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Republicans Look for a Way to Stop Trump; Democratic Candidates Take Aim at Trump; North Korea Fires Short-Range Projectiles; U.S. Elite Forces Capture First ISIS Operative; Petitioners Sleep on Beijing's Streets; Possible Boeing 777 Debris Found in Mozambique; Pedophile Priests Colluded to Abuse Victims; Refugee Olympics Team Created; Astronaut Scott Kelly Returns to Houston; Orphaned Baby Animals Unite Amid Poaching. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired March 03, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A deepening wall within. The U.S. Republican Party scrambles to figure out how to deal with their renegade front-runner.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Tension on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang accused of firing projectiles less than a day after new U.N. sanctions are imposed.
BARNETT: The missing airliner: a new piece of debris could be a clue in the disappearance of MH370.
CHURCH: Also ahead, details of astronaut Scott Kelly's record- breaking stay in space.
Hello, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church.
BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett. Thanks for joining our two-hour block. CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
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CHURCH: And we begin with the race for the U.S. presidency and the growing panic in the Republican Party over Donald Trump as their likely presidential nominee.
His Super Tuesday victories give Trump 332 delegates, more than one- fourth of the 1,237 needed to secure the nomination. But the establishment wing of the Republican Party is not happy with the front-runner.
BARNETT: That's right, the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, is expected to go after Trump at a speech in Utah on Thursday. Romney is considered a party elder and has been critical of the celebrity billionaire.
Trump tweeted, quote, "Just another desperate move by the man who should have easily beaten Barack Obama," end quote.
Now interestingly enough, Trump endorsed Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign.
And despite what the party establishment says, Trump is getting broad support among the Republican voters.
CHURCH: Yes, he won primaries in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. Sara Murray has more on his rise to the top and what some are trying to do to stop him.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Riding high on a string of seven Super Tuesday wins --
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel awfully good.
MURRAY (voice-over): -- Donald Trump, now with a wide lead in the delegate fight, may be on the cusp of locking down the Republican nomination.
TRUMP: It's only too bad that winner didn't take all, because, if winner took all, this thing is over. We're just having a celebration.
MURRAY (voice-over): As he steels himself for a potential general election fight...
TRUMP: Look, I am a unifier. I know a lot of people are going to find that a little hard to believe, but, believe me, I'm a unifier. Once we get all of this finished, I'm going to go after one person. That's Hillary Clinton.
MURRAY (voice-over): -- Trump is vowing to cut deals and work more closely with the Washington establishment than President Obama.
TRUMP: Does he ever go and deal with Congress anymore?
Does he ever speak to the Senate?
MURRAY (voice-over): But the establishment isn't having it.
REP. BOB DOLD (R), ILLINOIS: I will not support Donald Trump now and I will not support him should he move on.
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MURRAY (voice-over): Republican leaders are still hoping someone can mount a challenge, as some suggest Ted Cruz, who won three states last night, could be the Trump alternative.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I'm anybody but Trump. Ted and I are in the same party. Donald Trump is an interloper. I don't trust him.
MURRAY (voice-over): And Ohio Governor John Kasich faces increasing pressure to step aside, including from supporters of Marco Rubio.
SEN. CORY GARDNER (R), COLORADO: There's no honorable mention in the nomination. John Kasich has run a good race and he will continue to run a good race, but there's no path to victory for him.
MURRAY (voice-over): The field does appear to be winnowing. Today, Dr. Ben Carson put out a statement, saying: "I do not see a political path forward," adding he will not attend Thursday's debate.
While Rubio, trailing Trump and Cruz in the delegate fight, still insists there's time for a comeback.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R) FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Usually, in race like this, you have a front-runner. And at this point people would be saying you need to drop out and rally around the front-runner for the sake of the party.
They're saying the opposite now. There will never come a time in this race where our supporters are asking us to get out and rally around Donald Trump.
MURRAY (voice-over): All as Trump takes aim at the Florida senator.
TRUMP: I know it was a very tough night for Marco Rubio. He had a tough night.
MURRAY (voice-over): Hoping to finish Rubio off right here in his home state.
TRUMP: But you know what?
We're going to go to Florida. We're going to spend so much time in Florida.
