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Latest on EgyptAir Search; Sanders Continues to Campaign; How Much is Trump Worth?; Fight Against Terror Examined. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired May 22, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:09] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, the third day of searching for clues in the EgyptAir disaster, and still no significant find.

Hillary Clinton hits back at Donald Trump, accusing him of pandering to the gun lobby. And confronting the heroin epidemic in the United States, we'll tell you about a controversial proposal from one city mayor to address the problem. Live, from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. "CNN Newsroom" starts right now.

As we mentioned, it has been three days now since the disappearance of EgyptAir flight 804, and the search operations over the Mediterranean have not yet yielded the results that officials were hoping for. Hardly anything has turned up. Personal belongings, made up mostly of debris so far, along with some human remains. The most important piece of the puzzle is the plane's so-called black boxes. They should be able to give investigators the cockpit voice recordings and data, the flight data that's so important. Both of these could offer a breakthrough in explaining what exactly happened to this jet. For the latest on the investigation, let's bring in our correspondent Ian Lee, following developments live in Cairo, Egypt. At this hour, Ian, obviously, Egypt is the lead on this investigation. What do we know about their focus today?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, George, the main focus, as it has been is going after as you said, these flight recorders, trying to find out what was going on on that plane in the final moments, what was being said in the cockpit and in the cabin and what were the instruments saying. Now we do know a bit, from the Acars System, which was transmitting data from the plane to the ground, which indicated there was some smoke. But that leaves a bunch more questions about what was actually happening. Was there actually smoke or was there other things that tripped those sensors. So really, these flight recorders will be so crucial in determining what exactly happened. What they'll also be looking for is the cabin, the main part of the plane, to see if it shows any signs of what happened. Was there an explosion on board? What possibly could they learn from that? And right now, we do have parts of the aircraft. We do have pieces of it, which include carpets, it looks like a blanket, a life vest, a pillow, as well as some personal belongings and body parts. But it really will be these other larger parts and these data recorders that will give investigators really insight into what happened. HOWELL: As we wait for these investigators to hopefully turn up more

pieces to this puzzle, you know, to find out exactly what happened to this plane. There are families that are obviously waiting for answers, Ian. What can you tell us about these families, how they are dealing with all the uncertainty, just not knowing what happened to this plane?

LEE: That's right. And 66 people lost their lives on this flight, roughly, a dozen nationalities. The majority of them are Egyptian. And Egypt here is a country in mourning. We've been talking with the family members after this tragedy. They've been describing their loved ones, really trying to remember who they were in life, and not so much focusing on their deaths, but today there will be funerals for a lot of them around the country. People will be gathering to pay their respects and pray for their lost ones. Even though the bodies haven't been recovered, they will have, hold these funerals to pray for the dead, which is customary here in Egypt, and when these bodies are recovered, which Egyptian officials telling families yesterday, it could be weeks. Once after they are found, because they do need to do DNA testing to make sure the right body gets to the correct loved one, then they will have the burial. But today really is, Egypt is still in the state of mourning. We will be at these funerals to hear more about these loved ones and who they were.

HOWELL: CNN international correspondent Ian Lee, live for us in Cairo, Egypt. Ian, thank you for the reporting. And now, to put this into context and the status of the investigation, we bring in Jeffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief and managing director at airlineratings.com. Jeffrey, always good to have you with us. So, I want to focus on what we know at this point. We know about this data, the Acars data. What could this possibly tell us?

[04:05:09] JEFFREY THOMAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND MANAGING DIRECTOR AT AIRLINERATINGS.COM: Yes, the Acars data is really giving us some clues that there was a catastrophic event that brought this aircraft down. Now the exact cause of that we ask is really just speculation at this stage. Although, whatever it was, it was major. And it was catastrophic. So one would have to draw from that being conclusion that it was an explosive device of some kind that blew out cockpit windows, caused the avionics bay and the lavatory, cause the lavatory to have fire, set off alarms. And this all happened within two minutes. So it's not something that was under control. It was completely out of control. And therefore, the plane has been lost. It didn't spiral down out of control and impacted the ocean. And clearly, from the debris we have seen, that was a fairly significant impact. And the total loss of life.

HOWELL: And we're looking right now at some of that debris that was recovered. The search continues, obviously, and the focus right now is to find the fuselage and the flight data recorders. Jeffrey, how important are those pieces to this puzzle?

