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Wet New Year's Eve for Both Coasts, Dry in Middle of Country; For First Time, Times Square NYE Returns to Full Capacity Since Pandemic; Putin Invites China's Xi to Moscow as Russia Escalates Strikes; China's Xi Vows to "Increase Political Cooperation with Russia"; Ukraine: Defense Forces Shot Down 16 Iranian-Made Drones; Brazil Declares 3 Days of National Mourning for Soccer Legend, Pele. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 30, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:34:02]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: It looks like Southwest is getting back on track after its holiday meltdown this week. According to FlightAware, the airline has only canceled 40 flights today.

That is far less than half of today's total cancellations and far less than what they canceled earlier in the week -- or earlier in the week they were canceling thousands of flights per day.

And at one point, it was making up as many as 90 percent of all canceled flights in the U.S.

Now that we're on the other side of that Christmas Arctic blast, what will the last day of 2022 bring?

CNN's meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, is here with all the details.

Allison, what can we expect for our New Year's Eve celebrations?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately, for some folks, it will be a bit of a soggy start to the New Year.

We have two systems we're keeping an eye on. This one right here focused across the Midwest down to the gulf coast will be sliding east for New Year's Eve celebrations.

But we also have a secondary system. That's the one that will be make its way into the west coast in the next 24 hours. It's also likely to dump a lot of rain and snow.

[13:35:04]

But we begin with that first system. You've got a lot of very strong thunderstorms moving across the southeast right now. We've got several severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood products, as well.

Most of them are focused around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, stretching over towards Mobile, where you do have a lot of very heavy rain coming down in a very short period of time.

Flooding is also going to be a concern with that secondary system out to the west. It's basically shooting a fire hose. We call it an atmospheric river -- across portions of northern California for now.

But that will shift farther south into central California over the next 24 hours. So a lot of rain. But also a lot of snow, too.

Here's a concern of where we see the biggest threat for flooding. Anywhere you see the green color, Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, all looking at the potential for some flooding.

And, yes, even some winter weather alerts there because a lot of the intermountain west is likely going to pick up significant snow.

But the real question is, what about New Year's Eve? As this system begins to slide its way off to the east on Saturday, that does mean there are going to be areas of rain, Abby, for Boston and New York right around the time the ball will drop.

Just take the umbrella with you, just to be on the safe side.

PHILLIP: Well, at least it's warming up a bit but bring your umbrella.

Allison Chinchar, thank you.

You heard it there. Revelers will need to bundle up and wear a coat to the big bash in Times Square.

But with the festivities returning to full capacity for the first time in two years, New Yorkers are not going to let a little rain put a damper on their fun.

CNN's national correspondent, Gloria Pazmino, is there.

Gloria, what is the deal with New Year's Eve in the next 48 hours? How are preparations going?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, preparations are under way here, Abby. I've been watching all morning, all day all these people that are trying to set up the stage and the barricades.

And all of the throngs of people walking through Times Square right now will seem like just a couple of people compared to the amount of crowds that will be here tomorrow.

Now, you were talking about the rain and the weather. And you did say New Yorkers will not let that dampen the party.

But I do have to give everybody a warning. If you are coming here tomorrow, you cannot bring an umbrella. No umbrellas, no backpacks, no large items, no chair, no blankets.

All of that is part of the security measures that the NYPD is putting into place to make sure that this event goes off without a hitch, that it's safe, and that everybody can enjoy what is really a unique experience, a unique way to bring in the New Year.

The ball has been tested. It came down just as it was supposed to do. More than 11,000 pounds of Waterford crystal on that ball.

And tomorrow, a ton of confetti will fall on revelers as they ring in 2023 -- Abby?

PHILLIP: A literal ton of confetti. And you're right, bring your poncho, leave the umbrella at home.

Thank you, Gloria.

PAZMINO: That's right.

PHILLIP: Don't forget, you can join Anderson and Andy, they're back for another global celebration. Join them on "NEW YEAR'S EVE LIVE FROM TIMES SQUARE," starting at 8:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

And up next for us, Russia is ramping up its attacks on Ukraine.

They are also now courting China for stronger military ties. What does that mean for the United States and what will they do about that?

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[13:42:58]

PHILLIP: New today, Russian President Vladimir Putin invites Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to visit Moscow in the spring.

In this morning's video call, Xi vowed more political cooperation with Russia and said that the two countries should, quote, "inject more stability into the world."

Putin began the call saying that he wanted more military cooperation between the two countries.

Their conversation comes just hours after Russia unleashed dozens more missile strikes on Ukraine, many of them hitting critical infrastructure.

This video here posted on social media claims to be a Kharkiv power plant set ablaze after being struck.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Kyiv.

Ben, Ukraine says it has shot down 16 Russian drones overnight. What can you tell us about that?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this was a miner version of what we saw the day before when we had almost 80 incoming drones and missiles.

There were 16 of these drones fired in the direction of Ukraine. Seven of them were directed towards the capital Kyiv. Now, two were shot down before reaching the capital, five were shot

down over the city itself.

