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Hala Gorani Tonight
Obama On Final Overseas Trip As U.S. President; Trump Team Considers Candidates For Major Roles; Clearing The Deadly Landmines Left Behind By ISIS; Russian Strikes Hit Targets In Idlib, Homs; Trump To Deport Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Records; Syrian Military Resumes Assault On East Aleppo; Why Bogus News Spreads So Fast; Fake Biden Pranks Take Internet By Storm. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired November 15, 2016 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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[15:00:22] HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We are live at CNN London. Thanks for being with us on this Tuesday. This is
THE WORLD RIGHT NOW.
Barack Obama is on his final foreign trip as president in Greece followed by Germany and ultimately Peru. But this is no victory lap for the U.S.
president.
Instead he will spend his time trying to reassure allies, including the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras that Donald Trump has no plans to upset
longstanding relationships.
During that sometimes heated news conference in Athens, Mr. Obama said he did not create the conditions for Trump's victory and he argued that the
president-elect tapped into American anger to win. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You have seen some of the rhetoric among Republican-elected officials, and activists, and
media, some of it pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to facts, but being used effectively to mobilize people.
And obviously President-elect Trump tapped into that particular strain within the Republican Party and then was able to broaden that enough and
get enough votes to win the election.
GORANI: White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, is traveling with Mr. Obama on this trip and she joins me now live from Athens, Greece.
I can imagine the last thing Barack Obama wanted to do on his final trip overseas was have to answer question after question about a Donald Trump
victory -- Michelle.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, he saw it coming. I think he also wants to get out what reassurance and optimism
he can, and that's why before he left on this trip, the White House suddenly called another press conference at the White House just yesterday.
So he is going to in all have four press conferences between that one and the ones that he will have on this trip. Plenty of time for people to get
their questions out.
But yesterday was the first time we heard from him post-election. It is clear that they tried to, you know, get rid of some of those deeper
questions right off of the bat so that during these press conferences with foreign leaders they could maybe focus more on the issues at hand.
But the White House knows that these are burning questions and not just the press, but citizens all over the world have and today he got into it. I
think yesterday he had more of an opportunity to say look, you know, we need to give Donald Trump a chance.
Americans need to let him make his decisions. He has been showing some flexibility on certain things like Obamacare, maybe keeping some
provisions. He has expressed a commitment to NATO.
But as this trip goes on, you know, he is getting into deeper questions like what do you think is at the heart of all of this? Did you contribute
to it in any way with your policies?
And it's just a fact that this is going to happen. It was such a shock and upset, even to the president himself that he wants to talk about it, too.
So it is not just optimism that he wants to convey ultimately, but he wants to reinforce what he said during the campaigns and the White House hasn't
backed away from those strong statements that he himself made including that he feels Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States
-- Hala.
GORANI: Yes. And moving on to Germany and it's issues like Brexit, like the Paris climate agreement, all of these very important foreign policy
topics that President-elect Donald Trump will have to deal with and there has to be some nervousness among leaders also in Germany with Angela Merkel
as to what comes next.
[15:05:04]KOSINSKI: Absolutely, I mean, I think nervousness just scratches the surface. There was such big question marks about how things were
handled. And I think even if you look at some of the statements that Donald Trump made during the campaign about NATO that sent ripples
throughout Europe and beyond.
About starting a trade war with China, building a wall with Mexico, I mean, no one really knows how much of that was campaign rhetoric, and how much of
is going to be attempted to be implemented.
Uncertainty causes its own trouble. So that's where we are right now. It has been interesting to see some of the statements put out by world
leaders. I mean, some of them who compare Trump to Hitler and Mussolini during the campaign are now saying, OK, all of that aside, let's look for
new paths to prosperity together.
So everyone is looking for some, I guess, optimism is the best word to keep using. But there are real questions out there, real concerns, real worries
that lead to instability. That is what everybody is trying to get away from right now especially here in Greece.
GORANI: Right, some of that heated rhetoric certainly is going to have to be put to one side if you need to continue to establish diplomatic
relations with the U.S. from now on. Thanks very much, Michelle Kosinski, in Athens. We'll catch up with you in Germany as well as you continue to
follow the president's trip abroad, his last as president.
While many European leaders have been caught off guard by Trump's win, in other capitals on both ends of the continent, his election is being
welcomed.
Now for instance, Russian Vladimir Putin re-launched airstrikes in Syria just one day after agreeing to normalize relations in a phone call with the
president-elect. Did it have something to do with the victory of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton? We'll discuss that in a moment.
