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NEWS STREAM

Trump White House; Iraqi Forces Advance Toward Kirkuk; Mogadishu Blast; ISIS-Affiliated Leaders Killed; Ophelia Bearing Down on Ireland; Puerto Rico Water Shortages; Vietnam Floods; New Allegations Against Producer Harvey Weinstein; Sebastian Kurz Set To Become Next Austrian Chancellor. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 16, 2017 - 08:00:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN NEWS STREAM SHOW HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to "News Stream."

South Korea and the U.S. began military drills with tensions high on the Korean Peninsula, but the U.S. secretary of state continues to push for a

diplomatic solution.

A powerful storm hits Ireland bringing hurricane-force winds to the island.

Nearly a month after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, some residents are still desperate for water.

The top U.S. diplomat is trying to present a united front at the White House as it faces key challenges overseas. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

insists President Trump wants to avoid going to war with North Korea, even though Mr. Trump has suggested diplomacy won't work.

Tillerson also says the U.S. is going to stay in the Iran nuclear deal just days after Mr. Trump said that he would decertify the agreement. Now, we

will take a closer look at the U.S. strategy towards Iran and North Korea in just a moment, but first, the White House is also dealing with

challenges at home. Joe Johns has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell meeting face-to-face today

after months of growing tension. Both leaders desperate for a legislative win set to chart the path forward on key issues like health care and tax

reform.

JOHN DICKERSON, FACE THE NATION HOST, CBS NEWS: Are you going to get tax reform done?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes, if we don't, we're dead.

JOHNS (voice-over): The president also cozying up to two former rivals, inviting senators Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul to play golf over the

weekend.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: He's a little better golfer than I am, but we had a good time.

JOHNS (voice-over): But despite these warming relations, growing signs of deep divisions within the Republican Party.

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: Mitch, the donors are not happy. They've all left you. We've cut your oxygen off, Mitch.

JOHNS (voice-over): President Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon attacking Mitch McConnell by name this weekend and declaring war on the GOP

establishment.

BANNON: This is not my war. This is our war. The establishment started it. But I will tell you one thing. You all are going to finish it.

JOHNS (voice-over): This, as Republican Senator Susan Collins, a key no vote on health care, criticized the president's move to kill subsidies

benefiting poor Americans.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: What the president is doing is affecting the ability of vulnerable people to receive health care right now.

JOHNS (voice-over): Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addressing his own rocky relationship with the president on CNN's state of the union.

JAKE TAPPER, STATE OF THE UNION SHOW HOST, CNN: Did you call him a moron?

REX TILLERSON, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: Jake, as I indicated earlier, I was asked about that, I'm not going to deal with that kind of

petty stuff, and I'm just not going to dignify the question.

JOHNS (voice-over): Refusing to answer when asked repeatedly if he called the president a moron, before pushing back against comments from Republican

Senator Bob Corker that the president is trying to publicly castrate him.

TILLERSON: I checked, I'm fully intact. This is an unconventional president. He uses unconventional communication tools. He uses

unconventional techniques to motivate change.

JOHNS (voice-over): Tillerson also defending the president's decision to decertify the Iran deal and the administration's strategy towards North

Korea.

TILLERSON: The president has also made clear to me that he wants this solved diplomatically. He's not seeking to go to war. Those diplomatic

efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: That is Joe Johns reporting there. Let's focus on the White House's policies towards Iran and North Korea now. Fred Pleitgen is

standing by in the Iranian capital of Tehran. And Will Ripley who has of course reported extensively from North Korea joins us live from Tokyo.

Let's start with Will. Will, we have yet another U.S.-South Korea show of force in the region. How does North Korea usually view these military

drills?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT They're always infuriated, Kristie. They view these drills as address rehearsal for an invasion even

though the United States has long insisted that they are purely defensive in nature.

But from the North Korean point of view, when you have 40 naval ships in the waters off the Korean Peninsula including the air craft carrier, the

USS Ronald Reagan, fighter jets, and helicopters conducting a number of different exercises, and of course the North Koreans also may believe that

the USS Michigan, a ballistic missile submarine, that was dispatched to the region may also be involved and the U.S. is not confirming that, they

clearly feel threatened.

But we have seen in the past during joint military exercises is a strong military response from North Korea. Nuclear tests, missile launches, all a

possibility during what is always a very tense time in this part of the world.

