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Hundreds Dead in Syria and Turkey After Major Earthquake; Debate Heats Up Over Chinese Balloon; Ukrainian Troops to Begin Training on Leopard Tanks. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 06, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world, I'm Bianca Nobilo.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A major earthquake has killed hundreds of people in Syria and Turkey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The strongest earthquake in 100 years or more of record keeping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Search and rescue operations, of course, are very, very difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How and when President Joe Biden was informed about the suspected Chinese spy balloon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: China is now accusing the U.S. of overreacting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not just the balloon, it's the message they're trying to send the world that we can do whatever we want and America can't stop us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: This Monday, February 6th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, it's 12:00 p.m. in Turkey. Where search and rescue crews are working desperately to find people trapped in the rubble of a major earthquake that struck in the early hours of this morning.

NOBILO: Turkey's vice president said as least 284 people have died in southern Turkey and more than 2300 are injured. The governor of Istanbul says near the a thousand search and rescue volunteers are heading to the impacted region.

The U.S. Geological Survey says that the epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude quake was in Turkey's Gaziantep province. At least 18 aftershocks with the magnitude greater than four have been reported and they will likely continue in the hours and days to come. A local journalist who spoke to CNN earlier described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EYAD KOURDI, JOURNALIST: (INAUDIBLE) I was staying at my parents' house, they woke up, we were asleep, they started to shout. I tried to shout to them like stay on the roof, under the doors. And I was trying to confirm that, she confirmed then (INAUDIBLE) and I was trying to calm them down. Telling them please be calm, stay under the door. And I was telling them it's going to be over soon. It's going to be over soon, but it felt like it would never be over. It lasted at least another (INAUDIBLE). A lot of stuff got broken in my house, like furniture, electronics. And then we -- when it stopped we ran out of the building with all pajamas on literally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Germany and the Netherlands are answering Turkey's call for international support saying that they will provide assistance.

The devastation is also widespread in neighboring Syria where at least 386 people have died, and hundreds of others have been injured in the earthquake. The Syrian defense ministry says it was mobilizing all units to help provide urgent aid and search for people who may be trapped.

FOSTER: And they're hoping for more scenes like this, crews in Syria pulling a toddler alive from beneath the rubble. Hospitals are said to be overwhelmed with patients with the Syrian American Medical Society saying there's now an urgent need for trauma supplies. CNN's Scott McLean following developments for us here in London. Obviously, the numbers here are going to go off and if we look at the pictures they're going to go up dramatically.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. There's only really two earthquakes in history to that we can compare this to, one also a 7.8, tied for the highest magnitude in Turkish history, that was back in 1939, 30,000 people were killed. A more contemporary comparison happened in 1999, this was a 7.4, where 17,000 people were killed. Some half a million people though were made homeless in the northwestern part of the country in and around Istanbul.

So, these are the kind of numbers that perhaps we may see in this case as well. And sort of adding insult to injury on top of this, is that not only were people very likely sleeping at the time, after 4:00 in the morning, but then when they would have run downstairs -- you heard there from Eyad Kourdi, a local journalist in Gaziantep -- they were going into temperatures that are just above freezing.

They're in the midst of a cold snap now. And even when we're talking about a thousand, you know, rescue workers coming from Istanbul, well they're having to get there in the midst of some very bad winter weather as well. So, some of the machinery, some of the cars that are having to go that way, you know, having to go on roads that are icy, that are, you know, wintry, and that's going to take a long time. And they don't have a lot of time, frankly.

These rescue efforts are extremely desperate, and especially in these cold temperatures, if there are people trapped there, they won't be able to survive for too, too long, given how cold it is outside.

[04:05:00]

And I just I want to show you some video from one town in the affected area called Malatya, where they've had dozens of people reported dead, of a rescue effort. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which Color?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the person wear pink?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, please think about yourself right now, I can't see anything else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Yes, so, please think about yourself right now. I can't see anything else. I mean, these are the kind of scenes that we're seeing where people are worried about other people who may be trapped. But the rescue workers are obviously just trying to get the people out who they can see and actually hear from at that moment. And you can see from that, just all delicate the situation is well, considering how much rubble these, you know, extremely heavy slabs of concrete there, you don't want to move anything. Obviously heavy machinery is helpful but it's also delicate because you don't want to move things around to too much.

