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Thomas Cook Travel Firm Collapses, Travelers Stranded; U.S. President Set To Attend U.N. General Assembly; Trump Defends Call, Says He Hopes To Release It; Iranian President Says, Foreign Forces Threaten Gulf Security; New U.N. Report Shows Extent Of Climate Emergency; Stars Turn Out for Emmy Awards; Prince Harry, Meghan and Baby Travel to South Africa. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 23, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM: Next year, hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded after the world's oldest tour operator collapses suddenly just a couple of hours ago.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN NEWSROOM: The U.S. president admits he discussed a political rival in a phone call with a leader of Ukraine.

ALLEN: Also, a damning new report says climate change is hitting harder and harder and faster than forecast, as world leaders gather at the U.N. to try to figure out what to do.

Hello everyone, thanks so much for joining us. Coming to you live from CNN Center in Atlanta, I am Natalie Allen.

HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes. Welcome, everyone. CNN Newsroom starts right now.

ALLEN: Our top story here, Thomas Cook, one of the world's oldest and largest tour operators has collapsed, stranding 600,000 travelers worldwide.

HOLMES: 600,000, imagine that. All of the bookings have been canceled. The British company has seen its stocks plummet amid uncertainty over Brexit. Before this, the U.K. now has a plan to bring Thomas Cook's British customers at around 150,000 in what will be Britain's largest ever peacetime repatriation, which is expected to cost around $750 million.

ALLEN: Let's talk more about it now with Sherisse Pham joining us from Hong Kong. Sherrise, it has be so unsettling for all these passengers now stranded and being told, don't go to the airport.

SHERISSE PHAM, CNN TECH AND BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes. If you are a Thomas Cook traveler abroad right now, you need to be checking the website for updates on what your next steps are. Now, the Civil Aviation Authority of the U.K., as well as the U.K. Transport Secretary say, they are working, quote, around the clock to get British nationals back home to the U.K. but they're also asking for a little bit of patience, because, as you say, this is the largest ever peacetime repatriation.

So flights for folks over abroad, U.K. folks abroad, they will be handled either by the Civil Aviation Authority flights operated by CAAC there, or they will be handled by existing airlines and basically an extension of goodwill to help get those British nationals back to the U.K.

Now, this is going to run from Monday, September 23rd through to October 6th, and different arraignments are being made for different locations. So the Civil Aviation Authority is saying they're going to try and keep your flight home as close to the date that you had booked as possible and also as close to the location where you are as possible. But that may not be the case. So you do need to check for updates to see where your flight is going to be coming back to the U.K.

And the story is unfolding in real-time so we will see what the next steps as the hours unfold here now.

ALLEN: Right. Like we said, this just broke a couple of hours ago.

Okay. Let's look at the bigger picture of this, the ramifications. Apparently, the collapse of an iconic U.K. company is having ripple effects there in Asia. What is happening?

PHAM: Absolutely. This is a global economy now, right? So the largest stakeholder of this iconic U.K. company of Thomas Cook is Guo Guangchang. And he is the billionaire founder of Fosun International. This is China's -- one of China's largest conglomerate groups. They have -- they own the all-inclusive holiday company, Club Med, they also own a U.K. football and they have a big stake in this.

So we saw shares in Fosun Tourism drop 5 percent in morning trade. They've climbed back up to recover some of those losses. But the parent company, Fosun International, is still down. We'll be looking for more stock reaction as the day unfolds.

ALLEN: All right. Sherisse Pham for us watching these developments, Sherisse, thank you.

HOLMES: And coming up in about 30 minutes actually, we're going to talking to Tim Johnson, who is policy director of the Civil Aviation Authority. We'll get some more information on how this repatriation is going to unfold in about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, the U.S. president, Donald Trump, kicking off the week in a familiar place, and that is under pressure, facing scandal. He's in New York for the U.N. General Assembly and that means talks with world leaders. But as of now, Iran isn't one of them.

ALLEN: Yes. Earlier this month, the White House hinted Mr. Trump was willing to meet with Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, but that has been called off after U.S. officials accused Iran of attacking those Saudi oil sites, which Iran denies.

HOLMES: Now, aside from the Middle East troubles, Mr. Trump also facing fallout for his call with Ukraine's president back in July. A source says President Trump wanted Ukraine to dig up dirt on the son of his political rival, Joe Biden.

