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Serbia Opens Doors to Asylum Seekers; Will Joe Biden Get In The Race? Stock Markets Rebound; Paris Prosecutor Lays Case Against Shooter. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired August 25, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:36] BECKY ANDERSON: Respite or cure? Markets surge after China acts to boost its economy, but underlying concerns still remain. Tonight,

the latest on Wall Street, and importantly the impact on emerging markets coming up.

Also ahead, desperate people on the move. Europe's migrant crisis reaches Serbia. We're going to talk to that nation's labor minister about how his

country is welcoming the weary.

Will he or won't he? With President Obama's reported blessing the vice president is weighing a run for his boss's job. Will Joe Biden join the

2016 U.S. presidential race?

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.

ANDERSON: I want to start tonight in France where the Paris prosecutor is expected to announce charges against the man accused of a thwarted terror

attack on a French train. Now this comes as Agence France Presse reports that the suspect, Ayoub El-Khazzani, allegedly viewed a jihadist website on

his mobile phone before boarding the train.

Now the suspect has been transferred in a police escorted motorcade to the main court buildings in Paris. He has denied any links to terrorism.

Well, meanwhile, the family of a man shot on that French train says his condition has worsened.

Mark Moogalian was shot in the neck after he tried to take away the gunman's weapon. Four other men, including three Americans and a Britain

were also involved in subduing the gunman on the train. One of those men, British citizen Chris Norman spoke to CNN earlier about his actions that

day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS NORMAN, HELPED SUBDUE GUNMAN: My position was that I'm not going to be the guy that just dies sitting down being shot trying to hide somewhere.

You know, you really need to be prepared for action. And although in the first instance, I was really -- how can I put it -- I was really scared.

In fact, I remained scared throughout most of the intervention.

I decided that really you need to -- you know, if you're going to die, at least try and do something about it and try to make a contribution to

bringing him down if that's what it turns out to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Well, we're waiting on that news conference by the Paris prosecutor. These are live pictures for you out of Paris. And we'll bring

that to you when it happens. Expecting it very, very soon.

Well, what a difference a day makes. They called it Black Monday as hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off a global stock market. It's

been a much more positive picture today with the exception of China.

I'm going to get to this story shortly.

Let's get you back to Paris where that press conference is beginning.

(PARIS PROSECUTOR PRESS CONFERENCE)

[11:23:22] ANDERSON: Right. That was Paris prosecutor Francois Molins speaking about the investigation into the attack on a high speed French

train on Friday. He explained what happened as they understand it on that train traveling from Brussels to Paris. The suspect locked himself in a

toilet on the Thalys (ph) train, a passenger noticed him acting suspiciously and when the suspect left the toilet allegedly with an

automatic weapon, the prosecutor described the sequence of events that led to the suspect being eventually overcome by passengers preventing what

might have been a very much more terrifying and deadly incident.

Jim Bittermann, we'll get to shortly in the French capital who is covering this story for us.

A little bit more on this as we establish, Jim, the prosecutor insists that he believes there is evidence of clear intent to carry out a terrorist

attack. Jim, I think I've got you. What has the investigation revealed according to authorities?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a number of things, Becky, in fact a number of things that we sort of knew all along, but the

prosecutor confirmed to us, and that is that in fact that El-Khazzani had with him multiple weapons that he was in fact going to use those weapons.

He had every intent of using those weapons. The prosecutors said that he was bent on a terrorist attack, that the weapons kind of prove that.

The prosecutor interestingly enough said that they are opening a preliminary investigation, because what they want to do now is find out a

lot of -- want to answer a lot of questions. For example, where the money came from. He paid for his train ticket in cash, for example. Where did

that come from? And where did the weapons come from? And what contact he had had with these various radical Islamic organizations that the

prosecutor said that they know that he was in fact connected with.

So, they've got a lot of leads there they want to follow up on, Becky.

[11:25:37] ANDERSON: Jim, Ayoub El-Khazzani, we were told in this press conference, was born in Tetoine (ph) in Morocco, moved to Spain at some

point and was known by police, they say, for drug offenses and being associated with a radical mosque there where it appears he may have lived

until this year after which he seems to have lived in various cities in France and Belgium and possibly in Germany.

Is it clear how he was known, if at all, to French intelligence agencies and whether authorities missed a trick in keeping him on their radars, as

it were?

