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Elizabeth Warren Goes After Trump on Twitter; Dilma Rousseff Impeached; Interview with North Korean Defectors' Family; Hyperloop One Step Closer to Reality; Donald Trump Fans in China. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired May 12, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:33] JONATHAN MANN, HOST: I'm Jonathan Mann at CNN Center. Hello and welcome to News Stream.

Brazil's president is out. After a marathon debate, senators vote for Dilma Rousseff to face an impeachment trial.

Donald Trump meets with Republican speaker Paul Ryan as the likely nominee tries to win

over his own party.

And North Korea told these people their missing family members were abducted by the south, but South Korea says no way, they defected.

Thanks for joining us. Brazil's president has been suspended. She could be out of office for

as long as six months and there's a chance she'll never come back.

After debating through the night a majority of Brazilian senators voted in favor of having President Dilma Rousseff face an impeachment trial. Among

other things, she's accused of illegally using money form state banks to cover up a shortfall of government funds. During her suspension, vice

president Michel Temer stands in.

The impeachment trial is to only look at how she handled money. It will determine whether she

illegally borrowed from state banks to cover that shortfall on the deficit and to pay for social programs in the run up to her 2014 re-election.

Allegations of corruption have dogged her administration. She was chairwoman of the state

run oil company Petrobras during an investigation of a multimillion dollar kickback scheme. She was never directly accused of profiting, but she has

been blamed for Brazil's worst recession since the 1930s.

Let's get right to Shasta Darlington in Brasilia with the latest.

Shasta, the vote when it came wasn't even close, was it?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jonathan. After a marathon session that lasted over 20 hours it was a

decisive vote. 55 voted in favor of launching this impeachment trial with 22 against and that really sets the stage as you said for a scenario in

which at the end of the trial it's pretty likely that the opposition will garner the two-thirds needed so that Rousseff will never return to office.

So what we're expecting now is right behind me is the presidential palace. This is of course where Rousseff has been presiding for the last year and a

half. She will sign a decree that suspends her. She will have to vacate the palace. We expect her to speak either to journalists or even to the

public when she does so. And then Vice President Michel Temer will take over as interim president while she

faces that impeachment trial and if at the end she is impeached he would assume the presidency until new elections in 2018, Jonathan.

MANN: now, we've seen months of protests against Rousseff. How popular or unpopular is the

interim president likely to be?

DARLINGTON: That's a good question and it's part of the reason he actually faces a lot of challenges. Michel Temer is as unpopular as Dilma

Rousseff. Granted, he isn't as well known. He's really kept a low profile as the vice president, partly because he comes from another party. He

comes from Brazil's biggest party, the PMDB. So while they were political allies they were never friends. He wasn't directly involved in a lot of --

in a lot of the events. He was sort of a ceremonious figurehead who would appear during visits of state, this kind of thing.

But the fact is Brazilians have become angry over the recession and the economic crisis but also over widespread corruption among their

politicians. investigators have found that politicians were taking bribes as part of this huge kickback scheme involving the state run oil company

Petrobras. And while neither Rousseff nor Vice President Michel Temer has been directly implicated, many of their closest allies and politicians from

both parties have been and they've been accused of money laundering and of corruption.

So he steps in a very similar place that Rousseff was occupying before him and he has to prove to the Brazilian public that he's worthy of the post

and also that he has what it takes to turn the economy around.

Of course, what he has in his favor is much more support in the congress and senate to enact difficult economic measures to get the economy back on

track, Jonathan.

[08:05:05] MANN: Now, the people of Brazil have had a long time to get ready for the idea that the president would be impeached. I'm just

wondering on a day like today when it's now official is there any sense of crisis in the air?

DARLINGTON: Well, Jonathan, there's certainly a sense of the page turning, of a new chapter

starting. Again, Temer really has his work cut out for him. His first task will be to appoint a finance minister and an economic team that calms

markets. Every time it looked like Rousseff was headed for impeachment markets actually went up, the currency got stronger. They want

something new. They believe that the Workers Party and Rousseff have been bad for the economy.

