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Kenya Prepares for U.S. President; NASA Scientist John Grunsfeld Discusses Kepler 452-b; Nigeria's Anti-Polio Campaign; Police Identify Lafayette Theater Shooter; Turkey to Allow Coalition Planes to Use Airbase. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired July 24, 2015 - 8:00   ET

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


[08:00:12] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream.

Now a deadly shooting at a movie theater in the U.S. as President Barack Obama says the failure to pass new gun laws has been his greatest

frustration.

Now one of the last three countries with polio hits a significant milestone. Nigeria reports no new cases of the disease in a year.

And we'll speak to NASA about their latest discovery, a distant planet that scientists call Earth's bigger, older cousin.

Authorities are investigating another mass shooting in the U.S., this time a gunman opened fire inside a crowded movie theater in Lafayette,

Louisiana. Now police say it appears the shooter fired randomly, gunning down two people and wounding nine before turning the gun on himself.

Investigators are collecting evidence inside the theater, trying to piece together what happened and why.

Ed Lavandera has more on how this tragedy unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFEID MALE: Lafayette Police has the Grand 16 on Johnson Street on lockdown.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Breaking overnight, a gunman opens fire in a packed movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Leaving at least seven wounded, some with possible life- threatening injuries and three dead, including the 58-year-old male shooter who turned

the gun on himself.

CHIEF JIM CRAFT, LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA POLICE DEPT.: We know identity of the shooter. We are not releasing it at this time. We are in the middle

of this investigation and we don't want to affect investigators ability to do their job.

LAVANDERA: Just 20 minutes into a showing of Amy Schumer's comedy "Train Wreck" at the Grand 16 Theater, the scene turned into something from

a horror movie. Bullets flying as the gunman described by authorities as a lone white male stood up and began shooting a handgun into the audience.

TANYA CLARK, WITNESS: We saw a lady with blood all over her leg. I just grabbed my towel and we all ran.

LAVANDERA: Police dispatched to the scene at about 7:30 central time. Witnessed described the terrifying ordeal as something like a war, gunshot

after gunshot as patrons fled the theater for safety.

PAT FREDERICK, APARTMENT MANAGER ACROSS FROM THEATER: Heard all the sirens and people coming out and chaos, basically.

LAVANDERA: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal praising the heroism of two teachers who were members in the audience.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, (R) LOUISIANA: Both of them were shot. One of them was release tonight. Her friend literally jumped over her and in her

account actually saved her life. If she hadn't done that, her friend got shot, that bullet would have hit her in the head. The second one, the one

whose life was saved, even though she was shot in the leg, she had the presence of mind to pull the fire alarm to help save other lives.

LAVANDERA: And actress Amy Schumer who stars in the film took to Twitter to express sympathy. "My heart is broken and all my thoughts and

prayers are with everyone in Louisiana."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Ed Lavandera reporting.

Now the U.S. President Barack Obama has been briefed on the shooting in Louisiana. It is the third shooting rampage in the U.S. in the last

five weeks. Just days ago, five people were killed when a man attacked a military recruiting office in Tennessee. In June, nine people were gunned

down in a South Carolina church.

Mr. Obama spoke about gun control in an interview with the BBC only hours before Thursday's shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that

the United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient, common sense gun safety laws even in the face of

repeated mass killings. And you know if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look

at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And we'll bring you any developments on the shooting in Louisiana as they come into us here at CNN.

Now U.S. President Barack Obama touches down in Kenya in just a few hours from now. And CNN's White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski is

in Nairobi ahead of the President's arrival. She joins me now with more on what we can expect when he lands.

And Michelle, when Mr. Obama touches down, he will face a sea of fans and admirers as well a huge security operation there.

[08:05:07] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kristie.

Right, yeah, I mean that's obviously going to be a concern traveling to this part of the world. And the White House has been asked about this a

number of times, especially given the recent drone strikes that the U.S. and other countries have done against al Shabaab in Somalia, especially

given recent cases of terror within Kenya.

But the White House has insisted that they trust the security apparatus that has been established for this trip around the president.

