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Thailand Authorities Try to Find Who's Responsible for Deadly Bombing; Only Handful of Recruits in Syria; Residents in Tianjin Demanding Answers from their Government; Amazon Unpopular with Current and Former Employees. Aired: 12-1a ET

Aired August 18, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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

(HEADLINES)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: And we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. This is CNN Newsroom. It's just past 11 a.m. in Bangkok, Thailand, where authorities are trying to find who's responsible for a deadly bombing in a popular tourist area.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

VAUSE: This video shows crowds of pedestrians during evening rush hour as the bomb exploded on Monday.

CHURCH: At least 22 people are dead, including three Chinese nationals. More than 100 people are injured. CNN spoke with witnesses who saw the blast and the aftermath.

SANJEEV VYAS, BLAST EYEWITNESS: At first, I really couldn't understand because my ears were ringing and I thought I was in a movie set and it just looked like any other Hollywood movie.

But then, I was like, yes, this has to be a bomb because of the utter scale of devastation I could see in front of my eyes. With at first I thought that maybe it was an accident, that two cars collided and probably something just exploded, but no. But what I felt was enormous.

OLIVER HOLMES, SOUTHEST ASIAN CORRESPONDENT, THE GUARDIAN: Many people were very badly injured. And I saw the three scooters on the ground right next to the shrine. Many people would have gone into the hospital right next to the blast scene.

And the issue is that once that hospital showed up, the wounded were taken to different hospitals, so it's quite hard to get a count. It's a very, very crowded area. Often there are tourists there. Often there are people from China.

Tourists who come to that shrine specifically, as well as people who just go about their daily lives because it's also a business district. There are hotels, there are malls.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CHURCH: Police say they believe it was a pipe bomb. They also say they got a warning about an attack, but it wasn't specific about where or when the bomb would go off.

VAUSE: Live now at the scene is Anna Coren who's following developments from Hong Kong. So Anna, who did this and why remains a mystery, so what leads are authorities chasing to try and find who carried out this attack?

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: John, we just got off the phone from the Thai police and they say that they are looking for a man who is seen on CCTV around the time, or just before, the explosion.

They're not saying that he's the suspect, but they're say that they are looking for him. We're trying to, obviously, get more details from police but they certainly do say that this man is connected to the bombings in some way.

But as we know, this bombing unleashed carnage and according to the head of police, that is exactly what it is designed to do, create fear, panic, terror in Bangkok, which as we all know, Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia, if not around the world.

So really, this has not just shook the city of Bangkok, the country of Thailand, but for the international tourists who come in the thousands, the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, people will seriously be reconsidering traveling to Thailand, traveling to Bangkok.

But we know from police that as you say, this was a pipe bomb that was planted at the Erawan shrine. It went off around 7 p.m., which as we know, is one of the busiest times at this intersection.

If you've ever been to this area, it is one where there are five-star hotels, there's shopping centers, there's obviously this Hindu shrine, which is interesting considering Thailand is mainly a Buddhist country. It is very popular among Thais to go there and pray.

It's also a very popular tourist destination. So among the 22 that are dead, there are a number who are foreign nationals. As for who has done this and why, obviously, we're going off this latest information from police that they are looking for this man.

No specifics of his nationality or who he may be associated with. But we know that Thailand has a history of political violence, political instability, certainly military coups. The military came into power in May of last year after, you know, so much political unrest.

And since that time back in May, it has been relatively peaceful in Thailand. There have been a number of bombings, but nothing on this scale and I think that is what is really shaken up Thailand, John.

VAUSE: And Anna, what's the security situation right now across Bangkok? Have the security forces actually moved in? Is there some kind of crackdown underway to ensure that this doesn't happen again?

COREN: Yes, look, obviously, everybody extremely -- everyone's on extreme high alert. Security forces have moved in and are fully manning the city of Bangkok, obviously searching areas -- tourist areas as well. There were reports after this initial bombing that there were other bombs -- two other bombs.

They brought in sniffer dogs, looked around the shrine and didn't establish any further bombs, but obviously that is a concern after something like this, that there could be further attacks. There could be copycat attacks depending on people's motives, on who was, in fact, behind this.

