Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

London Elects First-Ever Muslim Mayor; Trump Looks Ahead to General Election; Fort McMurray Wildfire Devastates Alberta; Pakistan Girl Murdered for Helping Couple Elope; North Korea Holds Rare Party Meeting; Cruz Campaign Ends with a Thud. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired May 07, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


[02:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The son of a Pakistani immigrant becomes the first Muslim mayor of London. We'll tell you how Sadiq Khan overcame an often ugly campaign to take the city's top job.

Barack Obama warns Donald Trump that the U.S. presidency isn't a reality show.

And North Korea welcomes the world's media as it hosts its biggest political meeting in decades. But the reclusive country is staying as secretive as ever. Our man, Will Ripley, is inside North Korea and we'll have his report in this edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: And we begin in London, where the newly elected mayor says the politics of fear are not welcome in the world's financial capital. Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan defeated Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith, triumphing over a campaign that sought to link Khan to extremism.

The son of Pakistani immigrants is London's first-ever Muslim mayor, as Phil Black reports. Khan promises to be a mayor for all Londoners.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This hasn't happened in London before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I therefore declare Sadiq Khan to be elected as the new mayor of London.

BLACK (voice-over): A Muslim election as the city's new mayor.

SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON: I never dreamt that someone like me could be elected as mayor of London. And I want to say thank you to every single Londoner for making the impossible possible today.

BLACK (voice-over): Sadiq Khan is the son of a London bus driver. He mentioned that a few times through his campaign. His parents were Pakistani immigrants; they lived in public housing. He went to state schools. He then became a lawyer, member of Parliament and government minister. More than 12 percent of Londoner are Muslims and many are thrilled about Khan's new job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a big victory and I'm feeling proud as a Muslim because you see the situation has gone on with Muslims and all around the world and everything.

BLACK (voice-over): Khan's win defies a political trend dividing Western nations.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

BLACK (voice-over): Across America and Europe, Islam has become an emotive, often fearful political issue after large terror strikes in the U.S., France and Belgium.

BLACK: Londoners have also known terrorism and live with its constant threat. Sadiq Khan's supporters say his win in this election shows many people here are very comfortable with the clear difference between those who murder in the name of Islam and the rest of the Muslim community.

BLACK (voice-over): But extremism was still an issue in this political race. Khan's oppositions, his cultural and political opposite, the wealthy white Conservative Party candidate, Zac Goldsmith, tried to link Khan to people said to support radical Islam. Fellow Conservatives David Cameron repeated the claims in Parliament.

DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: Well, he stood on a platform with people who wanted an Islamic state.

BLACK (voice-over): The effort was dismissed as dog whistle racism by people on all sides of politics and it did little to change voters' thinking. Perhaps difficult to smear Khan with extremism after he voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage.

KHAN: And I'm so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division.

BLACK (voice-over): The mayor of London manages day-to-day issues like planning, transport, housing and police. It's a big job. But it's not the stuff of big political vision. Sadiq Khan's election marks an historic and cultural milestone for an international city long proud of its diversity -- Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN (voice-over): As mayor-elect, Sadiq Khan gave his victory speech. There was a clear sign of just how contentious this election has been and the challenges that lie ahead. Paul Golding, the mayoral candidate of the far right Britain First Party, turned his back on Khan as he was speaking.

That's him second to left there.

The moment went viral online as some Twitter users called Golding "a sore loser and a racist," which he denied. He turned back around when Khan finished speaking. Golding finished 8th in the vote count.

Khan's victory comes at a time when anti-Muslim rhetoric is on the rise in the U.S. and in Europe. I spoke earlier with comedian and "The Daily Beast" contributor Dean Obeidallah. And he said hostile attitudes about --

[02:05:00]

ALLEN: -- Muslims in the West threaten integration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, "THE DAILY BEAST": It's a dangerous campaign, what you're doing is, on some level, further inalienation (sic) of Muslims in the U.K. as opposed to bringing them in and make them assimilated, be a part of the entire country there, to become a part of being British.

So it was troubling. I'm glad he won. It took a lot to the people running, especially that late in the last six months. There's been two terror attacks on European soil not far from Great Britain. When you think about it, it's just a lot about how progressive and tolerant and open-minded, embracing they are of multiculturalism.

ALLEN: And the campaign that he ran and what he stands for that people apparently believed in him.

I want to point out that you are part Palestinian, part Sicilian and New Jersey-born. And you say that's what gives you a unique background to be a comedian.

But you've also experienced stereotyping.

So what do you hope a Muslim mayor of London can do to help quash stereotypes?

OBEIDALLAH: Well, I think it's great. You have someone who's very visible now. He'll go out to communities around London, get to know people even those who might be concerned about Muslims.

