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Russian President Criticizes U.S. For Meddling in FIFA; Swiss Authorities to Question 10 In FIFA Corruption Probe; Iraqi Forces Fight to Retake Baiji; The Future of eCommerce in China; Monsoons Delayed as Heat Wave Continues in India. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired May 28, 2015 - 8:00   ET

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

[08:01:55] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream.

Now FIFA's president holds an emergency meeting as more executives from world football face questioning by Swiss police.

America's surveillance program is under threat. And now the U.S. president warns that could threaten national security.

And Iraq fights back against ISIS, trying to take back a key oil refinery.

New revelations coming down fast and furious 24 hours after that bombshell U.S. indictment that charged rampant and systematic corruption in

FIFA.

Now Switzerland says it is about to begin questioning 10 people over the organization's bidding process, including Russia's sports minister.

The British prime minister says the UK will support Jordan's Prince Ali bin Hussein in his challenge to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency. And

Friday's vote is scheduled to go on as planned despite all the turmoil.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blasted the United States over the matter, basically calling America a busy body.

And big football sponsors such as Visa are now speaking out about this scandal.

Now a lot of angles to get to. And CNN's Alex Thomas starts of off from Zurich. He joins us now live. And Alex, first, the investigation, it

is moving forward. How are Swiss authorities pushing ahead with the probe?

ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: They've said to us, Kristie, that they're going to start the process of interviewing the ten members of

FIFA's executive committee, or ExCo as it is commonly referred to, the highest board, if you like, of football's world governing body today.

But that process could take weeks if not months. So, they're not going to interview all ten today.

Those ten are the ten remaining people still in the ExCo who were also in it back in 2010 when 22 of them voted for Russia to host the 2018 World

Cup and Qatar, most surprisingly of all, to host the tournament in 2022.

And the reason only 10 of 22 survived is for various reasons -- some have quit, many have been kicked out of football under a bit of a cloud,

which now seems very familiar, after this week of scandals that we've seen.

But Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president then and now, and Michel Platini the head of UEFA, are not two that are being investigated by the Swiss

authorities because they are Swiss residents. We understand there's a legal reason why they can't be spoken to.

LU STOUT: A key detail there.

Now FIFA's leadership election, we've got to talk about that, Alex. Although many of FIFA's top officials have been arrested, will it go ahead

with the election?

THOMAS: It is still due to go ahead. We were hearing rumors that UEFA, the body that represents all the European associations, did call for

it to be suspended or postponed, or if not might even boycott it. But that mood seems to be changing. They are meeting again today as we speak. and

we expect to hear from them in the next half an hour. And I expect them to come out and say we want the election to go ahead, because actually we

think it's the best chance for Blatter's challenger, Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan to win.

And UEFA have already, even before this week's scandal, said publicly they want Prince Ali to be the new FIFA president so they can continue this

process of change that Blatter, to be fair, has started, but really it seems too little, too late and that he's been at FIFA since the 1970s. And

either he's hopelessly naive to all the corruption that appears to be going on from the allegations we heard yesterday, or he is part of it and we're

just yet to get that smoking gun that links him to all the bad press.

[08:05:45] LU STOUT: All right, Alex Thomas joining us live with the very latest from Zurich. Thank you.

Now football is sometimes called the global game. Now FIFA actually has more members than the United Nations. But the crisis at FIFA, it is

dividing world football. As Alex reported, European football's governing body, UEFA, had suggested that Friday's presidential election should be

delayed. UEFA is the most powerful and richest confederation in football, but with only 54 members it can't control FIFA. And they are opposed by

the Asian and African confederations. They both came out in support of Sepp Blatter.

Now remember this all began after investigation by the U.S. And it is their role that is irking the next World Cup host: Russia. President

Vladimir Putin has criticized the arrest, calling them an attempt to block Blatter's reelection, and accusing the U.S. of trying to spread its

jurisdiction to other countries.

Let's get more now from Moscow. Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now.

And Matthew, tell us more about how Vladimir Putin is voicing his support for Sepp Blatter.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's voicing that support, first of all. He's also seeing this whole investigation,

this whole scandal involving FIFA through the prism of a kind of, I suppose, a conspiracy to try and discredit Russia and to try and rob Russia

of the World Cup tournament in 2018.

