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Syria Ceasefire Stopped Much of the Violence; Trump Taking Heat for Not Rejecting Duke Support; Spotlight Wins Best Picture; DiCarpio Wins Best Actor; North Korea Claims Detained US Student Confessed to "Hostile Act"; ISIS Bombings Kill Dozens in Baghdad. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired February 29, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Shaky but holding. A truce in Syria enters a third day with no major violations.
ERROL BARNETT, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Under fire. Donald Trump caused new controversy after refusing to distance himself from KKK supporters.
Also coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN FREEMAN, ACTOR: And the Oscar goes to "Spotlight."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: "Spotlight" wins the prize for best picture at an Academy Awards nearly overshadowed by issues of race.
BARNETT: A very big welcome to our viewers here in the States and those of you watching from all around the world. I'm Errol Barnett.
CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. Thanks for joining us. This is CNN Newsroom.
BARNETT: The skies over Syria are relatively calm almost three days after a ceasefire took effect there. The fighting has slowed down, but the truce hasn't completely stopped the bloodshed. Rebel groups say they're still coming under fire.
CHURCH: Some world powers say military pressure on the Syrian regime may still be called for, even with the truce in place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTIAN JENSEN, DANISH PRIME MINISTER: There are only a political solution to the Syrian problem and the Syrian war. But a political solution can only come with a military threat. Otherwise, Assad will continue his barbaric regime, where he has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people.
(END VIDEO CLIP) Our senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward has just
returned from rebel-held territory in Syria. She was northwest of the City of Aleppo, where she saw firsthand how the ceasefire is holding up.
CHURCH: Clarissa is virtually the only Western journalist to have traveled to the heavily hit area in more than a year, and here is her exclusive report.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in the heart of rebel-held Syria, and this entire area has seen some of the most intensive bombardment in the past few months. And we've been traveling all around here for nearly a week now. And certainly it is fair to say that since the cessation of hostilities began there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of air strikes.
Now, having said that, earlier, we visited a town called Darat Izza on the outskirts of Aleppo, and people there told us that about 30 hours after the ceasefire began there was an air strike on a house. We were able to capture some video of the aftermath of that air strike. There have also been reports of clashes in other parts of the country. But certainly it does feel quite a bit quieter here.
Now, what's interesting is that you won't find anybody here celebrating about the ceasefire, and that's for a number of reasons. Firstly, in the run-up to the cessation of hostilities there was a dramatic increase in Russian aerial bombardment.
Secondly, the people here who live in rebel-held territory simply don't trust the regime of Bashar al-Assad. They see the ceasefire as a trick or a ruse designed so that the regime can take more territory.
And for that reason many people we've spoken to are in fact actually against the ceasefire. Just a few days ago, we attended a protest where people were carrying signs that said this ceasefire is a betrayal of our martyrs, of those who have died for the cause.
They were chanting over and over again, we must keep on fighting and we must unite. Even the imam in his weekly sermon was urging people not to heed the ceasefire and to continue fighting, not to give up.
And I think what this really highlights is the fundamental disconnect between the people who are fighting and dying on the ground here and the people outside of the country who are brokering these types of deals.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, on the outskirts of Aleppo.
CHURCH: And tune in to CNN to see Clarissa's full of exclusive reports from inside Syria.
Well, the rebel groups in Syria say Russia is behind the latest air strikes against their positions. Moscow has not commented on that.
We want to turn to Matthew Chance, who's in Moscow. He joins us live with more. So, Matthew, the finger's being pointed at Russia. What does the evidence tell us, and how and when is Russia likely to respond?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, there's been reports as I understand it from various rebel groups that there have been a number of air strikes carried out on the outskirts of Aleppo. Of course, the Russian Air Force in the past several weeks has been very active in supporting a government offensive to retake that city.
[03:04:58] So far, as you mentioned, the Russian Defense Ministry has not confirmed or indeed denied that it has carried out any air strikes over the course of the past 24 or 48 hours inside Syria.
They have issued a statement, though, commenting on the progress of the cessation of hostilities. They're saying that in general, the ceasefire as they call it, has been observed in Syria. Although the Russians also have identified a number of violations that they've disclosed. One of them apparently in Latakia province, which is of course one of the main strongholds of the -- of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, saying that the militant action there was supported by shell fire from across the Turkish border.
