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NEWS STREAM
Russia Delays Any Actions Towards U.S.; Philippines Whistleblower Edgar Matobato in Hidding; Prevent Human Trafficking One Bra at a Time; Nascent Syrian Cease-Fire Holding. 8:00a-9:00a ET
Aired December 30, 2016 - 08:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:23] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And we begin with breaking news.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will not expel American diplomats, effectively contradicting a recommendation by his foreign minister just a
short time ago. On Thursday, the White House ordered 35 Russian diplomats out of the U.S. in response to alleged Russian hacking during the 2016
election campaign.
Moscow calls the accusations groundless and Putin now says he will determine further steps in restoring ties with the U.S. when Barack Obama
leaves the White House and Donald Trump takes office.
Now, for more on the story, let's bring in former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty. She joins us from Seattle.
And Jill, we were just talking about this moments ago. I mean, this, a classic move by Vladimir
Putin.
JILL DOUGHERTY, FRM. MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: It is. Master of the unexpected, and, you know, in the little bit of I would call it political
theater of having his foreign minister say we recommend that you have these counter sanctions and then President Putin coming in and saying, no, no, we
won't do this, I was just reading Mr. Putin as being quoted in the Russian media saying we won't create problems for American diplomats. We won't
send anyone away. We won't privy their family and children from using their usual vacation spots in the new year.
So, in other words, President Putin is doing a lot of things at once. He's setting himself up as the adult here, who is not taking petty actions.
This is all, in quotes, of course, that President Obama is, that he is above the fray and is willing to go forward and have a good relationship
with President Trump.
In effect, Mr. Putin is saying that, you know, President Obama isn't really the president, maybe he's there for another couple of weeks, but
essentially we're dealing with the new guy.
And this is very interesting diplomatically. It's interesting on a number of different levels. This does not mean that President Putin won't take
some response, let's say, in a covert fashion or anything. A lot of that beneath the blanket stuff, the cyber attacks, et cetera, will probably
continue, but on the surface, President Putin is trying to score points by looking like the
peacemaker, the diplomat, the adult, and setting up this challenge for Donald Trump, the tantalizing possibility of working directly
with President Putin to solve the problems of the world.
But at the same time really a challenge for President Trump to decide how he plays this. I mean, are you on the side of President Putin, or are you
on the side of some of his own Republicans who want a harder line?
LU STOUT: That's right. That's exactly what I want to dig into and ask you next is that, you know, Vladimir Putin in making this chess move, he's
setting up Donald Trump, as well. Is he basically saying if you want good ties with Russia, we have this expectation that you're going to reverse
these sanctions for us?
DOUGHERTY: Yes. I think, Kristie, that's exactly right. That he, that President Putin is laying out, let's say, a challenge for President Trump
to make his own determination with President Putin, reach across the divide, knowing that if Mr. Trump when he becomes president does that, that
he creates domestic problems at home.
So I see this kind of scoreboard of President Putin checking off different boxes for things that he is doing with this move, making President Obama
look completely weak and almost like a child, a petulant child in having these sanctions, a challenge to President Trump as he comes in. Ability to
make the United States look like a country that doesn't even really have a functioning government, that's really what the message is, that President
Obama really isn't effective at this point, and many others.
And internationally, I think looking like the guy who is the adult who wants to, you know, move on.
LU STOUT: In the meantime, these sanctions slapped against Russia by the Obama administration will stay in play.
Now, we know that Obama had promised for a long time to take tough action against Russia for the U.S. election hack. When you go through the
sanctions here and the individuals and the groups targeted, just how punitive are these sanctions?
DOUGHERTY: Well, some are more punitive than others. I mean, let's say expelling the diplomats is something that's very cold war, kind of old
fashioned, and very predictable. That's not really that big of a deal. Naming, let's say, the head of military intelligence, the GRU, is a big
deal. You normally wouldn't, you know, name let's say in American terms the head of the CIA as a person
for sanctions, but by doing that, that's really a challenge. And it's trying to get close, you know, close scoring points, close toward to
President Putin.