And as we saw yesterday, when these drones or missiles are intercepted, debris falls to the ground. And, of course, this is a very large city of more than four million people, and some buildings were damaged.

So, the Russians continue to try to take out Ukraine's infrastructure, particularly its ability to generate electricity and heat.

Heat, of course, very important in the cold winter temperatures here. But it appears the air defenses are working relatively well.

Elsewhere, however, we're seeing that there's intense fighting along the front line in the Donetsk region, particularly around the city of Bakhmut where Ukrainian officials concede that they are taking large numbers of casualties as these -- as the fighting goes on.

[13:45:09]

In the south of the country, in the Kherson region, much of which was retaken from the Russians last November, the Russians continue this punishing series of artillery, mortar and rocket barrages against that area.

We saw today, within the last 24 hours, I mean, around 80 separate strikes on the Kherson region just as this country prepares for what is going to be a very muted New Year -- Abby?

PHILLIP: That's right.

Ben Wedeman, thank you very much.

Let's bring in now retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's a CNN military analyst and former commanding general of the U.S. Army, Europe, and Seventh Army.

General Hertling, thank you for being here.

You heard the reports that China is now vowing more political cooperation with Russia. But I think the big question that looms over all of this is that, will they try to creep into military cooperation?

What do you see coming down the road here?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I don't see that happening, Abby. Certainly, Mr. Putin is attempting to shore up his partnership with President Xi.

But I think President Xi a long time ago realized this mission is making Russia and Mr. Putin a pariah on the world stage.

They have promised cooperation, political cooperation in the official statement. But as you saw, Mr. Putin was pressing it a little bit, saying, hey, we want military cooperation. So I'm sure there was an attempt to trade energy sources for some type of either ammunition or military equipment back from China.

I'm not sure Mr. Putin is going to get that from the alpha male in this particular relationship. Mr. Putin is seen as the lesser of the two partners in this new China/Russia relationship.

PHILLIP: And it's not clear at all that China wants to risk sanctions by going there.

I do want to ask you about these missiles. Ukraine says that their defenses have shot down the vast majority of the missiles in this Russian barrage overnight, 16 Iranian-made drones, and as you heard Ben say, many, many more in the day before.

The U.S. is working now to stop the transfer of these drones from Iran to Russia. Do you think that that will be successful? How will that even be done?

HERTLING: That would be very challenging, Abby. And I think it's because you sometimes just don't stop another nation from transferring equipment to their partner or ally. And that's exactly what Iran is doing.

There certainly could be sanctions, additional sanctions placed against Iran. But remember, we've got some dealings with Iran, too. We're trying to get some things from them in terms of improved relationship. So it's going to be very challenging to do that.

The truth of the matter is, Russia is attempting to gain partners with different countries, who have different types of ammunition that they can help supply this war.

And I think Mr. Putin is realizing that he's quickly running out of the kinds of munitions he needs to continue this fight.

And we're seeing Ukraine be very successful. And I'm glad Ben pointed out that that massive strike was on Thursday. The additional drones that came in, Iranian drones that came in this morning that were repelled by the Ukrainian forces was the secondary strike.

We're seeing, you know, as we monitor the types of missiles that are coming into Ukraine from Russia, there are days when it seems like a massive strike and then there's a few days where there's lesser strikes.

And that is just an indicator that Russia cannot sustain these kinds of attacks. And even passing them out throughout the entire country, they're not amassing their ballistic missiles in any one area.

They're just trying to create more terror and harm to the civilian population within Ukraine.

PHILLIP: All right. Well, thank you for all that analysis.

Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thank you very much. HERTLING: Thank you.

[13:49:05]

PHILLIP: And up next for us, remembering the giant of the sports world. We will take you live to Brazil where they are kicking off three days of national mourning after the death of soccer legend, Pele.

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PHILLIP: Global icon, soccer king, humanitarian -- he was known by many titles but just one name, Pele. And right now, three days of national mourning are under way in Brazil.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is in Sao Paulo as the country is preparing to lay their legend to rest, and one of the greatest athletes of all time -- Julia?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, Abby, much more than one of our greatest athletes. He was an icon.

It's really impossible to overstate what Pele means for Brazilians. He overcame so many obstacles to become really a legend here.

He went beyond football. He went beyond -- he transcended sport to become a founding father of Brazilian culture and Brazil excellence, Abby.

Because this is what he showed other Brazilians, especially young children, poor black children, that, now, as of the 1960s, think about that historical context.

In the 1960s, they were looking up to a black man that had this kind of respect in the world stage. How special for Brazil to have this man in our history.

So it's no doubt, Brazil is crying today. Everyone I spoke to in the street, they're saying, losing Pele is like losing a part of our heart, a part of our soul.

[13:55:09]

He really gave Brazil the soul that we now are recognized for here and abroad.

It's no question, there will be thousands of people waiting to say their final good-bye to the king of soccer on Monday morning at his beloved Santos Football Club stadium at 10:00 a.m. -- Abby?

PHILLIP: A monumental loss for the whole global but an incredible and vibrant life.

Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much.

That's it for me. Happy Friday. Happy New Year. We'll have much more news ahead.

I'll see you on Monday.

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