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Turkey-Syria Earthquake Death Toll Tops 16,000; Biden Getting Ready to Visit Battleground State of Florida; Zelenskyy to Attend EU Summit in Brussels; Advanced Ballistic Missiles on Display at North Korean Military Parade. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 09, 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: Hello and a warm 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 MALE: We are sadly now into the window where so many of the ambulances that arrived will likely be taking away people who perished.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Folks, I hate to disappoint you, but the Biden economic plan is working. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States was not the only target for this broader program.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A responsible nation would have put out some kind of public statement saying, hey, head's up, this is heading your way. We just want to let you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London this is CNN newsroom with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo

FOSTER: It is Thursday, February 9, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 12 noon across Turkey and Syria, where the death toll from Monday's devastating earthquake is now more than 16,000. Rescue crews are getting desperate to find survivors buried under piles of rubble.

NOBILO: In northern Syria, residential buildings are now reduced to mountains of rubble. Officials in Damascus say close to 300,000 people have been forced from their homes. This video from Aleppo shows an Algerian crew working to clear debris despite their limited resources.

FOSTER: Further west drone video shows the White Helmets digging mass graves for the victims there. The Syrian government wants international sanctions lifted so humanitarian aid can be brought in.

NOBILO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit more of the quake zone today to defend his government's response to the disaster. On Wednesday he admitted some initial shortcomings but now says that the situation is under control.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, rescue workers are still finding survivors. Two sisters were pulled from the debris in southern Turkey on Wednesday, 62 hours after the quake hit. And rescuers working around the clock were finally able to save a baby, this baby, from a collapsed building in Turkey's Hatay Province.

Let's go live to Istanbul, Turkey. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, there are some positive heroic stories coming out from this, but obviously as time ticks on, so much concern particularly about the areas that aren't getting aid.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are now entering the fourth day of this massive humanitarian crisis. And absolutely now that clock, that hope, that there could still be people alive under the rubble, I think that is absolutely fading. And instead, there is this sense of anger and grief setting into these areas.

I just want to start by explaining just the scope and scale of this disaster. You are talking about nearly 16,000 people killed. Some 60,000 people almost wounded, injured, needing medical care. You have this disaster zone that's the size of the U.S. state of Nebraska. A huge area that Turkish authorities simply could not reach all across, they could not fan out across all of the spaces. And the result of that is that we saw families huddled in the cold without access to food, without access to water, without access to shelter.

And of course, more harrowing were the stories of families that could hear their relatives under the rubble but did not have any emergency workers, did not have heavy earth-moving equipment to actually rescue their loved ones. And it's these terrifying tales that are adding to that sense of course, of grief, of anger, of frustration with the Turkish government.

You mentioned that President Erdogan did admit to shortcomings, but that's not going to be enough for the people on the ground. One thing to note here is that Turkey has expected earthquakes. Yes, this is an unprecedented disaster, one of the strongest to hit the region in 100 years, but the Turkish people do pay a tax and that is part of the reason why people are angry, they pay a tax to the government in the expectation that there are plans in place for when an earthquake happens. So, people are trying to hold President Erdogan to account here.

And maybe one sign is that this dissent is being reacted to are these reports that social media accounts were inaccessible for a time particularly during his visit to that region.

[04:05:00]

Yes, now we have that international aid pouring in, spanning out across these areas. And again, just imagine the scope and scale of this disaster, how many people need help. It's absolutely enormous.

FOSTER: Salma in Istanbul, thank you.

NOBILO: The U.S. president is heading to Florida today where he will discuss plans to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security while lowering health care costs.

FOSTER: Joe Biden has pointed out that some Republicans have called for cuts to these popular programs. He got heckled for that during his State of the Union speech. But now seems to be using the moment to his advantage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK, we got a deal. Well, I sure hope that is true. I'll believe it when I see it. Their budget is laid down with the cuts that they're proposing. But it looks like we negotiated a deal last night on the floor of the House of Representatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: President Biden is also taking his social safety net plans to Florida. CNN's Phil Mattingly explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There's two real primary reasons why this is one of the early post "State of the Union" travel destinations for the president. The message and the foils, to some degree the foils. The message you saw it live and in person and the exchange that the president had back and forth with Republicans off script on the issues of Medicare and Social Security.

You talk to White House advisers, they make clear there are no two issues that pop more in their polling than defending Medicare and Social Security. No state where that is more important given the scale of the population that's over the age of 65 and the state with two politicians that represent the contrast that the Biden administration, the president personally, wants to detail then Ron DeSantis, the governor, and Rick Scott the senator from Florida who he was citing in that speech.

