01
from Hurricane Matthew; South African Students Protesting Over Increased
Tuition; The Great Distractions of Presidential Debate 2.0. Aired 8-9a ET - Part 1>
Johns, Mark Preston< Ivan Watson>
from Hurricane Matthew; South African Students Protesting Over Increased
Tuition; The Great Distractions of Presidential Debate 2.0.>
[08:00:35] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, and welcome to News Stream.
Up in smoke: Samsung scraps its flagship smartphone over a major safety concern. In fact, it's telling Galaxy Note 7 users stop using your phones now.
Falling support: Donald Trump slips further behind Hillary Clinton in a new poll.
And Australia's same-sex setback: why it could now be years before gay marriage is legal, even though major party leaders support it.
Samsung is saying good-bye to its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone just two months after it was launched. Sales and production have stopped and users are being told to immediately turn their phones off. Now, the company issued a global recall last month after some users said their phones burst into flames. But then reports say the replacement models also caught on fire. And on Tuesday shares of Samsung plunged 8 percent, wiping billions from the company's value.
Let's take you straight now straight to Seoul near where Samsung is based. CNN's Paula Hancocks is standing by and joins us now live.
And Paula, Samsung has stopped production of the Galaxy Note 7 after telling its users to stop using it now. Just how unprecedented is this?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's completely unprecedented, Kristie. The fact that this was a triumphant launch just two months ago of Samsung's flagship smartphone, and all of a sudden the Galaxy Note 7 is no more, it is dead, it is completely finished, according to the company.
They say they are putting customers' safety as a top priority, that's their number one concern. But of course, at this point there is criticism for the way that they have handled it. Production has finished, sales are finished, and the Galaxy Note 7 is no more -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: And we had heard from South Korea's finance minister warning that the country's exports would be hurt if the Note 7 is scrapped. Now we learned a couple hours ago it is getting scrapped. So what impact is this going to have, not just on Samsung, but on South Korea?
HANCOCKS: Samsung is a massive company in South Korea. The figures that are quoted and have been for many years is that Samsung accounts for about 15 percent of South Korea's GDP. It is very hard to overstate the importance of this company when it comes to this country. So certainly, it is going to have an impact if, in fact, it does have an extremely negative impact on Samsung itself.
But, of course, the question is, will Samsung rebound from this? It is a very large company. There are an awful lot of different branches and arms to this company. It is not just smartphones. And of course it's only one smartphone that has had these problems. So certainly I think what Samsung is hoping and many analysts are expecting is that the rest of Samsung's assets will be able to pull it back from this incident.
But of course it is the the rest of Samsung's assets will be able to pull it back from this incident. But, of course, it is the breach of trust, the credibility hit that is going to concern the company the most.
LU STOUT: Yeah, and how did it come to this? I mean, ever since that global recall was announced over a month ago we've learned that the Note 7 and the replacement phone can overheat. We've learned they can explode. We know that they are both dangerously glitchy devices. So why did Samsung make such a major product safety error not once, but twice here?
HANCOCKS: It's a huge question. And the fact is, it's not even clear if Samsung knows exactly what is wrong with these phones. Clearly, they had put out this replacement phone thinking that would fix the problem. They said it was a lithium ion battery problem. But the replacement phones. So clearly the company itself doesn't exactly know what has happeened and what has gone wrong.
And so obviously that is a concern. Some are questioning whether or not they had rushed this product out to try and be just a week before Apple had launched its iPhone 7. Did it rush it too quickly? These are the questions that analysts are asking at this point. But quite frankly, it doesn't appear as though Samsung knows what's gone wrong.
LU STOUT: Yeah, and that issue that you raised earlier about credibility, especially among customers. I mean, what impact is it going to have?
Many customers, they need to use their smartphones. These are mission critical devices that we use every day. Are they going to wait to get a new phone? Will they decide to stay loyal to Samsung?
[08:05:23] HANCOCKS: it's an interesting question. And it actually depends on where you live. We went on to the streets of Seoul a little earlier today just before they actually canceled the Galaxy Note 7 completely, but they had halted production and sales. And there was still loyalty amongst Samsung users. They said, yes, they have lost some credibility, yes it's regrettable, but I'll stick with Samsung. That was the overwhelming feeling we got.
