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U.S. Calls Off Ceasefire Talks With Russia; Vice Presidential Candidate Set to Debate Tonight; Cholera Outbreak Feared After Hurricane Matthew Slams Into Haiti. Aired. 11:00a-12:00p ET
Aired October 04, 2016 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[11:00:14] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We've already seen deaths, people who were out at sea. There are people who are missing.
There are people who did not respect the alerts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: It's the strongest hurricane to hit Haiti in more than half a century. This hour, we're live in Port-au-Prince and also in
Cuba where they too are battening down the hatches.
Plus, bitter differences between the U.S. and Russia over Syria, How tensions are rising after Washington suspends cease-fire talks with Moscow.
We'll cross to both capitals just ahead for you.
And...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dangerous campaign liability or political opportunity?
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: i have brilliantly used those laws.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Donald Trump tries to turn the tide in his tax records as his poll numbers slide.
The very latest on the state of the race for the White House.
Hello and welcome to Connect the World. I'm Becky Anderson for you in Abu Dhabi at just after 7:00 in the evening here. Our top story this hour,
Hurricane Matthew. The powerful category 4 storm has closed in on Haiti, making landfall near Les Anglais. This storm is incredibly dangerous.
We're talking 233 kilometer per hour winds. And forecasters predict it could drench Haiti with 100 centimeters of rain.
Now, this video captured by the international space station gives you a sense of the size and power of this hurricane before it made landfall
there.
Well, the storm could make a second landfall in Cuba later in the day. Our Patrick Oppmann is reporting for us from Santiago de Cuba. But first, I
want to speak with journalist Yvetot Gouin who joins me via Skype from Port au Prince in Haiti. What's the latest from there?
YVETOT GOUIN, JOURNALIST: Good morning, Becky. Well, as you can see, I'm in downtown Port au Prince and the initial reports have this drag, which
runs north, you know, east, south, in Haiti, and we thought it was super flooded, but as it turns out, there's hardly -- there's hardly any rain
water here from a flood.
But it's not to say it's not going to happen because the storm is still a ways away from the capital.
ANDERSON: How are people preparing?
GOUIN: As best as they could. The government had set up some -- a temporary shelters and had recommended very strongly that these people
evacuate and go to those shelters, but not many people heeded that warning, and so we're getting a lot of reports. I mean, the storm hit the southern
part of Haiti three hours ago so there's still reports coming in and we're trying to filter through them as
much as possible.
ANDERSON: So what's the forecast at this point?
I think we may have missed him. You get the idea there.
Patrick, let me bring you in. As you see the pictures from there, perhaps not as much flooding as might have been anticipated. What's the story
with you?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are starting to feel the first change in the weather here, Becky. The storm is expected to
move from Haiti to where I am now, the eastern end of Cuba, bringing with it a lot of rain, wind, and possible storm surge and that's of great
concern to people in Santiago de Cuba, because they're still picking up from Hurricane Sandy that hit here almost four years ago. It goes a long
way to tell you about how damaging these storms can be and long it can take a poor country like Cuba to recover from them.
But walking around in Santiago this morning, it was a little eerie because you could listen to the
weather forecast coming from people's homes without missing a beat. Everyone was listening to the same weather forecast, people are keeping
very close attention because they know from the long history with hurricanes how devastating they can be and when Sandy came in here, it
ended up killing 11 people, doing millions of dollars in damage.
So officials are hoping they can avoid that kind of situation today, telling people who live in the mountainous region behind me, the Sierra
Maestra, to come down from the mountains because they could be washed out, they could be stuck up there for weeks if roads are closed by this storm.
And then people in the coastal communities, they're looking at a storm surge of up to 10 feet that could wash away homes, that can take people's
lives, that can kill fishermen as we apparently saw in Haiti.
So the government is expecting there to be mass evacuations up to 180,000 people they say could need to be evacuated by the storm. That's the kind
of impact it's going to have here in Cuba.
[11:05:16] ANDERSON: Back to you in a moment. Let me get Yvetot back. I think we've got him in Port au Prince.
You're describing and showing us the story there. What do you know about what's going on, on the rest of the island?
GOUIN: The rest of the island is getting severely pounded, and reports are that it's going to continue for the next few hours. And so it's hard to
say what is going to happen by the end of today. It's just a very sad situation. The initial reports coming in are not looking good. There's a
lot of damage in the south in (inaudible) and (inaudible). So we're hoping that it won't be as bad as being
reported, but it is a storm, and Haiti's prone to floods and mudslides and so we're a little worried and concerned at this point this early in the
day.
