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U.K. Prime Minister Johnson Urges COP26 Delegates, Get On and Do It; Fossil Fuel Producing Nations Stall COP26 Agreement; Lukashenko Slammed for Creating Migrant Crisis; Detective: Defendant Didn't Know if Arbery Committed a Crime; First Snow of the Season Expected in Parts of the Midwest; French Player Arrested Over Attack on Teammate. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 11, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Delegates to the COP26 climate summit have just two days left to firm up an agreement to keep global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. But their draft deal is facing stiff opposition to an agreement from leading fossil fuel producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to Glasgow Wednesday in hopes of ceiling the deal.
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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We have to bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to be if we're going to cut emissions in half by 2030. And we need to pull out all the stops if we're going to do what we came here to do, and that's keep 1.5 alive and make Paris the success that the world needs it to be.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Phil Black is live this hour in Glasgow, Scotland. Phil, Boris Johnson seems to be cutting a frustrated figure there.
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed. I think you're right, Kim. This first draft is important. It doesn't fix a lot. The progress is incremental. We didn't expect it to be particularly ambitious, but crucially it does keep the process open. There is some strong language there, referencing the science, explaining why 1.5 degree Celsius must be considered the goal in terms of limiting average global warming. That, in a sense, is unprecedented.
It also explains -- referencing the science -- why the window for achieving that is closing really quickly. And with that in mind, it tells countries to go away, reconsider their emissions targets for this decade, and come back next year and try again. That is crucial because it means that theoretically, it would still be possible for the world to do what the science says is necessary. That is limit -- that is cut emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
At the moment we know that we are nowhere near that. And if we come back and do it again in five years as the existing rules say, well, it's broadly considered that would be too late. So, Boris Johnson knows that specific reference. Telling countries to go away, come back, try again with greater ambition, is crucial. And if it is stripped out in the coming days, then many people will believe that this conference and, indeed, the whole COP process, is a failure. That's perhaps why he is sounding very frustrated. Take a listen to a little bit more of what he said when he returned here yesterday.
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JOHNSON: It is very frustrating to see countries that have spent six years conspicuously patting themselves on the back for signing that promissory note in Paris quietly edging towards default now that vulnerable nations and future generations are demanding payment here now in Glasgow.
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BLACK: There are other sticking points.
[04:35:00]
And developing countries are not happy with the vague detail about increased finance from rich countries to help them adapt to the impacts of living with climate change. A problem those developing countries have not caused.
There is also in an unprecedented step, language encouraging an accelerated phase-out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies. That is still loose. There is no time frame, but that's expected to come under big pressure from fossil fuel producing countries in coming days. The thing to remember, this is a consensus process. Around 200 countries have to agree on the final version. That's why the last few days are always intense -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right, keep up the excellent coverage there from COP26. CNN's Phil Black in Glasgow, Scotland.
The U.S. and EU are expected to impose a new round of sanctions against the Belarusian regime as thousands of migrants huddle in freezing weather at Polish/Belarusian border. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling on Moscow to use its influence on Belarus to de- escalate the situation. But there's no indication it will. On Wednesday, two nuclear capable Russian bombers flew over Belarus and it showed support for the country's progression leader Alexander Lukashenko.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us from London. So, Salma, what's the latest on that volatile situation at the border?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: So, thousands of migrants, men, women and very small children came waking up along that border, along the Belarus/Poland border. We do understand that overnight -- again, according to Polish authorities -- 468 attempts were made to cross that border. At least 42 foreign nationals were sent back by Polish troops into Belarus.
And as you know it's overnight often times that very dangerous crossings are made. You can imagine how desperate you must be in the middle the night, forested area, very freezing cold conditions on both sides, of course. These migrants are facing two armed forces. On Poland, there are 15,000 Polish troops right now along that border, ceiling it off. Of course, on the other side, of course, Belarusian troops there as well. I know you're seeing the images on our screen right now.
But Poland says this is not a migrant crisis. It is a political one. And it's pointing the finger at President Lukashenko of Belarus. Poland says that he is orchestrating this geopolitical crisis, using these migrants as an instrument to destabilize the region. Now course, the European Union and the United States back Poland in this crisis.
Just yesterday the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at the White House meeting with President Biden to try to coordinate a response to this crisis. Take a listen to what she said when she stepped out to speak to reporters.
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: We absolutely share the assessment that this is a hybrid attack of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize democratic neighbors and this will not succeed. We will protect our democracies. We agreed that we coordinate our outreach to the countries of origin so that they take care of their citizens, not to fall into the trap of the Lukashenko regime.