As one White House official pointed to me, we want this fight, we relish this fight. That fight is certainly going to be brought to the table by the president as you saw in the "State of the Union," as you saw in Wisconsin.

But keep something in mind here, take a look at the travel of the vice president and the president in these first two days. And one state is not like the other. The president going to Wisconsin, then Florida, the vice president going to Georgia and then Minnesota. Three of those four states are critical to any electoral path for the president in 2024.

Florida is not one of them and White House officials are candid when they say they are not expecting it to swing dramatic dramatically back toward Democrats given the way it's gone over the course of the last couple of cycles. But they know that this is a perfect place to lay out that message on Social Security and Medicare and to have foils. As one White House official pointed to me, we like foils, there are no better foils in politics than Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott.

Again, when you talk to White House officials, they make clear Florida is not necessarily a political winner for them, but on the message and they actual politicians they believe it is. That's why he is going down there. When you talk to them about what happened last night, the back and forth with Republicans, as one official put it to me, we didn't plan for that, but Republicans walked right into the trap. Chaos and extremes. I asked if that is how they viewed DeSantis and Senator Scott, and they said the most chaos, the most extreme.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: In the coming hours, the U.S. House is set to vote on a resolution condemning China's use of suspected spy balloons over U.S. territory.

NOBILO: And it comes as the U.S. president discussed the country's relationship with China in a new interview. While both U.S. and Chinese officials have remarked on how the incident is raising tensions between the two countries, President Biden believes nothing has changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are relations now between the U.S. and China taken a big hit frankly?

BIDEN: No. No. If you think of any other word leader would trade places with Xi Jinping? Not a joke. Can you think of any who would? I can't think of one. This man has enormous problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well stay tuned later this hour for a live report with China's reaction to the dispute.

NOBILO: Officials from Southwest Airlines will be on Capitol Hill today to explain what played out behind the scenes during the company's holiday travel fiasco.

FOSTER: A top Southwest executive and the pilots' union chief are set to testify before the Senate commerce committee. The pilots union chief is expected to say the company's obsolete operation system were held together by, quote, duct tape and bailing wire and all the technology failures behind the meltdown were predictable and avoidable.

Now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just arrived in Brussels where he will attend and EU summit.

NOBILO: Earlier Mr. Zelenskyy was seen leaving France alongside French President Emmanuel Macron after a surprise visit to Paris on Wednesday.

And our correspondents are tracking all of the developments. We have Clare Sebastian here with us in London and Nic Robertson standing by in Brussels. Nic, to you first. What are we learning about President Zelenskyy's itinerary while he's in Brussels?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: He's going to be addressing the 27 European Union leaders, that's expected this morning.

[04:10:00]

It seems quite likely although not entirely locked in that he'll address the European Parliament, a much bigger gathering of course. And he will have a one-on-one bilateral with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister. And I think everyone here is expecting his message to be pretty much as it has been over the past 24 hours in the U.K. and in Paris last night with Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, Emmanuel Macron, the French President and that is, we need your help, specifically right now we need longer range weapons. There were hints that that may come from the U.K. And also, we need fighter jets. There's been greater resistance to that.

But President Zelenskyy sees himself as the person that can help change that narrative and move that narrative along as he has done with getting tanks, with getting air defense systems, with getting armored vehicles. All those sorts of things. And so, his message is typically a very fine tuned for the audience in front of him, a broader audience today.

But really, and I think that we got a sense of this last night from what President Zelenskyy said about the support he got from Germany and France, that they can be game changers. And speaking with -- as I did over the weekend with the defense minister of Estonia -- the concern is for many of the leaders gathering here, if Zelenskyy doesn't get what he wants now and quickly, then the war bogs down into an extended trench warfare over many years. And that's not he would argue in the best interests of the EU leaders either because it erodes support for the ongoing war.

FOSTER: Thank you, Nic. Clare, it's an obvious question, but what does he want these jets for? Because the concern would be if he fires -- or uses them over Russia territory presumably.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT Yes, I mean this has been one of the reasons why you seen so much reticence around this, of course logistical concern about training and maintenance and all of that. But I think the question is also why now, right.

There's a lot of concern in Ukraine that Russia could be preparing, regrouping for some kind of spring offensive. We're seeing reports coming out of places like Kharkiv and Sumy in the north along the Russian border, of taking shelling. Officials in the Luhansk, in Donetsk region, in the Donbas, have reported accumulation of Russian troops, that they might be stockpiling weapons in the area. So, there's concerns that we're getting closer to something like that happening.