BITTERMANN: Well, in fact, we do know a little bit about that from the prosecutor. He said it was flagged up by the Spanish authorities,

basically that the Spanish, because of his membership in this radicalized mosque in southern Spain, they had a (inaudible), it's called an S note

(ph), this goes out. It means, additional surveillance should be -- is warranted for this particular person. There's about 5,000 or 6,000 of

these people that are listed in the French files, but it's also listed in files throughout the European community. And there are different levels of

surveillance or warning.

This does not mean the person can be arrested and the prosecutor emphasized that.

But if you are at the top level, it is possible that the person would be arrested. There's about 15 different levels. He was down lower on the

ranking. So, it was just flagged up every time he went outside the Shengen Group, that's one of the things that the Shengen Group has allowed, this is

the group of 25 countries within Europe where there is free travel across borders without any kind of customs or immigration inspections.

So, he was able to travel without really ever showing a passport or his identity papers, because that's the way it works.

However, when he left the territories, and that was this May 10 flight in which he took to Turkey, a prosecutor talked about. When he left, then an

alert went out to all the intelligence communities across Europe say that in fact he had left and had appeared in the airport, he'd showed his

passport and according to German sources that we've been talking to today, that he was interrogated by the German immigration people as he showed his

passport leaving Germany, but not interrogated to the extent that one would have thought one would lead to any kind of a terrorism suspicion and he

went off to Turkey on this journey, which I guess, according to the prosecutor they think took him into Syria -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Jim Bittermann is in Paris on what was a press conference being held by the Paris prosecutor Francois Molins who was speaking about the

investigation into the attack on the Thalys hish speed train between Brussels and Paris on Friday and which as we are now well aware a number of

passengers prevented what could have been deadly terrifying attack.

We'll get more on this in the days to come, of course. This is an investigation that extends beyond Paris and France, this is a transnational

investigation, as Jim was pointing out.

You're watching Connect the World. This is CNN. I'm going to be right back after this short break. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:31:44] ANDERSON: This is Connect the World. I'm Becky Anderson. The top stories for you this hour on CNN.

And a French prosecutor just gave an update on the suspect being questioned in Friday's train attack. Francois Molins said that Ayoub El-Khazzani had

around 200 rounds of ammunition on him. And his intent -- his internet use, sorry, showed clear evidence of terrorist intent.

Well, the Dow Jones is trading well into the green right now. It is a hard won recovery after Monday's huge drop. Let's have a look at those markets

and its performance as it stands as we speak.

As it is just a little after 11:30 a.m. on Wall Street. And a claw back from the losses Monday, not the picture, I've got to tell you, on China's

close early on Monday, another vicious day there as we saw Chinese authorities slashing interest rates for the fifth time in 12 months in an

attempt to stabilize this economy and stabilize these enormous selloffs on the Chinese, or Shanghai market.

To another story that we have been covering for you, record numbers of migrants are making their way across the Balkans on an exhausting journey

to find a permanent new home in Europe. Hungarian police say more than 2,000 migrants crossed the border from Serbia on Monday, the highest ever

daily total.

Now, many of them are refugees fleeing the war in Syria. And you can see how far they have traveled, crossing through Turkey and then on to Greece,

eventually making their way to Serbia and to Hungary.

Well, reaching Hungary is critical as it's part of the European Union's passport free zone, giving migrants easier access to Europe's wealthier

nations.

Well, some countries on that route want to block the influx of migrants, Serbia is welcoming them and promising to treat them well.

Arwa Damon is live in Belgrade for you tonight and a park where refugees are taking shelter.

And earlier on today -- and these numbers may have changed enormously since then, the UN quoting more than 7,000 migrants have crossed into Serbia from

Macedonia since Friday alone. Arwa, what's being done to accommodate them short-term?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, once they cross into Serbia, Becky, they are getting on buses or eventually finding their way

from the border to Belgrade. This is one of the parks that they do tend to overnight and as they are waiting to take a bus that will take them to the

border with Hungary, some are waiting for their families to send them money.

Everyone who we've been talking to, Becky, says that here in Serbia, they feel as if the reception is much more compassionate, more hospitable. And

a lot of the Serbians that we've been talking to say that, yes, it's because the people of Serbia remember what it's like to be a victim of war,

they remember what it's like to lose everything often to violence that you can't control, that you can't understand.

And one of the hotel workers here was telling us that she sympathizes with the plight of these refugees, because she remembers what it was like when

the population here was in the same position, that they know that these are not bad people. They are simply trying to flee from a bad situation.

