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Democrats Unveil Two Articles of Impeachment Against Trump; Deal Reached to Advance USMCA Trade Agreement; New Zealand Volcano; U.K. Election. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired December 11, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Democrats unveil articles of impeachment on yet another historic day in Washington.
Also the threat of more volcanic eruptions disrupt recovery efforts on New Zealand's White Island.
Plus it's crunch time for politicians in the U.K. on the final day of campaigning ahead of the general election.
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CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
We begin with the political turmoil in Washington. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to debate the two articles of impeachment against U.S. president Donald Trump on Wednesday. After a two month investigation, Democrats unveiled the articles Tuesday, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
So what's next?
Well first, a vote by the Judiciary Committee on whether are to impeach the president which could be followed by a full House vote as soon as next week. President Trump is downplaying it, calling it impeachment light and week.
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TRUMP: He said other so-called articles of impeachment today. People are saying or, they're not even a crime. What happened?
All of these horrible things. Remember?
Bribery and this and do that, so where are they, they said these two things are not even a crime. This is the lightest, weakest impeachment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: With the articles now unveiled, Donald Trump is another step closer to becoming just the third U.S. president to ever be impeached. CNN's Alex Marquardt has more.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Good morning, everyone.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A solemn day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it, as the Democratic leadership announced for just the fourth time in American history articles of impeachment against a president.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler laying out the two articles that charged the president with committing high crimes and misdemeanors, the first, abuse of power.
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: That is exactly what President Trump did when he solicited and pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 presidential election.
MARQUARDT: The second article, obstruction of Congress.
NADLER: President Trump engaged in unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance of the impeachment inquiry. We must be clear. No one, not even the president, is above the law.
MARQUARDT: Other articles of impeachment had been discussed, but were eventually ruled out, including obstruction of justice going back to the Mueller probe, which some Democrats objected to including.
REP. ELIOT ENGEL (D-NY): The prevailing feeling was that we were better off ultimately with two, because the obstruction of justice brought in a whole bunch of things and it was a mixed bag of tricks.
MARQUARDT: Republicans, for their part, blasted today's announcement as a political move that is an embarrassment to Congress.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): We would never be here if they paid attention to the facts or the hearings. This is not a day that America will be proud about. It's not a day that history will write, that anybody wants to repeat.
MARQUARDT: GOP leaders attacking the speed with which Democrats conducted their investigation in just over two months, which House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said would otherwise get dragged out by the president into a crucial election year.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Why not let him cheat just one more time? Why not let him have foreign help just one more time? That is what that argument amounts to. The president's misconduct goes to the heart of whether we can conduct a free and fair election in 2020.
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CHURCH: CNN's Alex Marquardt reporting from Washington.
Well, joining me now to talk more about this is CNN political analyst Michael Shear. He is also the White House correspondent for "The New York Times."
Good to have you with us.
MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure Happy to do it.
CHURCH: So as expected, the Democrats charged the president with high crimes and misdemeanors, calling for his removal from office. They introduced these two articles of impeachment, abuse of power linked to Ukraine and obstruction of Congress.
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CHURCH: How smart is the strategy of focusing on just these two articles of impeachment given the supporting evidence they have?
SHEAR: I think the Democrats and the leadership in Congress think it's really smart. They have decided to focus narrowly on a specific case, obviously the Ukraine case, because they think that's where the strongest evidence was.
There was a lot of debate inside the Democratic Party in the House. Some members wanted to go much broader and wanted to bring in the Mueller investigations and the Russian meddling and perhaps charge the president with the another article of impeachment related to that case.
There were other members that wanted to go even broader and bring another things that the president has done wrong in their view, but in the end Speaker Pelosi and I think the leadership in the House decided that it was smarter to simply take the strongest case they had. The case that they have been investigating into such depth over the last couple of months and really focus it narrowly on that the idea being that you garner as much support as you can around the very narrow impeachment.
CHURCH: And the Republicans called the announcements political and an embarrassment to Congress, not surprisingly. The big question now will be what will happen when it goes to trial and vote with the Senate next month?
