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CNN International: Court Releases More Jeffrey Epstein Documents; Former Olympic Sprinter Oscar Pistorius Released; Rain System Makes Way from Northern Europe to Italy, Greece; Heavy Rains, Flooding Hit France and Germany. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 05, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories.
With just days before the Iowa caucus, Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley focused on the frontrunner, Donald Trump, in back-to-back CNN town halls last night. Both took the opportunity to explain why they believe Trump's legal issues will take away from a potential second term.
Investigators in Perry, Iowa, are searching for the motive of the 17- year-old gunman who killed a sixth grader and injured five others Thursday in a school shooting. The attack happened before classes began for the day.
NOBILO: More documents in the 2015 civil lawsuit connected to the late, accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were released on Thursday. This time, 19 documents revealed more information about the late financier and his former girlfriend. Among the new developments, an Epstein accuser saying former President Bill Clinton pressured Vanity Fair magazine not to write stories about Epstein. The magazine's former editor denied that, as CNN's Kara Scannell reports.
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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A second batch of over 300 pages related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed Thursday. The new release includes depositions and emails. It also includes an allegation that former President Bill Clinton pressured Vanity Fair to not write about Epstein, a claim the magazine's former editor categorically denies.
The documents were unsealed as part of a now-settled defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. In a 2011 email with a journalist, Giuffre claims Clinton threatened Vanity Fair not to write about sex trafficking articles about Epstein. Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair's then-editor, said in a statement to CNN that that interaction, quote, categorically did not happen. A Clinton spokesman told CNN they had no comment about the alleged incident.
On Wednesday, in response to Clinton appearing in the unsealed documents, a spokesman said it has been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein. With more than 150 names expected to be made public by court order, there are still several names that are under seal.
In a different email, the same journalist references someone being trafficked to, quote, two of the world's most respected politicians. Both of their names are blacked out. Also redacted, the name of another accuser who said in a deposition that she was paid to give Epstein massages that then turned sexual.
At least 30 girls told authorities in the mid-2000s that they were recruited to massage Epstein, the lead Palm Beach detective investigating him said in an unsealed deposition. The majority of them, the detective testified, were under 18 years old.
Epstein was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. He died by suicide in jail before trial.
Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: A judge in the U.S. state of Nevada is back at work following a terrifying encounter with a defendant on Wednesday.
NOBILO: She had just denied the man's request for probation on charges of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm. The defendant then charged the bench and attacked the judge, as you can see clearly there.
[04:35:00]
FOSTER: The court says the judge and the marshal who came to her defense were injured. The 30-year-old defendant is now facing seven counts of battery on a protected person.
NOBILO: Former Olympic and Paralympic sprinter and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius is now back home after he was released from prison in South Africa.
FOSTER: Pistorius left this prison near Pretoria today after serving nearly nine years for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. CNN's David McKenzie joins us live from South Africa.
I know there are cameras all around the building there. No pictures were caught of him. We're probably not going to see him at all, are we, under the conditions that were set?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max Bianca, that's right. They've said that Pistorius will not be treated any differently from any other parolee. They said he won't be allowed to give media interviews. They managed to spirit him away from the prison near Pretoria without being seen. He's now believed to be at home at his uncle's house in a wealthy suburb of Pretoria.
It's hard to overstate what a figure Oscar Pistorius was in the world's eye. A famous Paralympian and Olympian who overcame very difficult personal circumstances to become a champion. But it all came crashing down in the early hours of Valentine's Day nearly 10 years ago. And this story has been a saga ever since.
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MCKENZIE (voice-over): Back in 2012, this was Oscar Pistorius, a world-class athlete and role model, overcoming incredible odds. His legs amputated below the knee at 11 months because of a birth defect.
The Blade Runner competing at the able-bodied London Olympics in 2012.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's done magnificently well, and I think everybody's proud of him.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Months later, Oscar Pistorius' global fame became a sordid global notoriety.
REEVA STEENKAMP, OSCAR PISTORIUS GIRL FRIEND: Hi, I'm Reeva. I'm busy shooting the December cover for FHA.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): On Valentine's Day 2013, he killed his up-and- coming model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, shooting four times through the locked bathroom door, the police finding him bloodied and in shock.
Pistorius said it was an accident, and he thought Reeva was an intruder. The state charged him with premeditated murder, his trial a riveting courtroom drama followed by millions.
GERRIE NEL, PROSECUTOR: I will build my case to say that when you got up, you had an argument, that's why she ran away screaming.
OSCAR PISTORIUS, DEFENDANT: She wasn't breathing:
BARRY ROUX, PISTORIUS'S LAWYER: Is the state saying that within two minutes on the state's version on the shooting, or five minutes on our version, in that traumatized state of mind, he worked out this grand scheme? Doesn't make sense, my lady.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The defense claimed Pistorius was a vulnerable, now broken man who deserved leniency.