But in France, far right leader, Marine Le Pen, called Trump's election a sign of hope. She is one of several far right politicians, who are hoping
that the victory of Donald Trump means that the same thing could happen to them.
Let's cross to Paris, if we could. Here we go where we find our Melissa Bell. You spoke to Marine Le Pen. She is the leader of the National
Front.
She is looking to this Donald Trump example, certainly what happened with Brexit as well, defying the polls and the predictions that perhaps she also
has a shot at winning an important election next year.
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: She is one of a number of far right leaders in Europe, Hala, that has been watching very closely what's been
happening on the other side of the Atlantic. She's extremely cheerful about Donald Trump's victory.
She was one of those -- the only French political figure to back his campaign, and she was one of the first to speak out and congratulate him
after he won along with Nigel Farage in the United Kingdom.
And the reason for that is partly, Hala, that she agrees with a lot of things that he stands for, a withdrawal from multinational agreements,
greater amount of political isolationism, economic protectionism.
She believes that France needs to stop immigration, needs to really revive, find once again its own national identity that she feels has been robbed
over the course of the last few decades.
So France under Marine Le Pen, she told us today, would be very different from what we have seen over the course of the last 30 years.
And the other reason, of course, that she is extremely cheerful about what's happened in the United States is that this idea that what had seemed
impossible now seems not only possible, but in her mind rather likely.
She believes that the elites, the establishment that have managed to kept her out of office all these years might finally be forced to listen to the
silent majority, have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARINE LE PEN, LEADER, FRANCE'S NATIONAL FRONT (through translator): He is without a doubt the anti-system candidate. The entire system was against
him and wanted Hillary Clinton. This victory shows the people are taking their future back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think Donald Trump's victory means for your own chances of making it (inaudible) in 2017?
LE PEN (through translator): It makes the French realize that what people want, they can get if they mobilize themselves. Donald Trump has made
possible what was presented as completely impossible so it is a sign for hope for those who cannot bear wild globalization, who cannot bear the
political life lead by the elites.
This win also kills the argument used by my opponents about isolation. They say the policies that you, Marine Le Pen, have isolate you, but I feel
less isolated today because of the multi-polar world defended by Donald Trump but also by Theresa May and Vladimir Putin.
[15:10:07]I have a feeling that it is Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Hollande who should feel isolated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: Now that final point, Hala, is a reminder of another connection that exists between Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump, and that is an admiration of
Vladimir Putin and what he stands for.
She has been greatly criticized here in front for taking money to fund her campaigns in 2014 and she is doing it again this year as we look ahead to
next year's presidential election taking money from Russian based banks.
She points out that the problem is that French banks won't lead her money so that she's obliged to look abroad. That is just further proof, if you
like, that the fact that the establishment is desperately trying to keep her out of office.
What she hopes is that between now and next spring, the French public will be convinced of the need to push her beyond the first round that she's
expected to get to and all the way to the Elysee Palace -- Hala.
GORANI: All right, well, there have been other stories where the establishment has tried to prevent a result and they have not succeeded.
We will see what happens in French politics. Melissa Bell, thanks very much, in Paris.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Donald Trump is getting his first presidential daily briefing today. That is the same exact intelligence
update President Barack Obama gets every day.
That briefing will take place inside Trump Tower where Donald Trump and Mike Pence are spending the day hammering out who exactly will be on their
team for the next four years.
Well, major cabinet roles have yet to be announced, but there is major speculation over who might fill those positions. Let's get more now from
Rebecca Sinderbrand. She is the managing editor of "The Fix" and joins us live from Washington, D.C.
So let's talk first about how the world is preparing for this upcoming Donald Trump presidency. A lot of nervousness among sort of mainstream
political leaders, Angela Merkel, other parts of Europe as well.
But you may have heard that leaders like Marine Le Pen of the far right National Front are looking to the U.S. example and thinking could this
happen here?
REBECCA SINDERBRAND, MANAGING EDITOR, "THE FIX": Absolutely and you know, of course, Steve Bannon, one of incoming President-elect Trump's right hand
people has very close ties with many of these movements including the movements in France and he's been in contact with them both during the
campaign and following the campaign.
So they are absolutely players in addition to the world leaders who are very much wondering exactly what to expect from President Trump. You know,
right now, he is just starting to get his (inaudible), just starting to get the presidential daily briefing and it remains to be seen whether or not we
hear a shift in how he describes certain conflicts.