SHEAR: Right, I mean, one of the remarkable things that, you know, a lot of times in Washington especially on Congress -- there's a real uncertainty about how a vote might go, because Washington is pretty closely divided these days.
We are a polarized nation and so oftentimes were hanging on to one vote either way. And you never quite sure what's going to happen.
In this case, I think it is the opposite, right. Everybody knows what's going to happen in a Judiciary Committee in the next couple of days, they're going to approve these articles.
Everybody knows what's going to happen on the House floor. The House is easily going to impeach him and so the only sort of semi uncertainty is kind of how the Senate trial plays out at the beginning of next year.
Everybody is quite sure that the Democrats won't to be able to muster 67 votes, two thirds of the Senate required to remove the president from office, but still how the trial plays out, whether they will be witnesses, whether the president would appear to sort of speak in his own behalf.
All of that is kind of up in the air and uncertain and I think that's definitely got both parties kind of on edge.
CHURCH: Because we know the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell wants a short Senate impeachment trial with no witnesses but that's at odds with what President Trump wants.
What is going on there do you think?
SHEAR: I think the majority leader has made the conclusion that the sooner they can get this whole impeachment drama behind them, the better for his members, at the end of the day when they go home for reelection in 2020, they're not going to be touting the fact that they spent a lot of time on impeachment.
They want to be talking whether they approved judges or legislation or other pieces of legislation that they got approved. I think there obviously is in conflict with what the president at least publicly has said he wants, which is a robust defense. He wants members of his party to stand up and not simply argue, make process arguments but actually argued the merits of the case and the president, of course, thinks the call with President Zelensky was perfect.
He thinks he has done nothing wrong and he wants people to stand up and in a trial and say that. I think that at the end of the day the Senate majority leader and the majority of Republicans who are in the Senate have probably the power to decide which direction they go. But obviously a lot of pressure from the president.
CHURCH: There has to be said that the irony of the day, Russia's foreign minister meeting President Trump in the Oval Office.
What were the optics of that happening on the same day the president faces articles of impeachment over Ukraine, especially given the controversial meeting Mr. Trump had with the Russians back in 2017?
SHEAR: I mean, look, one of the great, amazing things about how everything has been playing out over the last several weeks, is that it's not -- the American people and people around the world could be excused to think that it this all sort of disconnected from each other.
And yet it's not. The Russia investigation was about election meddling, the Ukraine situation is about election meddling. The Ukraine situation is not disconnected from Russia, it is actually integrally connected to the idea of Russian aggression. And so it's all in a weird way sort of coming full circle.
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SHEAR: And as you say the optics of the foreign minister of Russia being in the Oval Office at exactly the moment Democrats are taking up these articles of impeachment was I think not lost on anyone.
CHURCH: Michael Shear, always good to get your analysis and perspective on these matters. I appreciate it.
SHEAR: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: And we go to Moscow now, where CNN's Matthew Chance has more on President Trump's talks with the Russian foreign minister.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fact neither U.S. nor Russian media were allowed to take a photograph of the meeting between President Trump to the Russian foreign minister, underlines how sensitive this encounter was, particularly at a time where President Trump is facing an impeachment process for withholding military aid from Ukraine, the country which Russia has invaded.
In a news conference after the meeting foreign minister Lavrov spoke of a range of issues that he and the U.S. president had discussed, arms control, the conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan, the situation with the Iranian nuclear deal and economic cooperation between the United States and Russia.
He did not give a clear answer, however, when asked repeatedly if President Trump had warned Russia not to interfere in U.S. elections. The White House insists that President Trump did issue such a warning.
When pressed on the issue, Lavrov acknowledged the U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo spoke on the matter but made no reference to President Trump. This was the first official meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and Lavrov since May 2017, when Trump is alleged to have discuss highly classified intelligence with the Russian foreign minister and the then Russian ambassador.
