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Leicester City Football Club Captures First EPL Title After 132 Years; Foxes' Title Run Inspires Thai Fans; Trump and Cruz Battle for Votes in Indiana; Aleppo Is Biggest Challenge in Syria Cease-fire; Syrian Refugee Sets Herself on Fire; Leicester City Become English Premier League Champs; Rio Boxer's Journey to Olympics. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 03, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:12] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Donald Trump looks to deliver a knockout blow with his rivals against the ropes heading into the next primary.

SESAY: But first, fans party deep into the night in Leicester, England following one of the greatest upsets in the history of sport.

VAUSE: Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining us. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

It's been 132 years since Leicester City Football Club was founded, and only now --

VAUSE: Only now.

SESAY: Only now can they finally call themselves champions.

VAUSE: Champions.

SESAY: They clinched the English Premier League Monday when second place Tottenham drew against Chelsea.

VAUSE: The Foxes ended last season at the bottom of the table. In fact they only narrowly avoided relegation to a lower division. Their run to the top is being called the greatest underdog story of all time.

SESAY: Well, generations of fans have waited years for this moment and now that it's here they can hardly believe it.

VAUSE: Christina McFarland was with the fans celebrating in the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA MCFARLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is an Algerian flag that's just been waved in front of me in honor of Riyad Mahrez, of course. The players themselves are not far away from here. They're at Jamie Vardy's house, about a 10-minute drive down the road. And we heard that Claudio Ranieri has flown back to Leicester City tonight from Italy especially for this moment.

And you can see just what it means to these fans. No firm plans yet. We're not entirely sure what the official celebrations will be. We do expect there to be a victory parade on the streets of Leicester at the end of the season, but as for the party here, it's going to carry on for some hours here to come. A carnival atmosphere.

This is Christina McFarland from the champions of the English Premier League in Leicester.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Oh, they are a happy bunch.

SESAY: Can you imagine what that victory parade is going to look like?

VAUSE: Can't imagine what they're going to look like this morning.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: We heard from some more fans on what this means to them and their city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had dreams, and this is above it. It's just mental.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To come up all this way, it's just -- I can't even put it into words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the most beautiful thing about our city. You bring a lot of players from different nations, different parts of the U.K. together. They gel in a way that no one else expected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: On the season's opening day Leicester was 5,000-1 to win the title. In other words, the bookies thought Lady Gaga had a better shot at becoming U.S. president in 2020 with odds of 500-1. This win by Leicester is one of the greatest underdog victories in the history of the known universe. It's also a really bad day for some bookies.

"WORLD SPORTS" anchor Don Riddell is with us now to tell us how they managed to pull it off.

Don, explain as best you can. How did they do it?

DON RIDDELL, CNN ANCHOR, WORLD SPORTS: How long have you got? Where do you want me to start? I mean, there are so many reasons to explain why Leicester City managed to do this. But they had great scouting, they unearthed some really hidden gems, guys like N'Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy. They got these -- they bought these guys for peanuts and turned them into absolute world beaters.

The team is superbly managed by Claudio Ranieri, a manager who pretty much the rest of the footballing world had written off as being past his best. He was considered a bit of a joke when he was hired by Leicester, but, boy, has he had the last laugh. He organized his team. They played tactically fantastic throughout the season.

And I will say that the teams you would have expected to challenge for the title, like Man City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, they all had an off year. That is very, very unusual. I don't think that will happen again, but take nothing away from Leicester. They thoroughly deserve it this year, John.

VAUSE: So just explain how all of this worked because at the end of the day, you know, the win, essentially, came down to a match between Tottenham and Chelsea which was a draw.

RIDDELL: Yes, in the advent of the TV era, teams don't all play at the same time anymore. So Leicester had the night off and Tottenham, who were their greatest rivals, the only team who could catch them, had to go to Chelsea and had to beat Chelsea at Stanford Bridge in order to prolong this title race for at least another week. Now Spurs hadn't won at Chelsea for some 26 years. They thought they were going to do it tonight. They actually went 2-0 up and seemed to be coasting.

That didn't mean Tottenham was going to win the title, but it meant that this thing was going to last maybe just a little bit longer.

[01:05:05] But in the end, Chelsea came back and stunned them with a couple of goals and that changed everything. And so without having to kick a ball, Leicester won the title with two games to spare.