He had some pretty strong remarks that he made on national television a couple of hours ago, essentially saying that, look, these investigations

are the United States trying to meddle in the affairs of other people. And also accusing the investigators and the United States of trying to prevent

Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, from getting reelected. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: All right. Well, we don't appear to have the sound on that, the translation at least. But let me paraphrase what he had to say,

basically that he has -- he's not concerned about the role of Russia in this. Russia has got nothing to hide. But he said this is all about

trying to put pressure on Sepp Blatter for him not to become the president again of FIFA.

So, some very strong words there from Vladimir Putin, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, very strong words. And thank you for paraphrasing that. Unfortunately, I need to brush up on my Russian.

Separately, the Russian sports minister is being questioned by Swiss police soon. What has he been saying? What kind of information could he

provide?

CHANCE: Well, you're right. I mean, he's been basically tipped as being one of the people that the Swiss authorities want to speak to, to get

some further details of what went on and the allotment of these 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments four years ago when they were dished out.

He's -- the interviews, as we've been reporting, have begun already. It's a dynamic process according to the press office of the Swiss

authorities are doing the investigating, the attorney general's office. And it could take several days or several weeks to complete. It's just the

start of the process.

For his part, Vitaly Mutko, who is the sports minister of Russia. He's also the head of the Russia 2018 World Cup bid, he says he's got

nothing to hide. And he has indicated that he will cooperate with the Swiss once he has received an invitation to give his testimony.

LU STOUT: All right. Matthew Chance reporting live for us from Moscow on this widening FIFA probe now involving the sports minister of

Russia. Thank you, Matthew.

And while Russia offers support, some of the strongest criticism of FIFA has come from the United States.

In fact, the Washington Post wrote a scathing editorial. FIFA's decisions affect large quantities of the world's scarce resources,

including the resources of countries with priorities even more pressing than sports.

Now just a year ago, Brazil's cities saw anti-World Cup protests. They accused the government of spending money on the World Cup and not

helping Brazil's poor.

And one of the decisions being investigated is the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a country facing intense criticism for its migrant

workers. There are an estimated 1.5 million migrant workers building the infrastructure for Qatar's World Cup.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come, Iraqi forces say that they are making progress in the operation to retake territories from

ISIS. We'll bring you the latest.

And more lives are lost each day in India in a devastating heat wave. We'll show you what's happening in one of the worst-hit areas.

Plus, down to the wire: U.S. senators have only a few days left before key provisions of the PATRIOT Act expire. Now the White House warns

inaction could have serious consequences.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:12:35] LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now the clock is ticking on the United States' mass monitoring of its citizens' electronic communications. Key provisions of the PATRIOT Act are

set to expire on Sunday. And that means the National Security Agency's authority to collect and store phone data would also expire.

The president and attorney general are urging the senate to act quickly on reform legislation, warning that there could be serious

consequences to national security if nothing is done.

Now CNN's Jim Acosta is following the story for us. He joins me now live from Washington with the latest.

And, Jim, again the clock is ticking, but is congress any closer to reforming or extending parts of the PATRIOT Act?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, not at this point, Kristie.

As a matter of fact, congress is in recess right now. The senate doesn't come back to Washington until Sunday, and that is just hours away

from what is essentially a surveillance cliff. You've heard of fiscal cliffs here in Washington, this is sort of the surveillance cliff. And at

midnight on Sunday, this key program over at the National Security Agency will expire.

As you said, it authorizes the federal government to collect and store records of phone calls made by nearly every American in this country,

millions of phone calls. That data is accessed in counterterrorism investigations, but the program has also outraged privacy advocates who say

that this is a major intrusion into the privacy of Americans.

And so what the White House is saying, what the administration is saying at this point, is at about 8:00 on Sunday night, this will become

irreversible and that the program will have to shut down until congress passes some sort of fix on all of this.