THOMAS: George, they're absolutely critical. There have been a few reports that the black boxes have been located, but the Egyptian authorities have dismissed those and said they're incorrect. Finding these black boxes is imperative, it's going to be a challenge because it's 3,000 meters deep. You've got to get the right equipment into position. And then once they located them through their ping, which lasts about 30 days, they've then got to recover them. Now, it took us, in putting this into context with Air France 447, which was lost in June 2009, same thing. We had debris field on the ocean's surface. It took them two years to locate the black boxes and the fuselage. So, we should not underestimate the challenge in front of us because this airplane is lying at exactly the same depth, 3,000 meters. So it's a very, very challenging mission in front of those rescue teams.

HOWELL: But making the obvious comparison here, when you look at like an MH 370 search, for instance, didn't have, you didn't have the oil slick that was, you know, identified on satellite. And obviously, investigators weren't able to find the debris that they're finding in this case. So these are very different searches, I would surmise. And this might be a little more focused and targeted, yes?

THOMAS: Lucky today, there are a lot more resources obviously in the Mediterranean. A lot of countries will be involved. It's far more accessible as far as getting to the location whereas if you're talking, even Air France 447, Mid Atlantic, it's a fairway from anywhere. Whereas MH 370, same thing. It's a long way from the coast of Western Australia, 2,000 kilometers. So there's vastly different challenges between those three crashes. This one, and I hate to use the word easier, will be somewhat easier, but nothing is easy about this. This is very, very challenging. And hopefully, you know, we can have a significant find, a lot sooner than we did with Air France 447, which was two years.

HOWELL: Jeffrey Thomas, live for us via Skype from Perth, Australia. Thank you so much for your insight. And we'll stay in touch with you.

THOMAS: A pleasure George.

Howell: As this investigation continues and crews scour the Mediterranean looking for wreckage and also recovering human remains, the families of those on board, they are saying good-bye. The family of a flight attendant gathered Saturday in Cairo for a memorial service, remembering the 25-year old Yara Hani Faraq Tawfiq. And they dressed in white, rather than dressing in the traditional black.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATOR): She loved going out. She loved her friends. She loved her family. She was very adventurous and she really loved her work. It is such a shock for everyone. She was young. She's never been married, but I accept this is God's fate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (TRANSLATOR): We did every time together, I just can't believe this. I don't even know what to say about her. I feel like I'm in a dream. She loved her work. We would always travel together. We went everywhere together.

HOWELL: These families are dealing with such grief. The investigation and search continues in the Mediterranean. And CNN's Becky Anderson sat down with Egypt's foreign minister. He stressed how crucial it is to locate these black boxes as they're called and how Egypt is relying on its international partners in this investigation. Listen.

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There have been claims, sir, of smoke inside the cabin before it crashed. What do you know about those claims? And how might that inform the investigation?

SAMEH HASSAN SHOUKRY, EGYPT FOREIGN MINISTER: I'm sure it's being verified. The technical people are looking into it. I'm not certain that it can be conclusive in any determination one way or the other. But it is certainly an important element in a jigsaw puzzle that has to be fully compiled. So the investigation will definitely have to take this into account and to evaluate it accordingly.

ANDERSON: There are a lot of scenarios doing the rounds, and perhaps understandably so. Your response to what you are hearing and reading?

SHOUKRY: I think, we should all be careful. First of all, as a respect for families that are mourning. I think there are scenarios that can be very far-fetched. I mean, they do not really have any basis or foundation other than pure speculation. And those are somewhat disconcerting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Officials hope to get more answers when they find flight 804's all-important black boxes and of course we will continue to cover this investigation and the search.

Other news we're following. U.S. officials believe an air strike has killed the leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was part of the result of a drone strike on a vehicle near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing Mullah Akhtar Mansour, seen here along with a second van and a vehicle according to U.S. official. But it may be a while before these deaths are confirmed. The U.S. president Barack Obama authorized the strikes.

Funerals are being held in Baghdad this weekend for demonstrators who were killed by Iraqi security forces. These security forces opened fire when protesters stormed the city's green zone on Friday, protesting government corruption. About 50 people were wounded. It is unclear how many died. The uncle of one protester said troops should have held their fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATOR): He's still young. All he did was protest with the people calling on the government to solve our corruption.

HOWELL: Meanwhile, ISIS is claiming responsibility for a suicide attack in a town near Baghdad on Saturday. Security officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up at a busy outdoor market. At least nine people were killed and 22 other people wounded.

