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White Officer Arrested in Killing of Unarmed Black Woman; Inside Look at Monitoring Storm Threats. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 15, 2019 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

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NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Nick Watt and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour Donald, Trump takes a hard line on Turkey threatening to destroy that country's economy as her forces first deeper into Syria.

Plus, first the pageantry, now the politics has potentially the most crucial week and Brexit negotiations gets underway.

And football officials stop the Euro 2020 qualifier not once, but twice after the beautiful game is overshadowed by yet another ugly, racist incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump is hitting Turkey with harsh new sanctions on tariffs making good on his threat to, "destroy the Turkish economy." But that's little comfort to the Syrian Kurds pinned down and under fire by a Turkish offensive.

President Trump had warned the Turks not to attack but by pulling back U.S. troops, he all but ensured they would. The Kurds are accusing the U.S. of betrayal and they're finding new allies. They say they've struck a deal with the U.S. enemy, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which is backed by Russia.

Syrian troops are now surging north to confront what Damascus calls Turkish aggression. The Kurds were crucial us allies in the fight against ISIS. CNN's Ben Wedeman was there when ISIS lost its final piece of territory in Eastern Syria, could the caliphate now rise again?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was supposed to be the final battle to crush the so-called Caliphate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria reduced to the remote town of Baghouz, on the banks of the Euphrates River. By night and by day, the U.S. backed Syrian Democratic Forces supported by coalition airstrikes artillery and mortar fire pummeled the town for almost two months.

Thousands of ISIS fighters surrendered as their wives and children fled the town. Yet few of them conceded this was the end of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's mad experiment. Omar, a Palestinian refugee who grew up in Syria told me, maybe the Americans ruled the world today but God Almighty promised the Muslims that in the end the world will be ruled by Islam.

God is testing us this wife of an ISIS fighters said. The unworthy will leave and the righteous will remain.

The fighters and their families ended up in SDF run prisons and camps. Many came from Europe, the home countries of the foreign fighters refused to take them back. The camps have become microcosms of the caliphate, where women enforce the draconian laws by which ISIS live and punish those who step out of line.

Last month al-Baghdadi called upon his supporters to breach the walls of the prisons in the camps. And just days after the Turkish invasion began, death has come to pass. Hundreds of ISIS fighters and their families have escaped as the SDF shift some of the men and women away from guarding the camps and toward the front lines.

The U.S. and its Western allies are now pulling out of northern Syria, as Turkish forces, the Syrian militias, and now the Syrian army rush in, the Americans rushing out.

MARK ESPER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, UNITED STATES: What we're facing is U.S. forces in a -- trapped between a Syrian Russian army moving north to take on the Turkish army that is moving south. It puts us in a terrible position and the protection and safety of our service members comes first to me.

I talked to the President, and he is concerned and so last night he directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of U.S. forces from the northern part of Syria.

WEDEMAN: The victory over ISIS was a mirage. The effort to crush it has come to not. The U.S. leaves chaos and its wake. Its so-called deliberate withdrawal seems to be little more than betrayal and retreat. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: For more David Sanger joins me from Washington. He's a CNN Political and National Security Analyst as well as a National Security Correspondent for the New York Times. David, so often we pontificate on T.V. about the potential ramifications of a decision, you know, months, maybe years down the line. Here we are seeing those ramifications within days, perhaps, hours. It's quite extraordinary.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And it is, Nick. And I think the reason for that is that we are seeing events play out on the ground that are speeding up the worst warnings that President Trump has been given, really, from months now and certainly back in that in December when he wanted to pull all American troops out of Syria and was told of the consequences. And you'll remember that's when General Jim Mattis, the Secretary of Defense resigned in protest. So what we're seeing happen now is that in one fell swoop, the

president agreed to an action by President Erdogan that ended up empowering Russians, empowering ISIS, empowering the Iranians, empowering Bashar Assad and basically selling out the Kurds who have been the American allies.

WATT: And I mean, the President has said, and I quote him that he has great and unmatched wisdom in this area. Is that kind of perhaps misplaced confidence problem here? Is that what -- is that what's causing this or is there a naivety on behalf of the President or is there something more nefarious that is driving his policy here?

