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Iran: Missiles & Drones Target Sunni Militants in Pakistan; Blinken: Situation in Gaza is "Gut-Wrenching"; U.S. Conducts Third Round of Strikes against Houthis in Yemen; Trump Shuttles Between Court and Campaign Stops; Princess of Wales Recovering from Abdominal Surgery; John Kerry on Climate Change, Campaigning for Biden. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired January 17, 2024 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Iran hits militants in Pakistan adding to fears of a wider regional conflict. It is 5:30 pm in Tehran and 6
pm here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Eleni Giokos. I'm in for my colleague Becky Anderson. This is "Connect the World".
And coming up this hour, the Iranian Foreign Minister says attacks will stop only when the assault on Gaza ends. And the United States Republican
front runner Donald Trump is in court before heading to a campaign rally. Plus, China's economic data for 2023 is out. And while they experienced
mild growth, the population shrank for the second year in a row.
All right, and that is sure to have an impact when markets open those Chinese growth numbers really rattling the markets and what it means for
the global economy. In New York markets are about to open in 30 minutes time as you can see we're red all round DOW Futures pointing to half a
percent in the red.
Right, now we start with the escalating tensions in the Middle East as Iran ramps up the attacks in the region are using missiles and drones to strike
what it says are two Sunni militants' strongholds inside Pakistan. Pakistani officials say the attacks killed two children in the Koh-e-Sabz
area.
The Foreign Ministry is warning Iran of serious consequences. Iran says the militant group, it was targeting stormed a police station in Iran last
month and killed 11 officers. Now the strikes in Pakistan come a day after Iran launched attacks in Iraq and in Syria claiming a targeted an Israeli
spy base in Erbil in northern Iraq and anti-terror groups in Syria.
Iranian media say the attacks were launched to address security concerns. Now Paula Hancocks joins us live here in studio, Paula, great to see you.
There's just so much happening. This is pretty much a domino effect in terms of what we've been seeing of potential tensions, escalation spilling
over into the region.
But the Iranian Foreign Minister was speaking in Davos at the World Economic Forum has a very clear message, basically blaming Israel for what
we're seeing today.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Its right Eleni. I don't think anyone was really very surprised by what he said that was expected to be the tone
of his talks. But obviously, everyone is listening very closely because Iran is really in the center of what we are seeing unfold at the moment all
around the conflict in Gaza.
But there are so many different areas across the Middle East that had been brought into this by the Iranian proxy. So let's listen to what the Iranian
Foreign Minister himself said.
GIOKOS: I don't think we have that sound bite Paula. So I mean we know the gist of it. We're trying to get that into the system. We'll play that for
you when we do get it. I mean essentially here you have the Iranian Foreign Minister pushing back we've seen tensions escalating with Pakistan.
And we've seen that been playing out in real terms. We've seen the strikes in Iraq and in Syria Iran you know asserting itself in the region right now
as war continues in Gaza.
HANCOCKS: So I can paraphrase quickly just what the Prime Minister said. He effectively said that it was Israel that brought the conflict out of Gaza,
specifying that they had targeted Hamas Leader in Beirut to saying that they were the ones that spread the conflict and made it a wider regional
issue.
Also pointing out that if the conflict in Gaza ended, if the war in Gaza ended then all of the proxies all of the allies of Iran would stop what
they are doing as well. So really saying that it is all contingent on Israel ending what they are doing. But the fact is, we and many analysts
don't know for sure just how much control Iran does have over many of these proxies that the Houthi rebels for example in Yemen.
There's no guarantee that if the war in Gaza were to end tomorrow, that they would then pull back and stop their missile launchers against
commercial vessels in the Red Sea for example. There's no guarantee that Tehran actually does have the control to be able to pull them back.
Because even though many of these proxies and you're looking at proxies in Iraq and Syria in Yemen, in Hezbollah in Lebanon for example many of them
are funded by Iran. They're equipped by Iran. They're often trained by Iran but they are not necessarily completely controlled by Iran.
Tehran does not have the operational control of many of these groups. So it'll be interesting to see if and when this does end in Gaza whether this
does calm the situation across the board?
GIOKOS: Yeah, and there's just so many pockets of escalation that we've been seeing, Paula, great to have you on the story. Thank you so very much
for breaking that down for us.
[09:05:00]
Thank you. Paula Hancocks there for us. All right to Southern Gaza now, where Israeli forces appear to have moved away from a major hospital after
setting of panic with operations nearby.