ANDERSON: Yeah, of course they are. And this is the season, of course. Do you get the sense that people on the island are pretty resigned to
weathering this storm, to seeing it out? I know that on the southern peninsula, accommodation oftentimes really not great and not built to with
withstand a storm like this.
GOUIN: That is correct, Becky. The south, it's -- the south has infrastructure issues to begin
with. And so we can expect that as the rain keeps moving through -- it is a powerful storm. It is a slow-moving storm, and so that's the main
concern at this point. And it hit landfall three hours ago. It's got a whole day to ride it out.
And we're really, really concerned about what's going to happen down there.
The reports -- the initial reports coming in are not good, but we need to confirm them as they come in with local authorities and the people on the
ground in the south.
ANDERSON: And CNN will keep across this and keep in touch with you. And the more you get, of course, I know that you will bring it to us here on
CNN. Thank you for the time being.
And Patrick, in Cuba. Thank you.
Haiti, of course, is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. And it's still limping its way
back from the 2010 earthquake. The Caribbean nation not well equipped to deal with another natural disaster of that magnitude.
The quake, you'll remember, sadly killed more than 200,000 people.
Well, some other stories on the radar this hour and a strong typhoon moving towards South
Korea. The storm named Chaba packed winds as strong as 260 kilometers per hour, equivalent to a hurricane five hurricane. It weakened after passing
the Japanese island of Okinawa, but it is still expected to bring heavy rain over the next few days.
Well, Kim Kardashian was likely targeted for robbery after her positions were spotted on social
media, that's according to a spokeswoman for the Paris police department who told CNN the attackers posed as police officers and were clearly an
organized team.
All the controversial president of the Philippines told the U.S. president to, quote, go to hell in a speech on Tuesday after Rodrigo Duterte says
Washington refused to sell him weapons.
Now, he insists he'll, quote, break up with America and work more with Russia and China instead.
Well, to Syria and fierce fighting raging in the divided city of Aleppo. Reports say at least 20 people died in air strikes on the rebel-held
enclave of eastern Aleppo while rebel shelling on residential neighborhoods and a university campus in the government-held west killed six people.
Amid this uptick in violence, Washington has suspended talks with Russia, saying Moscow and
Damascus are not upholding a cease-fire deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think everybody's patience with Russia has run out. They've also spent a great deal of credibility in
making a series of commitments without any clear indication that they were committed to following them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, for more, I want to bring in CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara
Starr who is live for you from Washington this evening, and senior international correspondent Matthew Chance in Moscow. Stand by, Matthew.
Barbara, the Secretary of State John Kerry insisting today that Washington isn't giving up on the Syrians. But quite frankly, for those on the
ground, it may feel like that. What is the mood and atmosphere in Washington at this point?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to say at this point, Becky, it's hard to see a way ahead. There is simply no indication
that the Obama administration is moving toward taking any U.S. military action against the Syrian regime or the Russians for that matter for their
onslaught against the people of Aleppo.
Secretary of state, the White House, all expressing frustration at the Russians, but what are they actually planning to do about it? And it's
hard to see that there are any real political options on the table.
I want you to listen to what John Kerry had to say in Europe just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[11:00:28] JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: But I want to be very, very clear to everybody, we are not giving up on the Syrian people. We are
not abandoning the pursuit of peace. We are not going to leave the multilateral field. We are going to continue to try to find a way forward
in order to end this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Not going to leave the multilateral field. Bureaucratic words, but what he's really saying there is that the U.S. is now going to talk to its
other allies about the Russian situation but the Russians clearly not interested in any way, shape, or form at this point of
reinstating any kind of real cessation of hostilities. That's the U.S. view. And it puts the administration in a very difficult, very sensitive
spot, because the question now is how long can Aleppo and the people of Aleppo really hold out -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Matthew, what's the response in Moscow?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've -- the Russians have expressed regret that Washington has taken this decision to
walk away, essentially, or to suspend these bilateral talks.
But they refuse to accept any responsibility for that. Instead, they've been blaming Washington saying, look, Washington wasn't able to uphold its
side of the bargain. And for instance, separate the moderate rebels as it sees them from the jihadists of the al-Nusra Front. And that's and that's
one of the reasons why the Russians say why this cessation of hostilities failed.