So, instead of crisis for many, especially for the markets, the hope is that Temer will bring more a sense of stability and will really begin to

get some of those difficult measures passed through congress so that we can start to really emerge from this long running recession, the worst in

decades. We're in the second year already.

So, I would say just the opposite. There's a feeling that maybe this could be the first step emerging from the crisis, Jonathan.

MANN: Shasta Darlington live in Brasilia. Thanks very much.

The upcoming Rio Olympics were set to be one of the crowning achievements of Dilma Rousseff's presidency. But now she'll be forced to sit them out.

Alex Thomas joins us now from London. Do we have any sense of what impact this is going to have on the games?

ALEX THOMAS, CNN WORLD SPORT: Not a huge effect on the games themselves, Jonathan, because most the venues are completed. The infrastructure is in

place and the IOC is such a corporate body, if you like, these days and the modern Olympic games so commercially successful that there are so many

systems that come with the baggage of hosting Olympic games it can almost run itself to a certain degree. The people involved with making it

actually happen physically from August 5 onwards will go on doing that regardless of who's leading the country. But symbolically, as Shasta was

really hinting at, it's a massive blow and an embarrassment for a host nation not to have its elected president sitting there in the stands at the

opening ceremony, which in this case will be at the famous Maracana Stadium in Rio. And it's not there for the opening ceremony that really sets up

the Olympic games when you see all these thousands of athletes from more than 200 nations across the road parading around the stadium.

Some countries with bigger athletic than others, but it really just sets up the whole Olympic games and what is just the celebration of physical

competition. And she won't be there.

MANN: Now, more than an embarrassment, there's also an epidemic surrounding the games.

The Zika virus still out of control. And now we have word from researchers published by Harvard that they're expecting the possibility, or at least

fearing -- you can see there, a full blown global health disaster because of that.

What kind of concerns are you hearing?

THOMAS: Yeah, well, Jonathan, we've spoken many times and you have on your news shows as well about the threat of the Zika virus. And all along we've

been assured by the International Olympic Committee that runs the summer games, and also the World Health Organization, the body that they're taking

their advice from which is of course the globally respected health body, that the Zika virus, while a concern, should not stop the Olympic games

going ahead.

But now, as you say, new research from Professor Amir Attaran, who is a Canadian-based academic writing in the very respected Harvard public health

review has said that it's slightly irresponsible, really, he's hinting at, at the IOC to go ahead with this on the advice from the World Health

Organization, because they've underestimated how big a threat the Zika virus is and that Rio de Janeiro is at the center of the huge epidemic in

Brazil.

Just to put it in perspective, you know, they've had over 91,000 suspected cases between January and April this year.

And while of course it doesn't have very bad symptoms in adults any more than say the flu, it's

really dangerous for pregnant women and there's been many cases of babies born with birth defects.

So he's saying if you've got half a million visitors coming to the country, it could then spread globally.

Let's hear it from the professor himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. AMIR ATTARAN, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA: What I've written in the Harvard Public Health Review is that the Olympics ought to be postponed or moved,

not canceled. i don't want the Olympics to go away. I love them too much for that.

But the problem we have is that in Rio de Janeiro, that is the heart of the Zika epidemic in Brazil, an epidemic that is thought to have given rise to

as many as 5,000 brain damaged babies.

If 500,000 visitors, as is expected, come to Brazil for the games into the heart of that epidemic, some will become infected, some will go home and

that epidemic of brain damaged kids will go global faster and farther.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS: Now, neither in IOC nor the World Health Organization, Jonathan, agree with the professor's viewpoint. And they point out in particular that

the Olympics in Brazil will be held during that country's winter months and actually that means that mosquitoes are for less capable of spreading

viruses like the Zika virus.

[08:1014] MANN: Let's hope they're right Alex Thomas, thanks very much.