And so, the Russians are saying that the Turks have themselves been party to the violations of the cessation of hostilities in the course of the past 24 hours. The Russians recording nine incidents in the past day that they say are a violation of the terms of that ceasefire or of that cessation of hostilities.
So, we've got a situation now where both sides, all sides rather, are accusing one another of minor violations or of some violations of the terms of the truce. But in general at the same time, and I think this is important, all sides including the Russians are saying the truce is generally holding.
CHURCH: Yes. And Matthew, it's worth pointing out that in the lead up to this truce going into effect the United States had indicated it doesn't trust Russia completely. How is that playing out now and how did it play out across Russia?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, yes. There's obviously a degree of mistrust between the United States and Moscow. Although at this point it's the U.S. and Russian relationship and their diplomacy together that has resulted in the cessation of hostilities. Even though it's an agreement which, I don't think anybody seriously argues isn't heavily weighted in favor of Russian interests.
Russia has been backing Bashar al-Assad of course since last year when it sent its military to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It's done that very successfully. Just a few months ago, Bashar was facing defeat, of course, and in the past several weeks before the cessation of hostilities his military backed by the Russian Air Force.
And of course, other allies from Iran and Hezbollah have been making significant territorial gains in areas where they haven't controlled the Russian government -- sorry, the Syrian government hasn't controlled for several years. And it's all resulted in this cessation of hostilities. And that's generally a good thing. It means that the U.N. along with the Russians as well and other
parties can get more humanitarian aid into those areas that really need some kind of support and trying to give some kind of basic sustenance to the millions or hundreds of thousands of people inside Syria that have been deprived of food and water over the past several months of conflict.
CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to our Matthew Chance bringing us that live report from Moscow.
BARNETT: It is the eve of Super Tuesday. This is the biggest single day of the U.S. presidential primaries. Thirteen U.S. States have caucuses or primaries that could decide who becomes the nominee for the republican and democratic parties.
CHURCH: On the republican side, a new poll released Sunday gives Donald Trump big leads in Georgia and Tennessee, but Ted Cruz holds a wide lead in the Super Tuesday state with his biggest prize his home State of Texas.
Among the democrats, Hillary Clinton hit the campaign trail in Tennessee, where she hopes to continue her recent success.
CHURCH: And she spoke to a mostly African-American crowd in Nashville. A demographic that catapulted her to a blowout win in South Carolina. She took a veiled swipe at republican frontrunner Donald Trump and his campaign slogan make America great again.
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HILLARY CLINTON, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that America is great right now.
(CROWD CHEERING)
What we need is to be whole. We need to be whole where all of us have a place, where everybody feels like we're all in this together. That is what I want to do in this campaign, and it is what I want to do as your president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Meanwhile, Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders is not backing down. He was in Oklahoma on Sunday, one of the main states he hopes to win on Super Tuesday to stay competitive with Clinton.
CHURCH: Well, speaking in Oklahoma City, he hit one of his most common critiques of Clinton, her speaking fees on Wall Street.
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[03:10:03] BERNIE SANDERS, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is what I think. If you're going to get paid $200,000 for a speech, must be a pretty damn good speech.
(CROWD CHEERING)
And if it's such a good speech, you've got to release the transcripts, let everybody see it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Now, Donald Trump is under fire as he prepares for Super Tuesday.
CHURCH: The republican frontrunner was confronted with questions Sunday about re-tweeting a quote from fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
BARNETT: Now it reads, quote, "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." Trump defended the use of this quote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's OK to know it's Mussolini. Look, Mussolini was Mussolini. It's OK to -- it's a very good quote. It's a very interesting quote. And I know -- I saw it -- I saw what -- I know who said it. But what difference does it make whether it's Mussolini or somebody else? It's certainly a very interesting quote.
CHUCK TODD, MEET THE PRESS SHOW HOST: Do you want to be associated with a fascist?
TRUMP: No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes. And people -- you know, I have almost 14 million people between Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of that.
TODD: Right.
TRUMP: And we do interesting things. And I sent it out. And certainly, hey, it got your attention, didn't it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Trump's opponents are also blasting him for not rejecting an endorsement from a former leader of the KKK. Trump said this when CNN's Jake Tapper asked him about distancing himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know anything about David Duke, OK? I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.