MURRAY: And we're expecting the anti-Trump movement to take on an even bigger voice on Thursday. That's when Mitt Romney is scheduled to give a speech in which we're expecting to knock Trump but offer some complimentary comments about Marco Rubio as well as Ted Cruz, all of this as establishment Republicans hope there is still a time to mount the challenge against the billionaire businessman -- Sara Murray, CNN, Singer Island, Florida.
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CHURCH: And to the other candidates in this presidential race, the Democrats. Hillary Clinton's Super Tuesday wins have given her a wide lead in the delegate count.
BARNETT: And despite an uphill battle, Bernie Sanders says he is staying in the race. Now both candidates are taking aim at Donald Trump.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: This is one of the most consequential presidential elections we've had in a long time because, make no mistake about it, the other side has a very different vision about what our country should look like, how we should treat each other.
It really matters when you're running for president what you say and, boy, does it matter when you are the president about what you say and how the rest of the world hears you.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (INAUDIBLE) the American people understand that community and helping each other, standing by each other trumps selfishness and, most profoundly, most profoundly, the American people know in their hearts that love trumps hatred.
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BARNETT: We have some political insiders to help us understand what's happening in this presidential race. This hour we'll be focusing on the Democrats.
Brian Robinson to my left is a GOP strategist and a Rubio supporter.
Tharon Johnson on the other side of our desk is a Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter.
Welcome to you both. Thanks for coming down to the CNN Center.
Tharon, I want to start with you. Bernie Sanders says he will continue his campaign, this is despite the loss on Super Tuesday, despite the decimation, in his words, in South Carolina and despite the fact that his support doesn't seem to be going beyond whites and Millennials.
Is his presence now going to hurt the Democrats?
THARON JOHNSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Not at all. And really, we need Bernie Sanders in the race to continue to talk about the issues that are really important to the American people.
But you got to give Hillary Clinton credit. We heard a lot about this Southern firewall and we knew once the six Southern states which Americans just voted on, in Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee and other places, is that she did very well there, particularly with women of color.
And so if you look at the early states, like Iowa and New Hampshire, those were very majority white states and so when he moved in to Nevada and to Georgia particularly, he wasn't able to do so well. But I think ultimately Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic nominee. However, she's got to make sure that she stays very poised and nice to Bernie because not only does he have a lot of support, he has a lot of money. And we're going to need that money to beat Trump come November.
BARNETT: Interesting point. BRIAN ROBINSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: But the thing, this shouldn't be a race at all. Hillary Clinton should not be going head-to-head with an elderly socialist who's not electable.
She had to camp out in Nevada to win that caucus. To lose any is really an embarrassment and shows the weakness of her candidacy. And I think the Democrats have make a major mistake by not putting up a serious contender against her.
This is someone who's got disapproval ratings above 50. That's deadly in most general elections.
CHURCH: But Brian, you can't -- look at the delegate count. She is way ahead. In the end, it's more than likely this will be Trump going head-to-head with Hillary Clinton. And the reality is --
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CHURCH: -- but let's look at what's going happen here. We pretty much know how Trump's going to attack her. He's going to go personal about her husband's personal life. He's going to talk about the emails and the possibility of her being indicted.
But when it comes to policy, she is going to basically slay him. Let's face it.
So at this point, the Republicans must be really worried.
How are they going to deal with that?
Would they prefer to see Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz there, going face-to- face, head-to-head with Hillary Clinton?
ROBINSON: I think you're seeing the Republican establishment, whatever that is, really beginning to coalesce now, not behind Cruz, not behind Rubio necessarily but against Trump.
You're seeing a lot of money pouring into super PACs whose purpose is none other than to attack Donald Trump, tear him down and expose him.
You mentioned the policy issues, him getting slayed. That never happened on our side in this race until last week in the debate, when they went after him on ObamaCare and what he would do to reform it. He couldn't scratch beneath the surface of his talking point and the drawing of the lines around the state.
He's going to get exposed and the race is on to do it right now.
JOHNSON: But here's the thing. I think it's too late. The party that's responsible for Donald Trump is the Republican Party. The reason he had all this enthusiasm and momentum is because people are tired of the establishment in the Republican Party.
He released a plan today on how he would repeal ObamaCare and he released it and you guys (INAUDIBLE) to report it.
But it was basically like a two-page memo. It didn't really take a deep dive into the policy issues, to your point.
But ultimately one of the things that Brian is just so afraid of is that they know that they have a very, very divisive and destructive --
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JOHNSON: -- candidate that's leading their delegate count right now.