I think it'll send a very strong message that he's not going to try to impose Islamic law as mayor of London, as we have certain people on the far right in America who'll claim that every Muslim has to do that or Muslims can't be friends with Jews or Christians or other faiths. I think he'll cut right through that. And I think on some level it might actually make the extremes for us -- and I'm Muslim -- here in America slightly better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Comedian Dean Obeidallah, talking with me there.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: President Barack Obama is speaking out to on Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. He made reference to Trump's reality show background and urged voters to closely scrutinize his record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just want to emphasize the degree to which we are in serious times and this is a really serious job. This is not entertainment. This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.

And what means is that every candidate, every nominee needs to be subject to exacting standards and genuine scrutiny. It means that you got to make sure that their budgets add up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Protesters hit the streets against Donald Trump Friday night in the state of Oregon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN (voice-over): Demonstrators greet him everywhere he goes these days and Trump is also continuing to get pushback from his own party. Jeff Zeleny, our senior Washington correspondent, is on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's victory lap is looking more like an obstacle course and that's just among Republicans.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I actually wish the primaries were not over. It's no fun this way. I want the primaries to keep going, but everybody's out. I'm the only one left. That's OK, right?

ZELENY: He's dispatched with his GOP rivals, but the discord inside the party rages on.

Trump has won the hearts of millions of Republican voters but the minds of party leaders remain elusive.

Senator Lindsey Graham says he can't vote Trump.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I don't think he has the temperament in judgment to be commander in chief. I just can't go there with Donald.

ZELENY: Speaker Paul Ryan told Jake Tapper he can't endorse Trump.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now.

ZELENY: So far, Trump is holding his famously sharp tongue, perhaps taking a new stab at diplomacy.

TRUMP: He can do whatever he wants to do. It's fine, but I was surprised by it.

ZELENY: But other Republicans are getting on board. Some grudgingly, some not.

BOBBY JINDAL (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm voting for Donald Trump because I don't think we can afford four more years of liberal incompetence.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: As I said many times I support the nominee of the party.

ZELENY: Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he always supported the Republican nominee and will do so this year, too.

President Obama and Democrats are watching it all with delight.

OBAMA: There is no doubt that there is a debate that's taken place inside the Republican Party. I think not just Republican officials, but more importantly Republican voters are going to have to make a decision as to whether this is the guy who speaks for them and represents their values.

ZELENY: But Trump knows just how to fire up any tepid Republicans.

TRUMP: Now it's between me and crooked Hillary.

ZELENY: Today alone, he is taking his message to a red state, Nebraska and a blue state, Oregon. But the welcome was not entirely warm. Graffiti in letters eight feet tall saying "Dump Trump" were painted on --

[02:10:00]

-- this grain elevator in Omaha. It's been five extraordinary months since Trump landed in Omaha, campaigning for the Iowa caucuses when party elders thought he would fade away.

TRUMP: I love you Omaha. I love Nebraska.

ZELENY: Now it's his Republican party. And Trump is reveling in the moment, even putting on coal miner's hat Thursday night in West Virginia.

TRUMP: That is great.

My hair look OK?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Jeff Zeleny on the campaign trail. For more on the Republican resistance to Trump, check out CNN's "POLITICAL MANN." That's Saturday at 10:30 pm in Hong Kong.

Well, that wildfire raging in Canada is growing so quickly that by the end of Saturday, it could be twice the size it is now and it's huge. The Fort McMurray fire is just one of 40 burning in the Canadian province but it is the most intense making tens of thousands of people homeless. Dry conditions and wind are frustrating efforts to fight the flames. Our Dan Simon is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flames and smoke filling the sky as a convoy of desperate residents flee the danger zone.

SIMON: What have these last few days been like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell on Earth. Just like hell.

SIMON: And the scenes are hellish. The fire that started five days ago is still out of control. And for the displaced, it's gone from bad to worse. Because food and water is running low, Canadian authorities moving some 25,000 people from camps, a double evacuation.

What was it like being in the camp?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hard. They rationed food. Low water. People were upset because they don't know what's going on.

SIMON: The fire has burned nearly 250,000 acres, more than 10 times the size of Manhattan. In one of the more remarkable surveillance videos ever captured, a homeowner could watching his own house go down in flames only 20 minutes after evacuating.

Sixteen hundred structures, including homes and businesses destroyed. The heaviest damage in Ft. McMurray. A resident films his burned out neighborhood after seeing it for the first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my house. It was my house. Ashes are cool now. Nothing left. It's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Our house is going to burn down.