Well on Tuesday patients and other civilians were seen hurrying away from the hospital compound in Khan Yunis with a sound of bombardments and small
arms fire in the background. The IDF said Hamas had recently carried out a launch from that medical complex. Jeremy Diamond joins us now with more
from Tel Aviv.
Jeremy, we've seen these image just the sheer panic around Al Nasser Hospital. What do we know about the situation around the hospital right now
and the impact of, you know, Israel's operation there?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERU.S.ALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, late last night as you heard in that video the Israeli military was moving very close to Al Nasser
Hospital and it really set off a panic at the hospital where the World Health Organization says some 7000 displaced Palestinians have been
sheltering.
And the Israeli military as they moved in closer many of those who were sheltering at that hospital chose to move away to try and flee that
hospital. But this morning people on the ground telling CNN that there are now no signs of the Israeli military near the hospital that it appears that
they withdrew less than 24 hours after they began moving closer to that hospital complex.
It's not exactly clear what the Israeli military -- why the Israeli military was going closer. But yesterday we know that the Israeli military
claims that Hamas was firing rockets from within that same hospital compound although the Israeli military didn't comment and actually link
these two actions together. But we know that in the past the military has said that Hamas has been operating from within or underneath hospital
complexes across Gaza.
Hamas, of course, for its part has denied these allegations although in at least one instance we know that the Israeli military has released video of
militants on at least one of these hospital complexes in the past, but the result at least is that it last night at least it set off some panic and
today it appears that the military has moved from that area of operations.
GIOKOS: So Jeremy, an important deal struck by the Qataris brokered by the Qataris to get medical assistance essentially medicines to hostages.
Families of the hostages have been fighting for this for quite some time. It is not finalized. When can we expect it to get into Gaza and to get to
the hostages?
DIAMOND: Well yesterday, the Qatari government said that today planes would be flying from Doha to Egypt to then bring that medication across the
Egyptian Gaza border. Hand it over to Palestinian Health Ministry Officials. Hand it over to Hamas who would then get it to some 40 hostages
who are believed to be in need of medication.
We know that a number of the hostages being held by Hamas have chronic medical conditions and have been you know require medication that they have
not had access to during the time that they have been held hostage.
An Israeli official telling me today that this deal is now underway that the transfer of this medication is indeed underway although we don't know
exactly where in the process that medication actually is, this was agreed to by Hamas in exchange for Israel to allow the entry of additional
humanitarian aid and medication into the Gaza Strip to some of the most affected areas of the Gaza Strip.
We don't know exactly how much additional humanitarian aid that actually entails. But what we do know certainly is that conditions in Gaza are dire.
The United Nations warning that a large swath of the population in Gaza is already facing famine. And of course, we know that medical supplies have
been running low in a number of hospitals you know only about half of which are actually still operational inside the Gaza Strip.
GIOKOS: Yeah, Jeremy Diamond for us. Thank you so much. Well, in the face of growing regional frustrations America's top diplomats address concerns
about the situation in Gaza a few hours ago at the World Economic Forum. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognize the heartbreaking scale of
the crisis as he was asked if Washington has a double standard when it comes to civilian deaths.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS FRIEDMAN, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & AUTHOR: Do Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian Muslim lives and Palestinian Christian lives given
the incredible asymmetry in casualties?
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: No period. For me I think for so many of us what we're seeing every single day in Gaza is gut wrenching.
[09:10:00]
And the suffering we're seeing among innocent men, women and children breaks my heart. The question is what is to be done?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, Natasha Bertrand has more from the Pentagon. Natasha, this isn't the first time we've heard Antony Blinken show empathy and emotive
language towards what is experienced in the Gaza Strip. But that's not translating into anything on the foreign policy front or strategy.
Give me a sense of how important these comments are and whether they have any bearing on what Israel is doing in Gaza right now and the way that they
are conducting this all?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, so I would frame this as kind of a continuation of the rhetoric that we have seen from the
Biden Administration over the last several months beginning of course, really in the secondary stages of Israel's war in Gaza where the
administration started to have much tougher language when it came to protecting civilians inside Gaza.
And urging the Israelis that to take greater steps to protect them and saying that the number of civilian deaths that were coming out of this
conflict and that were being -- that resulted from Israel's war there were really unacceptable. And the administration has been pushing this line for
a while now. But it does not seem to be changing Israel's behavior.
