Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Senate Impeachment Trial to Begin Tuesday; China Reports Its Weakest Annual Growth in 29 Years; Iran Enriching More Uranium Now Than Before Nuclear Deal; Five Countries Demand Answers from Iran on Downed Flight; Australian Celebs Work for Bushfire Relief; Prince Harry and Meghan's Move Sends Media Into a Frenzy. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired January 17, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Studio Seven at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
[00:00:26]
Ahead this hour, on the eve of the third impeachment trial in U.S. history, a flood of new evidence alleging the president was in direct and regular contact with a small team of personal associates trying to force Ukraine to announce a corruption investigation into Joe Biden.
Demands for an honest and transparent investigation by Iran into the human error behind the shooting down of a Ukrainian commercial airliner killing all on board.
And they've been MIA for months, but finally, Australia's biggest names from film, television and music are speaking out against climate change and, more importantly, raising tens of millions of dollars for the fire disaster.
It's happened just twice before and only once in the modern era. The impeachment of an American president. On Thursday in Washington, history was set in motion with the reading of the two articles of impeachment against Donald J. Trump, followed by the swearing in of senators who will act as jurors and decide whether the president is guilty of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and should be removed from office.
The trial itself is scheduled to begin next Tuesday. The president says he's expecting the process to remove relatively quickly, has little public doubt he'll be acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate, even though a new report released on Thursday by the bipartisan Government Accountability Office found the White House violated the law by withholding military aid to Ukraine, part of the core issue of the president's impeachment.
CNN's Sara Murray keeps on our coverage from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not the kind of history President Trump was hoping to make.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Donald J. Trump, president of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
MURRAY: Today, for just the third time in American history, the Senate convened an impeachment trial of the president and prepared to decide whether Trump should be removed from office for his conduct in the Ukraine scandal. The seven House impeachment managers who will serve as prosecutors in the trial, marched to the Senate, where House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff read the two articles of impeachment, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
SCHIFF: With the permission of the Senate, I will now read the articles of impeachment.
MURRAY: At the heart of the trial, Trump's alleged attempts to withhold a White House meeting and security aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.
SCHIFF: President Trump used the powers of the presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States' Democratic process.
MURRAY: The day's heavy pageantry included swearing in the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, who will preside over the president's trial.
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I'm now prepared to take the oath.
MURRAY: He then swore in senators.
ROBERTS: Do you solemnly swear that, in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, you will do impartial justice?
MURRAY: Each senator signed an oath book vowing to act impartially. But a GOP-controlled Senate is almost certain to acquit the president, though a trial could reveal surprises. Democrats continue to push for witnesses and new evidence to be included.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): They are afraid of the truth. They don't want to see documents. They don't want to hear from eyewitnesses. They don't want -- they want to ignore anything new that comes up.
MURRAY: While most Republicans are shrugging off the new revelations emerging almost daily, insisting the president's trial is no place for entering new evidence.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think the Senate should consider new evidence as part of the Senate trial that has come up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not.
RAJU: Why not? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because that's not our job.
MURRAY (on camera): Now, Senators will have an opportunity to vote on whether they do want to hear from witnesses. So we will have a better idea of how this could all shake out next week when the Senate trial begins.
Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us now from New Orleans is CNN legal analyst Ross Garber. He specializes in impeachment law. And CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali, who is in New York.
And Tim, first to you, I want to start with the historical significance of this moment, because it seems up until this point, the weight of the moment hasn't registered, possibly. Because, you know, with all the other outrages and the controversies about this president -- the kids in the cages, the racism, the bigotry, the financial corruption. It's a bit like prosecuting Al Capone for tax evasion.
But when the chief justice, John Roberts, on the Hill swearing in senators, stuff got real.
TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, the president of the United States is on trial. And it's only happened three times in American history and only twice in the modern era. That's a big deal.
The founders included this mechanism in the Constitution to deal with the possibility of a president whose presidency threatened our constitutional order. The founders gave us a description of the causes for removal, but they left working out the details to their successors.
VAUSE: And Ross, the trial begins with this unresolved issue of witness testimony. That seems to take on a greater urgency with the evidence from Lev Parnas, who was working with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to pressure Ukraine into announcing these investigations into Joe Biden, Trump's political opponent. Despite what the president may say, despite what others may say, Parnas was clear about who knew what and when. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So Giuliani knew everything you were doing?