And then finally, as we were just discussing some of these cyber sanctions are really quite
interesting, because, if you stand back and look at this, this is not just the immediate threat, or at least this is how the Obama people look at it,
it's not just the immediate threat of the 2016 election, it's really cyber war and cyber activities by Russia and potentially by other countries that
the United States is trying to avert.
So this is a lot bigger than the 2016 election, and what the Obama administration is trying to do is putting in play steps that can avert
future types of cyber attacks, hacking, et cetera.
LU STOUT: All right, because we know that, you know, Russian cyber attackers, whether state sponsored or not, have gone after a number of
entities, you know, corporate, political entities, not just the U.S., but other governments, as well.
But the core question here it all goes back to the U.S. election hack, and before we let you go,
Iwant to ask you your thoughts on the motive here. Again, the Kremlin denies it, but why did Putin order this hack attack on the U.S. election to
disturb the election process?
DOUGHERTY: You know, ultimately, there are a number of reasons, but I think ultimately it was to sow some chaos and take advantage of this closed
loop, this kind of echo chamber of disinformation, misinformation, fake news, et cetera, to exploit weaknesses in the American election system, not
necessarily maybe in the beginning even to help Donald Trump. That's kind of a matter of
interpretation, and that's the conclusion. But you could also say that hurting Hillary Clinton would
help Donald Trump. There are only two of them, so if you hurt Hillary Clinton, you do help Donald Trump. And there is a lot of evidence that
they did want to hurt Hillary Clinton.
And then overall picture is to sow doubt in the American election, the American electoral system, and American democracy not only among Americans,
among Russians, but people around the world, not to look at the United States as any type of example of
democracy.
LU STOUT: Jill Dougherty, as always, we appreciate your analysis, especially in this situation. Many thanks indeed for that. Take care.
Now, for more details on those U.S. sanctions and the reaction from American lawmakers, here is our Evan Perez.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty-five Russian diplomats now have less than 72 hours to leave the country. U.S. intelligence
officials say that they were spies posing as diplomats. Their expulsion part of a massive crackdown by President Obama against Russia's alleged
election cyberattacks. The White House retaliation also includes shutting down two Russian compounds located in Maryland and New York.
LISA MONACO, WHITE HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR: What these individuals were doing were basically collecting intelligence. There were intelligence
officers operating here and using these compounds for intelligence collection purposes.
PEREZ: The U.S. sanctioning nine Russian individuals and entities, including the Russian spy agency, the FSB, and the Russian military
intelligence unit, the GRU. U.S. intelligence officials say the GRU ordered the attacks on the
Democratic National Committee and other political groups under orders from the Kremlin.
In a statement, President Obama says the cyberattacks could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government. Obama and U.S.
intelligence officials have implied that Russian President Vladimir Putin was directly involved in the hacks, in part, to hurt Hillary Clinton's
campaign. Obama warning, quote, "All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions." The stiff sanctions drawing bipartisan praise.
REP. ADAM SMITH (D), WASHINGTON: We cannot allow a foreign power to impact our elections.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (R), CALIFORNIA: We're the United States of America, and you will not mess around with our election system.
PEREZ: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan calling the sanctions overdue as Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham vow to hit Russia
harder, calling for even stronger sanctions.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: They need to name Putin as an individual and his inner circle, because nothing happens in Russia without
his knowledge or approval.
[08:10:02] PEREZ: Meanwhile, the White House looking to take covert retaliation, as well, saying, quote, "These actions are not the sum total
of our response."
The U.S. says it is ready for any response from Russia.
ERIC SCHULTZ, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: The truth is that we enjoy the greatest capabilities of any country on earth. That's offensive and
defensive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: And that was Evan Perez reporting.
Let's remind you of what was revealed in the hack that the U.S. is blaming on Russia. Thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee were
stolen and released publicly. And many of them included damaging revelations about the party and Hillary Clinton.
Now, one of the biggest causalities was the head of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie
Wasserman Schultz. Now, she resigned after email indicated that the party was favoring Hillary Clinton over her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.
Now, Russia calls the hacking allegations groundless, but a U.S. official told CNN that U.S. intel suggests the Russian president was involved in the
hacks.