I mean, fundamentally, there is a difference of opinion, of course, between the United States and Syria. And it's what's led to the -- this peace
negotiation, this peace process, essentially breaking down. And it's essentially this, that the Russians want to see a Syria in the future with
Bashar al-Assad still in power. They're working now hard through their military, backing the
Syrian army, to bolster Bashar al-Assad, not just to kill civilians and to bomb hospitals, that's not their objective. That might be what they're
doing, but their objective is to make sure that in the future Bashar al- Assad, their ally, is in an unassailable position.
And that's fundamentally different to the way the United States sees the future of Syria. It sees assad as essentially an unpalatable figure with
blood on his hands and these two countries, with desperately trying to convince one another of their way of seeing the situation in Syria and they
both failed to do that.
ANDERSON: With regard Syria, and briefly, what is Russia's next step, Matthew?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, Russia is, you know, throwing its air power behind the Syrian armed forces in that assault on eastern Aleppo. Clearly, the
objective, at least in the short-term, is to bring that important key city in northern Syria back under the control of the Syrian government.
I mean, where it goes from there, and I mean is anybody's guess. I mean, the Syrian president himself, Bashar al-Assad, says he wants to reverse all
the gains that have been made by the rebels since the civil war began five years ago. That's not necessarily something that the Russians are prepared
to back him in or prepared to commit their own forces to.
But they do want to see Bashar al-Assad in the future of Syria. They've made it, I think, at
this point, categorically quite clear that they're not prepared to negotiate away Assad. They see him as a guarantor of Russian interests in
Syria, and so once he's sufficiently bolstered, once he's in a strong if not unassailable position, I expect we'll see much more intentions for the Russians, much more willingness on their part to do some kind of deal.
ANDERSON: And Barbara, it doesn't sound as if Washington has a plan b at this point. Does it?
STARR: Well, certainly not one at the moment with military options.
You know, if they can still pursue some way to encourage the Russians, they will. But that
seems very faint.
One of the cases behind the scenes that the administration is trying to make is if the Russians think they're going to be having the Syrians in an
unassailable position, certainly officials are saying they don't -- U.S. officials are seeing that don't see it that way. They believe that the
moderate opposition of many groups now totals -- opposition groups total perhaps as much as 100,000 people across Syria, that's basically the
equivalent, perhaps, of the Syrian military. So, the Syrian military, the U.S. view is, cannot really stand on its own without Russian support, and
that's one of the big reasons they see the Russians sticking it out -- Becky.
[11:15:11] ANDERSON: To both of you, in Washington and in Moscow this hour, thank you.
Still to come, do presidential debates make a difference? Well, apparently so. A new CNN poll shows how Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are faring
after their first faceoff, that and much more for the race for the White House as you would imagine here on CNN is just ahead.
And we will return to our top story, a powerful hurricane slammed into Haiti and Cuba could be next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You're watching CNN Connect the World. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome
back. 17 minutes past 7:00 here from our broadcasting hub in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Donald Trump trying to turn the corner on a series of controversies and reframe his presidential campaign with election day fast approaching. A
new poll shows the Republican candidate has some catching up to do after his debate with Hillary Clinton.
Trump now five points behind Clinton in this CNN/ORC national survey of likely voters. Most respondents were polled before the revelations that
Trump may have avoided paying income taxes for years.
CNN's Phil Mattingly has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand the tax laws better than almost anyone, which is why I am the one who can fix them.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dangerous campaign liability or political opportunity?
TRUMP: I have brilliantly used those laws.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump hoping for the latter after the leak of a few pages of his 1995 tax returns, attempting to turn the fact that he
may not have paid federal income tax in years into a testament of his business expertise.
TRUMP: As a business person, I've legally used the tax laws to benefit -- really, I mean it's to my benefit and the benefit of my company, my
investors, my employees, my family.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The Clinton campaign attempting to undermine Trump's spin.
CLINTON: Some of his supporters said, well, it just shows he's a genius that he didn't pay any taxes. Well, what kind of genius loses a billion
dollars in the first place?
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Painting the Republican nominee as representing the same system he claims he's going to change.
CLINTON: Trump was taking from America with both hands and leaving the rest of us with the bill.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Trump trying to downplay the near billion dollar loss "The New York Times" reported he had leading up to 1995.
