Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

President Trump Visits Afghanistan; Boris Johnson No Show During the Debate; Families Disappointed with the Verdict; Neo-Nazi Group Raided by Police in Italy; Colombians Tired of Their Flawed Leaders. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired November 29, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers from all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London.

Coming up on CNN Newsroom. 'Tis the season of peace.

The U.S. president on a surprise visit to Afghanistan saying talks to the Taliban are back on after he first cancel them.

Families of the victims of the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989 are a gay left to straw after the match commanders cleared of charges.

And in the U.K., the Tories are making threats about the license of a TV news station over an ice sculpture.

U.S. President Donald Trump is flying back to the U.S. right now after making an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Thursday under extraordinary secrecy.

At Bagram Air Base, the president said that peace talks had restarted with the Taliban. Just last September, he abruptly pulled the plug on those talks. Here is what he had to say when he met with the Afghan president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Taliban wants to make a deal. We'll see if they make a deal. If they do, they do, and if they don't, they don't. That's fine, but we've had tremendous success and I think what I'd like to do, and perhaps, general, if you could say just a couple of words before President Rouhani tell him about how we've literally decimated ISIS in Afghanistan, also Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Contrary to what Mr. Trump said, ISIS has not been decimated in Afghanistan. The president also helps serve Thanksgiving meals to some of the men and women in uniform. This was his second visit to a war zone and his first to Afghanistan since taking office.

As our Kaitlan Collins explains, the White House took extra measures to keep this trip secret.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is now on his way back to the United States after making that unannounced trip to Afghanistan. He left Florida late Wednesday night, flew to Washington where he bordered another plane that was not on the tarmac as it normally is when the president gets on, but instead it was tucked away in a hanger.

And the president got on, they turn the lights off and they drew the shades so there wouldn't be any suspicions or any potential spotting as the president made his way over.

Now, while he was on the ground in Afghanistan, he met with U.S. troops, served on Thanksgiving lunch and even made some news after sitting down with the president of Afghanistan, announcing that those peace talks with the Taliban just less than three months ago that Trump scrapped are now back on.

The president says those negotiations are going forward, he believes the Taliban could potentially be open to a ceasefire which would be noteworthy given that was a big sticking point the last time around when the president canceled those talks abruptly after there was that Taliban attack that left one U.S. soldier dead.

Even the Taliban leaders were pretty close to coming to United States, meeting with Trump at Camp David.

Now, the White House did a pretty good job of keeping this trip under wraps. There weren't any potential spotting or questions about the president's whereabouts and they went so far to keep the suspicions at bay that they even scheduled tweets to come out of Trump's Twitter account so that would not be any questions about where he was.

Kaitlin Collins, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

FOSTER: Journalist Zakarya Hassani joins us from the Afghan capital now. Thanks for joining us. Any response from the Taliban to this offer of new talks?

ZAKARYA HASSANI, JOURNALIST: Up to this time, there has been no response from the Taliban about President Trump's surprise visit and his announcement of resuming peace talks and the comments that actually targeted the Taliban speaker, and it's about, you know, accepting a ceasefire. We have not seen any message from the Taliban group yet.

FOSTER: In terms of the response from the Afghan government, obviously they had some sort of heads up than this announcement was coming. Is this a peace process, as they would see it, that they are endorsing? I mean, what is their view?

HASSANI: Actually, could you repeat your question again, please?

FOSTER: Is there been -- what sort of response did we get from the Afghan government what President Trump was saying there?

HASSANI: Well, the Afghan government has not forwarded any further details except what President Hassan Rouhani tweeted about President Trump beside with him last night.

[03:04:57]

And his spokesperson actually he also tweeted about his visit to Afghanistan, about his bilateral meetings with President Hassan Rouhani and that they talked about the security situation of Afghanistan and peace talks, so there have been no further details shared by the Afghan authority.

FOSTER: All right, Zakarya in Kabul, thank you very much indeed.

In Iraq, the government is launching an investigation into the deadly anti-government protests there. At least 31 people are being killed and more than a thousand injured this week alone.

On Wednesday, demonstrators torched the Iranian consulate in Najaf, and on Thursday, security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Nasiriyah.

Protesters are furious over allegations of government corruption. They're demanding the government step down and hold early elections.

