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Ted Cruz Announces Carly Fiorina as V.P. Pick; Trump's "America First" Foreign Policy Vision; Brazil's President Fights Impeachment, Talks Olympics; Facebook Just Keeps Growing; Drought Adds to Venezuela's Economic Crisis; Dennis Hastert Sentenced for Abuse; Indiana Primary Could Hold Key to Nominations; Trump Popularity Soars in Russia; Former Afghan NATO Military Base Becomes Drug Rehab Camp; Girl to Meet Obama Amid Flint Water Crisis. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired April 28, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[02:00:53] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Thanks for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN NEWSROOM.

And we start with U.S. politics. And Ted Cruz has no mathematical chance of winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency outright, but he has a running mate. Cruz announced former rival, Carly Fiorina, would be his pick for vice president. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO was a presidential candidate herself until she dropped out of the race in February.

Cruz introduced his running mate during a campaign rally in Indianapolis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So why make this announcement now? Well, for one thing, if we are to win, number one, win the nomination but, number two, even more importantly, win the general election, we must unite.

(APPLAUSE)

CRUZ: And Carly is a vice presidential nominee who I believe is superbly skilled, superbly gifted at helping unite this party, bring us together so we stand united as one.

CARLY FIORINA (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the fight of our time. And I believe Ted Cruz is the man to lead that fight. And I am prepared to stand by his side and give this everything I have to restore the soul of our party --

(CHEERING)

FIORINA: -- to defeat Donald Trump, to defeat Hillary Clinton, and to take our country back. (CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And Donald Trump is questioning why Ted Cruz would pick a running mate when, as Trump says himself, he can't win.

Well, the Republican front runner is also laying out his foreign policy vision defined by two words: America First.

CNN's chief U.S. security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our foreign policy is a complete and total disaster.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Delivering what his campaign called a major foreign policy speech in Washington, Donald Trump immediately took aim at President Obama.

TRUMP: If President Obama's goal had been to weaken America, he could not have done a better job.

SCIUTTO: In fact, perhaps telegraphing his general election message, Trump equated the president and his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

(CHEERING)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you so much!

SCIUTTO: Uttering "Obama-Clinton" no fewer than three times.

TRUMP: The Obama-Clinton interventions.

With President Obama and Secretary Clinton.

Of Obama-Clinton.

SCIUTTO: And declaring their foreign policy a shared failure.

TRUMP: The legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions will be weakness, confusion and disarray.

SCIUTTO: Trump was more scripted and less bombastic than at campaign rallies but his speech included several campaign-tested positions, though few with specifics.

He said that he and only he would defeat ISIS.

TRUMP: Their days are numbered. I won't tell them where, and I won't tell them how.

SCIUTTO: For Russia, a country seen increasingly as a threat by the current administration and the U.S. military, Trump offered an olive branch.

TRUMP: Some say the Russians won't be reasonable. I intend to find out. If we can't make a deal under my administration, a deal that's great, then we will quickly walk from the table.

SCIUTTO: For U.S. allies he accused President Obama of abandoning them but at the same time repeated his campaign promise to make allies pay their way.

TRUMP: The countries we're defending must pay for the cost of this defense. And if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.

SCIUTTO: Critics were quick to accuse Trump of broad contradictions.

[02:05:06] FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": It was sort of rambling to the point of being incoherent. I mean, he contradicted himself several times, it struck me. He said we're going to get out of nation-building, but we're going to create stability. Well, how do you do that? You got out of nation-building in Iraq. You got more instability.

SCIUTTO: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham tweeting, "Not sure who is advising Trump on foreign policy, but I can understand why he's not revealing their names."

And in a flub that gave his critics ammunition --

TRUMP: Tanzania --

SCIUTTO: -- Trump mispronounces the name of the East African nation Tanzania. The White House quickly pouncing on the mistake.

JOSH ERNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Apparently, the phonetics are not included on the teleprompter.