GORANI: Rebecca, by the way, one of -- of course, as you know, one of the most visible cabinet positions for our international viewers going forward
for Donald Trump will be who he names as -- appoints as secretary of state, and some of the names being floated and reported are John Bolton, of
course, of the George W. Bush years, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
I want to tell our viewers how they differ when it comes to foreign policy. As far as the Iran deal is concerned, they both oppose it although Giuliani
wants to keep it in place.
Bolton went so far as to call for airstrikes on Iran in 2015. Giuliani advocates cooperation with Russia. Bolton is a harsh critic of Moscow, a
big difference there.
Giuliani says eliminating ISIS is his tough priority. Bolton's focus is more on homeland security. And finally, of course, Bolton, a lot more
experience on the global stage, previously serving as ambassador to the U.N. Giuliani not so much.
Rebecca, there is another name, Bob Corker, a senator from Tennessee also being considered according to reports. This is basically all establishment
figures. None of these potential candidates are newbies. This is not what Trump promised, you could argue.
SINDERBRAND: To a certain extent. On the other hand, you could make the claim, you know, it's interesting to see the reaction from within
Washington, Giuliani and Bolton are by no means accepted by a large part of the establishment including some of the Republican senators who mentioned
issues and potential concerns.
Giuliani, of course, not experienced when it comes to foreign affairs, mayor of New York on September 11th, but that's fairly the extent of his
foreign policy background.
John Bolton, of course, a very controversial figure in some circles particularly because of his role in the Bush administration. And so
they're not without controversy.
Bob Corker, of course, he is not necessarily at this moment considered to be one of the frontrunners. Not as close to Trump, and that seems to be
one of the main ways in which some of these positions are being talked about.
In terms of the frontrunners seemed to be the people who have the closest connection to Donald Trump, who he trusts the most. He would be at this
moment probably one of the more traditional picks that he could make.
GORANI: Let's talk a little more about the transition of power here, the children of Donald Trump potentially will get at least it's been requested
according reports security clearance.
[15:15:09]What does that entail exactly for his kids in the White House? Because they will continue to run his business.
SINDERBRAND: Right, well, you know, according to the transition last night came out and wanted to make clear that that had not been requested as yet,
but of course, didn't deny that it was a possibility didn't come out and actually say that.
So that is very much clear in the mix. It's clear that his children are going to play some sort of a role in his administration at this moment.
They're on the transition committee as well being in charge of leading his companies. So already that's in the mix and certainly he's going to be
leading on their counsel. A lot of concerns being raised at this moment.
GORANI: But of course, this is very much an unprecedented situation where you have a man whose entire career is as a business person so with business
interests all around the world, he is not turning over his business to a blind trust where a neutral third party individual will run it without
really filling him in on the details. His kids will be running it.
How do you sort of reassure critics if you're Donald Trump that there won't be conflicts of interests here?
SINDERBRAND: Well, one way you could reassure critics, of course, would be to release your tax returns and the information about precisely what those
holdings are and how much he is paying in taxes and to whom he owes money.
That, of course, has not been done and it's not clear that it will be done at any point in the near future. If ever he made it through the entire
campaign without releasing that information.
So in a way the American public is flying blind a bit when it comes to knowing about or having any sense of what a great deal of his overseas
connections might be.
GORANI: All right, interesting. Rebecca Sinderbrand of "The Washington Post," thanks very much for joining us with more there on the transition of
power to a future Trump administration. Thanks for being with us.
A lot more to come this evening, a brutal end to the lull in airstrikes on parts of Aleppo. We'll hear from one of the few doctors left in the city.
But first, Mexico braces for a possible wave of mass deportations from the U.S. as Donald Trump vows to make good on a campaign pledge. I'll get some
reaction from former Mexican president, Vicente Fox.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: To this story, in Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has been pounding ISIS targets with thousands of bombs and strikes. An American military
colonel says hundreds of ISIS fighters have been killed in the battle to liberate Mosul.
But Iraqi forces battling their way into city are facing some very fierce resistance as we've seen over the last weeks. And witnesses say ISIS has
been hiding explosives in residential areas including inside children's toys.
Our Michael Holmes reports on the teams trying to diffuse the bombs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[15:20:06]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an example of an item in the ground.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, so this one is being diffused?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not yet, no.
HOLMES (voice-over): It's a village tour like no other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of the villagers got killed the fourth one.