VAUSE: Yes. If you look back on the season, it's incredible because Leicester, they spent week after week at the top of the standings. Everyone, I guess, was waiting for them to fall but they just never did.

RIDDLE: Yes; I mean, it was incredible that they were at the top in the first place. And you're absolutely right. Everybody just thought yes, but they're going to crack. They're going to -- you know, eventually they're going to realize that they don't belong there and they didn't. And that's all credit to them. You know, this is a team, a very small squad, a very compact unit, very well managed.

Just a great spirit about them and just when the pressure was being ramped up in the last few weeks, they kept it together. They didn't crack. They kept on going and that's a great testament to the players and, of course, the manager Claudio Ranieri, who kept them all going.

And these players are fantastic players. A lot of us hadn't heard of them before the season or a couple of years ago.

VAUSE: Yes.

RIDDLE: But they have proved themselves to be well-beaters. VAUSE: And next year, Leicester will make it, what, its first

appearance in the UEFA Champion Leagues? How truly out of the ordinary will it be to see Leicester playing giants like Barcelona and Real Madrid?

RIDDLE: It's going to be truly out of the ordinary, as you say. I think if the fans and the players -- if it hasn't sunk in for them now it certainly will the day that Real Madrid comes to play at the King Power Stadium or when Leicester maybe go to Nou Camp stake on Barcelona. I think that's the day when they'll realize just what they've accomplished.

And they'd be doing that anyway. By finishing in the top three they had guaranteed the right to play in the Champions League the next season, whether or not they won the title. But that is going to be truly extraordinary and it means that whatever happens in the Premiere League next season, these fans are going to be in dream land for at least one more year because they are going to absolutely dine out on that Champions League experience.

VAUSE: And just very quickly, looking forward to next season, the bookies now have less than 20-1 to win back-to-back titles?

RIDDLE: Yes, they've learned their lesson. They're not going to get taken to the cleaners like they did this time, 5,000-1. I heard one estimate from the bookie William Hill that the English bookmakers, between them, are going to lose $22 million on this result. They have been absolutely ravaged. So, yes, only 20 or 25 to one next year, but get this, John. They still think Leicester are more likely to be relegated next year than they think is likely they're going to win the title.

VAUSE: Wow.

RIDDLE: So they're still not exactly backing Leicester to succeed, but certainly the odd have been slashed from 5,000-1.

VAUSE: Absolutely. You know, it's still an incredible moment in sport that you very rarely get to see and enjoy.

Don, great to speak with you. Thank you.

RIDDLE: Yes; sure.

SESAY: Great Stuff. Well, the team has some strong ties to Thailand thanks to its owner. Our own Saima Mohsin joins us now from Bangkok.

Saima, good to have you with us. What does Leicester's win mean for Thailand and their love of the game there?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really is the beautiful game and Thailand is starting to learn just how beautiful it is, Isha. You know, those last two matches as we just heard from Don, I mean, excitement, nail-biting to the end.

On Sunday night I was at a party, a viewing party at the King Power headquarters. The owners here in Thailand. They'd invited 600 people that had applied to be there through competitions, through the Facebook fan page, which has now got more than half a million followers here in Thailand. Three million, of course, for the main Leicester City fan page.

So they really are racking up a lot of support here. It's also having a ripple effect, a lot of influence. There's a TV series looking for the next talent to go and -- go to the Leicester City Academy called "Goal." And then of course there is the Thai monk that has been supporting Leicester City all along. Now other teams are coming to him asking him for his help, too -- Isha.

SESAY: Fascinating. And Saima, I understand you just talked to the monk who's been doing this blessing of Leicester City's stadium and players. Did he let you into the secret? What did he say?

MOHSIN: Yes, I've asked a lot because I want my team to win the FA Cup Final, Isha.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: Good luck with that.

MOHSIN: I've been getting them in to our chats, haven't I? Yes -- no, I went to speak to him early this morning. He said of course being a monk he has to remain neutral, he's not allowed to show emotion, but he is happy for Leicester City FC. He will be congratulating the Thai owner, Mr. Vichai, who is his follower for many, many years, which is why he went to him to ask him to go to Leicester City and bless the grounds, meet the players, give them special cloth which he gave me one, too, as well.

