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Ukrainian Soldiers Fight Russian Private Military Group In Strategic Town; Cardinal Pell, Whose Convictions Were Overturned, Dies At 81; Deadly Storms And Flooding Wreak Havoc Across California; French Government Unveils Plan To Raise Retirement Age To 64; Classified Files Found In Biden's Former Office; Prince Harry Condemns "Dangerous Spin" About His Taliban Comments. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 11, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour here on CNN. An allout assault. While Russia is now focusing much of its military bite one small Ukrainian town. Australia's Catholic Cardinal George Pell, convicted and then later acquitted of child sexual abuse charges has died.
And back from disgrace. The return of the Golden Globes will highlight some of the winners from one of Hollywood's biggest nights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: It might just be Russia's first major battlefield victory since August, with the Wagner mercenary group claiming to control the small town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine.
The area has been the focal point of a major push by Russian forces in recent days. Ukrainian officials though, insist the fight goes on. But one Ukrainian soldier has told CNN it's only a matter of time before the town falls to Russian control. He says the death toll is so high they've now stopped counting the number of dead.
Soledar is in the Donetsk region, home to the largest salt mine in Europe, with a vast network of cabinet's underground tunnels. Notably not far from the strategic city of Bakhmut, which has been under siege by Russian forces for weeks.
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Ukrainian soldiers who are reportedly fighting house to house in defense of someday. He called on the world to help.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers there in Soledar, we want additional time and additional strength for Ukraine. What did Russia want to win there? Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left and thousands of other people are lost. The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the invaders and scarred from the blows. This is what madness looks like.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More now in the battle for solidarity from CNN's Scott McLean reporting in from Kyiv.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Smoke billows over the salt mines in Soledar, eastern Ukraine. This small town is now the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in this 11- month war.
Video filmed by one soldier on the front line shows the house to house style fighting troops are now locked into. The tank is working. Did you hear? The Ukrainian fighter says. The streets of Soledar littered with debris as Wagner fighters battle for control of this strategic town. This part of the war's front line is dominated by the private military group.
Wagner had Yevgeny Prigozhin even praising the bravery of the Ukrainian forces he is trying to defeat, admitting Sunday that his men were exclusively working to capture the town and the mines underneath Soledar and Bakhmut.
The town's walls are almost entirely demolished according to Ukrainian officials.
Soledar, though small in size, is strategically important to the ultimate capture of Bakhmut, a way of surrounding the city from the north and disrupting Ukrainian communication lines.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): The battle for the Donbas continues, and although the occupiers have now concentrated their greatest efforts on Soledar, the result of this difficult and prolonged battle will be the liberation of our entire Donbas.
MCLEAN: Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday acknowledging the extremely difficult situation in Soledar. Russia, meanwhile, is still reeling over the devastating Ukrainian strike on troops housed in Makiivka on new year's day. Moscow says 89 servicemen were killed, though Ukraine says there were hundreds.
Russia says it will not publish their names, claiming it will help foreign intelligence services activities against them. As the fighting in Soledar rages on, all eyes are when and if it may fall. Scott McLean, CNN. Kyiv.
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VAUSE: U.S. and Ukrainian officials say Russian artillery fire is down in parts of Ukraine by as much as 75 percent, a clear departure from usual tactics of carpet bombing cities from a distance. Just why, though, remains unclear. Russian troops could be rationing loose supplies, or it could be part of an overall reassessment of battlefield tactics.
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The Pentagon confirms training Ukrainian troops on the Patriot Defense missile system will begin next week at Port Still in Oklahoma. The U.S. announced last month it would send a single Patriot system to Ukraine. The training of between 90 and 100 Ukrainian troops expected to take several months.
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BRIG. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: The training will be tailored to provide relevant tactics, techniques and procedures based on the battlefield conditions in Ukraine to enable them to employ that to maximum effect once they are back in Ukraine.
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VAUSE: Joining me now from Washington, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton. Colonel, good for you to be with us. Thank you.
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, John. Good to be with you.
VAUSE: OK, here's a little more from that Ukrainian soldier fighting to defend Soledar. He told us the situation is critical. Difficult, we are holding on to the last. No one will tell you how many dead and wounded there are, because no one knows for sure.
Now, Bakhmut is less than 10 miles south of Soledar. Explain why the Russians need Soledar to take Bakhmut and why Bakhmut is so important to the Russians.
LEIGHTON: Yes. From the Russian perspective, what you're looking at is a possible path for the Russians to surround Bakhmut. So Soledar is northeast of Bakhmut, and it has those cavernous salt mines that you spoke about.
What that will allow the Russians to do is store their weaponry, store troops, war material of various types, and then use that as a way to push forward into an area that would allow for them, if they capture it, to potentially maneuver and encircle the town of Bakhmut.