HOLMES: Our guide, Salam Mohammad (ph) is with a Mines Advisory Group or MAG. For 29 years, his life has been clearing mines and booby traps around
the world. But he's never seen more than in his home region in Northern Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the last three, four days, we found 30 mines.
HOLMES (on camera): In this area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this area.
HOLMES (voice-over): We're in a village in Mosul when ISIS fled, the group's ability to kill remained.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have like about 11 deaths, people died in this village, five injured, and then in the neighboring villages since we
arrived in the last three weeks, six people have died and four injured.
HOLMES (on camera): So this is urgent work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.
HOLMES (voice-over): Most in the villages around here fled two years ago when ISIS arrived. Salam and his team wants them to wait, but many can no
longer afford to pay rent elsewhere and so they're coming home. Sixty five families so far.
I had no choice but to come back, Hamid Mersa (ph), tells us, but doing so cost his son, Musli (ph), his life killed when he triggered a booby trap at
a village mosque.
Elsewhere in the safer part of the village potentially lifesaving lessons for children. What to look out for, what not to touch, not even toys on
the ground, sometimes booby trapped by an enemy without conscience.
It's all part of the Mines Advisory Group's humanitarian mission. Here Salam wears a camera to show us a house that he knows is booby trapped. He
wanted to let us come, but wanted to show us one of these grotesque weapons, a shell hidden under a seat.
Later our tour interrupted, a villager found something in his house that needs checking. This happens daily, sometimes several times. Salam tells
him he'll come by and have a look.
At this house, three people died simply going home. ISIS have wreaked it with explosives and it collapsed on top of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They went in on the home.
HOLMES (on camera): And it was bobby strapped and what we're looking at down there is the roof.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's the roof.
HOLMES (voice-over): Making this village safe and the farmland that supports its people will take months of painstaking sometimes centimeter by
centimeter work and then it is on to the next area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because at the end of the day, 100 percent should be clear and then we will hand it back to the communities so, yes, 100
percent. That's why we are responsible for it.
HOLMES (on camera): You can't miss anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I can't. There are no room for that.
HOLMES (voice-over): And here a village full of people grateful for that promise. Michael Holmes, CNN near Mosul, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin re-launched airstrikes in Syria just one day after agreeing to normalize relations in a phone call
with the U.S. president-elect, Donald Trump.
Are the two things related? Let's cross to Moscow where Matthew Chance is standing by. We've seen some pretty relentless pounding of rebel-held
Eastern Aleppo, Matthew.
And of course, one has to wonder if it is a coincidence that this is happening after a phone call with Donald Trump. Some are sort of analyzing
this and saying it must mean that Vladimir Putin feels more comfortable in this particular military approach to Syria?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is not entirely clear, is it, Hala? Because it is our understanding that the airstrikes
that are being carried out on Eastern Aleppo at the moment are not necessarily being carried out by Russian forces, they are being carried out
by Syrian government forces.
Although it certainly true according to the Russian Defense Ministry that Russian war planes, some of which are being launched from that flotilla of
ships that are just stationed itself off of the western coast of Syria or in the Eastern Mediterranean are carrying out airstrikes inside Syria, but
not in the actual vicinity of Eastern Aleppo.
But obviously the arrival of that flotilla, which consists of eight ships including the flagship of the Russian Navy, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is
a very powerful aircraft carrier. It does give the Russians the ability to make a really big push on various antigovernment strongholds inside Syria.
So the potential for that is there.
But you're right, I mean, it comes, the launch of this offensive by Russia, it does come just hours really after that really important first telephone
conversation between President-elect Trump and President Putin of Russia in which they discuss a whole framework in which potentially they can
cooperate in the future.
GORANI: How will, for instance, a Donald Trump presidency change, western sanctions against Russia over Crimea or for instance, the Iran deal. I
mean, Donald Trump, has spoken out very much against the Iran nuclear deal. That the U.S. brokers under President Obama, how will any of those things
change, do we know?
CHANCE: Well, I don't think we don't know yet, exactly what if anything will change, but we do know as a candidate, Donald Trump spoke very
favorably and very positively about building bridges with Russia. He basically was (inaudible) candidate.
He campaigned on a platform of, you know, making relations with Russia better, and from the contents of that conversation on the telephone with
Vladimir Putin, it seems that that is the direction he is intending to go in these initial stages of his administration.
They spoke, for instance, about the need to normalize relations, the need to increase trade ties between the two countries and to cooperate on
international terrorism well. So again that is a frame work for them.
GORANI: All right, we will see whether what that means in terms of the -- whether or not that changes the relationship between the two countries.