[08:05:00] LU STOUT: Will, your latest thoughts on the latest messaging from the White House. Rex Tillerson in that interview with CNN says that

President Trump prefers diplomacy, to settle the stand off for North Korea. How is that being interpreted there in the Korean Peninsula?

RIPLEY: Unfortunately, the words of U.S. secretary of state don't hold a lot of weight with the North Koreans right now because of the mixed

messages and the words that are coming directly from the top of the administration, from President Trump himself, everything from threatening

to totally destroying North Korea to making fun of their supreme leader Kim Jong-un by calling him "rocket man" and later "little rocket man."

That solicited a furious response from the North. Their foreign minister calling the president of the United States mentally deranged, calling him

president evil, later threatening to detonate a nuclear device over the Pacific in retaliation for this bellicose rhetoric from the very top of the

U.S. administration.

Of course, North Korea with its own fiery words in response, and North Korea -- we're used to fiery rhetoric from them. The dynamic change of

course now is that you also have it from the United States.

And so you heard North Korea's foreign minister also saying in an interview with Russian media that at this point from the North Korean perspective,

diplomacy is simply not on the table. They feel that the current atmosphere wouldn't get them anywhere if they tried to sit down and talk with the

United States. Therefore, they continue to threaten to show force.

LU STOUT: Yes, and now, we have again that show of force, the U.S.-South Korea naval drills that kicked off today. And ahead of that, North Korea

revived its threat on the U.S. territory of Guam. How serious is Pyongyang this time?

RIPLEY: We don't know for sure what North Korea's next move is going to be, Kristie, but I think that we do need to take seriously the threats that

they made in their state media last week where they mentioned once again the possibility of launching a salvo of missiles towards the U.S. territory

of Guam. This is a threat that they first made over the summer.

You remember that solicited the response, the threat of fire and fury like the world has never seen from President Trump. We didn't see North Korea go

through with that threat back in August, but you remember North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un did say at that time that he will continue to

watch the actions of the United States.

And if they continue to act in what North Korea views as a reckless manner, then he certainly did not rule out that highly provocative missile tests

which could potentially cross the red line for the United States if they actually did point a ballistic missile in the direction of Guam.

Obviously, since then, tensions have not subsided, but have only have escalated. And so I think it's important to listen to every threat that the

North Koreans make right now and be prepared for the possibility of that becoming a reality.

LU STOUT: Absolutely. Now, from Will Ripley in Tokyo, let's go to Fred Pleitgen in Tehran for reaction to Trump's decertification of the Iran

nuclear deal. Fred, what is the response there to Trump's harsh criticism and (INAUDIBLE) of the deal?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, certainly it's the main talking point here among Iranian officials and

certainly also people in the streets as well.

If you look at Iranian officials especially the foreign minister here, he said, look -- Javad Zarif -- he said, look, the U.S. needs to know that if

there is going to be new sanctions against Iran, that's going to mean the end of a nuclear deal and that will mean the end of any sort of snap

inspections of any sort of sites here in Iran and also of course any other inspection as well.

What the Iranians are saying, U.S. needs to understand that if this deal falls apart, the Iranians can ramp up their nuclear program again very,

very quickly. Now, the Iranians have always said that they're not after a nuclear weapon but they do feel that they have the right to a nuclear

program.

Of course, there are severe restrictions on that right now with the current program going on. However, they say that they could ramp things up very,

very quickly if they wanted to again.

Now, within society, it's interesting because it seems that the president's speech has really united two of the main factions here in this country, the

hardliners and the moderates, who have been engaged in a big battle of words over the past couple of months especially in the run-up to the last

election here in Iran with the victory of course of the moderate president, Hassan Rouhani.

I spoke to one of the main hardliners. He is the head of the main hard line newspaper here in this country and also an adviser to Iran's supreme

leader. He said, look, in many ways, Donald Trump has done us a service because he has united those political factions and really made Iranian

politics stronger and less divided than it was before.

Nevertheless, of course, if you speak to ordinary Iranians, many of them are quite concerned as to the future of nuclear agreement. The vast

majority of the folks here in this country are really looking forward to a lot of the sanctions relief. They were hoping that businesses would come

and invest here in Iran, big and small international businesses.

Of course, that is something that is still at least (INAUDIBLE) going on, but at the same time, of course, a lot of companies are also asking, what's

the future going to be when it is unclear what the future of this nuclear agreement is going to be, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yes, a lot of lack of clarity and as you mentioned across the political spectrum, Iranians are very upset by the harsh criticisms from

Donald Trump.