[01:10:02] And he did tell me, though, he was praying during the last few games. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHRA PROMMANGKATACHAN, MONK, GOLDEN BUDDHA TEMPLE (Through Translator): I was praying and meditating during the matches on Sunday and Monday night. I wanted to send good karma and moral support to Leicester City FC and pray for victory as the owner, Mr. Vichai, asked me to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOHSIN: And he's very humble, Isha. He said, you know, he doesn't believe he was entirely responsible for the win. He does credit of course, he said the amazing players, the management, the great coaches, and what he also said was it's the support of the people around the world here in Thailand and England and everyone who supported the underdog that is the Foxes. And he said it's the power of the mind that Buddhists believe in and he believes that that was the biggest force behind Leicester City.

Whatever it was, Isha, they have created an incredible feat. And everyone here in Thailand is very, very proud of them -- Isha. SESAY: As a Crystal Palace fan, Saima, how pig sick are you at this

victory for Leicester?

MOHSIN: Well, you know, actually I'm quite pleased for them because we've still got the FA Cup final to go. So all hopes are pinned on that. For revenge for 1990 against Manchester United, Isha. But yes, actually it's just great to see a team that has come from the bottom to win the Premiership title. And then as you were saying, you know, earlier with Don, John was talking to him talking about them being in the Champions League.

People here in Thailand will not believe it. They love watching the World Cup. Now they get to watch a Thai-owned team in the Champions League as well. So I'm happy for them.

SESAY: I believe you. Great reporting there, Saima Mohsin. Appreciate it. Thank you. Wishing you luck to the FA Cup.

MOHSIN: Thank you.

VAUSE: Are you two girls done now? Is OK to move on?

SESAY: This is a great moment. And we have to give Leicester City their due.

VAUSE: It has indeed been a truly magical season.

SESAY: So good. It has to be said.

VAUSE: We'll look back at how they pulled it off because it never hurts to have a monk in your corner.

SESAY: But next we'll return to the U.S. race for president including reaction to Donald Trump's colorful rhetoric about trade with China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't continue to allow China to rape our country. And that's what they're doing. It's the greatest theft in the history of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:16:25] SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. In just a few hours voters in Indiana will go to the polls in that state's crucial primary.

VAUSE: And as CNN's Sara Murray reports, the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump believes the results could be decisive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TRUMP: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump is aiming to deal a death blow to Ted Cruz's presidential hopes right here in Indiana.

TRUMP: If we win Indiana, it's over. It's over. They're finished.

MURRAY: Trump holds a 24-point advantage over Cruz in the latest CNN- ORC poll of Republicans nationwide. Trump appears well-positioned to pull off a victory in Tuesday's primary. He draws 49 percent support from Republican voters in Indiana, a 15-point lead over Cruz, according to a new "Wall Street Journal"-NBC News-Marist poll. But Cruz insists the race is much tighter.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are neck-and-neck right now in the state of Indiana. So for anyone here, Hoosiers, this is an opportunity where the entire country is looking to the state of Indiana.

MURRAY: He and his surrogates are blanketing the Hoosier state today, holding 10 events, and at one stop engaging in a debate with one of Trump's supporters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump. He's the only one that's going to put us where we need to be. What are you going to do about the Second Amendment?

CRUZ: This man is lying to you and he's taking advantage of you. If I were Donald Trump, I wouldn't have come over and talked to you. I would have told the folks over there go over and punch those guys in the face. That's what Donald does to protesters.

MURRAY: All, as the Texas Senator vows to stay in the race until Cleveland.

CRUZ: I am in for the distance. As long as we have a viable path to victory, I am competing to the end.

MURRAY: Meanwhile, Trump is still condemning the GOP primary process.

TRUMP: I've been saying it's a rigged system. The bosses want to pick whoever they want to pick. What's the purpose of going through the primaries?

MURRAY: And continued campaigning in colorful language this weekend as he criticized trade deals with China.

TRUMP: We can't continue to allow China to rape our country. And that's what they're doing.

MURRAY: But it's clear the GOP frontrunner is ready to make the shift to the general, taking aim at Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail today.

TRUMP: She's a disaster. E-mails. Bad judgment. Iraq, voted yes. Bad judgment. Libya, bad judgment. All bad judgment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: OK. Joining us now, CNN's senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers, and Parag Khanna, CNN's global contributor and author of "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization," available now where all good books are sold.

It's going really well on Amazon, right?

PARAG KHANNA, CNN GLOBAL CONTRIBUTOR: It is.

SESAY: You should have it on Kindle or something.