There is a notorious loyalty among South Koreans for this great export that Samsung is in this country. I don't think that patriotism would translate to the rest of the world, and certainly when you consider people have been getting on flights for recent weeks and have been told turn off your Samsung phone. Do not switch it on during the flight. That's a very negative message to hear for not just the customers, for everybody to hear.
All right, Paula Hancocks reporting live from Seoul. Thank you very much, indeed, for that Paula. And with the latest fiasco, many are wondering if Samsung's customers are going to stick with the company.
Now Brian Ma from the research firm IDC earlier gave us his take on the matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN MA, RESEARCHER, IDC: I remember when this issue first came up a month ago. The expectation was they contain it within one or two weeks, they isolate it to that, and then they move on. They can start repositioning a new phone.
The problem is, last week the allegedly fixed devices still had problems, and suddenly this whole issue of trust has been compromised. Now we're not sure whether we can believe what Samsung says. And that's where the potential downside risk here is, right. If it spreads beyond just this Note 7 product to all of Samsung's product lines where people say, oh, I don't care if it's that model or not, any Samsung product I don't want to touch, that, obviously, has very, very serious repercussions on it, even if say future products allegedly fix the problem, how can people touch that if we're getting two different messages here from Samsung?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Yeah, big question this hour -- how will Samsung bring back trust in its products. The Note 7 crisis hit Samsung hard and fast. Samsung released the Note 7 on August 19. It was the new flagship phone designed to rival Apple's iPhone 7, but in just two weeks, Samsung had to recall more than 2.5 million Note 7s after dozens of the phones caught on fire.
Samsung said the new phones would be fine, but on September 27, a Chinese user said his phone burst into flames. And then just last week, several users in the U.S. said their replacements also caught fire. One is said to have caught fire on a plane when the phone was powered off. And a young girl was reportedly burned when her Note 7 melted at school.
And now in one of the shortest ever life spans of a major smartphone, Samsung says it is permanently stopping all production and sales of the Note 7.
Now with less than a month until the U.S. election, a new poll suggests Hillary Clinton is extending her lead over Donald Trump. A Wall Street Journal and NBC survey shows Clinton ahead by 11 points. It is the first poll since the tape emerged of Trump making offensive comments about women in 2005. That issue could be about to drive the Republicans into a political civil war as House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain pull their support from Trump.
Now, meanwhile in the aftermath of Sunday night's vicious debate, Trump has threatened to sling more mud at the Clintons if more damaging tapes of him go public. Meanwhile, the U.S. presidential candidates are headed for the critical state of Florida. Joe Johns has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton back on the campaign trail after what many are calling the ugliest debate in U.S. story. A bitter tone from Trump toward his opponent, the media, and his own party.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's crooked folks. She's crooked as a $3 bill. Lock her up is right.
JOHNS: The Republican nominee again promising to investigate his rival if elected.
TRUMP: I said we are going to get a special prosecutor to figure this deal out.
JOHNS: While acknowledging that other inflammatory tapes of him may exist, but warning if they're released, he'll attack even harder.
TRUMP: If they want to release more tapes saying inappropriate things, we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary Clinton doing inappropriate things.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Friends don't let friends vote for Trump. That is exactly the case, right?
JOHNS: Hillary Clinton ignoring Trump's warnings and attempting to keep the focus on the 2005 tape where Trump is hear vulgarly bragging about sexual assault, something he said was just words, not actions.
CLINTON: The whole world heard him talking about the terrible way he treats women. He just doubled down on his excuse that it's just locker room banter. Well, I'll tell you what, women and men across America know that is just a really weak excuse for behaving badly.
[08:10:21] JOHNS: The Democratic nominee increasingly confident despite thousands of hacked e-mails released by WikiLeaks concerning the inner workings of her campaign and apparent excerpts from her Wall Street speeches.
TRUMP: Wikileaks, I love WikiLeaks.
JOHNS: Clinton defending herself against Trump's attacks on her decades of public service.
CLINTON: On the day that I was in the situation room watching the raid that brought Usama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting "Celebrity Apprentice." So if he wants to talk about what we've been doing the last 30 years, bring it on.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: Now, that was CNN's Joe Johns reporting there. And to make sense of the debate fallout and the latest on the state of the race, let's bring in Mark Preston from New York. He joins us once again right here on News Stream. Mark, welcome back to the program. Let's first talk about Hillary Clinton and the polling. She has widened her lead over Trump. She's also setting these attendance records for a campaign in Ohio. Can she maintain the momentum here?