LEV PARNAS, ASSOCIATE OF RUDY GIULIANI: Everything.
COOPER: You're saying Vice President Pence knew?
PARNAS: I don't know if quite -- vice president knew everything we were doing. I'm sure he wasn't --
COOPER: He knew -- he was on the quid pro quo? PARNAS: Of course.
COOPER: Bolton?
PARNAS: Bolton
COOPER: Mulvaney?
PARNAS: Mulvaney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And here is some corroboration to that claim, and it comes from Gordon Sondland, Trump's hand-picked ambassador to the E.U. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON SONDLAND, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO E.U.: Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret. Everyone was informed via email on July 19, days before the presidential call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So Ross, for anyone who claims to want to get to the truth here, it seems a pretty tough case to argue that Parnas and others should not testify. What's the calculation for the Senate leader, Republican Mitch McConnell?
ROSS GARBER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, we have this system. You were talking about the Constitution. One of the things the Constitution doesn't define is exactly how a trial goes.
What we know is the House of Representatives does the charging, and that's the impeachment. And then the Senate does the trial.
And you know, typically, what one would expect would be that the House would have sort of done their investigation before the trial, and then the Senate would try the case, based on what the House had already found in its investigation.
But the House, for you know, good and legitimate reason, did a very, very, in the scheme of things, quick investigation. And they knew they weren't going to be able to find out everything.
So then after the articles of impeachment were passed, we're now learning additional information. Some of it is very potentially important, including this information from Lev Parnas.
So what we're going to hear from the Republican senators who backed the president is, wait a minute. It was a Houses job to do this whole investigation. You guys, essentially, by passing articles of impeachment, said you were ready for trial. Now you want us, the Senate, to do your investigation for you. We're not going to do that.
We're going to hear that from the Republicans. The Senate Democrats are going to say, well, actually, no this is
important information. You're trying the case. You should consider this information.
And in the Senate, things are decided by a majority, and so what we're looking at are the Republicans in the middle. The Republicans have the majority. There are going to be some centrist Republicans. There are some potentially swing vote Republicans that carry all the weight on this issue.
VAUSE: And that pressure is growing, not just from Democrats but within the GOP, for witnesses to be allowed. There's an anti-Trump Republican group, for example, running a series of ads on FOX News to pressure those sort of moderate Republican lawmakers. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Ambassador John Bolton. He was national security adviser to President Trump. He was in all the meetings in which the president's national security team discussed withholding aid from Ukraine in exchange for announcing investigations into the Bidens.
Now, Ambassador Bolton has agreed to testify before Congress. He's willing to do his duty to tell the truth. Are Senate Republicans willing to do their duty to listen?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So Tim, in the scheme of the impeachment trials, we don't have a lot of history, but this has to be a unique feature, not just a TV commercial but the overall politicization of the trial itself.
NAFTALI: I believe that the outcome of this debate over witnesses will depend on the pressure that Republicans feel and on the sense that Republicans have of the legacy, their political legacy, if they do not vote for witnesses. It's all about power.
And so, at the moment, it's anybody's guess what can happen. It looks like there are three Republicans who've made clear that they are sympathetic towards having witnesses, but we don't know whether they'll vote that way when there's a vote. And we don't know when that vote will come.
VAUSE: And with this, we now have a situation with, you know, the president potentially facing removal from office. And for the first time, the man who would replace him is under some serious scrutiny. Parnas has linked the vice president, Mike Pence, directly to the Ukraine scandal. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: How do you know that the vice president would have known what Giuliani was up to, what you were up to?
PARNAS: Because we would speak every day. I knew everything that was going on. I mean, after Rudy would speak with the president or come from the White House, I was the first person he briefed. I mean, we had a relationship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:10:06]
VAUSE: So Ross to you, for the past three years, Mike Pence has been dancing in the rain and not getting wet. Now, he though, seems maybe cornered. And there's a choice here with this scandal. Either he -- he's in up to his neck; he knew what was going on; or he's a clueless rube who was played by everyone.
GARBER: Well, or, and it's possible, we just don't know that Parnas is not telling the whole truth. We just don't know. What Parnas has alleged and the information he's supplied is potentially very relevant. It's potentially very, very disturbing.