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Democrats call that an abuse of power.

ALLEN: President Trump though is defending that phone call, saying he did nothing wrong and he wants it released.

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REPORTER: You will be okay with the Ukrainian government releasing their version of the transcript?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I think the old version would be the same as our version. I mean, it would be identical. But they did. They put out a major statement last night. And in the statement, they said it was a very, very fine conversation and there was no pressure, no nothing, there was no pressure. That was not pressure. I know when I give pressure and that was not pressure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well Mr. Trump has been pushing widely discredited allegations about Joe Biden and his family, the story goes that the former vice president shielded his son, Hunter, from a corruption investigation in Ukraine, some top Democrats say using a foreign leader to go after a political rival justifies that word, impeachment.

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): If in particular after having sought foreign assistance and welcomed foreign assistance in the last presidential campaign as a candidate, he is now doing the same thing again but using the power of the presidency, then he may force u to go down this road.

I have spoken with a number of my colleagues over the last week and this seemed different in kind and we may very well have crossed the Rubicon here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, the Ukraine scandal stems from a whistleblower complaint, President Trump has responded in pretty typical fashion, trying to dismiss it as a witch hunt.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Donald Trump is facing a whistleblower complaint, alleging, among other things, that he pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate one of his political rivals, the former vice president, Joe Biden, and all of that happening as the president was also withholding military aid to Ukraine.

But none of that has stopped the president from flying away from his issue, this political controversy. Instead, the president is using it to pump up these unverified claims about Joe Biden.

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TRUMP: What you have to do is look at the corruption on the Democrats' side. Take a look at how the whole witch hunt started. Now, they want to try and start another witch hunt, but, unfortunately, this one is reverting now to Joe Biden because he has done some very bad things. And I'm not even looking to hurt him, to be honest. He needs all the hope he can get. I am not looking to hurt him. I'm not looking to hurt his family. But the corruption and what he said is a terrible thing.

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DIAMOND: Now, as the president muddies the waters there, you can also hear him using that term, witch hunt, which, of course, the president used repeatedly to refer to the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, now, the president using that term to refer to this whistleblower complaint. The president going after the credibility of that whistleblower as well, calling that individual a partisan, a political hack, despite the fact that he says he does not know the identity of that whistleblower. And that's also despite the fact that the inspector general for the intelligence community that was appointed by President Trump has deemed to this complaint credible.

But the story is not going anywhere this week. The president will be heading to the United Nations later this week where he will meet with the Ukrainian president. And also on Capitol Hill, you will have the acting Director of National Intelligence heading to the Senate Intelligence Committee to brief those officials on this whistleblower complaint.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Wapakoneta, Ohio.

HOLMES: Now, that scandal could be a diplomatic crisis for Ukraine. It doesn't want to anger President Trump but it knows an election is coming up and it cannot anger a potential Democratic White House either.

ALLEN: Ukraine's foreign minister spoke with local media over the weekend, just the local media, though he did not directly mention the Bidens.

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VADYM PRYSTAIKO, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Our president has a right to talk to another president the way this conversation remains confidential.

If someone believes that our president is being put under pressure, they have to prove it. I know what the conversation was about and I think there was no pressure. (INAUDIBLE) conversations are different. Leaders have the right to discuss any problems that exist. This conversation was long, friendly and it touched on a lot of questions including those requiring serious answers.

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HOLMES: Now, for more, we are joined by CNN's Senior Political Analyst, Ron Brownstein, always a pleasure, good sir.

So you have the president today essentially admitting the Bidens were discussed. So what the whistleblower reportedly alleges could be true. Quid pro quo or not, how problematic is that, asking another country for dirt on your political opponent? It doesn't matter if there is a quid pro quo, surely.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a quid pro quo is assumed, I think, at the least, right? I mean, you're talking about a country that is very dependent on the United States at this point and which was facing the reality that the president was withholding a large amount of aid that had been appropriated by Congress at the time that he, according to the reports, repeatedly made this request.

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I mean, this is something, Michael, that for any -- in any previous administration would have been so far beyond the bounds of what was acceptable behavior for a president, but we are, I think, in the United States in the position of the fraud that is boiling little by little at each time in particular the Republican Party in Congress defends one of these moments where the president shatters traditional norms of law and the limits on the use of presidential power, is unquestionably emboldened to move further, move that line further.