TRUMP: The conditions facing real estate developers in the early '90s were almost as bad as the great depression in 1929 and far worse than the great
recession in 2008.
[11:20:09] MATTINGLY (voice-over): While casting himself as the comeback kid.
TRUMP: ...used the tax laws of our country and my skills as a business person to dig out of this real estate depression when few others were able
to do that. I did a great job.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): This as Trump sparks new criticism after suggesting that veterans suffering from PTSD lacked strength.
TRUMP: When people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you're
strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can't handle it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, those remarks about military veterans and post-traumatic stress disorder aren't going over well with a lot of Americans, including
Vice President Joe Biden.
Have a listen to what he said to CNN's Chris Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is an ignorant man. This guy says things he has no idea about. He's not a bad man. But his
ignorance is so profound, so profound.
I have my staff contact the Defense Department every morning at 6:00 to tell me exactly how many troops are injured, exactly how many troops are
wounded because everyone matters.
I was asked to present a Silver Star to a young man who had jumped into -- a young commander who jumped into a burning Humvee to pull out his buddy
after an IED exploded. And the kid died.
The commanding general, General Aureliano (ph) asked me to pin on a Silver Star when I was there. You know what the kid said to me? I don't want it.
I don't want it. He did not live, sir. He did not live, sir.
That kid probably goes to sleep every night with a nightmare. And this guy doesn't understand any of that? How could he not understand that? How
can he be so out of touch?
He's not a bad guy, but how can he be so out of touch and ask to lead this country?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Joe Biden talking Donald Trump.
Well, two candidates battling to take Joe Biden's job will face off tonight in a vice presidential debate hosted right here on CNN. It will be the
first and only time that Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence will square off.
Let's bring in CNN's Mark Press and the executive editor for CNN Politics.
Let's back into this. I want to talk about the debate in a moment. But Mark, first off, what do we make of the new polling that is just out about
where the candidates stand at present? This was before the big issue about these taxes came out, but after the first debate.
MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR CNN POLITICS: Well, Becky, what has happened is clearly Hillary Clinton was the winner in their first showdown
up at Hofstra University in New York City. In the subsequent days that followed, Donald Trump, in many ways, had a meltdown. He had a bunch of
missteps, self-inflected wounds himself where he was attacking Miss Universe, he was doing things in the middle of the night about sending
tweets across Twitter, attacking her. And I think that pretty much played into the polling that we're seeing right now.
The CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton has a five-point advantage over Donald Trump. We are seeing state polls as well following that where
Hillary Clinton seems to have a lead by at least two or three, four, five points in all of the major states that she needs to win with the exception
of one. That is Ohio. You add in the tax situation that was exposed over the weekend and just yesterday, Donald Trump himself had a backtrack off
some comments where he said the soldiers that come back from war, they come back with PTSD, are not strong enough to deal with it.
So, Donald Trump is certainly delivering a lot of self-inflicted wounds and of course we'll see what happens tonight to see if his running mate can
help try to turn it around a little bit, Becky.
ANDERSON: Well, as you know, Mark, all bets are off the table when Trump and Clinton go head to head. But we probably won't see the same kind of
fireworks tonight, will we, from their running mates. I want to remind our viewers how Tim Kaine and Mike Pence have described themselves. Have a
listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, NBC: A lot of people are writing about you right now in American politics. And there -- it seems to be...
TIM KAINE, VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't believe the hype.
TODD: Well, all right.
Kaine is as boring as he is safe. Kaine is also considered kind of, well, boring.
KAINE: Well, they're true. I am boring.
TODD: OK.
KAINE: But you know, boring is the fastest growing demographic in this country.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, when they chose me for the ticket, I said to people, you know, Donald Trump is a charismatic
personality, bigger than life, so they obviously wanted to balance the ticket.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, some self-deprecating remarks and humor there. Mark, what can we expect from Kaine and pence tonight?
[11:25:08] PRESTON: What we'll see tonight, we'll see Tim Kaine try to really prosecute a case through Mike Pence against Donald Trump. He will
constantly refer to some of the crass comments Donald Trump has made over the campaign, over the past week. He will try to link Mike Pence together
with Donald Trump and say they are out of touch with United States values.
