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Merkel, Receives Lengthy Ovation in Parliament; Parliament Elects Olaf Scholz as New Chancellor; France Records One of Its Highest Daily Case Counts; Australia Joins Diplomatic Boycott of Winter Games; Western Hawaiian Islands Under Flood Watch; Japanese Billionaire Successfully Launches into Space. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 08, 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]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with the stories we're following for you this hour.

Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is now not cooperating with the January 6 investigators. But a CNN exclusive report says lawmakers have subpoenaed phone records from more than 100 people which could provide them the details that they need.

President Biden warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of tougher economic sanctions if Russian troops invade Ukraine. The high stakes call was said to have got tense at times. The U.S. president is set to speak with Ukraine's president on Thursday.

Germany's Parliament has launched a new political era with the election of a new chancellor. Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, will lead a three-party coalition government with the progressive Greens and the Liberal Free Democrats.

Lawmakers started the session with an ovation for Angela Merkel as she ended her 16-year run as the country's first female chancellor. Her time in office is second only to Helmut Kohl.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us from Berlin. All eyes are on Merkel, but it's all about the future, isn't it -- Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly very much is about the future. And the future in Germany began just a couple of minutes ago. Olaf Scholz has officially now been voted in as German chancellor by the German Parliament -- got a majority in German Parliament -- and will be officially sworn in in just a couple of minutes as well. And then later today he will go to the chancellery and take over from Angela Merkel. Who then obviously will be moving out and then he will be moving in?

And you're absolutely right. I mean, it is on the one hand a new political era in Germany. On the other hand, Olaf Scholz has always said that there will also be a lot of continuity from the politics that we've seen in the Merkel era. Olaf Scholz, of course, Max, was the finance minister under Angela Merkel. But your also absolutely right to say that Angela Merkel was second only to Helmut Kohl as far as time in office, over 16 years. In fact, she's only a couple of days short of Helmut Kohl, and she obviously also leaves behind a gigantic political legacy. Let's have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A farewell with the highest military honors, after more than 16 years in office, Angela Merkel received the so- called Grand Tattoo ceremony of Germany's armed forces. A changing of the guard in German politics.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): It is now up to the next government to find answers to the challenges that lie ahead of us and to shape our future. For that dear Olaf Scholz, I wish you and the German government, led by you, all the very best, good fortune and best of success. I am convinced that we can continue to shape the future well, if we don't succumb to discontent, envy and pessimism, the likely said elsewhere three years ago, get to work, would drain our heart.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): It's the end of a political career that was never easy for Angela Merkel. Often belittled in the male-dominated world of German conservative politics. Mein Madchen -- My girl, is what legendary German chancellor Helmut Kohl called Angela Merkel as she arose through the party ranks. And Ralph Bollmann, who wrote the authoritative Merkel biography, says Many rivals mistakenly fail to take her seriously enough.

RALPH BOLLMANN, AUTHOR, "ANGELA MERKEL, DIE KANZLERIN AND THE ZEIT: When they realize what a woman from the east is able to play this game of power, it was too late for them.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): When Angela Merkel became Germany's first female chancellor in 2005, her style was completely different than previous chancellors -- calm, quiet and reserved.

[04:35:00]

But what Merkel lacked in fiery rhetoric she made up for as a crisis manager, both during the Lehman collapse in 2008 and the Greek debt crisis in 2012, she took bold action to prop up the German economy and ailing EU member states, possibly saving the single currency, the euro.

MERKEL (through translator): Europe will fail if the euro fails. And Europe will win if the euro wins.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Arguably Angela Merkel's biggest hour came in 2015 as hundreds of thousands of refugees mostly displaced by the Syrian civil war were literally on the eve's doorstep seeking shelter. Angela Merkel led the EU as it opened its gates, taking in well over a million people.

MERKEL (through translator): We have achieved so much. We'll managed this and whenever something gets in the way, we will overcome it. PLEITGEN (voice-over): But integration of the refugees proved more

difficult, giving rise to nationalist forces in Germany. While Angela Merkel did manage to win a fourth term in 2017, her popularity was waning and she announced she would not seek a fifth one.

Still, the challenges kept coming. With the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president in 2016 and Trump's alienation of many of the U.S.'s allies, Merkel, a quantum chemist, often appeared stunned by some of the U.S. president's remarks.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have German in my blood. I'll be there.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Angela Merkel led Germany through the coronavirus pandemic, but her party support collapsed in the final months of her chancellorship. Her Christian Democratic party lost the 2021 elections, paving the way for a Social Democratic-led government which will take power after Angela Merkel's final political good-bye.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (on camera): And that final political good-bye obviously happening in a couple of hours here in Berlin. Once again, of course, the end of a very, very long political era and one we just saw was really riddled with a lot of challenges that Angela Merkel had to overcome.

And this new government of course faces a lot of challenges as well. First and foremost, Max, of course, dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Germany right now in a very tough situation as far as that's concerned. And then of course, you currently also have that crisis at the eastern border of Ukraine with Russia amassing troops there.