As you mentioned there the administration had wanted to see Israel transition to a lower intensity phase of this conflict really by earlier
this month. We have not yet seen that happened really in earnest. They had wanted to kind of see this shift more to a more targeted approach, more
targeted operations, going after senior Hamas leaders inside Gaza in a way that would significantly reduce the civilian death toll there and that has
not really occurred.
And so the administration they've been pushing the Israelis to do this. But on the other hand, they're also looking past this current phase of the
conflict towards what comes next in a post war scenario. That is really what administration officials here have been honing in on in their
conversations with Israeli officials, not only to try to scale back the intensity of their operations in Gaza, but also to try to push forward, for
example, normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Connecting that with the possibility of a two state solution create -- creation of a Palestinian state, leveraging the influence that they have
over these negotiations between the Israelis and the Saudis to try to get to a place where maybe all of this is solved by the creation of a
Palestinian state.
Now obviously, that is very optimistic. And Jake Sullivan the National Security Adviser, he recognized that he acknowledged that in his remarks in
Davos this week. But he said that Israeli one of the main priorities right now of U.S. officials is trying to get to this place where they can see the
war solved really in a manageable and long term way that creates a two state solution and ultimately peace between the Palestinians and the
Israelis.
GIOKOS: Yeah. So Natasha, I mean one of the biggest concerns from the get goes of this war was just what it would mean regionally? We're seeing that
playing out in real time in the Red Sea. The U.S. has said that anything that it does in Yemen is because they're trying to defend shipping routes.
And it's an act of self-defense. We saw these strikes again in Yemen on Houthi assets. What is the assessment in terms of how successful they are
in order to degrade the ability of the Houthis to target vessels?
BERTRAND: Well, we were told by a U.S. official that the first round of strikes that the U.S. conducted last week only really destroyed about less
than a third of the Houthis military capabilities and that roughly 75 percent of their capabilities remained even after that huge round of
strikes by the U.S. in the U.K. last Thursday.
The U.S. has continued to launch additional kind of ad hoc strikes here and there against Houthi targets yesterday. It was against four ballistic
missiles that the Houthis were apparently preparing to launch and that the U.S. had posed an imminent threat to vessels in the Red Sea, including U.S.
Navy vessels.
So they're kind of taking out these assets as they see them being prepared, being you know, potentially launched by the Houthis. And the question is
whether that is sustainable? Is the U.S. going to continue its surveillance of the Houthis to that extent where they try to preemptively prevent the
Houthis from launching missiles into the Red Sea?
But as we've seen even after the U.S. launched their strikes on these ballistic missiles yesterday, the Houthi still were able to launch a
missile into the Red Sea that actually did strike a commercial ship. Did not cause significant damage but clearly it's going to have a continued the
chilling effect on Red Sea shipping and ultimately international commerce.
GIOKOS: All right, Natasha Bertrand for us. Thank you.
[09:15:00]
Well as the eyes of the world are on the ongoing humanitarian disaster caused by this war, key voices are calling for an immediate halt. The
United Nations Secretary General has long said that a ceasefire is the only solution which could prevent more suffering on both sides and which would
prevent further escalations elsewhere in the region. CNN's Julia Chatterley spoke with Antonio Guterres in Davos Tuesday, take a listen to the
interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think we need a humanitarian ceasefire. And we believe a humanitarian ceasefire is
necessary to facilitate the liberation of hostages and independently of that, hostages should be released immediately and then conditionally to
take hostages is unacceptable in any conflict.
But we need it's also in order to be able to provide effective humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza that is suffering in a desperate situation with
starvation progressing in a terrible way. I mean it's unimaginable the living conditions in Gaza I mean, it's really hell on earth.
And so without a humanitarian ceasefire it will be impossible to organize effectively, the distribution of humanitarian aid. And then I believe that
-- facilitate a serious negotiation for de-escalation in Lebanon. We cannot have in Lebanon another Gaza. And it is essential to avoid an escalation in
Gaza that could be an absolutely devastating conflict.
We need to have further verification in the Red Sea. I mean a lot of things need to be avoided. And the key for that is to make a serious effort in
order to have a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and to create the conditions for the acceptance by both sides of the two state solution in which
Israelis and Palestinians can live together insecurity.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNNI HOST: You're worried about the Red Sea situation. You've just said to me you don't want to see Lebanon become the next Gaza.
How worried are you? And are you that worried about Lebanon?