[08:10:00] And then you have Rex Tillerson again in that interview with CNN taking more moderate tone, saying that the U.S. is going to stay in the

nuclear deal while trying to address some of the flaws. Are Iranians choosing still to focus on Trump and what he is saying instead?

PLEITGEN: Well, you know, one of the things that Rex Tillerson said though -- I mean, I think it was interesting that he said, look, we want to stay

in the agreement, but we want weed out, if you will, some of the flaws of that agreement. But that is something that the Iranians say simply isn't

going to happen.

I mean, we have to see how long the negotiation, how painful the negotiations were over the nuclear agreement. Certainly, the Iranians say

they are not willing to take any sort of changes to that nuclear agreement. If the U.S. did anything, it would be unilateral. If the U.S. introduced

any new sanctions towards Iran, they say that will de facto, be the end of the nuclear agreement.

One of the things that the Iranians are saying, they said, look, every other country that has signed the nuclear agreement says the nuclear

agreement is not only working, but is also at this point in time the best alternative. The International Atomic Energy Agency is saying not only that

Iran is abiding by the nuclear agreement but that is the strictest form of verification that they have anywhere around the world.

And so therefore the Iranians are saying, look, it's clear that we are abiding by the agreement, it is clear that at this point in time, all the

other countries say it is the best alternative at this point in time. It is only the U.S. that is saying that they believe that their are serious flaws

to this agreement. The Iranians have, from the get-go, said that they are not going to -- would be willing to deal with any sort of changes to that

agreement.

So, any sort of desire to renegotiate the nuclear agreement or for the U.S. to have any sort of special clauses would be something that would be a

unilateral decision by the United States. Certainly the Iranians would not be willing to abide by.

That is certainly something also what the Iranians have said, if the U.S. does that, then they themselves think about leaving the nuclear agreement

which of course many internationally say would most probably be the worst option because then there would be no verification at all anymore, Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right. Fred Pleitgen reporting live for us from Tehran. Thank you, Fred.

Iraqi forces said that they have taken control several key sites near Kirkuk, Iraq. Now, the forces along with Shiite militias began moving

towards the Kurdish-controlled city early on Monday after the prime minister ordered them to impose security there. The Kurdish Regional

Security Council says that they were attacked buy forces using U.S. military equipment.

A spokesman for Iraqi forces says there were no clashes. He adds there are no plans to march on the city center. Kirkuk is home to massive oil

reserves. It has also been an area of contention since the Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum last month.

Somalia is observing three days of mourning following one of the deadliest attacks in its history. Officials now say at least 277 people were killed

in Saturday's twin blasts in the capital of Mogadishu. He also warned the death toll may rise as rescuers continue to pull more bodies from the

rubble. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

CNN's Farai Sevenzo is covering the story for us from Nairobi, Kenya. He joins us now live from Nairobi. Farai, still no claim of responsibility,

but suspicion is falling on the terror group Al-Shabaab. Tell us why.

FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just to say, Kristie, thank you very much for joining us here on a Sunday in Nairobi by the neighboring

Somalia. The event on Saturday the 14th, claiming more lives. Just as we came on air, the chief of police confirmed to our guy in Mogadishu, the

figure has now risen by 300, and that they are rising every hour.

The Al-Shabaab is obviously where the light would fall in terms of blame for this. They haven't claimed responsibility as you just said in your

introduction but it is the hallmark of this group. Massive truck or car bomb or suicide bombs. The foreign minister of Somalia told me yesterday,

that is what they expect.

At the moment, he cannot understand the motive for such a massive blast that took so many lives away. You will remember, this had been a very busy

(INAUDIBLE) on a busy Saturday afternoon. The police say while they have been tracking massive truck full of explosives including cooking gas, which

they have spread the fire so quickly and burned all cars behind and in front of it, and, of course, an entire hotel went down in the blast and as

we are now counting, so may lives have been lost, Kristie.

LU STOUT: I saw in your reporting that the death toll is rising after the latest attack. We know that Al-Shabaab has carried out a number of deadly

car bombings in Somalia. No criminals --

(CROSSTALK)

SEVENZO: -- if you can hear me is that --

LU STOUT: Yes.