And then you have to, of course, as you asked, why Bakhmut? The key thing there is that this opens up the whole area from the Russian perspective of the Donetsk Oblast to the Donetsk region. And if they capture the part of the Donetsk area, this would give the Russians even more territory that they would control and potentially could open the door from, they believe, to control the rest of that particular region. If they do that, then that gives them a bit of a victory. It may be a Pyrrhic victory, but it would give them at least bragging rights for a few months, perhaps. VAUSE: Britain's Defense Ministry believes the Russians are most
likely in control of Soledar already adding this part of the fighting is focused on the entrances to the 200-kilometer long disused salt line tunnels which run underneath the district. Both sides likely concerned that they could be used as for infiltration behind their lines.
So, controlling those tunnels was important enough for Russia to commit a large number of mercenaries to this fight alongside regular Russian soldiers. Specifically, what advantages do these tunnels will give the Russians now? What can they do with this?
LEIGHTON: So potentially, depending on exactly how the tunnels are laid out, it could potentially give the Russians the capability to go underneath the Ukrainian lines and attack the Ukrainian forces from the rear. This would allow them to come in and move in areas where they haven't been able to do so, where they've been blocked from the entrances to Soledar, and it also would have prevented them from moving forward in that particular way.
But John, what you're looking at here is a classic urban type campaign, although it's done in areas very complex, like a mine and other areas like that. So this is what they're dealing with. The Russians are thinking that this is one way that they can ensure their victory in this way.
VAUSE: We also have two senior U.S. officials telling CNN that there's been a substantive change in the type of weaponry the U.S. and its allies are providing to Ukraine to meet Kyiv's requests for firepower. That includes the Patriot defense missiles training for the Ukrainians begin next month at Port Still in Oklahoma. Listen to this.
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RYDER: The training will prepare approximately 90 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers to operate, maintain, and sustain the defensive system over a training course expected to last several months.
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VAUSE: At the same time, we have the United Kingdom, which is considering sending Challenger two tanks to Ukraine, which would make the UK the first western country to provide tanks. And we put a lot of pressure, I imagine, on Germany to go one step beyond the Marder armored vehicles and provide Leopard tanks so weapons altogether. Do you see this surge in firepower from the west as an attempt to overwhelm Russians before they can regroup? Not some kind of counterfences. Because, you know, the one thing that sticks out here, though, is that the Patriot defenses -- patriot missile defense system will take a long time for these troops to Ukrainians, to get a hold of and actually train and know how to work it.
LEIGHTON: Right. At the minimum, at the bare minimum, it would be about six months before the Patriot training would finish. And by the time the actual battery gets in place in probably around Kyiv in Ukraine, we're looking at eight months or so at a minimum.
So all these other pieces of equipment, you know, whether it's tanks, whether it's armored personnel vehicles, those kinds of pieces of equipment are going to be necessary for the Ukrainians to, at the very least, hold their own.
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So what the west is seeing here is the possibility of the Russians using overwhelming numbers to overcome the very heroic Ukrainian resistance. So the west is trying very hard to make sure that the Ukrainian forces are not overwhelmed and for Soledar and then for Bakhmut would be kind of that opening gambit that the Russians would have there.
So these weapon systems, where they come from Germany, from Britain, from the United States or France, these weapon systems are going to be critical to stemming the Russian tide and preventing further erosion of the Ukrainian defenses.
VAUSE: Yes, there's a lot to get to with this war, and obviously it seems to be escalating in some areas. But, Colonel Cedric Leighton, we appreciate your insight and your analysis. Thank you, sir.
LEIGHTON: You bet, John. Any time.
VAUSE: Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic official to be convicted of child sex abuse before his 2020 acquittal, has died. According to church officials, Pell suffered a fatal cardiac arrest after hip replacement surgery in Rome. He's the former Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, served as Vatican treasurer for five years. But his tenure at the Vatican was cut short in 2018 when he faced trial on charges of sexual abuse of two choir boys during the 1990s. Pell was found guilty by a jury, served 13 months in prison before being acquitted on appeal to Australia's highest court.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live for us now this hour in Hong Kong. So when it comes to Pell's legacy, the answer depends on who you ask. So how does survivors of sexual abuse by the clergy see Pell's legacy here?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It does depend on who you ask. When you talk to survivors of sexual abuse or their advocates, they have a very angry response to the legacy of this man. Cardinal George Pell was a very powerful man. He was Australia's most powerful Catholic. He was also the most senior Catholic official to be convicted of child sex abuse before he was later acquitted in 2020.
