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Pope's Historic Meeting With Russian Orthodox Leader; Pope Francis Arrives In Mexico City; Papal Message Of Solidarity To Drug And Trafficking Victims; Government Forces Advance In Northern Syria; Republicans Lash Out Ahead of S.C. Primary; Gravitational Waves Detected For the First Time; Northern White Rhino On Verge of Extinction. Aired 12-12:30a ET
Aired February 13, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AMARA WALKER, CO-ANCHOR, "CNN TODAY," CNN: He's Michael Holmes.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CO-ANCHOR, "CNN TODAY," CNN: And she's Amara Walker.
WALKER & HOLMES: And this is CNN.
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NATALIE ALLEN, ANCHOR "CNN NEWSROOM," CNN: A warm welcome but a tough agenda for Pope Francis in Mexico. We'll tell you why hope and a touch of fear surround his visit to one of the world's Catholic heartlands. Also as Syria's President says he's open to peal talks, his troops are putting up a ferocious fight. We'll have an exclusive report from the front lines. And from bromance to bust-up, why things are getting increasingly nasty between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on the campaign trail.
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Hello, everyone, I'm Natalie Allen. This is "CNN Newsroom." Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.
(BEGN VIDEO CLIP) And we begin with Pope Francis in Mexico. President Enrique Pena Nieto created him Friday night, along with hundreds of followers waiving lights and performing traditional songs. Musicians saying "viva Francisco" and "viva Papa," the Pope. He'll have an official visit with the Mexican President and hold mass on Saturday. That is the Pope first full day in the country, where he will spend much time talking on the country's drug violence. As we said, he holds mass Saturday at an historic site, and again on Wednesday at the border with United States. Earlier Friday the Pope had an historic visit with Russian Patriarch Kirill in Havana, Cuba. This is the first time a pope has met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church since the two faiths split in 1054, a long time ago. Pope Francis has a full schedule while in Mexico and, as is typical, the Pope will spend a lot of time ministering to the poor. Shasta Darlington has more on what we can expect.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN, SAO PAULO: Some surprisingly melodious parishioners gearing up for Pope Francis' arrival, a six-day trip that starts right here, the Basilica of the Virgen of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico. Visited by millions of pilgrims each year who pray before a 16th Century shroud that bears her image. According to the chaplain, Pope Francis seeks guidance at the start of his trip.
PRIEST: Le comienda la protecion at la...
DARLINGTON: He's looking for her protection, he says. He's entrusting his whole trip to Mexico to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Pope Francis planning to visit some of Mexico's poorest and most violent corners, from Ecatepec, a sprawling suburb with the highest rate of killings of women, to Morelia, at the center of Mexico's narco war. Pope Francis chose this shrine because it's the most revered in Mexico, in much of the Americas. But it's interesting, talking to parishioners here, they say of course they want to hear his message of faith, but they're just as interested in having him shine a light on the problems of corruption and crime in Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pues, que hable este...
DARLINGTON: I would ask him to talk to authorities about the violence, says this woman, especially the disappearances. This man traveled on foot for five days to reach the shrine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...porque este alli son lo mas que necesitan...
The Pope's going to visit the places where people need him most, he says, where he needs to motivate them so they don't lose faith.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Te acuerda que Dios esta presente...
DARLINGTON: But, here at the Basilica, faith runs deep. For these musical nuns flying in from Peru the message is simple. When the future seems uncertain and fear weakens your faith, believe in God. Shasta Darlington, CNN, Mexico City.
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ALLEN: The singing nuns. I want to bring in Vatican analyst John Allen for us. How about that? That was nice song. We expect more of that in Mexico, I guess, John.
JOHN ALLEN, SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST, CNN: Yeh, listen, I mean, you know, the, the Pope is a rock star sort of every place, but maybe no place more so than in Mexico.
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You know, you can always count on the presence of a pope and, of course, this is history's first Latin American Pope, so there's an extra element this time. To bring out the, the kind of popular enthusiasm and just sort of, you know, grass roots fervor. You know, we already saw that tonight when the Pope landed at the airport in Mexico City. You had on the 12-mile route between the airport and the residences of the Papal Ambassador, where he's staying, all along that route you had people who had showed up with candles and lanterns, sort of literally creating a thousand points of light to sort of celebrate the Pope's arrival. And over the next five days I expect everywhere he goes he is going to draw massive and wildly enthusiastic crowds. Natalie.
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N. ALLEN: Right. And, you know, this trip is very much about being there for the impoverished Mexicans, and as Stasha was just pointing out, he is not holding back, if he ever does, from going to the hot spots of a country. And he's not shying away from the serious issues Mexico has with violence and drug cartels, and he even had some criticism from the candidate Donald Trump because the Pope is also going to the border.