SIMON: In another video, we hear a woman's desperation as she drives by the flames destroying her community. As weary residents leave the area, they are greeted by fuel trucks with gas stations either destroyed or down due to power outages. Fuel is a precious commodity. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Makes a guy feel good to actually help these people because they've been through so much loss and devastation lately.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We'll continue to follow the developments there in Alberta, Canada.

Well, much of the world is watching as North Korea's highest political gathering in 30 years takes place in Pyongyang. Coming up, our Will Ripley gives us a rare peek from just outside the event.

Plus: a horror in Pakistan, a girl choked, sedated, tied to a van and burned. And all she did was help a friend elope. That horrific story of an "honor killing" next here.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:15:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN (voice-over): Fierce fighting around the Syrian city of Aleppo has left dozens of people dead on both sides. The Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate, teamed with other Islamist militants to target four villages in the suburbs of the city.

One militant detonated a suicide vehicle near Syrian soldiers. The terror group claims it successfully took control of those four villages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: We turn now to Pakistan and a horrific report of a barbaric murder of a 15-year-old girl. She spent her last moments inside a burning van. It was no accident but a punishment for just helping a friend to elope. Our senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A horrific crime committed in some warped idea of honor, a 15-year-old girl murdered, her charred skeleton found in a village in Northern Pakistan last week.

Authorities say the girl, whose name was Ambreen, helped a female friend elope with her boyfriend. The couple escaped. Police say a local tribal council or Jirga ordered Ambreen's execution.

SAEED WAZIR, DISTRICT POLICE CHIEF (through translator): This was not a Jirga of elders, it was a Jirga of local hoodlums and ruffians who wanted to take revenge for the dishonor of the family.

WARD: Authorities say many of those council members carried out the killing, sedating and suffocating the girl, then tying her body to a van and setting it on fire.

More than a dozen people are now under arrest, including the victim's mother, who investigators say knew about the orders to kill her daughter but did nothing to stop it or call police.

Pakistan's prime minister condemned the brutal crime in a statement saying, "Such a barbaric act is not only un-Islamic, but inhuman. It is not honor killing, it's just plain murder."

FARZANA BARI, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN GENDER STUDIES, QUAID E-AZAM UNIVERSITY: I think this is the tip of the iceberg because a lot of these numbers are coming out of the reported cases. So I think if you look at the scale of the problem, actually we don't know.

WARD: But hundreds of girls are killed by relatives every year in Pakistan, according to the country's Independent Human Rights Commission and experts believe many of these murders go unreported.

The suspects under arrest for Ambreen's murder now face trial, but human rights advocates caution few of these kinds of cases go to court. For many, justice remains elusive -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: A U.S. think tank says satellite images suggest North Korea may be preparing to carry out another nuclear test. The report comes as leader Kim Jong-un leads a rare ruling Workers Party Congress in Pyongyang. CNN's Will Ripley has more on this important political gathering being closely watched around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now we're walking through Pyongyang towards the April 25th House of Culture. This is the venue for the 7th Workers Party Congress. It was also the venue for the previous congress back in 1980.

We saw a massive caravan of coaches that we believe are carrying the 3,000 members of North Korea's ruling elite, the Worker's Party who are here, to unanimously show their support for the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

I say unanimously, because here in North Korea, there is no political dissent. It's just not an option.

She says, "we all say the Koreans are so fortunate to have such great leaders starting from the late president right up to the martial Kim Jong-un."

This is as close as we're allowed to get. More than 100 news organizations invited here. And we can't go inside the congress. It speaks to the fact that the North Korean political system is quite nebulous, it is not transparent to say the least. And they say this event here is to rally support and help him push forward his plan for North Korea, which is a two-pronged approach of developing the country's nuclear program while also growing the North Korean economy.

Now, there are some observers on the outside who say you can't have your cake and eat it, too. You can't have a strong economy and also continue to develop nuclear weapons. But Kim Jong-un's government is intent on proving them wrong. And it's part of the reason why you see so much international press here.

One thing I've noticed in two years of coming here is how much activity there is. Cars in the streets, people are more well dressed. It seems as if the economy is growing, but you wonder how long it can last given these heightened sanctions and their --

[02:20:00]

RIPLEY (voice-over): -- trickle-down effect in the coming months.

Are you worried how the sanctions are going to affect your life?

He says, "We've been under heavy sanctions since the end of the Korean War in the '50s. We're not afraid of stronger sanctions because we're used to them and we've survived."

Now as we monitor this once in a generation meeting of the Workers Party Congress, we wonder what the supreme leader is going to announce.

Will there be a major shift in economic policy?

Will there be a fifth nuclear test or news of improvements to the North Korea nuclear arsenal?