SEVENZO: -- if this fight against terrorism is expected to be ended quickly, it will soon needs the support of the African union forces that

are also fighting. Kenyan defense forces have forces in Southern Somalia fighting the same terror group. And of course, we know that U.S. drone

strikes have been conducted. The situation is very fluid because you remember that Somalis themselves

[08:15:00] are very deeply divided about this Al-Shabaab question. Of course, on the 13th, that's Friday the 13th, the chief of Somalia's army

chief resigned as well as the minister of defense. And just 24 hours later, this awful tragedy occurred.

So the very fact of fixing Somalia's internal problems will lead to example to the arms embargo being lifted because no one can quite trust their

parties in Somalia if many of their people keep shifting sides and joining the terrorists. But at the moment, Somalia remains very much on the front

line and indeed Mogadishu is very much in the line of fire, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Farai Sevenzo reporting live for us. Thank you. Now, two ISIS- affiliated leaders in the Southern Philippines have been killed, that's according the Philippine Defense Secretary. The two were involved in the

deadly standoff in Marawi. The FBI have been offering a five-million dollar reward for information on one of the leaders, Isnilon Hapilon.

Now, Philippine forces launched an operation targeting him back in May. He hold up in Marawi and called for back up which sparked a long deadly

standoff in the city between militants and the army. The violence forced more than 350,000 residents to flee.

You're watching "News Stream." Coming up, it could be the worst storm in half a century and it is already beginning to hit. We will have a live

report from Ireland. Also ahead, another potential disaster for Puerto Rico as residents struggle to find basic necessities like water and power. Some

may be risking their health by drawing from contaminated wells.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: All right. Coming to you live from Hong Kong. Welcome back. This is "News Stream."

Ophelia isn't a hurricane anymore but that doesn't mean the storm isn't any less dangerous even though it is now classified as a post tropical cyclone.

Ophelia is still bearing down on Ireland with hurricane-forced winds. Authorities say one woman was killed when winds toppled a tree into her

car. The warnings have been issued in Republic of Ireland, in Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and parts of England as well.

Now, let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers for the latest on the storm as Ophelia bears down on Ireland. Chad, I know you're tracking the storm, but

how unusual is it to have a storm of this intensity affecting this part of the world?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST AND SCIENCE REPORTER: You know, probably the last time we've seen this was 1987. We were just looking at the wind speeds

from the 1987 storm (INAUDIBLE) 190 kilometers per hour. This one just had a wind gust of 189 miles per hour near Cork, near the light house there.

So, this is a brutal storm and another one may be on the way five days from now by the end of the weekend. We could see another big storm headed that

way. It is just developing in the Atlantic right now but moving very quickly like 50 kilometers per hour.

[08:20:00] This don't move that fast especially west packed storms in the Pacific. Maybe, you know, 20, 30 kilometers per hour, that is moving. This

thing is also going fast with the wind speed pushing storm surge into the area around Cork, and that's where we had that wind gust of 189 kilometers

per hour just in the past hour.

Now, the storm is gone by later today. It really does move away so quickly that it will be across the country and gone, but in the wake, over 100,000

already without power and some of the worse weather still to come for most of Ireland especially up toward Galway. You haven't even seen the worst

yet. It is still on the way. It is on the south side of the country right now.

High impact here for Galway and Cork and Dublin also, medium for Belfast, and then for the rest of the U.K. in that slight category or low impact,

but still that means some, that doesn't mean no impact here. Wind speed here still at Edinburgh down to Dublin still 80 to 90 kilometers per hour

over the next couple of hours because it isn't going to slow down much.

The storm system now has so much Coriolis force going forward. Yes it isn't a hurricane. It doesn't have a warm core. You can't fly into the eye and

see the sun up above, but you will still see the winds from the storm as it makes its way further to the north. The further it go to the north, the

more the earth wants to spin it, and the earth spinning that Coriolis force really tearing this area up here right now.

We won't see much rainfall with this, probably 10 centimeters. I don't think very at all simply because you're not going to see the time of the

storm over the area. Remember with the Harvey, the big hurricane we had here in America, put down by 1200 millimeters of rainfall in one spot

because the storm didn't move. Well, this storm is moving.

Here is the 1987 storm we talked about, 190 kilometers per hour at Cornwall, so we are at 189 right now, pretty close enough, same type of

storm here. The sea surface temperatures are still warm enough to support the storm although clearly hurricanes develop down here where it is 24, 25,

26, 27 or maybe even almost 30 degrees sometimes down here, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Ophelia is a powerful storm. It is a potentially dangerous storm as well. Before it was downgraded, it was what, called the sixth major

hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season?