HOLMES: Yes, emboldened is the word. You get the sense that Donald Trump must feel invincible at the moment, I mean, asking a foreign government for dirt on a political opponent while the Mueller report is still warm. And you made the excellent point, the silence, by and large, from the Republicans. I mean, they're talking points which have been issued to Republicans to say that this is nothing new, which is clearly a bit of a stretch.

BROWNSTEIN: Which is more than a stretch is just absurd. Look, I mean, I think you have to see this in the arc of the activities of his presidency. I mean, the Mueller report, he identifies ten separate instances where the president took actions that could be viewed as obstruction of justice, including some that is seen very clearly over that line. And Republicans, by and large, shrugged it off.

He has moved to use emergency powers after Congress explicitly denied him the funds to build his border wall and the Republicans in Congress have shrugged it off or endorsed it. He has systematically rejected the authority of the House to conduct any kind of meaningful oversight, and just extended privilege in ways that we have never seen in kind of this broad net. And rather than standing up to the institutional prerogatives of Congress, we see Republicans kind of lining up around him. And I think the lesson he has taken is as long as the Republican Party will lock arms behind him, it is functionally impossible for one party alone, even in control of one chamber to uphold what have been traditional Democratic norms. And we just move deeper and deeper into uncharted water, I think, with totally unpredictable consequences, except for one, that he will continue to go further unless there is some cost for this behavior.

HOLMES: Feeling invincible, as I said. But, essentially, you keep saying to yourself, what if Obama had done X, Y, Z and he's gone through the alphabet. I mean, one other thing too. I mean, even if Joe Biden's son was doing business in Ukraine while his father was vice president and all indication that nothing untoward happened, Donald Trump still have been doing business all over the world while he's the sitting president. Ivanka Trump was getting patents, literally, as she was attending meetings in that country with her father.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it's astonishing. I mean, again, I kind of look at this, to me, and we talked about this before. I mean, what we are talking about is I think a moment -- this is as revealing about the coalition as supporting president Trump as it is about his own personal behavior. Because I think what it says to me is that the voters who are expressing support with him feel that they are in a moment of such almost existential struggle over the direction country that there is literally almost nothing that they will not accept.

I mean, he said, I can choose someone on Fifth Avenue during the campaign. It feels increasingly as if that is true. Is there a line beyond which Republicans in Congress were responding to the Republican voters will not go? We have not seen that.

We see AOC criticizing the Democratic leadership for not moving more aggressively on Impeachment. Does anybody have any doubt that there were 10 or 15 Republicans in the House saying this behavior is unacceptable to us that the Democrats will be moving forward on impeachment?

I mean, I think what we are seeing again, it is the limits of the ability of one party to uphold any kind of norms at a moment when the other is signaling that they will accept almost anything, and as a result, getting polls further and further into these, as I said, uncharted waters.

HOLMES: The Washington Post reporting 40 percent of Republicans have either retired, lost their seats or just quit since 2017, the beginning of 2017. And it's interesting that you talked about crossing the Rubicon, Julius Caesar, and he crossed that once, it's been crossed a few times, one would imagine. Do you think this full transcript will be released or that whistleblower report will get to Congress or do you think it's going to continue to be buried?

BROWNSTEIN: I don't think the transcript will get released. I think that we have history of them signaling they will do something and then not. I think it's going to be an enormous fight again to get the whistleblower report, largely because, I mean -- and it will return on how -- on whether, again, Republicans in the Senate are willing to demand that along with House Democrats.

And what we're seeing is that the administration is willing to fight all these arguments through the courts to increase tremendous delay and every one of those train tracks ends at the Supreme Court with five Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices, who have shown that they are willing to take a pretty expansive view of presidential power on most issues and to support the president more often than not.

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So the question becomes, is there going to be any other cause for this kind of behavior and that would require a unified stance from both Chambers of Commerce, upholding the prerogatives of Congress and the limits that have been historically established by law. But, again, as long as Republicans are not going to do that, this is what we are in for. And I think one thing under (ph) President Trump, when he sees weakness, he presses for further advantage.

HOLMES: Yes. And it will probably all end up in the courts for months and months and months and until the election, I mean, no matter what happens. Ron Brownstein, a pleasure, sir, good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Michael.

ALLEN: Well, Iran's president is telling foreign forces to stay away from the gulf, calling their presence problematic and dangerous.