Also, Gaziantep at the moment -- obviously very close to the epicenter -- this is where officially we're seeing the highest death toll, 80 is the official number. Obviously, this likely to go up. There's also been reportedly heavy damage to the Gaziantep castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is well over a thousand years old. And also, you know, once you get closer out to the epicenter, obviously electricity is gone in many places. The gas has been shut off. Mobile connectivity is not great. And on top of all that, we're also seeing video where there's large cracks in the concrete on the highway as well. It just gives you a sense of how strong the force was that we're talking about here.

FOSTER: OK, Scott, thank you.

NOBILO: Joining us now is Muzaffer Baca, vice president of the International Blue Crescent Relief and Development NGO and he's in Gaziantep. Thank you so much for joining us. Just checking the line, you can hear us? MUZAFFER BACA, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL BLUE CRESCENT: Yes,

thank you, very much, for paying attention for huge disaster that we are facing since a few hours before. And the immediate is situation dramatic here.

NOBILO: Absolutely. We're looking at the images. This is impossible to ignore. Such tragedy, and obviously the dental toll continues to climb. We were just hear from our reporter Scott about the immediate effort. Obviously, every single minute counts right now. What is the urgent priorities in terms of rescue and where the resources need to be directed right now?

BACA: Yes, the emergency support, to take those people under the rubble, to survive them, to rescue them. We need urgently rescue teams to mobilize, because the Turkish government is doing its best efforts to rescue those people. But there are thousands of buildings, six floors, seven floors, ten floors, even 17 floors, that totally collapsed. There are some hospitals in Malatya have collapsed.

We are getting reports and also witnessing that people are in the desperate position because, still, the state told us right to this, best to this rescue operations, but nonetheless, the buildings and the capacity of the rescue teams is not enough. So, first priority must be given to the rescue operation. And we need urgent rescue teams to hold back to Iraq to Turkey to help us on the rescue.

The second issue is the weather is extremely bad. It's unusual for this time. And especially in the epicenter of the earthquake. Among Diyarbakir, every snow in Gaza, and Malatya, in Diyarbakir. And not Syria -- we are facing heavy rain. People don't have the possibility - they don't get the opportunity to survive in the streets. So, we are moving them to the schools, the mosques, and even as you see, on the community centers, just to keep them survive for a few days.

One of the most priorities is to provide tents and to provide heater for them and also food and materials. This is the area that was affected about it's about 12 million people operation, including the Syrian side. It's about 15, 16 million people are affected. And looking to the number of the buildings that are collapsing, I am sure that the number of the dead would be up to 5,000 to 6,000 in Turkey.

As I was listening to CNN news just a few minutes before, the number in Syria has increased to 680 in the state side.

[04:10:00]

And also in the north side, northern Syria which is under the opposition control, it's about 200 for the moment. The issue in northern Syria is that they don't give rescue capacity, any rescue capacity. And that death toll is going to increase very much more.

FOSTER: It looks as though everything is being done by hand at the moment as well. So, you clearly need some heavy lifting equipment and sort of urgent equipment supplies from abroad presumedly.

BACA: Yes, the Turkish government has declared international assistance. Now as a Turkish NGO, we have the same -- the same announcement, because really, we don't have the capacity to rescue those people. Of course, the rescue teams must run as it is today if those people under the rubble stay more than one day, more than four days, the most three days, you know, there is no possibility to rescue them after.

This is one of the main priorities. And I am sure the United States and other government declared that they are ready to help and even teams from Germany and Netherlands, as you said, they're arrived at the field. Even the parts that are not affected around this earthquake area, they move their rescue teams to the field. And as I said, the first priorities is to rescue those people.

Also, the second is to endure people. You know, some of the hospitals, big hospitals are destroyed totally, so, we need temporary mobile hospitals in the field. Maybe tent hospitals or other type of mobile hospitals. We need medical assistance to help those injured and to save them.

The priority, as I told you, is to shelter them somewhere. We cannot keep them forever. You know, the schools are closed now for at least one week. And also, the state departments are prepared to be closed by tomorrow. There are departments are direct to the earthquake, but despite that, we cannot keep them in those buildings. And those buildings are not enough to shelter them. So, we need to start with some kind of small parts around the city to keep them arriving at least for the winter and later on for more shelters.

NOBILO: Muzaffer Baca, thank you so much for joining us at this critical moment and informing us and the international community about what your most urgent priorities are. I'm sure we'll be checking back in with you. Thank you very much.

BACA: Thank you very much. And I hope the worldwide response effort for assistance, thank you very much.

FOSTER: Do stay with CNN throughout the hour for the very latest. It's very clear from those images we're getting in from Syria, there's so much damage there as well, we haven't really got a sense of yet.