And now is the process of trying to verify it, corroborate it. They match it up with documents. That is going to be a significant and intensive process. And it's one that I hope the House of Representatives is not waiting on. I would hope our House Intelligence Committee is now sifting through those materials and will, hopefully, reach out to Lev Parnas and try to bring him in to have him explain some of these issues.
VAUSE: And Tim, according to Parnas, Pence knew, or was at least kind of aware that the reason why he did not attend Zelensky's inauguration, it was all part of the pressure campaign to force the Ukraine president to announce an investigation into Biden.
Is that the moment when the Trump administration's unofficial back channel with Ukraine merged with, you know, the official channel?
NAFTALI: Well, you know, it's not unusual for presidential administrations to use back channels. What is unusual about the Giuliani back channel is that it represented not just a different policy, but a policy that was contrary to formal U.S. foreign policy in the region.
And what seems clear is that this was President Trump's policy. His State Department, his Pentagon, they were moving in one direction vis--vis Ukraine, but the president and his cronies wanted to move in another. And at a certain point, there was a clash between these two, and the president won. And now the president is on trial for having won that particular clash.
VAUSE: One thing which has also come up and is new, I guess, is because of this testimony we're hearing from Parnas, it affects the attorney general. And now he is facing some serious questions over his role in the military aid for the political investigations scandal. Again, here's Parnas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: Do you know if Mr. Giuliani was ever in contact with Mr. Barr, specifically about the fact that he was trying to get Ukraine to announce these investigations into Joe Biden?
PARNAS: Absolutely.
MADDOW: Mr. Barr knew about that?
PARNAS: Mr. Barr had to have known everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And again, he's corroboration for that comes from read-out of the president's perfect phone call with Zelensky. At one point, Trump says, "Mr. Giuliani is a highly-respected man. He was mayor of New York, a great mayor. And I would like him to call you. I will also ask him to call you along with the attorney general."
And then later in the transcript, "I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you."
So Ross, you know, we haven't really even touched on the finding of the Government Accountability Office that the administration violated the law when it withheld that military aid to Ukraine. But the revelations that we've seen over the past 29 days seem to have transformed this trial into something that no one really could ever have seen coming.
GARBER: Yes, and you know, I'm going to add one thing to the sort of list of irregular things that Tim noted. And it's the thing that I think is -- is probably most problematic.
Tim is right. The black channels are not unprecedented. But the biggest problem here is this back channel was organized and led by the president's personal lawyer for the president's personal benefit. That is a -- that is a big concern, a big problem and I think probably the biggest issue here.
No one has explained why Rudy Giuliani, who was the president's personal lawyer, has no role in the government, hasn't said he had any role in the government, why he was actually sort of heading up this -- this foreign policy effort.
VAUSE: It would be interesting if Giuliani appeared as a witness. But I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with everything. But yes, as you both note, quite rightly, we are on the eve of something very big. Thank you both for being with us.
NAFTALI: Thank you.
GARBER: Good to be with you.
VAUSE: Well, before the Senate descends into the all-consuming tribal partisanship of Trump's impeachment trial, there was a reminder that not everything has to be blue versus red. An overhaul of old NAFTA trade deal between the United States and
Mexico and Canada was overwhelmingly approved, 89 for it, 10 opposed. The deal has been waiting for congressional approval since 2018, delayed by Democrats demanding major changes. Last month, the revamped agreement passed the House. Next up now will be the president's desk.
To China now, which reported its weakest annual growth in 29 years. The world's second biggest economy grew 6.1 percent in 2019. This is during the trade war with the United States. It is down from 2018.
But what a surprise in line with expectations. Beijing has also been dealing with rising debt, cooling domestic demand. But the announcement following this week of the first phase of a new deal, a new trade deal with the U.S.
[00:15:05]
David Culver going through those numbers for us. He joins us live from Beijing.
Yet, there's a lot in this that fits within that range, of 6.1 percent or 6 percent or 6.5 percent, which you know, the national planners there in Beijing thought they would get. But this has to be a concern, I guess, for Beijing when you look at the numbers overall, especially with the falling birth rate, the falling demand numbers. They've got a lot of work to do.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, you say with skepticism that they met that target, but the reality is, they always set that. They always hit the target, but there are, of course, questions that come from analysts as to the reliability of that data.