HOLMES: Hassan Rouhani says he will present a new plan at the U.N. to create security in the region. Iran is expected to hold talks with several countries during this week's general assembly. But it appears the U.S. will not be one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nothing is ever off the table completely, but I have no intention of meeting with Iran. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I'm a collectible (ph) person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Of course, this follows after the U.S. said it would send more troops to Saudi Arabia in response to this month's oil attack, which, again, Iran has denied being part of.

HOLMES: CNN's Christiane Amanpour sat down with Iran's foreign minister ahead of the general assembly.

ALLEN: She asked Javad Zarif about the diplomatic stalemate with the U.S. Here it is.

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JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We are prepared if President Trump is serious about permanent monitoring (ph). Permanent is Iran was never a nuclear weapons state, but permanent denuclearization, as they like to hear, permanent peaceful nuclear program in Iran and permanent monitoring of Iranian nuclear facilities, as you said, through the most intrusive inspection mechanism that exists.

In return for what he has said, he is prepared to do, and that is to go to Congress and have this ratified, which would mean Congress lifting the sanctions.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The president just said that?

ZARIF: The president said any new agreement that I will have with Iran, I will take to Congress and ratify it. So take to Congress, ratify it, that Congress has lifted the sanctions and then we will have a permanent new agreement, which would augment the one that we already have.

AMANPOUR: Are you saying that President Rouhani in this heightened atmosphere of tension would still be willing here at the general assembly to meet with President Trump?

ZARIF: Provided that President Trump is ready to do what is necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: All right. For more of Christiane's interview with Zarif, watch this on Monday, 1:00 P.M. in New York, 6:00 P.M. in London, that's 1:00 A.M. Tuesday in Hong Kong.

HOLMES: And we'll take a break now in the program.

When we come back, U.N. meetings have the reputation for being all talk, little action. But a new report shows that when it comes to climate change, we may not have the time to waste.

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ALLEN: Welcome back. Again, our top story, longtime British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed hours ago, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers around the world.

HOLMES: Yes. Jim Johnson, the Policy Director for the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority joins us now. Thanks for doing so. What a busy time you've had. Was this a surprise and how much of a headache does it create?

TIM JOHNSON, POLICY DIRECTOR, U.K. CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY: Good morning. Well, I think, first and foremost, this is a really sad day for Thomas Cook, its employees and its customers. It's a business that's been going for 178 years. So it's a very sad day and our thoughts are very much with them. In terms of where we're at at the moment, we have launched a repatriation program. So we've got outbound from the U.K. about 150,000 passengers in different parts of the world. And we have launched a repatriation exercise, so when people get to the end of their holiday, they will be brought back to the U.K.

We're bringing back 150,000 back to the U.K. We've chartered over sort of 40 planes. And we're going to be running up to a thousand flights over the next two weeks. So it's hugely challenging but we have given that commitment that we will be bringing people home.

We set up a very dedicated website. That's thomascook.caa.co.u.k. So your viewers sitting inside of hotel rooms waking up to this news and wondering what is going on, they can go to that website and find out information about those return flights.

HOLMES: Yes. We've actually got -- we had the website address up there, and hopefully people who are stuck can get on there.

I mean, the thing was that this wasn't wholly unexpected. Thomas Cook had been teetering for a while. And, clearly, you made plans ahead of time because some of these planes were outbound, I think, before the announcement, right?

JOHNSON: So we do make contingency plans for all sorts of situations. It was only at 2:00 U.K. time this morning that there was official confirmation that Thomas Cook would be going into liquidation. So we have enacted those plans very quickly and we have got those planes in the air and they will be very shortly taking off. I understand the first flight that's going to leave is from JFK in New York back to Manchester, in England.

So we are working -- and we will be working around the clock to make sure all of those customers can get back to the U.K.

HOLMES: Yes. And we are talking about, you know, you are with the British CAA and we are talking about U.K. customers, 150,000 British customers affected, but there are hundreds of thousands of others. I mean, 600,000, I think, is the number worldwide, 300,000 Germans and so on and so forth. What happens then? Is that up to the host countries?

JOHNSON: Yes, that's right. Each country has a slightly different approach to these situations.

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We are clearly managing the U.K. repatriation and it would be for the authorities in those other countries, whether that's Germany or Scandinavia, to make the arrangements for other passengers in those other countries.