But obviously waiting for more information from police. They're not saying as to who this could be blamed on. Obviously we know that there is that Muslim insurgency in the South of Thailand, but attacks have mainly been directed to that specific area.

They haven't moved to the capitol. And then of course, there's that conflict between the red and yellow shirts, which paralyzed the streets for months and months. In 2010, those red shirts clashed with police and there were more than 90 deaths.

So really Thailand is a country where violence is not uncommon sadly. Even though it is such a popular tourist destination, there is this undercurrent in Thailand. But as to who is responsible for this specific attack, John, we just don't know.

VAUSE: As the story continues to develop there is new information coming out all the time. Anna Coren, live for us in Hong Kong. Thank you.

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CHURCH: Well the Syrian air force has carried out another attack on suburb northeast of Damascus one day after a deadly shelling there. This video shows the aftermath of the strikes on a market in Douma on Sunday.

VAUSE: Activists say as many as 82 people were killed, hundreds more wounded. It makes one of the bloodiest attacks in the four-year-long civil war. The U.N.'s Humanitarian Chief was in Syria when the strikes happened.

STEPHEN O'BRIEN, U.N. EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR: I was absolutely horrified and desperately distressed for the loss of life, for the numbers of injured. These were civilians and it was absolutely crucial that we recognized that this is an unacceptable, illegal form of war.

It's true of the shelling that took place from Douma back into Damascus by the other side of the argument. It's true of cutting off the water to so many people in Damascus for three days. You can't use cutting off water as a weapon of war.

So when the shells from the air hit the marketplace in Douma, it is simply unacceptable.

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CHURCH: And elsewhere in Syria, the United States has spent millions to vet and train rebels to fight ISIS there.

VAUSE: But so far this program has only produced a handful of recruits. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh interviewed one of these rebel fighters for this exclusive report.

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NICK PATON WALSH, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what merely a million dollars-worth of pro-American Syrian rebel will look like. These are the first pictures of the mere-54 moderate fighters the U.S. has painstakingly vetted, trained and equipped with these fancy weapons.

But there aren't nearly enough of them yet to worry ISIS. In fact, some of them were recently detained by al-Qaeda after a firefight leading to claims the $41 million program as a failure.

So one of them, Abu Iskander in Syria is speaking out.

ABU ISKANDER, NEW SYRIAN FORCES REBEL (via translator): Nearly 17,000 Syrian men wants to join, but the training is very slow. We need it to be faster. Thirty days instead of 45 days. More trainees. For example, are training in Jordan did 85.

There should have been 500 there and another 500 in Turkey. We're thankful, but it needs to happen faster.

PATON WALSH: These men are an essential part of America's anti-ISIS strategy, inescapably vital. But planes can bomb and the drones can watch. But without allied Syrian rebels willing to go on the ground and clear out ISIS and install moderate societies, everything else is pretty much pointless. And as of now inside Syria, there are just about 40 of them.

Here they are entering Syria recently after training, days before being attacked by rebels from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra front. Some of those detained have now been released. And despite the awful start, Abdu Iskander is determined to fight on.

The Americans follow him using a GPS on his wrist and in his vest while he targets air strikes for them.

ISKANDER: I go to the front line against ISIS and I give locations for the war planes to bomb. We have advanced satellite communication devices to target any place on the front line, whether we see it or not.

There are daily drone hits and they are in the sky as I talk to you right now. I speak to the American every hour, a total of four hours a day. PATON WALSH: One hurdle in recruiting for the Pentagon is that their unit is only allowed to fight ISIS. Not most Syrian rebels' first and worst enemy, and that's the Syrian regime. But in spite of this restriction, Abu Iskander all the same insists he will also fight the Assad Regime.

ABU ISKANDER, NEW SYRIAN FORCES REBEL (via translator): The second rule in the training project is that we fight whoever fights us. The Assad Regime is fighting us. We will take new areas from ISIS and we'll have to face Assad.