KHANNA: It is. It's available. The maps are better inside the real book.

VAUSE: Yes. Electronically good actually.

KHANNA: Thank you.

VAUSE: Nicely done. OK. Let's start off with Donald Trump and China. You know, the rhetoric is incredible. You know, he's using terms that China is raping the United States.

Dylan, to you. You know, this seems to be incredibly powerful and tough language which in years past would never have sort of been acceptable. But this year it's working for Trump.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes -- no, you're absolutely right. It would not have been acceptable in any previous year. But of course Trump has upped the ante so far it's hard to remember what acceptable used to look like.

VAUSE: Yes.

BYERS: Look, Donald Trump is at a point where he needs to get rid of Ted Cruz in order to fully move on to the general election and certainly to go to the convention in July and say that he has the right if not the delegates to be the nominee. And what better way to do that than to appeal to those white middle-class voters, those people in manufacturing, other sectors who've seen their jobs shift overseas or who fear seeing their jobs shift overseas and there's no greater sort of Goliath to go up against than China.

[01:20:13] And that's the rhetoric we've seen from Donald Trump for nine or 10 months and he's upping the ante now in order to nip any hope that Ted Cruz has in the bud.

SESAY: And Parag, such lines may be resonating here among, you know, Trump supporters. But what's the view in the rest of the world when they hear this kind of rhetoric and hear this specific kind of language, China raping the U.S.?

KHANNA: As you know they're very frightened of course because the world depends on trading with the United States. It is the largest trade power in the world. So many countries besides China also export to the United States. If Donald Trump were to be elected, a big if, obviously, but his trade policy is not only going to undermine the bilateral trade of China but many other countries are going to be taken down if you will along the way. And those countries are much more fragile than China, much more dependent on exports to the U.S. for their growth.

And Trump forgets of course the reciprocity, right? You impose tariffs on them, they're going to do it to you. It's going to hurt more Americans, the ones that you set out to save. Right? Because they're going to lose even more jobs, if you will, because then the exports that have been going by the hundreds of billions of dollars a year to China, that's suddenly going to stop. He forgets it's a two- way street.

SESAY: And he also forgets that many of the long-term goals for saving them or the key to save them is retraining the American workforce.

KHANNA: Yes. Exactly right. You know, we've known about outsourcing of jobs for 10 or 15 years to Asia, to Latin America. Other countries, by the way, such as Germany or Switzerland or Korea, they took measures to retrain their workers, to align their supply chains and their educational system and industries and have economic strategies about what industries they were going to develop and strengthen, and America didn't do that.

You know, this has been a feature of American elections since 2004. You would remember this too, John. Since 2004 American presidential candidates have been saying we need to retrain our workers to adjust to -- and move them up the value chain so that we're not competing for low-wage jobs with China. But other countries implemented those policies and America hasn't. And that is what explains the rise of Donald Trump.

VAUSE: And in some ways China has become sort of a whipping boy for this whole free trade argument. And you know, Dylan, this isn't just on, you know, the Republican side. It's also on the Democratic side with Bernie Sanders. He has dragged Hillary Clinton with him to that side of the argument, especially when it comes to these free trade agreements. He was talking about it again on the campaign trail on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do believe in trade. I think if you've got 5 percent of the world's population you have to trade with the other 95 percent. But I don't believe that we should be subsidizing in effect the rest of the world to trade with us. We still have the biggest market, the strongest economy, the most consumers who are able to buy things. And so we've got some cards to play. And we need to play those cards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, the politics here on both sides of, you know, the aisle here in the United States is incredible because globalization, free trade, all these things seem to be off the agenda now. Everyone's against them. Regardless of what party you're in.

BYERS: Right. And this goes -- actually this goes really wonderfully to Parag's point, which is, you know, I keep talking about the political angle here and what the candidates are trying to do in terms of appealing to voters.

VAUSE: Yes.

BYERS: Of course what you're talking about is real practical good policies about what works and what doesn't. The problem in campaign season is -- it's not just in America. I mean, it's in North Korea. It's anywhere. The problem is that people want quick fixes. They want easy answers. Especially for, again, that white working middle class who feels like their parents had it better than them. Their grandparents had it better than them. They don't want the intricacies of, you know, Hillary Clinton's step-by-step policy proposals. They want grand answers. They want an answer that says go to the voting booth, vote for me, I will make your life better, period.

