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Protesters Withdraw From U.S. Embassy Compound In Baghdad; Dozens Of Wildfires Burning Right Across Australia; Benjamin Netanyahu Requests Immunity From Prosecution. Aired 5-5:30p ET

Aired January 01, 2020 - 17:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN HOST: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton in New York. Coming up, protesters withdraw from the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad. While the U.S. and Iran continue to play the blame game. Plus, dozens of wildfires are burning right across Australia. We'll have the stories of some of the firefighters battling to try and put them out. And Pope Francis says he's sorry. What made the pontiff go off script to apologize. That's ahead.

OK, so at this hour things are relatively calm tonight at the American embassy in Iraq. Militants backed by Iran attacked the complex for a second straight day. They set fires at the entrances and threw stones at the building. U.S. forces responded with tear gas. Now most of the protesters pulled out on their own, but Iraqi security personnel are still looking for stragglers. What's happening now in Iraq is of course as always incredibly complicated.

I want to go straight to Baghdad and CNN's Arwa Damon who has been covering the country for more than a decade.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're standing just outside of this massive sprawling U.S. embassy complex. You can see one of the entrances there, if I'm not mistaken that is where you would go through if you wanted to go to consular services.

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The Iraqi security forces are finally on the scene but that the protesters managed to get this far for more than 24 hours, attempt to breach the walls of the U.S. embassy goes to the crux of the many multifaceted challenges that Iraq faces.

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Supporters and members of what is known as the popular mobilization force, the PMF, they are the ones that were part of this protest. These are not ordinary protesters.

The PMF came together as a response during the fight against ISIS, and they have continued to be extremely powerful. The message here obviously is very clear. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Many fighters that make up the PMF gained the bulk of their experience actually fighting the Americans during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. They have historic longstanding ties to Iran with training funding and weapons coming from there. And today's Iraq, they're ostensibly under the umbrella of the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government used the U.S. airstrike against one of these groups Hezbollah as a violation of its sovereignty and an attack on its own forces amid rising questions of was the Iraqi government really helpless to stop this or simply unwilling.

Iraq's Minister of Interior on the scene claimed that it took them a while to spin up their forces.

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And the situation has only just barely begun to get under control with the withdrawal of these protesters right now. But as the spokesperson for Hezbollah, the group that was the target of the U.S. strike said, they left because they gave America their message.

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At dusk, U.S. security personnel began removing the flags of the various groups each which also has a powerful political party within Parliament. A tenuous calm for now. But power struggles within Iraq and the proxy battle between Washington and Tehran are all far from over. Arwa Damon CNN, Baghdad.

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NEWTON: Now, CNN's Ryan Browne has been following the latest movement of U.S. troops to the region. Earlier, we asked him since President Trump campaigned on the promise of withdrawing troops from the Middle East, what is happening now?

RYAN BROWNE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, President Trump long campaigned on getting U.S. troops out of the region out of the Middle East, but those political desires have clashed with the very real security situation on the ground there. President Trump had shown some willingness to wait and to take military action responses to the situation when Iran shot down a U.S. drone. The U.S. military. - President Trump did not order a retaliation.

But when the militia forces linked to Iran were blamed for killing this American contractor on Friday and then a rocket attack, the President ordered a retaliatory response and these airstrikes, we've now seen the response to that these militia groups have attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy, have applied pressure the U.S. position there. And President Trump also making it clear that he was going to protect U.S. personnel and U.S. facilities sending in additional troops. 100 marines almost immediately flying Apache helicopters overhead having 750 paratroopers deployed to the region.

And so, you know the President was very explicit on New Year's Eve actually saying he wanted to avoid a situation like took place in Benghazi, in Libya where the U.S. ambassador there was killed in an attack. So, very much taking a very strong position here. We're hearing senior members of the administration say those military moves were the reason.

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That tensions have now abated a bit. But again, no one's declaring victory just yet.

NEWTON: That was CNN Pentagon Reporter, Ryan Browne. Now for an idea of just how serious the situation is, keep in mind, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has postponed a trip abroad.

He was supposed to leave this week for Ukraine and several other countries in the region, but the State Department now says he is staying home to try and keep an eye on the developments as they come out of Iraq. And I want to point out he also just tweeted that he was in touch with the Iraqi Prime Minister saying that they had promised that they would keep that U.S. embassy secure.

OK, U.S. President Donald Trump is facing a host of foreign policy challenges on this first day of the New Year. And North Korea is of course still high on that list. Kim Jong-un told a meeting of the ruling party that nuclear testing could resume in 2020. President Trump downplayed the threat in New Year's Eve comments at his Florida resort.