MARCO RUBIO, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Should the head of the conservative movement, should the republican nominee be someone that today like Donald Trump refused, refused to criticize the Ku Klux Klan? He was interviewed on CNN and asked to disavow the Ku Klux Klan. He refused to do it. He was asked to disavow and criticize David Duke. He said I don't know who that is. He knows exactly who that is. He knows exactly who that is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Now, despite all the criticism, Donald Trump still picked up his first endorsement from a sitting U.S. Senator.
CHURCH: Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama announced his support of the presidential contender at a rally Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF SESSIONS, (R) U.S. SENATOR: I told Donald Trump this isn't a campaign, this is a movement. Look at what's happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: I think it's safe to say that Larry Sabato has never seen a situation like this with a republican frontrunner. And that's saying something because he is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He joins us now from Charlottesville, Virginia.
Larry, what do you make of Donald Trump's wobbly response to racist support? He does seem reluctant to disavow it forcefully.
LARRY SABATO, VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR POLITICS DIRECTOR: Errol, it's actually hurting him. Very few things have with his base. He's been able to survive a lot of controversies. But just about everybody has jumped on trump for not completely disavowing David Duke instantly as he had done before and as he has now done again and refusing at one point to comment about the KKK.
This has energized Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, his two primary opponents on Super Tuesday. How much impact will it have? I expect Trump still to win the lion's share of the states up on Tuesday. But it has weakened him.
BARNETT: And as you mentioned there, time is running out for the nomination to be handed out to a different republican candidate. Donald Trump did pick up his first endorsement from a sitting senator. This is after the David Duke comments.
But it is clear the majority of establishment figures fear a Trump nomination. They fear it essentially hands the election to the democrats, not just the White House but possibly the Senate as well. Overall is the Republican Party in disarray?
SABATO: Oh, I think it's just a question of how much disarray. This is a party that is now badly split, and at the moment at least it's difficult to see a way out for them. If they nominate Trump, they're going to lose a large portion of mainstream republicans.
They won't vote for Hillary Clinton, the democratic nominee or the likely nominee. They will vote probably for some independent that files. But it simply means they can't win. And if Trump is not nominated, many of Trump's followers will not vote for the eventual GOP nominee. So, this is a major problem. BARNETT: And it's quite fascinating to watch this all unfold as well.
Meanwhile, on the flip side, Hillary Clinton says her national campaign has kicked off after her decisive win in South Carolina's primary on Saturday. She got 74 percent support compared to Bernie Sanders' 26 percent.
But is she really out of the woods yet? Because there are some election match-ups showing Bernie Sanders doing better against Trump. But what's the real story there?
[03:15:08] SABATO: Oh, she can see the clean field in front of the woods. She's not completely out of the woods.
BARNETT: OK.
SABATO: But she is very close to having in essence wrapped up the nomination. She doesn't have anywhere near the number of delegates you need to be nominated. But the fact of the matter is, when she can beat Bernie Sanders by a margin of three to one in South Carolina, and when she is very likely to win the lion's share of the states and the delegates up on Tuesday, Super Tuesday, it's really only a matter of time until she's declared the effective nominee.
BARNETT: Larry Sabato joining us from Charlottesville, Virginia. The director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Thanks for your time today, Larry.
SABATO: Thank you, Errol.
CHURCH: Let's take a very short break here. But still to come, the U.S. student detained in North Korea speaks out for the first time since his arrest. Why Pyongyang says he's being held there.
BARNETT: Plus, actor Leonardo DiCaprio wins big at the 88th Academy Awards in L.A. we'll tell you about the other winners and shockers of Hollywood's biggest night.
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KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sport headlines.
We're going to start with the game of the day. The League Cup final between Liverpool and Manchester City at Wembley. Deadlocked 1-1 after normal time. And then we went into extra time, the score being the same. The match had to be decided on penalties where backup keeper Willy Caballero made three saves before Yaya Toure stepped up to get the decisive win.
The Man City win 3-1 on penalties and lift the cup for the second time in three years.
To Spain now in Barcelona extended their unbeaten streak in all competitions to 34 games after beating Sevilla on Sunday. It wouldn't be easy for the Catalans. Barca would have to come from behind as Lionel Messi would get the equalizer with his sixth goal from a free kick this season.
Then, Gerard Pique would put the league leaders ahead, making it 2-1. The win also extends Barcelona's lead atop the table by eight points.
And it seems not even injury can keep American skiing sensation Lindsey Vonn off the slopes this weekend in Andorra. All this despite suffering a hairline fracture to her left knee on Saturday. She did actually compete on Sunday in a two-leg World Cup super-combined event in and she led after the first leg too. Quite incredible. She would eventually finish the entire event in 13th position.