SESAY: Will we ever get to that point in this campaign season, where maybe in the debates, where people have to get down to the --

(CROSSTALK)

BYERS: So this is what's really interesting because Donald Trump is going to come in with big broad, you know, promises. And in fact -- on policy he's been very vacant. And he says he's going to build a wall. What else has he said? Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, her biggest flaw in a way is just how smart and detailed she is on these things.

SESAY: Yes.

BYERS: Because that's not what people want to hear. People don't want a policy paper. They want big promises.

KHANNA: John's right. Both sides of the aisle are now opposed to some of these agreements and so one of the things that Trump has accomplished is that he's forced Hillary to become against the transpacific partnership, which was a major Democratic initiative.

VAUSE: Bernie Sanders as well.

KHANNA: Exactly.

VAUSE: The other issue, you know, we've had just in terms of international relations here, as an example last Friday there was a barrel roll. There was an incident between a Russian fighter jet and a U.S. Navy jet. The second time a barrel roll has happened in just a few weeks. Trump was asked how he would handle this kind of situation if he was president. He was asked by a radio host. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We should certainly start with diplomacy and it should start quickly with a phone call to Putin. Wouldn't you think?

[01:25:03] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I would think so, yes.

TRUMP: And if that doesn't work out, I don't know. You know, at a certain point when that sucker comes by you're going to shoot? I mean, you're going to shoot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yet, Dylan, it just sounds so incredibly casual here. He's going to shoot it down.

BYERS: This is actually a perfect illustration of the two sides of Donald Trump. There's the one side of him that is saying, I will be a responsible president, you can trust me to have my hand on the nuclear codes, on the red button, what have you. And the other one of him that's again that sort of John Wayne bravado that comes out and says, you know, like us versus them. You know, they come at us we're going to come at them even harder.

VAUSE: They pull a knife, we'll pull a gun.

BYERS: Yes. Exactly. And look, he did that at one -- in a very simple pivot he was simultaneously the responsible diplomat who could look Putin in the eye and the guy who's just going to, like, pull out his missiles and start firing.

SESAY: And Parag, this is the kind of thing that has world leaders worried, right? They just don't know what they would get from someone like Trump in the White House.

KHANNA: And he's willing to take what is a small episode, an episode which Putin is very -- you know, is very prone to doing, which is just poking and prodding a little bit with these barrel rolls saying, you know, yes, you think you're in international waters but you're very close to us and this is our domain. He's just signaling. But Trump is willing to blow that up literally, pardon the pun.

SESAY: Yes.

KHANNA: Into something much worse than it would necessarily need to be. And that should have everyone worried, not just foreigners of course but also Americans.

VAUSE: Yes. OK. Dylan and Parag, good conversation.

SESAY: So good to have you here. Thank you.

VAUSE: Thank you very much for coming in. Appreciate it.

SESAY: Appreciate it.

All right. And one more note from the U.S. campaign. Ted Cruz's running mate Carly Fiorina received a not-so-pleasant surprise during a rally this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA, TED CRUZ'S RUNNING MATE: The next president of the United States, Ted Cruz.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It's hard to watch. She wasn't hurt, we're told. She was OK. But you know, her running mate, that would be Ted Cruz, didn't really notice that Fiorina had stumbled off the stage. He kept shaking hands with the crowd. Donald Trump certainly noticed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: By the way, she fell off the stage the other day. Did anybody see that? And Cruz didn't do anything. I was -- even I would have helped her. OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: You shouldn't laugh but --

VAUSE: We're not laughing at Carly Fiorina.

SESAY: No.

VAUSE: Sort of at Donald Trump's reaction there.

SESAY: It was a gift for him.

VAUSE: It really was.

SESAY: All right. We're going to take a quick break here. Still to come, a boxer's battle for Olympic gold. How he overcame the slums of Rio to make the Brazilian national team.

VAUSE: Plus continued violence in the Syrian city of Aleppo has left a tenuous cease-fire on the edge of collapse. We'll have a look at the latest efforts to try and restore what was a limited truce.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:21] SESAY: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause.

The headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES)

VAUSE: The U.S. and Russia have agreed to add more personnel in Geneva to help enforce the fragile cease-fire in Syria.

SESAY: The biggest challenge appears to be extending the truce to include Aleppo, which has seen a sharp escalation of violence in recent weeks.

