Refugees Respond to Cologne New Year's Eve Attacks; World Food Program App Turns Spare Change into Life-Saving Meals
BARNETT: I'm Errol Barnett. Hoping your day or evening is going well. Here is an update on the top stories we are following for you right now.</s>BARNETT: Now Thai and Malaysian officials looking into a large piece of metal debris that washed ashore off the coast of Thailand. A fisherman found it Friday in the Pak Phanang District. The debris hasn't been identified yet but some officials say it could be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 while others say it doesn't even look like it is from a plane. Our Saima Mohsin explains.</s>SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The team and I have just arrived in Pak Phanang. It is dark. We want to give you a first look at the debris that washed ashore. It was floating close to the shore. Local fishermen brought it in. Let me give you a closer look at this. Now, there is wiring. If we follow it, all the way around, you can just see how large this piece is. We think it is roughly around three meters wide, at least 2.5 meters tall, taller at the other end. Kind of look a conical shape, less wide at the bottom than at the top. I want to show you these. These are incredibly important. They're barnacles. Now, these are obviously growing from the scene. Now when I covered the discovery of the flapperon that we now know to have belonged from the plane, thousand of miles away on Reunion Island, oceanic experts told me they can give a lot of information, how long has the piece been in the water, and potentially where exactly in the ocean, does it come from or has it been to. Now, what else are they looking for? They're looking for numbers. We haven't seen serial numbers. There are a number of different numbers on this 323. Let me bring you down here. 307, 308. There are circular pieces. A lot of nuts and bolts. These are also important. Let me bring you down here and show you these rivets. Now, experts tell me that rivets are used on a Boeing 777, the same aircraft as MH- 370, but only inside of the frame, not on the external side of the fuselage. Now, some experts are debating whether this even belongs to another type of aircraft. Many are saying it could well be from a rocket. But that, of course, is for experts to determine. The director general of the Civil Aviation Authority in Malaysia tells me he is sending a team of four people here. They will travel down to southern Thailand at first light, joined by air accident investigators from the Thai Civil Aviation Authorities and air investigators from the Royal Thai Air Force. Of course, it is incredibly important not to speculate. The family members of the -- and the loved ones of those on board flight MH-370 -- 239 people went missing two years ago, eighth of March 2014 -- won't want ambiguity. They want certainty. It will be a long night of waiting for them. Saima Mohsin, CNN, Pak Phanang, on the eastern coast of Southern Thailand.</s>BARNETT: In the wake of the massive influx of migrants and refugees into Europe, European ministers are set to meet Monday to consider emergency measures that would extend border patrols. In the past year, Germany has become home to more than a million asylum seekers, but as our Atika Shubert is about to show us, attacks on women in Cologne has deepened fears of a backlash.</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police have described what happened at the Cologne train station on New Year's Eve as a new dimension of crime by a mob of North African men.</s>SHUBERT: German federal police used an Arabic term. He says, "This is a new phenomenon for Germany and we're very concerned about this. We know this phenomenon from Egypt, mass sexual assault happening in large crowds," he says. "It is not a game, and anybody who commit assaults like this must be arrested and brought to police regardless, anyone, whether German nationals or refugees." This is exactly what Mustafa Caretta (ph), a 48-year-old Syrian refugee, had feared would happen. "Some people were waiting for something like this to happen," he tells us. "Something that puts refugees in a bad light. But we will do our best to prove to others that most refugees are not bad." Mustafa (ph) and his family were among the one million asylum seekers who came to Germany in the last year. Initially, Germany publicly welcomed refugees, but national polls now show Germans dissatisfied with Chancellor Angela Merkel's policies. 70 percent now believe more crime is coming. Nabela Hamdi (ph), a Kurdish refugee, introduced us to Mustafa (ph) and his family to understand how the New Year's Eve assaults and backlash will impact refugees. Mustafa's (ph) son-in-law believes the assaults were less about culture and more about the disrespect of the law and order brought with them. "There is no law in places like Syria," he says. "Some who came to Germany grew up like this and do not want to know anything in this new place, but refugees must realize that there are laws in Germany and must abide by the laws. Everybody has rights here but also responsibilities." The assaults have galvanized anti-immigration groups. Attack on refugees and migrants have also increased, but Mustafa's (ph) son, Yusuf (ph), is not afraid. "I'm not afraid, definitely not," he says. "Because the people I met within the last four months I've seen in Germany were good people, full of respect." Small groups of refugees have come to leave messages and lay flowers at the Cologne train station, but even Hamdi (ph), the refugee coordinator, admits it will take time. "I'm a very positive person," he says. "I think we have reduced peoples' prejudices against refugees. But I can understand people who feel, well, if you invite someone to your home, offer to take care of them and then this person betrays you, what is natural to be sad and very disappointed." Time to rebuild trust between residents and refugees who are here to stay." Atika Shubert, CNN, Cologne.