Matthew Chance is in Moscow. Thanks very much.
Still to come on THE WORLD RIGHT NOW, heavy airstrikes resume, as we mentioned, in rebel held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo. We'll have
more on the renewed assault and the humanitarian crisis and how it's impacting ordinary people there. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Well, it could be a logistical and not just a logistical, but a plain old nightmare for Mexico. Millions of its citizens suddenly flooding
back home from the United States in need of jobs after being deported by Donald Trump's new administration. He promised to do that after all.
Mexico says it's preparing for just that scenario. After the president- elect vowed to begin carrying out mass deportations one of his main promises. Trump says as many as three million illegal immigrants with
criminal backgrounds will be the first to go.
A spokesman for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says his country is working on a plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDUARDO SANCHEZ, SPOKESMAN FOR MEXICAN PRESIDENT: We will have to see how many of those deportations by the United States government to the countries
where the immigrants are from are from Mexico. And of course, this and other matters will be part of the agenda that Mexico brings to the table
during the bilateral meetings that will take place with the government- elect of President Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, is a fierce critic of Donald Trump and his immigration policies. He joins me now live from
Mexico City. Thank you, sir, for being with us. First, let me ask you -- thank you.
[15:30:03] Let me ask you this, Barack Obama, the current U.S. president, Hillary Clinton, many very senior politicians in the United States have
said give Donald Trump a chance, give him a chance to lead, a chance to do a good job. Are you willing to give him that chance?
VICENTE FOX, FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT: Well, what we know about him, we know what he has proposed, his public policies, of course, no chance for
that to prosper, none at all. If he (inaudible) the White House under the regular circumstances respecting all the agreements that we have is clear
that undocumented people in the United States, number one, they don't know who they are and where they are. I don't know how he is going to go after
these people that is not registered.
Number two, yes, regularly every year there is a certain amount of people that they has or they find, and they send it to Mexico, that happens
regularly throughout the year.
And thirdly, what has happened today is that the trend has reversed and there is many more Mexicans coming back to Mexico on their own free will
because now they have a job in Mexico and now they have the opportunities. So I think that we just have to wait and see how far he wants to go.
GORANI: But you have actually tweeted to the effect of Donald Trump is not legitimate, he lost the popular vote, you know, thanks mostly to a white
elder rural middle class, that's how he actually manage to win this election. Do you believe Donald Trump is not the legitimate president of
the United States?
FOX: I don't think so because I cannot explain to my logical understanding what happen there with that election. So at that point, I'm still
sustaining in that it is not legitimate because of the way she plans to break the law, the way he plans in the case of migration, the way he plans
to steal the transferences away from Mexicans, and the way he wants to handle the trade agreement.
First, before promising to his borders, he should first read the agreement and see what changes can be made and what not. And finally, he must learn
and have the information that the loser in that case the only big loser if affects trade is the United States because Mexico's imports from United
States account for 10 million direct U.S. jobs for U.S. citizens.
GORANI: So you don't believe he's a legitimate president, of course, he won the Electoral College vote, which is the U.S. system. I have to ask
you of course about this wall. That was his big promise during the campaign, "I will build a wall along the border with Mexico and Mexico will
pay for it."
Now we have seen a softening of that position, that parts of that wall might be a fence, for instance. What do you make of that? Would you
qualify that backtracking?
FOX: Absolutely yes. And what I consider that he is a liar. That he cheated all of the people that voted for him under because they voted for
him under an assumption that he would carry on with what he promised and now he is backing up. And I know he is going to back up further.
He has to sit in that chair and he will learn what is this all about. That it is not his own free will. That it is not his authoritarian decisions
that are going to work. He will learn so many things that he doesn't know right now and one of them is the wall. That wall serves no purpose and he
knows it. He just cheated his people for getting their votes.
GORANI: OK, so those are very harsh words. Let me ask you one last question about Donald Trump's electoral victory. He won the Electoral
College, of course, but the Hispanic vote, the Latino vote in the United States for Donald Trump was a lot higher than people had initially
expected, perhaps up to 29 percent according to the "New York Times."
Another organization estimated 17 percent. Either way, a lot higher than was anticipated. Why do you think that some Latino-Americans in much
higher numbers in anticipated actually supported Donald Trump?
[15:35:08]FOX: According to some figures I saw in "New York Times," about 25 percent of the Latinos or Mexicans that voted did it for Trump and I
think that is unbelievable, but if it happened, it speaks pretty bad about these Mexicans there that they didn't three or five generations and they
denied origin and they denied their roots.