And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.
[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARNETT: A North Korean official says a U.S. student detained there has confessed to a, quite, "hostile act." Twenty-one-year-old Otto Frederick Warmbier spoke at a news conference Monday.
Pyongyang says the conference was Warmbier's idea, but it's unclear if he was forced to speak or if he did so in his own words.
BARNETT: It's the first time reporters have seen Warmbier since he was arrested January 2nd. Our Will Ripley joins us live from Beijing to discuss this. Will, you know better than anybody that it's hard to know the real story in North Korea. Officials so well versed in stagecraft and propaganda. What is the deal with this detained American?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Errol, that certainly is the question because the North Korean officials who told me about this press conference long before it happened, this had been in the works over the weekend. Apparently they said, this was an eager request on the part of Otto Warmbier, 21 years old, a University of Virginia student who was detained just after the New Year in Pyongyang as he was getting ready to board the airplane to leave after a tour of the country with a tour group.
Now, at that time we didn't know the charges that he had faced, although some who were in his tour group reported that a lot of the people in the group had been out the night before having a good time in the Yanggakdo Hotel which is where a lot of foreign tourists stay.
And now this press conference reveals what Warmbier is accused of doing, what he is now confessing to, a confession that we don't know if it was made under duress.
Essentially, around 2 a.m. he says that he went to the second floor of the hotel, which is where only the staff are housed. And in areas where North Koreans are staying there are often these propaganda banners on the wall, slogans of patriotism about the country and the regime, and apparently, Warmbier says he attempted to steal one of these slogans, tried to take it down, fold it up, put it in his suitcase. He realized that it was going to be too large for him to take out of
the country, and so he just left it sitting there in the hallway. In the United States and many other countries this would be considered a simple college prank. Clearly not the case in North Korea. Listen to the emotional confession that he gave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OTTO FREDERICK WARMBIER, U.S. CITIZEN IMPRISONED IN North Korea: I entirely beg you and the government of the DPK Korea for your forgiveness. Please, I've made the worst mistake of my life. But please, act to save me. Please. Think of my family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: Now, the charges against him that the North Korean government presented to us allege that he did this in cahoots with the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA as well as a church and a secretive student group at his university. We reached out to the State Department, the university and the church and all of them say that they have no connection to this, Errol.
BARNETT: Sometimes we can look at Kim Jong-un, his regime or the calendar to explain North Korea's behavior. Why might this be happening now?
RIPLEY: Well, if you look at the context, of course North Korea is about to face even more heightened international sanctions than they have previously due to their purported H-bomb test earlier this year and then a satellite launch just a couple of weeks later, that a lot of countries feel was simply a front for testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
And so, these sanctions are looming. And this young American who may or may not have done something frankly not wise in North Korea, it's not wise to do anything that could be politically charged at all in that country if you're a visitor there, and if what he's confessing to is the case he now becomes a political pawn.
He gives the North Korean regime leverage as they try to open up some sort of dialogue with the United States. And at this moment, there's a United States citizen being held there, even though the charges other people may look and they might not think that this is something so serious, it certainly is being taken very seriously in North Korea. Penalties could be prison time, hard labor, and the rest for essentially trying to steal a sign.
BARNETT: Yes, a very likely the world's worst place to pull a prank. Will Ripley joining us from Beijing. Just past 4.20 in the afternoon there. Will, thanks.
CHURCH: All right. Turning in a very different direction now to Hollywood's biggest night. The 88th Academy Awards. Highlighting the best achievements in the movie industry.
BARNETT: This year's ceremony was hosted by comedian Chris Rock, who wasted no time joking about the Oscars so white controversy and the lack of black nominees. But first the big moments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: And the Oscar goes to "spotlight."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: "Spotlight" took home the top prize of the night, winning the Oscar for best picture.
BARNETT: And finally, actor Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar for his leading role in "The Revenant." And other big winners of the night, Alejandro Inarritu scored his second straight Oscar for best director. This time for his work in "The Revenant." First-time Oscar nominee Brie Larson won for best actress. That was for her role in the "Room."
[03:25:13] CHURCH: Mark Rylance nabbed best supporting actor for "Bridge of Spies" and best supporting actress went to Alicia Vikander for her role in "The Danish Girl."