</s>BARNETT: You will want to stay tuned all week. CNN is bringing Europe's migrant crisis into sharp focus. As you know, for months, we have been following the paths of thousand of people, many fleeing war in Syria. At first, countries like Austria extended a warm welcome. But a harsh winter finds attitudes cooling, and we are seeing evidence of a backlash. Next hour, Arwa Damon will report on a controversial vote in Denmark. That measure could result in officials seizing some refugee's possessions to offset the cost of caring for them. We'll follow the debate in Norway where deportations are a contentious issue and you'll hear from Syrian refugees in Jordan languishing in limbo. That's a focus on Europe's migrant crisis today and all this week only on CNN International. Syria's civil war has created a desperate humanitarian situation with hundreds of thousands at risk of starving to death. Earlier this month, the United Nations said it received credible reports of people dying of starvation in places like Madaya. The Syrian government has since allowed aid convoys into media, and two other towns. But refugees have a new hope. The World Food Program is supporting an app that gives you a chance to help as well. Watch.</s>SEBASTIAN STRICKER, CEO, SHARE THE MEAL: I want to start with good news. We, all of us, are ending global hunger. Not so good news, one in nine people don't have enough to eat. My name is Sebastian Stricker, and I am part of the team that created Share the Meal to address this problem. We've built a smart phone app, Share the Meal, to fight global hunger. Think of the situation, you are having dinner, lunch, with your smart phone with you and you may be reading the news or e-mails. Now there is a button. If you press that, you share your meal.</s>BARNETT: Pretty straight forward there. Joining me to talk about the Share the Meal app is the man you just saw, CEO Sebastian Stricker, joining us live from London. Sebastian, thank you for your time today and joining us. Since last year, when we first interviewed you, Share the Meal successfully fed Syrian refugee children at one camp in Jordan. Now I understand, based on the success, you'll replicate the effort for expectant new mothers in Syria. There are additional challenges, whether an ongoing civil war. What have you learned the first time around? How are you planning on making this effort work this time around?</s>STRICKER: Yes, first of all, thank you very much for having me again. When we spoke the last time, about two months ago, we just started providing food to 20,000 Syrian children in refugee champs in north of Jordan. Since then so many people joined the community, they downloaded the app, Google Play, at the store. Shared so many meals, we are able to provide food to all the children for a year. We are moving on, to help in another place in Syria. We are targeting, pregnant women and their babies and are providing vital nutrition for them. We again hope the Share the Meal community helps them to provide them with the food that they need for a year again.</s>BARNETT: People will see this and think a no brainer. Those who want to do something to help those in need, but they might be suspicious. What do you say to those watching and they may feel skeptical that 50 cents, I understand is the average people could pay, the 50 cents person would pay would really make a difference. How do you convince people that it gets to the people in need? Explain how a 50 cent click become is a meal for someone?</s>STRICKER: Yeah, absolutely. I think we are all touched, your audience, and our team in Berlin and Munich and Rome, we are touched by pictures, videos, we see on CNN of the children starving, most recently in the context of Madaya. I think a couple straight forward points, in regards to effectiveness and efficiency, the United Nations food program has administrative overhead of 10 percent. 90 percent of the funds that people provide actually go into the operations to feed and provide food to the beneficiaries we are trying to target. In regards to 50 cents, or 40 Euro cents, respective currency where the users are, it is important to understand this is obviously an average. Some cases it will be a bit more expensive. In other cases it will be cheaper. Some people are suffering from severe hunger. Others are suffering from maybe not as severe, moderate hunger. But it is the total. It also includes the monitoring. We need to make sure that the food reaches the Beneficiaries and has intended affect. And, what I think is important, the app never touches the money but then goes to the United Nations World Food Program, which then organizes the distribution through these control mechanisms.</s>BARNETT: Before you launched this app, you worked in various capacity with the World Food Program. I'm wondering how much challenge it was to get a large, national behemoth, that is the U.N.'s World Food Program, to innovate like this, because it takes a lot of coordination on many different levels.</s>STRICKER: Every year, hunger is decreasing. Fewer and fewer are suffering from hunger within the United Nations system. There is this group of people that are very much thinking about how we can accelerate the progress. The United Nations World Food Program has an innovation division and an innovation accelerator in Munich. That's what the people are thinking about and how to accelerate the progress of reducing hunger, how to end hunger until 2030, which is our big goal. And I think the United Nations has very much understood that we need to innovate. And I believe personally that they're doing an amazing job. And I believe there will be amazing things coming out of this innovation division but also the innovation accelerator in Munich.</s>BARNETT: It is that belief that has you working hard and so many people downloading Share the Meal app. Folks, head to SharetheMeal.org or head to the app store or various devices. Appreciate you coming in, speaking to us, CEO, Sebastian Stricker. Best of luck. Thank you for your time. Still to come for you on CNN NEWSROOM, days before the caucuses, Bernie Sanders fights claims of inexperience as Hillary Clinton appeals for support. You will hear from both of them next. And launching a music career with social media and word of mouth. Details on that coming up.