been for years, right at the meeting point of Israel and Syria and Jordan. Israel is keeping its military ready there.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Oren, thank you.

Now to England where the Professional Football Association is having an independent council to help investigate allegations of child sex abuse. A growing number of football players have come forward saying that they were abused.

CNN's Patrick Snell has more now on that investigation.

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PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT CORRESPONDENT: It's the story that's been rocking English football to it's very foundation. On Sunday, the nation's football association officially confirming it is investigating allegations of historic child sex abuse in the sport. In fact, the country's professional footballer's association also telling CNN that more than 20 players now have come forward alleging abuse.

[02:25:14] Earlier this weekend, Crew Alexandria Football Club announcing its own independent investigation. This, following claims made against one of its former youth team coaches. A total of four United Kingdom police forces are assessing the allegations.

Also, on Sunday, the English F.A. revealing its instructed an independent legal counsel to help with its internal review. In a statement, the association saying, "At this time, with acknowledgment that a wide-ranging inquiry may be required in time, we are working closely with the police to support their lead investigations and must ensure we do not do anything to interfere with or jeopardize the criminal process."

The internal review will look into what information the F.A. was aware of at the relative times around the issues that have been raised in the press or clubs were aware of, and what action was or should have been taken.

We are, of course, all the key developments on this story every step of the way and as they happen.

Patrick Snell, CNN, Atlanta.

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CHURCH: A presidential scandal is threatening to paralyze the South Korean government. Nearly two million people braved the cold in Seoul Saturday demanding the president resign, making it the largest demonstration against her in five weeks of protest.

HOWELL: The president is accused of giving her a close friend access to classified information. Authorities have charged that friend with abuse of power, fraud and coercion. The scandal and the country's stagnating economy has sent Park's approval ratings plummeting to 4 percent.

Cuba is mourning the death of its long-time commander-in-chief. Ahead, the similar mood is being felt across Latin-America. How world leaders are paying tribute to Fidel Castro.

CHURCH: Also, still to come, Donald Trump unveils a new narrative in the presidential election. Now he's claiming he won the popular vote, as well. We'll explain when we come back.

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[02:30:26] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: A warm welcome back to you all. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm rosemary Church.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm George Howell, with the headlines we're following for you this hour.

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HOWELL: Cuban's remembering their former leader, Fidel Castro, all week. 21-gun salutes will fire in Havana and Santiago, Cuba, on Monday and again next Sunday. Castro's ashes will begin a ceremonial trip through the country on Wednesday, essentially retracing, in reverse, the route Castro and his rebel took in order to seize power back in 1959.

CHURCH: Leaders across Latin America called Fidel Castro a revolutionary and some looked to him as their mentor.

HOWELL: CNN's Shasta Darlington has more from Rio de Janeiro.

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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fidel Castro was a charismatic but very controversial figure and that goes for Latin-America as well. But perhaps here in this region more than anywhere else, he was also a larger than life idol during the 1970s and 1980s for many people when the military dictatorship seized control in many countries in South America, when civil wars were sweeping through central America. Some people even fled the violence and sought refuge in Cuba.

Of course, he went on to become a populist leader. And even after Cuba lost its main ally, the USSR, Fidel Castro's Socialist Cuba survived and he reinvented himself as a mentor for a new generation of leftist leaders, from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to Evo Morales in Bolivia.

He stood up to the regional superpower, also the global super power, the United States, for some 50 years, railing against their policies and ideologies, and showing a region that was sick of being considered America's back yard, that they are could be independent, that they could set their own course, which is why today not only the leftist governments but even centrist presidents have come out and paid their respects to the history of Fidel Castro, to what he has done for this region.

You heard from presidents in Chile, in Argentina. The center right government here in Brazil calling Fidel Castro a man of convictions. And of course, in Nicaragua, where they've declared nine days of mourning and, in Venezuela, three days of mourning where the President Nicolas Madura says, now, it's our turn, we are going to keep the revolution alive. It does seem increasingly difficult, however, as the countries in Latin-America continue to shift to the right. And the one man who really embodied that leftist ideology has now passed.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Shasta, thank you.