BARNETT: But there also weaknesses on the Democratic side. Let's take a look at the delegate count.
Our viewers can see it on their screens. When you factor in super delegates, Hillary Clinton is almost halfway to the delegate goal, more than 1,000, when just shy of 2,400 are needed.
Brian, are the Republicans hoping to make the e-mail controversy, the lack of trust people have for Hillary Clinton an issue now?
Or will they wait for the general election?
Because that's her Achilles heel.
ROBINSON: Well, we've been trying to do that for a long time and we got a little controversy when we talk about the Benghazi hearings and the effects that had on her negativity ratings.
So giving Hillary Clinton is nothing we've ever shied away from and there's plenty to hit her on. And she's had four years secretary of state with really no accomplishments to point to. She's got -- and broke national law by having a server in her housel she may get indicted. There's a lot of rich targets.
She is beatable. She's someone that the Republicans should be salivating to take on. Our problem is we've got to get somebody who can beat her. All we have got to do, all we have to do is get a viable candidate, put them in that slot and beat her.
CHURCH: But, Tharon Johnson, who can beat her on the other side?
JOHNSON: Well, all the polls show that Donald Trump can't beat her because he talks about her being sort of polarizing. But listen, Donald Trump, his nominee right now, soon to be, is a guy who basically talked about the pope, called him a weakling. He said that Mexicans are rapists.
So listen, President Clinton has come out and basically talked a lot about Secretary Clinton's experience, particularly on foreign policy.
When you ask Donald Trump what he would do to really make sure that we keep our allies across the country, he has no plan for that. And so I think one of the things that particularly Brian is worried about, because he supports Rubio, he won his first state yesterday.
And so now how do you stop this guy in a delegate count?
I don't think they have a plan for that. BARNETT: We'll take a pause right there. GOP strategist Brian Robinson and Tharon Johnson, Democratic strategist, stay here with us. We're going to tackle the Republicans next hour. Great conversation, guys. Thanks for that.
CHURCH: North Korea is firing back in the face of new crushing sanctions being brought by the international community. We will have a live report on the show of force Pyongyang unleashed just hours ago.
BARNETT: Plus U.S. Special Forces have captured their first suspected ISIS operative in Iraq. What the U.S. is hoping to learn from the detainee right after this.
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BARNETT: North Korea fired six short range projectiles off the east coast of --
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BARNETT: -- the Korean peninsula. South Korea's defense ministry says this happened just hours ago. At the moment they're analyzing what's taken place.
CHURCH: This comes a day after the United Nations Security Council voted to impose harsh new sanctions against North Korea, the toughest in decades. Our Paula Hancocks is in Seoul, South Korea, watching these latest developments.
And, Paula, of course, it's not clear what the six short-range projectiles were exactly but what we do know, they were in response to new tough U.N. sanctions we just mentioned.
What impact will these wide-ranging sanctions likely have?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's first of all, Rosemary, take a look at the particulars of these sanctions to see just how the regime will be affected by them. There are a number of new restrictions and expanded restrictions from previous resolutions.
They're going to have a mandatory inspection of all cargo going in and out of North Korea.
Now this is new. Before it was just that there were suspicions of something illegal on board there would be an inspection. There's also going to be a complete ban on all small arms sales to the country, the expulsion of diplomats that are found to be carrying out illicit activities. All countries have signed onto that.
And also there's a wider ban on luxury goods, things like ski jets and snowplows under the $2,000 marker, marked in that particular area, obviously because of that ski resort Kim Jong-un built, a ban on aviation and rocket fuel and limit on its sales of coal and iron ore.
Now that last one could well have a significant impact on the regime. We understand that coal exports are valued at $1 billion every single year. That's a very significant amount of annual income for the regime. So if these sanctions are fully implemented -- and it is a big if -- then certainly it will have an impact on the regime -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Paula, interestingly, North Korea's ally, China, signed on to these wide-ranging sanctions.
What role will China likely play going forward in terms of enforcing and policing these new sanctions and containing North Korea?
HANCOCKS: Well, most of it falls to China. They're the ones that actually share the significant border with North Korea, about 1,500 kilometers, almost 900 miles. And this is where much of the smuggling in the past has been happening between China and North Korea. This is how North Korea is believed to have been able to get hold of most of these goods, which are banned under previous resolutions, previous sanctions.