Global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fresh air strikes pummel rebel-held areas of Aleppo, still reeling from last week's hospital attack. Chilling video footage captures the final moments for Aleppo's last pediatrician, among 50 killed, when the U.S. says the Syrian regime deliberately targeted the medical facility.

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The attack on this hospital is unconscionable under any standard anywhere. It has to stop.

LABOTT: Acknowledging the Syria conflict is out of control, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Geneva --

(GUNFIRE)

LABOTT: -- in a desperate push to salvage a crumbling cease-fire and restart peace talks.

KERRY: An ongoing process that relieves the people of Syria from this devastation, from this day-to-day killing machine that is being unleashed by the Assad regime.

LABOTT: Local truces announced last week by the U.S. and Russia did not include Aleppo, where hundreds of civilians died in the last week alone. Russia continuing to support the regime's campaign to retake Aleppo and strengthen its hold on northern Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once you encircle Aleppo they would think that they could squeeze it and therefore eventually take it over as they have other areas they've besieged elsewhere.

LABOTT: But today, the Syrian opposition vowed to fight back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they are of a mind to continue breaking this truce, armed opposition and factions have a right to respond to that aggression.

LABOTT: And its biggest backer, Saudi Arabia, said the world will not stand idly by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is happening in Aleppo is an outrage. It's a violation of all humanitarian laws. The world is not going to allow them to get away with this.

LABOTT (on camera): The Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz" is reporting president Assad has used chemical weapons against is. This follows reports the regime has used chemical agents against civilians since the cease-fire started. ISIS has also used chemical weapons on the battlefield in Aleppo. All very terrifying for civilians as the battle for Aleppo intensifies.

Elise Labott, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:35:02] VAUSE: And now we're joined by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield."

Gayle, thanks for joining us again.

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS & AUTHOR: Thank you.

SESAY: As we look at the situation unfolding in Aleppo right now and this uptick in the violence what's going on here in is this an attempt by Bashar al Assad and the regime to stymie talks in Geneva?

TZEMACH LEMMON: That's definitely what you hear from people who have been fighting for this regime now going on five-plus years, which is that anytime we get close to talk about transition away from power for Bashar al Assad, and something happens that's horrible, they know the opposition is going to walk out of the talks. Now what you see is this international scramble. The United States, in Geneva, Secretary Kerry talking about the British foreign minister saying a new approach is need. The Saudi foreign minister saying Assad's going to have to go, which the U.S. said in 2011, repeating that again. And I think you see this rush to get to a settlement or some kind of a truce something, kind of cessation of hostilities to stop some of the carnage but it's really difficult given the number of players and the competing interests involved.

VAUSE: The incredible thing is, let's just get back to what we said just moments ago with Secretary Kerry. They've agreed to put more people in Geneva to monitor the cease-fire. I mean, this is just people talking and talking and talking. And there doesn't seem to be any results here. It's talks about talks about talks.

TZEMACH LEMMON: This is what people who are on the ground in Syria and southern Turkey -- I spent a lot of time interviewing Syrian refugees, who said this is exactly it, the international community talks to itself, they have fancy meetings in fancy hotels and meanwhile --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: In nice places like Geneva.

TZEMACH LEMMON: Absolutely. Meanwhile the bloodshed continues. The hospital you saw bombed in Aleppo with pictures, I think even for those who didn't want to get involved that is a shocking image of little ones being killed. The lone pediatrician left being killed.

SESAY: Then you hear talk about safe zones, separating fighters from civilians, and again you think, how is this possibly going to work? Who's going to police this? Where would these safe zones be? The detail. TZEMACH LEMMON: The detail has always been the challenge with getting

to any kind of a peaceful resolution in Syria. The first central question has been the future of Bashar al Assad. Even now you talk to American diplomats and they say we can now have a conversation with the Russians, right, where we'll have pretty good dialogue. But Iran is the question, because it's not clear whether Russia has the leverage to get Assad out. And the Iranians seem to have no interest in pushing Assad out --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: The Saudis are the ones who are now standing firm saying Assad must go and they're the ones the Americans don't necessarily have the leverage over in all of this as well.

TZEMACH LEMMON: Right. It's shifted from Assad must go to we must fight ISIS. Right? And this is all products of the same war. You talk to people who have been following this for years and they say ISIS is a symptom of the cancer that is the Assad regime. Right? It is not the cancer itself. Yet what is the international community focused on? On ISIS.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: And that's the group which is seen as the biggest threat to the West.