MYERS: Yes.

LU STOUT: You mentioned there is one more to come just around the corner. Why is this happening? Why is there spate of powerful storms?

MYERS: You have combination of warmer water. You also have a combination of el nino, la nina being very slack right now, slack tide one way, not going

the other way. And you also have the oscillation index in the North Atlantic that does say, hey, this is the time of the year for this to

happen, and we are in the one storm right after another.

This was just like we say in 2005, where we didn't sleep at the weather office at all. We actually slept in the hotels here because we couldn't

even get home in time because we have to be back in six hours. It was just that type of year and this is turning into that same type of year right

now, Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right. Chad Myers reporting for us. Thank you. Chad reporting on Ophelia bearing down in Ireland. Phil Black is there. He is on Ireland's

west coast. He joins us now. Phil, I understand it's really wet out there. Describe the conditions.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, what you're hearing described there in terms of numbers, fact, and the movement of the storm is

what we are experiencing here on the ground. The wind speeds are really quite something. The gusts, as you've been hearing, are very much

hurricane-strength still although this is no longer a hurricane that we are talking about.

The reason why the authorities here are so concerned is because these wind gusts are still very strong and in their words, very destructive and very

violent. Standing here where we are in the southwest part of the island, the gusts really hit us. You can really feel the force. You really got to

plant your feet and lean in to just simply hold your ground.

It is no surprise that we are hearing across the island, there is cost to all of this. We are hearing that more than 100,000 people, some 120,000

people in this country are now without electricity. And we are aware of at least one person now lost life because of the storm. Two people in a car in

County Waterford when a tree came down on that car. One person was injured, one more we are told by the police here has lost life as a result of that.

That's why the authorities have been so concerned. It's whey they're telling people to say indoors. It's why that they have put in place the

highest level of weather alert, a red alert, which now applies to the entire Irish Republic. They want people to stay inside, to hunker down, to

wait this out, to try to minimize the loss of life, to be sure people don't get harmed.

Their hope is of course that there will be minimal physical damage as well. But it would seem that's pretty inevitable from the strength of the winds

that we are experiencing here today, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Ophelia has sadly as you reported turned into a deadly storm. We thank you for your reporting. Phil Black

[08:25:00] and the crew, please take cover. Take care. We'll let you go right now. Phil Black reporting live for us from Ireland.

Now, we are also keeping tabs on Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is still dealing with immense damage from Hurricane Maria. One of the hardest things to find

there is still clean water. More than 30 percent of Puerto Ricans don't have access to clean drinking water. Many are trying to draw water from

nearby wells, but as our Ed Lavandera finds out, some of those wells are contaminated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly a month after Hurricane Maria hit, residents around the town of Dorado have been tapping

into this water faucet behind a chain-linked fence with a sign that reads "Danger, Do Not Enter." And despite the warnings from a police officer they

come here to fill containers of water.

But few of them know this well sits in an area designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a Superfund site where the ground is

known to contain dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals. It is located on the northern edge of the island, west of San Juan.

In the Dorado Superfund site, there are at least six wells that residents have reportedly tapped into for water. One of the wells is accessed in a

shopping center parking lot and there have been long lines of residents waiting to fill up what they can. The governor of Puerto Rico insists that

the water is safe. He says the territory's Department of Health has tested it.

RICARDO ROSSELLO, GOVERNOR, PUERTO RICO: Well obviously, if it's non- drinking water, we're not -- we're not going to be serving it. But if it complies with the Clean Water Act then it is going to happen.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): But it is not clear if the other wells are safe and Environmental Protection Agency teams spent the weekend gathering water

samples for further testing.

GARY LIPSON, INCIDENT COMMANDER, EPA, PUERTO RICO: We're not saying that somebody is in immediate danger by drinking this water. We are considering

it a long-term risk.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Gary Lipson is the EPA incident commander in Puerto Rico. He says they're looking for signs of industrial toxins often linked

to serious health problems, including cancer. And EPA documents show that as late as last year, dangerous levels of those industrial toxins were

found in the ground.

LAVANDERA: How concerned are you about what might happen to them?

LIPSON: We're concerned because it's not absolutely clean, you know, pure water. There are some contaminants.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Right after the EPA team left and locked the site, Juan Carlos Oquendo and his brother showed up, peeled back the fence, and

filled up dozens of containers with water.

