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CNN International: Seoul: North Korea Fires Artillery Rounds Near SK Islands; Heavy Rain Brings Flooding in Western Europe; DeSantis & Haley Take Aim at Trump in CNN Town Hall; Iowa Caucuses are Scheduled for Monday, January 15; Oscar Pistorius Released from South African Prison. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 05, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN "Newsroom". I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, 11 years after murdering his girlfriend he is out. The Olympic and Paralympic Sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison.

China calls for calm between North and South Korea after Pyongyang fires more than 200 artillery rounds we're live in Seoul. And who hit the bulls-eye? Presidential hopefuls Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley try to take down the front runner Donald Trump on live TV.

Oscar Pistorius is a free man again the double amputee Olympic sprinter was released from a South African prison earlier on Friday. Officials ruled he was eligible for parole after serving half of a 13 year sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He won't free nearly 11 years after shooting Steenkamp. That is Charlie said he thought he was shooting at an intruder in his home. He'll now be bound by parole conditions until 2029. David McKenzie joins us from Western Cape, South Africa with that story obviously a very difficult day today for Steenkamp's family.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A very difficult day for -- Steenkamp tragically berries Steenkamp her husband and the father of Reeva Steenkamp died a few months ago, Max and these are very strict parole conditions.

The authorities here in South Africa saying that Pistorius is not going to be treated any differently from any other parolee. He was released very quietly from that prison west of Pretoria. We didn't get any sense of his state of being and any visuals of him. And they said this is what we should have expected.

They're not going to parade him out in front of the world media here in South Africa. You'll remember this is an extraordinary case. The Paralympian and Olympian who grew to global stardom was able to perform and the able bodied Olympics in 2012 in London, relatively soon after that it all came crashing down early morning on Valentine's Day in 2013. There was no dispute amongst the defense and the prosecution that Oscar Pistorius fired his 9 millimeter weapon through the locked bathroom door. He said it was an intruder. And the prosecution said that he knew it was Reeva Steenkamp is up and coming models girlfriend of several months.

In the end, that didn't actually matter. His knowledge of who was there it was a lengthy trial. After appeal the Supreme Court of Appeals say judge he had murdered Steenkamp and that he had murdered whoever was behind that locked bathroom door.

The man who had so much promise and such a global recognition, a crash down to earth he was put in the medical wing of a prison near Pretoria or in Pretoria in fact, he visited there to his cell some years ago. There were also legal wrangling's of when he would eventually come up.

Reeva Steenkamp's mother today saying that at this time I'm not convinced that Oscar has been rehabilitated if someone does not show remorse, they cannot be considered to be rehabilitated she said the pain is raw and real. She's forgiven Oscar Pistorius, but she doesn't believe his version of the events, Max.

FOSTER: David McKenzie, thank you. South Korea's military denouncing its northern neighbor. Seoul says North Korea fired artillery rounds that fell within a maritime buffer zone off the West Coast. South Korea is calling it a provocative act that threatens peace. China's calling for calm between Pyongyang and Seoul.

Meanwhile, the South Korean military is responding with its own maritime shooting exercises. CNN's Marc Stewart is covering all of this live for us from Seoul. It's always difficult to know how serious this is. But how would you frame it, Marc?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, I would say this is very typical. This is not out of the norm. In fact, if you look at this relationship between the North and the South, it's very much tit for tat. You do something to me I'm going to do something to you back.

As far as what prompted this action today by North Korea perhaps it was military drills that we saw the South Korean military taking part in earlier this week on both land and on water. But this is a very complicated relationship and at times it does intensify. A point of discussion that came up today during an interview with an official from the South Korean military let's take a listen to his remarks.

[08:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLONEL LEE SUNG-JUN, SOUTH KOREA'S JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We certainly warn North Korea that they are fully responsible for this escalation of the crisis. And we strongly urge them to stop it. Our military is tracking and monitoring the related situation and in close cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea and will implement measures in response to North Korea's provocations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Let's emphasize the point that no one was hurt. There was no damage on the ground. But this is yet another example of this back and forth. Just days ago North Korea made it very clear in a statement that it did not want to see reunification between the Koreas in fact, describe the relationship between the two as hostile, Max.