And look, fighter jets would not be for a blitz, they would be part of a sort of the broader arsenal that could help Ukraine push forward and with this they could help with air defense. They could help hit the targets behind enemy lines. We know that Russia has been using its own planes over Ukraine so they could potentially attack Russian planes as well.

So, it's not a silver bullet but it would certainly help. And would certainly help Ukraine modernize its military, moving away from Soviet era weapons. But I think all of this is about trying to get ahead of some kind of new offensive from Russia. And about not only defending their lines but also trying to push Russia out of the country.

FOSTER: OK, Clare thank you, also Nic in Brussels.

NOBILO: It's interesting as well that President Zelenskyy's overseas trips are obviously kept under wraps for many reasons, but primarily his own security. And actually the European Peoples Party which is the center right block in the European Parliament, they tweeted that they were looking forward to welcoming Zelenskyy this week. And then hastily deleted it. So all the plans were on the verge of being scuffed. And also interestingly we had a response from the Russian Embassy in the U.K. to President Zelenskyy surprised trip to Parliament yesterday and as we'd expect, they criticized his quite theatrical performance in Westminster obviously aimed at preparing the Western public for upcoming discussions. And that speaks to what Clare --

FOSTER: Is that entirely untrue? I mean, there is some fears to what he does and he was teasing ahead.

NOBILO: Yes.

FOSTER: Didn't he say I want to thank you preemptively for the jets.

NOBILO: Yes, he did. And that got some laughs in Westminster Hall. But I think as always, Russia threatens escalatory actions whenever Zelenskyy is procuring more from the West because that is exactly what they don't want. Because the more support Zelenskyy gets, more less likely they are to win.

FOSTER: Yes. Well, we'll be following his visit through Europe today.

And still to come, new details in the Tyre Nichols murder investigation, what we're learning about the former police officers involved from freshly obtained documents.

NOBILO: Plus, missiles on parade, North Korea rolls out what is being called an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles thought to be capable of hitting the U.S.

FOSTER: Plus, storms and possible tornadoes across the southeast. Britley Ritz is following it from the CNN World Whether Center.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so for the last 24 hours, unfortunately we've had several reports of severe weather including tornado reports, that threat continues today. I'll let you know where, coming up in just a few minutes.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: A number of tornadoes were reported across the southeast Wednesday as severe storms ripped through the region.

FOSTER: This is some of the damage left behind near New Orleans where officials say three people were injured. Flash flood warnings were posted earlier for parts of Louisiana and southern Mississippi.

NOBILO: This video captured what looks to be a tornado north of New Orleans. The storms were part of a system that stretches all the way to near the Canadian border. For more now, let's bring in meteorologist Britley Ritz. Britley, tell us more about what's going on and also what people need to be looking out for on the ground.

RITZ: Absolutely. More tornadoes unfortunately are the case today once again, holding on to the threat along with the wind and hail threat. Not as great today as it once was, but still holding on to those threats. So, we really need to pay attention to that. Over the last 24 hours there were three reports of tornadoes. There's areas of low pressure spinning over the Midwest. Noticing the colder air behind it.

But again, focusing on that line moving through the southeast today already bringing in not only the threat of severe weather but flooding. Some of these areas picked up 1 to 2 inches per hour, estimated rainfall totals showing you across parts of Arkansas, nearly 4 inches of rain and more to come as that line pushes eastward for the southeast.

Not only flooding and severe weather threat, but the winds across the Tennessee Valley, up into Ohio Valley.

[04:20:00]

Wind advisories and high wind warnings -- the high wind warnings through parts of the Ohio Valley where gusts could reach up over 60 miles per hour. And then of course, the colder air moves in behind that area of low pressure. Winter weather advisories in place and then winter storm warnings for parts of eastern Iowa including Cedar Rapids another 3 to 6 inches of snowfall just in today's time.

There's that front moving eastward over the next 24 hours bringing in that threat of severe weather for your Thursday across parts of the Florida Panhandle, up into parts of the Southeast, on up into the Ohio Valley where we're seeing areas highlighted in green, for more that damaging wind threat.

And then isolated tornado, again not as great today as it once was, but still holding the threats there. So, we need to keep an eye out for that. The area of low pressure continues to press off to the north and east. The front sags south and east and we hold on to that threat of severe weather rolling into our Friday -- into the evening. So you'll see that area highlighted in red, that includes southern parts of Georgia, back into South Carolina and the northern part of Florida. Same threats, damaging winds, small amounts of hail, and then isolated tornadoes. And, yes, even that flooding threat will hold all the way through the end of the week -- Max, Bianca.

