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Boris Johnson Faces Another Defeat; A Deal That Comes With a Threat; President Trump Cancelled His Planned Meeting with Taliban Leaders; Climate Change Shows Increasing Threat to Mankind. Aired 3- 3:30a ET
Aired September 10, 2019 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: -- for Boris Johnson, but he remains defiant as parliament turns down his latest plans to get a Brexit deal through.
Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. You are watching CNN Newsroom.
Plus, the entire town wiped off the map in a CNN exclusive. We take you to what's left of the Grand Bahama Island after Hurricane Dorian.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUE MAUGER, SCIENCE DIRECTOR, COOK INLETKEEPER: And the temperatures we saw this summer were what we expected for 2069.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Really?
MAUGER: We are 50 years ahead of where we thought we would be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Melting glaciers raging fires and temperatures hotter that Key West, we show you a summer that Alaska has never seen before.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom.
And we begin with Boris Johnson's long dark night of the soul. And another dispiriting defeat for the U.K.'s rookie prime minister.
Just hours ago, British lawmakers voted down his second bid for a snap election as Brexit chaos continues to grip the U.K. And now, highly controversial five weeks suspension of parliament is taking hold.
Now you probably won't be surprised to hear that Mr. Johnson managed a little bluster in defeat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I earlier urge the house trust the people but once again the opposition think they know better. They want the British prime minister to go to a vital negotiation without the power to walk away.
They want to delay Brexit yet again, yet again without further reference to those who voted for it handing over to Brussels an extra 250 million pounds a week but no purpose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also spoke explaining his party couldn't back a general election now not if meant risking a no-deal exit from the E.U.
JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, LABOUR PARTY: Until the act has been complied with, a no deal has been taken off the table, no deal taken off the table we will not vote to support the dissolute of this house and a general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And that wasn't the only Brexit drama on Monday, the speaker of the House of Commons says he's calling it quits.
John Bercow was applauded by opposition M.P.'s He has face fierce criticism from Brexiteers who have questioned his impartiality. And when it came right down to it, the outgoing speaker was all about goodwill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERCOW, SPEAKER, BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS: This has been, let me put it explicitly, the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life for which I will be eternally grateful. I wish my successor in the chair the very best fortune.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: All right. So, journalist Josh Boswell joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to have you here to sort out this mess for us.
JOSH BOSWELL, JOURNALIST: Hi there, Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. So Prime minister Boris Johnson lost his second bid to hold snap elections. He then suspended parliament for five weeks and he is being told to ask the E.U. for an extension but refuses to do that. So, what comes next given the bill to stop a no deal Brexit has now become law, what are the possible scenarios going forward?
BOSWELL: Well, you've got parliament being prorogue, the technical term is, so shut down for the next five weeks so we're not going to have any more action there. But Boris Johnson, we're hearing from the British media and from whisperers coming from his cabinet, is planning various different strategies to try and weasel out of this law that would make him delay Brexit for another three months. And the very --
(CROSSTALK)
CHURCH: And what could some of those strategies be, though? How do you -- how do you avoid a law?
BOSWELL: Yes. Well, this is, you know, coming from the prime minister who is made his platform to be the law and order party, the party that is going to really crack down on crime in the U.K. and that's how he'll be running this upcoming general election.
He has been letting it be known among the media that he is considering just not complying with the law, just breaking that law that the parliament passed. And refusing to go to the E.U. and ask for an extension. Now, that --
(CROSSTALK)
CHURCH: What would be the consequences of that of doing such --
BOSWELL: Possible is jail for him. I mean, this may end up in the courts.
(CROSSTALK)
CHURCH: Why would you do that though?
[03:04:54]
BOSWELL: Well, that's one of the less likely options, but for him this really is as he said himself, do or die. Because if he lets Brexit be delayed y then his chances in the general election following that will be severely reduced.
And it was his whole platform on going to take the U.K. out of the E.U. by October 31st come hell or high water if he doesn't do that, he's going to lose a lot of votes to the Brexit party most likely and it's going to make it very tough for him.
But there are some other more likely ways that he would try to get out of this law. One of them is the idea that so the law tells him he has to send a letter to the European Union and deliver it to Brussels and say I would like an extension.
He is considering, we're told, he could write another letter, saying in fact, no, the first letter wasn't my real intention and in fact we want a no-deal Brexit.
Now there have been some analysis by people very well placed to consider this, a former Supreme Court judge who said that he thinks this will be clearly breaking that law that parliament passed but it is a strategy that Boris is considering. And again, this is something that I think will end up in the courts eventually. And there --
CHURCH: Right. And of course -- right. Sorry. He won another strategy, yes?