MARK PRESTON,CNN POLITICS: Well, it is a little bit tricky at this point in the campaign, especially this specific year, because it's been so unconventional, Kristie. The fact is, though, is that she is peaking, certainly at a time when Donald Trump is starting to lose. And what we saw in that most recent poll there is that Donald Trump's at 35 percent right now. What that is telling us is that he's starting to lose some of his core support, it's eroding away at his base.
Usually his number floats in and around at 40 percent, 41 percent. So, what certainly happened, that poll was taken after the videotape was released, but before the debate occurred, and what that's telling us is that he certainly took some political hits because of the videotape.
Now, we'll see what happens after the debate. There will be some more polls coming out at the end of the week -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: Yeah, it's interesting because of that leaked tape that went out, Hillary Clinton right now is peaking. Donald Trump on the wane right now. But he is working the campaign trail and he is ramping up his attacks, very personal attacks, on both the Clintons. Do you think this strategy is going to work? Could it shore up more support for him?
PRESTON: I think that it's actually a very difficult strategy, because what he's is that while he's ramping up the attacks on the Clintons, what he's trying to do is try to drag the infidelity, Bill Clinton's infidelity into the situation, and what we've seen historically is that Hillary Clinton does better in the polls, because people look at her as a victim, Kristie, and they don't look at it as a negative necessarily against her. So, I don't think it's a good strategy by Donald Trump trying to drag Bill Clinton in and trying to tie her to that situation.
LU STOUT: And Trump is also losing the support from within his own party. The leadership of the GOP, Paul Ryan, John McCain, they've pulled their support.
We know this is significant, but this is a race. Does it matter in this race?
PRESTON: What it matters is it's not necessarily endorsements, but it does matter for headlines across the country when you are a Republican and you're sitting on the fence and you see that John McCain says I can no longer support my nominee. When you see Paul Ryan, who is the speaker of the house, get on a conference call with all the Republicans in the House of Representatives and say, I am no longer going to be able to defend Donald Trump and I'm not going to campaign for him, and, quite frankly, you should do what you think you need to do to win.
This just goes to show that Donald Trump doesn't have that core support he needs to build upon, and Hillary Clinton, as we see in that poll, not only has she got her core support of about 45 percent support from Democrats, but she's building upon that and that's why she's leading him in the polls and heading into November, she's obviously in a better position than he is.
LU STOUT: Yeah, and among all this, WikiLeaks has dumped 2,000 more emails related to the Clinton campaign. How damaging could this be for Hillary Clinton?
PRESTON: You know, perhaps in any other election year this could be very damaging. Where this could have been extremely damaging would have been in the Democratic primary say a year ago, but given everything that Donald Trump has done, given everything that he has said, and the fact that he's sucking up all the oxygen with very tabloidesque type stories, the WikiLeaks stuff doesn't seem to be resonating here in the U.S., Kristie, specifically with voters.
LU STOUT: And, yeah, it happened over a day ago, but we have got to talk about the debate. It aired Sunday night in the U.S., Monday morning here in Hong Kong. How did it change, fundamentally change the state of the race?
PRESTON: Well, I mean, certainly, things happened at the debate we have never seen before and we're very unlikely ever to see again.
I mean, the fact that Donald Trump brought in three women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual aggression against them, another woman who Bill -- who rather, Hillary Clinton was a lawyer on the other side of a court case, this woman was raped as a young child and Hillary Clinton defended the rapist and got the rapist off, but to have the four of them in the audience was just astounding. I mean, I think that the nation was really shocked by it, quite frankly.
How did it fundamentally change the race? I think we're probably -- again, we're going to see Donald Trump probably remain about 35 percent, as we saw in that poll. And then it looks like he's just going to feed off of it. Last night he held a campaign rally and he was doubling down on all of the negative things that he had to say about Hillary Clinton and he was also acting more in a campaign rally-esque type person as we've seen over the past year, not necessarily very presidential heading into election day.
LU STOUT: Yeah, a number of eyebrow raising moments in the debate. A number of our viewers internationally we can't stop talking about it. Mark Preston reporting for us. Thank you. Appreciate your analysis. Take are.