(LAUGHTER)

SCIUTTO (on camera): As brashly as they were delivered, some of Trump's positions are very much in line with the mainstream Republican Party. Criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, for instance.

The question now is can he bring them together in a cohesive foreign policy message that appeals beyond his base of support?

Jim Sciutto, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And CNN's Will Ripley joins us now from Tokyo with international reaction to Trump's speech.

Will, good to see you.

Let's start by taking a listen to what Trump had to say about North Korea and China. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: President Obama watches helplessly as North Korea increases its aggression and expands further and further with its nuclear reach. Our president has allowed China to continue its economic assault on American jobs and wealth, refusing to enforce trade deals, and apply leverage on China necessary to rein in North Korea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So, Will, let's fact-check some of this. Trump says President Obama watched helplessly as North Korea increased its aggression. What are the facts there?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, the world watched helplessly as North Korea increased its aggression. I mean, Donald Trump's argument is that Beijing has the most leverage over Pyongyang. And yet, Beijing's leverage that Donald Trump claims it has didn't stop the supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un, from ordering an H-bomb test in February, a satellite launch in February. The sanctions that Beijing has promised to enforce have not stopped repeated missile tests, rocket tests, most recently a submarine missile launch just within the last week, and more military activity along the way.

Yes, the United States did watch and the United States responded with sanctions, which is essentially the only leverage the international community has against Pyongyang, and Pyongyang is showing through its actions that's really not going to stop it, at least not at this point.

CHURCH: And Trump also said Mr. Obama allowed China to continue its economic assault on American jobs and didn't apply necessary leverage on China to rein in North Korea. What do the facts tell us on that?

RIPLEY: A lot of analysts say that Donald Trump's view, publicly stated view, about the relationship between the U.S. and China is really outdated, perhaps more than 20 years old, talking about the situation as it might have been in the '90s. Yes, the United States and China have a very complicated trade relationship, but the U.S. threatening to basically impose some sort of a 45 percent tax on Chinese exports, don't forget that China could then turn around and start taxing U.S. imports. That's a trade war. A trade war could cost millions of jobs in the United States. It could put the Chinese economy into recession. It could put the U.S. economy into recession, a lot of analysts say. And it could have a ripple effect throughout Asia affecting Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, where a lost these jobs are also located. There's a lot of concern about what exactly Donald Trump would be proposing to do if he became president.

CHURCH: Yeah. And want to talk about the overall reaction because the people there across the Asian region would have had time to digest the details of his whole foreign policy speech there. So, overall, what about is this playing out in the media? What is being said across the board there?

RIPLEY: Well, the official government reaction has still been somewhat reserved. Officially, the government of Japan tries to point out the advantages of the relationship, the alliance between the U.S. and Japanese governments. China saying that whoever is elected president, officially, they don't feel that the general dynamics of the relationship between China and the U.S. will change.

But you talk to people off the record, there's a lot of concern, certainly a lot of surprise as well that Donald Trump as a candidate has gone this far. And under U.S. law, some of the things he is proposing could potentially happen, and the fear here is the consequences could be disastrous for a lot of U.S. friends and allies in this region.

And also a lot of people, a lot of officials that we've talked to, analysts, say he's looking at this purely from a trade-centric perspective, talking about the economics of this without take into account the other factors, like the increased assertiveness of China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, all the ongoing territorial disputes. So it's a much more complicated situation than was laid out in Donald Trump's speech, Rosemary. And people here say if you look just in terms of black and white, a lot of these policy proposals could be very destructive.

[02:10:22] CHURCH: Will Ripley joining us live there from Tokyo. It is just after 3:00 in the afternoon. We will get more reaction from you, Will, next hour. Many thanks.

Well, Brazil's president says she will fight efforts to remove her from office. Dilma Rousseff's exclusive interview with CNN comes just days after the Senate elected a committee to vote on impeachment.