This all stems from the PATRIOT Act, which was of course passed in the aftermath of 9/11 to aid counterterrorism investigations, but because of

disclosures made by Edward Snowden, people now know that the federal government is storing all of this information and that has upset enough

lawmakers who have actually made a change over in the House of Representatives. They have passed something called the USA Freedom Act,

which allows the phone companies to store this data and then the government will have to go to the phone companies with a court order to access that

data.

But the Senate is mired in an impasse right now. The Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says he doesn't like the USA Freedom Act. He wants

to stick with the PATRIOT Act, have that extend it for a short period of time until they can come up with a compromise. But over in the House where

the Republicans are also in charge, they're asking the Senate to pass what they've passed.

And so the White House is in the middle of all of this. And yesterday, they held a briefing with reporters, the Obama administration

did, and officials were saying that lawmakers are essentially playing what they're calling, quote, national security Russian roulette. So they are

taking this very seriously -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, it's also interesting to see this party divide over the issues of data and surveillance.

Now ahead of what you're calling this surveillance cliff, Senator Rand Paul, also a presidential candidate, he has made a big stand against mass

surveillance. He also does not like the USA Freedom Act that was passed by the House. He says it's not enough. But what is the White House saying?

What is the White House saying to sway American public opinion on the issue?

ACOSTA: Well, what they're saying is is that if these programs are not renewed and quickly that essentially we will go into a period of lapse

on Sunday at Midnight and investigators in the intelligence community and the national security infrastructure of this country will not be able to

access this data. In addition to that, there's a roving wiretap portion of this law that will also go into a period of lapse. That allows

investigators to follow terrorism suspects that change cellphones.

So they're on one cellphone, they throw that one in the trash, start using another cellphone to evade surveillance and this roving wiretap

provision in the PATRIOT Act allows counterterrorism investigators to continue to follow these suspects as they're changing phones. So that's

one little known provision of this program that the Obama administration is very concerned about.

And they're saying right now, especially given what's happening with ISIS and the recruitment efforts by that terrorism group that includes not

only portions of Europe and the Middle East, but also here in the United States, they are concerned about this lone wolf terrorist threat that will

be able to essentially go under the radar if these programs are not in place -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Jim Acosta reporting live from Washington for us. Thank you, Jim.

One of the most conservative states in America's heartland has just outlawed the death penalty. Nebraska lawmakers passed the measure on

Wednesday, narrowly overriding the governor's veto. Now the governor argued the state should at least have the option to pursue capital

punishment even if the death penalty was only used rarely. And Nebraska is now the seventh state in the U.S. to abolish the practice since 2007.

More than 20 U.S. military employees are under precautionary medical treatment after being exposed to live anthrax. An official tells CNN that

the samples were sent from an army lab in the U.S. state of Utah. And some of it was shipped to an airbase in South Korea.

Now CNN's Kathy Novak has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NOVAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was supposed to be inactive anthrax, and it was shipped by commercial carrier from a lab

in Utah all the way here to an air force base in South Korea.

On Wednesday, emergency services personnel moved in to destroy the anthrax, decontaminate the facility and test the 22 people who may have

been exposed to a substance so deadly it can be used as a biological weapon.

We're told there's no threat to the public and that those 22 people are showing no signs of exposure, but they have been given antibiotics, and

in some cases vaccinations as a precaution.

In the meantime, a major investigation is underway. The CDC is working with the Pentagon to determine just how such a serious and

potentially deadly mistake could possibly been made.

Kathy Novak, CNN, Osan (ph), South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And turning now to Malaysia where authorities have begun exhuming bodies found in graves at a suspected migrant trafficking camp.

Officials say each grave appears to contain only one body, despite reports earlier this week that they might contain multiple bodies.

Now all four bodies exhumed so far were wrapped in white cloth. It's a ritual associated with Muslim burials.

In all, there are 139 graves.

Now two police officers have been arrested in connection with the investigation.

Thailand is hosting a summit tomorrow to find ways to ease the migrant crisis across Southeast Asia. And in an interview with the Australian

newspaper, the Dalai Lama calls on Buddhists to be compassionate when dealing with Rohingya migrants, a Muslim minority in Myanmar.

He also says it is not enough to ask how to help, telling the Australian newspaper, quote, ultimately we are lacking concern for others

lives, other's well-being.