SANGER: Well, you know, I think that'll be debated by historians, by conspiracy theorists for a long time. A few things are clear. He came into office with a very clear view and maybe a mandate from his base to reduce American commitments abroad. He sometimes conflates what he calls endless wars with a persistent presence like what you see along the Syrian border, like what you see in Germany, like what you see in Japan and South Korea, where an American force is there as a deterrent, but really isn't taking any casualties, and frequently isn't spending all that much money. And certainly, this operation in Syria was a very small one.

Thirdly, I think the President has often said that he trusts his own gut. He obviously is not somebody who sits around and spends the evening reading intelligence reports or summaries of policy papers. He very much learned to trust his instincts in the real estate world. And I think it's just another example of why when you hear sometimes that we need to apply more of the lessons of business to government, it doesn't always work.

WATT: But I mean, now what we're seeing are the Kurds making a deal with Damascus. I mean, this has changed the whole picture there on the ground. I mean, what is going to happen in the next month or two as a result of this?

SANGER: Well, you know, two weeks ago, we couldn't have anticipated this would happen. Back last summer, Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. Special Envoy for Syria and a previous ambassador to Turkey and Iraq, where the experienced diplomat, told people at the Aspen Security Forum out in Colorado that the United States presidents along that border would be indefinite. Well, clearly he was wrong.

And so we couldn't predict what this was going to happen. A few things do seem clear. The President on Monday decided to announce some modest sanctions against Turkey and against individual Turks not against President Erdogan, interestingly enough. I doubt these will be enough to get them to reverse chorus and pull back to their borders. It's just an effort to see if they can get a ceasefire. I suspect that'll be difficult.

I think the second thing you'll see is more empowerment of the Russians, because they're in pretty good shape right now and their forces are looking pretty good. So Putin's bet during the Obama administration that if he moved into Syria, he wouldn't be pushed back out, that's paying off. WATT: And David, finally, just sort of taking this bigger -- I mean, the U.S. is for good or evil, they're kind of world's policeman in a sense. I mean, now, why would any government, why would any faction, why would anybody like the Kurds ever trust this administration again?

SANGER: They wouldn't. And I think the bigger and more interesting question, Nick, is, will they trust the United States again? I mean, the President isn't the first one among in the U.S. to at some point or another, give up on an ally. And certainly not the first time the Kurds have been betrayed. That happened, of course, back in the 80s, as well.

So I think people would be increasingly cautious. So I think you're getting at the central question, which is, at some point the Trump presidency will end. We don't know whether that's in 2021, or that's in 2025, but at some point, it will.

And then the question is, is it possible to move to rebuild old alliances or is this one of those cases where you can sort of never go home again, that the world will have changed in some fundamental ways, while President Trump was president and we're just going to have to adjust. And maybe in a world where China's rising so quickly adjust to being number two.

WATT: David Sanger joining us from Washington, thank you very much.

SANGER: Thank you. Always good to be with you.

WATT: In Spain, Catalan Separatists are protesting long jail sentences just imposed on nine of their leaders. Thousands march through Barcelona, others blocked access to the International Airport. Police say they stopped the protesters from getting inside.

Spain Supreme Court has jailed the secessionist leaders for between nine and 13 years for their role in a failed independence bid. The protesters had threatened to "stop the country."

It is now crunch time for the U.K. and the E.U. In about two hours the European Union's General Affairs Council without the U.K. will meet and Luxembourg to discuss Brexit progress. Then on Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet with E.U. negotiators in Brussels to present his final proposal for the UK's withdrawal from the E.U.

The E.U.'s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier is pessimistic. Divorce day is still set for October 31 Deal or No Deal and the start of perhaps the most crucial week. In the year's long wrangling over Brexit, Queen Elizabeth opened a new session of parliament on Monday.

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ELIZABETH II, QUEEN, UNITED KINGDOM: My government's priority has always been to secure the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union on the 31st of October. My government intends to work towards a new partnership with the European Union based on free trade and friendly cooperation. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: CNN European Affairs Commentator Dominic Thomas joins us now. Dominic, they've been wrangling over this for coming on three years now. Is there any reason to suspect that a prime minister who has frankly never gone to the country in a -- in a proper election, who doesn't have a majority in parliament, who's at every single bill he has put before Parliament overturned, defeated, is there any reason to think how, why he would not be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat at the 11th hour?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, Nick, I think one of the strategies would be by having completely exhausted the British people over the last three and a half years that they might finally just roll over and let this go through.