Ms. Rousseff spoke about those efforts with our Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I want to ask you this, and there's no easy way to say it. You have been rated one of the worst leaders in the world. Your popularity right now is around 10 percent. That's really, really low. You were impeached by the Congress -- the Congress decided to send your impeachment case by an overwhelming majority that surprised even your supporters. You don't seem to have very many friends in Congress. Do you think you're going to survive the impeachment process in the Senate?

DILMA ROUSSEFF, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): In Brazil the presidential system, just as is the case in the U.S., no one can carry out an impeachment process out of sheer unpopularity of the president. And popularity is a cyclical thing because if it were not so all presidents, all prime ministers in Europe that experience d 20 percent unemployment rates would inevitably have to go through an impeachment process because they too experienced substantial drops in their popularity.

AMANPOUR: I hear what you're saying, but do you think you're going to survive? Do you think you will be president at the end of this process? ROUSSEFF (through translation): I wish to tell you one thing more

than just thinking, that I will survive. I will fight to survive. Not just for my term in office but I will fight because what I'm advocating and defending is a Democratic principle that governs political life in Brazil. Who filed impeachment process against me? All of those who filed, the leaders of the impeachment procedure, filed against me. I'm not talking about the underlying foundation. Their leaders, all of them are being charged for corruption, charges and allegations, especially the speaker.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Ms. Rousseff also talked about the upcoming Olympic Games with Christiane. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And finally, Brazil under your administration has secured the Olympic Games. You're getting ready for the Olympic Games. How will it make you feel if you're not able to host them, if you're sitting out the impeachment process for the next six months?

ROUSSEFF (through translation): You know, there's one thing I wish to tell you. I -- if that happens, I will be very sad, indeed, because we have -- I think it is fair to say we have undertaken a very good effort. I would very much like to take part in the Olympic process because I helped build the effort from day one, ever since we accepted the responsibility matrix, as we call it. I was there attending the sessions as head of -- or the chief of staff at the time. But I'm actually sad, a little more sad for another reason, because I think the worst thing for any human being is to be the victim of injustice. And I am being the victim of the current impeachment process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And you can watch the full one-on-one interview with Dilma Rousseff in this CNN exclusive. It's her first since the lower house of Congress voted to impeach her. Thursday at 3:00 p.m. in Rio de Janeiro, Friday at 5:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, only on CNN.

In Minnesota, authorities investigating Prince's death found prescription opioid medication on him and in his home. That is according to a law enforcement official. Investigators believe a health scare a week before his death was likely caused by a reaction to the pain medications. They are still awaiting results from Prince's autopsy. The music star was 57 years old when he died last week at his home.

Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, Venezuela's energy crisis. Why it's happening and how the government is trying to deal with it, including a newly imposed two-day work week.

Plus, Facebook shows no signs of slowing. The company boasts big sales, revenue, and even new users in its first quarter report.

[02:14:51] Plus, a once powerful political figure in the U.S. has been sentenced. Dennis Hastert confessed to sexually abusing boys when he was a teacher. What he told his victims.

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(SPORTS REPORT)

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The families of 130 people killed in the Paris attacks last November hope the only surviving suspect tells the truth when he testifies in court. Salah Abdeslam has said he will talk. But on Wednesday he did not address the murder charges against him when he appeared in a Paris courtroom. Belgian authorities turned him over to France earlier in the day. Abdeslam is charged with murder and being part of a terrorist organization.

Facebook just keeps growing. The company has posted stellar first quarter results after weak reports from other tech giants.

"CNN Money" correspondent, Cristina Alesci, has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:19:44] CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Finally some good news for the tech industry. Facebook really stood out, beating estimates after Apple and Twitter disappointed yesterday. The company exceeding expectations on all fronts, earnings, revenue, even the number of users.

Here are some of the exact numbers, $5.4 billion in sales. That's a 52 percent increase versus the same period last year. Monthly active users hit about $1.65 billion versus $1.59 billion at the end of last year. And even more importantly for the company, Facebook is growing on mobile. Users on smart devices were up a whopping 21 percent.