Number two, the outcome of the election, the amount of voters is extremely low, which I say it doesn't give the legitimacy that he would have as a
president. He would have to do things on a very different manner.
He would have to unite a nation. He would have to work together with everybody and then he might start getting some legitimation, but to me,
today, he does not have it.
GORANI: Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, thank you very much for joining us from Mexico City. We appreciate your time this evening on CNN.
Thank you.
All right, let us talk once again about the Syrian tragedy. The Syrian military has launched a renewed assault to retake rebel-held East Aleppo.
State media reports that Damascus is using war planes with precision weapons to, quote, "Target terrorist positions." This is what the state
media is reporting.
One anchor described Tuesday the airstrikes as zero hour for wide scale operations. Of course, in the middle of it all, as always, civilians.
Let's get more on what's happening in Aleppo now. CNN's Will Ripley is following developments. He is in Istanbul and he is live.
So talk to us a little bit about what is going on with the civilians in Eastern Aleppo, another terrifying night for them, but also just the last
few remaining doctors in that battered city.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a horrible situation for people who are living in Eastern Aleppo, Hala, as you know from this
and in fact, there are some signs that people have really reached their breaking point.
A group of civilians were protesting in East Aleppo against the Free Syrian Army, asking them to stop the fighting before they have to endure what they
expect could be a really horrific time with these just preliminary airstrikes causing huge explosions in a number of different neigborhoods
around the city.
Also, residents raided a food warehouse of a relief organization and they tried to steel what food supplies they could because the prices at market
for just basic necessities have become so high that many families simply can't afford it.
Also the supply of medicine running dangerously low according to one of the very few doctors remaining in East Aleppo who I spoke with.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY (voice-over): Doctors in rebel-held Eastern Aleppo risk their lives just by going to work. Their city under siege for nearly five years.
Eight hospitals still stands. The ninth hospital destroyed in a bombing earlier this year.
DR. HAMZA AL-KHATIB, DOCTOR IN ALEPPO: When we're at home, it's going to be rockets that will hit our home. But at the hospital, we know that it
might be attacked at any moment.
RIPLEY: Dr. Hamza Al-Khatib says he is one of 31 doctors in the battle scarred city, 31, for more than a quarter million people.
AL-KHATIB: I guess, each doctor at the moment in Aleppo see between 100 to 150 patients each day.
RIPLEY (on camera): A day?
AL-KHATIB: Yes.
RIPLEY (voice-over): On normal days he treats the sick, but when the bombs fall, the sick must be turned away as trauma patients often children flood
the emergency rooms.
AL-KHATIB: A young girl, 12 years old, lost her right leg. So that was a shock.
RIPLEY: He also treated a 4-month-old baby for a small cut, shrapnel from a rocket attack. They sent her home.
AL-KHATIB: Her home was also attacked again the same night and she lost her life.
RIPLEY: During the most recent month of heavy bombardment, some 500 people died in Eastern Aleppo including one week when 96 children were killed,
which makes him hug his own baby a little tighter.
(on camera): She is beautiful.
(voice-over): Dr. Hamza lives at the hospital with his wife and 11-month- old daughter.
(on camera): Have you ever thought that you should try to leave Aleppo?
AL-KHATIB: Being with her in a safer place is very selfish. I would rather be here with my family treating patients.
RIPLEY: When you tuck her in at night, what do you pray for?
[15:40:08]AL-KHATIB: I pray for everything to end. I hope for the peace to break. I hope for hearing good news in the morning.
RIPLEY: But each morning seems to bring more bad news. Winter is coming. Food and medicine is running low, and in the battle for Eastern Aleppo, the
worst maybe yet to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY: Dr. Hamza says maybe there is a two-month supply left of the most basic medical necessities. Some medications are already gone. For
example, insulin, there is no insulin for people with diabetes. They just can't find it. He really told me that he feels like the international
community has abandoned them, there in Aleppo.
They are very fearful that the timing of this final operation with the support of Russia could be timed to coincide with the U.S. presidential
transition when the world is distracted, looking the other direction, and might not pay as much attention to what they predict could be some horrific
atrocities there.
Just, Hala, just to live, just for the food staples, meat that used to cost $14 a kilo, now $45. Sugar that was 35 cents a kilo, $15 to a kilo of rice
that cost $1.50 now $18.
