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Political Controversy at Eurovision; Donald Trump Refuses to Release Tax Returns; Do Bernie Sanders' Numbers Add Up?; Potential for Cyclone Across Sri Lanka and Southern India. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired May 15, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's always been more than just a singing contest, the fifth time Eurovision's political undercurrent filled right out on the stage. We'll tell you why the winner hit an off-note with Russia.
Plus, Bernie Sanders keep jumping in his vehicle to U.S. presidency, but due to Vermont Senator's numbers, add up anymore.
And it's all the way to try to set a world record, this has to be one of elite comfortable.
And that is the idea along these days that I care, we'll have it all coming us here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Thanks for joining us.
Russia is not happy about this year's Eurovision winner. Ukraine singer, Jamala, won the contest with a song that pays tribute to the ethnic Tatars of Crimea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMALA, UKRANIAN EUROVISION WINNER: When strangers are coming, they come to your house. They kill you all and say, "We're not guilty, not guilty." Where is your mind? Humanity cries.
ALLEN: The lyrics criticize how the Soviet Union deported Tatars en masse during World War II, more than 40 countries voted under a new system this year and Ukraine's win over two top favorites was a surprise for many.
For most of the competition, it seemed like Australia was going to win. This was the second year Australia was invited to compete and it won the jury vote. And Russia won the popular vote but at the end, Ukraine had the most combined votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Current political events in Europe tend to come up during the competition. This year was no exception. Earlier, CNN spoke with our Matthew Chance in Moscow about the Eurovision controversies surrounding Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: State television, you can see it behind me, is going through its analysis of what happened in this Eurovision song contest. They were convinced that Sergey Lazarev was going to win this. And indeed, he did win the popular votes.
But, one of the things the commentators is saying is this was a politicized competition, and that, you know, the voting was skewed against Russia. And, because of Lazarev winning the popular vote, they're saying that this goes to the discrepancy between what government in Europe think about Russia and what people in Europe think about Russia.
So, I think the (inaudible) dwelling on the rights and wrongs of Ukraine winning this competition. They're looking at the moment of why they did not. Although, I have to say the song by Jamala was very controversial and it went very close to the line in terms of how political songs are supposed to be in the Eurovision contest (inaudible).
This was about the deportation in 1944, the song of Crimean Tatars and something that angered the Russians when they heard that this was the song. Of course, Russia annexed Crimea two years ago and is accused of persecuting the Crimean Tatars to date. And so this is the relevancy of that Ukrainian song which won the Eurovision song contest.
Again, in what will be perceived here as a major blow and to their efforts to promote themselves here in Russia on international stage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doubly painful perhaps because Russia cares so much about this contest.
CHANCE: Yeah, absolutely. And they put so much into this effort this time. I mean, the song by Sergey Lazarev was written by two top Eurovision songwriters. He had voice coaches, he had top-backing singers, you know, they really put everything they could, great, great dramatic production as well, sort of artistic work. They put everything they could into really giving him as much of a boost as they possibly could. But it just wasn't enough. And you're right, it is a huge thing for Russia. People all over the country have been watching this.
The government -- for the government, it's a real priority as well. They see the Eurovision song contest just like the Olympics as being an international arena where Russia can reassert itself on the international stage. It's about national pride. And that pride has been delivered yet another blow tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it was just, I guess, was it last year that the Russian performance at Eurovision were booed when they took the stage?
CHANCE: It was last year and it was in 2014 as well when they were first booed. [02:05:03] They were booed on two occasions. I didn't hear any
booings tonight, but apparently there's some kind of anti-booing technology that's been implemented this year to prevent things that have been happening. I didn't know, we have to ask people who are actually at the scene.
But, yeah, there have been some very embarrassing run-ins over the past couple of years between Russia and the Eurovision competition. There's the booing, there's been controversy over Russia's annexation of Crimea, of course, in 2014, one of the reasons for the booing in the first place and also about Russia's attitude towards gay rights is very harsh, anti-gay propaganda laws in this country which, of course, do not go down well in a competition which is so inclusive as the Eurovision song contest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: We turn now to the presidential election in the U.S., Democratic presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton, is launching a new attack advertisement against her likely opponent in November, Donald Trump. The billionaire is refusing public calls to release his tax returns citing an ongoing audit. He always said before, he would release them.
But now, Clinton is targeting his lack of transparency in this new ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe I'm going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate.
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: The State of Hawaii released my officials, long form birth certificate.
TRUMP: If I decide to run for office, I'll produce my tax returns, absolutely.
I am officially running for president of the United States.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABS NEWS CHIEF ANCHOR: Getting any closer to releasing your tax returns?
TRUMP: Well, I'm thinking about it. I can't do it until the audit is finished.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The audit is no excuse. The IRS has made it very clear that an audit is not a bar to public release. It is entirely your choice.
