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Thousands Flee Their Homes in Australia; Pope Francis Apologized for His Reaction; Iraqi Demonstrators Left U.S. Embassy's Vicinity; Business Owners Feeling the Brunt of Unrest in Hong Kong. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired January 02, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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

Coming up on CNN Newsroom, thousands fleeing the massive wildfires in Australia and new warnings that conditions could get even worse this weekend.

Also ahead, we'll take you to Baghdad where it appears tents put calm outside the U.S. embassy after days of violent protests.

Plus, the pope's apology, he says he should have been more patient with the woman who grabbed him.

We begin in Australia. New South Wales will declare a state of emergency on Friday as the raging bush fires show no signs of slowing down. The situation is also tense in Victoria. The Australian military is bringing in supplies by boats for people who are stranded in Mallacoota. Officials say they have a potential to evacuate about 500 people by boat if they wish to leave.

Meanwhile, this is what it looks like on the highways of New South Wales. Thousands of people are fleeing their homes after officials ordered residents and tourists to get out of the areas along the coast.

At least eight people have died in the fires in just the past few days, while officials are scrambling to ensure supplies are reaching the hardest hit areas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Now there are parts of both, obviously Victoria and New South Wales which have been completely devastated with the loss of power, with the loss of communication, every absolute effort is in trying to ensure that those needs to be stood up as soon as possible.

In some cases, we've been able to get tankers in to restore fuel supplies that is now greatly assisted. Now there are other places which is still too difficult to get these supplies into now but we will be able to do that as soon as we possibly can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Anna Coren joins us live from Nowra in New South Wales, Australia. Obviously, people have been worried for some time now, but it feels like the authorities are trying to calm people down because they're panicking a bit.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, they're trying to calm people down but in saying that they've also told thousands, tens of thousands of people here on the south coast of New South Wales to get out.

And there's a mass exodus underway. There's been a steady stream of cars traveling up the Princess Highway where just south of Nowra about three hours out of Sydney. And we have seen car after car come through.

However, that has been interrupted because of fires about 15 kilometers down the road it jumps the highway. Authorities now trying to get that under control, so from what I have heard from residents who are trying to get to their loved ones is that there are thousands of cars trying to head north.

So, these people are panicked. They are concerned about their safety and they are trying to get out of these areas. Authorities are urging everybody to evacuate. We are expecting a deterioration in conditions come the weekend. Rising temperatures into the 40s and very strong winds. And as we know that is what creates these catastrophic conditions.

I now want to introduce you, Max, to Rob O'Neil (Ph). He is somebody who is desperately trying to reach his two kids and their grandparents who are stuck south of Batesman Bay, what, half an hour, 40 minutes from where we are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

COREN: Tell me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On a good day.

COREN: On a good day.

Tell me you've been here since one o'clock in the afternoon. It is now just gone 7 p.m. You are desperate to get to your children. What's happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four-year-old and a five-year-old went down for a little bit of a vacation with their grandparents on that little bay. And since then they've been cut off obviously by the fires. I'm trying to get down there to evacuate them now but as you said we are stuck here on the roads. We can't get through.

COREN: And you have had no contacts, no communication with them whatsoever?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I haven't been able to speak to them since would have been the 30th. So, I don't know what happened on New Year's Eve. I think they were probably on the beach with a whole bunch of other people trying to escape the fire, but again, we don't know. So, I'm just trying to get there and get them out just before the terrible day on Saturday, as you said.

COREN: You mentioned New Year's Eve. There were those catastrophic conditions. People lost their lives. Obviously, hundreds of homes were lost. I mean, what were you thinking? What were you doing at that time?

[03:05:03]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Year's Eve was not a night of celebration that's for sure. We were watching the media and trying to get as much information as we could and was pretty scary to be honest. Not knowing and not being able to talk to them. I'm just trying to feel through the images, even we could see the image of them on the beach that would've been reassuring but we couldn't even see that. So, lots of people and lots of smoke and not knowing what to think.

COREN: Rod, I hope that the Princess Highway will open soon that you can get to your children and get to your family. Many thanks for joining us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks. OK.

COREN: So, Max, as you can see, they are letting in certain trucks but it is such a fluid situation. The road behind me is lined with more cars. People are desperate to get to their loved ones. I've spoken to countless people whose homes have gone up in flames, whose family members are stuck, they're bringing in supplies.

I did speak to a woman who said she wants to go down and protect her home. Thesis the opposite of what authorities are telling people. But she said I have a pool, I have a watering system, I am going to fight those fires.