LAVANDERA: You going to drink this water?

JUAN CARLOS OQUENDO, RESIDENT, PUERTO RICO: Yes.

LAVANDERA: You're going to drink it?

OQUENDO: Yes.

LAVANDERA: You're willing to take the chance?

OQUENDO: (UNTRANSLATED)

LAVANDERA: So this is it? There's no water. You'll take the chance?

OQUENDO: (UNTRANSLATED)

LAVANDERA: If I don't drink water, I'm going to die. I might as well drink this then.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Juan Carlos brought us to his home where he lives with his family. The top floor was destroyed by the hurricane. His mother

says they've only received two packages of water since the storm and she's been drinking the water from that potentially contaminated well for two

weeks and says she now has stomach pains.

CARMEN ROJAS, MOTHER OF JUAN CARLOS OQUENDO: (UNTRANSLATED)

LAVANDERA: She says the stomach pain started about two weeks ago and that she's trying to ignore them.

Do you think it has something to do with the water?

ROJAS: (UNTRANSLATED)

LAVANDERA: She doesn't know for sure but she thinks it might have something to do with the water she has been drinking.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): It is impossible to know for sure if the stomach pains are related, but in these desperate times with every drop of water

many Puerto Ricans could be flirting with another disaster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Still, the suffering continues in Puerto Rico. That was Ed Lavandera reporting.

Turning now to another weather disaster. This one in Vietnam. A tropical depression is threatening to bring more rain to the country, which is

already reeling from widespread flooding. More than 70 people have died.

Thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed and countless numbers of crops and farm animals lost. Nearly two dozen people were buried after

landslide hit one village. Some of them are still missing. Authorities said the country hasn't seen this much rain in years.

You're watching "News Stream." Still to come, another actress is accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. We will have a live report from London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00] KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You are watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: The U.S. military is starting a 10 day naval exercise without South Korea as North Korea steps up its rhetoric. On Sunday, he called the

U.S. president a war merchant and strangler of peace.

But the U.S. secretary of state insists that diplomacy with North Korea will go on and still in his words the first bomb drops. Iraqi forces are

taking control of some areas near the city of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi prime minister has ordered forces to impose security in the Kurdish control city. His spokesman says they have no plans to march on

the city center. Tensions have been high since the Kurds would for independence last month.

Somali officials now say at least 300 people were killed last Saturday in the capital of Mogadishu. Somali is observing three days of morning after

the attack which is the deadliest in the country's modern history.

One death is already reported in Ireland, as a huge storm moves in. Ophelia is now classified as a post tropical cyclone but its winds are

still blowing at hurricane force. Warnings are in place for Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: The investigation of movie producer Harvey Weinstein is going on both sides of the Atlantic. Now correspondent Diana Magnay joins us live

from London.

Diana, the British actor Lysette Anthony has become the latest woman to accuse Weinstein of rape. What is she saying? What is Weinstein and his

legal team saying in response?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kristie. She has a -- in an interview with the Sunday Times details on her experiences with

Weinstein, she met him when she was 19-years-old and then a few years later in the late 80s she said essentially he started to stalk her.

And one day, he came to her London home and she says that he raped her there in an attack she described as pathetic and revolting. She said that

she tried to fend him off but in the end he was too heavy to resist anymore.

And what is especially troubling about that interview is the fact that this is similar to other women that we had heard, she then had to keep missing

over the years for the sake of her career, and the fact she's not the only one who's been coming to the London -- to the British newspapers and

telling their story.

There is also in another Sunday paper, the mail on Sunday, a report from an unnamed woman who says she ex-Miramax employee and that she too was

allegedly raped by Weinstein in the basement slot of their London offices.

Now the Metropolitan police have confirmed that they are investigating five allegations from three different women. One of whom we know to be Lysette

Anthony against Harvey Weinstein or a man who is understood to be Harvey Weinstein -- Weinstein.

They don't actually confirm the names unless there are charges brought. But they say that these are from attacks from the late 80s right the way

through until 2015.

Now Harvey Weinstein before these ages allegations came out through his publicists has always unequivocally denied that any sex with nonconsensual.

[08:35:00] Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yes, the Harvey Weinstein's scandal has turned into this huge watershed moment in the United States to spark, you know, major discussions

as well as action in Hollywood about sexual harassment and sexual assault. What kind of impact has it had there in the U.K.?