BOSWELL: Yes, he's got several up his sleeves. Apparently, 20 or more that they're considering right now. One of the other options is to get one of the E.U. member states to veto any delay to Brexit.
So, all the E.U. member states need to and sign up to it. He goes and could ask for an extension as the law tells him to, but then he could also do a side deal, perhaps with Poland or a country like that who has considered in the past who would then veto the European Union, signing up to that extension and that would then force a no-deal Brexit.
CHURCH: Right. And of course, we're talking about eight weeks though, to come up with some sort --
BOSWELL: Yes.
CHURCH: -- of solution to negotiate a possible new deal although he doesn't see him on board for that and the French is signaling, they might not give an extension. But again, of course, as we mentioned, Johnson doesn't really want one anyway. So, how likely is it that France or Johnson will blink first because presumably this is part of the strategy as well? Sort of pushing everyone to the edge?
BOSWELL: Yes, that's right. And I think -- I think France ultimately will let an extension go forward if Boris Johnson does come to the European Union and says all right, parliaments made me ask for this extension.
I don't think France is going to get in his way, because the European Union doesn't wants no deal, because that would be pretty catastrophic for them as well in terms of trade, and the friction, and the chaos that would ensue from that, but also they don't want the blame for a no-deal.
And it would be very easy for Boris Johnson, for anybody in the U.K., to point to France vetoing or refusing to sign up for this delay and say, we would've got it but it's the European Union fault. It's France's fault. No one wants the blame assign to them.
So there is this kind of game of chicken somewhat, but, you know, the game of chicken has shifted a lot from even a week ago, because, you know, a week ago, the legal default was we are leaving the European Union on October 31st and now the legal default is on Boris Johnson's doesn't wiggle out of it, we are going to have to stay for another three more months.
CHURCH: It's a breathtaking mess really, isn't it? Josh Boswell, thank you so much for sorting through this and looking at all of those possible strategies. We shall see. We'll let keep watching this. Many thanks.
BOSWELL: Thanks, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Well, former British Prime Minister Theresa May is honoring the U.K.'s former ambassador to the United States by making him a lord. Sir Kim Darroch resigned in July after a series of leaked diplomatic cables. They revealed that he told 10 Downing Street the Trump administration was, quote, "inept and clumsy." Following the leak, President Trump announced he would no longer work
with Darroch, and called him, quote, "a very stupid guy." Darroch said the leak made it impossible for him to carry out his role as the U.K.'s representative in Washington.
Well, for now, U.S. President Donald Trump is not optimistic about peace talks for Afghanistan. And that comes after a planned meeting to end America's longest war fell apart.
Kaitlan Collins has the latest.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, President Trump declared U.S. peace talks with the Taliban dead after his abrupt announcement and cancellation of a secret summit with the group's leaders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They're dead. They're dead. As far as I'm concerned, they're dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The clandestine meeting was kept under wraps until he tweeted about it announcing he was calling it off because the Taliban admitted to a suicide attack that killed an American soldier and 11 others.
[03:10:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The only reason I cancelled that meeting is because they killed one of our soldiers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: But sources say there is more to it than that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It was my idea and it was my idea to terminate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Trump push for the last-minute summit after growing unhappy with the status of the talks. And thought, he, the dealmaker in chief could get last-minute concessions from the Taliban in a presidential setting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In terms of advises I took my own advice.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: Despite that claim not many agreed with his tactic or his venue, including Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton who argued holding a summit on U.S. soil with the leaders of the group that harbor the Al Qaeda terrorists behind 9/11 was a bad idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The alternative was the White House and you wouldn't have been happy with that either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: That's not how Democrats or Republicans see it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This isn't a game show. These are terrorists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to ever see these terrorists step foot on the United States soil period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Trump says the talks are off, his secretary of state says they're off for now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It will ultimately be up to the Taliban.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: But sources tell CNN new date for another meeting are already being discussed. While Trump was willing to let the leaders of the Taliban visit the U.S., he says he is not so sure about the hurricane survivors from the Bahamas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Bahamas got hit like nothing that I've ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: After dozens of people seeking refuge but without a U.S. visa, were kicked off a ferry headed for Fort Lauderdale.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't want to allow people that weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States including some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Customs and Border Patrol says the ferry operators is to blame but Trump said he agrees with the move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have to be very careful. Everybody needs totally proper documentation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Kaitlan Collins, CNN, traveling with the president in North Carolina.
CHURCH: Well, there are now 50 confirmed deaths in the Bahamas as a result of Hurricane Dorian. And that number will likely continue to rise.