TZEMACH LEMMON: Yes, that's right. And certainly after we've seen what happened in Europe and that kind of heartache.

VAUSE: OK, Gayle. Next time we work out a positive story.

TZEMACH LEMMON: I know. I did just see something beautiful, though. There was a story in a Syrian paper where this Syrian refugee family in Turkey left a note on a door for the people who lived in their building saying, "Thank you. If we've given you any trouble, we're so sorry, but thank you for taking us in." And the piece -- it's in al Baradiya (ph). It will really move you to tears about the human stakes in this war.

VAUSE: That's the point. It's all about families and kids.

SESAY: Gayle, thank you. Leaving on that note. Appreciate it.

TZEMACH LEMMON: Great to join you.

SESAY: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, a second grim act of protest in just a week at an Australian refugee center. A young asylum seeker sets herself on fire.

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[01:42:09] SESAY: Hello, everyone. On a remote Pacific island a terrible act of protest, or perhaps desperation. A 21-year-old Somali woman hoping to reach Australia set herself on fire at a detention center on Nauru Island. It's the second act of self-immolation in a week by a refugee there.

CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, joins us with details.

Ivan, good to have you with us.

An act of protest perhaps by this young woman and also another man a couple of days ago. What do we know about conditions at that detention center in Nauru?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: People have been living in that detention center, have been housed there for more than a year in some cases. And we've been in touch with dozens of the children who've been living at that detention center as well. But this is very alarming now. Two people who have set themselves on fire in less than a week. And it's prompted quite an unusual response from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which has just come out with a statement saying, quote, "There is no doubt that the current policy of offshore processing and prolonged detention is immensely harmful. Despite efforts by the governments of Papua-New Guinea and Nauru, arrangements in both countries have proved completely untenable."

The UNHCR now calling for the immediate relocation, removal of some 2,000 residents from these two Australian offshore detention centers, one on the island of Nauru where these two people now have set fire to themselves in the space of a week, and also from the island of Manus in Papua, New Guinea, where the supreme court just ruled last week that detaining refugees and asylum seekers and migrants there was unconstitutional.

In the case of the 23-year-old Iranian man who set fire to himself last week in Nauru, this took place, there were eyewitnesses from the UNHCR who were making a visit to the detention center when that man set himself on fire. And then he died several days later after being airlifted by Australia for emergency medical care. At this stage, the 21-year-old Somalian woman, named Hadom Yasin (ph), she has also been airlifted to Australia and is suffering some very grievous, very serious injuries as a result of that desperate act -- Isha?

SESAY: So, so awful. Ivan, what are we hearing from the Australian government as these various parties call for a change in operations on what's taking place there in Nauru?

WATSON: The Australian government is standing by its policy of stopping people who try to reach Australia, by sea, for example, or by other methods, and then putting them on these offshore detention centers. And not only Australia but also the Nauru government have started to shift the blame for these cases of self-immolation onto activists that they claim are trying to push the refugees and migrants to adopt these very desperate measures.

Take a listen to the Australian immigration minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [11:45:29] PETER DUTTON, AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION MINISTER: It is of grave concern that this person would resort to such an extreme act of self-harm. I've previously expressed my frustration and anger, frankly, at advocates and others who are in contact with those in original processing centers and who are encouraging some of those people to behave in a certain way, believing that that pressure exerted on the Australian government will change policy in relation to our border protection measures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: So you've got a government official there accusing basically activists of pushing the refugees and migrants to do things like burn themselves. But then you have an opposition lawmaker, Senator Sarah Hansen Young (ph), saying that Australia and its offshore detention policy now is in freefall and joining the UNHCR in calling for an end to this controversial policy -- Isha?

SESAY: Ivan Watson joining us there from Hong Kong. Appreciate, it Ivan. Thank you.

VAUSE: A short break here on CNN. When we come back, a Brazilian boxer is fighting against all odds. We'll look at his rise from the mean streets of Rio to a shot at Olympic gold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

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[01:50:32] SESAY: Leicester City Football Club is the champion of the English Premier League. They came all the way from the bottom of the standings last year.

VAUSE: Now that they're on top, many are wondering, how'd they do it?

Don Riddell walks us through the keys to their success.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: It is a football fairy tale that is already folklore. Leicester City's astonishing win against all the odds Premier League title. Analysts have spent many months now debating how the Foxes were able to stun the big guns and take the bookies to the cleaners.