Inside the Catholic Church, upon news of his death, there have been expressions of shock and sadness, but many others have shared a very different response. For example, this from Claire Leaney. She is the CEO of the In Good Faith Foundation. This is an advocacy group for survivors. In a statement, she says this quote, for many survivors of clerical abuse, particularly here in Australia, George Pell was a symbol of a system that repeatedly put the interests of the Catholic Church above the interest and safety of individuals, unquote. On the coming days, we know a memorial service to remember Cardinal
Pell will be held in the Vatican, followed by a service at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where he will be buried. A man, a powerful man with a tarnished legacy.
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LU STOUT (voiceover): Cardinal George Pell, Australia's highest ranking Catholic has died, age 81. He entered the clergy in 1966 and went on to serve as Archbishop of Melbourne and later Sydney. While an archbishop, Pell set up the Melbourne Response, which included payouts for survivors of clerical sex abuse within the archdiocese. It became one of the earliest responses to address sex abuse accusations in the Church, but critics say it was geared to prevent scandal and could have been more generous to victims.
In 2003, Pell was ordained as a cardinal by Pope John Paul II and rose to become Vatican treasurer, widely considered the third most powerful spot in the Vatican. Italian newspapers referred to him as a bull in a China shop for his forthright manner when dealing with financial reform. But Pell was credited for his attempts to make the Church's bookkeeping more transparent.
In 2014, Pell was called back to Australia to appear before a royal commission into institutional responses to sexual abuse in the country. The Commission found that Pell had known about sex abuse in the church, but not reported it to police.
In 2018, Pell himself faced court on five counts of historical child sex abuse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cardinal Pell, would you please stand?
LU STOUT: Pell strenuously denied the charges, but he was found guilty after spending one year in prison, Pell successfully applied to get the convictions quashed by Australia's High Court, who said that the jury should have had doubts about the alleged offenses. Pell's name was removed from Australia's Child Sex Offender Register, but he remained the most senior Catholic to ever be accused of Pedophilia.
Pell died in Rome on Tuesday from cardiac arrest after a hip replacement surgery.
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LU STOUT: Now, Pell vehemently denied the sex abuse charges, which he called in one interview, quote, product of fantasy. But child abuse victims and advocates are angry. They've been sharing strong reactions on social media. I'll just quickly read out one reaction here. An advocate writes as an agnostic, I hope his God is real and George now finds justice. And we've also learned this at the father of a deceased ex-choir boy who alleged that Pell sexually abused him will continue his civil election against the Cardinal, despite his death.
[01:15:00] You're looking at the statement. Let's bring it up once again from the father's lawyer. Her name is Lisa Flynn and she says this, quote, there was still a great deal of evidence for this claim to rely on, and the court will be asked in due course to make its ruling on that evidence unquote. She adds that the claim will continue against the church and whatever estate Pell has left behind. Back to you, John.
VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout live for in Hong Kong.
Well, giant sinkhole in Los Angeles County suddenly appeared on Tuesday, swallowing two cars. Fire crews rescued two people. California continues to be hit by a series of atmospheric rivers which have dumped heavy rain across the state, caused major flooding and landslides, mudslides. Officials say at least 17 people have died so far, and at this hour, around 75,000 customers statewide are without electricity.
Authorities have lifted an evacuation order, though, for Montecito, allowing residents to return and begin to clean up after floodwaters devastated the city. Meteorologist Britley Ritz is with us now with more on the forecast. And, you know, it's bad. It's going to get worse.
BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. There's more rain moving in now. Now thankfully, the heaviest of the rain has tapered back for now. Satellite radar showing you scattered showers, most of them now inland, but still holding on to a few on the coastline just south of Eureka. So, thankfully, again, rain has tapered back at the moment.
But over the last two days, we have seen a significant amount of rain. You saw the landslides and the debris flows, as well as roadways completely washed away in some of these locations just up to the east of Santa Barbara for the last 48 hours, picked up over 10 inches of rainfall in some of these locations across all of California, over 16 inches of rainfall there's.
There's that atmospheric river, one area of low pressure pushing in that moisture along North American's west coastline. What is an atmospheric river? What's an AR? Well, these areas of low pressure come off of Southeast Asia. The jet stream picks them up and pushes all of that subtropical moisture right up over top of the Pacific Northwest and into California.
And here it is, wave after wave, Wednesday into Thursday, Thursday into Friday, Friday into Saturday. Another wave pushes in.
Now, again, it's not as heavy as the past few waves that have pushed through, but it's still overworked area where we have already saturated ground, so it's not a good situation. Flood watch is still in effect for much of the inland parts of California, where widespread flooding is expected.
And then we're talking about impassable roadways which has already occurred, more mudslides, and then your rivers and your creeks start to rise. And one of them, the Salinas river near Spreckels, expected to hit major flood stage moving into Wednesday. When that happens, we're talking about over 40,000 acres of agriculture, land that's going to be impacted within that vicinity. John.
VAUSE: Britley, thank you. We appreciate the update. Well, the extreme flooding in California has seen dozens of rescues in recent days just like this one. We'll have a lot more on the storms later this hour.