And again, mostly Syrian refugees, Iraqis that we have been speaking to as well all with absolutely heartbreaking stories, Becky. One 30-year-old

Iraqi we talked to said that he fled Baghdad because militias bombed his wedding, killing his 14-year-old brother.

Many of them are also using the park here, the hospitality they're seeing here being treated by the medics. They've left now for the day, but they

were here earlier because they feel as if they need to take this opportunity to rest up a little bit, because that transit into Hungary,

that trek they're going to have to make is very difficult. They're going to try to be moving through the forested area along the Serbian/Hungarian

border, and now, of course, the Hungarians have made it more difficult, because they have started building a wall along some parts of the border.

All of the border, now, they have shut off with razor wire to try to funnel the refugees through certain particular entry points to make the situation

for them a bit more manageable, but a lot of the refugees here want to also avoid being fingerprinted in Hungary, because they are worried that when

they do reach their final destination further deeper into western Europe if they're applications for asylum aren't accepted there, they'll be returned

back to Hungary and that is not necessarily where they want to stay.

We also earlier met a Syrian family, the father there was strumming an old Kurdish song he used to play for weddings. His song, Becky was about

feeling a foreigner in a land. Many of the people here are struggling with that and beginning to cope with the realization that they are going to have

to be starting completely from scratch once they do receive asylum -- Becky.

[11:36:45] ANDERSON: Arwa Damon there in a park in Belgrade, tracking the route, it has to be said, of so many thousands, thousands of refugees

trying to make their way into a (inaudible) country in Europe and then on to where they hope they'll find a better life.

Well, Serbia is promising to take care of the migrants. It also says it's expecting concrete financial support from the European Union.

Let's bring in Serbia's labor minister now, Aleksandar Vulin. He is live in Belgrade.

Before we talk about what you are expecting to get from Europe, is it clear yet just how many refugees have been processed and how many more you

expect?

ALEKSANDAR VULIN, SERBIAN LABOR MINISTER: Since January 1 this year, we processing over 100,000 of migrants. And no one knows how many people we

can expect more.

Since Friday, we have only in one night, between the Friday and Saturday, more than 7,000 migrants.

ANDERSON: How is Serbia coping, sir?

VULIN: I think very well. We showed that we are compassionate. We show that we are good people, that we understand suffering of other people and

more than that, we assure ourselves as organized state. We are most organized and most humane state on their journey.

ANDERSON: As I understand it, once these refugees, as migrant people -- let's call them people -- have been processed, they have three days to

reach northern Serbia on trains and buses. Is that correct?

VULIN: Not the reach, not Serbia. Everyone who said that he's asylum seeker have three days to reach any of our centers for asylum seekers. So,

that mean that in period of three days they can (inaudible) completely free all of our country, most of them choose that they go out and they try to

find a life in Northern Europe and Western Europe.

ANDERSON: It's clear that many of these refugees, and let's say some 80 percent of those that certainly had reached Macedonia until today are

Syrians. We know hat they are trying to transit as quickly as they can through your country. And it seems clear that you are certainly helping

that process.

How concerned are you about a bottleneck in the north of the country as these people try to cross over the border into Hungary?

VULIN: Yes. First of all, we absolutely have no legal means that we stop anyone who came out of our country or came in in our country if they -- if

he's asylum seeker. Serbia will not be any ever concentrate camp for these people. These people have the rights and one of their rights is to travel

freely.

They are human beings who are just trying to find their part of something.

So, yes, we have problem with the Hungarian friends, because our northern neighbors consider that that's the way that they protect themselves of

migrants. But we consider migrants as a threat, as someone that we should fight for or the defense for.

So, they came to a place called Karnija (ph). And after that, they try to find the illegal way, unfortunately. We -- if we able that we stop them.

We stop them.

We will not allow anyone to cross out -- in front of our border illegally. But, you know, there's so many thousands of them and only thing that we can

say in our defense is that we -- that we document any, any person, any migrant that came in Serbia and we have highest record in Europe.

ANDERSON: You, I know, as a country have appealed to Europe for financial help. How much do you need and how quickly do you need it?

VULIN: Right now. We need it right now. We need help for food. We need help in water, in supplies, in medicine. We need help in lot of money,

because we need manpower. We need people who are on the street with the food, who will protect these people. We need to try to find a way how to

protect and how to serve for these people. They write in -- they in Serbia for quite short period, but in that period they must be protected, they

must be well fed, they must be (inaudible).

ANDERSON: Sir, we're going to leave it there. We thank you very much indeed for joining us. Aleksandar Vulin is the Serbian labor minister.