GUTERRES: I'm extremely worried. But I also see a lot of efforts being made by the Lebanese Government. I just spoke with the Lebanese Prime Minister
by the U.S. There is a special envoy that has been going to Lebanon and very much interested in negotiating de-escalation of the situation and by
many others around the world that consider that it is absolutely crucial to avoid a massive confrontation in Lebanon that would be the devastation of
the country.
And with a level of suffering that would be absolutely intolerable and we must avoid it. There are conditions to avoid it. There are perspectives in
negotiation that are possible. But again the solution in Gaza will be very important to allow for de-escalation in the other parts of the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaking to our Julia Chatterley in Davos. Well, Columnist E. Jean Carroll is expected to testify
today in a second defamation case against Donald Trump. And for the first time he is expected to be right there in the room listening to her
firsthand accounts and we'll go live outside the courthouse, straight ahead.
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[09:20:00]
GIOKOS: All right, welcome back. And we've got some breaking news coming into CNN. Catherine the Princess of Wales is in the hospital recovering
from abdominal surgery. Kensington Palace says she will remain in the hospital for 10 to 14 days before she can return home to continue her
recovery. We'll bring you more details as we learn them.
Well, Donald Trump is due back in a New York courtroom again today before heading to a campaign event in New Hampshire. Later Trump is expected to be
in court when Jean E. Carroll is called in to testify in her defamation case against him.
She is the columnist who sued Trump and one last year for his statements he made in 2022, denying her allegation of rape. Jurors in this case were
selected on Tuesday to determine damages for his 2019 statements. CNN's Kara Scannell joins us now live from outside the courthouse in New York.
Good to see you. Donald Trump doesn't need to go to court but he nevertheless is going to be attending. We understand there are going to be
no cameras inside. What can we expect today?
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Donald Trump just arrived to the courthouse a few moments ago and he will be in the courtroom as E. Jean
Carroll takes the stand today testifying about the impact of the statements that a previous jury had already found to be defamatory.
That was Trump denying that he raped her saying that she wasn't his type and that she made up the story to promote and get sales of a new book that
she had published. So she is expected to testify today sitting face to face with Donald Trump, who will just be a few feet away from her as she
testifies about the impact of those statements.
Her lawyer saying that Carroll has been scared since this happening saying that Trump's followers kind of latched on to his words and then bombarded
her with hate filled messages and threats. So she says that Carroll has been scared that she sleeps with a gun beside her bed and the jury will now
hear Carroll tell that in her own words while Trump is there.
At the last trial and this took place last year Donald Trump did not tend to any days of the trial, but he was there yesterday. He's there again
today. And he will be there when his lawyers cross examine E. Jean Carroll later today.
And his defense in this case is that he can't be held responsible for the actions of his followers. He shouldn't have to pay for the mean tweets that
people sent her. And they also argue that E. Jean Carroll wasn't actually harmed. And in fact her career prospered as a result of the fame that she
received by going public. So ultimately, it will be up for the jury to decide.
This is a jury of seven men, two women all from New York and the surrounding areas who will be making this decision and Donald Trump saying
that he himself may take the stand later in this case, case is only expected to go about a week and Eleni, E. Jean Carroll is asking for more
than $10 million in damages.
GIOKOS: Yeah. I mean quite significant, also significant that Donald Trump is there. He's heading to New Hampshire later. You know he's been using a
lot of his legal issues as a way, as a platform to sort of, you know, use that in his campaign. What are we expecting to see on that front? What are
you seeing outside the courthouse in terms of interest? And what is happening today?
SCANNELL: It's very interesting outside this courthouse, its business as usual. I mean, you can see there are more media cameras here, but the
streets are pretty normal activity, people walking around. What's interesting is this is federal court in the U.S., which means that there
are no cameras allowed inside at all.
By comparison when Trump was on trial just a few weeks ago for a civil fraud case in a New York State Court there are cameras in the hallway. So
he at every break when he was coming and going with stop speak to the cameras make political statements attack the prosecutor -- the Attorney
General and the Judge.
Here, there's no opportunity for him to do that. The Secret Service whisks him into the courthouse through a garage and out he leaves the same way. So
he doesn't have the ability to address the public or really address the media in this.
[09:25:00]
But he is on the campaign trail, ping ponging between New Hampshire and New York, leading up to the primary next week. And he is still able to use the
opportunities that he has at the campaign events and on his social media feed to go after E. Jean Carroll to also campaign for the presidency
following his good start in Iowa.