Tturning now to Washington where Donald trump is to meet in the hours ahead with House

Speaker Paul Ryan, an extraordinary meeting, really between a powerful Republican lawmaker and the presumptive Republican nominee many party

leaders have been reluctant to embrace.

Our senior political reporter Manu Raju joins us now from Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington. Thanks so much for begin

with us.

Tell us about how important this meeting is both for the two men concerned and for the Republican Party.

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is very significant. And f course, Donald Trump we know is going to be the Republican nominee here. And the

Republican Party establishment has yet to consolidate behind him. In fact, a lot of Republicans are wary about Donald Trump.

So this is really only the third time that Donald Trump and Paul Ryan will have discussed and

talked face to face. They both have key major issues at stake here. Of course Donald Trump wants to

win the white house and Paul Ryan wants to keep his House Republican Majority. Them working together will be key to doing that so we'll key how

it plays out in the coming hours.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: To pretend we're unified without actually unifying, then we go into the fall at half

strength.

RAJU: The presumptive Republican nominee to meet this morning with House Speaker Paul Ryan, and the head of the RNC.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it will go well. Paul is a good person. I don't know Paul well.

RAJU: All eyes on whether they will emerge with a united front.

REP. RAUL LABRADOR, (R) IDAHO: I think it's important for the leader of our party right now who is the speaker to get together with the presumptive

nominee and actually work together.

RAJU: Several close allies tell CNN that for Ryan to embrace or endorse Trump, he will need to align with the party's core principles. As of now,

the differences are deep on multiple issues, like taxes, trade, entitlements, and military alliances. But it's becoming more challenging to

know exactly where Trump stands on key issues. In the last 24 hours Trump appears to be softening on his controversial plan to ban all Muslims from

entering the U.S.

TRUMP: It is a temporary ban, Brian, and we're going to look at it and we're going to study a problem. We have a problem. Now, if you don't want

to discuss the problem, then we're never going to solve the problem.

RAJU: Then claiming it is merely a suggestion later in the day.

TRUMP: It hasn't been called for yet. Nobody has done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out what's going on.

RAJU: And later, when asked if the ban could go on forever, he says --

TRUMP: No, it was never meant to be. I mean, that's why it was temporary. Sure, I would back off on it. I would like to back off as soon as possible

because, frankly, I would like to see something happen.

RAJU: And that's not the only issue Trump is under scrutiny for. The billionaire under pressure to release his tax returns, which he says isn't

possible because they're being audited.

TRUMP: You don't learn anything. A tax return, you learn very, very little.

RAJU: Mitt Romney calling his refusal disqualifying, and even his supporters even saying he should release them.

REP. DARRELL ISSA, (R) OHIO: I think he should and I think he will. There is no law. There is a tradition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, after today's meeting we're not expecting any formal endorsement from Paul

Ryan to Donald Trump, but the question will be whether or not their messages align. There are going to be a lot of questions raised about

Donald Trump, things that he's said on the campaign trail. House and Senate Republicans both plan to raise that with them. And we'll see how

whether or not Donald Trump can actually take some constructive criticism from Republicans in Washington -- Jonathan.

MANN: Manu, Donald Trump has become a household name around the world. Paul Ryan less so. He is of course speaker of the House of Representatives

in the United States, a very powerful figure, but tell us about him And who he represents, what he represents

in the Republican Party's forced embrace of Donald Trump.

RAJU: Well, he's one of those few members who can actually consolidate support from both the conservative base and the party establishment. Of

course, he was Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012. He was a vice presidential nominee for the party. He has a big platform already as

speaker of the House. The question is whether or not he's actually angling for something more like a 2020 presidential run. That is how this -- how

folks are looking at how he's handling today's meeting and how he's handing Donald Trump. And if he gets behind Donald Trump what does that mean for

him in the future? One reason why this meeting has so much intrigue headed into today, Jonathan.

MANN: Manu Raju, thanks very much.

Trump is known for using Twitter a lot, especially to lash out at his detractors. But lately he's being challenged by someone who's taken a page

out of his own playbook.