Now back to the United States. The U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is back in New York after spending Thanksgiving in Florida. But the election results are still very much on his mind. On Sunday, Mr. Trump unleashed a barrage of tweets without offering a shred of evidence. Again, no evidence at all. He alleged that "Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California. So why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias. Big problem."

CHURCH: Hours earlier, he declared himself the winner of the popular vote, with this tweet, "In addition to winning the Electoral college, in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." Again, he offered no evidence to back that up.

Trump has been lashing out at a vote recount effort in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania, calling it a scam.

But former Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders, defended the recounts as part of the legitimate process.

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BERNIE SANDERS, (I), VERMONT & FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDEATE: The Green Party has the legal right. Republicans have requested -- I think the governor of North Carolina right now is thinking about doing a recount. That's a legal right. They do it. I don't think that Hillary Clinton, who got two million more votes than Mr. Trump in the popular election, thinks it's going to transform the election. But do people have a legal right to do it? Yeah, we do.

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[02:35:11] HOWELL: Meantime, Trump's inner circle is split over his consideration of Mitt Romney for secretary of state. Romney bitterly criticized Trump during the election campaign, calling him a phony and a fraud. One of Trump's top advisers says his supporters feel betrayed that Romney might end up in Trump's cabinet.

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KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISOR: I know there were other candidates being considered apart from the ones that are just being covered more commonly in the media. But apart from that, Governor Romney in the last four years, has he been around the globe doing something on behalf of the United States, of which we're unaware? Did he go and intervene in Syria where they're having a massive humanitarian crisis? Meaning, when I mean intervene, did he offer to help. Has he been helpful to Mr. Netanyahu? In other words, what -- I'm all for party of unity, I'm not sure we have to pay for that with secretary of state position. But again, let me repeat, what Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway and everybody else will respect. It's just the backlash from the grassroots. I'm hearing from people who say, hey, my parents died penniless, but I gave $216 to Donald Trump's campaign and I would feel betrayed. You have people saying I thought we got rid of this type. I'm just saying that there were -- we don't know if Mitt Romney voted for Donald Trump. He put Ed McMullin up in Utah. So, I think there are concerns that those of us who are loyal have. And you want a secretary of state who is loyal to the president and loyal to the president's vision of the world.

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HOWELL: It is interesting to see these divides within the Trump inner circle. But Kellyanne Conway did indicate she's told Donald Trump this directly. She's making her opinion heard that she feels betrayed. Politico.com reports that the vice president-elect, Mike Pence, is pushing for Mitt Romney as the appointment. But Conway and others want the former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, to be the secretary of state.

CHURCH: We'll be watching to see the outcome of that.

Want to move to the weather now. Parts of southern Europe are struggling to recover from some extreme flooding over recent days.

HOWELL: Joining us now is our Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri to talk more about that -- Pedram? PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Guys, this is something that's

happened for a couple of days. Oftentimes, it's not just Mother Nature that causes these problems. It's human hands altering the land that play together. When you think about Haiti and Hurricane Matthew, recently, a lot of rain fall came down from that storm, but it was people that altered the terrain using the trees and burning the trees down as a source of energy that allowed the run off to take place and really exacerbate the problem.

Unfortunately, that's what's happening. You take a look at some of the video coming out of areas of northwestern Italy and the conditions are incredible when you think about the amount of water on the move, the force behind this water. When you take just a moving box, which is about three foot by three foot by three foot, cubic yard, and fill that with water, just that much water weighs over 1,600 pounds. Talking about a significant amount of force. You open it up as much as a river like this, you're talking about significant damage. We know multiple fatalities. Several people still considered missing. Something like this played out back in the 1990s across the same area and left behind $5 billion in losses. Certainly, an incredible scenario taking place across beautiful area of Italy.