NOBILO: Britley Ritz, thank you so much.

FOSTER: Thank you.

And in East Palestine Ohio, an evacuation order has been lifted for residents near the area where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed on Friday. The fire chief says the area was deemed safe after officials received the results of air and water samples. This new drone video shows what is left of the wreckage that burned, of course for days.

NOBILO: The five former Memphis Tennessee police officers charged with murdering Tyre Nichols are due to appear in court next week. Ahead of their arraignment, we're learning what one of them told investigators about the night of the deadly beating. Nick Valencia reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This newly obtained sworn affidavit represents the first account to emerge of what one of the officers involved in Tyre Nichols' death had to tell investigators. And in it, Justin Smith alleges that he actually tried to help Tyre Nichols. He says that he called for medical help prior to getting on the scene because of reports of pepper spray and taser being used.

The affidavit comes from a disciplinary hearing in January and it ultimately says that Smith was fired for unnecessary use of force and also failing to provide aid to Nichols despite being a certified EMT.

Look, these newly obtained documents represent all sorts of revelations here including the lengths that officers went to try to cover up their actions. Alleging that they tried to either turn off their cameras or obscure their cameras. That they laughed after the fact, after beating Nichols, and that they misled investigators with contradictory statements. It is clear that the fallout from what happened to Nichols continues here in Memphis.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Memphis, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: North Korea has been showing off its advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nearly a dozen were on display during a massive military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Army, only weeks after leader Kim Jong-un called for an exponential increase in his country's nuclear arsenal.

NOBILO: And missiles were the only things being shown off. State media also published images of the North Korea leader's young daughter who is being described as beloved. FOSTER: CNN's Paula Hancocks is covering this live in Seoul. And a lot

of people saying, because of these images she's being groomed as his successor.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max and Bianca, that is certainly the speculation that is fueling every time that we see her. This is the fifth known public event that this daughter who is believed to be named Ju Ae, maybe 9 or 10 years old, has been to -- they've all military related as well.

So, we have images from state run media in North Korea, which they say was a military parade on Wednesday night. They're just now starting to air live the footage of what happened. And we did see Kim Jong-un with his daughter and his wife walking up a red carpet surrounded by military coming to see this military parade. So, it is significant. It's the first time we've seen a child of one of the leaders actually going to this kind of event.

And looking at the event itself, the takeaways that we have so far are the fact that they have so many ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are believed to be incapable of hitting mainland United States.

Now the other thing that experts have come away with as well is the fact that there appears to be a mockup of a solid fuel ICBM, this as opposed to a liquid fuel. And what this means is, is it is a lot easier and quicker for the North Koreans to be able to set up a launch and it's mobile. And of course that makes it far more difficult for the U.S. or South Korea to be able to track it.

So what we're seeing at this point is what Kim Jong-un has been consistently saying that he wants a bigger and better nuclear arsenal, that he wants to have more ICBMs, he wants the solid fuel technology. It appears that that is going in the right direction as far as North Korea is concerned.

[04:25:00]

And the threat is growing certainly when you see the sheer number of ICBMs that they have, that they have certainly been ramping up production experts say in recent months and years.

Now, of course, what we're seeing at this point is all shot and shown by North Korean state-run media. There is no free media there showing anything other than what they want us to see. But certainly at this point, the takeaways are that what Kim Jong-un has been saying he wants to do with his five year military plan that he started two years ago, he is doing exactly that and he is ticking off his wish list of improving his weapons, his missile and his nuclear capabilities.

FOSTER: OK, Paula in Seoul, thank you.

Still ahead, the mission to rescue and help earthquake survivors grows more urgent three days after the disaster in Turkey and Syria.

NOBILO: Plus, U.S. and NATO officials are speaking out on the Chinese balloon incident, but Beijing is calling it part of America's information and public opinion warfare. So we'll have a live report on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: And I'm Max Foster. You are joining us as we see live pictures of the European Parliament, you can see President Zelenskyy has just arrived there, he's being welcomed. Will he speak or will be not speak, that's the question. Isn't it.

NOBILO: He is expected to speak and we well find out in the coming minutes time. But right now, Ukrainian national anthem is playing which we understand he's just been singing along to.

FOSTER: Part of a European tour pushing for fighter jets off the back of his successful campaign to get tanks exported from Europe, parts of Europe over to Ukraine. He also wants these fighter jets. And he got a pretty positive response, didn't he, from the Brits.

NOBILO: He did, absolutely. I think there is more unity in the British Parliament which has taken quite ...

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