Now some consider the Dalai Lama the world's most famous refugee. He lives in exile in India. And the Australian reports that he made a direct

appeal to former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi to speak up for the persecuted Rohingya.

You're watching News Stream. Still to come, putting up a fight against ISIS. We go to the front line as Iraqi forces battle for the

country's biggest oil refinery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:37] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

A top official in a Baghdad morgue tells CNN that 499 bodies have just been exhumed from the presidential complex in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

They were found in a series of graves and are believed to be Iraqi military cadets that ISIS claims to have massacred last June.

Now meanwhile, Iraqi forces say that they are making gradual gains against ISIS in Anbar province. Sources claim that they have retaken the

University of Anbar on the southern edge of Ramadi. But U.S. officials say that there is no sign that Iraqi troops after entered the city.

Meanwhile, ISIS militants killed 30 Iraqi soldiers in a suicide bomb attack near Fallujah.

And to the north, in Salahuddin province, Iraqi forces are battling ISIS at the Baiji oil refinery. It is Iraq's largest, and it is critically

important.

Now the Iraqis are trying to make sure the oil refinery isn't destroyed in their attempt to save it.

Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh got a firsthand look at their effort from the front line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is just a taste of how apocalyptic it could get at the vital Baiji oil

refinery, already choking on smoke. Part of this huge complex is still head by ISIS. The months-long fight here slowed by fears of the ecological chaos

ISIS could reach if they scorch and burn here as they retreat.

Iraqi Special Forces took us to their front line, defending the ruins of a house that a coalition air strike pushed ISIS out of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WALSH: They, from the elite Golden Division. Their Ramadi colleagues, part of the troops the U.S. said lacked the will to fight.

(on camera): That line of buildings over there ISIS's closest position. And yesterday during a thick sandstorm here, they used the cover

of it to advance within 20 meters of here. When the sandstorm subsided, suddenly a fire fight began.

(GUNFIRE)

WALSH (voice-over): We don't know why they start shooting this day, what they may have seen. ISIS are few in number here, they say, but willing

to die. And had a sniper nearby. Or maybe they more want to show us and even Washington they very much do want to fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

WALSH: "It's not logical and wrong," he says of the American press, "because anywhere, in Ramadi or Baiji, anywhere duty calls, we fight."

(GUNFIRE)

[08:25:18] WALSH: Their gunfire grows, and usually it's mortars that ISIS fire back.

(GUNFIRE)

WALSH: So we pull out.

(GUNFIRE)

WALSH: More ammunition, some American is arriving at their base, but the fight will be a slow encirclement, we're told. The reason we want to

surround them, he says, is because we cleaned up the area properly with engineers because it has fear of booby traps.

Plenty here of ISIS, a vital part of Baghdad's new plan for Ramadi, but a slow grind. Mindful that Iraq needs something to live off if ISIS

ever leaves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Let's get more now from Nick. He joins me live from the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

And Nick, from what you saw out there in the battlefield, do you believe that Iraqi joint forces can success? Can they take back and hold

the country's biggest oil refinery?

WALSH: Well, what you saw there obviously was what they wanted us to see. And we don't get a sense of ISIS's capabilities. What the Iraqi

officials told us was that about a fifth of that oil refinery is still held by ISIS. And it does pretty much without saying, frankly, that they're

willing to destroy it if they felt they had to retreat from it -- ISIS that is.

So, it's clearly a very complicated task. And you saw in that report the kind of skyline they're already dealing with -- with the black smoke

and fires already there, booby traps inside.

So it's phenomenally complex. And I think the strategy at this stage may be just to cut it off and then hope whoever is inside there runs out of

ammunition, supplies and gives themselves up or just is unable to destroy the refinery. They also point out, too, that they're worried more about

the pipelines going through it.

But that's one very complex part of the puzzle here.

What we saw in those Iraqi security forces was perhaps for the cameras, perhaps because they saw a threat, a very keen desire to show

they're willing to fight. A lot of those guys are supposed to be the cream of the Golden Division. They're the same unit that were accused in Ramadi,

not the same people but the same unit, accused in Ramadi of not having, quote, the will to fight by Ashton Carter. That's part of the troops who

are said to have left.