And U.S. officials talking to CNN feel like anybody who wanted to cause trouble probably could not get close to the president or this trip,

and the officials traveling with him. But the concern continues to be certain groups trying to attack soft targets elsewhere to try to embarrass

Kenya and take the attention away from President Obama during this trip -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, during this trip, we're expecting the U.S. president to address issues like trade, like security, but also there have been deep

concerns about human rights, namely gay rights in Kenya. Will the U.S. president make that part of his agenda during this visit?

KOSINSKI: Yeah, that's been a really interesting question, especially since we've heard from members of Kenya's government talking about how they

don't want the president to bring that up, that gay rights is a nonissue in this country. And that's been kind of a key policy issue for President

Obama and his administration.

So you get those two sort of clashing philosophies. And you look at it and you have to wonder what's going to happen here.

What the White House has said is that they always bring up issues of human rights, in this case including gay rights. And they bring up these

issues privately and publicly, clearly and directly they said. And they said they're not going to shy away from bringing that up. We might even

expect the president to say that publicly when he addresses the Kenya people on Sunday.

But they also said that they'll bring it up with Kenyan leaders when and if appropriate.

So, part of it is we expect him to bring up human rights in his speech to the people, but we're going to have wait and see how this comes up in

the bilateral meetings that the president is going to have, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And Michelle, high expectations there in Kenya for more trade, for more counter terrorism support from the United States.

But in the end, as a result of this visit, what will Mr. Obama be able to actually deliver for Keny and its people?

KOSINSKI: Well, it's tough to say.

And when the White House was asked that question even just generally are you going to have some things to announce, they didn't want to give

away any details. And they said we'll announce those things when we announce them.

But on a trip like this that such a big deal that is so rare. I mean, this is the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited Kenya as well

as Ethiopia, you know that they're going to announce some kind of cooperative measures with these governments.

We expect that the U.S. will announce additional funding in some ways, possibly to stimulate trade, possibly to increase power availability in

Kenya as well as Ethiopia.

But we're just going to have to wait and see.

And Kenyans would like to see some real deliverables here like diminishing of tariffs, for opening up U.S. markets to more exports from

this part of the world, but that's been a touchy issue. So it's unclear if that's going to be a real deliverable as they like to call it in

Washington.

But we do expect to see at least some announcements here, Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Michelle Kosinski reporting for us live from Nairobi, thank you.

Now Kenya's government also hopes that Mr. Obama will announce greater support for the country's counterterror units as it continues to battle

groups like the Somali-based al Shabaab. And it comes as human rights groups are calling on the U.S. president to raise allegations of abuse

carried out by these very same agencies.

But it's not just al Shabaab that poses a threat to the region. Nima Elbagir has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABDI HAJI, STUDENT: My first thought was that I'll die, I'll not escape from this place.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time Abdi Haji has been back to Garissa University since that night in April

when al Shabaab burst into her dorm.

HAJI: I was bleeding from this side, and I was also bleeding -- my leg was also bleeding. I couldn't move at all. And said, oh, now I'm

shot.

ELBAGIR: So much is as she remembers it: the padlock dorm door blocking their escape, the metal sheet fencing torn to the ground by

government tanks, the bullet holes.

Kenya is still reeling from this outrage by the Somali militant group. As the government battles domestic radicalization and concerns over the

shared border, Kenya's security problems are having global implications. And al Shabaab is no longer the only threat.

People here are really scared to talk. One father agreed to tell us his family's story, but said that he wouldn't appear on camera, because he

just doesn't trust that the government can protect him.

He says that his son and his nephew both traveled to Syria to join ISIS. The nephew left in 2013 via Khartoum in Sudan, and then a year later

was able to send money back here for the cousin, for this man's son, to follow on.

There are no numbers for Kenyan youth joining ISIS, but the government is concerned.

MWENDA NJOKA, KENYA MINISTRY OF INTERIOR SPOKESMAN: It is an issue of concern to the government, and it is an issue that we've been engaging

parents and especially vulnerable communities to ensure that we sensitive them on the need to be able to know what they're children are doing.

ELBAGIR: Many Muslim families, though, say it's not that simple. First, they have to trust the government.

This is surveillance footage from the telecom shop in the center of town . It appears to show 26-year-old Hamza Hamid Bari (ph) sitting behind

a cash register. In a video provided by the family, one of the men grabs him.

Jumping over the counter to handcuff both arms behind Bari's (ph) back. The camera trained on the front of the shop then shows the moment

he's led away cuffed in broad daylight.