4:12 on the U.S. east coast. Still ahead on Newsroom, in a race for the White House, Bernie Sanders is still on the chase. How super delegates hurt his odds against Hillary Clinton, coming up. Plus, Donald Trump claims he's really rich. But it's really not that easy to find out just how much he's actually worth. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PATRICK SNELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORT ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, I'm Patrick Snell with your world sport headlines. Starting off in England where Manchester United made it a record equally in 12th FA Cup triumph up to beating Crystal Palace 2-1 in a dramatic final on Saturday at Wimbley. The Red Devils trailing one nail before a month level to take it into extra time and that's when Jesse Lindegaard start 18 firm shots to make it 2-1, United, and would have made it all the more impressive by the fact that his team was out to10 men without points, having to have defended Cris Molling's fence off. It's also the club's first piece of silverware since legendary former manager Alex Ferguson retired three years ago.

[04:15:17] To Paris, for an emotional fun farewell to French was both a slap on Ibrahimovitz in the Coup de France, there was the sweet loss to (inaudible) Manchester Paris, (inaudible) Saint-German PSG faced the 10-time winners Marseille. And you won't be too surprised to hear he would score not once but twice. His first from the penalty spot before he would turn provider for Edinson Cavani before launching up another one for himself. In the end, final score, 4-2, PSG. And Rory Mcilroy has a three-shot lead, but at round three, the Irish open, not yet in the books, Rory was at 9 under par after 15 holes due to the fact, bad weather it's going to be a twice force play to be suspended. Danny Willy, the master's champ is at 6 under par but will be frustrated by the fact he had three bogies on the front 9 holes. Thanks for joining us. This would be your word sport headlines. I'm Patrick Snell.

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HOWELL: America's Choice 2016. The race for the White House and Hillary Clinton is slamming Donald Trump on guns. On Saturday, the democratic frontrunner accused Trump of pandering to the gun lobby. She was speaking at an event put on by the Trayvon Martin Organization. That organization is named in honor of the African- American teenager who was killed in a fatal shooting. Trump has claimed that Clinton wants to abolish gun rights.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Enough is enough. Unlike Donald Trump, I will not pander to the gun lobby. And we will not be silent. And we will not be intimidated. As long as children anywhere are being killed by gun violence, we will keep fighting for our kids, because they deserve a president who stands up for them and stands with the mothers here. Their lives are valuable.

HOWELL: Clinton there talking about Donald Trump, but still convening in the Democrat side of things, she has an insurmountable lead, nearly insurmountable in the race for her party's nomination. But fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders, he is still on the hunt. He spoke at an event in New Mexico on Saturday, the head of that state's primary next month. Sanders is facing accusations that he's dividing the party at a time that it needs to unite against Donald Trump. But he promises that Democrats will prevail over the Republican frontrunner. Listen.

(START VIDEO CLIP) BERNIE SANDERS, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald trump will never be elected president. Because the American people will not support a candidate who insults Mexicans and Latinos. Who insults Muslims or women. Who insults African-Americans or veterans. Our job is to bring our people together to create a government that works for all of us, not just for 1%. And we will never allow people to divide us up.

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HOWELL: Clinton leads Sanders, not just in the primary popular votes, but also in super delegates. Sanders has pledged to continue his campaign all the way to the democratic national convention. Theoretically, he even has a chance to win there, but as our Tom Foreman explains, those super delegates give Hillary Clinton a considerable edge.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN BROADCAST JOURNALIST: Take a look at the number of delegates that either Clinton or Sanders must get to clench the nomination at their convention. And now, look at how they're dividing the pledged delegates so far through 44 states worth of voting out there. These are the delegates who must vote this way at the convention, because that's how their states voted. 1,775 for her. 1,485 for him. And there are about 800 outstanding in the remaining six states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

[04:20:28] Mathematically, can he catch her? Yes, if he wins, 70% of these people who are left, that would be outperforming what he's done so far by the way. And even if that happens, these people could get in his way. The super delegates. What are the super delegates? And how are they so powerful? Well, let's explain that by starting with some math. Let's say that we have more than 20 million people who have voted so far in democratic primaries. And at this point, we have this many pledged delegates out here. Divide them and what you're able to say is that each delegate represents about 7,000 actual votes by actual people. Super delegates have just as much power, but they are not accountable to the vote of the people. They get to vote as they please. And right now, they are dividing, decidedly in Hillary Clinton's favor. Bernie Sanders has only 42 saying they will back him at the convention. She has 522. Why such a disparity? It has to do with the makeup of the super delegates themselves. These are largely members of the Democratic National Committee. They are big elected Democrats, like governors and senators, and they are party leaders. In other words, this is mainly the party establishment. They were put in place back in the 1980s, specifically to make sure that there was no populace movement that would saddle the party with a candidate that the party didn't necessarily want. And right now, the super delegates are showing very little interest in helping Bernie Sanders get this nomination.