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ABDELAZIZ: Very strong words there from von der Leyen. Now of course, Belarus for its part denies these accusations. They blame the EU, say the migrant crisis is one of the European Union's own making and essentially are calling out the EU for failing on its humanitarian commitments.
But beyond this geopolitical crisis, of course, there is the larger context here, Kim. This is an extremely important border. The eastern flank of NATO, the border of the EU. And there's a lot of finger pointing right now, of course, at President Putin of Russia who backs Alexander Lukashenko and is seen as using -- again, according to the EU in the United States -- using these migrants essentially as human instruments, human tools to try to destabilize that very important border.
That's why Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, again was meeting with President Biden to try to coordinate sanctions. But there's already been sanctions in place against Belarus. Already been sanctions in place against Russia. So, the question is, will more sanctions actually cause Belarus to pull back these migrants, pull back from the brink? What does it mean for those desperate families, still huddling, still trying to survive on that border -- Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Yes, important questions. We'll keep on this important story. Salma Abdelaziz in London, thanks so much.
Just ahead, disturbing testimony from day four of the trial of three white men accused of killing a black man running through their neighborhood.
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AL SHARPTON, AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS: What has happened in this case is a lynching in the 21st century.
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[04:40:00]
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BRUNHUBER: In Brunswick, Georgia, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery says it was disturbing that a police investigator didn't testify in court that her son had committed a burglary on the day he died. She says that's what he told her at the time.
CNN's Martin Savage is covering the trial and has more on day four of the testimony.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For its own truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Day four saw prosecutors continuing to try to dismantle the defense claim that the three defendants were attempting as citizens arrest, the day 25-year- old Ahmaud Arbery was killed. On the witness stand a detective testified when he asked Gregory McMichael, if he had seen Arbery commit a crime that day, McMichael said he didn't know and that it was up to investigators to try to figure that out.
Here's the detective reading McMichael's answer from a transcript.
SGT. RODERIC NOHILLY, GLYNN COUNTY POLICE: Well, that's just it. I don't know. That's what I told. I told. What's your name out there? I said listen, you might want to go knock on doors down there, because this guy had just done something that he was fleeing from.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): In earlier testimony, the first officer to interview Gregory McMichael while still on the scene, said he never once mentioned the men were attempting to apprehend Arbery.
LINDA DUNIKOSKI, PROSECUTOR: Did he ever tell you while you're talking to him that he was attempting to make a citizen's arrest?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.
DUNIKOSKI: Do you ever use the word arrest?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The last moments of Arbery's life were captured on a cell phone video taken by one of the defendants William Rodney Bryan. The video shows two-armed white men father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, confronting Arbery as he runs down the road. Travis McMichael and Arbery struggle over Travis's shotgun. Arbery is shot three times, then collapses.
Gregory McMichael's defense attorney argued the senior McMichael feared Arbery was going to kill his son Travis if he got control of the shotgun.
FRANK HOGUE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR GREGORY MCMICHAEL: If he'd had gotten that shotgun, and there was any separation between Travis and him. I was going to cap his ass.
[04:45:00]
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Dear God, we call you ...
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Outside the courthouse during lunch recess, Arbery's family and their attorneys held a prayer vigil. The Reverend Al Sharpton called Arbery's death a lynching in the 21st century, that for a long time received little or no attention.
SHARPTON: Let's not be fooled. They never intended for these three to be in a court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on.
SHARPTON: The reason they are even on trial is because some of us stood with this father and mother and demanded the justice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Back in court the prosecution interviewed the first witness from the neighborhood where Arbery was killed, Matthew Albenze is the voice of the now widely played called to police that first reported Arbery in the neighborhood that day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, what is he doing?
MATTHEW ALBENZE, MCMICHAEL'S NEIGHBOR: Running down the street.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): When Albenze called police he dialed the non- emergency number for the Glynn County Police Department, not 911, something he was asked about on the witness stand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did dial 911?
ALBENZE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Why didn't you dial 911?
ALBENZE: I did not see an emergency.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Not long after Albenze says he heard gunshots and when he went to the scene, he was shocked to see the person he had just reported to authorities now lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the road, and Gregory and Travis McMichael standing nearby.
SAVIDGE: All three defendants in this case have entered pleas of not guilty, and it should be pointed out that the defense teams, all three of those defense teams, as yet have not had the opportunity to present their side of the case.
Martin Savage, CNN, Brunswick, Georgia.
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BRUNHUBER: A federal judge has approved a $626 million settlement over the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The money will compensate thousands of people exposed to lead and other contaminants in the city's water system. Dangerous levels of lead were discovered in 2015. Most of the compensation will go to children because they are most likely to be affected.