But as Will Ripley tells us, this latest warning from North Korean leader comes as no surprise at all.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you think about where we were at this time last year when there was so much optimism, so much hope about the prospect of diplomacy and then the Hanoi summit fell apart and well, we know what's happened since. There has been escalating rhetoric for months between the U.S. and North Korea. North Korea has been testing short range weapons. So, this new announcement doesn't really come as a big surprise.

We've known that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been likely preparing for a major shift in policy and that's when North Korean state media announced. They said because the United States hasn't moved on the issue that's most important to them, sanctions they no longer feel obligated to abide by the issue most important to the United States which is North Korea's self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

In fact, North Korea saying they're going to bolster their nuclear defense basically reversing course entirely because remember the whole reason why the United States and North Korea decided to sit down what President Trump and Kim Jong-un met in person was to solve this problem of a rapidly nuclear rising North Korea. And now, we could be right back there yet again.

Kim Jong-un talking about a new strategic weapon that the world will witness very soon. But as usual being very cryptic, not saying what that weapon is. This is what North Korea often does. They're very deliberate in the way that they issue these messages.

They kind of want the world to be guessing about what their next move is going to be and at the same time they put the information out there and then they wait to hear what the response will be from the United States primarily but also other stakeholders including their ally and patron China which of course doesn't want to see any sort of instability on the peninsula.

Kim Jong-un also gave us some insight into why he has decided to do this now. I'll read you a portion of his statement. He said, United States real intention is to seek its own political and diplomatic interests while wasting time away under these signboards of dialogue and negotiations. And at the same time keep sanctions upon the DPRK, so as to weaken the DPRK.

Of course, North Koreans need sanctions lifted. They have acknowledged that, but they said, Kim Jong-un said in his own words. You know we're not going to sell out our dignity and that is the key kind of at the heart of all of this. North Koreans feel that they have lost some of that dignity because of the embarrassment in Hanoi and the subsequent rhetorical escalations that have followed. And this might just be their first attempt as we begin this new year to get that back. Will Ripley, CNN Hong Kong.

NEWTON: And now we move to an announcement from Israel's Prime Minister in a televised address. Benjamin Netanyahu said, he's seeking immunity from prosecution in the corruption cases he's now facing. Now, he submitted the request to parliament Wednesday night, but because of Israel's political gridlock, an answer isn't expected anytime soon putting criminal proceedings against Mr. Netanyahu on hold.

We want to bring in Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem who of course is following all these developments. And Oren, of course I found it quite audacious of him, there is a strategy behind this for him, so walk us through it.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There always is when it comes to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He's very tactical. He's very strategic and this is part of that.

Now what could this strategy be, we'll get to that in just a moment, but this move was expected. It does come late. He had 30 days to request immunity. He waited until the last four hours to make his statement, making it official that he would request parliamentary immunity in the corruption cases against him where he's facing indictment on charges of bribery and fraud and breach of trust, indictments he's called an attempted coup by the media and the left.

Now, where does this go from here. Well, this is where it's all caught up. It has to go to the House committee except there is no House committee now, because as you pointed out there's no functioning coalition. So, none of the committees have been formed. And that means the legal proceedings against Netanyahu are stuck.

How does this play into the bigger picture for Netanyahu? Well, we're in an election cycle. We're in a campaign. Elections are in March. Netanyahu perhaps hoping this announcement will rally his base towards him. And when he played it and when he announced he was going to seek immunity he tried to play it as this is a way of continuing what he sees as the will of the people.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The immunity law is intended to protect elected officials from fabricated legal proceedings from political indictment intended to damage the will of the people. This law intends to ensure that those elected to serve the people according to the will of the people, not the will of the law clerks.

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LIEBERMANN: Netanyahu's rival Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White party immediately blasted Netanyahu's decision and said, now voters have a choice in the upcoming elections in March. It's either an immunity government for Netanyahu or a broad unity government led by Blue and White. It's either the kingdom of Netanyahu or the state of Israel, so he has made this or is attempting to make this a stark contrast when it comes to the upcoming elections.

Paula, there is one key element here. If there is a possibility of forming a House committee and sort of listening to the request of Netanyahu for immunity, it appears his request would be rejected. A key player here has said his whole party would vote against it meaning Netanyahu does not have the numbers now, but because it's only a request for this Knesset, Netanyahu could theoretically ask again after the March elections if the numbers favor him then.