Let's get more now from our Brian Stelter who joins us live.

Brian, is this good fun, or something serious? What's going on?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN MEDIA CORREPSONDENT: Something serious, because Elizabeth Warren is taking the fight to Trump's turf, which is of course,

Twitter. I think what we're seeing is a demonstration by a top Democrat in the U.S. about how to challenge Trump in the months to come.

Let me show you how this started. Warren is of course the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, beloved by liberals. She's been warming up for

a couple of months, but last Tuesday after Ted Cruz dropped out and Trump became the presumptive nominee, that's when she really unleashed a series

of what we would call tweet storms.

And here's one of the things she wrote that Tuesday night. She had a series of messages against Trump at one point saying it's so revealing she

said that here's more enthusiasm for Donald Trump among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.

Now, many Republicans would disagree with that sentiment, but that's how it started.

And then a few days later Trump responded. Last Friday saying this, "I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth Warren as her

runningmate. I will defeat them both."

Now, within an hour-and-a-half she started responding. She picked up on the use of the word goofy, Trump trying to give her a nickname, and said

this, "for a guy with the best words, that's a pretty lame nickname. Weak.

So, what she's doing here, she's using Trump's words against him.

And then this continued yesterday, going into a new sort of dispute between the two. Trump called Warren one of the least effective senators in the

entire U.S. Senate. "Sshe has done nothing." And then you can see here, he went on to say, "isn't it funny how a failed senator like goofy Elizabeth

Warren can spend a whole day tweeting about Trump and gets nothing done in the Senate."

So, as it stands now, we'll show you Warren's last response. This was coming last night. She sort of had the last word for now. She said,

"RealDonaldTrump, he can't talk about Wall Street, college costs or the minimum wage so he spent all day belching insults. Pathetic. Really

pathetic."

Now, you could say this is all silly, Jonathan. But I think what she's doing is she's trying to adapt Trump's tone. She's trying to speak

conversationally, unlike many other politicians do when they're on Twitter. And she's trying to offer a playbook to the rest of the Democratic Party

about how to challenge Trump.

[11:16:41] MANN: Once again, she is not a household name outside the United States. So who is Elizabeth Warren? And how did she become the

self-appointed anti-Trump of the Democratic Party?

STELTER: Yeah, she came to fame working for financial regulation in the U.S. during the early days of the President Obama administration, and even

before that as a professor. She's been working on these economic issues for a long time. So she's beloved by liberals in the U.S. Some people

would like to see her as a vice presidential pick or even as president some day. She has not endorsed either Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders. And

that's what makes her position so unique. She is calling for unity in the Democratic Party by taking the fight to Trump.

And by doing this so bluntly, by using Trump's own words, by kind of getting in the gutter with him, she's trying to say to Democrats, this is

how you challenge Trump. You have to do it on his terms, on his own sites like Twitter.

MANN: Brian Stelter, host of CNN's Reliable Sources and our senior media correspondent. Thanks so much for this.

STELTER: Thanks.

MANN: Coming up, CNN's Will Ripley speaks with the families of North Koreans who are now in the south. We'll tell you what they say really

happened to their relatives.

And a ceasefire in Syria bringing a sense of calm to the capital, Damascus. We'll hear from one American who refuses to leave the city he calls home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:32] MANN: Welcome back. You're looking at live pictures from Washington. Reagan Airport where the plane that's been dubbed Trump Force

One has just landed, ferrying aboard Donald Trump on a closely watched day in the U.S. capital when he is to meet with Speaker of the House of

Representatives Paul Ryan and other congressional leaders in an attempt to basically mend fences, to

make up after a very public split between those two men in particular.

Ryan representing the, well, the establishment of the Republican Party and saying very, very vocally and almost uniquely among people at his position,

he is not prepared to endorse Trump's bid for the presidency. Trump has said essentially he is expecting that

endorsement, but Ryan says Trump will have to unify the party first and so that flight, call it a unity flight an attempt to bring Donald Trump to

Washington to heal the Republican Party's wounds. We'll be watching closely through the hours to come and we'll bring you more developments on

that meeting.