So, bush fires Australia is not immune to them, Max. It is part of -- part of life here but this is the worst fire season on record and we are expecting catastrophic conditions this weekend. Max.

FOSTER: Yes. Anna, thank you. It's all about what happens next in terms of the weather. Meteorologist Derek van Dam joins us with more on that. So, a slight window as bad as it all seems there at the moment, but it's going to get worse, right?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, Anna aptly put it that this is the worst fire season that we have experienced in Australia and there are reasons for this which we'll get to but the most pressing information is of course what's happening in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Conditions, unfortunately, will become worse before they get better. We have a cold front that's pressing eastward. We get this almost cyclical weather pattern that takes place. the heat wave moves from western and central Australia to the eastern portions of the country and it's all pushed along by a cold front allowing for that extreme heat to make its way towards the coastline of New South Wales and into Victoria.

Check out these temperatures as we head into Frida and Saturday. Now we will get relief from this cold front to allow in for a cooler weather to settle in and maybe, just maybe some light precipitation, not enough to put out fires necessarily but will take what we can get at this stage before a change in the wind direction makes it difficult for firefighters to get a handle on the ongoing bush fires.

So, how do we get to this point? Well, 2019, according to the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia was declared the hottest year on record. We're talking about with new average temperatures across the country highs and lows. We are 1.5 degrees Celsius above average.

I mean, this is incredible and this is also been the driest year on record. Shattering the previous record which was set back in 1902. Just cumulatively across the country we only saw 278 millimeters of rainfall.

So, where do we stand now? These numbers are new. Latest updated to CNN we have over 150 current bush fires from New South Wales and Victoria. Forty-nine of which are out of control. That number just last hour was 34 so you can see the breath of these wildfires and the bush fires as they continue to expand not only in size but in numbers as well.

Think about what this is doing to the quality of the air. You could actually see from satellite imagery the plume of smoke emanating from the East Coast of Australia and covering parts of the South Island of New Zealand. It is five and a half million square kilometers. That is 14 times the size of Japan.

There are reports of people in the South Island of New Zealand having to turn their lights on in the middle of the day because the smog and the thick smoke from the bush fires is actually blotting out the sun.

Now you can see the air quality index into Canberra and Sydney very bad and very poor as we head into the rest of the week and into the weekend so here's what we have been in store with the passage of our cold front.

Look at the winds picking up into Melbourne, Sydney and points northward as this cold front starts to change the direction for more of a northerly wind to more of a southwesterly component. So that will make it that much more difficult for the firefighters to control these blazes.

Like I said it's going to get worse before it gets better. But the good news on the horizon, the silver lining here, Max, is that you can see some precipitation starting to move in to our map. So, I will look out for that on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Back to you.

FOSTER: Long may it last. Derek, thank you very much, indeed.

VAN DAM: Right. OK.

FOSTER: To Iraq now where a huge crowd have left the area around the U.S. embassy in Baghdad after two days of violent protests. Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets as demonstrators threw rocks and set fires and try to scale the building's walls.

[03:10:03]

They're angry about U.S. airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia group on Sunday that killed at least 25 people.

CNN's Arwa Damon live this hour in Baghdad. So, the area is now secure?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Max, it seems to be and the Iraqi security forces are based on images that we have seen out along the outer perimeter of the U.S. embassy compound. Things are, as we would say, back to normal in the sense that access to that area is under the restrictions that it used to be, under, meaning that you either need to have a special badge to be able to go through or be escorted by someone.

There is still a cleanup effort underway trying to clean the streets up, clean out all of those areas that were burned and scrubbed the graffiti off of the walls.

Now even though, Max, the situation is relatively speaking to what we had seen unfold calm at this stage, Kata'ib Hezbollah, that is the group that was targeted by those U.S. strikes, has said that they decided to pull their people back because America had received their message.

They are viewing this as being a victory but they are saying that their main demand that the U.S. leave Iraq that still stands. However, for the time being they say that they are going to allow the process to go through the Iraqi parliament.

They have set up what's being called the morning tent in another part of the capital at this stage. But when we look at who these protesters are, who this group as was targeted by the U.S., you really end up going to the very core of one of the key complexities that is facing this country at this stage.

Because even though the U.S. is calling Kata'ib Hezbollah a militia, this is a group that is ostensibly part of the Iraqi security forces apparatus. It and many other groups are part of what's known as the PMF, the Popular Mobilization Force which was established as ISIS was sweeping through huge swaths of Iraq, instrumental in driving ISIS out of key cities and towns.