FOSTER: Okay. Marc Stewart, thank you for that update. Israel intensifying its operations in Central and Southern Gaza, with the IDF saying it hit more than 100 targets in the past 24 hours, striking terrorist cells, rocket launch pads in military sites. U.N. humanitarian worker tells CNN that no place in the Enclave is safe for Palestinians.

This comes amid a diplomatic push to prevent the conflict from spreading. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Turkey today, the first stop of an eight nation tour. The European Union's Foreign Policy Chief is also heading to the region. He'll be in Lebanon. CNN's International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson joins us now live from Tel Aviv. What is the nature then, Nic of this latest diplomatic push?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, certainly when he gets the Israel Secretary Blinken will be focusing on ensuring that there is more humanitarian aid food, water, medical supplies getting through to Palestinians in Gaza.

He will be looking to ensure that the Palestinians safety and security inside Gaza is better respected, I suppose is the word that is better protected. It will be the outcome that he's looking for. He'll also be discussing the political dimensions of what Israel sees as the future for Gaza, who's going to want to hear more about how Israel is going to change the phase of its operate -- military operations.

And we heard a little bit about that from the Defense Minister yesterday saying that in the north of Gaza the military, the IDF will be focusing more there on going after tunnels. It will enter a new phase of Operation Special Forces by going after tunnels in Southern Gaza. The Defense Minister said that the new phase there will be really focusing on going after the Hamas Leaders.

It's clear that the IDF believes that those leaders therefore, most predominantly in the south of the Gaza Strip and also they're trying to secure the release of hostages. On the final phase, if you will or the next phase a day after phase as the Defense Minister put it in his three page document outlining the future planning.

It outlines situation where Hamas is gone, their security threat is removed, that there are no Israeli civilians there. But the military still has an operational presence or the ability to conduct raids and inspect goods going into Gaza. But that phase of who governs Gaza, the description in the document about that was somewhat vague. And I expect Secretary Blinken will want to sort of press down and hear more about what that looks like and who is going to govern Gaza realistically. FOSTER: Okay. Nic, thank you. Cold and wet, two words to sum up the first week of the year across much of Europe. Extreme weather has led parts of the continent either underwater or under snow. In the West it was a case of exceptional levels of rainfall and to the North, temperatures down to minus 44 degrees celsius gripping Scandinavia.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us to tell us when folks can expect it to become dry and warm up. I mean rain in the U.K., snow in Scandinavia not unusual but it's just the levels we're saying that.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, what a tumultuous start to 2024 whether you've got the cold air gripping the north or the flooding rains gripping Western Europe? This is what it looked like yesterday in Northwestern France.

I mean these are significant flooding visuals coming out of the region that has just been battered by storm after storm after storm. We've seen authorities going from door to door performing rescues and checking on people here who have been stranded by the floodwaters.

In terms of how much rain has fallen some of the higher totals just in the past 24 hours, really located across France and the United Kingdom anywhere from 30 to upwards of 80 millimeters of rain obviously enough to overwhelm the drainage systems there caused the flooding within that town across Northwest France.

[08:10:00]

Now, the storm system responsible is moving on from France and the bulk of the precipitation will be located across the Mediterranean and into the Adriatic region going forward through this weekend. Here's a satellite loop that's the storm that moved across the English Channel that brought the rainfall to Northwestern portions of France.

You saw the flooding video there a moment ago. Now we're going to take that energy and focus it in on the Alps as well as the Adriatic, so Croatia to portions of Italy, into Austria as well as Switzerland. This is where we'll have seen heavy snow and of course heavy rainfall in the lower elevations.

Rome northward you'll be able to see that in fact the Italian Meteorological Agency, this is also Meteoalarm (ph) putting out some weather warnings, the orange risks indicate anywhere around Florence, the potential for flooding exists even some power outages thanks to the strong winds.