Many around the world oppose the rise of Kim Jong-un, but here in Pyongyang, you won't hear a single person speak badly about their supreme leader and why would they speak badly about him when he holds absolute power in this country, power that inside this building is only expected to increase perhaps dramatically in the coming days -- Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang, North Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Well, Derek Van Dam is here to tell us about parts of India continuing to suffer from severe drought and reservoirs are emptying at an alarming rate.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They're drying up very quickly. And in fact, according to the Central Water Commission's data, India's major reservoirs are 79 percent empty. That's what's feeding the country its fresh drinking water, Natalie, 75 percent of India's basins are holding less water than the 10-year average.

And this is all thanks to back-to-back defects in terms of their annual monsoon, where they get the relief from the dry weather and bring back the seasonal rains. 2014 and 2015, significance deficits. This year, fortunately, the India meteorological department stating that the forecast should see a surplus of 6 percent in terms of the monsoonal rains over India.

We'll have to wait and see how it all pans out and we'll calculate that toward the end of the season, which, by the way, is the middle of September.

Now if you go back over the past five years, you have to go to 2013 and 2011 to actually see that surplus or the last time we had a surplus in monsoonal rain. Remember, we are coming off a very strong El Nino season. And this typically impacts the heat and the amount of precipitation across the Indian subcontinent and that certainly has dried things out significantly across this area.

The monsoon season typically begins about the first week or so of the month of June. So people are holding thumbs, holding fingers, crossing fingers that this comes at least a little bit early because they need the relief.

Not much rain on this satellite. There have been a few pre-monsoon thunderstorms that have formed, especially across the Hyderabad region. But most of Central and Northern India remain dry. And the humidity, well, that's on the increase as well and when you factor in the high temperatures as well as the increase in humidity, you know what that means.

We have a heat index that soars and that puts major stress on the body. That causes heat stresses, heat-related illnesses. Of course, our body tries to regulate that by sweating. But that's not always effective enough. Temperature, humidity, preexisting health conditions all leading to heat stresses as that danger zone, when our core temperature of our body reaches 40 degrees.

I want to switch gears quickly, end with some video coming out of Mexico City because they have got a real problem on hand.

Can you imagine just breathing in this air, Natalie?

There's a smog alert for the past six days in Mexico City. They have ordered 40 percent of the cars off the roads amid this crisis. That's 2 million vehicles in an effort to reduce emissions. They had a marked increase in the ozone lately. And that's all thanks and getting worse because of the heat that is ongoing across the city.

ALLEN: Wow, look at that.

VAN DAM: It just looks suffocating, that type of air pollution there. Whoo.

ALLEN: All right, Derek, thanks very much.

VAN DAM: All right.

ALLEN: Well, Ted Cruz's presidential campaign has ended with a thud in more ways than one. We're review a set of awkward moments that went viral -- next.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:25:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: Republican Ted Cruz is officially out of the U.S. presidential race but his exit wasn't the smoothest, especially on the Internet. People on social media added insult to injury for the Cruz family after his stray elbow made the rounds online. Here's Jeanne Moos with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When fans of Ted Cruz say "Cruzin' for a bruisin'," they do not mean bruising Cruz's wife.

But when Ted announced he was suspending his campaign, his wife, Heidi, was the one he poked and then elbowed in the head, inspiring headlines like, "Love means not accidentally elbowing your wife in the face."

The video went viral as a guilty pleasure, slo-mo'd and made into countless GIFs with sound effects added, even a wrestling announcer's voice.

Tweeted one critic, "Why would Ted Cruz notice he accidentally bashed his wife's head in?

"He didn't notice when another woman fell off the damn stage."

That would be his short-lived running mate, Carly Fiorina.

CARLY FIORINA (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ted Cruz.

MOOS (voice-over): It was Ted's wife who did notice and offered a hand.

Back to the elbow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): How not to hug.

MOOS (voice-over): Cruz was aiming to hug his father and after elbowing his wife, it turned into a group hug.

"This is exactly what a real threesome is like," noted a commenter on Gawker.

MOOS: Ted Cruz may have elbowed his way out of the race, but you've got to hand it to the guy, that hurt.

MOOS (voice-over): What Cruz and Fiorina did with their hands was almost painful to watch. From a distance it just looked a little awkward. But close up...

(MUSIC PLAYING)

MOOS (voice-over): A BuzzFeed editor tweeted, "It will haunt you to the grave."

Actually, it was more haunting when Raul Castro tried to raise President Obama's hand and the president resisted.

Better a limp wrist than a sharp elbow -- Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: My goodness.

That is CNN NEWSROOM. I'll be back in just a moment with your top stories and then it's "LIVING GOLF."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)