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J. ALLEN: Yeh, I mean that's absolutely right. This is a Pope who is absolutely not shy about wading into political waters. And, in many ways, this trip shapes up as almost a sort of greatest hits collection of key political and social themes. I mean, since his election three years ago he has talked non-stop about his passion for the poor, his concern for migrants and refugees, his concern for prisoners, his concern with the drug trade and the victims of violence, his concern with corruption. And he's going to hit all of those themes. He's going to be visiting a prison in Morelia, just 48 hours after a prison riot in Monterrey in north of Mexico left dozens dead and offered a grim reminder of the difficulties of prison conditions in the country.
As you indicated, on the 17th he's going to be going to the U.S.- Mexico border at Cuidad Juarez. He's going to walk right up to the barrier between the United States and Mexico. On the other side, on the U.S. side, there are going to be about 600 recent immigrants in the United States from Mexico and Central America who will be within shouting distance of the Pope. (END VIDEO CLIP)
And, clearly, that is intended to make a statement in favor of immigrant rights, which is a somewhat explosive thing to do within context of U.S. presidential politics. As you said, Republican candidate Donald Trump has already said that he doesn't think Francis actually understands the situation in the United States, and I'm sure other candidates will be pressed to respond to the Pope pro-immigrant stance after he's there at the border. So, just on multiple levels, what we see is a Pope who is just absolutely unabashed about continuing to press the humanitarian agenda that he's passionate about, regardless in a way, Natalie, of what the political consequences of doing so may be.
N. ALLEN: And this is a pope who two years ago kicked out the Mob from the Catholic Church. It'll be interesting to see how he addresses the cartels there in Mexico, and we'll talk with you again about his trip. Thanks so much. Our analyst, John Allen, for us there in Denver.
Well, the Pope's first full day in Mexico Saturday will be capped with a mass he will celebrate at the Basilica of Guadalupe. Stay with us for live coverage throughout his visit here on CNN. And our map just showed how wide-ranging and far he will travel in the country. There it is right there, ending at the border, Cuidad Juarez, 50 miles from El Paso, Texas.
Well, we turn now to the civil war in Syria that has claimed at least a quarter million lives in the past five years.
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World powers, including the U.S. and Russia, say they have agreed to a pause in hostilities in Syria. But that pause will not talk effect for another week. Meantime, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he is open to peace talks, but he insists he will continue to fight enemies he believes are terrorists. Ahead of that expected pause in combat, Russian air strikes backing the Syrian regime continue in the embattled city of Aleppo. And with that Russian assistance, Syrian government forces have made major gains across northern Syria. CNN has gained unusual access to areas just north of Aleppo that have been taken back by Assad loyalists. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in a town that has endured years of fighting. Here's his report.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN, LONDON: God, Syria, Bashar, and nothing else these villagers chant in the pro- regime village of Nubl. The mostly Shia town was under rebel siege for more than three years. Fourteen-year-old (Zalticar Ali Jaweeh) lived through it and recalls the hardship. It was very tough he says. Many people got sick and the kids were very scared. But, after a while, we became numb to the fear. The siege was broken by the recent government offensive north of Aleppo. Now there is food in the local markets and clearly a lot of support for the main backers of the Assad regime, Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia.
The people here in Nubl are keen to show their affection for Hezbollah, for Iran, and for Russia. They believe that throughout the years of siege, it's these groups who stood by them and insured this town's survival.
The U.N. has strongly criticized the denial of aid to besieged areas in Syria, accusing government forces, some rebel groups, and ISIS of using food and medicine as weapons. The new agreement reached by world powers hopes to put an end to these tactics. Aleppo's countryside is now one of the main battlegrounds in this brutal five- year civil war, as pro-government forces press an offensive backed by Russian air power, tens of thousands have fled towards the Turkish border. On our trip we saw scores of deserted villages, some clearly scarred by fierce fighting.
Government soldiers issues a strong warning to opposition fighters. Their families should encourage them to look for reconciliation, he says, otherwise they will be killed. They have no other options. But the opposition believe reconciliation is not on the government's mind. They say they are simply being slaughtered as the Syrian military continues to push to try and retake the area north of Aleppo, in what many feel could be a crushing blow to anti-Assad forces. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Nubl, Syria.
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ALLEN: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are at ti again. And now Trump is threatening to sue over it. We'll have that next.
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ALLEN: And welcome back. We turn to the campaign trail now. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is threatening to sue fellow candidate Ted Cruz over his citizenship, all ahead of a crucial primary race. Here's more from CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CORRESPONDENT, CNN, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Donald Trump's pledge to stay above the fray in South Carolina short-lived, Trump blasting rival Ted Cruz on Twitter, writing quote, If Ted Cruz doesn't clean up his act, stop cheating and doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural-born citizen. Just hours after posting this, quote, how can Ted Cruz be an evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest? Late today Cruz returning fire.