Now investors are curious about some of Facebook's newer lines of business like Instagram. Investors will be parsing through the results for any news of how the company is planning to monetize that specific platform.

And another division that gets a lot of attention, Oculus, which makes a virtual reality headset. The company came under fire just a few weeks ago when critics of the rollout of the headset didn't go smoothly, with customers facing months-long delays on shipping.

But when it comes to the core business of social media advertising, Facebook is still clearly king.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: "CNN Money" correspondent, Cristina Alesci, reporting there.

Facebook also announced plans for a new class of its stock. It will ensure CEO Mark Zuckerberg keeps control of the company he founded. Shareholders vote on the proposal in June.

Well, the Venezuelan government is enacting a two-day work week for the public sector until at least the end of May to deal with its energy crisis. It's unclear if the workers will be paid for full weeks or just two days per week. President Nicolas Madura made that announcement on Wednesday. He also plans to move the country's time zone by a half hour to allow for more daylight working hours. Venezuela's main hydroelectric dam is at record low water levels.

All right. So we want to -- I've got Derek Van Dam with us, our meteorologist.

And we want to talk about this because the drought is playing a major role, but not the only role.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Some people claim that there's mismanagement by the government but the drought definitely has this kind of looming impact on the ongoing electric crisis taking place in Venezuela. Let me explain why. First of all, Venezuela wants to reduce its use of fossil fuel so it can export as much as possible. Its answer is bringing in hydroelectric power. One of the biggest dams ever created. This is it. Take a look at it. But it doesn't help, Rosie, when there's no water to help run this hydroelectric dam. This is the Geary Dam. It stretches over -- get this, just did some research. 7,400 meters long. And this provides 75 percent of Venezuela's electricity, hydroelectric. That is the big key here.

Let's get to my graphics and talk about the ongoing drought that is happening in Venezuela because this is the overriding problem. Look how dry it is over the extreme northern sections of South America, Colombia, Venezuela, stretching into northern Brazil. It's a very well-advertised drought. All exacerbated by the El Nino phenomenon, which typically does dry out this part of the world during a strong El Nino event like we're just coming off of now. Let's zoom in to Venezuela and into the Geary Dam or Geary Reservoir Region and talk a little about how this particular area provides so much of let's say the nation's capitol, Caracas, with its electricity. 75 percent of the entire country's electricity is produced here by this particular hydroelectric dam, again, stretching over 7,000 meters. It is very large, one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the world. But when you don't have any water and the drought conditions continue, you can imagine what kind of impacts this has, especially when the country relies on it for its electricity source. We have exceptional drought conditions, especially from Caracas into northern portions of Brazil.

Now, when will the rain come? We're start informing work our way into the rainy season. You can see from May to June, that's when we see the uptick in the rain. We see the shift in weather patterns a little farther to the north. Rain is in this forecast going forward and we should anticipate a little bit of relief. But again, that's not going to necessarily solve their problems because it takes so long for that water to really filter down into the reservoir, help fill it back up so they can start generating the electricity once again. The country is going to start dealing with these rolling blackouts for weeks to come.

CHURCH: You think for weeks?

VAN DAM: At least.

CHURCH: That's a frightening concept.

VAN DAM: We've still got El Nino conditions as we speak.

CHURCH: Derek, thanks so much. We'll talk against next hour.

VAN DAM: Thanks. Absolutely.

CHURCH: Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was once a highly esteemed and powerful political figure, but now Hastert has confessed to sexually abusing boys when he worked as a teacher. And a judge has sentenced him to 15 months in prison for hiding money that he used to silence one of his victims.

Our Ryan Young reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:25:01] RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The man who once roamed the halls of Congress like a giant arrived in a Chicago courthouse today with his head hung low in disgrace before getting hit with a 15-month prison sentence. In court, we heard how Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, used his power as a high school wrestling coach to take advantage of young boys.