You are looking at can only be described as quite distressing pictures of thousands of people trying to make their way over the Macedonian/Serbian

border, through Serbia and on to Hungary where they believe they will find a better life.

This is Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. Coming up, hundreds of billions, hundreds of billions lost in global markets on Monday. What's

the reaction today? Well, we've got a live update for you on that after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Welcome back. This is Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. Looking at the time for you it is 7:44 here in the UAE.

What a difference a day makes. They called it Black Monday as hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off global markets. And when I say hundreds

of billions I mean that. It's been a much more positive day, though, today Tuesday with the exception of China. Its main index, the Shanghai

Composite has fallen by more than 15 percent in the past two days. Perhaps more worrying, though, it's dropped over 42 percent since mid-June.

Now the markets are faring much better. This is Dow Jones right now for you, Folks. And if you look there you can see a lovely green arrow.

That's certainly if you're buying shares. If you're looking for shares to fall off a cliff then you won't like that picture. But I think most people

will be looking at that and saying it's a more healthy it.

It was a similarly positive picture in most of the rest of Asia and Europe. We'll have more on this story from all angles coming up for you. A story

with truly global impact and to bring you the full picture.

Let's bring in CNN's Maggie Lake from New York. And our emerging markets editor John Defterios who is in Abu Dhabi.

Let me start with you, Maggie. While you wouldn't wan to be a Chinese billionaire invested in these local markets these days, investors elsewhere

around the world in a much more buoyant mood today. Why do you think that is?

[11:45:51] MAGGIE LAKE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think they're in a calmer mood, Becky. A lot of people felt that the selling we saw

yesterday and was just overdone. It was sort of at some point disconnected from fundamentals and really being driven by fear and computer trading.

But that now once everyone had, you know, overnight to sit back and relax a bit, some people going in and doing some bargain hunting, some people are

sort of saying, wait a minute, this went a little bit too far.

We also after the Chinese markets closed had the Chinese authorities coming in cutting interest rates, lending some support to the economy there. That

very much was the catalyst that Wall Street needed this morning.

I will caution, however, you're looking at gains of 354 points, there isn't anybody who is saying we're past this period of volatility and yesterday

was a one off. There is a feeling that we're in an environment now where investors are having to sort of reprice global economic risk, figure out

just how much contagion there's going to be from a slowing Chinese economy, how much will it slow, can the authorities sort of manage that transition.

There are a lot of questions there. There's not a lot of transparency. So, I think there remains concerns, but certainly it's much calmer than we

saw yesterday. We opened up about 200 -- high 200 to 300. And we have been holding steady.

I think it's going to be really important to see how we close out the day. What did we see in that hour trade? Are we able to build on these gains or

hold on to these gains through the close? If we are, I think people will feel even more calmer.

If we start to lose ground into the close, it's going to raise those concerns again. So, we're not over yet, but certainly sitting in a better

place than we were yesterday.

ANDERSON: All right, so not out of the weeks as of yet. Maggie, thank you for that.

One thing that seems very, very clear is that commodities are hitting the buffers. John, oversupply in the oil markets, partly due to Saudi Arabia's

partly due to China's slowdown, oil has big high powered stakes, doesn't it? But it's not the only game. How is China impacting other commodities

around the globe?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESOPNDENT: Yeah, Becky, we've had a slight relief today, because the China Central Bank decided to cut interest

rates and we saw a flip up for commodities, including oil prices coming off of that six year low. But the link between China and commodities is very

tight, particularly when it comes to oil. For example, for every nine barrels produced around the world, one is consumed by China. And you see

this throughout the commodity market overall.

And this is why we've seen such a correction in 2015, but even stretching over the last year as China started to slow down. 16.5 percent in 2015,

and going into a bear market, well into a bear market over the last year of 30.5 percent. Now, what's been touched by this? Gold, grains, oil, the

industrial metals. And this is spilling into the emerging markets as well. That's why we see pressure on the emerging market currencies and, for

example, today even South Africa reporting a contraction the second quarter of 1.3 percent.

ANDERSON: Yeah, fascinating stuff. John Defterios is in Abu Dhabi for you.