NEWTON: And I want to get to that issue of if the numbers favor him. I mean throughout all of this as you said this is all in an electoral context. We are headed for unprecedented elections again in March. Anything changing, Oren among voters so far?

LIEBERMANN: Well, I was joking with some friends with the one story we're going to do before the March elections is to try to find the one Israeli voter who's changing their minds. And it seems difficult right now. It's a third election, people are tuned out of politics. So, what will change and can Netanyahu change votes. That's a key question here as we look at reactions here to what's going to happen and how this might play into it.

What is Netanyahu hoping for? Well, he's hoping for 61 seats in the Knesset backing him as Prime Minister. First of course that would give him a strong stable government. But it would also perhaps allow him to get his immunity request approved.

NEWTON: What's interesting here as well is that depending on what happens with the strategy, you have always reminded us you never count this political leader out no matter what. Oren now thanks so much for bringing to us. Appreciate it. Now torrential rain early Wednesday triggered flash floods in

Indonesia killing at least nine people. The cleanup is under way now in the low-lying capital Jakarta. You see it there; thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes. Now the heavy rainfall also caused landslides in some areas. Indonesia's utility provider has temporarily cut electricity to the hardest hit districts. City officials have in the last few years tried to improve Jakarta's vulnerability during that devastating rainy season.

Incredible pictures there now from fires and fortunately - we move to the fires from those floods to cyclones and droughts. Australia's battered and burnt after a decade of natural disasters. Yes, a decade. And now on the first day of 2020, the sky was thick with smoke with more than 100 active wildfires. There's so much smoke, it has even reached New Zealand.

Now, the weather has been a relentless accomplice with heatwave after heatwave and no break in the drought. Fire crews just can't keep up. The death toll has risen to at least 15. And right now, the focus is on moving people out of the way of danger which has been difficult because of course they want to avoid more casualties.

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NEWTON: Just so disturbing dramatic scenes on the front lines as Chris Reason from Australia's Seven News Network reports, the fires are so intense, the heat is actually melting fire trucks.

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CHRIS REASON, SEVEN NEWS NETWORKS: The Central Coast firefighters sent south to help with the current (ph) fire were caught on unsealed homes right near Nara (ph). Embers cascade down from a fire off to the left that they can't outrun. It storms close to the radiant heat almost unbearable. Suddenly it's like driving through hell. This urban fire truck has no sprinkler safety system. They are beyond vulnerable. Flash over, the air is so hot everything explodes. This is life or death. They know how close they came the cabin could have been a coffin.

JASON CROFT, FIRE AND RESCUE NSW: When we were in there in the thick of it, we thought that this could be it.

REASON: The crew managed to escape safe and sound, but it could have been so much worse. This was one of their trucks completely destroyed. It's believed the brake lines melted and the wheels seized up. How intense were the fires? This is aluminum. It melts at 600 degrees. But the fiery say it was even hotter yesterday. That's like melted wax. This crew forced to abandon the $700,000.

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Fire truck throw some breathing gear and flee.

KAYLE BARTON, FIRE AND RESCUE NSW: It had got to a point where it was too dangerous to remain in the vehicle. REASON: They abandoned their $700,000 pumper threw on breathing gear and raced to that truck.

CROFT: It was right on my window, the side of my truck melted.

REASON: That video now has gone global. Headlining America's Nightly News.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight, these apocalyptic scenes happening across Australia.

REASON: And Britain's two.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Incredibly they survived.

REASON: An indicator of the inferno's intensity, a house on the same road set up a GoPro capturing the furnace as it burst through the bush. At nearby Nora (ph), it went pitch black at midday. Those flags at half mast, the firefighter Sam McFaul who died at Gyngell. One of three officers now killed. It could have been more.

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NEWTON: That was our affiliate Seven Network there. Now, U.S. professional basketball is mourning the loss of its longest serving commissioner. David Stern died today from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 77.

During his 30-year tenure he helped transform the NBA, the National Basketball Association into a global multibillion-dollar business. It became the first U.S. professional sports league to play regular season games overseas and so much more in terms of branding Stern was commissioner from 1984 to 2014. OK. Coming up next.

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You see it there, water cannon, tear gas and hundreds arrested. Protesters clashed with Hong Kong police on New Year's Day.

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NEWTON: Videos looking familiar, isn't it? 400 people were arrested as a New Year's Day protest march in Hong Kong spiraled into violence. Police shut down the march after they say some protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs.