And even though they are part of, again, ostensibly the Iraqi security forces and how much control Baghdad actually has over them is one of the key questions here. And that is perhaps what was apparent on what we saw unfolding outside of the U.S. embassy. The fact that hundreds were able to just stroll right through these

checkpoints and not be stopped. And the Iraqi security forces when they did finally show u, showed up, pretty much after the protesters had decided themselves that they were going to leave.

FOSTER: OK. Arwa in Baghdad, we're keeping an eye on it. Thank you very much indeed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asking for immunity from prosecution. He faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust for allegedly giving hundreds of millions of dollars in state favors in exchange for gifts and favorable media coverage. He denies wrongdoing and calls the charges a witch hunt. His political rival Benny Gantz is crying foul but the prime minister says he is justified in requesting immunity.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): 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 can serve the people according to the will of the people, not the will of the law clerks.

BENNY GANTZ, LEADER, BLUE AND WHITE PARTY (through translator): I see Israel today is led by a man who is prepared to push us to the fringes and is jeopardizing the civic principles upon which we are all educated that everyone is equal before the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Mr. Netanyahu made the request to the Knesset on Wednesday night but because of Israel's political deadlock a decision isn't expected anytime soon, possibly delaying his trial until after the elections in March.

Prosecutors in Japan have raided the home where Carlos Ghosn have been staying while he was on bail in Tokyo. The former Nissan CEO fled the country last month for Lebanon saying he refused to be held hostage by rigged justice system in Japan. Ghosn faces criminal charges including underreporting his salary and abusing his position.

TV Asahi reports prosecutors are working with police to access surveillance video around his home as part of their investigation.

Now the pope begins 2020 with an apology. Coming up, how an incident in St. Peters Square figured into his New Year homily.

And hundreds are arrested in Hong Kong's protests. The economic impact of months of unrest.

[03:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FOSTER: Pope Francis began the New Year with a homily denouncing violence against women, then he offered his own regrets.

CNN's senior Vatican analyst John Allen has the details from Rome.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: So, it's not all the time that a pope opens a New Year by apologizing for his own behavior. But that is exactly what happened in Rome here today with Pope Francis who apologized for an incident the night before in which he slapped the hand and got in the face of a woman who had grabbed him and just simply wouldn't let go.

Let's give a listen to what the pope had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): Love makes us patient. So many times, we lose patience, even me. And I apologize for yesterday's bad example.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: So obviously the poor example that Pope Francis is referring to there is this incident the night before. Made all the more ironic by the fact that the pope delivered his New Year's Day homily dedicated to the issue of violence against women.

It's a reminder that although Pope Francis is a deeply compassionate and merciful figure, he is also an 83-year-old Argentinian male who frankly has a little bit of a temper. We've seen it before. We saw it in Mexico in 2016 when an overly enthusiastic young man trying to grab the pope caused him to fall into the wheelchair of a disabled person.

We saw it earlier this year in March here in Italy, in Loretto when people were trying to kiss his ring and he's sort of testily was he yanking it back. And perhaps, as Pope Francis thinks about the New Year of 2020, his resolution might be to keep that sight of himself a little bit more comprehensively under wraps.

Reporting for CNN, this is John Allen from Rome.

FOSTER: With some advice for the pope.

Now police in Hong Kong arrested about 400 protesters on Wednesday as another anti- government demonstration turned violent. Tens of thousands of demonstrators were on the streets on New Year's Day. Somewhat peacefully but police say some protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs. They responded with tear gas.

It was the latest confrontation of protests that began in June over complaints about Beijing's control of the city. More than six months of unrest has taken an economic toll on Hong Kong. Tourism is down.

And with no end in sight, 2020 is off to an uneasy start for business owners, as Kristie Lu Stout reports. KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR: It has been a brutal

year for Michael Tsang and his Hong Kong Free Tours. At peak season he says his company takes up to 60 travelers on walking towards every day, catering to those eager to dive deep into the city's economic and political system.

He takes visitors through local markets and into the infamous cage homes. But half a year of anti-government protests have scared the tourists away. He says he now takes five to 10 guests on each tour through Hong Kong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL TSANG, FOUNDER, THE HONG KONG FREE TOURS: Before the protests we were planning to even double our tour because there are more people joining. Obviously that plan is not going to go ahead. And some people I started to train that I planned to them on the tour now it's not going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:20:02]

LU STOUT: Hong Kong had already been hit hard by the U.S./China trade war and China's slowing economy but the relentless protests have had a devastating punch.