On the flip side, Mike Pence is going to try to prosecute the same case against Tim Kaine. He's going to try to go after Hillary Clinton in a way
to say that she is not honest and trustworthy, that she's been there too long, and that they will bring change to Washington, D.C.
But what you won't see, very unlikely, is a very spirited, public fight between these two
men. They're both have served as governors, Mike Pence currently serving as governor. They both served time on Capitol Hill. Tim Kaine is
currently a senator. Mike Pence was a long-time serving house member and you have got to expect that world leaders, Becky, are going to be watching
tonight because whoever wins in November, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, they are one heartbeat away, the two men that take the stage
tonight are one heartbeat away from becoming the next commander-in-chief.
So I would expect that world leaders will be watching them to see how they actually handle themselves under pressure and what specifically they say
when it comes to foreign policy issues and military intervention on behalf of the U.S.
ANDERSON: Well, I can't confirm that the president of The Philippines will be watching tonight, but should he be doing so? I wonder how the two we
see on the stage or indeed the two presidential candidates themselves would cope with The following -- the Philippine president himself, Mr. Duterte,
said earlier, and I quote, "we are worried about how these guys, Americans, feel towards The Philippines when after all they don't really care. If
this is what happens now, I will be reconfiguring my foreign policy eventually and my time I would break up with America. I'd rather go to
Russia and China."
He's just been alluding to world leaders tuning in tonight and the fact -- it has to be said, there's been very little on foreign policy discussed to
date. How would any of these players cope with Duterte, for example, going forward?
PRESTON: Well, the irony is it was the United States, right, that protected and liberated The
Philippines during World War II, so it's interesting to have now the leader of that country say that they want to break up and go with the U.S.'s arch
enemies.
Look, the bottom line is, whoever is elected president, whether it's Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, while they might be able to take some action
against The Philippines or other countries, the way the government is set up as our viewers know here, is that you have three branches of government.
You have the United States congress, which is going to play a very important role over any real foreign policy decisions and any directive,
whether it's Hillary Clinton or whether it's Donald Trump.
It sounds very much that there's a lot of political posturing back in The Philippines, trying to send warning signs over here. I would suspect that
it's not necessarily being heard or if it is heard, it's being shelved for the moment as these two are trying to figure out how they can win in
November.
ANDERSON: 30-odd days to go. Mark, always a pleasure. Thank you. That is the political news that we've got time for at the moment but it doesn't
stop when this show closes out. The part of the show when we do U.S. politics gets the website for much more on the race for the White House.
CNN's political director David Chalian, for example, takes a deep dive into new poll numbers, and you can check out his podcast on CNN.com. That is
CNN.com.
Well, the latest world news headlines, viewers, are just ahead. Plus, Haiti wasn't ready for
this. The island nation getting hit by a powerful category 4 hurricane. And experts warn the impact could be catastrophic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[11:33:01] ANDERSON: Well, the ruling conservative party looking to quash any Brexit worries at its yearly get together in Birmingham in the UK, and
that is where we find Max Foster who's there getting the inside track for us.
And Max, it was only three months or so ago that the pound was surging, traders sure that
Brexit was a no-go and lots of confidence about the UK economy going forward. Here we are a hundred days later and it's all gloom and doom.
What's being done to quieten the nerves, if anything?
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, it comes off the back of Theresa May's speech on Sunday where she was very clear that
Britain would be leaving the European Union and she gave a rough timeline about how that might work. Certainly by the end of the decade, she sees
Britain leaving the European Union. So that's what critics in fact concern amongst some investors driving the value of the pound down.
But at the same time, shares rose in London because many of the companies there are international companies, and they benefit from a weaker pound.
So, both sides of that argument are reflected in the financial markets today. And then we had cabinet ministers coming out and telling us -- the
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, for example, telling us that the market shouldn't worry too much because they will get the information they need to
make the decisions to get rid of that uncertainty over a period of time, but they just can't give all the answers right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL FALLON, UK DEFENSE MINISTER: There are lots of reasons why the currency had been fluctuating over the last few months. She set out some
certainty. She gave you an hour timetable so when the negotiations are going to begin, next spring, and there will be further, you know,
information about how the process is unfolding, not day by day, but you will see various milestones been announced. So businesses and the markets
will begin to get the certainty that they want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: What he didn't go into, though, Becky, was any potential splits in the cabinet. There are those that want a hard Brexit, you know, an
immediate withdrawal from Europe and then renegotiating those trade deals and then there are those who want a soft Brexit to want to retain the
access to the single European market. So, she didn't really go into that. And the suggestion is, perhaps, since she's not revealing everything she
can about her plans, because there isn't agreement within the cabinet.