BARNETT: And this year's Oscars weren't just about the big winners.
CHURCH: Yes, there were other memorable moments during the show. CNN's Stephanie Elam was there and has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Everyone was waiting to see how host Chris Rock was going to handle the Oscars so white controversy. And he wasted no time getting right into it.
CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: Well, I'm here at the Academy Awards. Otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. You realize if they nominated hosts I wouldn't even get this job.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leonardo DiCaprio.
ELAM: The night's big winners included Leonardo DiCaprio. It was his fifth acting nomination, and he finally got that Oscar for "The Revenant."
LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: Thank you. Thank you all so very much. Thank you to the academy. Thank you to all of you in this room.
ELAM: For the ladies, Brie Larson was the favorite to win for her role in "Room" and she did get her gold statue. And for best supporting actress Alicia Vikander took the win for "The Danish Girl." She was still shocked that she won when I spoke to her outside the Governors Ball.
ALICIA VIKANDER, ACTRESS: It's a pretty good night. This looks like an Oscar. It's crazy. This is fiction. I watched this, I had to wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. with my mom every year to watch this on early. I mean, it was just like not really real.
ELAM: And in a very tight competition, "Spotlight" ran away with the win for best picture.
Stephanie Elam, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: All right. We have many other big stories coming up for you. Some controversy as the final results from Iran's major election comes in. What's at stake and who's complaining in a live report from Tehran. Next.
[03:30:00] COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: And a warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett. It's our last half hour with you. Let's update you on our top stories.
A ceasefire in Syria is now into its third day. The truce has drastically curbed the bloodshed, but it hasn't stopped it entirely. Opposition groups say war planes have attacked their positions. The Syrian government denies carrying out air strikes.
U.S. republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is taking heat for not rejecting support from a former Ku Klux Klan leader. In a CNN interview, Trump deflected when Jake Tapper repeatedly asked him about distancing himself from white supremacist groups and the KKK.
BARNETT: The film "Spotlight" took home the biggest prize of the 88th Academy Awards Sunday night, winning the Oscar for best picture. Comedian Chris Rock hosted the ceremony. He was quick to joke about the Oscars so white controversy, criticizing the lack of black nominees.
CHURCH: Turning to Iran now, where some of the country's hard-liners are pushing back against an apparent defeat at the ballot box.
BARNETT: Now, this was a crucial election with seats in parliament and a major clerical body at stake. Results so far show reformists with major gains in both institutions. But a judiciary chief is accusing them of working for the West.
CHURCH: Well, the official results are expected very soon.
Our Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran. He's been covering this, now has the latest. So Fred, how surprising is it, this outcome so far, and how might the hard-liners respond to these results going forward?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, they're already responding and I think many people here in Iran are certainly surprised by how strong a showing the reformists have had so far in this election.
We just literally a couple minutes ago, got the results for the assembly of experts. That's a clerical body that will vote for Iran's next supreme leader for the Tehran area, and they are 15 of the 16 seats have gone to moderates. There's only one conservative that got into that clerical body here in Ian's capital.
And that certainly is something that is very, very significant because a lot of hard-liners who were in that body for a very long time have now been voted out. Other than that, though, there is some controversy still about these election results.
The results for the Tehran area for the parliamentary election show that all 30 seats in the Tehran area have gone to moderates, and that's certainly something that is being celebrated in moderate newspapers. I have the Shard Daily here, which is the moderates' main newspaper, that says all 30, and then shows the pictures of all of these 30 candidates.
However, if you look at another newspaper, this is the very conservative Kayhan newspaper, and its headline is a big lie, saying 111 is less than 153, and that plays to the fact that the conservatives are saying that they have won over all -- in all of the country in Iran and that the moderates have only won in Tehran.
At this point in time, we're still waiting for the final results, as you said, but the way it's shaping up right now it certainly seems as though a very strong showing for the moderates and reformers here in this country, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Fred, how big a turning point might this be for Iran when you consider that those who've been chosen here will select the next supreme leader?
PLEITGEN: Well, it certainly is in ways something that validates the policies of President Hassan Rouhani. I wouldn't necessarily expect big changes here in Iran after this. Even the reformers who have voted into Iranian parliament are very mild reformers. They're still part of a wider political establishment.
However, one of the things that certainly now we can expect is that the reforms that have been initiated by President Hassan Rouhani, this course of opening up to the West, is something that will continue and is also something that will possibly even be accelerated to a certain extent.