And I think one of the things that that's important to point out with this new chancellor Olaf Scholz and the team he has around him, Olaf Scholz has shown himself to be a big fan of U.S. President Joe Biden. In fact, yesterday at a press conference, he once again reiterated that he's very much in favor of that multilateralism that you see from the U.S. administration. Now he says he's been talking to Angela Merkel about synchronizing positions with the U.S. and with allies. Also, a female foreign minister in Germany for the first time, Annalena Baerbock, of the Green Party. She's also very, very high on transatlantic relations as well -- Max.

FOSTER: Fred, thank you. Be interesting to see what Merkel does next.

Now, Europe's health agencies are trying to battle rising COVID cases ahead of the Christmas holidays. The EU drug regulators says mix and match vaccines may be used for initial doses and booster shots and the combinations produce good levels of antibodies against COVID-19.

Meanwhile the W.H.O.'s euro chief is warning against vaccine mandates, saying they should be a last resort in dealing with the Omicron variant. And France recorded one of its highest daily case counts, just over 59,000 new infections on Tuesday. CNN's Melissa Bell following this story for us from Paris -- Melissa. MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Max, this was one of the

largest rises we've seen in a long time. It comes in the wake of other large rises, above 50,000 new cases a day over a 24-hour period that we've seen several times now over the last few days. A really staggeringly fast rise and spread of what is mostly a Delta variant- driven fifth wave. So, for the time being, a series of measures introduced here in France.

But you're quite right to point out that the trend Europe wide is for governments to be looking at whether or not they should make vaccines mandatory either for their entire populations or for parts of them. Health care workers, for instance, or elderly parts of the population. We know that Germany is considering it. We know that the European level, Ursula van der Leyen has said that it is something Europe may have to consider. But that word of warning from the World Health Organization a reminder really of that problem of vaccine hesitancy in some countries. And the fears there are of a backlash from some parts of the population.

And, Max, this is something that we've been seeing in several countries over the course of the last few weeks. Protests sometimes turning violent from those parts of the population that are really resenting the sorts of new measures that we're seeing in so many countries, that are trying to force them towards vaccination. So, where vaccines haven't been made mandatory, as they have for instance in Austria, the extension of COVID policies, for instance, trying to make life as difficult for the unvaccinated as possible.

[04:40:00]

So, on one hand, resistant parts of the population that are a worry, but on the other, those really fast COVID figures mostly Delta variant here in France. They represent 99 percent of cases. But we know that Omicron is moving fast behind that. There are several hundred cases now that have been confirmed in Europe, and as one Berlin-based virologist pointed out, the problem until January will be Delta, but looking ahead to the summer is likely to be Omicron -- Max.

FOSTER: Melissa Bell in Paris, thank you.

Australia joining the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games. Meanwhile, calling out China for human rights abuses. The latest from Olympic officials just ahead.

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FOSTER: Australia has signed on to the U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The announcement came Tuesday from Prime Minister Scott Morrison citing China's human rights record as the driving factor.

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SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: The human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the many other issues that Australia has consistently raised. We have been very pleased and very happy to talk to the Chinese government about these issues, and there's been no obstacle to that occurring on our side. But the Chinese government is consistently not accepted those opportunities for us to meet about these issues. So, it is not surprising, therefore, that Australian government officials would, therefore, not be going to China for those games. Australian athletes will, though.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, China says Australia is blindly following the U.S. regardless of whether it's right or wrong. The foreign ministry in Beijing says the boycott goes against the Olympic spirit and principle of staying politically neutral.

[04:45:00]

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is following the story for us from Hong Kong. We should note Aussie sports fans, sports people from those countries are still going to the Olympics. But, you know, there will be some sympathy for the Beijing point of view as well, that this should be separate, politics and sports should stay separate.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Australia has made sure to mention as we heard from U.S. officials earlier this week that this is not a full boycott, but a diplomatic boycott. Meaning government officials won't be attending, let's say, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games.

We did hear from Chinese ministry foreign affairs a couple hours ago. And they accused Australia of making this decision of blindly following other countries without limit. It was on Wednesday, earlier today, when we heard from Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister who formally announced this diplomatic boycott just a day or so after the U.S. made the announcement.

And he said that the reason they made this decision was because of difficulties in reopening diplomatic channels with China to discuss human rights abuses in Xinjiang and to discuss China's punitive tariffs on Australian made goods.

We've also heard from Australia's Olympic committee. And they said that this diplomatic boycott will not be impacting an estimated 40 Australian athletes due to take part in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games which will kick off in in February in just about two months from now.

Now this day, we also heard from China's Embassy in Australia. They wish the Australian athletes good luck. They said that they hope they have a, quote, excellent performance. But they also said this. Let's bring it up for you.