The storm is especially devastating to one area on Grand Bahama Island. McLean's Town was cut off by the storm, leaving residents wondering if anyone could hear their cries for help.
CNN's Patrick Oppman has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To get to the places still cut off by Hurricane Dorian we have to go by boat. We've been traveling now for about two hours by boat, it's the only way to get here. This is our destination. The easternmost end of Grand Bahama Island.
We know that it got hit really hard but not much helped, the road is still closed here and we have not heard how the people here are doing. We really don't know what we're going to find here.
We head from Freeport to McLean's Town. The last settlement on the eastern tip of Grand Bahama.
Dorian field in a channel and scattered cars throughout the small harbor. We have to navigate around the submerged vehicles.
We're going over a car right now, it's a car underwater there.
McLean's looks like a war zone. And there are fatalities. People like Eva Thomas's relatives who remain in lost their lives.
You know, you think about the people who stayed behind what must they have gone through?
EVA THOMAS, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: Yes. And I think about it because I had a nephew and three of his kids died in storm, and my heart is broken, I can't imagine the terror that they were faced with before they passed.
OPPMANN: McLean's has been wiped off the map. It's difficult to conceive the force that can cause second this kind of damage. It's just otherworldly to think the winds and the water could bury so much of this town under broken trees, broken houses, and we really don't know what is underneath all of this rubble, it will probably take weeks or longer to dig out and find out what is buried here.
All around us is an eerie quiet, it is a sound of a town that has died.
Alex Kerey is haunted by the sight of his cousin's dead body.
ALEX KEREY, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: He was so swollen. Like you know when a dog gets hit and swell (Inaudible) that's how she was. Swollen.
OPPMANN: The Bahamian government says the death toll is officially 45. But add up the missing and dead from small towns like McLean's, and the true loss of life seems higher. Much higher.
[03:15:07]
With little help arrives here comes by boat from other Bahamians, these people brought water from Abaco, also ravaged by the storm. The rubble tells the story of lives cruelly interrupted. A shoe, a broken tea pot, an ore from a church.
Mervin Thomas tries to recover what's theft of his town, a town he no longer recognizes.
MERVIN THOMAS, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: Man, I tell you the truth I kind of feel lost. Lost to place, everything, you know, it just looks, you know, totally different. You can't even describe it. You don't expect nothing like this honestly.
OPPMANN: For so many here all they have left are the things they carry.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, McLean's Town, on Grand Bahama Island.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: As you can see the need is great in the Bahamas, so if you would like to help the survivors of Hurricane Dorian just head to our web site cnn.com/impact and you'll find a list of vetted aid organizations helping in the region.
Well, North Korea says it's ready to resume nuclear talks with the U.S. in just a matter of weeks but that olive branch also comes with a threat. How the White House is reacting. We'll take a look on the other side of the break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, Israel's prime minister is accusing Iran of having a secret nuclear weapon site. Benjamin Netanyahu claims Iran conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons at the secret site in Abadeh then destroyed it.
His comments follow a Reuters report saying the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog found traces of uranium at a different site. Iran is denying the claims with its foreign minister tweeting this. "The possessor of real nukes cries wolf on an alleged demolished site in Iran."
Well, South Korea's military says North Korea has launched two unidentified projectiles ranging from near Pyongyang east towards the sea. If true, this is the tenth launch since May.
The previous four rounds of launches were believed to be short-range missile, violating U.N. resolutions. This all comes as Pyongyang says it's willing to resume nuclear with the U.S. later this month.
Our Brian Todd has the details.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: North Korea's calculating young dictator may now sense there is something in the air. A new window to make a nuclear deal with President Trump.
One of Kim Jong-un's top diplomat saying his regime is ready to start talking with the Trump administration again as soon as later this month. Still, the overture comes with a threat.
[03:20:04]
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui saying, if the U.S. tries, quote, "The worn-out scenario, the DPRK- U.S. dealings may come to an end."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR NORTH KOREA POLICY: They really do sense desperation on the part of the Trump administration. Over the last few days, you've seen Afghanistan deal fall apart, this cannot happen to North Korea deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Indeed, in recent days, Trump's top diplomat including his secretary of state have spoken publicly about their eagerness to get nuclear negotiations going again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We are hopeful that in the coming days or perhaps weeks we'll be back at the negotiating table with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: On Monday, the president himself responded to the North Korean statement with his typically vague optimism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We'll see what happens, but I always say having meetings is a good thing, not a bad thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: But the clock is ticking. Kim has given the Americans until the end of this year to make more progress on the nuclear deal. Trump is facing a reelection campaign starting soon where analyst say he may he needs to show some progress with North Korea.
