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Naval Air Station Pensacola Shooter Was in Saudi Air Force; New Concerns Russia is Spying on Trump-Giuliani Calls; Trump Tells Democrats to Hurry and Impeach Him; Johnson and Corbyn Face Off in Final Debate; Uber CEO Admits Sexual Assault Report Alarming; Four Rape-Murder Suspects Killed by Police; Firefighters Struggle Near Sydney; Short Movies Debut at Mobile Film Festival; Woman Survives Six-Hour Cardiac Arrest. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired December 07, 2019 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Questions about motive and security: they come in the wake of a deadly shooting on a U.S. Navy base by a member of the Saudi military.

Refusing to cooperate: the White House sends a strongly worded letter to lawmakers who are considering impeaching Donald Trump.

And out of control, raging bush fires in Australia and firefighters are working desperately to put hundreds out.

It's all ahead here. Welcome to viewers in the U.S. and around the world, we're coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia, at 5:00 in the morning. I'm Natalie Allen and CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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ALLEN: Thank you so much for joining us.

Our top story: the FBI is trying to determine why a gunman shot and killed three people at a Naval base in Pensacola, Florida. The attacker identified as Mohammed Alshamrani was killed in an exchange of gunfire with deputies.

Authorities say he was a member of the Saudi air force and was training at the base. Investigators say it is too early to draw conclusions about what led to the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ROJAS, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We are not prepared at this hour to confirm what may have motivated the shooter to commit this horrific act today. There are many reports circulating but the FBI deals only in facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The investigation is global in scope, as you can imagine. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more about that.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): This is a dark day for a very great, great place.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Florida governor Ron DeSantis confirming that the suspected gunman in the mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola is a member of the Saudi military.

He was there for aviation training. A motive has not yet been identified but FBI investigators are looking at whether the shooting was related to terrorism.

DESANTIS: The government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims. And I think that they are going to owe a debt here, given that this is one of their individuals.

STARR (voice-over): But tonight, President Trump, who has stood by the royal family through moments of crisis in the past, is now relaying a message on behalf of the Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

TRUMP: The king said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric action of the shooter and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people, who love the American people so much.

STARR (voice-over): The shooting occurred in the classroom building on the base. Law enforcement officials confirming the suspect used a handgun, killing three people before he was killed by police. Eight others were injured.

What was a Saudi air force officer doing on a U.S. Navy installation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always been international students training here because it's a good place to train and it's good, quality training.

STARR (voice-over): U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia often have members of their military come to the U.S. for training, a practice that may now come under scrutiny, even as investigators talk to those who knew the shooter.

STARR: The Saudi news agency says the king has ordered Saudi security forces to cooperate with American investigators -- Barbara Starr, CNN the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: A Pentagon spokesman said there are more than 5,100 foreign students in the U.S. for security related training; 852 of them are from Saudi Arabia. CNN military analyst and retired Col. Cedric Leighton explained how the selection process works for letting these troops train in the U.S.

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CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Most of them, 99 percent of them, are great people and will be people that we would want to have on our side as military allies.

But the types of selection processes that a country like Saudi Arabia has, we're dependent on those before we allow them to come into our country and the fact that these kinds of procedures did not catch this individual, we have to figure out, did he radicalize himself during his time here in the United States?

Or was this a long held plan that he had, to do something like this?

Of course, these things are unknown at this time.

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ALLEN: Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned the attack, as it tries to quash any notions that it promotes extremist ideology even though no motive has been revealed yet. Sam Kiley has more about it from Abu Dhabi.

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The confirmation that a Saudi citizen, Saudi member of the royal air force there, Mohammed Alshamrani was the gunman who murdered three others before he was gunned down himself by sheriff's deputies in Florida couldn't come at a worse time for Saudi Arabia, both diplomatically and militarily.

It relies incredibly heavily on the relationship particularly between the Saudi air force and the United States. It is a major purchaser, of course, of American aircraft and airpower and it needs those pilots to get trained.