But there won't be any major leaps toward larger reforms, toward maybe big political changes here. That's something that simply won't happen even with the consolation right now.
However, we can expect this opening up of the West, that course, to be strengthened by the results if they do stand the way that they're shaping up to. And certainly at this point in time it looks as though the final results are pretty much what we're seeing right now, Rosemary.
[03:35:07] CHURCH: All right. Interesting. Our Fred Pleitgen, who's been covering the elections there in Tehran, as he reported there, those official results will be revealed very soon. But they will pretty much follow what we have just seen. Thanks so much, Fred.
BARNETT: Now, ISIS is claiming two bombings that killed at least 66 people in eastern Baghdad. A motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated in a crowded outdoor market followed by a suicide blast.
CHURCH: More than 160 others were wounded, and women and children were among those killed. The attacks targeted a predominantly Shiite district.
BARNETT: Another threat to Iraq. The Mosul Dam. Engineers fear it could fail without warning.
CHURCH: Yes, they say the ground underneath Iraq's largest dam does not have the strength to hold it up. Now, if it breaks, the water would flood Mosul and could reach all the way to Baghdad. Engineers say when it breaches it will happen in minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are serious structural -- structural problems that likely exist underneath. And so, you have Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, a city of two million, just downstream from the dam and then the capital itself. Most of the capital would be flooded, to include the green zone, the seat of the government.
So, this isn't actually a moral responsibility. This is an existential threat to the survival of two of Iraq's largest cities. And then all the way down to the south and Basra itself, which is obviously where all the oil is produced for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And for years, crews have been filling holes in the dam, but that work stopped when ISIS captured Mosul in August 2014. That same month, Kurdish and Iraqi forces seized back control of the dam. Now an Italian firm has been hired to make repairs. In addition, Italian troops will be deployed to protect the repair crew.
BARNETT: Now, you all know Donald Trump's rhetoric is triggering controversy here in the U.S. But is the rest of the world listening to this man? We'll get the international view of the republican presidential frontrunner from points around the globe.
CHURCH: Plus, war veterans wounded in combat are now putting their skills to use taking down child predators. We're back with that and more.
[03:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: We cannot be a party that nominates someone who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan.
CLINTON: What we need is to be whole. We need to be whole, where all of us have a place, where everybody feels like we're all in this together.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BARNETT: Democratic and republican presidential candidates there
ripping into Donald Trump for refusing to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who says he's supporting trump. Trump failed to condemn the white supremacist group during an interview with CNN on Sunday.
CHURCH: Also over the weekend, former Mexican Presidents Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox compared the republican frontrunner to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Calderon says Trump's rhetoric is sowing hate.
He asked CNN -- we asked CNN reporters to tell us how Trump's emergence is playing in their corners of the world. And we turn first to Cairo, where Trump's position on Muslims worries many Egyptians.
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ian Lee in Cairo. Here in the Egyptian capital there's a lot of talk about Donald Trump. But first, Egypt is a major U.S. ally and partner in the war against terrorism. It also happens to be a majority Muslim country. That's why the possibility of Donald Trump as president has many worried, especially with Trump's views regarding Islam.
He vows to block Muslims from entering the United States, at least temporarily. A move Egyptians here view as racist and islamophobic. It's important to note, U.S. presidential elections aren't carried out in a vacuum. The whole world is watching carefully. Everything a candidate says is scrutinized.
Donald Trump's rhetoric against Muslims could make it hard for him to reach out to crucial Middle East allies, Muslim countries on the front lines in the war against ISIS. Egypt's leaders for now remain diplomatically quiet. The republican frontrunner says he has many Muslim friends. It's just hard to find one of those friends here.
KELLIE MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. I'm Kellie Morgan in London. Well, here in the U.K. Donald Trump's triumph in the Nevada primaries isn't exactly making front-page news. It's sort of confined more to the opinion pages and providing some fodder for cartoonists including Peter Brooks here from the Times.
you can see here that he is likening our very own controversial politician, Boris Johnson to Donald Trump with that unmistakable flick of blond hair there. So, apart really from a parliamentary debate earlier in the year over whether or not to ban Donald Trump from the U.K. over his controversial comments on Muslims, the Brits are really treating his race to the White House as a bit of a spectator sport.