South Korea calls it a mass defection. North Korea is pushing a very different story. It allowed CNN's Will Ripley to interview some of the

family members of 13 North Koreans who the south says defected to Seoul last month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is highly these families received some kind of media instruction or coaching before the government brought them

here to our Pyongyang hotel for interviews, but I can tell you after sitting across from them and looking into their eyes, the hearbreak they're

feeling is real.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): The final gift from a daughter who disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RIPLEY: Ri Ji Ye (ph), seen here smiling as she left North Korea to work in China, saved up to buy her newborn nephew a present.

Ri's (ph) mother says, "When she got our letter that Li Song (ph) was born, she sent this coat and shoes. She said she wanted to see him."

They don't have Facebook here. Before they could mail this picture, this one emerged. Ri (ph) and 12 other restaurant workers in South Korea. The

government says all defected willingly. Abandoning this North Korean state- owned restaurant in China, now closed.

North Korea says agents from the south lied, tricking the group into thinking they were going to another state-owned restaurant in Malaysia.

Government officials brought three families to tell their stories in a Pyongyang hotel.

"This is an abduction, a kidnapping," says the mother of waitress, Ri Bom (ph).

(on camera): A lot of people might think it doesn't seem likely that a whole group could be abducted. Is it possible that they left voluntarily?

(voice-over): "How can they say my sister went to South Korea?"

She says they talked about all the new clothes her sister was buying in China and promised to bring some home.

"I never want to believe our daughter went there," says the father of waitress, So Byong Ah (ph).

Ironically, his job is to train citizens working abroad. They bring the North Korean government $1 to $2 billion dollars a year, according to a

U.N. report last year.

Each family believes their daughters in South Korea are in solitary confinement, on hunger strike, nearly dead. They say relevant authorities

told them.

"Our loving, loving daughter is in a life or death situation," he says.

The South Korean Unification Ministry says the claims that they are in solitary confinement and on hunger strike are completely untrue. South

Korea also says they also cannot grant a request from the North Korean families to meet with their daughters, a request they also made to the U.N.

Human Rights Commission. South Korea again saying, quote, "They defected on their own free will."

All 13 will stay in South Korean Unification Ministry custody for several months. Time, the government says, is needed to adjust.

"My loving daughter. Let me go to my loving daughter."

A heartbreaking plea made countless times before on the divided Korean peninsula.

[08:25:38] (on camera): And despite the fact those young woman are about 120 miles, less than 200 kilometers from where I'm standing right now, they

might as well be 10,000 miles or more, because once they cross that across into South Korea, they automatically renounce their North Korean

citizenship and it becomes a crime for them to have direct contact with their families here.

Why is the government putting them forward now? Well, after a weekend of the 7th party

congress when the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is trying to project an image of unity and happiness here, this humiliating apparent mass defection

certainly does not fit the image that North Korea is trying to report to the world.

Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: ISIS is claiming responsibility for a new wave of bloodshed in Iraq's capital. Three police officers were killed, ten wounded when two

suicide bombers blew themselves up at a police station. There were three bombings in Baghdad Wednesday all claimed by ISIS. They targeted mostly

Shiite areas and killed more than 90 people.

When war broke out in Syria five years ago, foreign residents were among the first to pack up and leave. Now, it's believed only one American is

still left in Damascus. CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen tracked him down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: Five years of brutal civil war, hundreds of thousands killed, millions displaced. All that

hasn't driven this American to leave Syria.

THOMAS WEBER, AMERICAN: All these shops, you see everything is like home. The best of luck. And don't ever close, whatever you do.

PLEITGEN: Originally from a suburb of Buffalo, New York, 71-year-old Thomas Weber

has been living in Damascus for years.

WEBER: i'm an American and I've been living here now for five years. I feel extremely safe in this city called Damascus.