At the same time, it is in a very tense standoff, indeed, with nearby Iran, with the recent rocket attacks on its oil facilities being blamed on that Islamic theocracy.

And whatever the motives behind these attacks, they conjure up memories going back to 9/11, when the majority of the terrorists involved in those atrocities were from Saudi Arabia.

And questions that have been raised almost constantly about Saudi Arabia's influence in the wider dissemination of extremist ideology through the Wahhabi creed, something Saudi Arabia has worked very hard, indeed, not only to deny but recently to quash.

In that context, King Salman moved extremely quickly, calling the U.S. president and putting out a swift statement through the Saudi press agency, condemning this criminal act and promising, critically, unfettered access and help from the Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabian security services. And the reason for that, of course, in the background, is the tensions

with the United States over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi citizen who was working for "The Washington Post" and who was allegedly murdered by Saudi officials inside their consulate in Istanbul.

So a great amount of diplomatic and military focus on this incident which has not yet been proven even to be an act of terrorism -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

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ALLEN: The White House is saying it will not participate in the impeachment process now underway in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, where articles of impeachment against President Trump will soon be written. The move surprised no one since the administration telegraphed its intentions days ago.

Jerry Nadler, the committee chair, took the rejection in stride. Here's a quote from him.

"If the president has no good response to the allegations, then he would not want to appear before the committee. Having declined this opportunity, he cannot claim that the process is unfair."

For more, here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the White House digging in and signaling the administration will not participate in the next stage of the impeachment inquiry in the House, President Trump ignored the questions swirling around him.

A new letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone all but tells House Democrats to "get lost," saying, quote, "As you know, your impeachment inquiry is completely baseless and has violated basic principles of due process and fundamental fairness."

While the letter does not specifically rule out White House involvement in the process, a senior official says that the administration will not cooperate with the proceedings.

Aides to the president are making it all about how Speaker Nancy Pelosi, predicting she will play a political price for impeaching Trump, already putting targets on moderate Democrats in vulnerable districts.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they actually go forward with the impeachment articles that Nancy Pelosi solidified the fact that she will not be Speaker of the House next year because the Democrats will absolutely -- (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, wow.

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ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House complained Pelosi was barreling toward impeachment before the Judiciary Committee's Friday deadline for the administration to decide whether to cooperate in the process.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do think it's somewhat interesting though that Nancy Pelosi is set to move forward with articles of impeachment even though we haven't responded to the letter. But that shouldn't be a shock because she also wanted to move forward with articles of impeachment before we actually released the transcript.

ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House officials are still dodging some big questions as in what the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has been up to all week in Ukraine.

QUESTION: Is the president aware of what Rudy Giuliani is doing in Ukraine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a question between Rudy and the president.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't spoken with him about that directly. But obviously Rudy Giuliani can speak for himself. He's the president's personal attorney.

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ACOSTA (voice-over): Democrats are not buying the White House response, noting Giuliani was a central figure in the president's allege dirt-for-dollars deal with the leader of Ukraine.

REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D-CA): I don't for a moment believe that the president is telling the truth when he says he does not know why Rudy is there digging up dirt. As it was pointed, out he has specifically asked any number of people to take directions from Rudy Giuliani on the Burisma/Biden investigation that he so desperately wanted.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Hundreds of the nation's top legal scholars have written an open letter stating the president has met the threshold for impeachment, adding, "His conduct is exactly the type of threat to our democracy that the founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution."

The president is sounding like a broken record with his grievances about the inquiry.

"Where's the fake whistleblower? Where's whistleblower number two? Where's the phony informer who got it all wrong?"

Mr. Trump is also touting the economy which created more than 260,000 new jobs last month as the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5 percent. The president is taking credit for that performance, pointing to his record of deregulation.

TRUMP: The world is many times more expensive and I hate to say it, it doesn't make you look as good, it's very important to me as a vain person. It gives you an orange look. I don't want an orange look.

ACOSTA: The letter from the White House counsel rejecting the House impeachment inquiry ends by quoting the president's tweet, when he called on Nancy Pelosi to impeach him quickly. She appears to be doing just that as the House is on course to impeach the president by the end of the year -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Well, let's talk about latest developments with Jacob Parakilas. He joins us from Nigeria.