SEN. TED CRUZ, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's more than a little irony in Donald accusing anyone of being nasty, given the, the amazing torrent of insults and obscenities and vulgarities that come out of his mouth.
SERFATY: This new offensive comes a day after Trump showed off a lighter side in the Louisiana, even autographing a baby and suggesting he was ready to go positive.
DONALD TRUMP, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I won't use foul language, I'm just not going to do it. They're all saying, do it, do it, no. I'm not.
SERFATY: But Trump couldn't stay out of the all-out fight breaking out in the South Carolina trenches.
VOICE OVER: There's nothing conservative about giving money to the Clintons. There's nothing conservative about Donald Trump.
SERFATY: The airways plastered with negative ads.
VOICE OVER: Ted Cruz voted to undermine our national defense and weaken our ability to track terrorists. Marco Rubio is different.
SERFATY: Attacks between the candidates are flying back and forth with a dizzying pace.
VOICE OVER: Maybe you should vote for more than just a pretty face next time.
SERFATY: That back is backfiring on Cruz. His campaign is pulling it off the air after it was revealed that actress is also an adult film star.
CRUZ: It was designed to be a fun, light, cute ad. It happened that one of the actors who was there has a more colorful film history than we were aware.
SERFATY: Cruz' team is refocusing today with a new ad directing fire instead at Hillary Clinton in a spoof of the movie "Office Space." Many of the candidates today are speaking at the conservative Christian Bob Jones University in South Carolina, making a big pitch to woo coveted evangelical voters.
GOV. JEB BUSH, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do not believe that you put your faith in a lockbox when you're in public life and say, well, that's only for my private matters. That's just not - that is totally wrong.
SERFATY: And jockeying over who has the most conservative credentials.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you disagree with people, for example, on the definition of marriage, they call you a hater and a bigot. And what's the next step.
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SERFATY; Of course, all this happening one week before Republican voters head to the polls here in South Carolina. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Greenville, South Carolina.
ALLEN: On the Democratic side, one day after a debate where they repeatedly called each other out on some key issues, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are back on the campaign trail, and they're trying to win support from a crucial group of voters in South Carolina. Here's Joe Johns.
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JOE JOHNS, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Hillary Clinton is pitching South Carolina voters on why she is best suited to be the Democratic nominee.
HILLARY CLINTON, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to go after every single barrier that stands in the way of what Americans can do.
JOHNS: The Clinton campaign is hoping he Palmetto State can help slow Bernie Sanders' momentum following his big New Hampshire win on Tuesday.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, New Hampshire.
JOHNS: The fight for the first in the South primary will likely hinge on support from African-American voters, who make up over half the Democratic electorate in the state. Clinton lost African-Americans in South Carolina to President Obama by nearly 60 points in 2008.
PRESIDENT BARACH OBAMA: Thank you, South Carolina.
JOHNS: With the President still held in high regard by African- Americans and Democrats nationwide, both candidates are working hard to show their support for him, as seen at Thursday night's Democratic debate in Milwaukee.
SANDERS: President Obama and I are friends.
CLINTON: I think President Obama has set a great example.
JOHNS: Clinton is trying to drive a wedge between Sanders and President Obama.
CLINTON: The kind of criticism that we've heard from Senator Sanders about our President I expect from Republicans, I do not expect from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama.
SANDERS: That is, Madam Secretary, that is a low blow.
JOHNS: With Sanders returning the favor.
SANDERS: One of us ran against Barack Obama. I was not that candidate.
JOHNS: Sanders is also targeting Clinton over Wall Street contributions to her Super PAC.
SANDERS: Fifteen million dollars from Wall Street.
CLINTON: Barack Obama!
JOHNS: An attack Clinton rebutted by noting President Obama's Super PAC also took money from Wall Street in 2008. But that did not influence his decision making as President. CLINTON: Let's not in any way imply here that either President Obama or myself would in any way not take on any vested interest, whether it's Wall Street or drug companies, or insurance companies...
JOHNS: But Sanders refused to let Clinton off the hook.
SANDERS: People aren't dumb. Why in God's name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions? I guess just for the fun of it, they want to throw money around.
JOHNS: When it comes to reining in Wall Street, Clinton said she and Sanders share a similar view, but that her agenda goes beyond that one issue.
CLINTON: I am not a single-issue candidate and I do not believe we live in a single-issue country.
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JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Denmark, South Carolina.
ALLEN: Coming up here, only three North African White Rhinos remain on earth. We'll have the bold international plan to save these magnificent animals from extinction.
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ALLEN: There's buzz from scientists that a Nobel prize could be awarded for this week's major breakthrough in astrophysics. That gravitational waves, first theorized by Albert Einstein one century ago, are in fact real.