His family says this footage is the last time they saw Bari (ph). They believe he was taken by the Kenyan anti-terrorism police unit, 80 PU,

suspected of being a terrorist, a charge they deny.

His brother tells us, "I feel a lot of pain. Al Shabaab killed one of my brothers, and the government took my younger brother. We don't know

where to run."

NJOKA: If they did (inaudible) disappeared, and they believe that they could be held by 80 PU, let them report to the police, let them report

the minister of interior. There are many officers of government who they can report to. And action would be taken.

ELBAGIR; As the country prepares for the U.S. president's historic visit, Kenya is hoping for greater security cooperation between the two

countries. And with that, will come greater scrutiny.

For Ekra (ph), one thing is clear she refuses to allow what happened here to define here for any longer.

UNIDENTIFEID FEMALE: At first leaving this area I thought I would never continue my studies, and it would just end here and my dream was

shattered. But actually now I think I'm someone -- I'm heading somewhere. I want to be somebody in life.

ELGABIR: Nima Elbagir, CNN, Garissa, northern Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You're watching News Stream. And coming up, a step forward in the global mission to wipe out polio. Nigeria celebrates a milestone,

but the battle isn't over yet.

Plus, Turkey strikes a tough stance against ISIS after being hit by a deadly terror attack. What this could mean to relations between Ankara and

Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Now polio has been eradicated in all but three countries in the world: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And now of those countries

is about to reach a major milestone.

Nigeria will mark one year since it last confirmed case of polio, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Now Dr. Sanjay Gupta traveled to a remote village in northern Nigeria to meet health care workers on the front lines of that battle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: When you come into these communities, how do they receive you? Can they welcome you?

KULCHUMI HAMMANYERA: Yes. You we don't have problem with that. People are coming because we have interventions. We don't just bring polio. We

bring entity.

GUPTA: So the check, that's a good thing.

[08:05:10] HAMMANYERA: Very good thing. It means all the children there received immunization.

GUPTA: If child or parents refused, what would you write then?

HAMMANYERA: The parent refuse, we put an r and x it means rejection.

GUPTA: How big a problem is that?

HAMMANYERA: It is a big issue. For us, there's no child we want to leave unimmunized.

GUPTA: What is the biggest problem?

HAMMANYERA: For me, it's ensuring we don't miss any child. Missing a child means we won't get the desired coverage. That's one. Missing a child

means there is potential for a polio virus, that's the most challenging thing. Ensuring we don't have missed children.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Dr Sanjay Gupta reporting there.

Now the world's first malaria vaccine is close to being approved for babies in Africa. After European regulators gave a positive

recommendation, the World Health Organization is now assisting when and where the vaccine could be used. Malaria has killed over half a million

people in 2013, with a majority happening in Africa. Now the vaccine is not yet officially licensed in any malaria endemic country.

Turkish fighter jets pounded ISIS positions in Syria early on Friday for the first time ever. Authorities say the airstrikes hit three targets

along the border.

Now separately, nearly 300 people have been arrested in what the government says was a nationwide counterterror operation. They include

suspected members of ISIS as well as members of the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Now Turkey's president has announced U.S. and coalition forces fighting ISIS will be allowed to use an airbase in Turkey under certain

conditions.

Let's bring in Fred Pleitgen for more. He joins us now from CNN London. And Fred, a lot to get to, but first news of a deal to increase

U.S. and coalition access to Turkish air bases. Tell us more about this announcement and why it's being called a game changer.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm not necessarily sure it's a game changer, but it certainly is something that

potentially is very significant. And you can tell by what happened with those Turkish airstrikes against ISIS positions in Syria why it is a game

changer.

What happened was that the three Turkish F16s that went up very early today in the morning, they struck three targets inside Syria, but they

never left Turkish airspace, that's because the ISIS controlled territory of Syria is partially right on the border with Turkey, but most of it is

also not very far away from Turkey.

So certainly for coalition planes from the U.S., potentially from other countries as well, that means they could be in the area of operations

much quicker than they have in the past.

Right now, the U.S. is in some cases using aircraft carriers to launch its war planes, also sometimes using air bases in Iraq. And it simply

takes them longer to get to where they need to be.