Now, Hong Kong police fired back with as you can see water cannon and tear gas to try and break up the crowds. David Culver reports the protest movement shows no signs of slowing down as this new year is underway

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that you can see are burning right now. Police for the most part today have kept their restraint. They've kept a distance, but they set a deadline for those peaceful protesters to leave. That deadline has now passed and the police you can see are moving forward. They're holding signs there; you can see they're warning that tear smoke will be dispersed. This is looking similar to 2019. What we saw of six plus months of protests and clashes calls for democratic reform.

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And police accountability. Those protesters still calling for those demands. 2020 begin in the way 2019 ended here in Hong Kong. David Culver, CNN Hong Kong.

NEWTON: The leader of the Roman Catholic Church has a confession of his own. Pope Francis is apologizing for slapping a woman's hand. Now it happened while the pope was greeting pilgrims in St. Peter's Square and the woman grabbed him. Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen has details.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there Paula. And first of all, a very Happy New Year to you and yours. So, it's not all the time that a pope starts a new year by apologizing for his own behavior, but that is exactly what happened in Rome here today.

Pope Francis, the night before New Year's Eve had been outside St. Peter's Square greeting people and as you can see in the video, we're looking at one of these people, a woman grabbed the pope's hand and simply would not let go. So, Pope Francis returned to her, slapped at her hand a couple of times, gotten her face a little bit. I could not make out what was said, but I am reasonably sure it was not Happy New Year.

Now, of course this morning the pope got up to deliver the homily for his New Year's mass which was dedicated to the issue of violence against women and obviously the juxtaposition there, sort of got to him a little bit. And so, he issued an apology. Let's give a listen to what the pope had to say.

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POPE FRANCIS: Love makes this patient so many times with this patience even me. And I apologize for yesterday's bad example.

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ALLEN: So that's Pope Francis sort of expressing regret for the poor example as he called it that he showed in that slight pick incident. You know it's a reminder that although Pope Francis is a deeply compassionate and merciful figure, he is also an 83-year old Argentinean male and he's got frankly a little bit of a temper. We've seen it before.

We saw it in Mexico in 2016 when an overly aggressive young man caused him to fall into a disabled person. We saw it in Laredo earlier this year when people were trying to kiss his ring and maybe parlay his New Year's resolution for 2020 will be to keep that side of himself a little bit more under wraps. Paula. NEWTON: I'm sure he wishes that as well. Thank you, John Allen, there.

Now this is all that's left of a monkey enclosure after a New Year's fire swept through a German zoo. The fate of dozens of endangered animals, next.

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NEWTON: To Germany now where several people have come forward about possibly causing the fire at a zoo that killed dozens of rare animals. Now the fire broke out at a monkey enclosure in the northwestern part of the country. CNN's Hala Gorani has the tragic details.

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zookeepers in Germany are calling it one of the hardest days they have ever endured. The officials say a fire swept through the Krefeld zoo in the early hours of New Year's Day killing dozens of animals in an enclosure called The Monkey House.

The zoo director says the loss is staggering because many of the species who died in the fire are under threat in the wild.

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WOLFGANG DRESSEN, KREFELD ZOO DIRECTOR: For us it is especially tragic that the tenants of this house, birds and mammals were among the victims of the fire last night. Among them were a highly endangered animals like orangutans from Borneo, gorillas from Central Africa and chimpanzees from West Africa.

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GORANI: On its Facebook page, the zoo says just two chimpanzees named Barley and Limbo were able to survive the fire and are now being treated by veterinarians.

Police say they're investigating reports of sky lanterns flying near the zoo that could have been launched as New Year's Eve celebrations even though they've been banned in this region since 2009.

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GERD HOPPMANN, KREFELD POLICE: Some witnesses saw these torches flying close to the zoo and very low. So, we can assume they fell on the ground. We have witnesses saying that it burned as well on the roof.

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GORANI: A tragic start to the new year for this zoo that must now try to rebuild after losing so much that is irreplaceable. Hala Gorani, CNN.

NEWTON: OK. And we are going to try and end on an inspiring note, I want you to look at this. 10,000 horses are running free in the snow in an autonomous region of northwest China. Now, the Chinese call this area the home to horses' heaven certainly looks like it, doesn't it? Horses breed here - bred here are known for a compact build. You can kind of see how compact they are there. Apparently, it belies their speed, strength and endurance.

Now while they usually are kept in stables as you can see there they are occasionally released for exercise and scene such as this have become a popular tourist attraction. That is absolutely stunning.

And I want to thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I am Paula Newton. World Sport is up next.

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