To your point about this being a concern, of course, it's a concern. Economic stability is something that also brings social stability, and so they want to maintain that.
Even as I was walking around earlier this morning, I noticed a sign that was set up for the Chinese new year. And one of the first characters that was up there, one of the first themes, if you will, was prosperity. So that's something that is very important here.
There has also been a big hit with this economy. So while this is the weakest growth that they have seen in nearly three decades, there's also a reality on the ground here for the everyday folks.
The consumer confidence has slumped. Folks who tend to buy big luxury items are restricting their spending on that. We've seen car sales that have plunged in the past 18 months. They've been on decline.
And pork prices have been a big story that we've reported on. That's -- that's a staple meat here, especially as we go into the Chinese new year. And they have been on the rise, given the African Swine Fever that's outbroken across the country and across the region.
So going forward, now that they have this phase one of the trade deal signed, the question will be, can they maintain some stability and perhaps stop the decline and see growth from here on out? Well, that is certainly the narrative that's coming across from Vice Premier Liu He. He was in Washington as he signed that deal. And he made it clear that he believes 2020 will ultimately be a positive year for the economy.
So even some of the op-eds that I've been reading and some of the state-run media publications have suggested that, even if they didn't sign that phase one deal, that China would have been able to withhold their economic stability and it could have outlasted, even, there are some indications the U.S. in their back and forth between coming to an agreement.
So the question will be, will 2020 live up to that? Will this phase one signing assist in that? Remains to be seen.
VAUSE: It does remain to be seen, because they didn't seem to be a lot in that phase one. I think we talked about that just a day earlier. But David, we appreciate the live update. Thank you.
Well, following days of mourning, countries who lost citizens on the Ukrainian passenger plane which was shot down by Iran, are now demanding answer. They also have a demand from Tehran about the investigation. They want transparency. They want honesty.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:20:40]
VAUSE: What was once seen as an historic landmark nuclear agreement now appears to be falling apart. Iran's president says, when it comes to uranium enrichment, there are no limits. Speaking on Thursday, Hassan Rouhani justified Iran's actions by saying his country was acting according to others backing away from the deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today, our daily enrichment is more than before the JCPOA agreement. Well, we didn't sit around doing nothing. When they reduced their commitment, we also reduced our commitment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The agreement began unraveling back in 2018 when the U.S. pulled out and reimposed strict economic sanctions on Tehran.
In a tweet, Iran's foreign minister accused Germany, France and the U.K. of giving in to U.S. pressure. Earlier this week, those three countries triggered a dispute mechanism in the deal, saying Iran has violated the terms of the agreement.
However, the countries says they are still committed to what was once a landmark accord.
Meanwhile, pressure is mounting for Iran to find answers about the Ukrainian airliner which it shot down. Government ministers from Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, Afghanistan and the U.K. have put their demands on the table. The 176 victims were from those countries, as well as Iran. The ministers are calling for Iran to take full responsibility and provide complete transparency during the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANN LINDE, SWEDISH FOREIGN MINISTER: We don't know why this terrible thing happened. And we want to prevent it from happening again. But to get the answers, we need to have full investigation. A full investigation with transparency and with the possibility for the countries that are involved, the victims, can take part with experts, because we don't know exactly why did this take part.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For more now we head to New York and CNN aviation attorney Justin Green. So Justin, thanks for being with us.
JUSTIN GREEN, CNN AVIATION ATTORNEY: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: OK. This process is something getting started. We just heard from Sweden's foreign minister, talking about Iran's willingness to cooperate at this point. Her Canadian counterpart was focusing on the need for the victims' families to know precisely what happened. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE, CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I would say today is not the day for blame. Today is the day for answers. I think that, if you were to talk to the victims, all of us have to meet family of victims and their loved ones. What they have is grief, anger; and they want us to stand for them like we're doing today to seek answers in the truth and justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The reality is it may not be about finding blame today, but that will be the focus tomorrow. Because ultimately, it will be because once you know who is to blame, how they're to blame and why, doesn't that determine a lot of the other issues here?
JUSTIN GREEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, on one level, it does in terms of who's morally responsible. It certainly does.
Who's legally responsible, it really doesn't, because Iran is a sovereign nation, and it enjoys sovereign immunity. It's not going to be legally liable to the families.