The Golden Globe awards have made a comeback after NBC did not broadcast the ceremony last year because of racism, of allegations of racism revealed by a Los Angeles Times report which exposed lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association which represents the Golden Globes.
So, to the show, here are the winners, top winners this year, I should say. Colin Farrell, best actor at a musical comedy for the Banshees of Inisherin. Michelle Yoeh walked away with the best actress in a musical or comedy for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to the White Lotus in Sicily.
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VAUSE: White Lotus voted best television limited series. Here's more out from the creator.
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MIKE WHITE, CREATOR, "WHITE LOTUS": We went out with a show we wanted to do with Jimmy and Jennifer and everybody passed. I know you all passed. You all passed on this show. And so, yes, it's very gratifying to have this moment.
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VAUSE: And while Abbott Elementary won top rise for best television, musical or comedy series. The big winner of the night was The Fablemen's the best motion picture drama. Steven Spielberg explains its success.
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STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR: I got them anything they wanted. I ran around. I ran around that set, which was like a 16 millimeter camera and a lot of noise and whatever they wanted. I ran out to Delis and got them stuff. And that's why I treat my PAs so kindly because I know what it feels like.
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VAUSE: Full list of the Golden Globe winners head over to CNN.com.
Meantime will take short break. When we come back, outrage in France over proposed plans to raise the retirement age, but the government is going ahead with pension reforms despite a backlash from workers and unions.
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Also how President Joe Biden is dealing with the classified documents which were found in his private office in Washington. One of tech's biggest annual events just wrapped up. We'll look at some of the products that were on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. There seems to be some unhappiness in France that the government plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Dozens gathered on Tuesday protesting the new retirement age and the age when they become eligible for a full pension. CNN's Melissa Bell has more details.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): One of the key objectives of Emmanuel Macron when he became President back in 2017 was reforming France's pension system, not only to bring the country in line with other European countries, but also to help plug the country's public deficits.
He tried several times. Bear in mind that here in France, there were not only the yellow vest protests, but also in 2019, when the pension reform was brought back on the table. Huge protests across the country against those reforms then, of course, COVID-19, now they've been brought back
The French Prime Minister speaking to parliament on Tuesday and announcing the beginning of this bill that will now head through parliament and that promises to be fairly controversial. The idea that France's retirement age will go from 62 to 64 by 2030 already here in France. It isn't just that the parliamentary progress looks complicated, given that Emmanuel Macron lost his parliamentary majority back in 2022, but already trade unions threatening to take to the streets on January 19. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
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VAUSE: New details this hour on classified documents found out of the office of a Washington think tank which Joe Biden used before becoming president. A source tells CNN exclusively that 10 classified documents were covered and the topics in them include Ukraine, Iran and the UK.
The records are from 2013 to 2016, when Biden was vice president. The U.S. Attorney General has received a preliminary report, according to a source must now decide how to proceed and whether to open a criminal investigation. President Biden meantime says he was surprised to learn the documents were actually in that office.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: When my lawyers were clearing out my office at the University of Pennsylvania, they set up an office for me, secure office in the Capitol when I -- the four years after being vice president. I was a professor at Penn. They found some documents in a box in a locked cabinet or at least the closet. As soon as they did, they realized there were several classified documents in that box and they did what they should have done they immediately called the Archives.
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VAUSE: President Biden made those remarks during the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City. From there, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has this report.
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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER (on camera): President Biden wrapped the North American Leader Summit on Tuesday and finally addressed news back at home about classified documents found in his private office prior to him assuming the presidency.
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In his remarks, he said that he was surprised to learn that the classified documents were found there and reaffirmed that he takes it very seriously and that the White House was coordinating with the National Archives as well as the Justice Department. But that loomed over an important summit for the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada as they focused on key issues like economic development, climate change and trade, and, importantly, migration. That was an issue that came up multiple times over the last few days as all three countries wrestle with migration across the Western Hemisphere.
The United States in particularly reiterating the fact that it is a regional solution that they need and that they are relying on Canada and Mexico for assistance as they try to stem the flow of migrants that has been arriving at the U.S. southern border, and that has grown as a political vulnerability to President Biden.
Now, the administration released some measures to try to encourage migrants to take legal pathways to the United States. Those details are still being ironed out, and we're still waiting to learn more on them. But there's no doubt that this summit was used as an opportunity to strengthen relationships between all three countries and to recommit to coordinating on all issues. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Mexico City.
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VAUSE: Brazil's former president has been discharged from a Florida hospital. Jair Bolsonaro was admitted Sunday. His wife says he had abdominal discomfort. On Tuesday, he was seen arriving at a home in Orlando. Bolsonaro, though, has arrived in Florida just days before the inauguration of Brazil's new president. He was notably absent from the Brazilian capital when his supporters stormed several key government buildings On Sunday.