HOWELL: Tom Foreman there, explaining super delegates and how they will factor into this.

Donald Trump is making an appeal to Latino evangelicals. He recorded this message for more than 1200 Latinos attending the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to do massive tax cuts. Especially for the middle class and people that are poor are going to pay nothing. They're struggling, each stop, and under my plan which is while that the Donald shake up dot com, you're going to see it's nothing. Absolutely nothing. You're going to get it, you're going to go out, we're going to bring back jobs. You're going to start paying taxes after you're making a lot of money, and hopefully, that's going to be soon. We're going to stop drugs from pouring into our country. We're going to strengthen our borders. People are going to come into our country, but they're going to come into a process. They'll come in legally, but we're going to stop the drugs. I just want to thank the whole group and all of the committees that asked me to do this. National Hispanic Christian, three great words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Donald Trump there. There have been many questions surrounding trump's wealth and financial assets. CNN Money looked into his latest federal financial disclosure form to find some answers. But as our Christina Alesci reports, it is difficult to asses just how much Donald Trump is worth.

CHRISTINA ALESCI, TELEVISION AND DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT FOR CNN AND CNN MONEY: It's Donald Trump's pitch to the American people. I built a fortune for myself, and I can do it for the country, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I built a great, great company. Trump steaks. Where are the steaks? Do we have steaks? Right. The winery, you see the wine. I've done great. And that's the kind of thinking you're going to have to need.

ALESCI: But just how great has Trump done? The financial disclosures he's filed with the Federal Election Commission may be long, but they're short on specifics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The form doesn't call for a great deal of detail. It allows you to report for example ranges of income rather than exact amounts, which is a little different than a tax return that you might file with the IRS.

ALESCI: But the government doesn't require trump to release his tax records. The long disclosure document which candidates must file is the only official window into trump's wealth. The most recent filing lists assets of at least $1.4 billion from January 2015 through May of 2016. Excluding investments, it also includes at least $611 million in income according to our tally. But it's hard to tell whether that income is actually flowing into Trump's pocket or into his companies' coffers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He lists revenues rather than income. He has for example for his golf courses, golf-related revenue. And so it makes it a little bit difficult to know, is that just the gross revenue of his golf course? Or is that actually the income to Donald Trump after he paid for all these expenses in running the golf course? [04:25:08] ALESCI: In the end, the distinction may not matter, at

least not to the government. The financial disclosure form is supposed to find potential conflicts of interest. It's not a check on the candidate's math. And Trump's math has always been hard to verify, says author Tim O'Brien. Trump sued him claiming that O'Brien low- balled his net worth. The case was dismissed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any time he estimates his own net worth, he adds in this humongous figure for goodwill and branding. He says the Trump brand is worth x-many billions. And that's just Donald sitting around, eating a cheeseburger, saying I'm worth x-billions of dollars.

ALESCI: Trump claims a net worth in x of a $10 billion. Forbes and rollbacks put it closer to $4 billion. We reached out to the Trump campaign, but didn't get a comment. Short of an independent audit, all we really know for sure is this.

TRUMP: I'm really rich.

ALESCI: Christina Alesci, CNN Money.

HOWELL: The U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam in about nine hours' time. Mr. Obama left Washington D.C. on Saturday for a week-long trip to Vietnam and Japan. He will spend three days in Vietnam, visiting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The trip is meant to promote trade ties and to counter China's growing assertiveness in that region.

4:26 on the U.S. East Coat and still ahead, we will continue to follow developments on the EgyptAir plane crash. A live report from Paris, from the airport there where this plane made its final takeoff. Plus, thousands of people die every year from heroin overdoses, in the United States, the growing epidemic of this illegal drug use. Live in the United States and around the world this hour, you're watching "CNN Newsroom.

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[04:30:24] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom." good to have you with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour.