So the families will not be able to bring -- like go to Iran, for example, bring a lawsuit against Iran for this or, under most circumstances, there four nations in Canada for example, the law probably would not support a lawsuit against Iran. That's why it's so critically important that the countries -- you know, Canada, the Ukraine and the other countries -- you know, put the pressure on Iran to treat the families correct.
VAUSE: Iran took days to admit they shot down the airline, even though there was no shortage of images on social media showing the plane being fired on by two surface-to-air missiles. The guy who took the video has been arrested.
Not exactly a profile in courage, though, to admit to a crime the entire world has already seen. Iran's president, though, said it was a good start. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROUHANI (through translator): The fact that our armed forces, very clearly and openly, confessed to their mistake and apologized to the people, was a good first step. And the next steps shall be taken, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And those next steps will be key here, I guess. Because just how cooperative Iran will or will not be. For example, the Iranians are refusing to allow the Canadian investigators to look at the black box. They have it. The Canadians can't get access to it. They've said they will get access to it, but for now, they haven't.
[00:25:07]
If that sort of stuff continues, is there a legal solution, or is this a sovereign nation issue, and you just can't do anything about it?
GREEN: Sadly, it really is a sovereign nation issue. The black boxes are usually -- the black boxes are the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. And they're usually the key pieces of evidence in the case.
In this case, the key piece of evidence is going to be in the missile launcher and then the witnesses who are manning that missile launcher. And I can guarantee you, you know, I know there has been some criminal charges. But I can guarantee you there will not be a full investigation or a full public hearing of all the mistakes that those individuals made. Because Iran is not going to want to disclose military secrets, and they're not going to want to be embarrassed.
VAUSE: Let's take a closer look at that, because you know, Iran is saying human error is a reason for this. The military mistakenly fired on the Ukraine airline, thinking it was, in fact, an incoming cruise missile.
Now, "Forbes" has actually reported on this, raising a lot of questions about how that could actually happen. Here's part of their report. "The SA-15 battery would have had multiple means of identifying Ukrainian International Airways Flight PS 752 as a civilian aircraft. Radar should have shown that the Boeing 737-800 was on a commonly used flight path heading northwest from the airport, transmitting a unique transponder identification code, was rising toward 8,000 feet at a relatively sedate speed of 275 knots when flight tracking data from its transponder cut out, a normal profile for an airliner."
You know, this is a very lengthy report. There's some of the highlights, but you know, it raises this question, you know, of either outright negligence; or worse, maybe this was a deliberate act.
GREEN: Well, I mean, that's something I'm not sure we'll ever know. I know they did arrest some individuals.
But remember, this isn't the first time something like this happened. Sadly, the U.S. Navy shot down on Iran airliner back many years ago. And I think some of the same -- I mean, that was clearly human error, or system error. But, you know, some of the same concerns, I'm sure -- I'm sure there are Iranians today who believe we purposely shot down the airliner.
VAUSE: In the few days since Iran made that admission that, yes, we'd done it, at least two senior military officials seem to have been walking it back. One raised the possibility that the U.S. hacked Iran's weapons system. Another general said that Tehran lied as a cover-up to, you know, claims to hide a weakness in national security.
Does this give you pause that, you know, the Iranians cannot be relied 100 percent here for open and transparent and cooperative investigation?
GREEN: I -- I would not rely on the Iranians under this circumstance. I'm actually surprised that they're being as open as they are. This is not unusual.
And I should say that, frankly, there's a lot of distrust around the world for the U.S. doing investigations now after the Boeing Max incident.
So there always is -- you know, aviation safety should not be involved in politics and military issues. So there should be an aviation safety investigation that just gets to the facts without any of those concerns. But sadly, politics does factor in.
VAUSE: Just very quickly, we're almost out of time. Clearly, the airspace is over Iran. They own that. What about the responsibility of the airline not to operate in an area where there is, basically, ballistic missiles flying next door not far away?
GREEN: So the airline is liable, and I think the airline's liability, you know, should probably not be limited based on -- because obviously, this is -- the large fault on this is on Iran. But if the -- if the Ukrainian airlines had said, look, for now on, just to save our passengers, save our crew, we are going to not fly into Iran, this accident obviously would not have happened.