Bolsonaro told our affiliate state in Brazil he intends to return home, did not say when. Well, still ahead, an alarming report on the rapidly warming planet. What a new report says about just how hot the past eight years have actually been.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN Newsroom. Prince Harry has pushed back on claims he was boasting in his new memoir about the number of Taliban fighters he killed while serving in Afghanistan calling it a dangerous lie.
Duke of Sussex accused the British press of stripping away the context and turning his stories into a salacious headline. Ahead of his book's release, he told U.S. Late Night host Steven Colbert, he hopes people will be able to see the context now that his memoir spare has been released.
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PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: I would say that if I heard anybody else, if I heard anyone posting about that kind of thing, I would be angry.
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But it is a lie. And hopefully now that the book is out, people will be able to see the context. And it is -- it is really -- it's really troubling and very disturbing that they can get away with it because they have the context.
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PRINCE HARRY: It wasn't like -- it wasn't like here's just one line. They have the whole section. They ripped it away and just said here it is. He's boasting on there.
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VAUSE: In his memoir, his ghostwriter claims that Harry killed 25 people while serving in Afghanistan, describing Taliban insurgents as chess pieces and the baddies. Other comments about criticism from some British security and military figures.
From extreme drought to extreme flooding in a matter of days in California, hit by what the U.S. National Weather Service says is the most impressive storm in nearly 20 years.
Many places like Santa Barbara saw more than a month's worth of rain in just one day. San Luis Obispo recorded its wettest day on record. Santa Maria saw its third rainiest day in more than 100 years.
They since have eased up for now. But the weather patterns that caused the extreme flooding are not done yet. California's governor had this warning.
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GOVERNOER GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We are not out of the woods. We expect these storms to continue at least through the 18th of this month. We expect a minimum three more of these atmospheric rivers in different shapes and forms depending on different parts of the state.
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VAUSE: The governor puts the death toll from the storms at 17. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and authorities have made dozens of rescues.
CNN's Nick Watt has the latest now reporting in from Los Angeles.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In L.A. County, a 70-year-old driver is stuck in raging waters on a suburban street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They about made it halfway through and spun out a little. You could see like the silhouette. Eventually he was rescued, but on California's central coast, the search for a five year old boy swept away on his way to school abandoned when the weather got just too bad, resumed late this morning.
Tuesday, day two of this onslaught. Tens of millions under flood watch across California.
LT. GOV. ELENI KOUNALAKIS (D-CA): We have had five atmospheric rivers come into California over two weeks. Everything is wet. Everything is saturated. Everything is at a breaking point and there is more rain coming.
WATT: Thousands already evacuated from their homes including everyone in Montecito, the Tony (ph) beach front home. Home to Oprah, Harry, Meghan and Ellen.
ELLEN DEGENERES, TV HOST: This creek next to our house never flows, ever. WATT: No school in nearby Santa Barbara today after the city saw more than a month's worth of rain in a single day. The sewer system overwhelmed so sewage wound up on some streets.
Today, a level three of four flood threat in areas around Los Angeles. Up to three inches of rain fell in downtown L.A. Monday. Deep mud and debris closed Highway 101 north of the city, one of the many, many impossible roads in the state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seven people were pulled from the Ventura River with the helicopter and the ladder.
WATT: This, the most impressive storm in nearly 20 years, says the National Weather Service. The so-called atmospheric river drenching a state that is just not used to this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are concerned about the creeks that come from the west and there is just more water in them than the banks can contain.
WATT: The Salinas River normally runs just five feet deep. Expected to crest tomorrow at more than 27 feet. Three more feet of snow could fall in the Sierras. There was some
respite today but more rain and flooding are forecast days the NWS.
As the next in the seemingly never ending a parade of storms moving in from the Pacific. And not much of a silver lining to these dark clouds. Experts say all this will not completely reverse the severe drought. We have been suffering.
And up in central California today. Just a case of horrific bad luck. A eucalyptus tree fell onto a highway, hit a truck, killed the driver. And then a motorcyclist rode into that tree and was also killed.
Nick Watt, CNN -- Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: California's wild weather whiplash can be blamed at least in part on the past eight years which were the warmest on record for the planet.
A new report by the European Union Climate Change Service says 2022 was not only the fifth warmest year but also a year of climate extremes that brought record breaking heat waves into Europe and deadly floods to Pakistan.
The report says the annual average temperatures have now reached 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That is getting increasingly close to the 1.5 degrees mark believed to be dangerous tipping point for the planet.
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VAUSE: So for more on this, joining me now from London's is Bob Ward, policy and communications director with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Bob -- thanks for getting up early.
BOB WARD, GRANTHAM RESEARCH INSTITUTE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Hello.