Lavrov also confirmed an invitation to Trump in Moscow next year but said that the American president was yet to decide whether or not he would come -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
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CHURCH: And even as they try to impeach him, U.S. House Democrats have shown they can still play nice President Trump, they announced a deal Tuesday on the revised trade pact with Canada or Mexico, getting the president closer to one of his signature campaign pledges to do away with NAFTA. But the deal still needs approval from both Houses of Congress and the
Senate will wait until after any impeachment trial. More now from CNN's Matt Rivers in Mexico City.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today was a bit of an unusual day during the Trump administration, if only because we have not seen many things like this happen in terms of a bipartisan agreement and yet during a formal signing ceremony that is what we saw with the latest version of the USMCA.
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RIVERS: And being agreed upon, we have some video of that ceremony with here, led by U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer with Jared Kushner, they were one of the architects of this.
And you see them, along with two representatives of the Mexican and Canadian governments signing this latest version of this new trade agreement between these countries.
Of course, the first version of the USMCA was signed one year ago, between all three countries but you have to get it ratified by your respective legislatures, in Canada, the United States and Mexico, it was the United States to held this up because they would not sign on to the first version of the USMCA that was negotiated by the Trump administration.
They demanded lots of changes, not the least of which will be further enforcement mechanisms. They were concerned over certain labor practices in Mexico, that they wanted to make sure certain enforcement mechanisms that could ensure that labor laws would be followed.
But after a year of negotiating between the House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. trade representative within the Trump administration, that both sides were able to agree on the deal, that led to the signing ceremony today, here in Mexico City between those three parties.
It's not done yet, all three sides have to get the new deal ratified by their respective legislatures. But all signs as of now point to that just being a formality, including in the United States, with Nancy Pelosi saying this is a very good deal.
We are expecting there could be a vote to ratify this latest version of the USMCA in the House of Representatives by next week at the earliest. But again a rare case of bipartisan agreement here in Mexico City with both Republicans and Democrats looking at this new version of the USMCA and calling it a win -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
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CHURCH: Well, President Trump is feuding with his FBI director again. How a watchdog report on the Russia probe is dividing the Justice Department. That's coming up.
Plus, New Zealand grappling with the aftermath of a deadly volcanic eruption and the possibility of a another one on the rise. The latest ahead.
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CHURCH: The Chilean air force is intensifying its search for a missing military plane believed to have crashed Monday with 38 passengers and crew on board. Controllers lost contact with the plane about an hour after takeoff. The air force admits the chance of finding survivors is difficult. The search may last up to 10 days.
Volcanic conditions on New Zealand's White Island, also known as Whakaari, is disrupting recovery efforts. Two days after an eruption killed at least six people, volcanic tremors have significantly increased on the island.
Scientists say it is likely there could be another eruption in the next 24 hours. Eight people are still missing. But it is too dangerous to deploy any recovery teams to the island just yet.
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SARAH STEWART-BLACK, CDEM: This tragedy has already claimed multiple lives and caused terrible injuries and unspeakable grief. There is always a delicate balance when it comes to recovery operations of where risk to human life exists.
And right now the science tells us that this is just too high. I can assure you that risk is constantly being reassessed because everyone, I want to repeat that, I mean everyone is united in their desire to recover those bodies from the island so they can be returned to their loved ones.
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CHURCH: And here is TVNZ reporter Sam Kelway with the latest.
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SAM KELWAY, TVNZ (voice-over): The sylvan (ph) picture a contrast to what's going on below, activity at the volcano picking up since this morning.
BRAD SCOTT, VOLCANOLOGIST: The pressurization of the volcano is still high.
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SCOTT: That means the likelihood and possibility of further eruptions remains at a 50-50 chance. The explosions are occurring on a regular basis from the activity area.
KELWAY (voice-over): That information one factor in the effort to recover the eight unaccounted for on Whakaari/White Island. Police successfully put up a drone but no landing yet.
JOHN TIMS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, NEW ZEALAND: We are standing by to go back to the island. The resources are for Whakaari, as soon as we are confident that there are no risks and that those risks can be managed when we return to the island, we will do so.