Parts of the Midwestern U.S. are seeing their first significant snowfall of the season. But the storm is pushing east. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking the system.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kim. You know, we are watching this pattern here change across the Eastern U.S. in a very big way over the next several days. Wintry weather already being felt, felt across parts of the Northern Plains, the upper Midwest as well where high wind warnings send those winds potentially as high as 55 or 60 miles per hour into the afternoon hours of Thursday into eventually Friday.
And, yes, with snowfall coming down in portions of, say, the northern tier around parts of North Dakota on into northern Minnesota where 3 to 9 inches possible in these regions. That's going to be enough here to cause blizzard like conditions at times. Which again, for an early season storm system, pretty impressive. There it goes across the Great Lakes. High wind warnings and advisory across parts of the Great Lakes. Send those winds here up to 50 plus miles per hour which across Lake Heron that could mean seeing some of those wave heights push up 14 to maybe up to 19 feet high. Very dangerous go when it comes to this wet round of wet weather in store. And then pull enough to support snow showers across the northern most portions of the U.S.
Work its way towards areas of Ohio into say areas of western New York certainly could see some snow out of this. But for the major metro cities, just a little too warm to support wintry weather. So, we'll keep it in for a soggy set up here Friday into Saturday.
Minneapolis dropping to the upper 30s on Friday, climbing back up to the middle 50s by early next week. But you notice the overall trend here is going to be a significantly cooling one going into next week where the Western U.S. begins a dramatic warming trend going in towards Thanksgiving week at that point.
But here we go with the high temperatures. A double nickel ahead of Chicago, 55 degrees. 71 around Atlanta and temperatures in Phoenix -- one of the warm spots right there. Also with southern California, the middle 80s in the forecast -- Kim. BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much.
A professional soccer player was arrested in France for a suspected dirty play that crossed the legal line. Next, we'll tell you more about this incredible story. Stay with us.
[04:50:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 3, 2, 1, 0. Ignition. And liftoff.
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BRUNHUBER: Another four-member crew is on the way to the International Space Station. After blasting off Wednesday night aboard a SpaceX rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Docking with the space station is scheduled for Thursday evening. The three American and one European astronauts will spend six months conducting experiments.
Women's professional soccer in France is reeling from a massive scandal. Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Aminata Diallo has been arrested in connection with an attack on a teammate. Multiple reports identify her victim as Kheira Hamraoui. For more, Cyril Vanier joins us from Paris. Cyril, take us through this bizarre story.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, are you ready for a wild ride? Because this raises so many questions and we really don't have many answers at the moment. Let's start with this. Kheira Hamraoui, starting midfielder for the PSG, Paris Saint-Germain women's soccer team, assaulted last week, brutally beaten with iron bars, missing the following game. All right.
Well, we learned yesterday, and the story took a dark turn, when we learned that her teammate Aminata Diallo had been arrested, taken into custody, questioned by police in connection with this beating. Is it possible that Diallo was connected in any way? She reportedly, according to French daily "L'Equipe," has said that she's got nothing to do with this. But it has raised questions about whether there might be competition for playing time.
Another element reported by French daily "L'Equipe" this morning, that threatening phone calls had been made late last month to multiple players on the squad, offering to reveal details of the private life of Hamraoui, the victim, by someone who claimed to be her former lover. So, there are two angles into this, according to "L'Equipe." A man currently in custody in Leon.
[04:55:00]
Somebody who was already arrested, a convict, convicted on charges of torture and racketeering -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Gosh, what a bizarre story, and still more questions than answers. Do we know what happens next?
VANIER: Well, the PSG is being very coy about this. We've got no answers. Really, we're waiting for answers from the prosecutor and from police. It depends who did what in this story. If Aminata Diallo is indeed involved in the assault on her teammate, then she is going to be charged. But we're not there yet.
Again, she denies involvement. There are many questions swirling about whether perhaps she did this to get more opportunity on the field, more playing time. After all, last week, these two players who were both part of the French national team, we saw that when Hamraoui was sidelined with injury, Diallo was called onto the pitch, which otherwise would not have happened. So, many questions at this stage -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll keep an eye on that very strange story. Cyril Vanier in Paris. Thanks so much.
All right. We want to show you live pictures of an Armistice Day event in Paris. It marks the end of the first world war 103 years ago. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will join the commemoration while on a five-day trip to France to mend fences with one of America's longtime allies. That's after the diplomatic storm caused by a surprise U.S./Britain/Australia security deal that cost France a multibillion- dollar submarine contract.
I'm Kim Brunhuber at CNN Center in Atlanta. Thank you so much for watching. "EARLY START" is next.
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