Now, in Syria, airstrikes have hit eastern Aleppo yet again following days of relative calm. Activists and residents there tell us at least 16 people have been killed in rebel-held areas. They say that the heaviest attack hit near a market and a child education center.
Now, this comes one week after the Syrian army announced that it was easing air strikes to allow civilians and militants to leave Eastern Aleppo.
Now, Vladimir Putin has canceled a planned visit to Paris next week after the French president said his talks with Putin would only focus on Syria. Now, that's according to a spokesperson from the Elise Palace who spoke to CNN.
Mr. Hollande earlier suggested Russia was guilty of war crimes in Syria and that Moscow should be taken to the International Criminal Court.
On Saturday, Russia vetoed a UN security council resolution calling for an end to its air campaign in eastern Aleppo and allowing access for humanitarian aid.
Now, top UN officials are calling for an independent investigation into possible violations of human rights law in Yemen. Now, the calls come just days after war planes bombed a funeral in Sanaa, killing at least 155 people there. A Saudi-led coalition has been blamed for the strike.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAN KI-MOON, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: This was a community center known to all. It was crowded with families and children. Bombing people already mourning the loss of loved ones is reprehensible.
(END VIDEO CILP)
LU STOUT: Saudi Arabia called the attack regrettable and said it would investigate, but stopped short of accepting responsibility. A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Houthi rebels who took over Sanaa more than one year ago.
Now, you're watching News Stream and still to come right here on the program, opinion polls show a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage, so why are lawmakers stalled over the issue? We'll break down the debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:20:00] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream. Now, same-sex marriage in Australia is unlikely to be legalized any time soon. The opposition Labor Party is refusing to support plans for a nationwide vote on the issue. The referendum would have asked Australians if they wanted to change the law to allow same-sex marriage. But the price tag was about $120 million U.S. dollars and the result is not legally binding.
Without Labor's support, the bill for this national ballot will almost certainly fail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL SHORTEN, OPPOSITION LEADER: Experts have unequivocally explained to Labor that the plebiscite would cause harm to gay and lesbian people, particularly, but not exclusively, young people. Having met these families, having listened to their stories, I could not in good conscience recommend to the Labor Party that we support the plebiscite about marriage equality.
I could not in good conscience do this, because the evidence became overwhelming of the harm it would cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Now, the Labor Party backs same-sex marriage, but instead of a national referendum, it wants a vote in parliament to approve it.
Now, however, the issue could be off the agenda until 2019 when general elections are held. And that means same-sex couples are in limbo.
I want to bring you the story of one couple who are desperate to marry before it's too late.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: Like many other gay couples in Australia, Dez and Rex hope to get married as soon as it becomes legal in their country, sealing an 11- year relationship they describe as full of love and trust.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says our relationship is actually equal to everybody else's out there. It's not better or worse, whatever, it's actually equal.
LU STOUT: They can't wait much longer. Dez has cardio myopathy, both ventricles of his heart are failing and his doctors believe he may only have a year left to live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have got a team, a wonderful GP, two cardiologists. They are keeping me alive, but I live for Rex. And I'm very proud of that.
LU STOUT: Opinion polls show the majority of Australians support gay marriage. High profile celebrities, like Margot Robbie backing the Say I Do Down Under Campaign. But the issue is stuck in a political quagmire.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has proposed holding a national non-binding vote on the issue on February 11. Political analysts say taht he is trying to appease conservatives in his party who hope it might stall or stifle same-sex marriage.
The opposition Labor Party has pledged to block this plebiscite, asking instead for a parliamentary vote to approve same-sex marriage. They say a national referendum would be extremely divisive and waste some $150 million.
ANDREW BARR, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY CHIEF MINISTER: In Australia, we can declare war, we can send our troops overseas into battle without even consulting our parliament, and yet for something as straight forward as including everyone in marriage, our current government believes that there needs to be a vote of every Australian.
LU STOUT: On Tuesday, the prime minister would not answer questions about whether he would allow a parliamentary vote if the plebiscite is blocked by opposition leader Bill Shorten.
MALCOLM TURNBULL, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I'm not going to entertain -- follow Bill Shorten down his highly political road of trying to subvert a straight forward, democratic process, trying to say to the Australian people, you shouldn't have a say.