So nothing is to stop him from doing that. And Carroll's lawyers even noted that while Trump was in court yesterday on his Truth Social page he had
already posted 22 posts about this trial itself. So nothing is slowing Trump down from making the public statements even though there are no
cameras here to capture him.
GIOKOS: Clearly Kara Scannell, great to have you on the story. And as Kara mentioned, Trump is expected to leave the courtroom today and then head to
Portsmouth, New Hampshire to hold a campaign event where he will deliver remarks. CNN polling suggesting it could be a different story in the
Granite States where Nikki Haley trails Trump by only single digits. That isn't the reason Haley is in the spotlight this morning, though. Take a
listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're not a racist country, Brian. We've never been a racist country. Our goal is to make sure
that today is better than yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: And less than 10 seconds later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HALEY: I know I faced racism when I was growing up. But I can tell you today, is a lot better than it was then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, Republican Ron DeSantis is working to make himself the next best alternative to Trump. He may not have gotten too tough against Trump
in CNN Town Halls event but he stuck to saying America is not a racist country. All right, we'll be back right after the short break, stay with
CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
GIOKOS: All right, that is the sound of the opening bell in New York. Ringing the bell today is Zvika Netter, CEO and Co-Founder of Innovid
Advertising and Technology Company, as they'd like to see how the markets are faring right now. DOW Jones down around 80 points was sitting around to
0.2 percent in the red, NASDAQ and S&P also in the negative everyone focusing on the Chinese GDP number for the fourth quarter of 2023.
It came in worse than expected 5.2 percent growth by many accounts, many think that this is a good number for China, it is an issue and that could
have global ramifications. Market participants very much focused on that.
And we're also seeing a lot of companies out with earnings which are moving the markets right now and of course could have an effect in terms of what
the Federal Reserve might be doing in terms of interest rates down the line.
And of course global markets are also reacting to the news from the world's second largest economy. We mentioned China that the some of the population
fronts -- population numbers falling for a second straight year as fewer babies were born. Marc Stewart tells us this could have big implications
for China's economy moving forward.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: China is facing two daunting challenges, a lackluster economy and a population that seen a decline. And government
leaders here in Beijing are very aware of these issues. First the economy, it grew by about 5.2 percent last year, a bit higher than was targeted and
much better than 2022.
But it's still one of the worst performances in over three decades. What's at play? A real estate crisis, record youth unemployment and a rapidly
aging population and that brings us to the second issue the population decline. China still has more than a billion people, but saw a drop of
about 2 million last year according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.
Even though China's long standing one child policy has been retired, some younger people don't want the expense of raising a child, an issue that was
discussed at a recent singles event in Shanghai.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MISS YOJI, 27-YEAR-OLD SINGLES EVENT ATTENDEE: I'm actually paying attention to these marriage and childbearing policies myself, but I think
many policies treat symptoms rather than the root causes and don't really care about the real needs of young people. For example, real life pressures
like housing prices, work and academic qualifications which are improving but in fact also delay the age of marriage and childbearing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Despite efforts by the government to encourage married people to have children. The birth rate still saw a slowdown. Marc Stewart, CNN,
Beijing.
GIOKOS: Well, economic headwinds are rising in the Middle East. The International Monetary Fund is warning about the negative impacts of trade
disruption in the Red Sea. It's Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva telling CNN's Richard Quest at the World Economic Forum in Davos that a
spillover of violence and prolonging the conflict would be quite negative for the world.
All right later in sport Brave Warriors my name and it seems by nature why Namibia, are celebrating a historic football win. I'll be back right after
this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:35:00]
GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. And I want to take us back to our Breaking News story. Catherine, the Princess of Wales is in the
hospital recovering from abdominal surgery. Kensington Palace says, the surgery was successful and she'll remain in hospital for 10 to 14 days
before she can continue her recovery at home.
I want to go now to our Royal Correspondent Max Foster, who is in London for us to stay in hospital for 10 to 14 days that is quite a long period of
time and then going home to recover. What more do we know about her health right now and her ability to be ability to recover as quickly as possible?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first thing I should probably say is a source has just told me that it's non-cancerous this
condition. So that will alleviate a lot of concerns. As you say two weeks in hospital is a significant amount of time but it is abdominal surgery and
it does take time to recover from that and build your muscles back up.
And they will also be -- I'm told by source that there'll be -- she'll have to recuperate for probably two to three months. And that's likely to be in
Windsor at their home in Windsor. They've always got several homes.