One of the victims who spoke in court before the sentence was handed down was Scott Cross, previously identified as Individual D. Cross is the brother of former State House Republican leader, Tom Cross. Cross said that Hastert would often sit in his locker room chair and watch team members take showers after practice. His brother, Tom Cross, was a former Hastert political supporter. Hastert's office even asked Tom Cross to write a letter supporting him.

"As a 17-year-old boy, I was devastated. I tried to figure out why Coach Hastert had singled me out. I felt terribly alone. Today, I understand I did nothing to bring this on. But at age 17, I could not understand what happened or why."

Jolene Burdge, the sister of victim of Steven Rhinebolt, another of Hastert's victims, who died years ago, also spoke in court telling Hastert to stop being a coward and to admit to his wrongdoing.

Dennis Hastert, who appeared today in a wheelchair, admitted for the first time that he sexually molested boys as a wrestling coach decades ago. Shamed publicly for the abuse he caused back in the '70s, his attorney asked for leniency, saying he could no longer care for himself. Hastert suffered a stroke last November.

In court, the judge resoundingly criticized Hastert for his actions, including misleading the FBI while trying to hide dozens of hush money payments of more than a million dollars to a victim. The judge said that neither Hastert's age, nor health deterred him from his illegal activity.

In court, Hastert apologized to the victims while reading a statement to the judge. "I'm deeply ashamed to be standing before you today. I know I'm here because I mistreated some of my athletes as a coach. What I did was wrong, and I regret it. They looked to me, and I took advantage of them."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Ryan Young reporting there.

Hastert was also ordered to pay $250,000 to a victims fund and go through a sex offender treatment program.

Well, millionaire real estate heir, Robert Durst, is headed to Los Angeles to face murder charges. That's after a judge in the state of Louisiana sentenced him to seven years in prison on an unrelated gun charge. Durst will be transferred to California, where he says he'll plead not guilty in the death of a friend 16 years ago. In an HBO documentary released last year, Durst appeared to confess to murder accusations while he was apparently unaware his microphone was still on.

The U.S. presidential race all comes down to the delegates. Coming up, we will see how the next big contest could determine who locks up the nominations.

And from Russia with love. Why so many Russians want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States. We'll explain.

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[02:31:15] CHURCH: A warm welcome back to you all. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church.

I do want to update you now on the stories we've been following this hour.

(HEADLINES)

CHURCH: Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is laying off more than 200 workers. Now, this comes after the Democratic presidential candidate lost four out of five primary contests on Tuesday. CNN estimates his rival, Hillary Clinton, is now just 215 delegates away from cementing the party's nomination. But Sanders is vowing to stay in the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are in this campaign to win. But if we do not win, we intend to win every delegate that we can, so that when we go to Philadelphia in July, we're going to have the votes to put together the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen.

I am very good in arithmetic.

(LAUGHTER)

And I can count delegates, and we are behind today. But you know what? Unusual things happen in politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, Ted Cruz is also adding up the numbers on the Republican side. He told supporters at a rally in Indianapolis he's confident he can win the nomination if the party ends up with a contested convention in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: I'm not getting to 1,237 delegates, and Donald J. Trump is not getting to 1,237 delegates.

(CHEERING)

CRUZ: And the Hoosier state is going to have a powerful voice in making that clear.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And voters go to the polls in Indiana this coming Tuesday. And that state could hold the key to the Republican nomination.

CNN's John King has a look at the numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Let's start with the Republicans because this is a breakthrough day for Donald Trump. He's campaigning in Indiana tonight. He says he thinks he can win Indiana. More importantly, this is the first time in this race he's below 50. Meaning Donald Trump needs only 49 percent of the remaining delegates to get to the magic number, 1,237, before the Cleveland convention. Can he get there? Yes, he can. It won't be easy. In Indiana, where he is tonight, where Ted Cruz made his big announcement today, Indiana could be key. Let's assume Donald Trump, the polls are right, right now, and Ted Cruz can't change them. If Donald Trump can shut down, break through the Ted Cruz firewall in Indiana and start to pull away, not only does he increase his math but what a statement that would say. After Cruz said this is the place I will stop Donald Trump, this is the place I make my dramatic announcement of a running mate. If Donald Trump can do that, it changes the math and the psychology of the Republican race.