ROUX: He suffers from an anxiety disorder. We know that the uncontested evidence was that when he was on his stumps, his balance was seriously compromised. And without anything, he would not be able to defend himself.
NEL: You killed the person, that's what you did, isn't it?
PISTORIUS: I made a mistake.
NEL: You killed Reeva Steenkamp, that's what you did. BARRY STEENKAMP, REEVA STEENKAMP'S FATHER: I don't wish that on any
human being, finding out what happened. It devastated us.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): After a nearly 50-day trial stretched over seven months --
THOKOZILE MASIPA, JUDGE, PISTORIUS TRIAL: The accused is found not guilty and is discharged. Instead, he's found guilty of culpable homicide.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Pistorius, placed in a private cell in this prison's medical wing, released after just a year, one-sixth of his sentence, to his uncle's mansion under house arrest.
But Pistorius' legal woes didn't end there. On appeal, his conviction converted to murder. He was sent back to prison. His sentencing for murder then extended by the same appeals court. Reeva's family saying she could now rest in peace.
Oscar Pistorius, for years in the public eye for the right and very wrong reasons, faded from public view until now.
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MCKENZIE (on camera): Of course, the trial was a global phenomenon, but this was also a very personal tragedy for the Steenkamp family.
Just a few hours ago, June Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp's mother, saying: There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back. We who remain behind are the ones serving a life sentence.
She said the pain is still very raw and real. And a few months ago, Max and Bianca, she did say she didn't believe Oscar's version of events, that he said he believed it was an intruder in that bathroom door years ago -- behind the bathroom door years ago --Max, Bianca.
[04:40:05]
FOSTER: OK, David McKenzie, live in South Africa's Western Cape. Thank you so much.
NOBILO: Japanese emergency crews rescued a survivor from the wreckage of her home three days after a massive quake ravaged the western part of the country. The 80-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble of her collapsed house in Waimea late Thursday afternoon.
FOSTER: Emergency personnel are racing to find out any more survivors following Monday's 7.5 magnitude quake. Officials say at least 20 -- no, sorry -- 92 people are dead. Hundreds more remain unaccounted for.
NOBILO: Still to come on the program, extreme weather has left parts of Europe either underwater or covered in snow. We'll have more on that and this weekend's forecast for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FOSTER: Well, there is some good news for parts of Europe inundated by recent downpours as a front makes its way towards the Mediterranean.
NOBILO: CNN's Allison Chinchar has the weekend weather forecast for Europe.
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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Places like Germany and France are finally going to see some relief in the form of drier conditions as we head into the weekend and it couldn't come soon enough. You can see from the video here from northern France, again, roadways, fields, underwater, and it's been that way for a few days now.
Now the next system that is really starting to shift from northern Europe down in towards the Mediterranean. So, the focus of the rainfall over the next few days is really going to be across portions of Italy, Greece and right there along the Adriatic Sea. And that's where you're going to have the highest totals for rain as well as snow. Here you can see across the Alps still looking at areas about 20 to 40 centimeters, but the heaviest rain is going to be focused along Italy as well as Greece where we could pick up 50 to 100 millimeters total as we head through the weekend.
The other big story has been the extreme cold temperatures. Take a look at some of these numbers.
[04:45:00]
All of these locations are in the Arctic Circle, but even for these areas, this is extremely cold. All of these locations bottoming out below minus 40 degrees. Even places farther south, say like Oslo and Helsinki, not quite as cold, but still much colder than they normally would be for this particular time of year.
Now, the good news is we are going to finally start to see that frigid air begin to shift off to the east and get some relief, but it's very slow to do so. So, for a lot of these locations, it's still likely going to take several more days before we see those temperatures climbing back to normal.
Take Oslo, for example, still temperatures well below average until at least Monday of next week before we finally start to see them rebound, getting closer to where they should be this time of year. Stockholm, very similar conditions. Those temperatures well below average till Monday of next week.
Finally, by the time we get to Tuesday and Wednesday, we see them rebound back to at least seasonal averages this time of year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: OK, Allison, thank you very much indeed. It really was horrendous traveling home last night to the Shires.
NOBILO: I've heard all about it.
FOSTER: Yes, I mean.
NOBILO: Tell us more about the Shires.
FOSTER: Well, it was flooded, basically, and it's quite dangerous. Jim Bittermann's in France as well. Not much better there -- Jim.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not. I have to tell you, Max, in fact, all the sort of middle European areas are in the same boat. Whether you're talking about southern England or northern France or northern Germany, they basically are suffering under the same kind of conditions.
Let's start up on Scandinavia, though, as Allison was just talking about. Frigid temperatures up there. Thousands of people are still without power in parts of Scandinavia because of the low temperatures and the heavy snowfall. Some people were trapped out on the roads overnight.
One woman in Finland went out skiing in the middle of the blizzard and died. It's kind of a dire situation and something the Scandinavians, who know winter, are no strangers to the cold temperatures, in fact, were not used to. One area recorded at a low temperature that was lower for than any other temperature recorded since historical records began in 1887.