But the Windsor home is the one nearest to children so they can still go to school. She's very involved in the school, so she won't be able to be
involved in that in the same way. And they have canceled all of their future travel as well for now certainly for a few months both the Prince
and the Princess.
So they're not taking any chances here. I mean we have seen around about over Christmas, she looks really well in most recent engagements these are
quite recent pictures. She's looked well as well. So and she's a very fit and healthy person very keen on sports. So I think that you know, in terms
of recovery she's probably in quite a good position.
But there is an obviously it's very alarming for people to hear. Media are sort of going outside the hospital. She's based at the moment as well in
London. So there will be a lot of attention on this. But I don't think we're going to get Eleni, any updates unless they are significant updates
because they've told us what they had to tell us.
Because they haven't you know they've got a duty to tell us that a senior roles in hospital that actually they do regard these medical matters as
private as well. So they're only going to release information unless it's - - you know really in the public interest.
GIOKOS: Absolutely. And we know that they've said as well that her condition remains a private matter. Max, thank you very much for this
update. I appreciate it. Well, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry recently announced he's leaving the role by the spring to participate in President
Joe Biden's re-election campaign.
CNN spoke to him on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos and he told Julia Chatterley, the U.S. has much to do to combat climate change.
Here is the part of their conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOHN KERRY, U.S. CLIMATE ENVOY: President Biden has had an extraordinary record. He's the person who said to us, I want to make climate the top
issue. I want to be pushing this. He gave us the license to move around and make the things happen that have happened he passed the IRA one of the most
significant pieces of legislation in history. It's made a difference already.
His leadership globally has helped the United States come back from a place where the previous president pulled out of the agreement, didn't do
anything, didn't put money in it. And now American leadership I think hope is being respected again on this topic. So I think that you know we're
behind globally in terms of what we need to do to meet the crisis of climate.
The president knows that and he's going to do everything he can in the campaign to be able to make this a key issue and I'm going to do everything
I can to help the president be able to be re-elected.
CHATTERLEY: So you're going to be campaigning for him the whole place? I think he's talking about what happened in Iowa overnight with them as you
mentioned the Former President success in Iowa. Can I ask what do you make of that? Because I think for many reasons but in particular, as we've
discussed climate care is perhaps shuddering at this moment at the prospect of a second round of Former President Trump in the White House.
KERRY: Well, it's way too early. Look, it's January, early January. And there's so much history to unfold still now between now and the election.
[09:40:00]
So I'm not going to get caught up in the election at this point. I think that will take care of itself. And later when I'm not in this job I'll have
an opportunity to opine on that and other things.
But for the moment the crisis we really have to be paying more attention to is the climate crisis. I mean last year was the most turbulent year
globally in history with record heat, record fires, record water you know disappearing, record numbers of people moving because of climate.
So we have a fundamental global challenge. And I'm pleased to say that in Dubai we're able to work with China and others to forget some of the other
issues -- not forget them but put them aside for a moment to do something that the world needs done that affects all of our citizens.
CHATTERLEY: Secretary Kerry.
KERRY: Nice to be with.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you.
KERRY: Thank you. It is cold -- by the way.
CHATTERLEY: We look forward -- freezing -- come back and win?
KERRY: Oh God, yeah absolutely.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
GIOKOS: All right to a thrilling and historic win at the Africa Cup of Nations. Namibia are celebrating their first ever victory in the tournament
beating Tunisia 1-0 in their group. A header in the final few minutes of the game sealed the win. And for more on this I've got Patrick Snell
joining us. What a game? Namibia, a shock win they say.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Oh Eleni, yeah, absolutely a historic one. No question about it. You know Tunisia former champions they won it in
2004. Namibia had never ever won an Afghan game and wow, what moments what celebrations when they get one two minutes Deon Hotto getting the winning
goal, and it could have been more they had chances to add to their tally.
They are -- it's incredible. Here's why it's incredible? 87 places below Tunisia in the world rankings. A victory all the more remarkable given the
Brave Warriors who are ranked 115th in the world as they say without a win in any of their previous Afghan games nine in total. It's going to be
incredible stuff. And wow, it's autonomous already seen a few shocks. I suspect Eleni, there are more to come, back to you.
GIOKOS: All right, fantastic. Patrick Snell, good to see you. We will see you after the short break and I'll be back at the top of the hour, stay
with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
[10:00:00]
END