MAGNAY: Well, a similar impact, really. I mean it's a lead story across all the newspapers and the news bulletin, and it's prompted a similar

discussion of how powerful men do abuse their power against women across a range of industries.

I mean I think that we in this country have spent quite a lot of time doing a lot of soul-searching about presumptive abuse of children because of

things like the Jimmy Savile Inquiry and how corporate cultures accommodate these kind of people.

But this is really the first time that the conversation has moved to the abuse of women in general and a lot of questions being asked about whether

that kind of behavior is still endemic in industries particularly when women, girls feel that they can't speak out because it puts their career at

risk.

And I think this is a perennial question that people are asking that doesn't really have any answers as to whether, you know, is being phased

out as a phenomena or whether it will continue to exist and powerful men will continue to abuse when they see the opportunity. Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yes, and more women and more men are taking part in the discussion which let's hope will lead to some sort of a constructive

resolution. You hear, Diana Magnay, reporting live for us in London. Thank you so much.

The U.S. football star Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the NFL, alleging that team owners colluded to keep him from being assigned.

A lawyer for the free-agent quarterbacks is all possible avenues with NFL teams and their executives have been pursuing and added that athletes

should not be penalized for protesting peacefully.

And Kaepernick to a knee during the National Anthem when he was still a player with the San Francisco 49ers. He says it was to protest police

brutality.

A new political landscape in Austria on the country elects Europe's young leader may form an alliance of the far right of the latest from the outside

and was eerily silent. We have the latest from Vienna.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. Now there is still uncertainty about Catalonia's feature in Spain. Madrid is now extending the deadline for the region to

give a firm answer on whether it has declared independence.

The Catalan president was initially given until today to clarify his stance. Instead, he sent a letter to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy calling

for two months of talks. The Spanish government is demanding a yes or no response by Thursday.

Otherwise it could suspend Catalonia's Autonomy and rule it directly. Now meanwhile Austrians, they are waking up to a new political landscape with

the country shifting to the right.

Thirty-one year old Sebastian Kurz is set to become the next chancellor following the Sunday's election, and also making Europe's youngest leader.

Now Kurz' central-right party campaign in a strong anti-immigrant agenda and he is expected for form Austria's first far right government coalition

in more than a decade.

Our senior international correspondent Atika Shubert is monitoring these developments for us. She joins us live from Vienna and Atika.

[08:40:00] Tell us more about 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, how did he surge ahead, how did he repackage far right policies for the Austrian mainstream?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he is set to become the world's youngest leader at this point. He is just 31 but he has been in politics

for 10 years. He was integration minister and then foreign minister.

And it was he who took that decision in 2015 at the height of the refugee crisis to close Austria's borders and that was really pivotal for his --

for his next move which was calling for snap election.

By doing that, by getting tougher on immigration, he was basically able to, you know, take a lot of big concerns about immigration. A lot of Austrians

who felt overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of people who are crossing over into the country and say listen, we're going to find a way to

solve this.

We seem to take control of the situation. He is also a young and fresh face, completely turned his party inside out, the people's party, this

liberal fashion conservative center-right party. Well now he's opened it up.

He feels that a list of independent candidate and so he is really sort of galvanized this feeling of change in Austria. The question is, whether or

not where he -- what he's going to do with that and who he can ally with, choose his coalition partners to push of agenda it has.

LU STOUT: Certainly the election will begin very soon. What is this election result in Austria say about all of Europe and Europe shift to the

right because it was that long ago when you cover the rise of another far right party in Germany.

SHUBERT: Absolutely. I mean it's very clear that we are seeing whole populations in Europe shift to the right especially on the issue of

immigration.

It's not just Austria, Germany had -- for the first time in decades had this breakthrough from the alternative for Germany party. It's not like

the same here. The far right party here, the freedom party has been a political force for decades here.

But they were certainly able to gain a pretty large chunk of the vote about 27 percent and means they are now the leading contenders to be coalition

partners with the people's party under Sebastian Kurz.

And obviously if that happened, it shows a significant rightward shift in Europe particularly on this very contentious issue of immigration which is

going to make it much more difficult for the E.U. in figuring out a refugee policy that fits all countries.

LU STOUT: A big challenge for E.U. unity and this refugee policy as you mention. Atika Shubert reporting live from Vienna. Thank you, Atika and

that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout but don't go anywhere. World Sport with Alex Thomas is next.

END