But no, really in all seriousness, there are so many moving parts here. Ultimately, we don't really know where this is going. But what we do know is that for Prime Minister Johnson to get this deal through Parliament, if he is even able to secure a deal with the European Union, there are so many moving parts that the likelihood is not that great.

He would require the support of almost all conservatives of the DUP, of course, of some of the Labour MPs that are in leave constituencies, and the list just goes on. And if anyone of those particular groups does not back in or decides to back some kind of alternative such as the general election and so on, there is no way that he get this particular deal through Parliament and we end up back at square one facing off over this and worrying about the October 31 deadline.

WATT: And so Dominic, the timetable is supposed to be -- so Thursday, Johnson will meet with the Europeans. If they agree to a deal, he then brings it back to Britain. Parliament would sit on Saturday for the first time since 1982 and that was during a war. They would then have to approve it. And if not, legally, Johnson has been told by Parliament, he must seek another extension, but he said he won't. So is that kind of crunch time when we get to October 19th?

THOMAS: Well, I think that's a really important date. And I think really that Boris Johnson strategy here and it could potentially be a face-saving strategy is he has said he does not want to go back to the European Union under any circumstances to ask for an extension.

But ultimately by holding a session on Saturday, if he indeed brings a deal back to them, he can protect say to them that if you don't support this particular deal that I have now, then I will be forced by the Benn Act to go back to Europe to ask for an extension.

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And so, you have an opportunity here to prevent that from happening. And we're seeing some movement in the party. It's clear that some of his Brexiteer supporters are capitulating, they know that the longer that this goes on, the greater likelihood is that there will be an extension, or that Brexit will never happen, or that there will be another referendum. And all of these things are of great concern, that they don't simply control this. Boris Johnson has lost his majority, and he needs others to step up for this. And the deal that he is proposing is so potentially problematic for the Republic of Ireland and for Scotland, that it seems unlikely that he's going to be able to get this through. He has yet to win a single vote since he became Prime Minister. The only election that he has one is the internal election within the Conservative Party. And that election had a very small minority of British people involved in it, somewhere around one percent.

WATT: And Dominic, it was actually an extraordinary scene in Parliament. I mean, you've got the Queen reading the Queen's speech, which is written for her by Boris Johnson's government. And of course, remember, a court recently ruled that Johnson lied to her when he asked her to suspend Parliament. It's a strange situation to see her sitting there in all of her finery involved in what is frankly, fairly grubby politics.

THOMAS: It was. And as you just pointed out, he has no majority. He has clearly offended the monarch because when he went to her to ask to prorogue Parliament, the courts declared that an unlawful. He completely misled it -- misled her. And of course, what you have here is a constitutional monarchy, a Parliamentary democracy in which really she has no opportunity to step in. This was clearly an opportunity for Boris Johnson to outline the Conservative Party manifesto.

And the Queen in that carriage with her son, the Prince of Wales and her daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Cornwall, looked like they were going around on a miserable Monday morning commute, knowing full well that they will be back there within the next few weeks or months after another general action. It was a really sort of, you know, another kind of low moment in what has been this 3-1/2 year process of Brexit. And to be honest, it was quite depressing beyond all of the pageantry.

WATT: Thanks, Dominic. It's going to be a fascinating week ahead. We appreciate your insights.

THOMAS: Thanks, Nick.

WATT: Now, the scourge of racism still looms large in European football. Monday night, the Euro 2020 qualifier between England and Bulgaria in Sofia had to be stopped twice after racist abuse from spectators. Stopping games is part of a new plan to curb such abuse at matches, but will it help? Don Riddell takes a look.

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DON RIDDELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Football players made a statement in Sofia on Monday night. They didn't leave the field of play in the European qualifier against Bulgaria, but they didn't necessarily have to. They drew clear attention to the racist abuse, and the abuse was unmistakable.