NOBILO: Exactly, because the government isn't fully functioning and also this is a country that's been ravaged by war and has very vulnerable infrastructure and we're seeing the toll that's taking.

The U.S. military says that its searching for the remnants of a suspected Chinese spy balloon after it was shot down over the weekend.

FOSTER: On Sunday, a resident in South Carolina filmed a uniformed man inspecting a possible debris on a boat. CNN can't confirm that it is part of the balloon, but the video was taken close to where it was shot down.

NOBILO: Officials say that they grew concerned about the balloon when it moved towards the U.S. mainland and hovered over missile sites. CNN's Alex Marquardt reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We are now learning more about how and when President Biden was informed about the suspected Chinese spy balloon crossing the United States and his decision to eventually shot it down on Saturday.

Biden was first told about the balloon on Tuesday, four days before it was eventually shot down, and three days after if first entered U.S. airspace in Alaska. Now after asking for military options Biden was advised to not shot it down over land because of the harm that the debris could cause. He was eager to shoot it down, we're told, in a way that was not only safe for people but to try to preserve as much of the equipment on board as possible. Now as soon as it flew out over the water off of South Carolina on Saturday, those F-22 jets flew up and shot it down.

The administration will now face fierce questioning as early as Tuesday from members of Congress, from the so-called gang of eight. As the leaders of both Houses of Congress from both parties as well as the chairman and ranking Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. They may ask about past incidents of Chinese balloons over the U.S.

[04:15:00]

We're told there were at least four others that flew over the continental United States in the past few years. Including -- according to Florida Congressman Michael Waltz, over or near Texas and Florida. And while Republicans blast Biden for not taking action sooner, former President Donald Trump denied that it happened while he was in office. But the Pentagon now says there were at least three times that it did.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: China's defense ministry has accused the U.S. of overreacting by shooting the balloon down and says that China, quote, reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations.

Let's get more now on China's reaction from our Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang. Steven, talk us through what you think the point of this all was. Because there are obviously multiple layers, there's what actually happened and then there's the projection and rhetoric on top of it. So, what does China stand to gain from this weather/spy balloon mission? And then its reaction?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Bianca, before I go there some new development for you on the story. Just a short while ago, China, for the first, acknowledged a second balloon spotted in the skies over Latin America also belongs to China. And they're very much sticking to the same story line, claiming that balloon was also a civilian vessel used for flight testing and it drifted off course due to weather. And the foreign ministry spokeswoman said China has explained the

situation to relevant governments and saying this balloon posed no threat to those countries. And according to her, those governments, quote-unquote, expressed their understanding.

That obviously was not the reaction they got from Washington which is why they continue to accuse the U.S. by overreacting. And many analyst obviously find that very ironic, given Beijing's unusual obsession with sovereignty and national security. And that's also why in addition to the defense ministry's threat that you mentioned, that big threat, that military spokeswoman repeated many of the government's condemnation and accusations saying, shooting the balloon down and quote-unquote hyping up the incident was very unresponsive and unacceptable.

But despite this rhetoric, so far few people think there would be immediate aggressive Chinese military reactions against the U.S. And part of that sentiment being reflected on the strictly control social media heel where the reactions to the news have now reached a fever pitch which is something we have previously seen whenever the two governments had serious run-in.

So, there was hope, according to analysts, despite the public posturing from Beijing, they may still want to turn this page over quickly to bring this back -- this relationship back on track. Which of course, was the intention of that highly anticipated trip by Blinken to Beijing. And that has since been cut off.

But as you mentioned, Bianca, a lot of unanswered questions including why China and its top leader Xi Jinping decided to do this ahead of that very much sensitive trip -- Bianca and Max.

NOBILO: Steven Jiang in Beijing. Thank you.

FOSTER: We'll take a short break. We'll get you much more of our breaking news coverage of the deadly earthquake in Turkey when we come back.

After much debate Ukrainian forces are also finally about to begin their training on Leopard tanks. Will go live to CNN's Nic Robertson standing by for us in Estonia.

NOBILO: And later, a new move by the U.S. and its allies to cut off Russia's ability to fund its war in Ukraine. The details coming up ahead.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back. After one of the strongest earthquakes to hit Turkey in more than a century, video show a survivor pulled from the rubble. You can see rescue workers here's frantically tugs at the trapped man, until their finally able to pull him free from the debris. At least 670 people have been killed in Turkey and neighboring cities. FOSTER: And nearly 3,000 more have been injured. The earthquake had a

magnitude of 7.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, at least 18 aftershocks with a magnitude over 4 have been recorded since that initial quake.