So, certainly while it might not necessarily be a game changer, it is certainly something that is very, very significant and something the U.S.

has been lobbying for for a very long time.

One thing that we need to add is that the Turkish government has said in the form of its prime minister has said that these negotiations around

using Turkish air bases, they say are separate from these anti-terror operations they've now launched.

But certainly, the timing is very, very interesting.

LU STOUT: OK, Fred, many thanks indeed for that. Fred Pleitgen reporting.

Now we want to take you live to Lafayette, Louisiana now. Authorities, they are giving an update on that movie theater shooting

rampage. Let's listen in.

(LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA THEATER SHOOTING PRESS CONFERENCE)

[08:31:57] LU STOUT: All right, Governor Bobby Jindal there saying, quote, we are tremendously saddened by the loss of life.

You were listening to a live update from Lafayette, Louisiana. New details on that shooting rampage, which killed two people. The shooter has

been identified. It is John Russell Houser, a white male in his late fifties, described as kind of a drifter by police there. One gun was

involved in the shooting, at least 13 rounds were fired. And police are appealing to the public for any more information about the shooter, since

they have very little intel about him.

That was the very latest from local authorities and local police there on that movie theater shooting rampage in Lafayette, Louisiana, which

killed two people and wounded nine.

Any more details, we'll bring them to you right here on CNN.

We'll be back after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

In a news conference moments ago, police in Louisiana identified the movie theater gunman is 59 year old John Russel Houser. He killed two

people and wounded nine before turning the gun on himself at a movie theater in Lafayette. Police say the shooter fired 13 rounds with a

handgun. He'd been staying at a local hotel and is believed to have been in Lafayette since early July.

Now Barack Obama touches down in Kenya in a few hours. It is his first visit as U.S. president to his father's homeland. Now Kenyan leaders

hope that he will announce more support for their counterterror units as they continue to battle groups like the Somali-based al Shabaab.

Now, Turkish warplanes bombed ISIS positions in Syria on Friday in their first such operation. Now separately, Turkish authorities have

arrested nearly 300 people in a nationwide anti-terror operation. Some of the suspects are believed to be members of ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers

Party.

Scientists say they have made a breakthrough in the search for a world like ours. Now this is Kepler 452-b. Well, it's an artist rendering of

it.

Now Keple 452-b is 1,400 lightyears away. It's about 60 percent bigger than Earth and sits only slightly farther from its sun-like parent

star.

Now that's important, because it means the conditions for life as we know it could exist on this planet.

Now the discovery was made with the Kepler space telescope, NASA's planet hunter. And I'm joined now by NASA scientist and retired astronaut

John Grunsfeld.

John, thank you so much for joining us. And please tell us more about what makes Kepler 452-b the most Earthlike exoplanet found so far.

JOHN GRUNSFELD, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, I mean, the first thing is we're -- you know, we're searching for answers to grand questions: where

did we come from? Where did the universe come from? Where are we going? And the biggest question of all, are we alone in the universe.

And our NASA Kepler telescope has been looking for planets around stars like our own sun. And that's really what is so exciting about Kepler

452-b is it's a planet that orbits a sun that's really very much like our own sun. And Kepler 452-b, even though it's 60 percent bigger than the

Earth we believe is orbiting at about the same distance as the Earth is from the sun. And that gives it just the right conditions -- if it's a

rocky planet, if it has water, to have liquid water on the surface, which essentially gives it an environment that could be habitable.

So, we're looking for planets that are similar to Earth that could have life to answer that grand question.

LU STOUT: And how did NASA find it? I mean, what was needed to make this observation, to be able to find Kepler 452-b?

GRUNSFELD: Well, this Kepler -- the mission is an incredibly innovative mission in that it's looking at 150,000 stars, staring at one

region of our galaxy, near the constellation Cygnus, to look for the very slight dimming of starlight when the planet goes between us and the star.

And so the planet blocks out just a tiny bit of light. You can think about a lunar eclipse when it gets very dark on Earth, the moon gets between us

and the sun.

Well, this is just a tiny speck, and that Kepler telescope can detect those tiny drops in light as the planet orbits the star.

Now, of course the Earth orbits the sun once a year, 365 days. Kepler 452-b is about 384 days, almost a little bit more than a year, almost a

year. So we had to wait for three years to be able to confirm that this planet was like the Earth.