We just don't know at the moment, but certainly all (inaudible) as they should be as a new cabinet.
[11:35:23] ANDERSON: Fascinating. All right. Max, thank you for that. Max is in Birmingham in the UK for you this evening.
Let's get you back to the situation right now in Haiti. Meteorologist Chad Myers joining me now with the very latest on Hurricane Matthew.
And Chad, we've just learned that the National Hurricane Center in the U.S. now has issued a
hurricane watch for parts of the Florida coast. Where do you want to start?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we can start certainly there.
The Florida coast from about Cape Canaveral where they shoot the rockets off for NASA all the
way down to just about Miami or a slight bit north of there, that is where the hurricane watch is, south of there, tropical storm watch. That just
means that within the next 48 hours, those conditions are possible.
Now, we know the warnings down here in the red, those conditions are going to happen. They're probable. They're not just possible.
We are going to see a major hurricane in the Turks and Caicos and in the Bahamas, continue all the way through, really, the end of the week. It
will finally move off and maybe on shore in the United States some time Thursday or Friday.
But for the next 48 hours, we have to deal with this: a big storm. The hurricane center says it's still 145 miles per hour storm although the
satellite presentation is not as impressive and the hurricane hunter just flew through saying about 125 miles per hour or somewhere in
the 210 kilometer per hour range. So it is still a very large storm and a very dangerous storm.
So, let's get now to the particulars of what we're seeing here. This is going to be the storm here as I move to my next computer. This is going to
be the storm that will move and bring in -- I can't even get to that, so don't worry about it.
Back out here to Andrew machine -- my machine, we're going to see the rainfall continue from Port au Prince, Haiti, all the way up to Guantanamo
Bay. This is the area that is going to see the heaviest rainfall and also the heaviest wind and the storm surge.
I'm really concerned about the storm surge when it comes to these islands that are so small, the Turks and Caicos, many of them, spits of land made
of sand, not even three meters high. So, if you get a three meter storm surge on top of the waves, some of those islands may be completely covered
in water, salt water, not fresh water rainfall flooding, but water coming from the ocean over washing from one side all the way over to the other.
Here's where it goes in the next 24 hours, 215 kilometers per how hour. Then it gets close to Florida and this is why, in 48 hours, this is why
that new watch has been issued for Florida.
Now, I suspect that we will get watches all the way up and down the east coast all the way to
North Carolina as that storm is forecast to stay right there along the shore.
Back to you.
ANDERSON: Chad, pleasure. Thank you.
Well, Haiti still hasn't recovered from the 2010 earthquake and the country's infrastructure may not be able to withstand this powerful
hurricane. Earlier, an official with the organization CARE in Haiti warned residents that it wasn't safe to stay in their homes and urged them to move
to shelters immediately.
Laura Sewell is the assistant country director joining me via Skype from Port au Prince.
And comforting in the first instance to hear from a guest earlier this hour reporting that where you are, the flooding not as catastrophic as the worst
predictions, not yet at least. But pointing out that in some parts of the island, things could be most likely will be a lot worse.
What do you know at this point?
LAURA SEWELL, ASSISTANT COUNTRY DIRECTOR CARE HAITI: What i know is that there is definitely flooding in Port au Prince in some of the low lying
highly urbanized areas so someone in the -- in some of the slums and close knit areas, we're getting information from our field teams about people in
shelters up to a thousand people in shelters or moving towards evacuation centers in Port au Prince, specifically.
We're also getting a lot of information from our field teams along the coast about the terrible devastation that we see there caused by big waves,
caused by heavy, heavy rain twisting, flooding, in many areas along the south (inaudible) and south, southeast.
We're seeing damaged houses. We're already seeing some deaths so the situation is very, very
bad along the southern part of Haiti right now.
ANDERSON: Another potential risk, I know that you're concerned about, and, you know, many other people should be concerned about, from this storm, is
cholera. It's a bacterial infection, of course, caused by contaminated food or water.
Now, Haiti suffered an outbreak six years ago in the wake of that devastating earthquake that killed at least 10,000 people. How big a risk
is that this time?