So if China decides to heavily police that border, then certainly it will have an impact on the regime.
But it is very much dependent on China and Beijing having the will to be very closely monitoring what exactly is going in and out of North Korea. It's no secret, though, that relations between the two countries are at an all-time low. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong- un, has been in power for four years. He hasn't even met the leader of the country that is effectively keeping his country afloat on a daily basis.
His biggest trading partner, his biggest ally, one of his very few allies and he still hasn't met President Xi Jinping. So it's very clear that relations between the two are particularly bad at the moment -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Indeed. Our Paula Hancocks, bringing us up to date with that live report from Seoul in South Korea. We will talk again with you, Paula, next hour. Many thanks.
Well, we're learning new information about a unit of elite U.S. troops that recently began fighting ISIS in Iraq. The Special Forces have captured their first suspected ISIS operative, who is not being identified. The detainee will be turned over to the Iraqi government after being interrogated.
BARNETT: Now the U.S. of course is hoping to gain key intelligence on ISIS operations. Washington wants to use that information to plan strategic raids to capture or kill ISIS leaders.
Our military analyst, Lt. Col. Rick Francona joins us now from La Quinta (ph), California. Regular viewers will recognize him, of course. He's also a former U.S. military attache in Syria.
Colonel, always good to have you on the program. This suspected ISIS operative is in U.S. custody, likely being interrogated. Officials are preparing to retake Mosul in Northern Iraq.
But why the change in Special Ops objectives from kill to capture?
LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, this is very important and it represents a real shift. And I think it's a realization that sometimes it's better to try and capture these guys than just kill them. It's a more difficult process, though, Errol, because going out and capturing someone rather than just killing them presents a whole new set of challenges, where you can kill someone from a bit of a distance. If you're going to capture them, you have got to go insecurely, go right to that person take him and then get him out of the area, all the while facing whatever resistance is being put up.
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FRANCONA: But if you can do it, the intelligence gains are immense. And we've seen this time and time again.
Just recently the Umm Sayyaf raid, which was in Syria, they brought the wife of the -- I call him the oil minister of ISIS -- she was able to provide a lot of useful information. And I think the realization was, both in Baghdad and in Washington that if we can get more information this way, it will help us in the future operations.
And as you know, what we're gearing for is the retaking of Mosul. And I think we need to help the Iraqis; this is one of the ways we're doing it.
BARNETT: Now airstrikes, whether they be manned or unmanned drones, as precise as they are, they can still kill civilians and the U.S. effort, as we've been detailing for a long time, has been desperate for intelligence on the ground in Syria and in Iraq.
Why then has it taken so long to switch to this strategy that's more intel focused?
FRANCONA: It's hard to say this; this is not boots on the ground. And you know that the administration has been reluctant for -- since they took office to have boots on the ground in Iraq. They do not want to reintroduce ground troops.
But that's exactly what they're doing. These raids are conducted in a very high-risk environment. And we've already lost one Special Forces soldier last year (INAUDIBLE).
So I think the administration is taking more of a risk here but I think they realize it's necessary. If the Iraqis are going to take Mosul, they're going to need good information; they're going to need more U.S. support. This is the first step.
Of course, critics will say this starts that slippery slope. We're starting with Special Ops.
What comes next?
BARNETT: Also what about the fact this information is being share. I mean, this is being made public now by officials at the top for some reason.
Why do you think that is?
Is it possible that it's something that been done for a while?
FRANCONA: Well, I think the shift in tactic from kill to capture is relatively new. I think these raids have been going on for some time. Anytime there's a rescue operation or when they go out and kill a specific individual, they've been doing that. But the shift to capture, I think, is relatively new.
Why are we talking about it?
Why are we making this public?
I don't agree with this but it could be a psychological operation telling ISIS this is Delta. They're the best in the world.
We've demonstrated the capability to come get people and now they have to wonder, where am I sleeping tonight and is someone coming in the window?
BARNETT: And just in the last few seconds here, the Mosul Dam is ready to go. A million Iraqis could be flooded, if and when it does.
When should we then expect an operation to liberate it from ISIS?
FRANCONA: Well, that's been -- that's been in the works for some time. The problem is they're worried about what will happen if they go up there and drop a lot of explosives in the area. That dam has been unstable for 15 years. The Army Corps of Engineers has been warning about this over and over and over.