Now, earlier this month I spoke with cybersecurity expert Sean Sullivan and I started by asking how the U.S. would have known if the hacks were
directed by Vladimir Putin.
(BEIGN VIDEOTAPE)
SHAUN SULLIVAN, F-SECURE: I don't think that sort of information is the sort of thing the Obama administration is going to make public. I don't
think we need that to know that the Russians are involved, but Russian hacking is very fuzzy in the sense that whether it's an agency or it's a
privateer, because a lot of Russian hackers involved in criminal activities also do work for the government.
So you can't definitively say this is this Russian agency. You only have your best leads and you have a preponderance of evidence to suggest anybody
else, so therefore, Russia. The only way that they could definitively prove that this was ordered by Putin, I would think, would to have
something in a communications chain, but that's what the NSA does, so perhaps they do actually have that information.
What we do have are forensic evidence of binaries that are typical of the tools used by agencies or tools used by what we believe are agencies
because of the way they operate in and out of Russia, so that's the best evidence that we're going to get. It's not beyond a reasonable doubt, but
it is preponderance of evidence, it does clear that bar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: All right, Shaun Sullivan with F-Secure there with the cyber angle.
Now, whoever was involved in the alleged hack, the man who actually won the U.S. election seems to be keen to put it behind him.
In a statement, Donald Trump said this, quote, "it is time for the country to move on to bigger and better things."
He says, nevertheless in the interests of the country and its great people, he will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order
to be updated on the facts of the situation. And while that response lacks some of Trump's trademark candor, his senior adviser hinted to CNN that Mr.
Obama's move may have been personal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR TRUMP ADVISER: I will tell you that even those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues are saying that part
of the reason he did this today was to, quote, box in President-elect Trump. That would be very unfortunate if that were the -- if politics
were the motivating factor here, but we can't help but think that that's often true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Meanwhile, Russia is at the center of another major diplomatic undertaking, but this one excludes Washington.
On Thursday, Russia and Turkey announced a nationwide truce between Syrian forces and a
number of rebel groups. Now, the cease-fire does not apply to groups deemed terror organizations by the UN like ISIS and Jubhat al-Nusra.
In the early hours the truce appears to be holding, although there have been reports of skirmishes. Syria has seen nearly six years of war.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of people forced from their homes.
But could one short day be a promise of a peace that will last? Let's go to CNN'S Muhammad Lila in Istanbul for more on that.
Muhammad, this groundbreaking nationwide cease-fire appears to be holding for now. What's the latest?
MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, the cease- fire is only into its about 15th hour or so. So, as you mentioned, it's still very young, but the signs are cautiously optimistic. There have been
some sporadic clashes going on in some parts of the country, that's not entirely unexpected.
What we're monitoring is whether those clashes are on a big enough scale for any of the sides to say that the cease-fire has been officially
violated and as far as official notices go, neither Turkey, nor Russia or Syrian state media are reporting any official violations of the cease-fire.
So at least, although very young and early, it appears as though the cease- fire is holding.
LU STOUT: And the fact that the United States has been sidelined, it's not the table to broker the cease-fire deal, let alone monitor it. I mean,
what does that reveal?
LILA: Well, it's interesting because, you know, the two main brokers of the cease-fire agreement were Russia and Turkey. And of course, Turkey has
been as long-time ally of the United States, a key NATO member, the United States even has a very significant
and important military base in Turkey, but relations between Turkey and the United States have really gone downhill over the last several months, ever
since the failed coup attempt here that Turkey blamed on a cleric that's living
in the United States.
And that was sort of the downturn of relations. And so what we've seen over the last couple of weeks is Turkey take a very sharp shift, which
aligns itself much more closely with Russia's policy in Syria. And those two are now effectively on the same page and it was through that closeness
that they've been able to broker the cease-fire agreement.
The United States was not invited to the negotiations, the United States was not involved or participated at all. And, in fact, there are some
peace talks that are scheduled a month from now in Kazakhstan that if the cease-fire holds, those peace talks may lay the framework for some sort of
permanent settlement or some sort of permanent peace deal, and it's in those negotiations that the Kremlin has reached out to the United States,
not to President Obama, but to President-elect donald Trump, and saying that they hope that when Donald Trump is inaugurated and when he comes to
power, he may have a seat at the table, something that the United States hasn't had since the cease-fire
negotiations began.