[02:35:10] And let's project it out. With a win in Indiana, let's play it out through the end. Donald Trump believes he'll get them all in West Virginia. He thinks he'll get them all in New Jersey. In this scenario, we have Oregon and New Mexico going to Governor Kasich. But Donald Trump thinks -- let's just pick one. Donald Trump thinks he can go in to New Mexico and split those delegates, let's say splits them with John Kasich. Pretty modest split there, but moves Donald Trump closer. Then, again, Indiana's key. If Trump wins it, most Republicans will think this is over. And Donald Trump thinks he can go in and get a huge big win in the state of California. If it played out something like that, with a big win in California, after a win in Indiana, look where this gets Trump, to 1,232. And that's actually game over. If he gets even close to 1,232 on primary day, the final day, June 7th, because last night in Pennsylvania, 36 of the 54 unbound delegates said we think we owe it to Donald Trump. So if he, in Cleveland, needs our votes, he gets them on the first ballot, game over. Donald Trump with a little bit of a cushion to spare. So a big win in Indiana would help Donald Trump's math and, not easy, but give him a pretty good prospect of getting to 1,237.

Now let's switch over and take a peek at the Democratic race. Let me move out of the super delegates for now. This math is simple. Just pledged delegates. But there's a reason Bernie Sanders is laying off field staffers. Yes, he says he still has plenty of people for the remaining contest. But Hillary Clinton now 300-plus lead in pledged delegates. She believes game over last night. She wants to roll next week into Indiana for essentially an exclamation point. She won the state narrowly in 2008. She wants to win it again this time to shut down the Sanders campaign finally. In 2008, it was to keep her campaign going. If that happens, number one, she pulls out to here. Number two, the Clinton campaign believes that would take it through to the end, get her around 2,195, 2,200. Maybe not with pledged delegates to the finish line, but plenty of room to spare when you bring in Clinton's enormous lead among super delegates. She has 502 right now to 42 for Bernie Sanders, game set and match. In this scenario, she would win big-time. The one thing the Clinton campaign worries about, not that Bernie Sanders can catch up, but they do worry that somehow he could poll off a win in Indiana next week. There would be some indication that after all this talk that Hillary Clinton is inevitable, the Democratic Party has a little bit of buyer's remorse. That's why in the next week, expect her not to let up. She'll go for the Indiana win. And she believes if she gets it, she won't coast to the finish line but, mathematically, she's got a good case to make and that the final finish line more within reach.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Let's go back to the topic of Donald Trump. And interestingly, his popularity seems to be soaring in Russia.

Senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, takes a look at why so many Russians seem to be on Team Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's no secret that Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin seem to feel a certain admiration for each other.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): He is a brilliant and talented person, without a doubt.

TRUMP: And I like him because he called me a genius. He said Trump is the new real leader, Trump should be the leader and he's a total genius.

PLEITGEN: And many ordinary Russians are Trump fans as well. "The key thing about him is his willingness for a breakthrough in

relations with Russia," this man says. "Maybe they won't get closer. But at least there will be dialogue."

And this man adds, "First of all, Trump is a positive guy and he spoke about Putin in a good way. He wants positive change in America."

In a recent UGOV poll conducted in the G20 nations, those surveyed in every country said they would take Hillary Clinton over Trump, except in Russia, where the Donald leads by a landslide.

While relations between Russia and the Obama administration have soured over Moscow's policy in Ukraine and Syria, Trump in his foreign policy speech, says he thinks he can work with Russia.

TRUMP: I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia, from a position of strength only, is possible.