And now it's coming to a head. And we're going to have to address this. I suspect there are plans for some Special Operations to get in there and try and secure that dam, another high-risk operation -- Errol.
BARNETT: All right. We'll have important things still to be accomplished. Lt. Col. Rick Francona, joining us from La Quinta (ph), California, our CNN military analysts, thanks for your time today.
FRANCONA: Good to be with you.
CHURCH: The annual meeting of China's parliament, the National People's Congress, begins on Saturday in Beijing. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the country's five-year plan.
This comes as Moody's downgraded its outlook on China's debt. The NPC is described as China's supreme organ of state power and it's made up of nearly 3,000 members.
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BARNETT: Meanwhile people are sleeping on the streets of Beijing, hoping those government leaders will hear their troubles. It's become an annual tradition. Alexandra Field explains why so many take the risk.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "If they don't solve my problem, I won't go back home."
That's a promise from one of Beijing's petitioners. Another says he spent 15 years living here because...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
FIELD (voice-over): -- he has something to prove.
FIELD: There are estimates that about a third of the people who live on Beijing's streets are petitioners. Their numbers can reach as many as 1,000. The majority of them will come out here and line up, once China's parliament is in session.
FIELD (voice-over): They bring grievances from all over China to the country's capital, hoping to be heard. But there's almost no success rate. It's fueled by tradition. Part of Chinese culture, according to Chung Jhou (ph).
He says they believe only the country's highest officials can help them. Despite the government's urging that petitioners should stay home and send in letters, some still take their claims directly to the bureau for letters and calls, at times bypassing officials, who Chung (ph) says are more likely to be able to help.
His organization gives street sweepers the basics, along with free legal advice, urging many of them to go home.
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FIELD (voice-over): But Wabo (ph), she says, he needs his country to know his story. He says he was abused by government officials in a coal mine.
Tianwen Hong (ph) claims the government didn't give him adequate housing after an earthquake destroyed his home. Until the country's highest officials recognize that, he says he would rather live here -- Alexandra Field, CNN, Beijing.
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BARNETT: Now if you're a parent, brace yourself for what is unnerving video. We should explain that a toddler in China is safely back with his grandfather after a terrifying fall.
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BARNETT (voice-over): Watch as dashcam footage captures this 2-year- old boy falling into traffic when the van he was in began to accelerate.
CHURCH (voice-over): And good Samaritans thankfully rescued the boy, chased down the grandfather who was driving. The grandfather says the lock on his vehicle's tailgate was damaged in a rear-end collision days earlier.
And of course what is so surprising for so many of us is you have to strap your children down in most countries.
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CHURCH: He was just wondering --
BARNETT: That could have had a much different outcome.
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CHURCH: -- the car following behind, true, if you were going at a great speed. There could have been a hideous --
BARNETT: The child is safe.
Now a piece of debris has been found that some believe could have come from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Next we'll look at the newest lead in this investigation.
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CHURCH: A warm welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church.
BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett. We're 30 minutes in. Let's update you on our top stories right now.
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CHURCH: Officials in Australia are getting ready to examine a piece of debris that may have come from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
BARNETT: A U.S. official says the debris appears to from a Boeing 777, the same type of aircraft as the missing plane. CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest has more on the discovery.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: These are the pictures of the men who found the debris and the piece itself. The honeycombing in the middle, which would have given the buoyancy to the piece, and as you can see, the words here, "no step," which is an indication that it has come from some form of an aircraft part, along with fasteners on there, which has given clues as to what sort of aircraft it may be.
But where about on the plane would it have come from?
The latest and best thinking is that it came from the horizontal stabilizer. This is at the back of the plane and somewhere along here would be the part that they're talking about.
If that does prove to be true, then what we have is actually two pieces now from a 777, both the first was last year and that was the flaperon from over here and now it possibly means that we've got something from the horizontal stabilizer, the wing and the horizontal stabilizer.
It's by no means certain that this is from the Boeing 777, let alone MH370. But if you just look at the geography and the way in which the ocean currents would have moved, this is the search area off the western coast of Australia.
The first piece was found over by Reunion Island. This latest piece is over here. And we know that the currents do move the gyre of the Southern Indian Ocean, do actually move in that direction, which would push out towards the eastern African Coast.