LU STOUT: Interesting development there.
Now, as you mentioned, those peace talks happening about a month from now, that's the next
rung to be reached here, but we know that certain rebel groups are part of the cease-fire deal, others are not, though. So how is that going to
complicate peace talks?
LILA: Well, it's a very fluid situation on the ground, as things often are in Syria. We know that here's the standard that any group that's been
declared by the United Nations as a designated terrorist group is not included in the cease-fire -- that means is, means a group called Jubhat
Fatah al-Shaam (ph), which previously was linked to al Qaeda. Those groups are not included in the cease-fire. So the Syrian government, the
Russians, and possibly the Turkish forces will target those, certainly with ISIS everybody, all of those groups are targeting ISIS.
So there will be some fighting going on.
Now, the question becomes, what happens to the other rebel groups, the militant groups on
the ground, that have some sort of loose alliances with either ISIS or al Qaeda on the ground? That's where it gets kind of murky, because the
Syrian government is insisting that anyone that has an alliance with the banned groups is fair game, that they can continue to target them. But
it's complicated because many groups on the ground who have signed on to the cease-fire do have alliances with those groups, so it's unclear exactly
how this is going to play out. And that's why the next few hours are so critical to see if the cease-fire holds.
LU STOUT: Our Mohammed Lila reporting for us. As always, thank you.
You're watching News Stream. And still ahead, we'll return to our breaking news this hour as Russia's president appears to contradict his own foreign
minister with regards to sanctions on the U.S..
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.
Now, let's recap our breaking news story this hour. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he
will not expel American diplomats, contradicting a recommendation by his foreign minister just a short time ago.
On Thursday, the White House ordered 35 message from his foreign minister just a short time ago.
On Thursday, the White House ordered 35 Russian diplomats out of the U.S. in response to alleged Russian hacking during the 2016 election campaign.
Moscow calls the accusations groundless.
Now, Putin now says he will determine further steps in restoring ties with the U.S. when Barack Obama leaves the White House and Donald Trump takes
office.
Now, let's get more now on what all this means for Russia-U.S. relations, especially as Donald
Trump prepares to take the reins in Washington.
CNN's Jessica Schneider joins us in New York. And Jessica, wow, a dramatic about-face from Russia and it seems Donald Trump was a key catalyst here.
[08:20:51] JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it could be, Kristie. We're three weeks out from the inauguration when Donald Trump
takes office, and he continues to remain steadfast in his skepticism about the fact that these Russian hacks even happened. He has repeatedly
expressed this doubt. He expressed it at Mar-a-Lago, where he's vacationing this
week. He came out and talked to reporters and he said that we should all just, quote, get on with our lives. He said we have bigger and better
things to worry about.
But he did say he'd be meeting with intelligence next week to get more of the details, and that's what his staff, his incoming staff, has repeatedly
stressed. They said that they want more details from the intelligence community, despite the fact that intelligence is in agreement that the
Russians did play a role in hacking during the election season.
Now, one of Donald Trump's top advisers, Kellyanne Conway, she actually spoke out at length last night. She called these sanctions largely
symbolic. She said that in fact, President Obama, she accused, of playing politics with this entire issue.
Conway, though, refusing to say whether or not Donald Trump will roll back those sanctions when he does take office in three weeks. However, his
incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, says that it is solely up to Donald Trump as to what he decides to do and that Donald Trump will be
conferring with his leadership at both the State Department and the Defense Department deciding what
will happen.
But interestingly the White House's current deputy for homeland security has weighed in on this. Lisa Monaco talked about this. She said that any
rollback of sanctions would be, quote, "highly unusual and also inadvisable."