Hong Kong police have handed back control of Polytechnic University to university management. Police finished sweeping the campus after protesters occupied it for two weeks. Police say they found thousands of petrol bombs and hundreds of bottles of corrosive liquids.

Meanwhile, protesters celebrated after President Trump signed legislation supporting their movement, but China accuses the U.S. of backing violent criminals.

A former chief executive of Hong Kong says the bill had nothing to do with democracy or freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEUNG CHUN-YING, FORMER HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE: The motive behind the bill actually has nothing to do with Hong Kong. It has nothing to do with democracy, nothing to do with human rights, it had nothing to do with freedoms.

The whole thing has been distorted. I think no one -- no one can understand that. It is very clear that Hong Kong has a high degree of freedom, we protect our human rights. We've even been passed the bill of rights in the last year of British rule in 1997. We're much more Democratic than the time what the Hong Kong was ruled by the British.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong disagrees. He says the law shows China that America's priority is human rights over economic interests. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSHUA WONG, PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST: We are aware actions speak louder than words, at least how President Trump doing the trade war promise and signed on a bill 24 hours ago, it already sends a clear signal to Beijing. They cannot ignore the voice of Hong Kong people.

We have continued to ask for and demanding the U.S. Congress and administration to pass and sign on the bill, and we hope the administration on 2020 before the U.S. presidential election can launch and to implement the sanction mechanism, to sanction riot police and government officials with the abuse of power in Hong Kong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: There's no indication President Trump intends to enact any of the powers in the law.

Now it's already affecting Asia's financial markets, as you can see stock exchanges in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul all sliding. Hong Kong shares down more than 2 percent currently.

In the U.K. families of the Hillsborough victims are calling Thursday's not guilty verdict a disgrace. Former police superintendent David Duckenfield has been cleared in the worst sports disaster in British history.

Duckenfield now 75, faced charges of gross negligence, manslaughter in the deaths of 95 Liverpool supporters. They were crushed to death at a football match. He was the match commander.

CNN's Alex Thomas is standing by for us in Preston in the north of England. And what's very difficult for many of the victims' families here, is this really is the end of the line. This is been tens of millions of pounds worth of investigation and it's difficult to see it going any further.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Yes, Max, not only did 96 people lose their lives on that fateful day back in April 15 1989, but so many other lives were destroyed fighting what families of victims called the British establishment and the failure of a system to account for 96 people unlawfully killed, as an inquest found back in 2016.

And yet now it seems no one will be held criminally responsible for their deaths. And it's just another kick in the teeth for the families who thought after that inquest found in 2016, following the longest inquest in British legal history, lasting more than two years, that was 96 fans were unlawfully killed.

And the only reason that inquest recorded that verdict was because David Duckenfield, the police officer in charge of policing that match was found on that day, back in 2016, to be grossly negligence -- or to be -- sorry -- found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter to a criminal standard.

[03:09:57]

That is what the coroner instructed the jury to decide on, and yet the jury in a different criminal trial lasting to seven weeks recorded a verdict of not guilty, so you can imagine the dismay from families listening to the case here at Preston Crown Court behind me and the many more watching via video link back in Liverpool.

The Crown prosecution service, the public prosecutors here in the U.K. said the not guilty verdict today does not affect or alter the inquest jury's findings of unlawful killing or the conclusion that Liverpool fans were in no way responsible for the 96 deaths that resulted.

We are acutely aware of how disappointing the verdict is for families who have waited anxiously for today. However, we respect the decision of the jury.

Listen to what Jenni Hicks had to say. She lost her teenage daughters, Victoria and Sarah, at Hillsborough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNI HICKS, TWO DAUGHTERS KILLED IN HILLSBOROUGH DISASTER: Whenever we have had disappointments in the past, we've always had somewhere else to go. Today we haven't. We have nowhere else to take this. This is it. We're going to have to live the rest of our lives with this injustice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS: Also, Max, 96 people went to enjoy a football game and never came home. There were sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, there were 25 fathers amongst the dead and a mom. The youngest victim was age just 10.

Liverpool Football Club have released a statement overnight echoing what the CPS, the Crown Prosecution Service said, reminding people of that inquest finding that the jury here were not allowed to regard in their deliberations.

Liverpool Football Club who at top of English Premier League are playing Brighton at home on Saturday, and I think it will be an incredibly charged atmosphere at Anfield.

FOSTER: Alex in Preston, thank you.