But, as I say, our focus is very much on those U.K. passengers and bringing them home. So we can, as always, encourage everybody to look at the website and get information, or if you are in one of those other countries, contact the authorities there. HOLMES: It is, as you said, at the outset, a very sad day, 22,000 staff, I believe, around the world. So a lot of people's lives are going to be changed because of this and vulnerable company going under.

Tim Johnson, Policy Director for the Civil Aviation Authority in the U.K., I appreciate your time. Good luck.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

ALLEN: A new U.N. report shows we are living in a dangerously warming world. And if we don't take action now, it may be too late to reverse course.

HOLMES: Yes. And in this report was put together by some of the world's top scientists that was released the day after the U.N.'s Climate Action Summit at the start of the U.N. General Assembly.

ALLEN: And it shows that the past five years are on track to be the warmest of any five years on record, sea ice melting rapidly, sea levels rising, oceans are becoming more acidic, greenhouse gases and the atmosphere have reached all time highs.

HOLMES: I'm going to wonder when will people actually take this stuff seriously. It seems like people have not been warned.

The U.N. Secretary General calling the climate emergency the, quote, defining challenge of our time and is asking world leaders to bring concrete solutions to the summit.

ALLEN: Pedram Javaheri joins us now to talk about it. And Michael makes the point, Pedram, that you and scientists and a huge community in the world have been talking about these numbers for a very long time.

HOLMES: Yes.

PERDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. A lot of this is no surprise, right? When you see these studies kind of one after another, they give similar findings. And, really, what's most fascinating about this most recent study in the past 24 or so hours is the dramatic acceleration in the rates and the increase as well, because we know that it has already increased dramatically when it comes temperatures, sea ice levels, sea ice increasing, the loss of it increasing as well and the extreme weather events that we've kind of talked about over and over here on CNN.

But on a broad perspective, when you look at the global temperature change in the past five years alone, it is the highest change we've seen in any period in history. So, in fact, 2015 through 2019, the warmest five-year period on record, a 0.2 degree Celsius rise, that's warmer than what it was the previous five-year span from 2011 through 2015, and about 1.1 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial levels that were in place as well.

So, again, we're going to see this, and then you see the accelerated nature of this. It's not a gradual rise that we have seen in recent years, even when you look at the carbon dioxide that have increased, a 24 percent increase there from 2011 -- compared to 2011 through to 2015, and we head from 2015 to 2019. And as a result, when you increase any sort of heat trapping gasses into the atmosphere, sea ice levels begin to diminish rather quickly. And in the past five years, we've seen the drop in an incredible rate, about a 12 percent rate, in fact, going back in a decade's period.

And you look at the sea level rise within just the millimeters of rise in the past few years as well. The 25-year average or so has been about three millimeters in the past five years. That number has gone up to five millimeters now.

And the way to kind of put this into perspective, Natalie and Michael, is to think about the rate your fingernails grow. That rate right there is equivalent to the amount your fingernails have grown in the past year, we are seeing in five years in our oceans rising. So a pretty incredible rise there.

HOLMES: Yes.

ALLEN: Interesting analogy.

HOLMES: It is. I mean, I still can't get this. I mean, I don't know why more people aren't on the street, although we have seen that in the last few days. It's an emergency, for sure.

ALLEN: All right. In the next hour, we will talk more about the story with an expert joining us.

HOLMES: Exactly. Pedram, thank you.

There was glamour and glitz, of course, there was, at the 2019 Emmys, but all than just a night of awards as some winners used the spotlight to highlight important issues.

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

[00:31:53]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Michael Holmes. Let's update you on the headlines this hour.

More than half a million travelers are stranded worldwide after Thomas Cook, one of the world's oldest and largest tour operators, declared bankruptcy. All of the British company's flights have now been canceled, and the U.K. will launch its largest ever peacetime repatriation to bring home the more than 150,000 Thomas Cook customers.

ALLEN: The U.N. is warning there's a dangerous gap between what countries are willing to do to fight climate change and what actually needs to be done. It released a new report the day before the climate action summit, showing the crisis is hitting harder and sooner than expected, and the damage could soon be irreversible.

The U.S. president, Donald Trump, says he does not intend to meet with Iran at the U.N. General Assembly but told reporters nothing is ever off the table. Mr. Trump had toyed with the idea, but that was before the recent attack on Saudi oil facilities. Washington blaming Tehran for the strike, Iran denying it.