VAUSE: Maybe best advice is to avoid airspace where ballistic missiles have been in action.
GREEN: That's right. That's right. VAUSE: Appreciate it. Thanks so much.
GREEN: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, the rain has brought some much needed relief and firefighters. Well, big-name celebrities are raising some much-needed financial help for those impacted by Australia's unprecedented bushfire emergency.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:31:48]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
The U.S. Senate has now officially opened the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump with the swearing in of senators. The trial itself gets underway next Tuesday. The president on Thursday continued to denounce his impeachment as a hoax, said he expects the trial to finish quickly.
China's trade war with the U.S. has seen economic growth fall to a three-decade low. The world's second biggest economy grew 6.9 percent last year, down from the year earlier, but still in line with government expectations.
Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms have swept across parts of Australia, bringing much-needed relief to help contain the massive bush fires. But it's also causing flash flooding in some areas, like at the zoo in Somersby, New South Wales.
Fires have scorched vegetation, which would normally soak up the precipitation, but the land is so parched in places, the rain is just running away.
Well, the rain is a welcome relief, especially in Melbourne. Fires have been choking the city as the Australian Open gets underway.
CNN's Will Ripley is there, joining us now.
So what we're seeing, essentially, from these -- from Australian celebrities, the big names they've actually come out now. It's been such a long time. They've been silent. They haven't really done a lot. But it seems Russell Crowe at the Golden Globes set everything running.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. The celebrities who are here, they have kind of taken bushfire relief as a personal responsibility, especially because the eyes of the world are on the city of Melbourne for the Australia Open, one of the most important sporting events in this country.
And so they're using their celebrity megaphone to spread awareness of the bush fire crisis here in Australia and also the bigger issue of climate change. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY (voice-over): A cloud of uncertainty over the Australian Open, one of this country's biggest sporting events, overshadowed by a bush fire crisis still very much out of control.
In host city Melbourne, heavy rains bringing relief, lower temperatures, less smoke.
Just days earlier, the world's worst air quality. Open organizers insist they're taking every possible precaution to keep players safe. Not enough for some. This British player tweeting, "Citizens of Melbourne were warned to keep their animals indoors, yet we were expected to go outside."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Australia is going through a lot, as you know.
RIPLEY: Some of the biggest stars in tennis, all under one closed roof at the Melbourne Tennis Center. Raising more than 3 million dollars for bushfire relief.
Australian icon Mark Seymour singing one of his biggest hits, "Throw Your Arms Around Me." The decades-old romantic anthem taking on new meaning in these trying times.
MARK SEYMOUR, SINGER: It's just this big singalong. You know, people just sing that melody, and it just creates a sense of community.
RIPLEY: Something Seymour says Australians need now, more than ever.
SEYMOUR: We've been hit hard by this catastrophic event, and it's going to change us. There's no question about it.
[00:35:05]
RIPLEY: He joins a growing list of celebrities putting their star power to work: celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey; singer Lizzo.
CATE BLANCHETT, ACTOR: There are a lot of Australians in the room tonight.
RIPLEY: Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. International icon Elton John.
ELTON JOHN, SINGER: It's an apocalyptic, absolute disaster.
RIPLEY: Lending their voices and donating millions of dollars to bushfire relief.
PAT CASH, CO-FOUNDER, PLANET ARK AND DO SOMETHING: Celebrities getting in front and portraying a friendly message. And I still think that's really powerful.
RIPLEY: Australian tennis star, 1987 Wimbledon winner Pat Cash, cofounder of two environmental charities.
CASH: We knew this 30 years ago when we started our charity, that you know, we -- that this is the way that the world will be going. And now, to see it happen, it's actually really scary. It's really frightening.
RIPLEY: An environmental nightmare come to life.
CASH: Is it too late to fix these things? I hope not. But it's really -- it's got Australians thinking, and it's got Australians empowered to do something about it now, which is fantastic.
RIPLEY: He knows, Australia knows, the world is watching.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY: It's amazing how quickly the weather here in Melbourne can change, John. When we arrived here, I mean, it was just super smoky and hazy. The flights were being canceled because of the smoke.
Now we've got blue skies and these winds from the southeast, which are keeping the smoke far away from the city. Very good for the air quality, not so good for the hair. I'm looking a bit like Tin-Tin, Kendra tells me.