They said, quote, the blame for the current predicament of China/Australian relations are squarely on the Australian side. China once again urges the Australian side to take practical measures to create favorable conditions for improving bilateral relations. Unquote. Now on Monday that was when the United States announced formally its

diplomatic boycott and China pushed back saying that America will pay the price. That there will be resolute counter measures. But we also heard this from the ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday, in which the spokesman says that it doesn't matter whether or not diplomats attend the games. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZHAO LIJIAN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): As we stated on various occasions, it is the athletes instead of politicians clamoring for boycott out of selfish political gains that should be in the spotlight. In fact, no one would care whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Olympics to be successfully held by Beijing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: And we heard the similar message today, a statement of, nobody cares about a diplomatic boycott from Beijing, even though on Monday, the very words, United States Olympic boycott were censored online in social media in China -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, we'll be watching other countries as well. Kristie, thank you.

Honolulu, Hawaii recorded nearly 8 inches of rain on Monday, making it the region's wettest day of December on record. The state has been inundated with historic rains and flooding since the weekend. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the latest forecast for you for that area.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Max. What a mess across portions of the Hawaiian islands, in Oahu and Honolulu in particular. We saw as much as 8 inches of rainfall come down in the past 24 hours. The single wettest December day on record across this region. Of course, significant disruptions across the roadways. Certainly, saw some power outages as well. And the flooding continues here as we see conditions finally, I am improve over the next few days.

The energy, what is left of this very slow-moving system pushing a little further toward the west. So, the far western islands, that includes areas around Kauai. That's where the flood alerts are in place through at least Wednesday before we see rains taper off their as well. But rainfall amounts, again, has been as staggering as it gets. And you notice radar imagery still producing some rain there on the western periphery. But as much as, say, 3 to 4 inches still possible on that western flank, but that is really about it. In the damage has already been done across this region.

Rainfall ranging from Hilo at around 5 inches, to work your way towards portions of Kauai where as much as 14 inches have come down, again, in the span of just a couple of days. The islands as we noted sitting underneath a drought situation, so at least some of this rainfall is going to be beneficial. But, of course, we've seen quite a bit of damage left in place as well.

Now around the lower 48 states of the U.S., we do have some wintry weather into the higher elevations of the Northwest and the interior western United States as well. While even a bout with snow showers possibly in store in parts of the Northeast, Boston in particular. Wednesday night into Thursday morning could see some flurries across that region, and some accumulating snow as well. And notice this into the Intermountain West, Denver potentially seeing its first snow of the season coming down over the next several days. Among the longest snowless droughts in place for our friends in Denver, finally, about to be over. Temperatures one more day climbing up to the upper 50s. Seattle at 45. Atlanta around 57 degrees -- Max.

FOSTER: Thanks, Pedram.

[04:50:00]

Now, another name is added to the list of billionaires in space, as Japanese fashion tycoon makes his way to the International Space Station. A look at his journey next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: MS-20 with two Japanese space flight ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And liftoff. Liftoff of Soyuz MS-20 with two Japanese spaceflight participants ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Japanese fashion tycoon, Yusaku Maezawa, is on his way to the International Space Station. He blasted off just a short time ago traveling with a videographer and a Russian cosmonaut. CNN's Blake Essig joins us now from Tokyo. The whole nation really looking at this moment. Just explain what his personal mission is.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Max, I think the whole world looking at this mission. Japan's Yusaku Maezawa has now joined Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson on the recent list of billionaires to launch into space. And watching a live video of it happening from inside the spacecraft as it was happening was really exciting. He had a big smile on his face and understandably. He looked really excited about what was happening.

[04:55:00]

Now the fashion tycoon who Forbes says is worth $1.9 billion took off from Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan about two hours ago and is now on board a Russian spacecraft traveling to the International Space Station for a 12-day mission. Now the 46-year-old says that the purpose of his trip is to share the

experience of going to space as a commoner and give the perspective that is different from an experienced astronaut. Now recent video of him on his YouTube channel show Maezawa trying on a space suit, struggling to learn Russian and training, as he prepared for this journey to space.

It was organized by a Virginia-based company called Space Adventures. Now, this won't be the eccentric Japanese billionaire's only trip to space. Maezawa's already booked out an entire SpaceX rocket to fly around the moon as early as 2023.

Maezawa further made headlines earlier this year when he began accepting applications from ordinary everyday people from all over the world to join him on that SpaceX flight with the billionaire footing the bill -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Blake, exciting stuff. We'll look forward to the pictures.

Now, the city council in South Portland, Maine, may have elected the country's first Somali-American mayor. Deqa Dhalac says a lot has changed since 2018 when she first ran for the council and won. And fellow city councilors, all white, all voted for her praising her dedication to the community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEQA DHALAC, SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE MAYOR: America is this amazing land that is -- anybody can become whoever they want if they really work hard and make relationships.

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FOSTER: Well, South Portland only has about 25,000 people. But it is Maine's fourth largest city. Dhalac is set to serve a one-year term.

Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett up next. You're watching CNN.

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