Moving further south, like we mentioned, you know, England, northern France and northern Germany are all suffering under flooding conditions. And here the rain hasn't stopped. This is, for many communities, the second or third time within two months that the areas have been flooded. The floodwaters are slow and receding because of the fact the ground is now saturated. So that's a difficulty.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz went out to take a look for himself. There, the problem is for many of the farmers in northern Germany who basically have to hurry up and get what crops they can in before the floodwaters totally inundate their fields. The crops of potatoes and sugar beets, for example, which normally are harvested a little later, were brought in early just to rescue them from the floodwaters.
So, it's kind of a dire situation, but it is at least getting better, as Allison indicated, getting better this weekend.
On the other hand, the winter is not over yet. We're still just January -- Max, Bianca.
NOBILO: Jim, is there anything that governments can do to help here in terms of before they're expecting large amounts of rain, obviously during the worst of the flooding, and then for recovery afterwards?
BITTERMANN: Well, in fact, one of the things that a lot of people on the ground who are suffering this have been clamoring for is more government action. They're not entirely helpless. There are some things that governments could do. One of the things they're talking about in France here, for example, is some kind of a fund to resettle people who are in floodable areas.
And that would be help, certainly, to get people out of harm's way, because if these things are going to keep happening year after year, then I think you have to make some kind of provisions to adapt -- Max, Bianca.
NOBILO: Jim Bittermann in Paris. Thank you so much.
Breaking news. Get ready to spice up your stamps here in the UK. Girl Power is coming to a postbox near you, Max.
FOSTER: If you're in the U.K.
NOBILO: Yes. If you're not, interesting to listen to anyway. That's coming up next.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: And the story is in the spotlight this hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPICE GIRLS: Yo, tell you what I want, what I really, really want. Don't tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. Don't tell me what you want, what you really...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Britain's Royal Mail is spicing up your letters with a stamp collection commemorating the Spice Girls' 30th anniversary. I don't accept this, because this makes me feel like I'm moving into age territory that's closer to you.
FOSTER: It's coming, Bianca. You can't claim to be, you know, the youth anymore.
The collection marks the first ever issue of stamps dedicated to a female pop group and makes them the sixth music group to be featured in a dedicated stamp issue in the U.K.
NOBILO: Some good stamp knowledge there.
FOSTER: Proving the group's girl power legacy is forever. I thought it was interesting when the Royal Mail said that they are the most successful female music group ever seen, which I think some people would argue with. I know not you.
But based on the fact --
NOBILO: Who's another one?
FOSTER: -- not just the sales, but because of the influence they had, which I think is true, because when they became really big, they adopted that mantra, didn't they? Girl power. And I think that's actually, you know, it was more than the pop group. It was empowering.
NOBILO: It was a movement. That sounds extremely cheesy. But I think, obviously, I grew up in this country at that time, and you grew up assuming that you could do anything.
FOSTER: Yes.
NOBILO: The figures that were at the forefront of celebrity at that time, this country at that time. And you grew up assuming that you could do anything.
FOSTER: Yes.
NOBILO: The figures that were at the forefront of celebrity at that time had that message.
FOSTER: And your favorite was? Sporty.
NOBILO: Ginger. No, I should be Sporty because I wore a lot of combat pants. But actually, I did dye my hair red a few times to dress up like her.
FOSTER: You should do that again.
NOBILO: Maybe one day, when I start growing grey. Because I'm so old, as you're now saying.
A new species of dinosaur, speaking of ancient things, has been unearthed in Argentina. The government's science agency says paleontologists found four of these dinosaurs. Four, that's impressive. With star-shaped tailbones in the Patagonia region. Considered to be the largest in their family, these reptiles are believed to have been 20 meters long and to have weighed an estimated 15 tons.
They also had long necks and beaks like a duck. And they went extinct 90 million years ago.
FOSTER: It really sounds like you just made all that up.
NOBILO: I didn't.
FOSTER: Long necks, beaks like a duck. I mean --
NOBILO: They're known as the "Sidersaura Marae."
Are you impressed? That wasn't in the script.
FOSTER: Is that Italian?
NOBILO: No, it's not.
FOSTER: Denmark's Queen Margrethe II has taken her final carriage ride as monarch before she abdicates the throne. Her son, Crown Prince Frederick, will take over on January 14th.
NOBILO: The 83-year-old queen made the announcement during her traditional New Year's Eve speech. She mentioned that a back surgery last February made her think about the future and decided that now is the right time for the next generation to take over.
FOSTER: I've been there for one of these events and it's proper fairy tale stuff. You feel like you're in a Disney movie.
NOBILO: Why can't you take the carriage as a dowager? Why do you have to be the actual reigning monarch?
FOSTER: I'm sure she'll be allowed in. I think Frederick will just need to decide. A hop-in mum. You're allowed.
Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
NOBILO: And I'm Bianca Nobilo. Have a great weekend. "EARLY START" is up next right here on CNN.