In the first half, England's defender Tyrone Mings asked the referee if he could hear the chanting, and shortly afterwards, the game was stopped so that a stadium announcement could be made, warning to supporters that the match could be abandoned if the chanting continued. And then towards the end of the first half, another suspension of play. This time for five minutes, and during that hiatus, a large number of Bulgarian supporters were seen leaving the stadium.

At halftime the Bulgarian Captain went out into the stadium to remonstrate with the supporters, urging them to cease the abuse. The game had seemed to be in jeopardy, but they did manage to complete the full 90 minutes without having to walk off, even though there was further abuse in the second half, notably aimed at England's Raheem Sterling. Afterwards, the England's Chairman demanded a stringent investigation from European football's governing body, UEFA. And the players expressed their disappointment at the abuse, but said that they were satisfied with how it was handled.

TYRONE WINGS, DEFENDER, ENGLAND NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM: I think we showed a great response. We showed a good togetherness. And ultimately, we let the football do the talking, which I think the higher powers will hopefully deal with the incidents that happened, but, yes, we couldn't do much more than what we've done on the pitch.

GARETH SOUTHGATE, MANAGER, ENGLAND NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM: We know it's an unacceptable situation. I think we've managed to make two statements really by winning the game. But also, we have raised the awareness of everybody to the situation. The game was stopped twice. And I know for some people, that won't be enough, but I think we've -- we were, as a group, onboard with that process.

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RIDDELL: It remains to be seen what will happen next, but UEFA have been notoriously soft on racist abuse in the past. This felt different, though, England's players have respectfully shown a very bright light on the darkest side of the beautiful game. Don Riddell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: England ultimately won 6-0. We'll get much more perspective on the match in "WORLD SPORT" later this hour. And still to come, U.S. House lawmakers are accelerating their efforts to honor the truth behind Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Will this week's investigation solidify a case for the President's impeachment. Plus, a massive search and rescue operation is underway in Japan after a deadly typhoon, 58 people now reported dead.

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WATT: Now, to some explosive testimony from the Trump Impeachment Inquiry on Capitol Hill, multiple sources say the President's former Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, raised concerns that the President's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was circumventing the U.S. State Department in his dealings with Ukraine to politically benefit Mr. Trump.

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One source telling CNN she saw wrongdoing related to the Ukraine policy and reported it. Her testimony comes, as the President fights another battle over his handling of Syria and Turkey. CNN's Jim Acosta has more from Washington.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: With this former top official on Russia, Fiona Hill, talking to lawmakers behind closed doors in the Ukraine investigation, President Trump is insisting that the mysterious whistleblower behind the impeachment inquiry be outed and forced to appear before Congress, tweeting, House Intelligence Committee Chairman "Adam Schiff now doesn't seem to want the whistleblower to testify. No! We must determine the whistleblower's identity to determine why this was done to the USA." The President wants to do more than just that, warning he may sue Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I actually told my lawyers, they said, sue him anyway. He's got immunity, but they can't mean immunity for that. I said, sue him anyway, even if we lose. The American public will understand. And Sue Nancy Pelosi. Well, maybe we should just impeach them.

ACOSTA: Schiff argues there's good reason for the whistleblower to remain anonymous.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Given that we already have the call record, we don't need the whistleblower, who wasn't on the call, to tell us what took place during the call. We have the best evidence of that.

ACOSTA: The President is mischaracterizing what happened on the call, claiming it was the leader of Ukraine who first criticize the former U.S. ambassador to that country, Maria Yovanovitch during the conversation.

TRUMP: Even if you listened to the very good conversation that I had a very, very good, no pressure, congenial conversation with the new President of Ukraine, he had some things that were not flattering to say about her, and that came out of the -- out of the blue.

ACOSTA: But that's not true. The rough transcript released by the White House is the President who brought it up first, saying, "The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news, so I just want to let you know that." Some Republicans are blasting the impeachment inquiry by linking the probe to Turkey's attacks on Kurdish forces in Syria.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It was not an accident that the Turks chose this moment to roll across the border. And I think the Democrats have got to pay very careful attention to the damage that they're doing with the impeachment proceedings.

ACOSTA: But others in the GOP are still furious over the President's green light for the invasion of Syria, the President's handling of Turkey has drawn a big rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who released a strongly-worded statement, saying, quote, "I am gravely concerned by recent events in Syria and by our nation's apparent response thus far." That rare dissent is leading to calls for sanctions against Turkey.