And then the other side of this big story over the western and central parts of Europe is the cold weather particularly across Scandinavia. It is going to relax here going forward through the weekend and early parts of next week shifting the bulk of the coldest air across Siberia, northern Russia.

But wow, when we're talking about cold weather Max, I mean this is incredible for this location within Sweden. It was its coldest record low temperature that has ever seen and Sweden's coldest January low temperature ever recorded. So that's saying something. Thanks Max. FOSTER: Okay. Derek, thank you. Still to come, Republican candidates have tiptoed around criticism of Donald Trump until now and what they revealed in last night's CNN Town Halls.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: In the race for the White House two Republicans hoping to win their party's nomination for President took center stage at CNN Town Halls on Thursday night. Both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley took more direct shots at the front runner Donald Trump that they have done up until now at least. And all this just 10 days before the first nominating contest in the State of Iowa. Jeff Zeleny shows us what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is time to move past President Trump and it is time to start focusing on how to strengthen America.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You don't want it to be a referendum on Trump in the past. You want it to be a referendum on Biden's failures.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis sharpening their arguments against Donald Trump in one another 10 days until Iowa voters rendered the first judgments of the Republican Presidential Race.

In back-to-back CNN Town Halls last night, DeSantis is raising questions about Trump's electability and the uncertainty surrounding the mounting legal challenges against the Former President.

DESANTIS: Whatever may be beneficial in the primary doesn't mean it's beneficial in the general election and I think at 2024 election where the Democrats get to run against the candidate that is going through all this stuff that is going to give the Democrats in advantage.

[08:15:00]

ZELENY (voice-over): Haley arguing she's the most electable Republican candidate of all.

HALEY: Americans don't want another nail biter of an election. And that's what we'll get look at any of the polls.

ZELENY (voice-over): Even as she sought to put to rest a controversy that's been following her over failing to say that slavery sparked the Civil War.

HALEY: I had black friends growing up, it is a very talked about thing. We have a big history in South Carolina when it comes to you know slavery when it comes to all the things that happened with the Civil War all that I was over -- I was thinking past slavery and talking about the lesson that we would learn going forward. I shouldn't have done that. I should have said slavery. ZELENY (voice-over): In the aftermath of a deadly shooting Thursday at an Iowa high school just 30 miles away from the sight of the Town Hall, DeSantis and Haley both said new gun laws weren't the answer.

HALEY: Instead of living in fear, let's do something about it. We have got to deal with the cancer. That is mental health. We have to.

ZELENY (voice-over): DeSantis said he supports a Florida proposal to eliminate a three day waiting period to buy a firearm. A law passed following the 2018 shooting at Parkland High School that killed 17 people.

DESANTIS: You shouldn't have to be on a mandatory waiting period. Instant checks will do the job.

ZELENY (voice-over): From immigration to the economy to foreign policy the Republican rivals presented their own views, rarely criticizing one another to the degree they have on the campaign trail.

DESANTIS: Biden's weakness invited a lot of the problems that we're seeing around the world when I'm President, it's going to be totally different. You know we're going to lay down very clear markers and people are going to know don't mess with the U.S.A.

ZELENY (voice-over): Haley drew gentle boos from the audience at Grandview University in Des Moines.

HALEY: Oh, my God.

ZELENY (voice-over): Over a statement she made earlier this week in New Hampshire.

HALEY: You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it. You know that you continue to go.

ZELENY (voice-over): With a smile, she downplayed that comment.

HALEY: New Hampshire makes fun of Iowa. I will make fun of South Carolina. It's what we do. So I mean, I think the problem in politics now is it's just like too serious and too dramatic.

ZELENY (voice-over): Haley and DeSantis are locked in an increasingly bitter fight to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump. Their collision course has left Trump in a front runner's lane of his own. As he heads back to Iowa today, he's eyeing more than a victory in the caucuses. He's looking for a decisive one. Trump's advisors tell CNN complacency among his supporters poses a bigger challenge than any of his rivals.

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: We got to be sure that we put this thing away. The poll numbers are scary, because we're leading by so much. The key is you have to get out and vote.