JACOB PARAKILAS, U.S. POLITICAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good morning.

ALLEN: In your work, you focused on American foreign policy, international security, you have worked for Homeland Security, how might impeachment affect the U.S. relations with its allies?

PARAKILAS: Well, the major impact is going to be that the top of the U.S. political system is going to be consumed with this for months to come. There's going to be relatively little bandwidth, particularly because this is not a scandal, this is a scandal that involves the foreign relations, the National Security Council, the State Department, it involves the Department of Energy.

So the people involved in those departments, especially the heads of those departments, Rick Perry, Mike Pompeo, are deeply involved with that. And that completely separate from what they did wrong but they'll be less focused on issues. That's one set of issues.

The other is the question of what it says about American foreign policy. The allegations are essentially that Donald Trump was running a shadow foreign policy directed through Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland. That presumably reduces the level of stock that the American ally might put in words coming from an American diplomat.

Because if the perception is, well, the president could undermine this by going through informal channels, then it means what comes out of mouths of American diplomats up to and including secretary of state, it will be seen as less valuable. So the short answer is, nothing good.

ALLEN: Well, the side mystery note we have to talk about is Rudy Giuliani. He's on some sort of mystery mission in Ukraine. The president isn't talking about it. Neither is Giuliani.

Why of all times might he be in Ukraine?

What could be up?

How does this look for President Trump?

PARAKILAS: I think it's of a piece with the broad strategy that the president and his team have adopted in the wake of the whistleblower report, which is essentially leaning into it, to say, look, this is nothing wrong. And we're so confident that we've done nothing wrong that we're going to keep doing it.

It's a novel strategy. And there's some reporting that came out over the last couple of days, even with Republicans being skeptical of its efficiency, Rudy is certainly going to be -- it's not entirely a mystery. He brought correspondents from one American news network, which is a favorite of the White House with him. He's going to be making a documentary.

So partly, I think, it's to generate more interviews, more footage that support the president's theory of why he did nothing wrong. But I think, fundamentally, it's a case of saying, look, I'm so confident that I did nothing wrong that I'm going to keep doing it. Time will tell whether that's a good strategy. I personally don't think it will be.

ALLEN: If the president is impeached, how do you see it affecting the election?

[05:15:00]

PARAKILAS: That's very difficult to say. The standard depth of how the impeachment will go is that he'll be impeached before Christmas. The Senate will hold a trial, a Republican-held Senate will vote to acquit him and he will walk away from the impeachment.

That said, a lot of things have happened in politics, both in the West and the U.K. that people didn't see coming. I think the equivalent is the most likely outcome. We don't know how that will play politically. We don't have a large number of impeachments in history to look at. Only two that went to Senate trial. Richard Nixon resigned before he got to even a House vote.

We don't have a good set of data with that public performance or public perception of the president. We do know there's a fairly durable if small majority in favor of impeachment, demonstrated poll after poll, conducted by reputable pollsters.

But whether or not that's something that can move into a politically damaging territory for the president or if it suggests sort of reinforces the polarization that we've seen over the course of this administration I think we don't really know yet.

ALLEN: No, we don't. Even though it seems Americans are split on impeachment, many reportedly are dialed out of this, not tuned in. We'll see if the process gets closer and closer to probable impeachment, whether that changes. Jacob Parakilas, we appreciate you joining us. Thanks so much.

PARAKILAS: Thank you very much. ALLEN: Well, in just days, British voters will head to the polls in what is being called the most important election in a generation. What's at stake, coming up, we look at where the candidates stand.

Plus, Uber calls it a safety report but it really shows just how many cases of sexual abuse have been reported at the ride-sharing firm. The jaw-dropping numbers ahead here.

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ALLEN: All right. Time is ticking for Britain's candidates to get out the vote ahead of a crucial general election with just days to go before voters head to the ballot box. The leaders of the U.K.'s two largest parties went head to head one final time.