So, I think there's a real move here by the Iraqis to show they do have the strength to take the fight. The question is do they have the

political leadership to apply it where it's needed? And can all those many different groups, Kristie, because it's not simply about those men you saw

firing weapons there, it's about the Shia fighters that back them up, or often go in ahead of them, it's about the Sunni tribes who live in the

areas that are in Anbar they're going to be trying to liberate.

Are they all on the same page when this battle finally begins? Or will perhaps, like we saw when ISIS moved towards Ramadi, will a lack of

cohesion set in? Will that cause a lack of success on the battlefield -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, leadership and coordination is definitely needed for a win here. The operation to win over the Baiji oil refinery. A critical

one, a delicate one as well.

Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Baghdad. Thank you, Nick.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come, with a blistering heat wave sweeping India, people will do anything they can to keep cool.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:47] LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

Switzerland says it is about to begin questioning 10 people over corruption in FIFA, including Russia's sports minister. Now the British

prime minister says the UK will support Jordan's Prince Ali bin Hussein in his challenge to Sepp Blatter for the organization's presidency.

Now Friday's vote is scheduled to go on as planned despite the corruption investigations.

As Iraq says its forces are battling ISIS for control of the critical Baiji oil refinery, officials in Baghdad say that they have exhumed the

bodies of 499 people from the presidential complex in Tikrit. They are believed to be Iraqi military cadets that ISIS claimed to have massacred

last June.

Now U.S. investigators are looking into how a live sample of anthrax was shipped to U.S. military labs. Now four Defense Department employees

in the U.S. and 22 at a U.S. air base in South Korea may have been exposed.

Water camps have opened up in Indian cities to help people cool down as they suffer through a relentless heat wave. More than 1,300 people have

now died from heat related causes.

Now India's government is warning people to stay inside and to drink water. And this relentless heat is taking a huge toll on the homeless and

the frail.

Now CNN's Mallika Kapur joins me now live from Mumbai with more. Mallika, you visited one of the worst-hit districts, what did you find

there?

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, what we found there is really that the people who are suffering the most are the

population are -- the part of the population that is really too poor to cope, people who simply don't have the money, the resources, to cope with

the searing heat and perform the option -- or the option of going out or not. They simply don't have that luxury of having that choice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAPUR: We traveled just outside Hyderabad to Nowgonda (ph). (inaudible) more than 70 people have died from the heat here. One of them,

38-year-old Vankitashim Badullah (ph).

His father Malaya Badullah (ph) says his son had gone out to get medicines. He was on his way home and collapsed. He never recovered from

the sun stroke.

He says the entire village is suffering. Malaya (ph) is 76-years-old. He says he's never experienced a heat wave like this before.

It's the middle of the afternoon and it's really hot. Temperatures are soaring and there's this hot wind blowing. It feels like I'm walking

into a furnace.

Air conditioners are out of reach of many homes in this village, but they do have fans. The problem is, they barely work for three to four

hours a day because of power cuts.

In this blazing heat, residents seize every little opportunity to cool off. Hot and frustrated, villagers get together to pray for better days

ahead. They say they're asking for help, for peace, and most importantly for the rains to come quickly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAPUR: Well, Kristie, it looks like they may get respite sooner than we thought. You know, last night it actually drizzled in Hyderabad for a

little while. And the Met Department (ph) is forecasting showers and thunderstorms in New Delhi within the next 48 hours. So it does look like

those monsoon rains might hit within the next couple of days, which will definitely lower temperatures across the country.

LU STOUT: Yeah, wonderful to hear that there will be soon respite from the heat.

And Mallika there reports that the heat there in India has been so intense it's causing streets to literally melt. I mean, could you please

describe in detail what it is like to be there and to live through this extreme heat wave?

KAPUR: Well, it does really feel like I said in the report -- you know, it really does feel like you're walking through a furnace very often,

not just in Telangana and Andrha Pradesh, which is where we were yesterday, but you know even here in Mumbai. And Mumbai really isn't suffering that

badly from the heat wave. The temperatures here are just aren't that high as they are down south.