TRUMP: It's none of your business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Well, despite Clinton's focused on Trump's lately, her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, isn't giving up. The delegate mass for Sanders to top Clinton is very tricky but it isn't impossible. Our Chief Correspondent John King explains Sanders still has an
outside shot at the nomination.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Is there anybody who really six months ago, eight months ago, thought Bernie Sanders was going to be giving Hillary Clinton this kind of a run for her money? I think not, except for maybe Bernie Sanders and his top campaign team. But, the very rules that have kept Bernie Sanders in the race so far, the Democratic proportional rules. No winner-take-all states, they don't exist. That has kept Bernie Sanders in the race.
Now, it keeps Secretary Clinton with her lead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's an upbuild (ph)struggle. We have a chance to end up with a majority of the pledged delegates and if we do that, I think you are looking at the Democratic nominee for presidency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: This is the problem. You see what's left on the math, right? You see what's left on the math, does Bernie Sanders have a mathematical chance? Yes. But, is that realistic math? There's 897 pledged delegates left. He needs to win 67 percent of them. He has not been winning anywhere near 67 percent of the delegates so far. So is it possible? Sure, it's possible. That's mathematically possible. Would you place a bet on Bernie Sanders winning California with 67 percent of the vote? I think not.
Look at that, all Bernie Sanders, every county in West Virginia. That's pretty impressive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: It seems a little bit done for me if I might say so that last night, where Secretary Clinton ended up with 35 percent, 36 percent of the votes. She is going to get six out of seven superdelegates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: In the end, she's still ahead, even if he wins everything left on the board by 10 points, she's still ahead of pledged delegates.
Now, A, the Clinton campaign says this isn't going to happen. B, if this happens, unless they panic, Hillary Clinton still has inner back pocket, the secret weapon.
If Senator Sanders would run the board, some of these people would defect. The math is not impossible for Bernie Sanders, but it's pretty damn hard.
ALLEN: John King's fancy graphic. You can do better than that.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No better -- actually our old weather studio ...
ALLEN: Oh.
VAN DAM: ... magic wall.
ALLEN: He's using a hands-me-down.
VAN DAM: He is using a hand-me-down to explain politics. I like it, though. We're using our technology here at CNN as well.
ALLEN: Well, Derek's graphics today have some ...
VAN DAM: Got to punch then, I think.
ALLEN: ... much needed rain.
VAN DAM: Yeah, that's right. This is the potential for a tropical cyclone to develop across Sri Lanka and Southern India, but you remember this area, we've been talking about, has been impacted by drought conditions for two consecutive months during (ph) seasons as this could provide at least some relief across this region, especially in the Southern India where this particular area has been hit rather hard with drought conditions.
[02:10:18] Now, we have, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a medium chance of development at least tropical cyclone development. You can start to see the rotation in the cloud cover and our forecast graphics going forward over the next 48 hours.
One thing is for sure, this system is going to produce a significant amount of rain, especially over Sri Lanka, and this means localized flooding and a potential for landslides and mudslides across this region, easily experiencing rainfall totals in excess of 300, 400 even localized 500 millimeters of rain.
Ever wondered why we toss around the name cyclone, typhoon and hurricane? They all mean the same thing, same storm system, it's just dependent on exactly where they form across the world, south of the equator, north of the equator, the Pacific or the Atlantic.
And we're going to talk about quickly the Eastern Pacific because the Mexican meteorological agency has actually put out their forecast for the hurricane season taking place from the 15th of May through the end of the summer. And they have predicted 17 main storms.
By the way, this is a look at the names for the 2016 season, I vet that was actually changed about 15 days ago from ISIS because of the controversial name.
I want to show you something really interesting, the story that I just came across. I think we're traveled to Hong Kong, to the international airport, had a travel to Macau island. Well, that's taking residents there roughly four hours to make that journey here across the water wave there. And, they are proposing a bridge. It's actually being built right now, this is 30 years in the making. You can start to see it in this NASA image. This is really fascinating because you can start to see the bridge that in 50 kilometers from Macau to the Hong Kong International Airport, it'll cut down that drive time from four and a half hours to 40 minutes.
ALLEN: Oh my goodness. All right, thanks, Derek. And got to love the discipline.
A Chinese policeman has set a new Guinness World Record for planking.
VAN DAM: Oh my.
ALLEN: Get a little of this, holding the abdominal position for just over, say it ...
VAN DAM: Eight hours.
ALLEN: ... eight hours at a competition in Beijing. Mao Wei-dong also set a planking world record in 2014. He credits daily strength of training resulting him win. The previous world record was set by American George Hood who finished this year's competition by holding his plank more than seven hours.
VAN DAM: I promise I do that in yoga everyday.
ALLEN: Good. I can hold mine for seven seconds.
We got to go. Thanks for watching. Marketplace Africa is next.
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