[11:40:01] SEWELL: It's definitely an enormous risk and it's not only six years ago that Haiti suffered an outbreak, but Haiti has continued to
suffer chronic cholera for the past six years. It's definitely a concern now. Heavy rains always means contamination of water sources and spreading
of diseases and we're definitely looking at the high possibility of a cholera incident following this hurricane.
ANDERSON: Let's talk about 2010, because that was an extremely powerful earthquake that
devastated Haiti and hundreds of thousands of people killed or injured at the time. Here is some reporting from CNN's Anderson Cooper from back
then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: A woman who was pulled out of here alive. She's in her 70s, She was taken about a block or two to a clinic, but
they don't have the operating theater that they need. They are trying to find some place to take her now. If anybody is hearing this message in
Port au Prince and has access to a hospital that has a surgical theater that can handle this woman, the medics over here don't know how to get here
to a surgical theater.
No one has been responding to them to get this woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That was just one example, of course, of the desperation there. And that was a week after the quake struck.
Is Haiti better prepared for natural disasters six years on?
SEWELL: I think that unfortunately, in this case, the government is working very hard through the -- its director of civil protection to
mobilize people, to inform people, and to get people into shelters. There's been a lot of effort before from the government, but unfortunately
the scale of this hurricane is far beyond the capacity of this government and of the NGOs
that are working here.
Really, we're going to need external aid to be able to respond to the immediate needs that are going to be water, shelter, and food of the
affected populations within the next number of weeks, I would think.
Well, our thoughts are with the people of Haiti and we'll leave it there. We thank you very much indeed for joining us. A storm that hit the country
about three hours ago and the after effects only now being felt.
Live from Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World. Coming up, follow a refugee's journey across Europe through their eyes. A new film uses phone
footage filmed by migrants themselves. The details are coming up for you. Taking a very short break. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, this was the moment a new life began for some Syrian refugees welcomed by the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself.
Canda's government pledged to resettle 25,000 Syrians a year ago, even launching a hashtag #welcomerefugees to get people on board.
Well, a move that has gotten praise from many around the world. You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World with me, Becky Anderson.
And if you are a regular viewer, you'll know that we follow the Syrian war and resulting refugee
crisis very closely on this show. Well, millions of Syrians now displaced and scenes like these in Greece have brought the reality of the crisis
home.
Amnesty International says wealthy countries are still not taking their fair share of refugees. It says, ten countries, including some that are
poor and volatile, are shouldering more than 50 percent of the responsibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SALI SHOTTY, SECRETARY GENERAL, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: It's not a question of just talking about these numbers, because behind these numbers are real
people. And I mean, I think what we are finding really frustrating is that this is a big problem on the one hand, but it's a problem that can be
solved.
You know, there is a relatively simple solution, which is to distribute the responsibility, a global responsibility sharing based on objective
criteria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, many hundreds of thousands of Syrians escaping the war took matters into their own hands, braving along a perilous trek through
Europe in order to reach the countries they wanted to claim asylum. And you'll have seen the stories that we did, weeks and weeks of them, this
trek for hundreds of miles at times.
A new documentary shows their journey using footage they filmed themselves on their phones.
Hazel Pfeiffer (ph), who is one of our producers, put this report together for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu akbar, allahu akbar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passing the border, You think "go back, don't take this step."
We went to one of those money deposit places. It was in a basement, in an alley, hard to find.
The had about two million dollars there. Deposited by people to pay for the boat trip. It was very crowded, yet organized (inaudible).
AHMED ALWAN, SYRIAN REFUGEE: I wanted to (inaudible) guns, show with their guns that they are a mafia.
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: After half an hour I started to worry. (SPEAKING IN FOREGN LANGUAGE)
Then I had an idea. I decided to record a message.
Hi, mom. How are you? I miss you and dad and my brothers. Pray for me. Look at the sea.
HAMBER ALISSA, SYRIAN REFUGEE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You feel like you're passing through a wall. All these fences that people had created and put up. For one moment, it was like they
came down for us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Folks, we've arrived in Germany.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:50:16] ANDERSON: I'm going to take a very short break. Don't go away, though. As thousands of people run to take cover in the Caribbean, we're
going to take a look at the pope's trip to the site of another recent natural disaster. That story is just ahead.