REP. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): He's going to see a united front that I haven't seen in a long time for Republicans and Democrats working with administration are kind of come down on him like a ton of bricks. Iranian-type sanctions.

ACOSTA: The President appears to be getting the message, tweeting he will impose sanctions on current and former Turkish government officials and that he will keep some U.S. forces in the region. The administration says it's not too late to punish Turkey.

STEVEN MNUCHIN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: Definitely not to light. This is a complicated situation.

ACOSTA: The Democrats insist Mr. Trump should take ownership of the slaughter of Kurdish U.S. allies.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): We'll see where the sanctions are, but it's not going to solve the problem. The problem has already been created by the President, giving Turkey a green light to invade Syria.

ACOSTA: Late the day, Vice President Pence said President Trump did authorize those new sanctions on Turkey, saying they're targeting top officials in the Turkish Government. The President also, according to Pence, called for a ceasefire in Syria. No word whether Turkey has agreed to that. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: A new national poll from Quinnipiac University shows a virtual tie in the democratic race for U.S. President, Senator Elizabeth Warren stands at 30 percent among registered voters, former Vice President Joe Biden, who holds a 27 percent support. The two have increased their lead over the rest of the pack, including Senator Bernie Sanders who dropped five points to 11 percent.

Be sure to tune -- be sure to tune in for the CNN New York Times Democratic Presidential Debate. 12 candidates will take the stage 8:00 p.m. Tuesday in New York. That's 8:00 a.m. Wednesday in Hong Kong. And if those times don't work for you, the debate replays at 6:00 Wednesday morning in London and 1:00 in the afternoon in Hong Kong.

Up next, police in Texas have arrested one of their own after a fatal shooting over the weekend. Just ahead, we'll find out why the victim's family is calling for a federal investigation.

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[01:29:50] WATT: Up next, police in Texas have arrested one of their own after a

fatal shooting over the weekend. Just ahead, we'll find out why the victim's family is calling for a federal investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATT: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Nick Watt, live in Los Angeles with the headlines this hour.

U.S. President Donald Trump is ordering harsh new sanctions on Turkey as Ankara pushes on with its offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria. Turkey launched the operation as U.S. troops under the President's orders began pulling back.

Now, the Kurds say they have reached a deal with Syria's government and Russian-backed Syrian forces are moving north to confront those Turkish troops.

Queen Elizabeth II has officially opened a new session of the British parliament. Her speech, not surprisingly, focused on Brexit coming just days before U.K. and E.U. negotiators try to hammer out a Brexit agreement. Deal or no deal, Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the U.K. plans to leave the European Union on October 31st.

And police in Fort Worth, Texas say that they have arrested an officer involved in the shooting of a black woman over the weekend. The white officer was charged with the murder of Atatiana Jefferson. The killing sparked outrage across the U.S.

Now, the dead woman's family wants federal authorities, not just the local police force, to investigate.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED KRAUS, FORT WORTH POLICE INTERIM CHIEF: The officer tendered his resignation this morning. Had the officer not resigned, I would have fired him for violations of several policies.

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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, Fort Worth police announcing the white police officer who shot and killed 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson is no longer on the force. The black woman was playing video games with her eight year old nephew inside her own home.

KRAUS: Aaron Dean, ID 4598 was the officer who responded to the call and fired the shot that killed Atatiana.

KAFANOV: This as Jefferson's family and community are calling for the federal government to step in.

ADARIUS CARR, ATATIANA JEFFERSON'S BROTHER: Fort Worth PD cannot investigate themselves. This man murdered someone.

KAFANOV: Saturday around 2:25 a.m., police responded to a non- emergency call from a man concern for his neighbor's safety.

JAMES SMITH, CALLED THE POLICE: The front door has been opens since 10:00. I have not seen anyone moving around. It is not normal for them to have both of the doors open this time of night.

KAFANOV: James Smith says his neighbor, an elderly woman with a heart condition lives with her daughter Atatiana who worked in pharmaceutical equipment sales. Smith says he knew Jefferson was at home at the time taking care of her sister's little boy.