And you can see that clearly through betting agencies. A bit of money going down on whether or not Donald Trump will indeed be nominated as a republican candidate. Originally, the odds were 200 to 1. They have now been shortened. He is the favorite. And one man's stance is he'll win 100 thousands.
RIPLEY: The rise of Donald Trump is definitely surprising to a lot of people here in Tokyo, and it continues to be front-page news. The Yomiuri saying Trump wins three in a row. Many Japanese of course, closely watching the U.S. presidential race. America is Japan's closest and most powerful ally. And while few
Japanese politicians and business leaders are saying much publicly about Trump, privately there is some concern. Many are taking note of Trump's harsh criticism of U.S. economic policies in Japan.
He's talked about the trade deficit, the fact that Japan sells so many cars in the United States but U.S. automakers sell just a fraction of that amount here in Japan. And he's also said that the treaty that requires the United States to protect Japan is unfair and a bad deal. Something that he says he would like to change.
So, the thought on the ground here in Tokyo is that if Trump were to actually be elected the U.S. president and were to follow through on some of his promises to shake things up, well, it could have a very dramatic effect and not necessarily a positive one on U.S.-Japan relations moving forward.
Will Ripley, CNN, Tokyo.
BARNETT: And despite all that, Trump could be about to get a big boost here very soon. We invite you to stay with CNN for extensive coverage of all the Super Tuesday primaries. We'll have live updates all day and into the night only here on CNN.
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CHURCH: Thousands of U.S. Service personnel have returned from the battlefield with career-ending wounds.
BARNETT: But many of them still have a sense of service and a whole lot of fight still left in them. Now as our Kyung Lah reports, some of them are putting their skills to work chasing down people who abuse children.
KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's training day for former army ranger Tom Block.
TOM BLOCK, FORMER ARMY RANGER: HERO card, baby.
LAH: Block, and 23 other elite war veterans from the U.S. Special Forces, that the U.S. military spent more than a million dollars each training to be physically and mentally exceptional, are now prepping for a new mission.
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J. CHRISTIAN, NAPC CEO: So, the HERO Corps being just a completely unique program that it is, it gives a veteran the opportunity to not only take on a mission but really, really go out and make efforts to rescue children.
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LAH: J. Christian, himself a former highly decorated army ranger, leads the team as head of a non-profit called PROTECT. The group is partners with Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Special Operations Command to train and place these veterans with law enforcement agencies around the country.
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CHRISTIAN: You see groups of children being abused at levels the average American can't fathom. And the abuse seems to be getting, you know, more documented and worse.
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LAH: PROTECT says the United States is the world's largest producer of child pornography. The images too hard to look at, often too horrible even to describe. But for these heroes the idea of not taking action is not an option.
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CHRISTIAN: But what we're dealing with is actual capturing of crime scenes. It gives you that sense of urgency to make sure that you're able to get there as fast as you can. And when they go out into the field the main objective for the hero is to aid and assist in child rescue.
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LAH: These HERO corps veterans share another trait. In order to qualify for the program, the veteran must have been wounded, ill, or injured in service to their country. Block, the army times' 2014 soldier of the year, was badly wounded during a raid in Southern Afghanistan in 2013. A suicide bomber charged him and his team. The explosion went off just eight feet from where Block was standing.
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BLOCK: We lost four friends that night to IED blast. Leveled some of the house, about most of the house, threw me back 30 feet into a ditch. Wounded a bunch -- a bunch of others.
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LAH: Getting back to fighting shape wasn't easy. After learning to walk again, Sergeant Block endured several reconstructive surgeries. Doctors couldn't save his right eye. But Block decided to use the setback to make a statement.
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BLOCK: I picked captain America's shield for my fake eye because I feel it's something that represents what I stand for in a big way. He doesn't like bullies. And neither do I.
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LAH: Let that serve as notice for anyone who may be terrorizing children.
Kyung Lah, CNN. CHURCH: And to learn more about the heroes working to protect
children from online predators, you can go to protect.org. Next you will meet a former member of the elite Delta Force. Injuries in Afghanistan left Shannon Krieger feeling like he hit rock bottom.
BARNETT: But as he told our Paula Newton, Krieger found a cause in his home town of New Orleans that helped him rebuild his own life.
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SHANNON KRIEGER, HERO CHILD RESCUE CORPS: As child exploitation people we're busy this time of the year.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For example, monitoring chat rooms to identify people planning to come to Mardi Gras to have sex with children.