KELWAY: One local pilot thinks the delay is necessary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So in my mind, frustrated like a lot of other people at the moment.
KELWAY: Fellow pilots rescued 12 people in the aftermath of the explosion but three did not survive the trip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just didn't anticipate them passing. And for all that to happen, what we were doing is heartbreaking.
KELWAY: Two further victims have been identified, Brisbane mom and daughter Julie and Jessica Richards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They loved the cruise atmosphere but more particularly they loved the adventures that went with all the outdoor sports. So those among the family who know them know, when there was an adventure that offered itself, they would be the ones to do it.
KELWAY: The painstaking work to identify the others continuing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be using the nationally recognized Interpol standards for victims identification.
KELWAY: Information on the victim is gathered in stages. Firstly, what is known about the person at the time of death, such as what they were wearing, jewelry, any tattoos or scars.
Evidence is gathered on the scene and the pathologists' post-mortem examination. Only then can a coroner make an identification.
KELWAY (voice-over): Three coroners are working on this mass brutality (ph) as teams remain poised for their recovery mission that families are desperately hoping for.
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CHURCH: I will take a short break here. Still to come, British voters have one more day to make a crucial decision.
Who will they choose in Thursday's election?
What the latest poll numbers say, that's ahead.
And the teenager who has become the face of the youth climate movement is at the U.N.'s climate change conference in Madrid. Why activist Greta Thunberg says world leaders are failing the planet.
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CHURCH: With just one day until British voters head to the polls, prime minister Boris Johnson is driving home his message that he will get Brexit done by bulldozing, as you saw there, through a wall of Styrofoam bricks painted with the word "gridlock."
His Conservative Party is on track to win a majority in Parliament, though not as well as once predicted.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is backing away from Brexit to focus his campaign on health care and education policy reforms. He is trying to claw back the lead from the Conservatives. CNN's Simon Cullen joins me now from London.
Simon, according to the new YouGov forecast the majority of Conservatives has narrowed from 50 to 28, but a win is a win, right?
So if these numbers are right, what is the latest on these?
Talk to us about that because they would still be rejoicing, wouldn't they?
SIMON CULLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.
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CULLEN: A win is a win, especially in a parliamentary democracy like this. As you said the Conservatives' lead has been narrowed from 68 a month ago down to 28 seats. Let's look through the numbers. The Conservatives are on track to win 339 seats. Labour 231. The Liberal Democrats 15 and the Scottish National Party 41.
Interestingly the Conservatives are doing quite well in parts of the country that voted to leave whereas they're struggling a bit more in London so Labour is expected to pick up a few seats there.
There's two major caveats here. One is, of course, the U.K. has a system of first past the post, which means that the candidate with the most number of votes wins regardless of whether they have a majority or not.
So tomorrow, it's like having 650 individual elections. So while national polls are helpful of course, they do struggle to pick up individual issues in individual constituencies.
The second major caveat is margin of error. And even though this poll has 100,000 interviews behind it, even the pollsters themselves say the Conservatives could win a bigger majority; on the flip side it is within the margin of error for there to be a hung Parliament still.
CHURCH: Incredible, isn't it.
So what issues are influencing the people's vote at this juncture so close to the big day?
CULLEN: Well, there has been a big few major themes throughout his campaign and one is Brexit and there is a stark difference between the two major parties. The Conservatives as you say, Boris Johnson has campaigned repeatedly to get Brexit done. He is promising a Conservative government would result in the U.K. leaving the E.U. on January 31st.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is promising to go back to the E.U., renegotiating the deal and to put that deal to the people in the form of another referendum.
Another major theme running throughout this campaign has been public spending and services, particularly the National Health Service. Labour argued the Conservatives cannot be trusted to fund health services appropriately whereas the Conservatives promised extra money for nurses, police and schools.
And another big issue, Rosemary, has been the issue of trust and leadership and both party leaders have struggled at various points, so there has been an issue on both sides as to who voters can trust to lead them for the next five years.
CHURCH: Well, we're watching very closely, Simon Cullen, thank you.