VAUSE: Hello.
Now there is always hesitation in overstating (ph) conclusions from data especially weather data. So I want you to listen more now from the senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Here she is.
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FREJA VAMBORG, SENIOR SCIENTIST AT THE COPERNICUS CLIMATE CHANGE SERVICE: It's always difficult to say just based on one event whether climate change is happening faster or slower than expected.
For this, you really need to look at kind of a longer term perspective and put one year after the next and kind of look at the longer term perspective. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Having said all of that, it seems pretty cut and dry at this point to assume that yes, this is a trend that is getting faster and it's not going away.
WARD: Yes. It's is very clear that the earth is warming. That we are seeing a trend towards warmer years globally which are reflected in national temperature data.
The only explanation for that is the rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere which are causing a warming effect.
That has a very easily explained impact on the not just on the average temperature but on the extreme. So we see more frequent and more intense heat waves which is something that Europe saw this year.
But a warmer atmosphere also holds more moisture so you then see when it does rain, you get heavier downpours and more risks of flooding. So these are all things that are exactly a scientist explain what happened and are happening. And will continue to get worse until we reduce our global emissions of greenhouse gases to zero. And we are a long, long way from that.
VAUSE: Ok. So there is two things happening here. There is the ongoing warming of the planet which is having a direct impact on the extremes and, you know, the warmer years are getting warmer, the droughts are getting more extreme. The fires are getting worse. That kind of stuff. But we also have the regular weather patterns to which are taking place. So we've had La Nina conditions over the Pacific for the past three years which has helped keep temperatures down.
But we're looking at a situation now where La Nina could be replaced, you know, this year by El Nino. Is there a way of quantitating what that could mean in terms of increased maximum temperatures because the temperatures are expected to rise on that El Nino, I think.
WARD: That is right. We have something called the El Nino southern oscillation which means that what happens is you get upwellings of either cold water or warm water in the southeastern Pacific. And that tends to have an overall effect on the global temperature.
La Nina involves an upwelling of colder water in the southeast Pacific. That tends to result in slightly colder years. El Nino is the opposite. You get slightly warmer upwelling in the southeast Pacific. You get warmer temperatures.
And most of the warm, very warm temperatures we see are associated with La Nina. This year, according to the figures just released by Copernicus, shows that it was the fifth warmest year on record even though we had an La Nina.
So we see an El Nino developing now, that means that 2023 could be another record breaking warmest year on record for the world and weather chaos around the world. VAUSE: You know, on Monday came word that global action which was
agreed to 35 years ago to try and repair the ozone by essentially banning fluorocarbon's was having an incredibly positive effect that the ozone could repair itself within a matter of years.
You know, if civil action had been taken on dealing with causes of climate change 25 or 30 years ago, essentially reducing the amount of carbon we're pumping into the atmosphere, where would we be now?
WARD: Yes, unfortunately we are now perilously close to this threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial which scientists have warned will involve not just increasing losses from weather extremes getting worse and more frequent but also the chances of breaching some very important threshold in the climate systems such as destabilizing the major land-based ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica which could then lead to several meters of global sea level rise around the world.
And if we had listened to scientists and acted on this earlier, we would not be facing this increasing death toll at the moment and these prospects.
And it is a warning that we really must now act urgently at scale and follow the example that when we heard the warnings about the ozone layer we acted much more quickly because it is much more difficult, this is a problem we are facing here.
[01:39:53]
WARD: It's our use of fossil fuels which is absolutely what our civilization is based on and we have to transition away from them as quickly as possible to alternatives, such as renewable and nuclear power.
VAUSE: Bob, thanks for being with us. But, you know, the lesson from all of this is we can do it. We just want to try and be able to do it.
WARD: We can. We can and we must.
VAUSE: Exactly. Bob, good points to finish on. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for getting up early.
We'll take a short break. When we come back, the retaliation from Beijing keeps on coming to those countries trying to place COVID restrictions on travelers from China.
Up next, what Japan is facing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Beijing has stopped issuing visas to travelers from Japan, ordinary visas, at least. This is retaliation to Tokyo's demand for a negative COVID test on arrivals from Chinese travelers. Japan's foreign minister protested this decision calling it extremely regrettable. But Japan is among a list of countries and territories imposing new
restrictions on anyone traveling to their part of the world from China.
The outgoing COVID outbreak in China is not stopping travel plans to or from the country. Even China's neighboring countries are hoping for an economic boost from an influx of Chinese tourists, COVID or no COVID.
For more, let's go to Marc Stewart who is live in Hong Kong. So Marc, how many people are they expecting and what is the economic benefit for all of them? What are we looking at?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, John. Yes, China is back open and tourists, Chinese tourists will really be spanning the globe. They'll certainly be coming here to Hong Kong where shopping is a big drop. It's expected to have a boost to the local economy.