Are we going to sit still and not fight Assad? Make a no-fly zone, Syria, then we won't flee to Europe, but we'll stay in our homes. We don't want to cry on T.V., we want the savagery to be stopped.

PATON WALSH: After the vetting, the detentions, the confused aims, one thing is clear, his unshakeable enthusiasm for the fight against ISIS and the regime that lies ahead. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Gaziantep.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CHURCH: And these rebel forces, as we heard, they are facing several challenges including attacks from al-Qaeda-affiliated groups. For more on this, let's bring in CNN Military Analyst, Colonel Rick Francona.

He joins us via Skype from Port Alford in Oregon. Rick, welcome. Of course, the big criticism is the very small number of rebel forces that have actually been trained by the U.S. Only 54 fighters at a cost of $41 million or so.

And the training is slow going and the returns, pretty slim as we've seen. What needs to be done to improve this effort?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICK FRANCONA, MILITARY ANALYST: Well, as Nick mentioned, the problem is the vetting. And we saw that the vetting even broke down with this small number, this initial cadre of 60, which turned out to be 54 that went back to Syria.

Many of them were captured or wounded or actually defected to the Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. So the vetting is a very big problem. Even though there are 17,000 waiting to be trained, we've got to really increase the volume of training, the base of training.

He did mention that 45 days is too long, but that's about what you need.

CHURCH: Yes, and of course we heard also that only about 40 of these trained rebels are now on the ground in Syria. They are grossly outnumbered. How many more are needed to make this work and talk to us about why the training is so slow.

As you say of course the vetting process, but there must be some of these rebels less than eager to actually be involved presumably. FRANCONA: Well, there are a lot of people that are willing to fight but they just don't know how. And just because they're brave and they can carry a weapon doesn't mean that they're capable.

So they've got this -- they take them down and start at the basics, go through the 30 days, 45 days, whatever they're going to do. But the numbers are very, very small. We need many, many more. The problem is there's been a lot of criticism about that.

But I think what we're going to find is that using the Kurds is going to be very problematic with the Turks. And we, right now have made some sort of deal with the Turks to use those airbases. So I think that we are forced into working with this small group of Syrians -- Syrian-Arabs, that are going to fight ISIS, but you know their real goal is to fight Assad.

And this is a big, big problem because you've got a very confused situation on the ground. But if Jabhat al-Nusra and some of the Islamist groups and even the guys that we're training can join together, that makes it a three-way fight instead of what we have now is a five-way fight.

Syria is just a basket case right now and I think we're only doing band-aids.

CHURCH: Yes, well put. Colonel Rick Francona joining us there with your analysis. Always a pleasure to talk with you. Many thanks.

FRANCONA: Thanks, Rosemary.

VAUSE: Although a new developments out of Indonesia search teams on the ground have reached the plane crash site in the country's remote Papua region.

Officials confirm the debris is from the Trigana Air Service flight that went missing on Sunday. Helicopters are on the way to the area as well. The searchers on the ground report counting as many as 38 bodies.

A reminder, 54 people were onboard that flight which went down over the weekend. A short break here on CNN Newsroom. When we come back, a civic duty which many Americans really try hard to get out of, but not candidate Donald Trump.

He showed up for jury duty and we'll tell you all about his day. It's Trump's world, we're all living in it.

CHURCH: And why Washington sent a sharp message to Beijing about its anti-corruption program. We are back in a moment.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Donald Trump's strong opinions and forceful talk are pushing him ahead in the Republican race for the White House.

VAUSE: And for a moment, it seemed Trump might be voicing his opinions as a juror in a New York courtroom. Jeff Zeleny has more on Donald's jury duty.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump arrived for his civic duty today in a black limousine, reporting for jury duty today in New York.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's something we have to do.

ZELENY: A truck-sized spectacle outside, but far quieter inside as captured on Snapchat by a prospective fellow juror.

TRUMP: We had a great time. The potential jurors were wonderful.

ZELENY: A break from the campaign trail where Republicans are rendering a winning verdict on Trump. He's leading another national poll, solidifying his role as the GOP frontrunner.

In a whirlwind weekend stop at the Iowa State Fair, he said that he would spend $1 billion of his own fortune on the campaign.