We're also learning that Ukraine could be readying to replace its defense minister in a reshuffle with just weeks ago until the country marks one year since Russia's invasion.

NOBILO: That's according to a senior Ukrainian lawmaker ,who says the move to replace Oleksii Reznikov is, quote, absolutely logical for wartime. The defense minister has been under pressure for several weeks related to corruption scandals inside his department. According to the lawmaker, Reznikov is expected to be replaced by the current head of defense intelligence. Reznikov is warning of a wildly expected Russian offensive which may start soon. He says that his country still needs long-range weapons which he emphasized would not be used on targets in Russian territory.

FOSTER: The defense minister also said Ukrainian troops will begin training on Leopard tanks on Monday. Several NATO allies have donated the German tanks to Ukraine. For more on this were joined by Nic Robertson who is in Estonia. A huge project ahead of them, before they can become active, these tanks.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, we're at a NATO military exercise, just 170 kilometers from the Russian border there. 500 vehicles here, 44 of them are tanks, the Leopard 2 tank, you can see behind me, and the British Challenger tanks here as well. And this exercise is designed to get the different nations, Estonia, France, the U.K., Denmark, these are Danish Leopard 2 tanks here. All fighting together as an effective force. But as a force that can snatch and take territory. And of course, these tanks provide a powerful punch alongside the infantry that are here.

We're learning quite a few things from the Danish troops here, particularly about the advantages and the training times of the Leopard 2 tank. And of course, all of this information is going to be hugely valuable to the Ukrainians, as they try to get their hands on these tanks, get trained up, and use them as they want to, as an iron fist to punch through Russian lines and take territory.

[04:25:00]

But the lessons they're learning here it's not going to be quick. The Danish here with troops that have got basic training can train up a driver or a gun operator here in a couple of weeks. But to get them as an effective crew together, that can take a couple of months. To get them to fight as a platoon together and a squadron, that can take much, much longer.

Let me give you an idea here. It's not just about the tank. You've got a recovery vehicle over here. These will have to be provided to the Ukrainians as well. So that these groups, these squadrons of tanks, these 14 tanks that will be in these squadrons can operate together, operate effectively, and what they're training for here and what the Ukrainians will need to do as well, is to have them work effectively with the infantry on the ground.

Yesterday, we saw French troops in a mock battle storming Estonians in trenches, just like we see in Ukraine, under that punch came up with these Leopard 2 tanks. They are better than the Russian tanks. They've got night capability. They can fire at one target, track another target. They've got high-speed reverse which is way better than the Russian tanks which believe it or not is very important on the battlefield. But the big line, I guess, out of here is, it will take some sometime for the Ukrainians to get really effective as they want to be on the battlefield.

FOSTER: OK, Nic in Estonia, thank you.

NOBILO: There's a new effort to limit Russia's ability to make money and finance its war in Ukraine. The U.S., the other G-7 nations, along with the European Union and Australia, have now closed a price on refined petroleum products such as diesel and fuel oil. CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us now here in London with more. Clare, obviously this has been a priority for the West throughout, to try and hamstring Russia economically, so it can't fund this war. But the IMF both predictions for this year's so the U.K. having negative growth and Russia growing now 0.2 percent. Do you think this is going to be effective at actually damaging Russia's ability to finance the war?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not immediately, certainly not, this sanction which is essentially the second phase of what we saw in December. Where we saw the EU put an embargo on C1 crude oil, along with this G7 price cut mechanism, now we're seeing the same thing on oil products, like diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, things like that. They've actually done two price caps, one for products that usually sell more expensive than crude oil and one for less expensive than crude oil.

But initially, the biggest impact is going to come from that embargo. Because I think I can show you the map of some of the biggest diesel exporters. This is one of the biggest oil products. And Russia is one of the biggest exporters. But where you see -- what's interesting here is that crude oil, Russia is able to funnel a lot of those barrels that would have gone to Europe, to India and China. India and China though are big exporters of oil products. So it's a lot less clear where those displaced Russian barrels are going to go. Is going to have to offer heavy discounts to do that. Meanwhile, Europe is going to have to find new suppliers and it's going to have to pay more to outbid the competition. So, we may see the price go up, which means Russia conversely could earn more money.

NOBILO: Clare Sebastian, thank you very much.

FOSTER: Still ahead, more on our breaking news coverage. A frantic search for survivors underway in Turkey and Syria, after a major earthquake hit that region. We'll have the very latest for you. Stick around.

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