Put it all together, it's going to take some weeks, if not longer before the experts get their hands on this latest piece and determine whether it is indeed part of MH370 -- Richard Quest, CNN, New York.
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BARNETT: Our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson joins us now live from Hong Kong with the latest on all of this.
Ivan, we never want to give relatives of victims who are still waiting for answers any false hope.
But officials are saying there are some important consistencies here.
What else do we know?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The Australian government, which is leading the search effort, has put out a statement, saying in fact this piece of debris, its location is, quote "consistent with drift modeling" that was commissioned by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
CNN has spoken with an airplane parts manufacturer that's called LISI Aerospace. And they have confirmed that one of the pieces on that piece of debris is a part, an aircraft fastener that they manufacture and that is a part that would be used on a Boeing 777, the same model of plane as missing Flight MH370.
So these are a few indicators that perhaps suggest that this could be a part from the missing plane.
Now let's take a look at some statements coming out of the Malaysian government, the transport minister tweeted, quote, "Based on early reports, high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B- 777. It is yet to be confirmed and verified. The director of civil aviation of Malaysia is working with Australia and counterparts to retrieve the debris.
"I urge everyone to avoid undue speculation as we're not able to conclude that the debris belongs to MH370 at this time."
As Richard explained, there's already been one piece of debris confirmed, it was found on the island of Reunion, which is about 5,600 kilometers west of Malaysia, which is the point of origin of that missing flight.
If this does, in fact, turn out to be a piece of the missing --
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WATSON: -- plane, Mozambique is another 2,000 kilometers further west of Reunion, which would give you an indicator of just how far this piece of debris could have traveled -- Errol.
BARNETT: And considering the level of confidence there appears to be that this could MH370, we should also note that many times before, people have been excited to find debris that really ended up not being the missing airliner.
Also, the American tourist who found this piece of debris is apparently somewhat obsessed with the missing plane, MH370, in general.
What should we make of that?
WATSON: That's right. Blaine Gibson is the American who, along with a Mozambican fisherman, found this piece of debris. And he's almost a story in himself because if you go to his Web blog, this is a man who spent, according to his own writing and his photos, the better part of a year trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of missing Flight MH370.
And he describes how he's traveled to the Maldives, how he's traveled to Burma, Myanmar, in search of more information about this plane. He appears to be an American expatriate who lives in Laos and he recorded some comments after he found this piece of debris. Take a listen.
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BLAINE GIBSON, BLOGGER: It has "no step" on it, as is written on many aircraft wings. It has a high lock pin that is intact and other areas have been torn off. And many pins are also missing.
It is quite clear that this was torn apart by a very strong impact. And on the inside, there is an aluminum honeycomb as occurs in the manufacture of many aircraft.
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WATSON: Now all of this information, Errol, is coming almost two years since the day that Malaysia Air Flight 370 disappeared along with 239 passengers and crew on board that aircraft. And some of the family members are going to be holding a ceremony on the 6th of March in Kuala Lumpur. There, basically some of them are arguing that the search must continue. They're calling it the search 2.0. And some of these family members that we've talked to still very, very upset at what they say is the unfair treatment that they've gotten from Malaysia Airlines, which has undergone a very difficult restructuring in recent months. It has fired thousands of employees and renamed itself. And some of these family members of missing passengers are expressing concern that perhaps they will not receive compensation for their missing loved ones as a result of these changes in the airline -- Errol.
BARNETT: That's an important point to refocus on, the relatives of victims, their pain continues as they still sit with the rest of us and wonder what happened to all those passengers.
Ivan Watson, live for us in Hong Kong, thank you.
We're back with more CNN NEWSROOM with the world's biggest stories plus news as it breaks after this.
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CHURCH: The boy you see behind me was raped by a priest. He suffered years of trauma and eventually died abusing drugs. For decades, children in Australia were being sexually abused by pedophile clergymen. And the Catholic Church did nothing.
Now Australia wants answers from the Vatican and the cardinal who may have known about the abuse.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After some of the testimony, we've been quite angry and upset.
CHURCH (voice-over): These men traveled to Rome to hear the truth. As children, they were sexually abused by Catholic clergy.
And this week they were hoping to get answers from Vatican cardinal George Pell, who testified before Australia royal commission via video on allegations the church ignored and covered up hundreds of sexual abuse cases.