TRUMP: I make $400 million a year, so what difference does it make? What I want to do is I want to make the country great.

ZELENY: Trump's also offering new red meat for conservatives, a hard line immigration plan. His six-page proposal calls for an end to birthright citizenship, a provision in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that grants citizenship to those born in the U.S.

JEB BUSH, (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I appreciate the fact that Mr. Trump now has a plan, if that's what it's called.

ZELENY: So far, criticism like that isn't sticking as Trump and other outsiders are turning this race upside-down, leading an insurgency against their establishment Republican rivals.

A new Fox News poll shows Trump leading with 25%, followed by Ben Carson at 12, Ted Cruz at 10, and Jeb Bush falling into fourth place. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has led the way in Iowa for most of the year. Today, he was heckled by labor activists at the state fair.

SCOTT WALKER, (R-WI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there. I will fight for the American people over and over and over and over again.

ZELENY: But Walker and other top Republicans are being tested by an anti-establishment electorate, driving their poll numbers to single digits.

BUSH: Oh, I'm so worried, no. This is a long haul.

ZELENY: A long haul now overtaken by Trump on land and in the air. Trump offered children free rides aboard his helicopter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you Batman?

TRUMP: I am Batman.

ZELENY: Those rides on that $7 million Trump helicopter will surely never be forgotten, but it's an open question whether all of the people who turned out to see him at the state fair will turn out and support him in February when the Iowa caucuses officially start the 2016 voting.

The people I talked to were intrigued. Some said they would support him for sure, others said that they liked that he was shaking up the race but they needed to wait and see. He also did not get picked for jury duty. He'll be back to the campaign trail this week. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

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CHURCH: And on the other side of the political equation, investigators are combing through the personal email server U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton used while Secretary of State.

VAUSE: They are searching for classified messages she may have sent or received on the unsecured server. They say 305 emails have caught their attention so far. Hilary Clinton, though insisting she did nothing wrong and says this controversy is completely political.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you know what, it's not about emails or servers either. It's about politics. I will do my part to provide transparency to Americans.

That's why I've insisted 55,000 pages of my emails be published as soon as possible. I've even offered to answer questions for months before Congress.

CHURCH: Well, Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey governor Chris Christie says the email investigation is not simply political, and he tried to imagine using Clinton's defense in a scandal he was recently caught up in.

VAUSE: A scandal became known as Bridgegate, his staff has allegedly used his authority to snarl traffic in a town where the mayor refused to endorse Mr. Christie.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Can you imagine, if after the bridge investigation began, I came out and said, oh, by the way, I've done all of my business as governor on a private email server, and I've deleted now 30,000 of those emails. But trust me, none of it had to do with the bridge. Give me a break.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: For the latest on the U.S. presidential race, please go to our Web site, cnn.com.

CHURCH: Washington is issuing a blunt warning to China to stop its hunt for ex-patriot fugitives in the U.S.

VAUSE: Jim Sciutto reports it's the latest strain between the two countries ahead of the state visit by the Chinese president due next month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Today, U.S. Officials made clear, China posting foreign law enforcement agents on U.S. soil is prohibited and criminal.

JOHN KIRBY, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Foreign law enforcement agents are not permitted to operate within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General, and it's a criminal offense actually under U.S. law.

SCIUTTO: As first reported by the New York Times, the Chinese government has deployed spies inside the U.S. to influence Chinese nationals to return home and face justice. Hundreds of senior officials have already been arrested and charged inside China, right up to the highest level of the Chinese leadership.

And though many have fled to countries like the U.S. with their families and their money, China's broad anti-corruption drive is now extending the hunt to U.S. soil.

BOB BAER, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: The Chinese government, Chinese intelligence has been at this for years. They primarily use commercial cover, they use students here. They've been spying on the United States for decades. They're very good at it.

SCIUTTO: This is just the latest case of China aggressively pushing its influence far beyond its borders.

China has been building and militarizing islands in the South China Sea, 600 miles from its shores and in waters the U.S. considers international territory, leading to tense confrontations in the sky, which we experienced firsthand aboard a U.S. surveillance aircraft in May.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Chinese Navy. This is the Chinese Navy. Please go away quickly.