And we will take a short break here. More on the British election later this hour.
A battle is brewing in Glasgow between the leader of the Liberal Democrats and a young political newcomer.
Also ahead, Aramco wraps up its record IPO with trading on Saudi Arabia's stock exchange. The crown prince's plans for all of that money. We'll take a look.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check the headlines for you this hour.
U.S. House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. They now go to the House Judiciary Committee for debate and a full house vote is expected next week.
Well, scientists have said there's a high chance of another eruption on New Zealand's White Island. Two days ago, the volcano exploded killing six people. At least eight others are still missing. The volcanic conditions are making it too dangerous to deploy recovery teams to the island.
The White House says President Trump warned Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov against meddling in U.S. elections. Lavrov hasn't given a clear answer if that actually happened. Their meeting was closed to U.S. media. Last time, Lavrov was in the Oval Office. President Trump reportedly revealed classified information.
Well, Lavrov's visit came as the White House is disputing the findings of a report about the FBI's Russia probe. The Justice Department's inspector general Michael Horowitz found the Bureau did not spy on the 2016 Trump campaign and the start of the investigation was justified. Attorney General William Barr says he doesn't agree.
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WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I disagree with Mike, as I just think this was very flimsy. This was a comment made by a 28-year-old volunteer in a campaign in a bar, offhand, which was described as a suggestion of a suggestion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
BARR: And I personally think the subject matter of it which is the fact, you know, some vague illusion of the fact that the Russians may have something that they could dump, at that time in May 2016, there was rampant speculation going on in the media, on the blogosphere and in political circles that Hillary Clinton's e-mail server had in 2014 been hacked.
And therefore, the Russians might have those e-mails, so drawing the conclusion that this kind of vague comment related to and showed pre- knowledge of the DNC hacking dump, I think was a big stretch.
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CHURCH: The report hasn't ended Mr. Trump's claims about a deep state conspiracy against his campaign. Now, he's attacking his FBI director for accepting the inspector general's findings. CNN's Brian Todd has more.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump vents his anger at another FBI director. In a Twitter broadside, the President saying, I don't know what report current director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken.
A reaction after Wray spoke of how pleased he was that the Justice Department's inspector general found the Russian election interference investigation was properly launched and there was no political bias influencing decisions in the probe. Wray brushed back on the President's claims that some in the FBI were part of a deep state conspiracy against him.
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: I think that's the kind of label that is a disservice to the 37,000 men and women who work at the FBI who I think tackled their jobs with professionalism, with rigor, with objectivity and with courage. And I think it's an affront to them.
TODD: But Wray's boss, Attorney General William Barr, doubled down on President Trump's criticisms of the FBI's Russia investigation.
BARR: They kept on investigating the President well into his administration. After the case collapsed --
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TODD: Trump had some notorious public battles with FBI directors and other bureau officials. He fired his first FBI director, James Comey, after clashing with him over the Russia investigation.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Comey, lies and leaks. He's a liar and he's a leaker.
TODD: Trump then accused Comey's immediate replacement, Andrew McCabe, and top FBI lawyer, James Baker, of being out to get him. He repeatedly eviscerated former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page who had a relationship with each other, accusing them of being part of a kabal of Trump haters inside the Bureau, after their personal texts critical of Trump were made public.
TRUMP: Lisa Page who was forced to leave the FBI and her lover, Peter Strzok, who we got their text messages and what they said in those text messages were shocking, when you talk about bias.
TODD: In one tweet, Trump called Comey, McCabe, Strzok and Page, clowns and losers, wondering aloud will the FBI ever recover it's one stellar reputation. A Trump biographer says the President simply doesn't tolerate being challenged by those around him.
MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, AUTHOR, THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP: It doesn't matter if it's a spouse who's telling the truth about his infidelities or if it's a law enforcement officer trying to do his duty, the right thing to do where Donald Trump is concerned, is to serve him. Any other duty is superfluous and he'll be angry at you and really try to destroy you if you cross him.
TODD: Analysts are concerned that Trump's repeated attacks on FBI directors and their aides have serious security consequences.