Minutes after his call to police, officers arrived at the house. This heavily-edited body camera video released by Fort Worth police shows a male officer who never identified himself walking around the home. He shines a flashlight towards a dark room, yelled verbal commands, opening fire two seconds later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up. Show me your hands.

KAFANOV: Jefferson was pronounced dead inside her bedroom,.

AMBER CARR, ATATIANA JEFFERSON'S SISTER: My son, who was there to witness the event, they told me, because the police had killed -- had shot his aunt. And at that time I knew nothing about that, so he was the one who actually told me what happened.

KAFANOV: Tonight, questions remain as to why that officer did not announce that he was a police officer before firing.

CROWD: Justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do we want it?

CROWD: Now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?

CROWD: Justice.

KAFANOV: Sunday, the community held a candlelight vigil for Jefferson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stand here in support of a beautiful 28-year- old who was senselessly gunned down in her home, her haven, her home, a place she should have been safe.

KAFANOV: Saturday's shooting is the ninth police shooting this year involving Fort Worth police -- seven of them deadly. Now Jefferson's neighbor James Smith is wrestling with his decision to call police.

SMITH: I feel guilty, because had I not called the police department, my neighbor would still be alive today.

KAFANOV: There has been a lot of grief, a lot of anger, a lot of raw emotion in this community. The family has been calling for an independent investigation into both the officer's actions as well as the conduct of the department. The department is promising to do more but it is going to take a lot more than promises for folks here the feel safe again.

Lucy Kafanov, CNN -- Fort Worth, Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Next, picking up the pieces. After a typhoon brings death and destruction across Japan, we will have an update just ahead.

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WATT: The death toll from Typhoon Hagibis in Japan is now nearing 60. A massive search and rescue operation is still under way. The monster storm brought record setting rain and wind and rain resulting in flooding and landslides. More than 100,000 police, fire, and other workers are involved in the

effort.

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WATT: The science of typhoons is a serious business and tracking the threat is critical to public safety as CNN's Ivan Watson now reports from Hong Kong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The power and fury of a super typhoon. In September 2018 super typhoon Mangkhut (ph) slammed into the city of Hong Kong with wind gusts of up to 223 kilometers or 138 miles per hour. The damage was staggering, but fortunately this coastal city suffered no fatalities. Powerful tropical storms are a fact of life here.

You get a sense of the power of a storm like this coming through here -- a city of some 7 million people.

This radar station is Hong Kong's first line of defense against extreme weather. Perched on the cities tallest mountain, it sweeps the skies, detecting precipitation up to 500 kilometers away.

This is what the radar station looks like on the inside, and normally if I wasn't here, this giant antenna dish would be spinning quickly, completing a 360-degree rotation in under 40 seconds and the echo in this sphere is awesome.

Everyday meteorologist from the Hong Kong Observatory send up weather balloons. And when storms approach, they fly planes over typhoons, parachuting tubes full of weather sensors into the storm systems. The technology has come a long way since Hong Kong's former colonial rulers first established the observatory more than a century ago.

SANDY SONG, SENIOR SCIENTIST: The observatory was set up in 1883.

WATSON: Sandy Song is a senior scientist here. She shows me satellite footage from last year of super typhoon Mangkhut.

So you were actually nervous?

SONG: Yes, yes. Because that the intensity is very strong, it is a super typhoon.

WATSON: Song predicted, future storm systems will grow even more dangerous.

SONG: We do expect that intensity of typhoon will get stronger, under the climate change perspective.

WATSON: What do you say to people who question climate change?

SONG: In Hong Kong, we have really a strong proof of climate change because we have collected data over 125 years. Temperatures are rising. The sea level is rising.

WATSON: Since 1885, the observatory documented an average rise of temperature in Hong Kong -- 0.1 to 2.3 degrees Celsius for decade. And the accelerated over the last 30 years. These scientists say warming ocean temperatures will add more power to the storms.

SONG: It can be even worse, so we need to tackle climate change and mitigate it immediately, not wait until the next decade. We need to do something now.

WATSON: We've all been warned -- about the coming storm.

Ivan Watson, CNN -- Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Nick Watt live in Los Angeles.

And "WORLD SPORT" states right after the break.

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