SCIUTTO: U.S. officials have all but publicly blamed China for the massive hack of the Office of Personnel Management, one of the worst ever against the U.S. government. Hackers obtained personal data of more than 20 million current, former, and prospective federal employees.

BAER: They're just getting much more aggressive. They're stealing more secrets, they're very difficult to catch.

SCIUTTO: And just last week, the Chinese government devalued its currency to boost its economy, a move that has rattled financial markets and undermined U.S. exports. All of this as President Obama prepares to roll out the red carpet next month for the first official State visit by China's new president, Xi Jinping. Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Let's take a very short break here, but still to come, investigators are on the scene at that deadly bombing in Bangkok. A look at what they've found so far.

VAUSE: Also, head firefighters battling raging wildfires across the west end of the United States. They'll soon get some help from the military.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for staying with us. You're watching CNN Newsroom live, all around the world.

CHURCH: I'm Rosemary Church, want to check the headlines for you this hour.

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VAUSE: We've more now on our top story, the deadly bombing in Bangkok. Police say it's clear tourists were the target here. At least three Chinese nationals were killed.

CHURCH: What is not clear is who carried out the attack. CNN's Asia Pacific Editor Andrew Stevens is in Bangkok.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN, ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: As the sun rose here in Bangkok, this was the scene, the center of the blast site. Police and forensic teams now moving in, looking for any clue that may give a hint as to who was behind this attack and what their motive was.

And you can see also, clear evidence beyond the line of police, of the impact, the strength of that blast. Big, concrete pillars holding up a fence shattered, bent out of shape. At this stage, this area will remain cordoned off while the police and forensic experts do their work.

And all the police are saying at the moment is that they believe that this was a tourist area that was deliberately targeted. Targeted because it would hurt tourism which would hurt the economy. But they have no clues as to who or why at this stage. But looking around this area, this is one of the busiest parts of Bangkok. Big shopping centers on two corners, the shrine, a very popular site for not only tourists, particularly Chinese tourists, but also for locals.

And police say this blast was timed for maximum impact, 7:00 p.m., when Thais were coming out of their offices and going home, paying their respects at the shrine, mingling with tourists, who were also doing the same thing.

This is the biggest attack that Bangkok has seen in recent times. There has been street protests for years here. There have been explosions in the past and there have been fatalities, but not on this scale.

People here in Bangkok wake up this morning in fear and in shock, looking for answers. Andrew Stevens, CNN, Bangkok.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

VAUSE: We're turning now to the Indonesian crash story. Officials say the bodies of all 54 passengers and crew have now been located. Let's go to Kathy Quiano on the line now from Jakarta.

So I guess, Kathy what happens next? They've located all of the bodies, how long before they can actually retrieve them?

KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we were just told that indeed 54 bodies were found at the crash site. The chief of the search and rescue agency in Indonesia told the media that they are in the process of putting this -- the bodies into body bags now and will be evacuated soon from the crash site.

Now we know that choppers have been deployed to the area as well. They're all equipped with long lines to hoist down teams to the ground and to quickly get the body bags into the choppers and they'll be brought to Oksibil where the plane was supposed to have landed on Sunday.

And that they will also then be brought to Jayapura, the capital of Papua. We expect that they will do this pretty quickly because, you know, weather is a factor in the process. Earlier attempts to reach the site were hampered by poor visibility.

We know that there is a window of opportunity for them to evacuate these bodies quickly, John.

VAUSE: So exactly where is this crash site? How far is it from where the plane was meant to land?

QUIANO: With this -- the plane crashed into a mountain just 14 kilometers or about 7 nautical miles from the Oksibil Airport. It was supposed to have landed there about 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.

And it's an elevation of about 8,000 feet or over 2,000 meters. It's quite high. And we're told that conditions there are very, very extreme. It's a very mountainous area. The terrain is very treacherous, and of course another thing that they have to face here are the weather patterns that are very hard to predict.