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KRIEGER: There's a lot to do. Because of Mardi Gras. Because a lot of people are here that aren't normally here. And they bring some really bad habits with them.
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BARNETT: And he is just one of the heroes at home you'll meet this week as part of our freedom project, only on CNN. We'll be right back.
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PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Final day of February upon us. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for your weather watch.
Starting in the Americas right now where we have mild temperatures across the southern U.S., spring-like in nature. In Dallas, 26 degrees. Temperatures in Atlanta make it up to around 20 degrees. Some showers possible around portions of New York, Chicago, around the same in the temperature department, but we're watching some changes here as a frontal boundary cruises right by portions of the Midwest around the Great Lakes. Eventually it will bring in some snow showers.
Really it's going to be a narrow band into portions of, say, northern areas of Indiana into Southern Michigan. And notice it does push in toward Ottawa, Quebec as well toward the latter portion of the week. Mild temperatures begin to take place.
We do have another storm dropping back after this. And this is of course Super Tuesday ahead of us as far as primaries and caucuses for 13 states taking place across the United States on Tuesday. Some thunderstorms certainly possible. Severe weather possible in parts of the south as well.
Across the western U.S., multiple shots of wet weather coming in. At least a start here to an El Nino season that's really been not impressive for some areas. Going to get some rain showers there across parts of California in the coming couple of days.
Mexico city, no rain in the forecast, around 23. Havana looking at the upper 20s and partly cloudy skies to go around across that region. And thunderstorms around Bogota, looking at the mid-20s. Brasilia and Rio, around 27 with thunderstorms.
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FREEMAN: And the Oscar goes to "Spotlight."
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CHURCH: And when the film "Spotlight" won the Oscar for best picture, some were surprised. But for the six Boston Globe reporters portrayed in the movie the win is a major victory for journalism.
BARNETT: That's right. CNN's Brian Stelter spoke with the makers of "Spotlight" about its message and its impact.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Everyone knows the sorry state of the news business. The internet taking over and thousands of jobs lost along the way. Overall trust in media is at record lows.
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TRUMP: They are disgusting, I'll tell you.
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STELTER: With few signs it will improve anytime soon.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been such a shame what's happened to journalism over the last 15 years.
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STELTER: "Spotlight" is a rebuttal to all the doom and gloom. In "Spotlight" the reporters are heroes. Uncovering Catholic Church corruption. Bringing sex abuse survivors out of the shadows.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show me the church manipulated the system so these guys wouldn't have to face charges.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a story that confronted us really.
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STELTER: Marty Baron, the real-life editor played by Liev Schreiber in the movie, arrived in Boston and read a column saying that the truth about priest abuse may never be known.
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MARTY BARON, THE WASHINGTON POST EXECUTIVE EDITOR: When you say the truth may never be known, that should be a red flag to journalists to go after something and really find out what the truth is.
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STELTER: The result in investigation rocked the Vatican to its core. Now "Spotlight" is doing what its title evokes, shining light on the way journalism can truly help people.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since the movie spotlight came out, many more survivors have come out. Nothing in the past has done what "Spotlight" has done to bring out of darkness the issue of priest abuse, cover- ups, and the ongoing secret that still exists today to protect the good name of the church.
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[03:55:12] STELTER: In other words, there's still more reporting to be done.
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Everybody knew something was going on, and no one did a thing.
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STELTER: Reviewers say "Spotlight" has given inspiration to an industry that needs it. With some comparing Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams to Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford from the famed movie "All the President's Men."
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no way the White House can control the investigation.
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STELTER: Reporters have loved this movie. But the makers of "Spotlight" say they want the message to resonate with the general public as well.
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TOM MCCARTHY, "SPOTLIGHT" DIRECTOR: Hopefully not just a shot in an arm to journalists but also to citizens to say, hey, we need this, this is -- good journalism is an essential element of our democracy, we have to do what we can to protect it.
STELTER: Brian Stelter, CNN money, New York.
CHURCH: I want to see that movie. BARNETT: Yes. Looks like a real good one.
CHURCH: Yes. It's definitely on the list. And thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church.
BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett. We've now warmed you up for the week. So, you're in good shape. Join us tomorrow. And remember, you can always join us on Twitter anytime. Early Start is next for those of you here in the states.
CHURCH: And for our viewers elsewhere, stay tuned for CNN Newsroom. And have a great day.
BARNETT: See you.
[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