But after four days of testimony, they were not pleased.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballarat survivors came to Rome to hear truth and honesty from George. We feel that we have been deceived and lied to. CHURCH (voice-over): The abuse dates to the 1960s and Pell repeatedly said he could not remember specifics from that long ago. Pell was asked about warnings he got about abuse, including one time he was told a member of the clergy was misbehaving with boys. That man is now behind bars.
GEORGE PELL: I regret that I didn't do more at that stage.
CHURCH (voice-over): Pell was also grilled about how so many pedophiles could end up in one diocese. His answer infuriated the victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we heard just before that Cardinal Pell said when asked why there were so many pedophiles in Ballarat, he said, ah, it was just a tragic coincidence.
Coincidence, my foot. Absolutely. It was just -- clearly it's systemic because so many of the pedophiles had many of the same victims. They clearly colluded.
CHURCH (voice-over): After his testimony, Pell struck a conciliatory tone.
PELL: I grieve for the suffering of the people whom I regard as my own people and I'll be meeting with Ballarat survivors tomorrow and please God that will take us a little bit forward.
CHURCH (voice-over): Now the survivors hope to meet with Pope Francis possibly in the coming days.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you going to say to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
Honestly.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we want an understanding. I think at the end of the day, we need an acknowledgment that this is a global systemic problem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BARNETT: All right. We get you to the weather now.
Southern Peru was hit by heavy rains triggered by El Nino. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us with more on that.
Good to see you, Derek.
(CROSSTALK)
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good to see you as well, Errol and Rosie.
And just to the south and east of Lima, this is the area where 400 millimeters of rain fell in less than 24 hours; it triggered mudslides, landslides and severe flash flooding.
But what I'm about to show you and the viewers at home is astounding. This video really defies all logic to me because we talk about this so much here in the CNN World Weather Center. Let me show you exactly what I'm talking about.
Look at these vehicles trying to pass a severely flooded road. Now mind you, this is a main artery that is being washed over by extreme amounts of --
[02:30:00]
VAN DAM: -- rain and this mudslide that's impacted the region. But the odds and the science are really stacked up against those people traveling across that flooded roadways.
Let me explain why. Get to my weather graphics and you'll see. We've talked about this before but I need to reiterate it because even the National Weather Service talks about turn around, don't drown. You do not want to drive across or attempt to cross a flooded road, especially when the water's moving that quickly; 150 millimeters of rainfall, roughly 6 inches of moving water, can actually lift a person off of its feet and sweep them down the river.
But get a load of this, 600 millimeters of rushing water can actually lift a vehicle, even sometimes an SUV, even a bus, just like you saw. And if the water is moving fast enough, it could easily sweep that downstream and over the embankment.
Those people are so incredibly lucky that they survived that. The rainy weather is all thanks to El Nino. We blame so much on El Nino but it really has created some erratic weather patterns across Peru and the western sections of Central America.
Remember, this is the buildup of warm ocean waters over the Eastern Pacific. And it results in periodic heavy rainfall for places like Peru, just east of Cuzco, that's where they had 400 mm of rain. That's where we saw the flooding.
And there's indeed chances of rain going forward. But it's not only Peru and Western Central America. We also have a lineup of storms that is going to impact the western half of the United States. They're going to be measuring snow -- get thing -- in feet across the Sierra Nevada mountain range over the coming days and months. That is good news for the drought over California and that could bring some much need water to the reservoirs for this spring and the summer, for places like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
CHURCH: Yes, that is significant.
VAN DAM: It is very significant.
CHURCH: Thank you.
The International Olympic Committee is sending a team of refugees to the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
BARNETT: They will be called Team Refugee Olympic Athletes and will be housed in the Olympic Village along with everyone else.
CHURCH: The IOC says 43 people have been identified as possible candidates for this special team, which will have between five and 10 athletes. The IOC presidents describes how they'll be treated at the games.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS BACH, IOC PRESIDENT: We want to send a message of hope for all refugees of the world. These refugee athletes have no national team to belong to. They have no flag to march behind. They have no national anthem to be played.
Therefore, we will welcome these refugee athletes to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Now a group of orphan baby animals have formed their own unlikely family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought them out with the little baby elephants and he's hooked himself to the tiny elephants and they're spending the day close to where they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[02:50:00]
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BARNETT: All right. Want to bring you a bit of news that took place during this broadcast.