We have this area of the country with tropical weather, but also we have equatorial glaciers, moisture from the ocean, all these factors creating very unpredictable weather in the region. And that's something that rescue teams there will have to work around. John?

VAUSE: Okay, Kathy. Sad, but not unexpected news that there were no survivors from this weekend plane crash. Kathy Quiano on the line there with the very latest from Jakata. Rosemary?

CHURCH: A South Carolina nuclear site was locked down Monday after possible explosive residue was detected. It happened at the Savannah riverside in western South Carolina, which produced key components for nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

Authorities initiated an emergency response after electronic and canine scans indicated the possibility of explosive residue on a delivery truck. The lockdown was lifted late Monday evening.

VAUSE: The hacking of the Internal Revenue Service is twice as bad as first thought. In May, the agency said a criminal syndicate stole the tax forms of 104,000 people, but after a review the IRS revised that number to 220,000.

Letters are being sent out to taxpayers warning them of the potential identity theft, offering free credit protection and an identification number for future tax filings. A short break here on CNN's Newsroom.

When we come back, it has been days now since that deadly blast in China and residents in Tianjin are demanding answers from their government. A live update on the toxic chemicals left behind and the clean-up.

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CHURCH: Chinese authorities are still trying to clear dangerous chemicals from the site of last week's explosions in Tianjin. The residents there are concerned and want the government to do more. Will Ripley is in Tianjin and joins us now live with the latest.

So Will, talk to us about the situation on the ground there, what people are saying to you, and what about the air and water quality as it stands today?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It continues to be a concern, Rosemary, especially because we had some rain showers move through this area earlier.

And the big fear is that chemical experts have been saying that the rain, while it may actually clear out the air a bit, it could increase contamination levels on the ground because it's believed, and in fact, we saw yesterday there are some unknown chemicals that have been scattered about in areas. They were propelled by the explosion and they landed within possibly a three-kilometer radius of the blast site itself. And with the reaction when some of these chemicals when mixed with water could be quite dangerous.

So as a result, you see emergency shelters like this that had thousands of people at one point. We're only about a couple of kilometers from the blast zone. It still pretty much has emptied out. There are a few people staying here, mostly volunteers working here in case anybody needs emergency supplies.

But most people have moved towards downtown Tianjin, which is many kilometers away, more densely populated, and believed to be safer than the immediate area. But they're testing the air, the water and the soil and continue to say the levels are normal.

The people - the government is saying that the people shouldn't be concerned, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And Will, what more are we learning about the 700 tons or so of sodium cyanide that was stored there at the blast site? What's being said about that?

RIPLEY: It's very concerning. There is a criminal investigation underway into why such a large quantity was allowed to be stored so close to people's homes. And the fact remains that this chemical, when it's exposed -- when it interacts with water, it creates a deadly gas that even a very small quantity could kill somebody very quickly.

And so, the fact that they've detected this, there's 2,700 Chinese troops on the ground, there are several hundred biochemical experts and they're trying to -- they're trying to contain the sodium cyanide as they discover it.

So if the barrels are intact, they ship them away. If there's a larger scale exposure, they're actually building up structures around them so that it doesn't seep into the air with the rain that's been on and off today.

CHURCH: And what are authorities there and the Chinese government saying about ensuring that this doesn't happen again, that there aren't other instances where chemicals like sodium cyanide and others -- other substances like that aren't being stored in these great quantities?

RIPLEY: China's highest prosecuting authority is promising a full and criminal investigation. They're looking into abuse of power, they're looking into criminal negligence. And they're also, the central government has launched inspections in other Chinese industrial cities to see if there are other facilities with dangerous chemicals in close proximity to people's homes.

Industry clearly has fueled China's growth for many decades, and this is a country that has long been criticized internationally for industrial accidents. Keep in mind, 1.3 billion people live here, so it has a very large population. But last year on average, 186 people a day died in industrial accidents. There was one year back in 2002 when 7,000 Chinese miners died in a single year. So the government as of late has been trying to improve workplace conditions.

And this was really a dramatic example broadcast throughout China and not only on social media, but on State media as well, and to the world, which is why you saw the President Xi Jinping pledging to learn lessons from this that he says were paid in blood.