LU STOUT: If there is no plebiscite and no parliamentary vote under the current government, gay marriage could remain illegal for years to come. And couples like Dez and Rex (ph) are waiting. They don't understand why parliament just can't change the law. They believe a plebiscite is both unfair and a waste of money, but it may be their only option.
UNIDENITIIFED MALE: But we may never be able to get married if there isn't a plebiscite in February next year, because I may not be around, and we -- so maybe that's selfish, but we particularly do want to be able to get married.
LU STOUT: For now, they have no choice but to wait for the wrangling in Canberra to run its course and hope that they gain the right to say "I do," while there's still time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: OK, in other news this day that we're following, a disaster in China. Chinese authorities are trying to determine what caused a deadly collapse of four apartment buildings. Now, this happened early Monday in the city of Wenzhou. At least 22 people were killed. The state news agency Xinhua says six people were pulled alive from the rubble, including a young girl who survived, because the bodies of her dead parents helped to shield her.
Now forecasters in the U.S. say that there could be more catastrophic flooding in North Carolina, as rivers burst their banks. It's part of the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, which has already left some neighborhoods under water. Now, rescuers worked all day to get people to dry land on Monday. The storm killed at least 21 people in the southeastern U.S.,and President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in parts of North Carolina.
Southern Haiti looks like a war zone days after Hurricane Matthew decimated the area. At least 372 people are dead, but that number is set to rise as rescue crews reach the hardest hit areas.
Now, aid workers are struggling to get food and water to people in desperate need. Now, Haiti's president says the disaster is making an already deadly cholera epidemic worse. Ivan Watson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Days after Hurricane Matthew, help is on the way. Rice and plastic tarps choppered in by the U.S. military.
Sadly, this humanitarian aid is only a drop in the bucket, because the scale of the damage after this deadly storm is massive.
Here's what's so terrifying about what we're seeing here. All of these homes destroyed, all of this destruction, was caused by the hurricane's winds, moving at speeds that are barely conceivable.
In the port town of Jeremy (ph), the storm flattened concrete walls and peeled the roofs off many buildings, including the town's 19 Century cathedral.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family is living.
WATSON: In here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
WATSON: Can we go in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
WATSON: Tumin St. Clu (ph) takes me to what's left of his home.
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: The big damage is the roof of my house is just -- like you see.
WATSON: Just flew right off.
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: Yeah, just flew right off.
WATSON: He, his wife, and children cowered in the corner like this, exposed to the storm.
For hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For hours.
WATSON: In the rain, in the wind?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wind.
WATSON: The storm decimated the top floor of the town's main hospital and made a mess of what's left.
The wards that still function treat hundreds of new patients a day, including dozens of cases of cholera. Many here fear a wider outbreak of the deadly water-borne disease.
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: The water is very, very contaminated, so very difficult to have safe water.
WATSON: At the banks of the river where residents now wash and bathe, these women tell me the storm surge drowned their pigs and cows, destroying their main livelihood and source of food.
But the survivors are not giving up. While they wait for the outside world to send help, they are hard at work with the daunting challenge of getting this town back on its feet.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: And desperate scenes there in Jeremy (ph) in Haiti. And if you want to help those in need in Haiti, we have a list of organizations that are there on the ground working to offer food, shelter, and to help mitigate the outbreak of cholera there after the storm. You can find out more from our website. Go to CNN.com/impact.
You're watching News Stream. And up next on the program from the university campuses to city streets, South Africa's student protests are heating up across the country. We'll have a live report from Johannesburg next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[08:32:12] LU STOUT: University students in South Africa are engaged in what they say is the fight of their generation over the cost of education. And scenes like this one, they are playing out across the country, university campuses turning into literal battlegrounds.
Now, David McKenzie is at a campus in Johannesburg. He joins us now live. And David, these student protests have escalated into all out clashes. What have you witnessed?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kristie, there have been clashes on and off for days now, in fact, for weeks. And this university and many universities across South Africa are completely shut down. It's a crisis in South Africa's education system. Many students around the world will understand debt, but here in South Africa, it's almost like this new generation of students more than 20 years after apartheid ended, are saddled with history and with debt are now joined by now joined by a faculty member from this university.