So there's a lot of back and forth, a lot of talk among both administrations, despite the fact that Donald Trump does not take office
for three weeks -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: Yeah, and it seems that the ball now is in Donald Trump's court to see what he's going to do next. I mean, Putin has said I'm not going to
retaliate. I'm passing on sanctions here against the U.S. There are behind the scenes, according to our Kremlin watchers, the thinking that
they want Donald Trump when he becomes president to reverse Obama's sanctions. Would he and can he?
SCHNEIDER: Well, he absolutely can reverse these sanctions, but as the current White House homeland security adviser says, it would be
inadvisable. Of course, that's coming from the Obama team. They don't want the sanctions to be reversed. But it's absolutely within the power of
Donald Trump.
And as we've seen, Donald Trump has been very vocal even before he takes office. He's saying that we need to move on with our lives, get on to
bigger and better things. He's tweeted in the past, you know, on different issues just wait for January 20th. He is, obviously, counting down the
days when it seems he will have a much different view and a much different take and a much different go at things when he does take office.
So, yes, we could potentially see a roll back of those sanctions, although the White House saying it is inadvisable -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: And the Russian hacking saga will continue into the New Year. Jessica Schneider reporting for us live. Thank you.
Turning now to the Philippines, and this man shocked the country a few months ago when he claimed he was an assassin in a death squad that
received orders from Rodrigo Duterte when he was a mayor. And now Edgar Matobato is in hiding, but he is determined to bring Mr. Duterte down and
make the president pay for the bloody war on drugs.
Will Ripley has this exclusive interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: Edgar Matobato says he and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have something in common, they both
have blood on their hands. "I want him to pay for what he did, for the many killings he ordered," he says. "If we bring back the death penalty, I hope
Duterte is the first to hang, and then I will follow."
Decades before the president took his bloody war on drugs nationwide, Matobato says he was part of a group known in the Philippines as the Davao
Death Squad. A 2008 U.N. investigation found the shadowy band of assassins was committing hundreds of murders in Davao, targeting street children and
criminals, all during Duterte's decades-long run as the southern cities gun- toting, crime-fighting mayor beginning in 1988.
"I personally killed around 50 people," Matobato says. He shows us a journal with names and dates of some of his victims written by his wife
because he can't read or write. Matobato also showed his Davao City I.D. He says, he was a ghost employee earning just $100 a month to murder on
command.
Who was ordering the Death Squad to kill all these people?
"We got the orders from Mayor Duterte, he says."
CNN cannot verify his story, but Matobato's graphic testimony in September before a senate hearing on vigilante killings shocked the Philippines. The
country's Human Rights Commission is investigating. The President's Office says he changed some details in his story.
[08:25:49] MARTIN ANDANAR, DUTERTE COMMUNICATIONS SECRETARY: Very inconsistent. So, if you go through the transcript in the senate, you will
see for yourself that Matobato is lying through his teeth.
RIPLEY: The President's Communications Secretary Martin Andanar says, if the testimony was credible, police would have built a case.
ANDANAR: The Davao Death Squad that people are talking about, this is all legend. It's all legend. There's no death squad.
RODRIGO DUTERTE, PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES: I did kill. I was only three months mayor.
RIPLEY: Duterte told me he personally gunned down three people while mayor of Davao to set an example for his officers. But in media interviews, he
said he doesn't remember Matobato and denies ordering vigilante killings. For several years, Matobato was in official witness protection, now that
Duterte is president, he's just in hiding. We meet at a safe house, several hours from Manila. He's moved at least 10 times in the last year, and is
currently facing charges of kidnapping and illegal firearms possession.
"I was told to cut the body parts into pieces," he says. Matobato claims they dumped bodies in crocodile farms, in the streets, and even in mass
graves, but those graves have never been found.
Why are you the only one who has come forward?
He says, "Many of them are scared. If we try to change, we're killed."
So, you think, if they find you, they'll kill you?
"They will kill me," he says, "because now their secrets have been revealed."
Matobato says he's eager to confess his sins, to shine a light on the dark reality behind the president's deadly drug war.