ALLEN: Meantime, President Trump is defending his call with Ukraine's president that occurred back in July, and he's slamming the whistleblower who reportedly filed a complaint about it, and says the call is released. A source says Mr. Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate the son of his political rival, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

HOLMES: It has been a star-studded night in Los Angeles, celebrities turning up for the 71st Emmy Awards. What was missing? A host. The award ceremony's producers opted not to have an emcee.

ALLEN: Following other awards shows. Why not?

Well, there were winners. They got their trophies, as you can see. "Fleabag" and "Chernobyl" won multiple awards. There were shout-outs for equal pay for women and calls for equality for the transgender community.

HOLMES: Peter Dinklage won a fourth Emmy for his role in "Game of Thrones" and thanked the entertainment community for its tolerance and diversity.

ALLEN: But of course, Billy Porter and Jody Comer stole the show, receiving awards from outstanding lead actor and actress. And "Game of Thrones" -- shocker here -- grabbed best drama series.

Joining us -- I love that hat.

HOLMES: Is it wrong that I don't know either of them?

ALLEN: You do know "Game of Thrones."

HOLMES: Oh, yes. Oh, yes, big-time.

ALLEN: All right. Well, it doesn't matter what we know, because Sandro Monetti is with us now. He knows everything. Editor in chief, "Hollywood International," "Filmmaker Magazine." And obviously, with your tie, celebrating the fact that so many British actors and actresses won.

HOLMES: Exactly.

SANDRO MONETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL": So many Brits roamed the stage, I was half expecting my name to be called. I thought I'd have a speech, and then I remembered I hadn't been in a show.

But still, yes, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jody Comer, Ben Whishaw. The list goes on. So many Brits. It really shows that TV is really an international business. And you know, this was the 71st Emmys.

And you mentioned that you'd not heard of all of the shows. Well, I'm sure most of your viewers haven't. But the Emmy voters have done you a real favor, because there's so much content out there to watch. You know that this is the very best of the best. This is the new golden age of television, and those that were awarded wins all well worth binging.

HOLMES: Exactly, yes. Now, I just recommended "Chernobyl" to Natalie, and you recommended --

ALLEN: "Succession." Yes, actually.

HOLMES: Exactly. So the winners, I mean, I wasn't surprised about the winners. Were you surprised at anyone who missed out?

MONETTI: I was hugely surprised, because Julia Louis-Dreyfus was expected to win yet again, for "Veep." She won for every previous series of the show. And if she'd won for this final season, she would have set a record as the only actor or actress to have won an Emmy for every single season their show has been on.

But Phoebe Waller-Bridge of "Fleabag" takes that prize for best actress. She also won for writing the show, and it won the best -- best comedy, as well.

And this is an inspirational story, because it was just five years ago that "Fleabag" started as a one-woman play at the Edinburgh Festival. And now she's on the Emmy stage and not just celebrating "Fleabag," of course. Jody Comer won best actress for "Killing Eve," created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

ALLEN: Isn't that something?

MONETTI: It absolutely announces her as a new powerhouse in entertainment.

ALLEN: Multi-talented, to be sure. Yes, I went and watched a little clip of "Fleabag" on YouTube. Pretty darn -- pretty darn good there.

HOLMES: I've got to watch it. I had never heard of it until tonight. But I've got to catch up on that.

ALLEN: And -- and a great name.

MONETTI: And she's co-writing the next James Bond film, as well. So yes, look for her work on the big screen next year. So it's a good time to be in the Phoebe Waller-Bridge business.

ALLEN: As far as male winners, Bill Hader, the creator of "Barry."

HOLMES: Love him.

ALLEN: Yes. He's so talented from "SNL," and now look at him.

MONETTI: This was a night when so many first-time winners were there, but Bill Hader won best comedy actor again for "Barry," the hitman comedy set around a drama class. Again, there's another example of a great show.

But in the end, the big one goes to "Game of Thrones." And maybe that was something of a surprise, because that final season really divided audiences and critics.

HOLMES: Yes.

MONETTI: I think those of us who were covering from the press room were expecting this to be a big coronation for "Game of Thrones." Instead, it only won two at the event, and shows like "Chernobyl" and "Fleabag" winning more, of course. But it was a big one.