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ALLEN: CNN's Anna Stewart breaks down Friday's debate.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With less than a week to go before Britons head to the polls to elect a new government, this last head- to-head debate brings much anticipation. But there were no knockout blows of facts. Leaders repeated many of the same claims, promises and attacks they have in recent weeks. Whether it was domestic policy, trust in politicians or that divisive topic, Brexit.

JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, U.K. LABOUR PARTY: No one voted to lose their job or lose trade with Europe. They voted for many reasons. But I think we have to come together and bring this issue to an end. Not go down the road of sweetheart deals with the USA.

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Actually what should we should do is respect the word of the people. People do not trust in politics. Look at the promises made by Corbyn and all the other parties that they would honor the referendum result. And they are refusing to do it.

STEWART: Ahead of this debate two former prime ministers Conservatives John Major and Labour's Tony Blair spoke at an anti- Brexit rally and endorsed candidates outside of their own party. Current party leaders were asked their reaction.

JOHNSON: I have the respect for all former Conservative leaders and (INAUDIBLE) as there has been. But I don't think he's right and we have a fantastic plan to get Brexit done.

CORBYN: A vote for Labour is to invest in the future of this country. So Tony Blair and John Major are welcome to make the comments that they do. I urge them to think for a moment. Think for a moment at the reality of what nine years of austerity has done to the people of this country.

STEWART: The Conservative Party leading polls with six days left is a very long time in politics. Campaigning will not let up until the nation goes to the ballot box on Thursday -- Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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ALLEN: Let's talk about it now, Quinton Peel, associate fellow with Chatham House joins us, he's also been a top journalist.

Hi, Quinton, good morning to you.

All right. At this juncture how ready or how sick are voters of this process?

We'll break down the candidates next but talk about that first.

QUENTIN PEEL, CHATHAM HOUSE: Well, I think voters are pretty fed up with the whole subject of Brexit. And yet they know it's absolutely central.

The thing is that Boris Johnson's slogan, get Brexit done, which is pretty meaningless but, nonetheless, it's having an effect across the country. It's the one thing that people seem to be relating to.

So even if they know that electing Boris Johnson won't get Brexit done, because this is going to drag on for months, if not years in negotiations, we will be out on January 31st, if Boris Johnson wins the majority.

ALLEN: I want to ask you, how should the world be watching this, first, the U.S.?

What would a win by Boris Johnson, the Conservative, who wants to push Brexit through, with what you just said, we might not see a Brexit for ages, oh, my goodness, what would that mean to Britain's future?

PEEL: Well, Britain outside the European Union is undoubtedly going to be much more dependent on its relationship with the U.S. So those arguing for this process have been really pushing to get a swift trade agreement with the U.S.

And they say that's going to be a wonderful thing. The problem is, I'm not sure; I think they're exaggerating the benefits. And they're also exaggerating the speed with which you can do these things. We all know that trade negotiations are fantastically complex.

You get every lobby group in the country, on both sides, trying to get their special interests taken into account.

And you're not going to be able to do that where the British are negotiating at the one time with the whole of the European Union, which is after all where 45 percent of their trade goes, and on the other hand, trying to do simultaneous negotiations with the U.S. I don't think it's going to work. ALLEN: And Boris Johnson chummy with President Trump, many Brits don't like Mr. Trump. And we'll see if that can have any kind of impact when they go to the polls. I don't know about that one.

But I want to ask you about position Labour Party candidate Jeremy Corbyn now. He would hold a second referendum on Brexit. He's been critical of NATO.

If he came out how would that affect relations with the U.S.?

[05:25:00]

PEEL: He's undoubtedly a very skeptical politician as regards the entire transatlantic relationship. He's always been skeptical about the purposes of NATO. He is fundamentally deeply skeptical of Britain still having nuclear arms and the Trident nuclear missiles.

So I think he would be a very difficult person for a U.S. administration to deal with. Having said that, the chances of him emerging with an outright majority are very, very small.

If Boris Johnson doesn't win the majority, then the chances are we're going to have a hung Parliament again, in which case, there will be some sort of coalition of interests to get this whole Brexit exercise done.