U.S. officials say a drone strike has likely killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour. The White House is awaiting final confirmation of Mansour's death. President Barack Obama authorized the strike near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Funerals were held in Baghdad on Saturday where demonstrators killed by Iraqi Security Forces. The Security Forces opened fire, but protesters stormed the city's green zone on Friday. About 50 demonstrators were wounded. It is unclear though how many of them died. A high-ranking U.S. commander made an unannounced visit to Northern Syria on Saturday. General Joseph Votel met with local forces that the U.S. military is training to fight ISIS. U.S. has been accelerating efforts to bring in Arab and Kurdish forces into the battle against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The search continues over the Mediterranean Sea for the wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804. And so far, teams have found very little. Mostly personal belongings and an uninflated life vest. They are hoping to find these so-called black boxes which may hold critical information to figuring out what happened to this jet. Just before the plane dropped off radar early Thursday, it sent out automatic messages indicating smoke in the front of the aircraft. For more on this, CNN's Max Foster joins us at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. Max, good to have you with us. France obviously is taking part in this investigation. At one point though, officials say they're not ruling anything out. What is the latest that we're hearing from French officials?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, LONDON: well, there's a huge amount of frustration because there have been no official updates at all. We've still got a situation where it could be anything from a small, technical fault on the plane to a bomb that could have brought it down. There's no evidence that it's either of those things and there's no official confirmation of any French victims either, so that formal level of investigation hasn't even started here. Although we do understand that obviously, when there is a terror consideration, they will be going through all the video footage and working out who have access to the plane here, whilst it was parked on the tarmac. But at the moment, a huge frustration for the families, George, because there are no official updates. All we have is those messages that were sent out from the aircraft, which the media reported on. And only then did the French officials confirmed even that.

HOWELL: Max, I'd like to delve just a little deeper on what's happening there at Charles De Gaulle. Obviously, French officials not ruling anything out. No speculation on to whether this could be terrorism, mechanical issue, just looking into this investigation thoroughly at this point. But there are steps that have been taken, that are being taken at that airport to make sure they have some understanding of who has access to those planes.

FOSTER: Well, there's a pressure to add extra screening of passengers here, bringing that technology, British technology. We expect that to be brought in this week. There was pressure to bring that in even before this latest plane went down. But then we also had this update that more intelligent officers would be based here at the airport. Which must be linked with this idea that people are being workers here at risk of radicalization. We know this since January last year, 85 workers have lost their security passes because there was concern about them being radicalized or open to radicalization. Having intelligence officers based here, would also suggest that they're trying to get across all the latest talk within the airport from workers and the like. It's always a risk in airports, no matter how good the security, that the weak link is the people that work here. So they'll be looking at that. But having said that, very high security levels here already, very high levels of screening, the workers here have the same levels of screening as the passengers for example, much higher levels of screening than they have in the United States. There's only so far they can go with security levels, but they're clearly trying to reassure the public that Charles De Gaulle security measures are as high as they can be. And that's particularly looking ahead for example to big events like the Euro Football Championships that are being held here this year, trying to make sure that people don't feel that it's an unsafe place to travel to. But all this uncertainty about whether it was terror, whether it wasn't terror is actually adding to people's concern, and even yesterday on CNN. We have the ex-director of the CIA suggesting that he'd think twice about traveling from Charles De Gaulle, which increases levels of nervousness, increases the pressure on the authorities here, to reassure the public.

[04:35:10] HOWELL: Live at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, Max Foster. Max, thank you so much for your reporting and we'll stay in touch with you. Now, these so-called black boxes, they will be key in unraveling the mystery behind Flight 804's disappearance. But that term in itself, black box, it's a bit of a misnomer since what they're actually looking for is forged. How Rachel Crane explains this key piece of the puzzle.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Following a plane crash, the search for survivors always comes first. But just as important is the search for answers. The why and the how. Often, those answers are found in the black box. Since the '60s, all commercial airplanes have been required to have one on board. Now the name is a little misleading, because they're actually orange, and when we're talking about a black box, we're talking about two different boxes. One being the cockpit voice recorder, the other being the flight data recorder. Together they weigh anywhere between 20 to 30 pounds and they have to be crashproof. Black boxes can survive just about anything. Temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. Forces that are 3400 Gs, now, it's 3400 times the force of gravity. They're waterproof and they can save recorded data for two years. And it's a lot of data. The cockpit voice recorder records the crew's conversation and background noises. By listening to the ambient sounds in the cockpit before a crash, experts can determine if a stall took place, the RPMs of the engine and the speed at which the plane was traveling. When these founds are cross-referenced with ground control conversation, they can even help searchers locate a crash site. Then, there's the flight data recorder. It gathers 25 hours of technical data from airplane sensors, recording several thousands of discreet pieces of information. Data about the air speed, altitude, pitch, acceleration, roll, fuel, and the list goes on and on. But to make sense of the data, first you have to find it. Not an easy thing to do when a plane crashes into the ocean. Those black box components are outfitted with the underwater locator beacons which self-activate the moment they come into contact with water. They send pings once per second to signal their location and can transmit data from as deep as 20,000 feet for up to 30 days, when their batteries then run out. But on land, there's no such pinging to help guide the search. Investigators have to sift through the wreckage until they find it.