I want to show you what's happening whether wise across this region as well. Of course, the images, we know 500 people have been displaced or left homeless. you take water levels literally locking people inside their properties. this is a geographic location that we're talking in. in recent years a lot of the farming communities have been taken away and poor infrastructure has brought down structures and buildings on top of the outer lying areas that sit on the foothills of the alps. That's precisely where some of the heaviest rainfall flow downstream from the mountains into the community and one of the cities very hard hit.

There is the center of storm system right there around southwestern Italy. This is a pattern now as a Rex block, named after a meteorologist who discovered this pattern, where you have an area of high pressure to the north of a storm system, you put this in proper alignment, yes, you inhibit that storm from moving so it continues pumping in moisture, which is precisely what this storm did from early last week into early this weekend, where we had historic rain fall. Turin, labeled in the center of your screen, areas in red were major flooding was being reported in large rivers and the tributaries. All of that now beginning to subside. Again, it only takes a couple of days of unusual pattern coupled with human alteration of land that leads to these disasters. And we see it too often.

HOWELL: Pedram, thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thanks, guys.

[02:39:52] CHURCH: Appreciate it.

French conservatives have chosen Francois Fillon to lead their party in next year's presidential election. A look at how the former prime minister defied all expectations and came out on top. We'll be back in a moment with that and more. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Francois Fillon will lead the Conservative Party in France's presidential election next year. The former prime minister was the frontrunner after taking the lead in the first round of voting last week. He remained in Sunday's runoff with about 66 percent of the vote.

HOWELL: Also, he is rival conceded and now pledges to back Fillon. Fillon says he intends to win voters from both the left and the right.

CHURCH: Just a month ago, Fillon was considered an unlikely bet for the presidency. But he defied all expectations.

CNN's Melissa Bell has more from Fillon's headquarters in Paris.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRSEPONDENT: It was here that Francois Fillon made his victory speech, a night of victory that no one had seen coming. Going back just 10 days, it had been expected that his rival would get the party's nomination looking ahead to next year's presidential election. In the end, Francois Fillon came from nowhere, came from behind with his very right-wing Thatcher-like economic program and social conservatives to take the party's nomination. His supporters say that simply ran an effective grassroots campaign, far from the cameras, which he saw him for three years going across France and speaking to the people. In the end, he seems to have tapped into the electorate's desire for change. And what is certain is that given his right-wing platform, the Republican Party will look ahead to next year's presidential election in the hope the far-right Francois Fillon, wins that next electoral hurdle, and will then be taking on the French system itself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:45:17] CHURCH: Melissa Bell reporting there.

Well, if polling projections are right, and there's still a big "if," six months ahead of the presidential election, Fillon could face the leader of the far right National Front Party, Marine le Pen, in the final round of the presidential vote next year. A top National Front official says that Fillon's views are outdated.

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UNIDENTIFIED NATIONAL FRONT OFFICIAL (through translation): He's blowing smoke in peoples' eyes in the same way as the Sarkozy candidate. He presidents himself as a hardliner on question of multiculturalism, national identity, immigration. If you do a bit of digging, if you look at a bit of his performance, what he did immediately, his credibility weakens. I notice one particular thing. Francois Fillon seems to have a problem with secularism. I don't know for what reason, because of his personal believes, perhaps, but I notice he has a problem with secularism, whereas I think we need a secularism that is strict. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: He also says the National Front Party welcomes Fillon as an opponent because there are striking differences, I should say, over France's economy.

CHURCH: For more on what this means for next year's election, we're joined by CNN anchor, Cyril Vanier.

Thank you for be with us.

We must stop getting use to the surprises in politics. We had Francois Fillon beating his rival. How did that happen? And what are we to make of this shift that we're seeing to the right?

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, two very good questions. I think there was a perfect storm. I think in retrospect -- and I would not have been able to say this three weeks ago -- nobody would been able to say this three weeks ago, what we can do is make it. Number one. He had an excellent ground game. I think the media and polls didn't catch it because it was below the radar. For three years, he's been a canvassing force. Number two, is his personality. we know that the people who voted for him, voted by 45 percent based on his personality. He's the essential Nicolas Sarkozy. The conservative camp is fed up with Nicolas Sarkozy. He's popular, but he's 20 percent. Castro, 70 percent popular over there. He is mild mannered. He is the Catholic conservative, seen as safe pair of hands, and that's what conservatives want after the bombastic style of Nicolas Sarkozy. Number three, above all, is his platform. He has this right wing platform, promises his radical economic change for France.