HOLMES: Politics is always a thing with award shows these days. Did you -- what was the big moment for you? Michelle Williams on equal pay? What did you think?

MONETTI: You know, Michelle Williams, always the bridesmaid, never the bride at the Oscars. I think five Oscar nominations, no wins.

But here she is at the Emmys, winning for "Fosse/Verdon" and not only winning but probably winning -- giving the best speech, as well, because she talks about how she was so pleased that FX had given her pay equality with her leading man, Sam Rockwell.

You will remember, of course, that when she filmed that movie that Kevin Spacey got -- you know, dropped from, she had to go back and do reshoots. "All the Money in the World." And she was just paid a fraction --

ALLEN: She got, like, minimum wage.

MONETTI: -- of what the male, Mark Wahlberg, got. But, you know, that was a great political statement, you know. There was calls for more work to the trans community.

And it's a very accepting community, as well. I was very moved by the speech of Peter Dinklage, who winning for "Game of Thrones," said, "Well, this is, you know, such a diverse, supportive community. Where else would I be on a stage like this in my life?"

So yes, I think there's been a lot of talk about inclusivity in Hollywood, and Hollywood is really getting the message. I mean, look at the winners. Billy Porter winning Best Actor for "Pose." He's, by the way, the first openly gay black man to win the Best Actor Emmy. So the times, they are a-changing on and off-screen and with the -- with the awards.

I think this is a good night for Hollywood. Still need a host, though.

ALLEN: I know. Hostless.

MONETTI: I'm available.

ALLEN: It went on. All right. All right, Sandro. Maybe next time. Hang in there.

MONETTI: I've got a bowtie.

HOLMES: Yes. Look, I'll go for that. All right. I'll put you up. I'll make a call.

ALLEN: Thanks so much. We've got some ideas on what to go home and binge watch tonight.

HOLMES: Yes.

MONETTI: Enjoy your viewing.

HOLMES: Love "Barry."

ALLEN: Thank you. All right. I'll check it out.

HOLMES: Sandro, thank you.

ALLEN: All right. Next here, a first for Prince Harry and wife Meghan. The British royals bringing their son Archie in his first official duties, I guess, to southern Africa. We'll have that next.

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[00:42:01]

ALLEN: All right. In the coming day, Britain's duke and duchess of Sussex, and little Archie are set to begin their first tour as a family in southern Africa.

HOLMES: It's a ten-day trip that includes visits to four countries in all, 35 engagements, and Max Foster, he got a trip down to Cape Town, South Africa, to report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The duke and duchess of Sussex are probably the most high-profile couple on the planet right now, and there's particular interest in this visit, because they're bringing Archie, their young son, along. And if all goes to plan, he'll be carrying out his first official public engagement here in South Africa in the coming days.

This visit was organized by the British government to solidify ties between South Africa and the U.K., but the palace also very keen to emphasize the couple's interests and the causes they want to support going forward in their royal careers.

The duchess hasn't been here before, but she's going to get involved in women's empowerment projects here in South Africa. Then the duke will head off to Botswana, will get involved in conservation projects. Also, HIV/AIDS awareness, something that his mother cared deeply about.

He'll go on to Angola to pick up another of his mother's causes, which is the clearance of land mines in that country. He'll literally be retracing his mother's steps and that iconic photo of Diana in a landmine field.

Then he goes on to Malawi, another conservation project there, before he comes back to South Africa and teams up with his wife and son for a series of engagements at the end of this ten-day visit.

I'm told by U.K. government officials there's huge interest in this tour. Harry has always had a relationship with this part of Africa. Meghan hasn't been here before, but I'm told there's particular interest in her personal story in this country where race is still a big issue.

Max Foster, CNN, Cape Town, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Well, think for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes. WORLD SPORT is up next, and we will be back with more of the program from around the world. Say with us.

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[00:45:18]

(WORLD SPORT)

[00:56:51]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:59:38]

HOLMES: Hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded after the world's oldest tour operator suddenly collapses.

ALLEN: A damning new report says climate change is hitting harder and faster than forecast, as world leaders gather at the U.N. this week to try and figure out what to do.

HOLMES: And Iran's president warning foreign troops to stay out of the region as the stage is set at the U.N. for a showdown with the U.S.

Thanks, everyone, for being with us. We're live from the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Michael Holmes.

ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen, and CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

END