But we are also expecting to see this two-way flow of tourism, to and from the United States, to and from Europe. And it will be a jolt -- a big boost at a time when many economies around the world are simply struggling.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEWART: Kiki Yang (ph) is packing for herself and others.
She's heading home to China with a specially purchased suitcase just to carry her gifts from her base in Hong Kong. She's been away for a year after stringent COVID restrictions, prevented her from seeing family and friends in China.
KIKI YANG, RETURNING TO MAINLAND CHINA: What to buy and what they want.
STEWART: Yang represents an economic jolt that will be felt around the globe now that travel restrictions to and from China have been lifted.
IRIS PANG, CHIEF ECONOMIST, GREATER CHINA: So there will be extra demand in the world that hasn't been seen for three years within China and also for the rest of the world.
STEWART: China is the world's second largest economy with a population of more than one billion people. Asia beauty store giant Sasa is hoping to benefit.
DANNY HO, CFO, SASA INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS, LTD: Just think about the number of (INAUDIBLE), there's an increase in spending power that they have, the propensity to spend is quite massive.
[01:44:58]
STEWART: And then there is the travel component. In Thailand, a welcome banner at the airport as Chinese tourists begin to visit once again promoting a lasting friendship between the two nations. The government even held a special ceremony for Chinese visitors as the first flight arrived.
Popular attractions like the (INAUDIBLE) Shrine and the Golden Cabaret are preparing for crowds after the COVID drought. A Thai official hopes the new arrivals will revive the economy.
Yet in some parts of the world, the welcome is far from warm. More than a dozen countries including Japan are now testing travelers from China which China is protesting.
In Milan, Italy airport workers sanitized luggage. And in Brussels, Belgium wastewater from a jet is removed for analysis. All of this as China's COVID restrictions disappear while the case count is exploding and hospitals are overflowing.
As for Kiki, there is something that won't fit in her suitcases, precious time with her loved ones.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEWART: And this is not just about spending money. Now that it will be easier for people to fly to and from China, this is a way to restart face to face meetings. Of course, executives, business leaders around the world had Zoom calls during the pandemic. But now that COVID restrictions have been lifted in China, this is a time for people from the C-Suite, even small businesses to begin to meet face to face and really begin to re-establish the business relationships going.
VAUSE: Marc Stewart, live in Hong Kong, appreciate the report.
Well, the World Bank warns the global economy is on the cusp of its second recession in the same decade, a one-two punch which has not happened since the 1930s.
The bank has revised downward global growth for the coming year to 1.7 percent about half of its earlier forecast. The bank says developing countries struggling to recover from the pandemic will be the hardest hit.
Rising inflation and interest rates and Russia's war in Ukraine are all weighing on global growth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYHAN KOSE, DIRETOR, WORLD BANK PROSPECTS GROUP: There are multiple reasons why we have this slow down. Of course, we have been going through one of the sharpest interest rate cycles in interest rates have been increasing around the world.
You have significant volatility in food markets, in commodity markets.
And then of course we have a major outbreak in China. China slowed quite considerably.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Rana Foroohar is CNN's global economic analyst as well as global business columnist and associate editor for "The Financial Times". Happy new year. It's been a while. Good to see you.
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Happy new year, John. Great to see you.
VAUSE: Thank you. Now we begin this year though with some gloom for the world economy. And the gloom comes down to this. The world's three major engines of growth -- the United States, the Euro area and China undergoing a period of pronounced weakness with adverse spillovers for emerging markets and developing economies. This according to the World Bank.
So a simultaneous slowdown in the world's three biggest economies, it's happened before, it's not unheard of. But in the past all three were able to cut interest rates or ramp up quantitative easing to jump-start growth.
Those measures are effectively off the table now because of inflation. So what options do policy makers have right now?
FOROOHAR: Well, all right. Let me start John by saying that these are the World Bank's projections. There are other projections. You know, I'm in the odd position of being perhaps a little more optimistic. Usually I feel like I am the Cassandra of the global economy.
But I actually feel a bit more optimistic particularly about the U.S. than what the bank might be. If I look out at the U.S. situation right now, balance sheets are actually in better shape than they were in the last major downturn, you know, around the great financial crises.
COVID was different. But I do think the U.S. consumer still has a little bit of firepower. Europe and China, I'm more worried about, Europe in particular.
I mean the energy situation, the general sense that policy is tapped out. That the Eurozone is struggling in so many ways. That makes me think yes, they are in for a long and cold winter if you will.
China, mixed bag. You know, I look at China and I see certainly a debt bubble that has not reached the bottom yet. But I also see policies around COVID that are better than we had hoped for. It is possible that China could actually surprise on the upside.
So while I don't want to disagree completely with the World Bank. I think that there are somewhat different ways to look at the outlook at the moment.