Three meetings between the man have produced nothing and Kim has recently been perfecting his short-range missiles with provocative test launches.
Analysts say the two sides could now be setting their sights a little slower than striking a comprehensive nuclear deal all at once.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUCE KLINGNER, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: If North Korea agreed to the end zone then it could be implemented in tenured increments. If they agree to all of this production, freeze, perhaps that would be enough as an interim step if they committed to denuclearization in the long term.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: But that's a commitment that one veteran diplomat believes Kim and his regime will never make.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVANS REVERE, FORMER U.S. DIPLOMAT IN SOUTH KOREA: The dialogue has always been aimed at getting an answer to a fundamental question, Is North Kora prepared to give up its nuclear weapons program. And I continue to believe after three encounters between our leaders. We now have the answer to that question and the answer is a very clear and definitive no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: As for the North Koreans latest offer, the State Department would only say it doesn't have any meetings to announce at this time.
Analysts say the administration probably doesn't want to be too quick, to jump on the North Korean's latest overtures but that we can probably expect a summit sometime in the next few months. A summit where there will be incredible pressure on both men to come up with some progress on a nuclear deal.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
CHURCH: And still to come a summer of hot in Alaska is a red flag warning about climate change for the entire planet. That's next on CNN Newsroom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Alaska is sounding the alarm, and it's a loud one about the climate crisis. What's going on there is stunning even the experts. Our CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir reports it's a red
flag for the entire planet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEIR: Temperatures across Alaska this summer from the iceless north to the smoky south, and you will see that when it comes to alarming changes, the last frontier feels like the first in line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is insane.
WEIR: Fire season used to end on August 1st like, rainy clockwork, but it is so hot and dry the swam lake fire has been burning for three months. And the most populous part of the status is swallowing more smoke than ever before.
[03:24:57] BRIAN BRETTSCHNEIDER, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA: If you look at the actual observations, we've had more than twice as many smoky hours in 2019 than any other season, and the fact almost as many as all other years combined.
WEIR: And when Anchorage is hotter than Key West on the 4th of July, it can turn a steady drip of a glacier into something much more dramatic.
That was a carving event last month at the Spencer glacier just one of dozens of melting red flags.
BRETTSCHNEIDER: Just this whole lake was there was no lake in the early 1950s.
WEIR: Really? So, the ice went all the way down to the --
(CROSSTALK)
BRETTSCHNEIDER: To the end of the lake.
WEIR: -- end of the lake down there.
BRETTSCHNEIDER: Right.
WEIR: A recent study found that since the 60s melting Alaskan glaciers have contributed more to sea level rise than Greenland, Antarctica or any other part of the world.
Since every one of these molecules goes into the ocean it goes everywhere, this is not just a changing Alaskan landscape story. This is a Miami story. This is a Charleston and San Francisco Bay story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, once this water melts off, it goes into the ocean, you know, as long as we are all of this carbon dioxide on the atmosphere --
WEIR: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- it's not coming back here. WEIR: Health scientist like Mike Hahn (Ph) are equally worried about
changes harder to see like new kinds of ticks, bringing new kinds of disease north. And when Dr. Jeffrey Demain studied insect bite trends since the 90s, he found that way up in the Arctic circle stings from yellowjacket wasps jumped over 600 percent in five years
JEFFREY DEMAIN, CLINICAL PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: So, the queens are now under snow pack without a severe weather then thy are surviving. So, more queens, the more colonies. The more colonies, the more yellowjackets.
WEIR: And then there are the fish so vital to this economy. Well, Bristol base are another epic salmon run, more and more streams are just too hot for the fish to spall.
MAUGER: The temperatures we saw this summer were what we expected for 2069.
WEIR: Really?
MAUGER: We are 50 years ahead of what we thought we would be for stream temperatures. WEIR: My God.
MAUGER: So that's very alarming.
WEIR: Meanwhile at its sea, this research from NOAA is spending a summer measuring all kinds of Arctic change including those at the bottom of the food chain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, we are looking at harmful algae blooms.
WEIR: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, they are taking samples for toxins in the water from harmful algae.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So (Inaudible) warmer they're coming up farther north.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And sooner maybe, yes. So that's a big concern for the communities because that's food safety.
WEIR: This state is such a gorgeous reminder of how earth's goldilocks climate help so many forms of life together in harmony. But in a too hot future with more fire than ice what comes next is anyone's guess.
Bill Weir, CNN, Anchorage.
CHURCH: Well, thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Inside Africa is up next. But first, I'll be back with the check of the headlines. Do stay with us.
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