CARRIE CORDERO, FORMER COUNSEL TO THE ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: The President's statements are harmful, because what he's doing is he's undermining the credibility of the FBI with the public. And the FBI needs the public in order to satisfy its law enforcement and national security mission.
TODD: CNN has reached out to the White House to ask if President Trump has or will ask for Christopher Wray to resign as FBI director. White House officials told us that's unlikely, but they acknowledged Trump could act without warning. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: Oil giant, Aramco shares are now trading on the Saudi Arabian stock exchange, and this completes the world's largest initial public offering, raising $25.6 billion from retail and institutional bias. This listing is targeted at Saudi nationals and few other investors. The Aramco IPO is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's strategy to diversify the Saudi economy.
And for more on this, our Nic Robertson joins us now from Riyadh. Good to see you, Nic. So, how are these shares fairing right now and what are the expectations?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's the case of one of these things where is a glass half full or is it half empty? And the reason that people ask that question is, the original anticipation and desire when this was first laid out in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to essentially provide a financial boost, an aid to his 23rd vision, his vision of reforming the economy and his vision of reforming the country back in 2016.
You know, he initially anticipated subject to advice, he was given valuation of Aramco could be 2 trillion that they'd be able to sell off or, you know, raise five percent of that value of $100 billion. And the reality is, it's coming at 1.7 -- a valuation of $1.7 trillion, largest ever, of course. And as you said that $25.6 billion worth of shares there.
However, people here would look at it this way and say it's a success that it's been able to do that because there's been a lot of counter narratives here. If you look at when it was first, sort of, put on the table, if you will, for international businessman for international businesses to invest, it was at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in 2016.
Less than a year later, the Crown Prince was rounding up over 300 princes and other leading business figures in the country that he framed as, sort of, counter corruption. But many saw it as an assertion of his control over the country and also a sort of a fleecing, if you will, of some of those very, very rich people. And that sort of took some of the shine off of the attraction of Saudi Arabia as a place to invest.
But the sense is that, the fact that he's been able to achieve this IPO, the Crown Prince, that is taken as a positive step and it does certainly open the doors to him to raise more money in the future.
CHURCH: Nic Robertson, many thanks to you, bringing that live report from Riyadh. We'll take a short break here.
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Still to come, soaring temperatures, rising sea levels and melting sea ice. A dire report card for the Arctic could spill drastic consequences for the rest of the planet. We'll have the details next. Plus, Myanmar's military facing genocide charges. Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will defend the military in defiance of a U.N. report. Back with that and more in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: The Arctic functions as earth's air condition but there are new signs the world's critical cooling system is increasingly at risk. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is out with its annual Arctic Report Card and it is dire.
Air temperatures are rising rapidly and sea ice and permafrost are melting at record levels and the Arctic's air temperatures were the second hottest in more than a century this year. Well, Greta Thunberg, the teenage activist who has become the face of the fight against climate change, takes center stage at the U.N. climate change conference in Madrid.
CNN's Arwa Damon is there and she joins us now live. So, Arwa, of course, Greta Thunberg is seen as the one with all of the answers on climate change. What is she expecting to say today?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, she may not necessarily actually, at this stage, have all of the answers but she most certainly has some very direct rhetoric when it comes to what she and in fact all of these youth activists want to see happen, and that is an end to these circular conversations, this politicking in real action taking place.
What we have been seeing her doing, actually, throughout the course of this conference, is take center stage but then give space to others to speak, so that their stories, their voices are also being heard. And that could be voices from someone who is part of an indigenous group. Two voices being lent to scientists.
Because the science is becoming increasingly dire when we talk about destroying potentially the planet's cooling system, that is going to have catastrophic climate events taking place later on that scientists don't even begin to fully understand.
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And when you are covering this sort of a conference, you really begin to realize the gap that exists between those that need to be making decisions at a global level, bringing down their country's emissions, instead of continuing to increase them.