Plus, Maria Sharapova banned from tennis for two years but just in the last few hours, a court has ruled on her appeal. I'm going to get you the
decision after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: 52 minutes past the hour of 7:00 here in the evening in Abu Dhabi. You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World with me, Becky
Anderson. A very warm welcome back.
Tennis superstar Maria Sharapova can get back on the course much sooner than she expected. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has cut her two-year
ban down by nine months after Sharapova appealed the suspension slapped on her by the International Tennis Federation for testing positive for
Meldonium at the Australian Open in January. The drug had just been banned.
Well, Don Riddell is at CNN Center. And a somewhat relieved Sharapova, a couple of hours
ago, when she got the results of the court of arbitration. Don, is this the best she could have expected?
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah. I would say so. I mean, the fact is, she broke the rules, she admitted she had broken the rules, but she
certainly had an excuse for that. She said, look, I didn't even know the rules had changed and i had been taking this drug legally because of a
medical condition and I had been taking it for ten years up until that point so she was pretty honest about her circumstances.
And the Court of Arbitration for Sport, when they released their findings, they said this is not about an athlete who had cheated but she did still
bear some degree of fault and I think we can break down their findings into four easily digestible points.
They said, first of all, she had used Mildrinate for ten years with no anti-doping issue during that time. It had been prescribed by a doctor for
legitimate medical reasons. The Court of Arbitration for Sport also finding that Sharapova had not been given enough of a warning from the
World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Tennis Federation and also that it was reasonable for her to trust her agent to check these things and
Sharapova argued that that had not happened.
So, I think it's a pretty good outcome for Maria Sharapova. She wrote in a statement on Facebook to her fans, and she has many of them, that when she
was banned last year, it was one of the toughest days of her career. This is now one of the happiest days of her career. And she's counting down the
days until the day she can get back on the court in April next year.
ANDERSON: That's right. And how competitive is she likely to be when she does get back on to the court?
RIDDELL: Well, that's a good question, isn't it? I mean, she's 29 years old now. I mean, if you follow her on social media, you'll see she's been
pretty active during that time. She regularly posts videos of her working out, playing tennis, boxing in the gym, so certainly she's staying fit.
Actually, when she made the announcement that she had failed this test earlier on, a lot of people thought she was actually going to be announcing
her retirement. Clearly, that is the furthest thing from her mind. And I think she wants to be ready.
But of course, it will be difficult, having been out for such a long period of time.
A lot of people have views on this, though, Becky. And not everybody is happy.
I will tell you that her tennis racket sponsor, Head, one of her few -- the few sponsors that
actually stood by her, they have released a statement today, basically celebrating a real victory here, and that in itself is coming for a lot of
criticism with people saying, look, she is technically still a drug cheat and you are celebrating that.
And Maria Sharapova, whilst graciously accepting the finding, she has also criticized the ITF, the International Tennis Federation, basically saying
it really was their fault. They didn't do enough to notify her that the rules had changed. And she says that in the time she's been fighting this
ban, she's looked at other sports and how other federations communicate with their athletes and in her opinion, the way it works in tennis is
woefully inadequate and she's hoping that lessons will be learned from this and something like this won't happen again in the future.
[11:56:19] ANDERSON: Don Riddell is at CNN Center for you. Thank you, Don.
Well, we've just got a minute or so before the back end of this show, and throughout this hour, we've been looking at the incredible power of mother
nature. Well, now, with Hurricane Matthew slamming into Caribbean islands, people battening down the hatches, you can get a sense of its awesome force
in these pictures taken from space.
Meanwhile, in Italy, the country still coming to terms with the earthquake that shook it two months ago and the pope has been visiting the town of
Amatrice looking to help it heal. Many ancient places across central Italy were violently rattled to dust. Nearly 300 people lost their lives.
Well, the pontiff has been paying his respects for their memory and met with some of the quake survivors earlier. People lined up out the door
just to greet him.
There's your parting shots this evening.
Well, almost every day, we bring you stories of war and hardship. So if you were wondering how you can help the victims of Hurricane Matthew or any
of the other disasters that we covered, do head to CNN.com/impact. There, you'll find charities and organizations that you can donate to. And we've posted the link to our Facebook page so
do be sure to check out the website throughout their at Facebook.com/CNNconnect.
If you're feeling sort of woefully inadequate as it were and not sure what you can do, well, I hope that will help you make some decisions.
I'm Becky Anderson. That was Connect the World. From the team here, it's a very good evening.
END
