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G7 Meets in France; Troops Help Battle Wildfires in the Amazon; Boat Ride Through a "City of Waterways" That`s Nowhere Near Venice
Aired August 26, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN 10. This our third week on the air in the 2019 Fall Season and we`re happy you`re part of it. My name
is Carl Azuz. I`m at the CNN Center. The first story in today`s international coverage takes us to France. That`s where the G7 or Group of
Seven Summit is taking place. The leaders of these countries represent the seven largest economies in the world and the reason they`re meeting early
this week is to discuss issues that effect those economies and the world in general. For instance, ongoing trade tensions between the United States
and China or a new trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan, that was announced over the weekend by U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
They said they`d reached a deal in principle on trade including agriculture and internet business and they expect to finalize it next month. The group
of seven began as a group of six back in 1975. It included France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Canada
was added the next year and Russia was a part of the group starting in 1998, but the country was suspended in 2014 after it took over Crimea, a
peninsula bordering the Black Sea, other members of the group saw Russia`s move as illegal. A topic that`s been discussed this year is whether Russia
should be let back in. U.S. President Donald Trump says he thinks it`d be a positive thing if Russia once again made the G7 a G8 but some European
leaders have disagreed with that. No formal plans have been made on the issue.
The Amazon Rainforest has also came up as an international concern because of the wildfires burning there. Most though not all of the Amazon
wildfires are in Brazil and G7 leaders are discussing ways to both pressure Brazil to do more to stop the fires and offer help to the country in
battling them. Brazil`s government has sent tens of thousands of troops to fight the flames and it`s also hired hundreds of temporary firefighters to
help. Burning in the Amazon is at its highest level since 2013 and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says that though burns occur every year
during the Amazon`s dry season, this years worse because of warmer than usual weather but critics say his government`s policies play a roll.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This morning Porto Velho has woken up to a startling change in its environment from just
the day before. Let our cameraman just pan around here. You can see the sun, red, but literally 24 hours ago you could see a bit more of this river
frankly and now visibility I would say is down to about maximum half a mile. So we just keep panning in this direction. This is, you know, about
an hour after the sun first crept up and the forest canopy pretty much invisible once you get away from the river banks. We`re going to turn now
over to the other side of the bridge so we can show you exactly what it`s like from the other perspective. You could see this river before and now
its basically just the barges and nothing else.
This is a key city in the worst effected state by the forest fires and as I talk to you my voice is beginning to crack up because of the content of
smoke in the air. You can smell it very vividly and it`s a sign of the challenge ahead for President Bolsonaro`s 43,000 troops who are on their
way here. We saw some military planes landing the day before behind me over there but the challenge is extraordinary, and it`s weather patterns it
seems really that are causing smoke to move around. Is there wind? Is there rain? How does this cause this city to be effected like this in just
one night. Now we heard from police yesterday that some of these fires are started deliberately at night indeed. That`s when they see the surge in
the flames and that adds to many who say the reason this year is so bad is because the Brazilian government has been saying to people, it`s OK to
deforest. You can use the Amazon as a source of riches and that may be the reason why people are out there setting fires at night to create more
farming land they can use to grow cattle.
We saw that over there to feed the cattle creating some sense of richness in this broadly poorer part of Brazil. The question though is with all of
the global pressure on the Bolsonaro government, can the army do the job? Well it`s extraordinary that they`ve been putting pictures (ph) of a couple
of C-130 aircraft throwing water onto the fires. The sheer volume of flames out there is quite extraordinary. The pope who has called for
urgent action here saying these are the "vital lungs" of the planet in his noon prayers in the Vatican this day but whether or not that is heard in
this deeply religious country. Whether that change the dial of public opinion here which seems split between those who realize this is really
what we all need to breathe. One (inaudible) of our breaths has oxygen that comes from the Amazon Rainforest but every minutes, one a half
football fields equivalent is being deforested.
These are startling numbers that barely bring home the fact that this year there`s 85 percent more fires than there were a year before. This
emergency here, you can smell all around you and the question I think for people now is whether the Brazilian government has this by itself with its
army`s capabilities? Does it need outside help? And does it really at its core have the political will to deal with these not unprecedented but
extremely bad fires. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Porto Velho, Brazil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. The 2020 Summer Olympic games are set to be held in what city? Beijing, China, Paris, France, Los Angeles, California or
Tokyo, Japan. The next stop for the Olympics is the capital of Japan.
It will be the fourth time that Japan has hosted the Olympics if you include the winter games too and next years events will be the second time
the games came to Tokyo. It also staged the summer events in 1964 and those were the first modern Olympics to be held in Asia. An interesting
thing about next years games is that Japan is planning to use some of the same venues it built for the 1964 Olympics for the 2020 games. As the city
prepares for its future, we`re hopping aboard a boat to sail into part of its past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hundreds of years ago, Tokyo was called Edo and the city flourished around its waterways.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tokyo was (inaudible) as water city and this area is (inaudible) of water system.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While the city eventually transitioned to using more modern infrastructure such as railroads and highways, many of these
historic canals and waterways still exist in the Tokyo we know now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my first time being about (inaudible) river in Tokyo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I was living in Italy, I been many times into Venice. Venice is onto the water but today we are here in Tokyo that is
still - - we don`t feel like Tokyo is onto (ph) the water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since the Edo period, much of the Tokyo Bay area has been built from reclaimed land into manmade islands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: They took the earth and sand, reclaimed the land and as a result these channels now exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we think about a manmade land (inaudible), we think about OK maybe Dubai but actually Tokyo is much developed onto
manmade land. It`s - - it`s kind of crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: The city is changing. As you can see venues like the athletes village are now being built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
and Paralympics along the river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guide was really great. He - - he knew a lot of things and the once we start, you know, cruising I saw so many neat places.
I think when I come to Tokyo, when I see Tokyo, we have to have experience (ph) both (inaudible). You know, living inside the (inaudible) and in a
way looking at it from outside which is (inaudible). You see Tokyo in a different way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: For the elite athletes competing in the 2020 Summer games we present the medals, or at least a glimpse of what they`ll look like. Around 5,000
of them will be made for the Tokyo Olympics. They`ll feature Nike, the Greek goddess of victory on the front and the Tokyo 2020 logo on the back.
What`s unique about these is that they`ll be made from the gold, silver and bronze that stripped from old electronics including used cell phones. Now
we don`t know who made that "call". Who "voiced" interest in some would call a "toneally" golden idea but it took more than a "silver" of
creativity and could "dial" up a strengthened "bronze" between medalists. I`m Carl Azuz wrapping up today`s closing ceremony of CNN 10.
END