LU STOUT: Now it's been said that this planet almost certainly has an atmosphere. So, it begs the question, can it support life? Does it have

life? And how can that be found out?

GRUNSFELD: The exciting thing about this discovery is it's the first Earth cousin that we found. And it's so far away, 1,400 lightyears away,

it would take 1,400 years at the speed of light to get there, that it's right now too far away for us to follow up with another observatory. But

it means that there's lots of them out there.

Now, the Kepler telescope has discovered over 1,000 confirmed planets. We have thousands more candidates that we're following up on. The big news

from Kepler originally is that basically every star in the night sky has a solar system around it. And now we're trying to zero in on how many stars

in the night sky have planets like Earth around it that could support life. And this is the first one we found. I'm sure there's many more. I think

we're in for a very exciting time.

LU STOUT: And why? I mean, why is it important to keep looking for planets out there like Kepler 452-b, these exoplanets that might be kind of

like Earth?

GRUNSFELD: We're going to launch a satellite in 2017 called the transient exoplanet survey satellite, TESS, and it's going to find the

nearest neighbors, the closest stars to us that have transient planets that could be like Earth.

And this is just part of, you know, the scientific adventure, this epic journey we're on, to understand our universe, but also in the case of

finding planets like Earth to find out about what I believe is our human destiny. You know, we're looking for places to one, learn, are we alone in

the universe, that's the fundamental scientific question, and a very human question. But also some day I believe human explorers, just as explorers

have explored all over the Earth, we've sent our exploring astronauts to the moon. We're on a path to send astronauts to Mars.

Some day I believe we'll send, you know, generational explorers, colonists even, to these distant planets.

LU STOUT: There will be more discoveries to come, as you put it. It is our human destiny. We'll leave it at that.

John Grunsfeld, NASA scientist and former astronaut, thank you so much for joining us here on News Stream. Take care.

GRUNSFELD: My pleasure.

LU STOUT: Now on Wednesday, we told you why Taylor Swift could run into troubles with censors in China for the name of her best selling album

1989, that was the year of the Tienanmen Square crackdown in which pro- democracy protesters were killed, but that's not the only challenge she's facing. Will Ripley has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the biggest hits from Taylor Swift's album 1989 is all about shaking it off, a skill that will come in

handy in China where the superstar's exploding popularity brings potential pitfalls.

Taylor Swift's initials, T.S., could be mistaken as a reference for Tienanmen Square where I'm standing right now. And her album, 1989, the

year she was born, is also the year when hundreds of pro-democracy protesters died in a government crackdown here.

This issue is so sensitive here in China, we could actually be detained just for reporting in this location.

Taken out of context, the pop star's clothing line could be politically combustable, says University of Denver professor and China

expert Jing Sun.

JING SUN, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: If it turns out you have a group of people that will be wearing such problematic t-shirts and they gather

together, if that is the scenario the government encounters, I'm sure the government will do something about it.

RIPLEY: So far, state authorized search engines are not censoring T.S. 1989 merchandise.

SUN: If the government tries to take a heavy handed approach on that, it could backfire. And I think Beijing knows it.

RIPLEY: Sun says the bigger obstacle facing Swift is places like this.

This is Beijing's famous silk market. You can see busloads of people come here, a lot of them western tourists.

They come by the millions each year for counterfeit versions of the world's biggest brands openly sold for a fraction of the price.

There are so many people here. It's incredible. And even though most of what's being sold is fake, this place brings in so much money the

authorities, the market supervisors, they just look the other way.

Taylor Swift's clothing line hasn't even launched yet in China, but knockoffs are already big sellers online.

SUN: That is one thing Taylor Swift can be sure about.

RIPLEY: Sun says it's a part of doing business in the world's counterfeiting super power.

How big of a threat is the counterfeit issue to artists like Taylor Swift?

SUN: In fact, it will be far more of fabricated items than authentic ones, that will be circulating in the Chinese market.

RIPLEY: He says Swift still stands to make massive profits, teaming up with Chinese ecommerce giants JD and Alibaba. China's insatiable

appetite for American pop culture is a gold mine for the highest paid woman in music, meaning Swift will likely be shaking it off all the way to the

bank.

Will Ripley, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. But don't go anywhere. World Sport with Alex Thomas is next.

END