But you know, hey, we also know that the winds can shift. And there's two weeks of tennis play coming up. Temperatures undoubtedly are going to rocket back up, as well.
So if the smoke blows back in, as it's expected to do over the weekend, bringing the air quality back to hazardous, it's going to be a really difficult situation for the players who are going to be out for several hours breathing that stuff in. So tournament organizers saying they're just going to do what they can to try to keep everybody, you know, as safe as possible, which might mean suspending or even cancelling matches, if necessary.
VAUSE: Yes. Tip for you. Never do a stand up at 4:30 in the afternoon in Melbourne. The winds will kill you every time. We'll see you soon.
Well, the royal crisis, ten days on. When we return, a look back at the stunning announcement by the Sussexes and the media outrage, which hasn't stopped.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Wanted: debonair, dashing man to play womanizing but much- beloved spy. Race unimportant, but gender must be male.
Daniel Craig's time as James Bond is coming to an end, so the search is on for the next actor to play the legendary British character. While calls for diversity have been growing louder, the head of the Bond franchise told "Variety," "He can be of any color, but he is a male." He is male. He, he.
Craig's final appearance as 007 in "No Time to Die hits theaters in April.
Well, it's been a historic few weeks for Britain's ruling House of Windsor. The stunning announcement that the duke and duchess of Sussex were stepping back from senior roles sent the media into an all-out frenzy.
[00:40:06]
CNN's Nick Glass looks back at the royals in crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've had a good ten days of it so far of this new royal family crisis, and frankly, we don't know that much about the detail. What, for example, was said at the so-called Sandringham summit. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall inside the room.
But we still have plenty to say about it, day and night, in good old English weather.
The story has been irresistibly addictive, obviously, potentially another episode for "The Crown" with some imagined regal dialog. We've only glimpsed the queen once, on her way to church on Sunday. Her very personal and supportive statement about Harry and Meghan was issued after Monday's summit.
ROBERT HARDMAN, JOURNALIST, "DAILY MAIL": It was a landmark statement. The queen really doesn't speak about family matters like that very often. Reading between the lines, as we always do, it was -- what came through was her sadness but also her pragmatism. She wants to get this done, and she wants to get it done quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Queen's Fury as Harry and Meghan Say: We Quit."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Meghan Flees to Canada."
"Queen Fights to Save Monarchy."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Royal Soap Oprah."
GLASS: The media, having shifted camp in sunshine to outside Buckingham Palace, would love to know more, but Prince Harry is only currently talking about sport: online about his Invictus Games --
PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: In 2022, the Invictus Games will travel to a new country, a new home for respect for our armed forces.
GLASS: -- and in person about the Rugby League World Cup.
PRINCE HARRY: Lebanon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lebanon, so the Lebanon --
GLASS: At one point, some journalists did manage to shout out a question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Harry, how are the discussions going on your future? GLASS: Harry didn't respond, just apparently smiled and walked on.
A lead editorial in "The Sun" newspapers claimed that skin color has nothing to do with the royal couple's decision. Not everyone agrees.
AFUA HIRSCH, JOURNALIST: Many, many people of color have said to me it's unbelievable that the racism involved in this story is being ignored and denied.
HARDMAN: If you look back at the coverage the couple have received, most of it since the royal wedding has been very favorable. Some of it has been critical. And then some people have pointed to that coverage and said oh, well, there's a racial motivation to it. I simply don't recognize that.
HIRSCH: Even when race isn't part of the overt narrative, singling someone of color out and saying, I just don't like you, something about the way you look that I don't like, which is something that a senior anchor in the British media said about Meghan Markle recently: I just don't like the look of her. It's impossible to ignore the racial undertones to that commentary.
GLASS: As for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, they'd been back on duty and out and about in the northern town of Bradford. Rather pointedly, two leading tabloids both reached much the same judgment. "The Daily Mail's" headline was "Kate, Dazzling Duchess, Shows How It's Done."
"The Sun" went further: "The Duchess of Cambridge Showed How Royal Duty Should Be Done."
It has been a long, long week for veteran royal observers, so much hanging about, having to think of something to say or write when no one's talking.
Nick Glass, CNN, in London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:16]
(WORLD SPORT)
[00:57:28]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