PLEITGEN: But he admits there have been close calls.

WEBER: one time I was caught in a barrage of rockets and the day before we had a mortar shell land in front of our door.

PLEITGEN: Thomas Weber is married to a Syrian. U.S. authorities have repeatedly asked him to leave the country to no avail.

Now a temporary cease fire is in place in Damascus allowing more people than before to venture out to markets, cafes and restaurants.

WEBER: What is more important about the cease fire is that they see the light at the end of the

trouble and never before in the last five years have they seen the light at the end of the tunnel. So this is an effect that they're all hoping and

praying that the peace continues, the cease fire continues.

PLEITGEN: Many would find his views on the conflict controversial. He's in favor of Russia's intervention in the civil war and doesn't believe

Bashar al-Assad should leave power, but he's also convinced Syrians can overcome their differences.

WEBER: This is what I really want to tell the world, it's safer here. The Syrian people are not terrorists. The Syrian people are the most honest,

down to Earth loving people in the world.

PLEITGEN: And he has grown to love those Syrian people and can't imagine ever living anywhere else.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Damascus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Brazil's president has lost her bid to avoid an impeachment trial. She is being suspended.

After the break, more on the man who's taking over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[08:32:22] MANN: Brazil's vice president Michel Temer will now take the reigns as interim president for up to 180 days and he could end up

finishing the term of Dilma Rousseff. Shasta Darlington has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DARLINGTON: A triumphant running mate: Vice President Michel Temer helped ensure support from Brazil's biggest political force, PMDB, but it was

merely a ceremonious relationship with Temer only rarely appearing in the spotlight to greet visiting dignitaries including Pope Francis.

In fact, many Brazilians knew him best for his much younger wife, a former beauty.

But now, the back room negotiator is grabbing all the headlines.

In an exclusive interview ahead of the senate hearings I asked the man who would be interim

president what to expect.

MICHEL TEMER, INTERIM PRESIDNET OF BRAZIL (through translator): I've listened to a lot of economists and companies, a lot of workers'

associations. They want economic recovery, especially the recovery of jobs because we have gotten to a very delicate point with more than 10 million

unemployed people in the country.

DARLINGTON: A majority of Brazilians support the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, a majority also support your impeachment, the impeachment of the

vice president. They prefer elections.

In this context, how are you going to govern? How are you going to bring the country together?

TEMER (through translator): i want to regain the trust of the Brazilian people and all the sectors of society if this impeachment happens.

Secondly, I am aware that if I do become the president I, too, could be processed for any political wrongdoing.

DARLINGTON: Temer will inherit many of the problems that sent millions into the streets to

protest against Dilma Rousseff and her party, including a deep recession and rampant political corruption.

While Temer isn't under investigation and hasn't been accused of wrong doing, many of his allies have been accused in the sweeping bribery probe

involving the state run oil company, Petrobras. He'll also face the anger of Rousseff's supporters who accuse him and lawmakers of staging an

institutional coup d'etat to remove an unpopular but democratically elected leader.

One thing is for sure, his days of sitting in the shadows are over.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Brasilia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Back to U.S. politics, and international trade. Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of

China and its trade policy, but that hasn't stopped the likely Republican presidential nominee from gaining quite a few fans there. What's the

appeal? Our Matt Rivers has the answer from Beijing.

(BEIGN VIDEOTAPE)

[08:35:11] MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jonathan, given the level of

negativity about China that we hear and the comments of Donald Trump it really is -- seems logical that many people here would not like him that

much and there certainly are plenty of detractors here. You can walk out on the street and find one quite easily, but there are fans of his here

too. it might seem a little bit illogical and they might be a little difficult to find, but we did manage to find a few.

TRUMP: 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.

RIVERS: Tough talk about trade from the Republican presumptive nominee against one of his top targets. Yet here in china there is respect and

even admiration for Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Donald Trump has the guts to say everything that normal people in western society fear to say.