Will Ripley, CNN, Manila.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: Now, Vladimir Putin is holding back on retaliation against the U.S. for now after President Obama slapped Moscow with new sanctions. We
have more on our breaking news this hour straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[08:31:23] LU STOUT: Now, more on our top news story. The mixed messages from Moscow this hour. And CNN's Matthew Chance is in that city. He joins
us now. And Matthew, is what played out in the last few hours a contradiction between a foreign minister and his president or classic Putin
politics?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's an astonishing bit of political theater. I don't think there's any suggestion
at all that this is a fallout in the corridors of power in the Kremlin with Putin contradicting his foreign minister. This was staged. Sergey Lavrov,
the Russian foreign minister appeared on state television saying that he recommends to the Kremlin that the Kremlin expels 35 U.S. diplomats in
response to the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the United States.
And Vladimir Putin was able to then step up and say, you know, no, I thank you, Mr. Lavrov for
that, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to expel any diplomats. I'm not going to basically ruin
their Christmas and new year holidays like the U.S. has ruined those holidays of Russian diplomats. And so he was able to cast himself as being
magnanimous, he was able to essentially play Santa Claus, at the same time casting the Obama administration as being petty and vindictive.
These are the words that were used by the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson about the Obama administration earlier.
So again, a remarkable bit of political theater. And also an opportunity for Putin to, again,
reach out to the incoming Trump administration and say, look, I'm someone, the Kremlin is an
organization, a government that you can do a deal, that can work with and is prepared to work with the Trump administration on a range of issues.
Remember the Kremlin needs Donald Trump. It needs a sympathetic president in the White House, because it wants sanctions lifted, it wants a
resolution of the situation in Syria. It's already brokered a cease-fire there. It wants the United States on board with that cease-fire. And it
wants other issues resolved, as well.
And so, you know, this is, again, the Kremlin reaching out to the incoming administration of
Donald Trump.
LU STOUT: OK. So, this is political theater. The objective here to reach out to Donald Trump. Is he also putting the pressure on Donald Trump to
reverse the sanctions?
CHANCE: Perhaps, perhaps, although, you know, you have to remember that Donald Trump has already voiced skepticism about the sanctions, and his
choice for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon CEO has gone on the record as saying he does not believe that sanctions are an effective
tool of American foreign policy.
So already in the incoming Trump administration, the administration in waiting, you've got a large body of opinion, including the president and
the potential secretary of state that don't believe that sanctions are the way forward.
In addition to that, Donald Trump has expressed sympathy with Russia's point of view, for
instance, in Syria, where Russia says it is fighting international terrorism. Trump has suggested joining
forces with Russia and coordinating their efforts to fight international terrorism there. That's going to be a lot easier, by the way, with the
situation that's emerging in Syria now with a Russian-Turkish initiative, basically bringing all of the rebel groups into a peace
negotiation process, except for ISIS and the groups that are affiliated with al Qaeda, previously known as al-Nusra, and so it's going to be very
easy, I think, for an incoming Donald Trump administration to pick which side of that negotiation to back.
So yes, a very clever bit of political maneuvering here on the part of Vladimir Putin.
[08:35:03] LU STOUT: Matthew Chance reporting live from Moscow, thank you.
Now, let's turn to a very different topic. Quite literally the weather. I mean, scientists say that this year, 2016, is on track to be the warmest
year on record, but the consequences can be severe.
John Sutter went to Alaska to see just how bad it can get.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN SUTTER, CNN CORRESPODNENT: In 2016, it became suddenly clear that we are warming the climate and there are dire consequences.
I'm in a tiny village in Alaska about 30 miles from the Arctic Circle. I'm sure it looks cold out here but locals are complaining about the heat. The
Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. In mid november, the region was 35 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.
It's not just here. This is happening around the world. 2016 is expected to be the hottest year on record. This spring, a drought in India was so
intense it reportedly led some farmers to commit suicide. In May, monster wildfires forced 88,000 people in Canada to flee. In July, in Kuwait, 129
degrees Fahrenheit or 54 Celsius.
Scientists are getting better at tying these events to us. A flood in Louisiana killed 13 people in august. Scientists say it was 40 percent more
likely because of climate change.
Here, locals voted the same months to abandon their village, which ancestors lived in for 400 years. The permafrost is melting and the coast
is crumbling.