And we will drag on, I suspect, for months more. The Labour Party says they can do it all in six months, have another referendum. But I think both the Conservatives and the Labour Party are profoundly unrealistic about the process.

ALLEN: Enter the wild card, a young female candidate, a Liberal Democrat, if she wins, she promises to cancel Brexit.

How about that chance?

I mean, I'm not sure if she has a chance but what if that were to happen?

PEEL: Well, you know, it would actually be the simplest solution just to say, we're not going to do it any longer. Because I think throughout this process, it's been absolutely clear that trying to extricate yourself from a very integrated trading system, this single market that there is in Europe, where we have no barriers, where we recognize all each other's standards across borders.

So you have no cross-border checks and so on, all of that's got to go and be replaced by something else. Now I think Jo Swenson's idea of saying we just revoke it and stop it is brilliant at a logical level. The problem is, it's not popular politically because people say, we voted in a referendum to leave, you just can't revoke it.

And she's not managed to win that argument. So we're back to a country which is divided between remain or leave and also desperately wanting the whole subject to go away.

ALLEN: All right. We've got to go.

But can you just wrap up in one sentence that defines where the U.K. is with all of this?

PEEL: It's in a complete muddle. We're utterly divided. We don't know who is running country. We're probably still going to have Boris Johnson, who is a man deeply mistrusted by voters to carry on as prime minister. It's not a happy situation.

ALLEN: Got it. Quentin Peel, we appreciate your insights. Good luck.

PEEL: Thank you.

ALLEN: Uber releases a highly anticipated report that reveals just how prevalent cases of sexual violence have become at the firm.

Also a thick layer of smoke is choking, yes, that city right there, Sydney. The flames are still burning. We'll have the latest as we watch CNN NEWSROOM.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. We've got 30 more minutes to go and much more news to bring you so thanks for staying with us. First the headlines.

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ALLEN: Uber calls it a safety report but the new document confirms the extent of alleged incidents of sexual assault at the ridesharing company. CNN senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has more about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Buried on page 59 of a polished, long-anticipated report are the stunning numbers: 5,981 sexual assaults reported over two years, 464 of them rapes.

Uber emphasizing, with millions of rides daily, the odds of attack are minuscule but Tony West, Uber's chief legal officer who for nearly two years now has refused to be interviewed by CNN, admitted to NBC the number is alarming.

TONY WEST, UBER CLO: That's a hard number. But I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised because sexual violence is just much more pervasive in society than I think most people realize. GRIFFIN (voice-over): CNN sounded the alarm in April of 2018, in an investigation that uncovered the serious problem of drivers assaulting passengers.

This woman was attacked by her Uber driver in Miami, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The next morning, I woke up both and both my pants and my underwear were on the floor.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): In a series of reports on Uber assaults, CNN exposed the practice while the rideshare company sought to quietly settle sexual assault complaints with out of court settlements in exchange for nondisclosure agreements from victims.

Uber changed the policy after our report, no longer requiring victims to sign NDAs. CNN found dozens of cases of sexual assault and abuse by scouring public records, police reports, civil and criminal court cases but sources told us then there were many, many more. Uber's report confirms that.

[05:35:00]

GRIFFIN (voice-over): CNN also found that thousands of Uber drivers had criminal records. One was even an accused war criminal. All as Uber lobbied local governments against tougher rules for background checks.

Since CNN's investigation, Uber added safety features to its app, says they have improved and tightened background checks and, with this report, is vowing to be more transparent on the safety of riding with Uber.

Early estimates in 2019 show sexual assaults in Uber continue, Uber claims the rate is dropping. But based on its own recent statistics, every day someone is sexually assaulted taking an Uber ride.

WEST: Uber simply couldn't ignore what was happening on its platform. And most importantly we have to then address it.

GRIFFIN: Uber is not the only ride share company with a problem. Lyft also admits it's dealing with sexual assault and has vowed to release its own transparency report in the near future -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Now we turn to India and just a heinous crime to share with you. A rape survivor in northern India has now died of cardiac arrest after she was stabbed and set on fire on her way to court to testify against her alleged rapist.