Ultimately, despite all those deaths, no one has been found responsible and that's very difficult of course for all of those involved.

Boris Johnson's political party is angry, meanwhile, when the British prime minister didn't turn up for an election debate. A fiery row broke out over a block of melting ice. We'll explain, next.

Plus, Italian police are investigating more than a dozen suspects for trying to start a new Nazi party. How they tried to grow the movement across Europe. We are live in Italy for you. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Now the same day a new climate report went public, Britain's party leaders had a debate ahead of next month's election and the climate crisis played a major part.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson give it a mess. He was represented on stage by a block of ice. Brexit party leader Nigel Farage another no show got the same treatment.

Among those who did participate, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn who promised to plant 300 million trees during his first term as prime minister. And liberal Democrat Jo Swinson who tied climate change to the Brexit debate.

[03:15:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JO SWINSON, BRITISH LIBERAL DEMOCRAT LEADER: I totally agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

SWINSON: That the role that we play internationally is so important on this, but surely you can see that's why it is so important that we keep our seat at the European Union table because we have led the way in Europe on this, Europe has led the world. That's how we got the ambitious Paris accord through.

And turning our back on the European Union is turning our back on our best way of fighting the climate emergency.

JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, LABOUR PARTY: I'm always the last one to turned the heating on. In fact, we turned it on for the first time last week in my house, and that was a very low temperature anyway and I turned it off pretty quickly after that. I'm quite miserable actually on this basis because I don't like to see the wasted energy that goes with it.

And also, it is about -- everybody can grow something if they got a gardener or window box or whatever. You can grow appropriate plants which do improved biodiversity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

CORBYN: So, you can plant lavender or something which attracts bees and so on. So, I do all of that in my garden and in my allotment and in my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Prime Minister Johnson's conservative party complains to election regulators over that block of ice. The British television channel said they carried out the debate hitting back claiming the Tories are threatening its broadcast license now. There's nothing remotely amusing about a new study on climate crisis.

However, research published in a scientific journal Nature says the earth is heading towards a global tipping point, an irreversible change has already occurred in nine different places.

They include Antarctic on the arctic, where ice sheets are melting and permafrost has thawed, and South America's Amazon where fire is destroying the rainforest. Climate scientists say hothouse conditions may make some areas uninhabitable, so they are calling for urgent action to avoid the threat to civilization.

European parliament has voted to declare climate emergency just days ahead of a U.N. climate change conference in Spain.

Now a famous U.S. climber has died whilst on a popular cliff in northeastern Mexico. According to civil protection, Brad Gobright was rappelling down a sheer rock face when he plunged 300 meters.

The 31-year-old had been with a friend who says their rope pull through Gobright repel device whilst they both fell Gobright's partner dropped a much shorter distance into a bush which broke his fall.

Now police in Italy have broken up a neo-Nazi ring. After a two-year investigation, police say they raided the homes of 19 people who wanted to create a new Nazi party.

Officers uncovered firearms and Nazi propaganda celebrating Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Police say the group had connections across Europe.

Barbie Nadeau is standing by in Rome with more details. So, the bear facts are very worrying, but how organized was this? How much more is out there do you think?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, it is very disconcerting, obviously for a country like Italy which has such a dark past to see the resurgence of this sort of thing. There were some interesting characters in this group of people.

There was a 36-year-old woman who had won an online beauty contest for miss -- called Miss Hitler. There was a 48-year-old woman in the north of the country who was apparently considered herself to be one of Hitler sergeants.

You know, all of these sorts of things connected together across the entire country is very disturbing, but also, they found connections to other far right groups across Europe and they're looking to see if there are any other connections within the country.

They were -- they said that they were going to be starting a political party, which is against the law in Italy. That's a law that's been in effect since 1952 that bans anyone from starting a fascist or Nazi party.

So, the authorities here are continuing their investigations, looking for more connections and to see if there are any more than these 19 people involved. Max?

FOSTER: In terms of the public response, how is the media covering this? How are people responding in the street? Have you had a chance to speak to any?

NADEAU: Well, it is interesting here. You know, this is a country where you do see wine bottles with Hitler's face and Mussolini's face. There is no law against Nazi or fascist propaganda per se, that's something that's been on the books in terms of legislation but it continues to stall.