And there are good reasons for their success. A brilliant scouting system that unearthed hidden gems like Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, old school tactics and brilliant management from Claudio Ranieri. And we can also look at some key moments when they kept the dream alive.

Look at this. Nobody cares who's top of the table after just one game but maybe the signs were there all along. The Foxes thrashed Sunderland 4-2 and on that evidence it looked like they might be good enough to avoid relegation. But let's be honest, not many of us were thinking much bigger than that at the time. Fast forward to the last week of October. Up until this point, Leicester had been playing well but they hadn't managed to keep a clean sheet. That concerned the manager, Ranieri. So he incentivized his team with a pizza party and it worked, 1-0 against Crystal Palace moving them to fifth in the league. Just three points off the top. They've had 14 more in the league this season, no doubt keeping the local delivery boys on their toes.

So with the defense all shored up the Foxes set about really make the feathers fly. But they slowed down around New Year. By January, their critics were all expecting the wheels to finally fall off. So they went to Tottenham and beat them with a late header from Robert Huth with Spurs turning out to be their biggest rivals, that was crucial as they opened up a seven-point gap on the Londoners. But nothing said we mean business quite like Leicester's stunning 3-1 win at Manchester City in February, Huth scoring twice, Mahrez also got on target, and Leicester were five points clear of the table with 13 games to play. And they just kept going and going and going. And arguably, the result that signals they were now destined for the title came in the middle of April against West Ham. Jamie Vardy had been sent off. There was late drama at both ends. But a last gasp penalty from Ulloa Joa (ph) gave them a commanding eight-point lead. Now it is all over with two games to spare. Leicester City are Premier League champions. Whoever would have thought it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, it's official. We have an opener for the Olympics. I guess the countdown has begun. There we are.

SESAY: I thought it was very good.

VAUSE: It was good, yeah. And you can't use the Olympic logo because they copyrighted.

In a few hours, the Olympic torch will arrive in Brazil beginning its trek around the country before the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.

SESAY: The torch will start its 95-day journey in the capitol and then pass through 300 towns and villages. About 90 percent of the country's residents live along the torch route.

VAUSE: Boxer Roberto Custodio is fighting to be one of the 10,000 athletes competing at the games. He grew up in one of Rio's most dangerous neighborhood and never dreamed that one day he would represent his country.

SESAY: Shasta Darlington has more on Roberto's journey for Olympic gold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Roberto Custodio can take a punch or two. After all, the Olympic boxing hopeful learned on the mean streets of Rio, where he survived the worst.

"I lost my father when I was 14 going on 15," he says. He was killed by local drug traffickers.

But he found an outlet for his rage. Lutea de la Paiz, or Fight for Peace.

"It messed with my head," he says. "I want to prevent and boxing helped me get through it."

That's where he met his future wife, Alexandra, also a young boxer at the time. Now living in a small apartment in the violent Complexa Favela where they both grew up and raising their own daughter, Hillary.

"I have to study, help at home and go to university," she says.

For Custodio boxing got him off the streets and won him a wall full of medals. But he's never far from where he started.

(on camera): We're up here on Roberto's roof. We can't go out on the street. This is a neighborhood controlled by drug gangs. They're out, they're armed, and they don't want to see a camera.

(voice-over): With his inspirational story, Custodio became the poster boy for Luta Sportswear back in 2011.

Luke Dowdmi (ph) founded Fight for Peace to lure kids off Rio's streets with boxing. But now, they provide everything from help at school to job training.

LUKE DOWDMI, FOUNDER, FIGHT FOR PEACE: There's a lot of stuff going on around, especially if you've got problems at home and so on. If you get through like a good fighter, you don't give in, you don't quit, you keep training, and whether that means winning competition or whether that means staying in school and getting that diploma, I think we're all inspired by that.

DARLINGTON: Of course, Custodio hopes to be one of the lucky few, competing for a spot at the 2016 Olympics at a recent qualifier right here in Rio de Janeiro, cheered on by family and friends.

(CHEERING)

DARLINGTON: He didn't win this match. But like a good fighter never giving up, ready for the next.

(CHEERING)

DARLINGTON: Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:56:10] VAUSE: We wish him well.

You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. The news continues with Rosemary Church right after this.

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[02:00:10] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Primary day in Indiana. A do-or-die vote for Ted Cruz.