The number of dead has stayed at 114, but you can see these names, these are some of the people who are missing as of several days ago. The number of missing has gone down to 57. The death toll has remained steady. That is some encouraging news.

They are locating people, but still a tremendous human cost here, Rosemary. People want solutions as this country moves forward from this tragedy.

CHURCH: Of course. And our Will Ripley reporting there from the devastation of Tianjin in China. Many thanks to you. John.

VAUSE: Well Rosemary, for the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. soldiers will actually be joining firefighters battling raging wildfires in seven western states. About 200 soldiers from an army base in Washington state will be trained and sent to the fire lines.

The military's also providing aircraft which can dump large quantities of fire retardant. About 95 fires have destroyed hundreds of homes, burned more than a million acres or 445,000 hectares across those seven states. California, Idaho and Washington have seen the worst of it.

Let's get the very latest now on all the fire conditions. Pedram Javaheri joins us now at the news desk with another -- and gosh, we haven't talked about this in such a long time.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, WEATHER ANCHOR: Yes.

VAUSE: And, you know, the outlook isn't great.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: It doesn't look like any rainfall. You look at the whole United States, you look at the next seven, the next ten days out, almost everyone will get some rainfall with the exception of the western side.

And as you take record heat, you take record drought, the way we've placed it across the U.S., literally a tinder box right now across this area, fuel so high. In fact, the graphic here resembles the drought content that we talked about. This is not showing the drought in the western U.S., but the soil moisture.

And the areas indicated in the browns and the reds on the left side of your screen there, that's between 0 to 2% of what is considered normal. And into portions of say Missouri on into South Dakota, Missouri on into areas of Iowa, I should say, that's an area where we have blues and greens.

That's 100% of normal in the soil moisture content. So again, the fuel's tremendously high. You bring up the fires. We have some 76 large fires. Anything above

300 acres as far as how much grass has been burned is considered a large fire.

Six-and-a-half million acres so far consumed. That is two million acres above normal and about the size of the state of New Hampshire. That's how much damage has been done. Look at this, the air quality alert, how about this going until Thursday now as far as how poor the air quality is on the eastern side of Washington and also Oregon state, portions of Idaho.

And fascinating satellite imagery taken from about 22,000 miles or about 36,000 kilometers up, looking down toward the western U.S. since last week. And notice the signature - the plume signature, you see the elongated feature there on -- as we stop it for you -- on Thursday.

That's all the fires here popping up from 22,000 miles above us, looking down. As of Monday afternoon, this is what it looked like on the eastern side of Washington and Oregon state. Northern California also having a lot of fires to deal with across this region.

So the heat is there. The moisture certainly is not there, 87 degrees Fahrenheit in Seattle. That's your Tuesday forecast. Portland, in recorded history, has reached 100, which is about 37 Celsius, only once in history.

Ninety-nine degrees is in the forecast for the afternoon hours. And notice the heat continues for a couple of days before it cools off. And guys, this is pretty incredible. Twenty-four times this year, Portland has hit at least 90 Fahrenheit, that's 32 Celsius.

On average, that happens about 11 times. City of Atlanta, well known for heat, they get about 30 times per year of 90-degree-Fahrenheit heat. Portland is comparable to what Atlanta would typically see, so it kind of tells you how hot and dry it is in that part of the U.S.

VAUSE: Wow, absolutely. And I was down in L.A. over the weekend and it was steamy.

JAVAHERI: It is hot for everyone, yes.

VAUSE: It is a heat wave.

CHURCH: Too hot for you?

VAUSE: A little bit. Thanks, Pedram.

CHURCH: Thank you.

VAUSE: A short break here and when we come back, a major online retailer is finding accusations that it's a brutal place to work. Brutal, we tell you. Why Amazon is under fire. That's up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. One of the biggest and the most popular online retailers apparently isn't too popular with some current and former employees.