There has been a resurgence of anti-Semitism across Europe and we see that in Italy as well, even last week there were some signposts defaced that were for Nazi Holocaust survivors, that were named in their name. Things like that continue to bubble up in this country.

And the fact that the authorities were able to break up this ring means that they're looking for that. And I think that a lot of people take comfort in that. But you know, Italy was under a very far-right government for the better part of a year that ended over the summer, and a lot of people question right now whether or not that blind eye that the government turned allowed some of these groups to gain some strength and to prosper. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Barbie in Rome, thank you.

[03:20:02]

Now a week of unrest in Colombia as people across the country take to the streets protesting an array of grievances, rising unemployment, equality, violence, and oppression.

Matt Rivers has more for you.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From students to retirees, laborers to activists, leaders, Colombians from all corners of society are marching to the drumbeat of an angry chorus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We are protesting because the whole system and the government are failing the Colombian nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Though largely peaceful, a week of widespread protests has disrupted mass transit and scenes of looting since the government says necessitated a curfew in areas including the capital city.

There have also been pockets of violence which killed one young protester after he was hit with a tear gas canister fired by riot police. The 18-year-old's death now symbol of resistance for protesters who return to the streets after days of demonstrations.

It began last week as a strike by labor and student groups, largely against austerity reforms and pension cuts rumored to be imminent. Rumors President Ivan Duque denies. Soon, other movements added in array of other grievances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They don't give us health care. They don't give us education.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Women continued to be violated in all places.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are marching on behalf of the indigenous people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We are here so they will finally fulfill the peace agreement with FARC rebels, for the dead and disappeared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: The president's attempts to quell the protests are so far unsuccessful. Negotiations stalled as each group issue separate demands. Demands fueled by an anger now familiar in this region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Latin America woke up. We don't have people governing us anymore, no oligarchies or bourgeoisie standing in the way of our destinies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Latin America is rising up. We are all becoming empowered. We are gaining strength to demand our rights as citizens and as humans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Colombia now joins a Latin American tied of unrest, from which common themes seem to encourage, economic inequality, perceived oppression and corruption. In Colombia, differing demands are rooted in these familiar sources of discontent fueling a protest with no end in sight.

Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.

FOSTER: While despite all the unrest around the world shopping continues. Black Friday is kicking off the holiday shopping season in the U.S. But as thousands hit the stores one organization is trying to change shopping habits to safety environment. We'll have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Right now, shoppers across the U.S. and the world are hitting the stores in search of the best black Friday deals. To compete for their attention, some stores kicked off the holiday shopping season early, opening Thursday evening.

Shoppers could be seen cued up around the block waiting to get inside to get the deal on electronics, clothes, household appliances. Black Friday is considered the biggest shopping day of the year in the

U.S.

All that shopping comes at a heavy cost to consumers, though. Adobe Analytics reports that American spent $6.2 billion last year on black Friday and that doesn't even include cyber Monday spending. So, what we do with all of these purchases? The Story of Stuff Project takes a look.

[03:25:03]

ANNIE LEONARD, FILMMAKER, THE STORY OF STUFF PROJECT: Our primary identity has become that of being consumers, not mothers, teachers, farmers, but consumers. The primary way that our value is measured and demonstrated is by how much we contribute to this arrow, how much we consume, and dewy! We shop and shop and shop, keep the materials flowing, and flow they do.

Guess what percentage of total materials float through this system is still in product or use six months after their date of sale in North America. Fifty percent? Twenty? No, one percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Now, the organization says this obsessive consumption habits are taking a toll on the environment as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT CHAMBERLIN, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER, THE STORY OF STUFF PROJECT: I think it's important that we recognize that there is an enormous environmental and social cost to our obsession with consumption. All of the things that we go out and purchase on days like black Friday come from somewhere and they go to somewhere after we finish using them but much of the impact on people in the planet is hidden from us.

But from a resource extraction to the production of this consumer goods, the distribution of them around the world, and ultimately, their end of life in a landfill, in an incinerator or in the environment, that comes at a very high cost.

Buy in less, live more, instead of defining ourselves through the things that we purchased, focus on deepening our relationships with the people we love, with ourselves, with our natural environment, focusing on service to others, on creating joy and beauty.

And presuming real human experiences, dropping out of the consumer madness and working to create more value enjoying life instead of more stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Some big thoughts as you get your credit cards out today.

Thank you for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster. I'll check your headlines in just a moment for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END