And to address the second part of your question, though, the right -- the shift towards the right, of the entire French political spectrum, it's very true. And I think that's partly down to the general context that we're seeing. It was true for Brexit. It was true here in the U.S. It's true in France.

And Nicolas Sarkozy enshrined that. He changed the way politics and elections are won in France. It used to be that you would say I'm left wing or I'm right ring and I'm going to get votes in the center. That's how I'm going to win the election. He said, no, I'm right wing and I'm going to get on the far right. That's how he won once. It didn't work for him to be re-elected, though.

HOWELL: You know, you point this out, but I remember on stage during the debate, Fillon described his rival as sort of the insider, as you describe him. he's the person who is more of the safe pair of hands. The question that I have for you is, when it comes to the pairing or the possibly against a Marin la Pen, is this a possibility to see what we saw in the United States, to see what we saw in the United Kingdom? Is it the same dynamic where there could be voters that didn't participate before but may participate and actually support the far- right candidate?

VANIER: What's for sure polls in France as did in the U.S. have trouble measuring the exact number of people who want to vote for Marine la Pen, as was the case for Donald Trump. They could be missing a part of the electorate. The major difference is that France has already had warning. It was in the early 2000s and Marine le Pen's father got to the second round of presidential election, that was totally unexpected. What happened then, French people left and right voted 80 percent for the other guy. That's the blueprint.

CHURCH: If we've learned anything, know, we can't predict a thing, right.

HOWELL: No.

VANIER: That's true.

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: We'll have to see.

VANIER: Yeah, big question mark.

HOWELL: We'll have to wait and see.

Cyril, thank you.

CHURCH: Thank you so much. appreciate it.

[02:50:01] HOWELL: Still ahead, for shoppers, it could be the best of both words. Ahead, how some companies are trying to improve the online experience in China.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

Cyber Monday is upon us, it is underway, and shoppers are looking for more online bargains.

HOWELL: They certainly are.

And for anyone missing the actual instore experience, Andrew Stevens reports a number of companies are looking at ways to create a virtual version for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, where did you come from?

ANDRW STEVENS, CNN AISA-PACIFIC EDITOR (voice-over): I have come to do some shopping in the Big Apple. And I'm getting the whole experience. Arrive in the pink Cadillac through the streets of New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, and welcome to Macy's. STEVENS: To an iconic store, Macy's on 34th Street.

(on camera): You've probably guessed by now, I'm not. I'm a few thousand miles away in southern China testing Alibaba's new virtual reality online shopping service. It's pretty simple. You get the right headset, pop your mobile phone in, get the right app, close it up, and go online shopping. You can see what you want, buy it, and within a few days, the real thing will be at your doorstep.

Let's show you how.

[02:55:17] (voice-over): It starts inside a virtual home. the blue dot at the center of your screen is your guide. Line it up on one of the wall posters showing what stores you can access and off you go.

Just aim the blue dot at what you like and up pops the details and price. Focus on the buy sign and the deal is done.

Real money will be extracted from your Alibaba payment system and delivery is a few days later.

Ali calls this program Buy Plus. it's still in trial stages but there seems to be plenty of interests.

When Ali went live with Buy Plus 10 days earlier this month, eight million people around China tried it out. They were buying, but Ali won't say how much.

(on camera): Remember, this was launched at the beginning of the month. It's still a little bit clunky. But in the words of Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, it's all about enhancing the shopping experience online. And certainly, this is an experience.

Andrew Stevens, CNN, Shenzhen, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Rosie, would you rather go to the store or do you do the online?

CHURCH: I am doing the online. But we'll talk more about this next hour.

I'm Rosemary Church.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell.

Another hour of the news from around the world just after the break. Stay with us.

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