(END VIDEO TAPE) FOSTER: Well, CNN Political Commentator, Errol Louis joins us now from New York with some perspective on the Town Halls. Thank you so much for joining us, Errol. First of all, the international audience, obviously, so much focus on this because it's the first one but how important is it for setting the tone for the rest of the election?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, it's extremely important. The reality is that most of the delegates for the Republican nomination and it's a delicate process by which you win the nomination most of them are going to be awarded by the end of March.

So this starts off slowly. But it very, very quickly adds up to the number of delegates that will be needed to really determine who the nominee is going to be. And the history has been ever since the 1970s that of the winner of Iowa starts out with a lot of momentum, and then in very quick succession.

It's then New Hampshire and then South Carolina and then we have what's called Super Tuesday, whereby you know the first week of March basically half of all of the delegates will be determined. So this is considered a really important bellwether, an indicator of who's going to win the nomination.

FOSTER: And how reliable are the polls ahead of these moments, because if we look at Donald Trump he is way ahead, isn't he? But as Jeff was intimating he's concerned about his turnout.

LOUIS: Yeah. Well, that's exactly right. I mean look, the polls are fairly reliable. In fact, one of the better polls that we have in all of American politics is done in Iowa. It's a little bit tricky to predict because what you have are about 30,000 to 50,000 people who are going out to caucus, it's not just a matter of going into a polling site and putting a slip of paper into a box.

You have to sit there and basically argue with your neighbors for what could be an extended period of time on caucus day. And that makes it just a little bit different. You really mostly get committed supporters out on caucus night.

And that if Donald Trump and can get his supporters to go out and do that, get them energized get them organized, make sure that they turn out in all of the right precincts that he could in fact sweep right off the bat. [08:20:00]

He's got greater name recognition certainly and a lot of support according to the polls.

FOSTER: The other two candidates obviously tiptoeing around him constantly. They don't want to say the wrong thing. But they want to challenge him at the same time which had a better strategy do you think?

LOUIS: Well look, tiptoeing around him as not according to the poll has been a very fruitful strategy. It always raises the question of well, why are you running against him? If he can't be criticized if you think that he did such a good job? If you thought he was a good President and so forth? It puts the question right in front of you. Well, then what are you doing here?

The candidates, on the other hand, who have attacked him, have also drawn this ferocious backlash. And you know we had about half a dozen candidates only a few weeks ago, most of them have dropped out in part because when they criticize Donald Trump they get booed on the spot.

They get a backlash right on the spot. He is very popular within the Republican Party. The nomination is essentially his to lose and really has been from the very beginning of the campaign.

FOSTER: Errol Louis, appreciate your insight. Thank you so much for that.

LOUIS: Thank you.

FOSTER: Just ahead, a convicted murderer is freed from prison in a killing that shopper world we'll take a deeper look at the case of Oscar Pistorius.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Recapping our top story, Oscar Pistorius is now back home. The Former Olympic and Paralympic sprinter was released from a South African prison just hours ago after serving almost nine years for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. CNN's David McKenzie takes a look back at the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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, MODEL: Hi I'm Reeva. We're shooting this December cover for "FHM".

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.

BARRY STEENKAMP, REEVA STEENKAMP'S FATHER: She wasn't breathing. [08:25:00]

BARRY ROUX, PISTORIUS' LAWYER: It is a state saying that within two minutes on the state version on the shooting or five minutes on our version in a traumatized state of mind, he worked out this grand scheme doesn't make sense to me.

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 stamps, 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?

OSCAR PISTORIUS, OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC SPRINTER: I made a mistake.

NEL: You kill Reeva Steenkamp. That's what you did it.

B. STEENKAMP: Out there to 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 OF PISTORIUS TRIAL: The accused is found not guilty and is discharged. Instead he is 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 1/6 of his sentence to his uncle's mansion under house arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as Reeva --

MCKENZIE (voice-over): 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 at 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. David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Thanks for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom". I'm Max Foster in London. "World Sport" with Patrick is up next.

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