Are we causing all of the bad weather? No. But we are burning fossil fuels, which is heating up the planet, and that puts our fingerprints on the
extreme weather more than ever before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: John Sutter reporting there.
You're watching News Stream. And still ahead, the CNN Freedom Project will introduce you to
Madison and the extraordinary way she's working to overcome her past as a sex trafficking victim. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LU STOUT: Let's turn now to our latest report from the CNN's Freedom Project. Now, nearly five years ago CNN highlighted the work of a small
charity called Free the Girls that is fighting slavery and we caught up with them in El Salvador. Shasta Darlington has this update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN IN: 21-year-old Madison is going to work. She has an unusual job. Selling gently used bras in the markets of El Salvador. She
makes good money and dreams of owning her own business one day. A dream she never could have imagined just a few years ago.
MADISON, SEX TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR (through translator): I didn't know what human trafficking was until I got to the safe house.
DARLINGTON: Madison is a survivor of child sex trafficking and the bras she sells, part of a unique reintegration program by a non-profit called
Free the Girls.
KIMBA LANGAS, FREE THE GIRLS: When we started, we had this idea and the idea was that this bra could change a woman's life. And we really did not
have any idea how much those women would change their own lives.
DARLINGTON: We first met Kimba Langas and Dave Terpstra shortly after they started Free the Girls in 2011. The plan was for Kimba to collect donations
of new and gently-used bras in the US and send them to Dave in Mozambique, Africa, where sex trafficking survivors could sell them in the used
clothing markets there. Providing them with a steady income that would prevent them from becoming vulnerable to traffickers again.
[08:40:16] DAVE TERPSTRA, FREE THE GIRLS: The whole goal was just to be a very simple project, very garage sort of project where Kimba would collect
just a few bags worth of bras and send them over in suitcases and things like that.
LANGAS: We thought we would work with one partner in Mozambique, have a handful of women, maybe bring some bras over a few times a year and that
would be it and so we never could have imagined how it exploded.
TERPSTRA: And now we've collected over half a million bras, sent them to three different locations around the world, helped dozens and dozens of
women.
DARLINGTON: Terpstra says Free the Girls expanded to El Salvador because of Danielle and Jon Snyder. They run mission to El Salvador, a non-profit
that works with sex trafficking survivors.
DANIELLE SNYDER, MISSION TO EL SALVADOR: I remember early on when I started working with Free the Girls, Kimba, one of the co-founders, said `a woman
wears a bra close to her heart,' something similar to that and I love that a woman in the United States can donate her bra and then it's going to come
here and help the girls in our program.
DARLINGTON: Girls like Madison who, at just 14 years old, was lured into a sex trafficking ring
MADISON (through translator): We had to have sex with them and do whatever they asked us to.
DARLINGTON: Madison was held captive for an entire year forced to have sex with multiple men, every day until she escaped. Today she speaks
triumphantly about her recovery and her future.
MADISON (through translator): It is my dream to have my own business and keep selling bras and other things like clothes, but as my own business.
DARLINGTON: When she's not selling bras, Madison volunteers at mission to El Salvador, working with the homeless. She says she wants to serve others
as a way to thank god for her recovery. I asked her where she would be without the help she received here.
MADISON (through translator): Well, I wouldn't be telling you this story. I'd be dead or, I don't know, in a worse situation I was before. I wouldn't
be here and I wouldn't have recovered. I would be nothing.
SNYDER: It's hard. It's very difficult to hear their stories. There's nothing easy about it and it's hard not to carry that. It's hard not to
carry that. For me to be able to have the opportunity to help them, it's worth it. To be part of the process of helping them to find healing,
DARLINGTON: Today, Madison's freedom comes with the money she earns by selling second-hand bras donated by strangers. Yet, they are connected.
LANGAS: It's very personal and there's something very poetic about the fact that something that you wore so close to your heart can make the
difference in the life of a woman halfway across the world and really, truly help change the trajectory of her life for generations to come. And
that's beautiful.
DARLINGTON: Shasta Darlington, CNN, San Salvador, El Salvador.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. And World Sport with Amanda
Davies is next.
END