CHURCH: That's what we're hearing. A New York Times report portrays Amazon as a brutal place to work, but Amazon is fighting back. Kyung Lau reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YUNG LAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amazon, shipping whatever, wherever with an effortless click of your finger. But some 100 current and former employees claim it's not so magical for Amazon's white collar employees, describing to the New York Times a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog workplace, pushing out workers viewed as weak for getting cancer or having children.

A former employee quoting to the Times a saying around the campus, "Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about themselves." People claiming to be ex-employees reacted and commiserated across social media.

On Reddit, one claiming to be an ex-Amazon employee writes, "When I went to the bathroom, I would hear at least one person crying at least once a day. There are thousands of us in Seattle alone."

On Glassdoor.com, a networking site where employees review companies, Amazon's positive reviews carried this concern, "Advice to Management, remember that the employees are people and not machines."

Amazon's own produced videos called "Inside Amazon" showcased employees who call the job challenging and cutting-edge, but --

UNIDENTIFIEDFEMALE: You either fit here or you don't. You love it or you don't. There is, you know, no middle ground, really.

JEFF BEZOS, AMAZON CEO: Thank you.

LAU: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the driving visionary behind the online retailer's seismic success, responded to the New York Times article in an email to his more than 100,000 employees, writing, "I don't recognize this Amazon." Adding Amazon would not tolerate callous workplace behavior.

But tech analysts say this behavior has been around at Amazon for years, and frankly other start-ups. (John Sullivan) advises Fortune 500 companies and has studied Amazon for a decade.

JOHN SULLIVAN, ADVISOR TO MANAGEMENT: Well, they're startled, but it's because they live in a different world. But when you have to be first like in eBay, like in Amazon, you know, you have to have this kind of people, and I would say, shame on them if they were surprised.

LAU: Kyung Lau, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, now to some heartbreaking news out of the U.S. state of Maryland. Fifty-one-year-old Lenny Robertson was known as the Route 29 Batman. He dressed as the superhero, providing moments of relief and laughter to hospitalized children.

Sadly, Robinson was killed during a tragic highway accident over the weekend. Jessica Kartalija from CNN affiliate WJZ has more about the man behind the mask.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

JESSICA KARTALIJA, CNNAFFILIATE WJZ, REPORTER: As Batman, Lenny B. Robertson loved bringing smiles to little faces, arriving in his Batmobile to visit children in the hospital.

LENNY ROBERTSON, "ROUTE 29 BATMAN": They're constantly fighting for their lives. You know, if this helps them, that's what it's all about.

KARTALIJA: The 51-year-old died Sunday when his Batmobile broke down along I-70.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): This other vehicle from Virginia came through and unfortunately, struck him, which caused his death.

RICHARDSON: It's just devastating to all of us.

KARTALIJA: Robertson paid countless visits to patients at Sinai's Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics.

RICHARDSON: That was a huge honor that he loved Sinai Hospital, he loved the Rubin Institute. But most of all, he loved our patients.

KARTALIJA: A resident of Owings Mills, he started and sold his own cleaning business. Years later, he would buy the costume and cars and transform into the superhero, a favorite of his three children.

RACHEL FOOTE, RIAO PATIENT: Even though they aren't his immediate family, I feel like we're all a family here, and he was a part of that family. And he was such a big part of it.

KARTALIJA: Rachel Foote is a RIAO patient.

FOOTE: He talks to all the kids individually and gives them words of encouragement.

KARTALIJA: Robertson went viral three years ago when he was pulled over by Montgomery County Police when he forgot to take off his Batman tags en route to a children's hospital. Robinson called it good publicity for volunteering.

FOOTE: Even the littlest things that you do to help others can make a huge difference in the life of someone else. KARTALIJA: Like the time he visited Elizabeth Gardner at school for a walk to stop bullying. Robertson's memory alive inside everyone he touched.

RICHARDSON: And we are very blessed and very thankful to have known him and to have had him for the time that we did and have such a close relationship with him. We just feel completely blessed.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, that was Jessica Kartalija from our affiliate WJZ with that sad report.

CHURCH: Yes, and you have been watching CNN. I'm Rosemary Church.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause, back next hour with the very latest on the Bangkok blast as well as a report on just how realistic Donald Trump's immigration plan might be. Hope you stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)