Now Maggie, excuse me, in New York. And I'm going to take a very short break here while I have a quick sip of water. Coming up, though, a

political heavyweight draws major attention in the U.S. presidential race from the sidelines. We're going to take a look at the signals suggesting

that Joe Biden may run, and how he might shake things up if he does.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:57] ANDERSON: Well, for one U.S. Presidential hopeful, what was meant to be a straightforward trip highlighting immigration policies has

turned into a controversy that just continues to grow. And Republican candidate Jeb Bush was criticized by Democrats over his use of the term

anchor babies, a phrase considered offensive by many Americans, especially Latinos. It refers to children born on U.S. soil to foreign parents, seen

as a way to secure legal residency for other family members.

But in trying to defend his comments, Bush waded into another mess, accusing Asian people of abusing birthright laws. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, FRM. GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: What I was talking about was the specific case of fraud being committed where there's organized efforts --

and frankly it's more related to Asian people -- coming into our country, having children in that organized efforts, taking advantage of a noble

concept, which is birthright citizenship. I support the 14th amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: OK. Well, that was one U.S. presidential hopeful on the Republican side.

Let's turn to the growing speculation that another big name will soon jump into the race for the White House -- 2016 this race towards of course,

that's the gate. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is now said to have president Barack Obama's blessing if he decides to seek the Democratic

nomination, that's according to a senior Democrat.

This new development comes just a few days after Biden met with Senator Elizabeth Warren, seen here on the right, a key Democrat whose endorsement

could carry significant weight with the party's liberal base if she were to back Biden.

What's more, the vice president, on the left, apparently had a big meeting set for last night involving some well known campaign experts.

CNN's Joe Johns watching all of these developments from Washington joining us live.

Joe, if President Obama were to back Uncle Joe, how big a blow will this be for the other significant Democrat in contention -- Hillary Clinton.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a great question. And there's a lot of speculation that Biden, if he were to get in, would have to approach

this as Hillary Clinton being a riskier candidate than he. So, there's a big question about what this White House would do, and what that would mean

for the Hillary Clinton campaign.

As it stands right now, people with Hillary Clinton are playing nice. They're being very complimentary of Joe Biden and gentle, if you will, with

their words. Some of the harsher words coming from behind the scenes.

Even people in the Biden camp, you know, people who are close to him years ago saying they're a bit concerned about what this would mean, because it

would be very difficult to him, including fundraising, organization and so on.

So, there are a lot of questions out there and anybody's guess. But the problem for Hillary Clinton is if Joe Biden gets in, and one of the biggest

issues is whether she's a risky candidate for the Democrats to try to put out next November simply because for one thing of her email problems and

other questionable issues that have been described as scandals -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Joe, if Biden were to run, he'll be married to one issue most Republicans have been slamming, and that is the Iran nuclear deal.

Clearly, a very big isue for those of our viewers who are watching not just here in this region in the Middle East, but around the world.

Biden has been instrumental in rallying support for the agreement on Capitol Hill. Here he was standing at the president's side when Mr. Obama

announced that a deal had been reached with Iran.

More Democrats, of course, have come out in support of it ahead of next months crucial vote in congress, but its passage of course is still not

assured.

Joe, what is the latest on that lobbying effort and how might Biden's support affect his campaign if he runs?

JOHNS: Well, they're still trying to sell it. I think that's the safe thing you can say. And Biden is certainly married to the Obama agenda, so

that could cause potential tough questions for him, especially running against a Republican who is firmly against the deal.

The question of course will be what's the situation on the ground next November if it were to ever come to that. And Joe Biden turned out to be

the nominee.

A tough question, but as you know there's still some question on Capitol Hill as to just how firmly the Obama agenda can be set in place over the

next couple of months.

[11:56:06] ANDERSON: Just before you and I started speaking, we were alluding to a fairly testy Jeb Bush, one of the Republican frontrunners, as

it were, clearly not the front runner, because that is Donald Trump at this point. Getting himself into a little bit of hot water over this anchor

babies comment.

How is that resonating?

JOHNS: Well, this whole issue of immigration, people coming in to the country has really been turned into a giant issue thanks in large part to

Mr. Trump and his efforts and the kinds of things he's said on campaign trail.

Democrats tend to have a bit of a different view. And they're much more in line with the notion of an umbrella immigration policy, including the

president's executive order.

So, it depends on whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, quite frankly here in Washington, how that's playing.

ANDERSON: Clearly, the U.S. immigration issue, though, one that will continue to play out as we get ourselves involved in what is the next 16

months ahead of this presidential election in 2016.

Joe, always a pleasure. Thank you for that. Out of Washington for you this evening.

I'm Becky Anderson. That was Connect the World. Thank you for watching from the team here in the UAE and those working with us around the world,

it is a very good evening. CNN continues.

END