You know that East Aleppo traditionally was a lower income part of the city anyway. People can't afford it and they're growing more and more desperate
and fearful.
GORANI: Thanks very much, Will Ripley in Istanbul. We'll be right back. Stay with us on CNN. A lot more ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: A few months before Americans went to the polls, the pope backed Donald Trump to land the job in the White House except that didn't happen.
It never happened. It was a fake story on this bogus, quote, "news website," but it spread like crazy on social media and this happens all
over the web all the time.
Thousands of totally made up stories shared by millions of people on sites like Facebook. They're not sure what to do about it or even if they should
do anything about it.
Let's get more now into this with our own Dylan Byers. He's in Los Angeles for us. And you have many more examples of fake stories, for instance,
attacks against Hillary Clinton or quotes attributed to Donald Trump, all them absolutely fake but that were shared millions of times.
DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER FOR MEDIA AND POLITICS: That is absolutely right and these fake news stories come from over hundreds of
different fake news sites. Some that are obviously fake and others that try to appear real, you know, give themselves a name like the Denver
something to try and appear like a real news organization.
And you're right, they create extraordinary false stories. Among them the idea that the pope endorsed Donald Trump, not true. We also had a story
recently which came up in Google searches suggesting that Donald Trump had not only won the Electoral College but that he had also won the popular
vote.
[15:45:14]That also was not true. There are stories from earlier in the campaign cycle that went all over Facebook, one of them had Megyn Kelly
being fired from Fox News because she was a Hillary Clinton supporter. And Fox News have found this out and vanished her from the building.
And then a story even about Hillary Clinton suggesting that an FBI agent involved in the leaks of her e-mails had been found dead in a murder-
suicide. None of these stories are true. They are all categorically false.
I think any reader with any sense of perspective or the willingness to check any other credible news outlet would know that they are false and yet
they have proliferated around Facebook, Google and other websites.
GORANI: Right. And as you mentioned, some of them mimic real news websites, so I guess, if you're not very familiar with news outlets and
websites, you might mistake, for instance, something from the "Denver Guardian" for a legitimate news organization.
Now let's talk a little bit, though, about what Facebook is doing about this. Mark Zuckerberg has been asked directly whether or not he believes
that fake news stories influence the election. We know that there is a task force and formal task force within Facebook that is trying to deal
with this. What are their options here?
BYERS: Well, both Facebook and Google have said that they're trying to deal with it and what they've done is they're trying to target the revenue
streams for these potential websites. So what they do is they take away the advertising for these sites or their ability to advertise on Google
search platform or through Facebook.
Now both -- you know, if you look at Facebook and Google, they have two different ideas about what role fake news played in the election. Mark
Zuckerberg has said he does not believe that fake news had any influence on the election.
The CEO of Google on the other hand says it is entirely possible if you just look at how close this election was. You look at the data, it's
conceivable that, you know, people reading false news could have been swayed the election.
Either way the question is you're right, the question is, what can they do? They can target advertising. They can cut off the advertising. They can
try to cut the revenue streams, but it is very hard to tamp down fake news sites and keep them down without betraying certain notions of freedom of
speech and the web is a sort of even playing field for everyone.
And it then becomes an almost a game whack-a-mole (ph) where you hit down one fake news site and another one just pops up.
GORANI: Well, then, one just has to wonder what you do about it. I mean, yes, obviously the internet is all about sharing, especially social media,
stories go viral, and then they go around the world ten times before a correction even makes it, you know, a meter forward. So there you have a
big -- so are we just condemned to a world where half of the news stories out there are partisan and partially or completely fake?
BYERS: Well, there is one thing you could do about, which is you could put in place human editors who could sort of sift through all of the news and
get rid of all false and fake news stories.
The problem with that is that the last time you and I spoke about Facebook, it was because Facebook had a controversy because those human editors were
believed to have edited out several conservative news websites.
And that brings in the whole question of media bias and ethics. And Facebook has been resistant to describing itself as a media organization
and to accepting some of those responsibilities that journalistic institutions bring upon themselves.
So how you balance having human editors who can sift through the fake and the true without giving the appearance of bias and sort of letting the
algorithm run according to its own logic. Those are the questions that organizations like Facebook and Google are wrestling with right now.
GORANI: Absolutely. And Facebook will have to come to terms with just how much of the news on its news feeds and how many people actually get their
news from Facebook and Facebook alone in some cases. Dylan Byers, thanks very much. We appreciate it.
Speaking of Facebook, check out our Facebook page, facebook.com/halagoranicnn. Coming up, Barack and Biden do Washington.