The tear gas and petrol bombs have tarnished the city's image as a stable international financial hub, causing disruptions to business, a retail sales slump and a recession, its first in over 10 years. And for some, it is a grim outlook for 2020.

The city's flagship airline, Cathay Pacific, has announced it will cut capacity as it struggles to overcome months of unrest. The turmoil is painful. But it's something economists say Hong Kong can find a work around for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT KOEPP, DIRECTOR, CORPORATE NETWORK, THE ECONOMIST: We have reached a new normal. Not only are people used to this kind of impasse, but they have found ways to get around it. We are actually estimating Hong Kong to grow at over 2 percent next year. We are on the more optimistic side of things, but I think it would be very hard to assume Hong Kong is going to continue to decline. That's what a big if though. That's if things don't get worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: One silver lining, the decision by Chinese tech giant Alibaba to choose Hong Kong for its recent share sale, racing around $11 billion in the city's largest listing in years. Hong Kong's free moving capital markets may still be a draw for investors but that offers little solace to small business owners.

The Hong Kong government has announced $255 million to support small businesses and a $2.4 billion stimulus package to help safeguard jobs and provide relief. But such measures mean nothing to Michael Tsang without a return to peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TSANG: I don't know what would happen if this continue longer and longer. That just means that it's just harder and harder for not just me but also our tour guide to maintaining good living.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: As part of his tour, Michael shows tourists what life is like in Hong Kong's subdivided flats, crowded dwelling areas created by dividing departments in older buildings. That is visitors experience what life is like in these cramped homes, a small business owner is feeling the squeeze in a city of protest with no solution in sight.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

FOSTER: The city of London has a long battle of the threat of rising sea levels. Ahead, a massive barricade on the River Thames can hold back the water for now but experts warn it may not be enough for what's expected in the future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Some drone video from Indonesia's capital shows the aftermath of heavy rains over the past 24 hours. It is the deadliest flooding there in years. The government reports at least 21 deaths and more than 30,000 people have displaced.

Landslides and floods have blocked rail lines and caused some power outages. Thursday's forecast calls for more severe storms.

Even optimistic forecast about climate change present a huge challenge for many coastal areas. Flood prone cities like London have already taken drastic steps to deal with a predicted rise in sea levels.

But as our Phil Black reports, it may not be enough.

[03:24:59]

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: London has long respected the power of the sea. Straddling the city's famous river, you'll find this, the Thames Barrier. Finished in the early 80s, it's a mighty mechanized fortification. This feed up video of a recent test shows how it works.

Fully extended, the gates stand five stories high. It's designed to hold back the North Sea on angriest days, to protect lives and the vast riches of one of the world's wealthiest cities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN HAIGH, OCEANOGRAPHER, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON: If there was flooding it would be absolutely catastrophic, you know, particularly if it happened at night. If something was to go wrong the city would absolutely grind to a halt. You know, flooding of subway stations, flooding of the tubes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: We meet oceanographer Ivan Haigh on a day the Thames is swollen by a big tide and the storm surge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK: Have you ever see the Thames looked like this before?

HAIGH: I've never seen it this high.

BLACK: It's a close call but experts monitoring the river have decided not to close the barrier. The Thames looking bloated and full, gives a powerful sense of London's vulnerability to what scientists not consider inevitable. Sea level rocks caused by climate change.

HAIGH: At the moment we are on track to reach at least a meter.

BLACK: And that's -- that factored in, that we expect that regardless of, sort of policy decisions from here forward?

HAIGH: So that's very much dependent from whether we follow the Paris agreement or not.

BLACK: The Paris agreement's goal is to sufficiently cut carbon emissions to keep the average global temperature increase below two degrees. That's to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

Scientists say achieving that goal will limit rising sea levels from expanding water and melting ice sheets. But it's already too late to prevent it. Scientists say even if some of the best-case forecasts prove accurate, this big impressive piece of infrastructure still has a limited shelf life.

Sea level rise means long before the end of this century, it will have to be replaced by a new, bigger, hugely expensive barrier further downstream. These 10 yearly forecasts show what will happen to London if it doesn't have a barrier and the world doesn't act quickly to cut emissions.

By 2100, wide areas of land along the Thames turn blue. Within another 200 years, the river swallows much of Central London. For this advanced in land city, with vast money and resources, managing rising sea levels will be an extraordinary challenge. While around the world, small islands, coastal cities and river delta communities will be making due without those advantages.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

FOSTER: Thank you for joining us. I'm Max Foster. Destination Egypt is up next. But first I'll be back with a check of the headlines for you. You're watching CNN.

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