RIVERS: Du Yu (ph) is a young Chinese tech entrepreneur, part of a vocal group of Chinese fans of the billionaire businessman. One social media

user on China's Twitter equivalent Weibo says Hillary Clinton just makes empty promises while Trump is the king of doing what he says.

Another calls him sharp and pragmatic.

One person even said they'd vote for him because he is so handsome.

A face Chinese audiences got to know on his days on Celebrity Apprentice, a hit here in China.

TRUMP: You're fired.

RIVERS: From TV to books, Trump's best seller "The Art of the Deal" in Mandarin is found in

bookstores across Beijing. His success as a businessman is no doubt part of his appeal as a politician. Some Chinese see a rich billionaire and

want to be just like him.

Like the owner of Trump consulting a Chinese real estate firm named after the candidate

himself. The irony, the owner tells CNN Donald Trump is a political clown but I wouldn't change my company name for that. He's a real estate tycoon

after all.

His feelings on Trump the politician shared by the media here. In March, the state run newspaper, The Global Times called Trump a rich narcissist

and a clown for statements like this.

TRUMP: negotiating with China, when these people walk in the room they don't say oh hello, how's the weather? So beautiful outside. They say we

want deal.

RIVERS: Even with all the bluster, Trump Tower is still a popular destination for tourists

from Mainland China and Taiwan visiting New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's like a superstar, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody likes Trump, so I came to see -- I wish that Trump would wave.

RIVERS: Still, not everyone is a fan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he becomes the president, I am a little bit scared.

RIVERS: The Chinese, just like many Americans, with nor shortage of opinions on Donald Trump.

And Jonathan, look, there isn't a grass roots movement here for Donald Trump. There are no Donald Trump bumper stickers out on cars. There's not

hundreds of thousands of people I would say that are really 100 percent pro-Trump, but there are enough fans here that

some people are sensing a business opportunity in this.

Let me show you this t-shirt that is going to look strange on my expense report later on this month. It says trump 2016.

Now, it was made here in China, but perhaps the most interesting part is that it's only being sold here in China. So, while there might not be a

lot of fans there are enough that might be interested in buying that t- shirt -- Jonathan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Our Matt Rivers.

It's not just the Chinese people who have opposing views of Donald Trump. Some argue the White House hopeful himself is caught between two versions

of himself -- an unconventional political bulldozer versus a presumptive Republican nominee trying to unite the party.

You can read more on that at our website, CNN.com/politics.

It's been almost three years since Elon Musk unveiled a new vision for the future of transportation: hyperloop. now one company is taking a major

step toward making transport by hyperloop a reality. That story is just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:53] MANN: Welcome back.

Three years ago Elon Musk proposed a transportation scheme that seemed like something out

of science fiction. He wanted to send people hurdling through tubes in levitating pods at supersonic

speeds. now that vision is one step closer to reality.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3, 2, 1. Start.

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MANN: That metal cart just accelerated to 187 kilometers an hour in two seconds. The first public test of Hyperloop One's acceleration technology,

one of the early steps toward building a Hyperloop system for passengers. The company thinks they can achieve Musk's vision in just five

years, but we're still a little bit away from seeing a fully built Hyperloop.

As you may have noticed, there are no actual tubes yet and they haven't gotten the technology that makes the sleds levitate, a key part of how

Hyperloop works.

While Elon Musk dreamt up Hyperloop, he's not actually building it. He open sourced his plans and invited everyone who's interested to help build

and improve on the idea themselves.

And as for where you may be able to ride Hyperloop for the first time, the company is still

trying to find a location for its first commercial track so there is still a long way to go.

We may be one tiny step closer to finding out whether or not we're alone in the universe. NASA's Kepler telescope has discovered almost 1,300 more

planets beyond our solar system, that more than doubles the number of planets the telescope has spotted. NASA says nine of the newly found

worlds are in what they call the habitable zone where life as we know it might exist.

About 500 may be rocky planets about the same size as our own lonely blue Earth.

And that is News Stream for today.

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