After spending nearly a year aboard the International Space Station, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly is back home on the ground in Houston, Texas.
CHURCH: His plane landed just a few minutes ago, in fact, and his family was there to give him lots of hugs. His twin brother was one of those who welcomed him back and here is what he said about his mission.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT KELLY, ASTRONAUT: When I left here in February, I don't even know what day it was in February. I was 50 and now I'm 52.
So -- but it feels great. It's great to be back in Texas in U.S. -- on U.S. soil. It's just an unbelievable feeling to be back here on Planet Earth, back in our great country and back with all my family and my friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Just fantastic and Kelly set a record during his time in space.
BARNETT: That's right. CNN's Rachel Crane shows us how he spent his time aboard the space station and what NASA hopes to learn from his mission.
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RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Astronaut Scott Kelly has broken some records. He is the first American to spend at nearly a year in space.
It's been a long busy year for Kelly. Of course, he conducted space walks and experiments, but he's also celebrated a birthday in space, monkeyed around, given himself a flu shot, consumed space-grown lettuce and played gardener for space flowers.
In the absence of gravity, the human body does some bizarre things. Your bones thin, muscles atrophy. NASA astronauts have also detected cardiac arrhythmias and decreased heart function in spaceflight. And about a third of American astronauts have developed vision problems.
To better understand these changes, Kelly took part in a bunch of studies that tracked how his eyes, his bones, his heart and even his brain changed due to the microgravity environment.
And NASA had the perfect specimen to compare him to: his twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who was here on Earth. NASA will continue to collect and analyze data from both Kellys over the coming year. By comparing various tests of the two, the twin study gives scientists greater insight into the molecular level changes that occur as a result of spaceflight.
Now this is critical, because NASA's goal is to put boots on Mars by the 2030s. In order to do that, we have to have a better understanding of how to keep our future astronauts healthy and safe. The data from Kelly's mission and the twin study will help NASA figure out how to create and manage those safeguards.
While NASA isn't about to find another pair of astronaut twins anytime soon, they do hope to conduct more long duration space missions like Kelly's in the near future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BARNETT: And Kelly's Instagram feeds is unmatched. Check it out. Some incredible pictures.
CHURCH: Great shots.
BARNETT: Now It Is World Wildlife Day. You're about to meet the --
[02:55:00]
BARNETT: -- orphaned baby animals left behind after their parents were killed for ivory and skins.
CHURCH: CNN's Robyn Kriel reports on an unlikely friendship that has blossomed out of the tragedy at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An elephant's trunk may be cute but it still has to learn out how to use it. These elephants are all orphans. Most of their mothers were killed by poachers or human wildlife conflict.
Now they're some of dozens cared for by keepers at an elephant orphanage in Nairobi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That makes them or has them feed comfortably while they're resting their trunk on something.
If they're not on the blanket, they will rest it on the keeper's body.
KRIEL (voice-over): Without a family, when a baby elephant nurses, it rests its trunk on other things for a connection.
KRIEL: I'm sorry, I'm not your mom.
KRIEL (voice-over): Although it never really feels as good as its own mother.
KRIEL: It's playing.
KRIEL (voice-over): But when these Kenyan keepers brought in several other orphaned animals for care, the group formed their own unlikely family.
There's Kiko, the giraffe, who was found when he was just 4 days old. Kiko is normally trailed by four baby elephants and a couple of baby ostriches as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started to take him out and we brought him out with the little baby elephants. And he's hooked himself to the tiny elephants and they're spending the day close to where they are, are playing with them sometimes, licking them sometimes, sometimes pushing around with them. Some baby elephants will want to go close and want to suck on him.
KRIEL (voice-over): And when it comes time to feed the young elephants their bottles, they search for connection and comfort and find it on young Kiko -- Robyn Kriel, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: That is one gorgeous little family.
BARNETT: Yes, I think it says something about animals, too, need love and support from their parents or at least --
CHURCH: Something, something.
All right. So in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, we will take you to the Canadian town welcoming Americans who are scared of the idea of a President Trump.
BARNETT: Yes, very interesting story.
And don't forget to keep in touch with us on Twitter and Instagram. It's nothing like Scott Kelly, but we try. We'll be back after a short break. Stay with us.
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BARNETT: It's on. The Republican establishment declares all-out war on Donald Trump as the race for the White House intensifies.