Before she died, this 23-year-old woman was able to tell police that five men attacked her on Thursday, including the suspect she was preparing to testify against. Police earlier reported that five men had been arrested. India has been plagued by an epidemic of violent sexual assault against women. But another case now has human rights activists calling for an investigation. That is because the four suspects in a high-profile rape and murder case, another horrific case, were shot dead by police while in custody. CNN's Ram Ramgopal has more about this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAM RAMGOPAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what justice looks like to some. Four men lie dead in a field in Hyderabad, shot and killed by police. The men were accused of the horrific murder of a 27-year-old woman who was gang raped, strangled and then set on fire. The police commissioner said the suspects, who were in custody at the time, had been brought to the scene of the crime in search of evidence when --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They started attacking the police party (ph) with stones, sticks and other materials. Also they snatched away (ph) weapons from multiple officers and started fighting. So when our people started in retaliation (INAUDIBLE), we (INAUDIBLE).

RAMGOPAL (voice-over): The actions of police are being celebrated by many in this community who are outraged by the woman's murder. Huge crowds gathered at the scene, showering police with flowers to express their gratitude.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): From now on, whenever someone even thinks of doing such a thing, they will think 10 times before actually doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appeal to all Indian police, follow the (INAUDIBLE) police.

RAMGOPAL (voice-over): The rape and murder case has caused widespread protests across India with many demonstrators demanding the death penalty for the men.

Sexual assault often goes unpunished in India. India's national crimes records bureau says there are around 100 sexual assaults reported every day but many of them are never resolved in court because the system is so backlogged.

There are serious questions about the actions of police in this case. Amnesty International called for an independent investigation and some lawmakers are questioning whether police took the law into their own hands.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those people were nearly killed going to get hanging (ph) as a punishment for the -- in the heinousness of their crimes. But you cannot kill people because you want to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country was rule of law. Obviously, we want justice to be done through the judicial process.

RAMGOPAL (voice-over): But for the victim's family, there is a sense of closure that the courts may never have brought.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I would like to thank and congratulate the government, police and all those who supported me. It is now that my daughter's soul must have gotten peace.

RAMGOPAL (voice-over): Ram Ramgopal, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Next here, firefighters in Australia continue to battle dozens of fires, the individual 84 video we're about to show you is surreal.

Also, how about this story, she had no heartbeat for six hours. Hear what this woman says about recovering from a rare cardiac arrest.

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ALLEN: Firefighters in Australia are struggling to contain now more than 100 bush fires, raging across the country. Right now, there's a massive fire burning outside of Sydney the firefighters say could take weeks to put out. In a moment, we'll show you what Sydney looks like.

The thick smoke from that fire has blanketed much of that city. And the sky over it has been turned orange and brown. Journalist Samantha Brett of 7 News explains the challenges firefighters in New South Wales face.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMANTHA BRETT, JOURNALIST: You look on the map of where these bush fires are and you can see right up and down the coast of New South Wales from the north stretching all the way to the south.

And we've had a couple of huge blazes in the past few weeks. Unfortunately now, five of those fires have actually joined together so we have what is called now a mega blaze. So that is spanning about 330 hectares of land.

Next week, we are expecting more high temperatures, hot weather and it is very dry here. We have one of our worst droughts on record. It is also very, very windy. So unfortunately it is going to be another tough week ahead for the firefighters.

They are just doing everything, they are back burning this entire area. They are protecting homes. In the area I'm in, they protected every single home in this area.

The flames are leaping into the air. You can see that the trees have all been burned out here. I'm looking at my neighbor, here, his home has been saved, these firefighters are really they're just doing everything they can and they are doing an incredible job.

[05:45:00]

BRETT: The people in this area are telling me as well they had meetings with the firefighters three weeks ago, they said the firefighters said this is coming, let's brace, ourselves let's prepare as best we, can and they, really have.