The internet pays tribute to the ultimate political bromance with lots and lots of memes. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: More than 200 nations are in Morocco right now trying to find ways to slow climate change at the COP 22 Conference. As part of a special
series on Morocco, we focus on one of the country's economic hubs, the Port of Tangier. Eleni Giokos has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN MONEY AFRICA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Tangier, Morocco, an ancient port city, just 27 kilometers from Spain. For
centuries, it has been a strategic point of commerce between Europe and Africa. Today, economic activity has expanded from merchants trading
(inaudible) and other goods to high tech manufacturing for some of the world's biggest companies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is our activity, we do about a million of these a year. It takes about six months to train people to be able to make a
steering wheel in the correct time. So we started out with about two million dollars' worth of coordinating business annually, and now we have
grown to about 40 million euro per year in sales doing more and more complex products.
GIOKOS: Julie Ann Fermin (ph) is GM at Poly Designs, an automotive leather company operating in Tangier since 2001.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We make a variety of interior turn parts for the automotive industry and we work for all of the main car companies such as
Audis, Volkswagen, BMW, Jaguar, Landover, (inaudible), Kia, Ford, Volvo, so we have about 35 customers.
When we decided to came to Morocco because of the proximity to Europe and also the cost structure.
GIOKOS: An attractive cost structure because the company is part of the Tanger-Med Free Zone, one of several free trade zones created by the
government and proving to be a boom for many companies like Poly Designs.
One of more than 650 businesses in a zone (inaudible) over 3,000 hectares. At the Lear Corporation, production is fierce as workers generate thousands
of seats and headrest covers six days a week. Being part of a special zone pays dividends (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the free zone, the corporate tax is zero percent for the five first years and after that, it will decrease it to a rate of 8.75
percent.
GIOKOS: According to the World Bank from 2005 to 2012, Tangier has creating jobs three times faster than all of Morocco. The ease of
logistics is also a contributor to the growth, at least for one fashion company which sources its fabrics across Europe and China.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before the ports opens, the lead time was quite challenging basically. Coming from Asia was for 30 or 40 days, and it was
coming to Turkey was in 12 to 15 days. Today we deport from Turkey to Morocco, we are talking about four to five days, and this is basically
giving us a lot of advantage in lead time and we have been more competitive.
GIOKOS: A sentiment Julie Ann Fermin echoes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It opened up new markets and it's enabled us to have a longer reach for our products.
GIOKOS: A market expansion that's part of Tangier's renaissance, a renaissance businesses thriving in the free zones hope continues decades
into the future. Eleni Giokos, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[15:55:10]GORANI: As the White House prepares to say goodbye to Barack Obama, the internet is celebrating his close and apparently fun
relationship with Vice President Joe Biden. Jeanne Moos shows us how the web hailing America's greatest bromance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was as if President Obama was trying to wrap his lips around the name --
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: President -- President-elect Trump --
MOOS: Some on Twitter elected to imagine frank of mischievous Joe Biden might play on the incoming Trump (inaudible) born a meme of imaginary
conversation between Joe and President Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ordered huge replacement door knobs -- huge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe, we can't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President tiny hands.
MOOS: From the size of Trump's hands to President Obama's birth certificate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, you got to print a fake birth certificate, put it in an envelope labelled secret, and leave it in the oval office desk.
MOOS: Obama's birth place gave birth to a lot of jokes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I left the Kenyan passport in your desk just (inaudible) -- and a pair of rug in your bedroom. He's going to lose --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn it, Joe.
MOOS: That tweet was written by left leaning, Josh Bilenson (ph) --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just trying to be funny at a time when it's really hard to know if it's OK to be funny.
MOOS: Josh loves Joe Biden and has authored at least ten of these memes.
(on camera): And then there was one based on a dirty trick that was actually played in real life. The White House transition from Bill Clinton
to George W. Bush, an investigation confirmed, the missing w's in the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary was saying they took the w's off the keyboards when Bush won. I took the t's. They can only type "rump."
MOOS (voice-over): Josh who also wrote the t's tweet got an inquiry from a agent.
(on camera): They wanted to know if you are interested in a book deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told them I'm interested in anything at this point.
MOOS: If the election has been pushing your buttons, maybe a tweet will provide relief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took a Staples red button and wrote nukes on it. It speaks to him in Russian when pressed.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: This has been THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. See you same time, same place tomorrow. I'm Hala Gorani. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