And then the reality that the science is talking about and the voices of this activist and other companies that are taking action without waiting for their governments. Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Arwa, is there any sense that this climate change crisis can be turned around? I mean, it sounds very dire and very grim.
DAMON: It is dire, it is grim, and it is very hard not to be frightened. And that what is taking place in just about everyone here, we'll tell you that from the activist corporate and local government level.
What you have happening right now though is little to no progress on key issues that federal government representatives here are meant to be tackling. We are in a situation where each country's voluntary emission reduction statements that took place in 2015 when they agreed on Paris.
Those are no good anymore. Those at best to get us to a plan that, that is warmth by three degrees. So, what people are really looking for here is bigger, bolder commitments. There's also a sense that -- and you hear this criticism quite a bit that the fossil fuel industry's interest are being put too much in the center of these negotiations.
The transition away from fossil fuels into renewable energies needs to happen at a much faster pace. And the thing is this, despite the effort of these young activists, despite the -- am I say, quite impressive efforts on the part of corporations that have set their own timelines for going and moving down to zero net emissions and various different local government cities across the world. That cannot be accomplished with that effort alone.
The bottom line is we as a planet need to have governments on board with realistic and ambitious -- not the buzz words here, ambitious targets. Otherwise, we are not looking at a 1.5-degree increase, we're looking at two, three, and perhaps even more.
CHURCH: it is very sobering information indeed. Arwa Damon, bringing us that live report from Madrid, many thanks. And we'll take a very short break, back in a moment.
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CHURCH: In just over an hour from now, Myanmar's de facto leader will personally defend her country against genocide charges. Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, listen to graphic accounts of rape and murder as the case began in the U.N.'s top court.
Myanmar maintains the military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State was part of a fight against terrorism. Despite international condemnation of Suu Kyi's defense of Myanmar's generals, she is popular at home. Thousands of her supporters rallied in Yangon on Tuesday.
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And our Kristie Lu Stout joined us now from Hong Kong with the latest on this. So, Kristie, no one can dispute her popularity at home. But Suu Kyi's international supporters are struggling to understand how this human rights icon can defend the indefensible.
So, how does she propose to argue and defend her country against these genocide charges?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's the big question at this hour because very soon we will hear on some Aung San Suu Kyi, personally defend her country from these really horrific accusations of genocide against Rohingya. And she is expected to repeat her government's claim that the military was conducting an anti-terror operation that it was targeting retention militants in clearance operations. The allegations that were brought to the U.N.'s top court by Gambia on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. And on Tuesday, we heard from the Gambian justice minister, who told the court this, all that Gambia asks is that you tell Myanmar to stop these senseless killings.
Its arguments are based on the findings of U.N. investigations. And earlier, we heard from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee, who described a very telling encounter with Aung San Suu Kyi. Take a listen.
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YANGHEE LEE, UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR, MYANMAR: I remember meeting her before the elections. And when she -- and when she was just a parliamentarian and hoping to become the leader of Myanmar.
After her election, she has -- you know, been singing a different song from a different song sheet. And at the very end, she was telling me when I was pushing her for the truth about Rakhine and how she needs to go to Rakhine to see what really happened on the ground, she repeated the phrase like any -- that she's repeated to others whereby she would say, if you continue this U.N. narrative, you may not get any access to the country.
That's when I was really appalled. So, I really do feel that she feels that the military that her dear late father had formed can do no wrong.
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LU STOUT: U.N. Special Rapporteur Myanmar Yanghee Lee, there. Now, Gambia will ask the judges to immediately bar me Myanmar from destroying evidence and from taking any further acts against the Rohingya. But ultimately, it is asking the court for justice to rule that Myanmar committed genocide to bring justice to the Rohingya. Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Kristie, as Suu Kyi listened to the very graphic and many accounts of rape and murder in Myanmar during the start of this case, of course, how did she respond?
LU STOUT: Yes, Rosemary, it's hard to imagine what she was thinking when she listened today one of the hearings. They were telling of those horrific atrocities of systematic use of rape, of murder, of torture. But observers have pointed out that this may be the first time that she had to listen to these charges at length.