People are always going to say that the government can do more and they are going to try and blame someone. But we've had this incredible drought, you could not predict these very hot temperatures, these very high winds.

Unfortunately this has caused this absolute catastrophe here. People on the ground are just doing everything they can to try and protect the lives and homes.

Unfortunately, though, six people have actually died in these bush fires this season alone and I have some statistics for you; 680 homes have been lost. But tonight, 2,000 firefighters are in the fields so as I mentioned, they're doing simply everything that they can.

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ALLEN: And we wish them all the best of that effort.

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ALLEN: As the COP25 climate negotiations took place in Madrid, U.N. climate change sponsored another event, a film festival in Paris and it featured 60-second movies taken on mobile phones. Lynda Kinkade shows us some of the winning entries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No words, no movie stars, no special effects. But this one-minute film delivers a dramatic message about the looming dangers of climate change. It's one of the winners of the Mobile Film Festival in Paris, features 60- second films shot on smartphones to raise awareness about the global threat to the environment.

BRUNO SMADJA, MOBILE FILM FESTIVAL: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's one mobile, one minute, one film, the simplest concept in the world.

KINKADE (voice-over): The festival ran in partnership with YouTube and the United Nations and highlighted 800 films from 91 countries with topics like plastic waste, deforestation and air pollution. Issues some of the filmmakers took to heart on screen and behind the scenes as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We went to film in Normandy and it was an ecofriendly shoot. We tried to have the smallest carbon footprint possible. We went there in an electric car, we ate local organic food and we even collected litter which we unfortunately found on the beach. KINKADE (voice-over): The film that won the international grand prize showed a group of people paying for a taxi ride with diminishing precious results, clean water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know it would be this busy this time of year.

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KINKADE (voice-over): Another followed the path of plastic water bottles to the Pacific Ocean, which turns out not to be a vacation after all.

HUGO BECKER, JURY MEMBER: We clearly need to be more careful and find other ways to behave, to consume. It's a real issue. We cannot -- you know, just say well it's going to be fine and we're just going to plant trees and we'll be OK.

KINKADE (voice-over): Lessons filmmakers hope will resonate with the audience at the time when every minute counts in the fight against climate change -- Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

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ALLEN: Next here, she had no heartbeat for six straight hours but she survived. See what helped save this woman's life, next.

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ALLEN: The human brain usually suffers lasting damage if the heart stops beating for five minutes but that was not the case for a woman whose heart stopped for six hours. Phil Black has the story from London.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This woman, 34-year-old Audrey Mash went hiking with her husband on November 3rd when things took a turn for the worse. The couple got lost. And Audrey went into cardiac arrest from severe hypothermia.

But six hours after her heart stopped beating, doctors at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron Hospital were able to resuscitate her.

AUDREY MASH, BRITISH HIKER: Amazing. It's like a miracle except I think it's all because of the doctors.

ROHAN SCHOEMAN, AUDREY'S HUSBAND: I thought she was dead because I was trying to feel for a pulse. My fingers were also numb, so I wasn't sure if it was my fingers. But I couldn't feel breath or heartbeat or anything.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Audrey is Spain's longest documented cardiac arrest. When firefighters found the stranded couple in the Catalan Pyrenees, Audrey's body temperature was 18 degrees. Doctors told CNN that is what allowed her to survive, the hypothermia had stopped her heart, also froze her neurons, protecting them from brain death.

Using this special machine, doctors removed all of Audrey's blood, infusing it with oxygen before reintroducing it to her body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Her condition was extremely serious, therefore we were racing against time. And we took firefighters and medics to join the action.

BLACK (voice-over): Twelve days after her ordeal, Audrey Mash was released from the hospital, almost fully recovered with only minor tingling in her hands from the cold.

MASH: Probably this winter, I won't go to the mountains but I hope in the spring we will start trekking again. I don't want this to take away that hobby for me.

BLACK (voice-over): Phil Black, CNN, London.

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ALLEN: We'll end on that one. Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. For U.S. viewers, "NEW DAY" is just ahead, for everyone else, I'll be right back with our headlines.