But I can tell you that even this year in Mumbai, it is much hotter than it has been in previous years. The temperatures are about five to

seven degrees above normal in most parts of India. It is really, really hot. And not only -- I mean, add to the hot -- to the high temperatures,

you have a very hot, sticky wind that blows, which actually makes it feel a lot hotter than it is.

And everyone in this village yesterday, in Nowgunda (ph), when I talking to the people there, one of the ladies said something that really

struck me. She said, you know, with every step I take, I feel like I'm walking through fire. That's how hot it is.

And really when we were there yesterday, we saw how uncomfortable it was to be out there just for a few minutes at a time. And there are

people, of course, who don't have a choice, who have no ways to cool off, and they have to -- they just have to live there and endure and wait for

the rains.

LU STOUT: It's a heat so intense it's like walking through fire, a heat so intense it literally melts roads in Delhi. Incredible. Thank you

for your reporting. Mallika Kapur reporting live from Mumbai. And take care.

Now the monsoon season is looming across the Indian subcontinent and will bring much needed relief to the region. Derek Van Dam has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: With over 250 million people working as farmers in India, the monsoon forecast is extremely important

not only for their livelihood, but their entire agricultural system.

Now the India Meteorological department has placed heat warnings from the Bay of Bengal, through the interior of this subcontinent, but we have

had heat indexes soaring above 50 degrees in some locations, that's when you factor in the humidity values and the extreme temperatures that we are

experiencing.

Take a look at this, New Delhi, we should be about 40 degrees this time of year, which is hot in its own right, but we have had temperatures

in the middle 40s already. And that's expected to continue.

You get closer to the Bay of Bengal. You factor in the humidity values and it feels like 50 degrees outside.

You can see some of these temperatures really starting to soar. And people making due with whatever they can, looking for whatever shade they

can find and helping transport water, which is such a precious commodity this time of year, considering that the monsoon hasn't quite reached this

region. We're getting that from community to community.

We see this change in pressure and wind. This is all thanks to the heating of the land over the subcontinent and the relatively cooler ocean

waters helping eventually bring in that monsoon and allow for our rain to eventually fill in the region.

You can see that it is on a delayed side. It's just outside of Sri Lanka. Eventually, however, we should start to see that move further west

and reached the shores of India, bringing that much needed rainfall and cooler weather. Back to you.

LU STOUT: All right, Derek Van Dam there.

You're watching News Stream. And coming up next, Chinese netizens are shaping the future of online shopping. Eretailers explain why the next big

battlefield is your mobile phone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Technology has changed the way we shop. And right now, you could use your phone to browse virtually any store in the world while

standing virtually anywhere in the world.

So, what's next for online shopping.

Well, here's Richard Quest with Tomorrow Transformed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[08:40:04] RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Remember the days when the only way to shop from your living room was with a catalog

and a mail order form? That is until digital arrived.

We may still leaf through the catalogs, but today when it comes to making the purchase, we probably use our smartphones or we go online where

seemingly everything is available.

In China, where there are more internet users than anywhere in the world, not surprisingly ecommerce is booming.

SHEN HAOYU, CEO, JD.COM: Our one in two online citizens in China are now buying online. And that penetration is going up.

QUEST: They're buying everything: digital shopping carts are stuffed with computers, clothing, and even fresh seafood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the future, ecommerce, the main battlefield will be on the mobile devices. The overall smartphone users were eclipse

that of PC users, so you can see that mobile commerce is definitely the number one (inaudible).

QUEST: If today's online, the future is about the race for speed of delivery. How to get that instant gratification even quicker.

Forget next day, what about within the hour? That's the hope as companies like Amazon and DHL experiment with deliveries by drone. It's

all bringing us one brick closer to the demise of the brick and mortar stores.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: All right, Apple is working on a fix for a bizarre bug that can cause iPhones to crash. It involves this very specific text message.

It's two words, a string of Arabic characters and a Japanese character.

Now if you receive this message your iPhone will crash and restart. There are also reports that it could also affect Macs and even the Apple

Watch.

In response, Apple said this, quote, we are aware of an iMessage issue and we will make a fix available in a software update.

And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout, but don't go anywhere. World Sport with Amanda Davies in London and Alex Thomas in Zurich is next.

END