PLEITGEN (on camera): Many Russians believe if Donald Trump were to become president that the U.S. would have a more isolationist foreign policy. They think that would lead to fewer disagreements between the U.S. and Russia, and ultimately to better relations.

(voice-over): A recent Trump campaign video seemingly lumping Putin in with ISIS as a challenge to America did lead to some anger in the Kremlin.

But Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, said Vladimir Putin still appreciates Trump's style.

FYODOR LUKYANOV, DIRECTOR, RUSSIAN COUNCIL ON FOREIGN AND DEFENSE POLICY: He basically likes those who are frank, open, and disregard political correctness. And this is exactly the case of Mr. Trump.

PLEITGEN: It's a style that propelled Vladimir Putin to several terms as Russia's prime minister and president.

While some believe Trump's frankness could carry him all the way into the White House, he still has a long way to go.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:40:05] CHURCH: And Russia just launched its first rocket from a new Cosmodrome. This successful lift-off came a day after a technical glitch. Scientists sent an unmanned Soyuz rocket carrying three satellites into orbit on the new space port near China's border. This is Russia's first Cosmodrome. It currently uses a site in Kazakhstan. Wednesday's scrubbed launch did not sit well with President Putin, who flew thousands of kilometers to witness it. This was the latest problem to plague the Russian space program, which Mr. Putin is trying to revive.

Well, meantime, the private aerospace company SpaceX has set its sights on the red planet. It announced plans to land an unmanned spacecraft known as Red Dragon on Mars as early as 2018. Founder Elon Musk has said he hopes SpaceX will fly people to the red planet by around 2025. The Red Dragon would survey the Martian terrain and potentially collect soil samples. SpaceX says it will provide more details at a meeting of astronomers in September. Very exciting. Well, security cameras were rolling when a plane fell from the sky.

It happened outside a towing company in Alabama in the southern U.S. The twin-engine Cessna slammed into a tree and burst into flames. Incredibly, the pilot escaped with just a cut on his hand and a pretty big headache.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL SMITH, PILOT: She was on fire, and I was in a hurry to get out because I saw that I only have a few seconds. And I actually done a back tumblesault out of the cockpit door to get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: How about that? Russell Smith says he's been a pilot for 50 years and had never had an accident before. Federal authorities are investigating that crash.

A senior manager for the Transportation Security Administration claims he was ordered to target certain passengers at the Minneapolis airport. What he told a congressional committee. That's coming up.

And another war being fought in Afghanistan at a former NATO base. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:39] CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. An employee of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration claims his bosses told him to racially profile Somali-Americans. In a statement, the TSA said it does not tolerate racial profiling. But a senior manager at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport told a congressional committee his supervisor ordered him to run the names of Somali imams and community members through a terrorist data base.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW RHOADES, SENIOR MANAGER, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Additionally, my supervisor accused me of "going native" after attending a meeting at a local mosque. Those in the community in Minneapolis know I would never betray their trust by profiling them.

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CHURCH: Minneapolis has one of America's largest Somali populations.

We turn to Afghanistan now. And a former NATO military base is now being used in a different battle. It's a large and heavily fortified rehab center for the country's heroin addicts.

Nick Paton Walsh takes us inside Camp Phoenix. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Day one in a prison that might just set you free. These new arrivals are heroin addicts beginning rehab. Delivered by desperate families or grabbed by police from the street. Men who've hit rock bottom on Afghanistan's biggest export.

Cigarettes and phones are banned in the coldest turnkey imaginable.

"I have pain all over my body," he says, "and I'm so exhausted that if I had a knife I'd cut myself apart."

Take a step back here and there's one big oddity. They're getting rehab in what was once just months ago a NATO military base. Walls built to keep the Taliban out now keep addicts in.

(on camera): NATO left quite a bit of chaos in its wake but also many huge sprawling bases like this, places the Afghan army simply hasn't got the money to maintain in full. So there must be some comfort that the exorbitant costs of the NATO campaign here that didn't really make a dent in the problem of heroin in Afghanistan. Well, the resources behind it can get put to use to help ordinary Afghans.