You know, we've heard from foreign diplomats and U.N. officials like Yanghee Lee, who say that Aung San Suu Kyi often cuts them off when they raised the issue with her. So, Rosemary, yesterday was her day to listen, and today, in a couple of hours, she will speak.
CHURCH: All right, many thanks to our Kristie Lu Stout, bringing us that live report from her vantage point in Hong Kong. Well, candidates in the United Kingdom have just one more day to court undecided voters before they head to the polls. Jo Swinson is the leader of the Liberal Democrats, but she's fighting for her seat in her home constituency in suburban Glasgow.
Scott McLean has our report.
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AMY CALLAGHAN, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY CANDIDATE, EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE: Then, why don't you go with (INAUDIBLE) user number two, then, tell me and you can defy.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At 27, Amy Callaghan is young for political standards, but has no shortage of life experience.
The Scottish National Party candidate in suburban Glasgow has had to fight for her own twice. At age 19, she had a cancerous lump removed from her cheek, it came back two years later. She was treated by Britain's public health system, the NHS.
CALLAGHAN: OK, perfect.
My experience with cancers only sparked a desire to me to make sure the NHS is protected. And now, I'm standing here as a candidate for East Dunbartonshire, for the Scottish National Party. Five years cancer-free because of what NHS done for me.
MCLEAN: It saved your life.
CALLAGHAN: Yes, it saved my life twice.
Enjoy a couple of minute was perfect.
MCLEAN: In this election, though, Callaghan has another uphill battle against Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson. A little bit heavy with the advantage of a national profile and 12 years as the M.P. for East Dunbartonshire, but she's been beat once before.
CALLAGHAN: No one has got a divine right to seat here, they need to err not right.
MCLEAN: From the outset of the campaign, 39-year-old Swinson set her sights on Number 10. Boldness dwarfed only by her party central campaign promised to cancel Brexit without a second referendum.
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After a strong start in the polls, Liberal Democrats have been on a steady slide. Katy Gordon is Swinson's longtime local campaign manager. She remembers how it felt to lose the seat in 2015 and to win it back two years later.
KATY GORDON, CAMPAIGN CHAIR, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT, EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE: This time, I'd say it somewhere between the two, you know. There's warm support, there's also a lot of people fundamentally motivated by Independents.
MCLEAN: Independents has transformed Scotland from reliably Labour red to SNP yellow. Conservatives has since made inroads, but Liberal Democrats, who oppose a second Independents' vote had felt the squeeze.
GORDON: So, if you have one dividing line that's about -- you know, your loyalties to do with Independents or not. And then, you have another dividing line about leave or remain in Europe. And so, you -- it's much harder to predict these days, I think.
MCLEAN: On the high street in Kirkintilloch, we found another dividing line when we asked --
How do you feel about Jo Swinson?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cannot stand to the desperate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a nice person. She doesn't deserve to be and paid off on any way she performed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, 17.4 million people who voted to leave that had no voice. So, now I want voting lifted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's not done much for the sense. Is that your fame, if you live over the other end East Dunbartonshire and (INAUDIBLE) end.
MCLEAN: But even seven miles west, we found kind words.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's been excellent and (INAUDIBLE).
MCLEAN: But not a lot of votes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jo Swinton, she started well, but some of the things she said like Article 50 revoking, I don't think she's got a good grip at the moment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's lost before, I completely I used to vote for if I do anymore, because -- and I think she's just become too extreme.
MCLEAN: In Scotland, there are no safe seats, not even it seems for a National Party leader. Scott McLean, CNN, Glasgow.
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CHURCH: Well, Banksy is getting into the spirit of the season with a new mural. The secretive British street artist posted a video of his latest work on Instagram. It shows two reindeer pulling a street bench sleigh to call attention to homelessness in the United Kingdom.
Banksy, says the bearded man is named Ryan, and he witnessed passers- by give him a hot drink and chocolate in true holiday tradition without him asking for anything. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter and I'll be back with more news for you in just a moment. You're watching CNN, stick around.
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