DAVIE REITZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LIGO LABORATORY: We have detected gravitational waves, we did it! (APPLAUSE)
ALLEN: Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time caused by two black holes that spiraled together, oh, about 1.3 billion years ago. Scientists used a new technique to actually hear the black holes collide, something they couldn't do before. And they say that could open up a whole new area of astronomy. Derek Van Dam has been looking into this because this discovery is just incredible.
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DEREK VAN DAM, METEROLOGIST, CNN: Absolutely. So let me pose this question to you and our viewers. What if we could travel to far away galaxies that would typically take, let's say, 50,000 light years in the span of maybe 10 years here relative to us on earth. That's the direction we're going if we keep making discoveries like this. That's how monumental this is. And I want to explain this to you. Take a look at this video so you can see what's, what's happening.
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This is a NASA illustration. A merging of dwarf stars, similar to black holes in their size and mass. They approach each other over billions of years. But then they move very, very quickly. And during that final fraction of a second, they collide, they lose energy through the emission of this gravitational wave, and that's the big buzz word that we continue to talk about.
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So getting to my graphics here behind me, this is the two black holes, supposed black holes, that merged one and a half billion years ago, and sent that pulse of energy three times the mass of the Sun, and finally reached us here on earth. It was detected in two separate locations, one at a wave observatory in Louisiana, and the other in the state of Washington. And let me just explain this quickly. There're two and a half mile-long vacuum tubes with mirrors on either end of them. And there's very intricate lasers that measure the precise distance of the separation of those mirrors.
But once they see those mirrors actually separate by a fractoid of length, they actually start to detect that with this wave form here. They call it a chirp, a gravitational wave chirp. That is when they know. And the fact that it happened in two separate parts of the world at the simultaneous same time, that's when they knew that a gravitational wave moved through. It was only here for 200 milliseconds, but it moved those mirrors by 1/400th diameter of a proton. We need a large mass, like the Sun or the black holes, to create these gravitational waves, and that's exactly what we saw, and finally it reached us here on planet Earth.
Well, I'm going to leave you with this because I like to see how scientists celebrate discoveries like this, Natalie. What do you do at NASA, well, you make a cake...
ALLEN: With black holes.
VAN DAM: ...to celebrate the detection of gravitational waves. By the way, this woman tweeted it out 16 minutes before NASA was able to get out the information. So a bit premature.
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ALLEN: All right. Well, thank you Derek. All right, well the North White Rhino used to roam the grasslands in East and Central Africa, but no more. The animal is on the verge of extinction. Researchers have a plan to save this species, but it's complicated, requiring new science and a lot of patience. Still, there is a chance.
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Just three North African White Rhinos remain on the planet. She is one of them.
RANDY RIECHES, HENSAW CURATOR OF MAMMALS AT SAN DIEGO ZOO SAFARI PARK: This (Fatu). She's a female Northern White Rhinoceros. She was born in the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic. ALLEN: And she'd the youngest Northern White Rhino still alive. There were four until last year when (Nola), seen here, a 41-year-old Northern White Rhino died at the San Diego Zoo. Now there are these precious three, (Fatu), another female, and a male. All live under 24-hour surveillance. Armed guards that shifts at this Kenyan conservatory to protect them from poachers, who can strike at any hour. While Kenyan wildlife authorities guard the final three, there is an idea half way around the world, a plan to save the species.
A handful of their cousins, the Southern White Rhino, have been flown to the San Diego Zoo in California from South Africa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We now have imported six female Southern White Rhinos for this project. It will be lengthy project to actually bring Northern White Rhinos back and have a sustainable population here in San Diego.
ALLEN: The young rhinos between four and seven years of age were flown here in November from private reserves in South Africa. Now the six females are undergoing exams, in the first steps of a worldwide plan to rescue the Northern White Rhino.
RIECHES: We brought experts in the field of reproductive physiology from all around the world. So we have people here from South Africa, from Japan, from Germany, and several experts from around the United States. They all came here and we're all working to one end, and that is actually to save the Northern White Rhinoceros.
ALLEN: Scientists harvested cells from the remaining three Northern White Rhinos in Kenya. They'll study several options using these female surrogates in California, including possible artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, or an embryo transfer. It may take a decade or more, but it is the only chance, a last-ditch scientific effort to save the Northern White Rhino.
And join me here on "CNN Newsroom" in about 90 minutes, when you'll hear an interview with Peter Knights. He's the Executive Director of Wild Aid, an organization that campaigns for the welfare of rhinos, and a crackdown on the trade in their horns. He'll explain why they have become on the verge of extinction.
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I'll be right back with our top stories. You've been watching "CNN Newsroom."
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