(voice-over): Withdrawal could be deadly.

Here what once cost armies millions like fiber optic wiring can kill. The most desperate patients trying to hang themselves from it. Or even burn down their rooms. Sometimes they fight. Sometimes they just shiver.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In danger because opium traders, they give us warning because very bad effect on their economy. They'll be discredited. So that's why they are trying to enter inside the hospital.

PATON WALSH: Even in the wreckage of America's longest war, money is limited.

They just let out as many patients each day as they let in. Back into a country with its own sense of withdrawal, where the West's departure has left poverty and despair and the unknown.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kabul.

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CHURCH: The city of Flint, Michigan, has been dealing with widespread water contamination. So an 8-year-old girl wrote a letter to the U.S. president. And we will tell you what she got in return.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [02:53:14] CHURCH: New Zealand has taken home top honors in a world currency competition. Its $5 bill was awarded best bank note of 2015 by the International Bank Note Society. The winning note features Edmund Hillary on the front and a native penguin on the back.

For months, people in the U.S. city of Flint, Michigan, have been exposed to potentially dangerous levels of lead in their water. So an 8-year-old girl, known as Little Miss Flint, decided to take action. She asked for help from the U.S. President himself, and she succeeded.

Dave Bondy, with our affiliate, WEYI, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARI COPENY, 8-YEAR-OLD FLINT RESIDENT: I am excited.

DAVE BONDY, REPORTER, WEYI (voice-over): 8-year-old Mari Copeny forgot that she and her mom, Lulu Brezzell, had written the letter to President Obama asking for him to come to town. It was this morning when Lulu got an unexpected phone call from a White House spokesperson with the big news.

LULU BREZZELL, MOTHER OF MARI: I'm like, really? He's coming? And he wants to meet her? He's like, yeah, he really wants to meet her, that's why he wants to come to Flint. Like, it was her letter that finally got him to come here.

BONDY: Part of Mari's letter to the president reads, quote, "I am one of the children that is affected by this water and I've been doing my best to march in protest, to speak out for all the kids that live here in Flint," unquote.

Mari already knows what she is going to say to Obama when it comes to the water.

COPENY: It smells like bleach and old fish.

BONDY: Obama wrote Mari saying, in part, quote, "I am so proud of you for using your voice to speak out on behalf of the children of Flint," unquote.

Mari's mom is excited but wants this visit to be more than just a photo op. She wants and needs the president's help.

BREZZELL: I hope that maybe with him coming here it will open his eyes to how bad it really is and how it's not just people blowing it out of proportion, that he can see for himself.

[02:55:05] BONDY: Little Mari is a bit overwhelmed with all the attention. The president will find out, just like I did, you never know what this little girl is going to say.

(on camera): If I'm the president sitting here, what are you going to tell me, if I'm the president saying, what do you want me to do, young lady?

COPENY: You sound nothing like the president.

BONDY: OK, I don't sound the president.

COPENY: Because you're not him.

BONDY: I know I'm not, and I never will be.

COPENY: He doesn't have that much hair.

(LAUGHTER)

BONDY: Are you going it say that to say that to him?

COPENY: No.

BONDY: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: That girl's going to go a long way.

Our thanks to Dave Bondy for that report. Mr. Obama is expected to visit Flint on Wednesday.

Now, if the thought of running a half marathon makes you cringe, how about running one by mistake? A 12-year-old girl was supposed to run a five-kilometer race in New York. Her mum dropped her off near the starting line, and off she went. One problem. She found out later she was in the wrong race, one that was 21 kilometers. So she just kept going. Mom got pretty worried when her daughter didn't cross the 5K finish line. But a police officer found the little girl running the longer race. She was reunited with her mother and got a medal for her accidental half marathon. Everyone, very proud.

And you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back in just a moment with another hour of news from all around the world. Stick around.

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