VAUSE: Ok. Well, that's why we have you here. But we should note the World Bank though is warning that further interest increases in the U.S. essentially could be the final straw to tip the global economy into a recession. And along with that, there are other concerns as well. Listen to this.
[01:49:56] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOSE: There is a menu of risks. And that menu is very large. Inflation can't stay elevated. Interest rates can go up higher or remain high. You have geopolitical tensions. You have risks associated with food insecurity, energy insecurity. There might be more COVID outbreaks. So there are risks associated with of course, climate change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, we have known a lot of this stuff for a while now. And the threat that it poses to the global economy. What I'm wondering though is what sort of obligation or responsibility does the World Bank have when it comes to dealing with climate change which we just heard. You know, the World Bank looks at it as a threat to the global economy.
FOROOHAR: Well, for sure, certainly it is. I mean if you think about climate change just in regards to supply chain disruptions, you know, we are seeing once every three years now, you're seeing some kind of a major global supply chain disruption. It might be because of the pandemic but it also might be because of a natural disaster, migration issues are huge for the World Bank.
I mean if the bank is about development, you have to look at developing economies and say, boy, they are at the sharp end of the spear of climate change and you're going to see massive population migration at the time that we've only begun to grapple with in the future.
So I think that this is really front and center of what the bank should be doing and frankly what policy makers around the world should be thinking about.
VAUSE: Well, in the U.S. the Federal Reserve is trying to quote, "understand the way it's climate change and the global shift to cleaner energy could rattle the financial sector and later (ph) this year is expected to help banks understand how their businesses would be affected by several climate related shocks".
That sparked some criticism, especially from the right, like this. "The central bank wants to begin considering green energy investment as a reduction of risk while considering reliable energy sources like coal, oil, natural gas as an increase in risk."
Goes on to criticize that is the equivalent of saying it is safe to drive without a seatbelt provided you're texting at the same time.
That doesn't seem to be the case to me. So what is the Fed doing and is the criticism justified?
FOROOHAR: Totally unjustified. I mean you know, let's step back a moment and say that the financial markets themselves see climate change as a massive risk. I mean insurance companies are all over this. There are new rules in Europe to actually, you know, change fiduciary
responsibility. There is a push to really make companies liable for not taking action around climate change. And not just in their own companies but in their own supply chains.
So the markets themselves are looking at this and saying this is a major risk factor. So I think it's crucial. I think that, you know, anybody that cares about financial market stability has to care about climate change.
And I frankly think the issue is not going away. And at some point it will probably be factored in a more formal basis to some of the risks that are being modeled by the Fed.
VAUSE: Yes. It does seem that that is where we are heading and that's not exactly a bad thing.
Rana, thank you. Good to see you. Happy new year.
FOROOHAR: Thank you.
VAUSE: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Time for a short break. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Indoor drones, high tech makeup, a finger nibbling stuffed toy -- oh, what a time to be alive. The newest high tech gadgets are all on show at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
And here's Jeanne Moos.
[01:54:57]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the Consumer Electronics Show but please no. No more e-pets, no more loony robotic pets like Luna.
We'd rather grab the ring, or this home camera .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's a camera that flies.
MOOS: They demonstrated it at the show.
The drone will fly around your house. Uh-oh, left the faucet running. It's expected to sell for about $250 but won't be widely available until next year.
Good to freak out would be burglars, not to mention the dog. Seeing you in this might also scare the pooch. Mutalk lets you mute yourself.
Say, while gaming, so you are less of a disturbance.
And then there is the Sky Ted silent mask, wear it when you don't want people around you to hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This must remain confidential.
MOOS: It's made of acoustic absorbing materials.
If you find your own bodily functions absorbing, a French health tech company is developing U-Scan -- attach it inside the toilet bowl. Let it analyze your stream of health data.
DANIEL COOPER, SENIOR EDITOR, "END GADGET": You have to excuse me. I'm going to go test it.
MOOS: The senior editor of "End Gadget" (ph) Daniel Cooper was number one tester at the show. It is the next best thing to urinalysis, delivered in minutes to an app on your phone.
COOPER: Yes, I have optimal water. I hope my mother is proud.
MOOS: Even makeup has gone high tech. From L'Oreal's smart lipstick applicator designed for beauty lovers with a limited arm or hand mobility, to Brow Magic that lets you swipe a printer over your brows, uses cosmetic grade ink to shape them.
Or maybe you prefer being nibbled, this Japanese stuffed animal made its return to the electronics show.
It offers two dozen nibbling patterns, it is finger looking good. Good for nothing.
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A gentle bite for a tender delight.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Nibble, nibble. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
The news continues next with my colleague and friend Rosemary Church.
I will see you back here tomorrow. Nibble, nibble.
[01:57:30]
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