HOWELL: CNN's Rachel Crane reporting for us in the New York Bureau. Still ahead, here on Newsroom, heroin-related deaths are on the rise and the U.S. rule would tell you about one town's controversial plan to end the crisis. Plus, he is nearing the top of the world. That's only half of this man's inspirational story. We'll tell you about it as Newsroom continues.

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[04:41:13] HOWELL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm George Howell. In the United States, drug addiction to heroin and other opioids is a

growing epidemic. In fact, deaths from overdoses of prescription drugs and heroin is the leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, this is according to the Centers for Disease Control. And that number continues to rise. Many users start out abusing prescription opioids and then turn to heroin. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have been weighing in on this crisis on the campaign trail, listen.

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CLINTON: The painkillers often lead to heroin. Both can lead to overdoses. And thousands of people in America a year are dying from overdoses. So we've got to do more, and we'll do that together.

SANDERS: When we talk about drugs, let's all acknowledge that this country today faces a major crisis in that we have an epidemic of opiate and heroin addiction. This is true in my state. It is true all over this country. People are dying every single day from overdoses of heroin or opiates. This is an issue we have got to deal with. Now, I think that the most effective way to deal with that issue is to understand that addiction and substance abuse should be seen not as a criminal issue but as a health issue.

HOWELL: It is an issue that is being prominently discussed on the campaign trail. One U.S. town has come up with a controversial solution to the crisis. The mayor of Ithaca, New York has proposed opening supervised injection sites. It's a model that has worked in other countries. The idea is that overdoses would be prevented if the drug were used in monitored fashion. Here's a look into that town's efforts.

SVANTE MYRIC, ITHACA, NEW YORK INCUMBENT MAYOR: You know, the heroin epidemic has touched our beautiful community here in Ithaca, New York, probably right now about the worst we've ever seen it. We've had a total of 11 fatal overdoses since 2005. Seven of those 11 were in the last two years, and four of those seven were in the last 30 days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time I heard it, I thought it sounded like we were just enabling people to use drugs. But the truth is, in the places where it's worked, Australia, Europe, and Canada, more people get off of drugs, like people use supervised injection at 30% more likely to enter into treatment, and they're 100% less likely to die. It's very low-key. You know, you walk in and there's a room. You can sign in, one or maybe two people on staff. Folks inject. And then if they overdose, they are saved by the person on staff. So before they leave, you know, they're provided with information about treatment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started using 26 years ago. You know, when you first use opiates, it's a sensation of bliss. And then one day you wake up, and you feel sick. And then it becomes a matter of you have to use opiates to stay well, so you can function, because people have responsibilities in life. Things are great right now. Things couldn't be going better, and I really owe that to the exchange for the most part. They helped me to get on methadone. They stuck by me after I had screwed up repeatedly, you know? And I can't begin to express my gratitude for that, you know?

[04:45:22] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So this syringe exchange exists as a public health initiative. And the main goal is to prevent new cases of HIV and Hepatitis C. So we provide free and anonymous supplies to anybody who needs them. So that includes syringes, vessels to mix drugs in, anything a person might need to inject safer. Personally, I see safe injection facilities as the next step to syringe exchange.

MYRIC: What we need, especially, is state approval. I'm living a nightmare. My city, we lose too many people, too many brothers and sisters are dying.

For obvious reasons, I can't support, you know, a supervised injection facility. And the reason for that is that I am a law enforcement officer. I took an oath to uphold the law. And right now, under the law, heroin is considered an illegal substance. If it's allowable under the law, then so be it. We will certainly conform with the law. But currently, it just isn't. You know, it's clear now that we can't arrest our way out of this problem. We need to offer whatever services we can to try to change behavior, to treat us as a medical problem and restore these people. I don't know how better to put it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: It is a complicated issue. Earlier this month, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke on the U.S.'s heroin and opioid epidemic. He promised legislation to tackle the issue by going after foreign sources of the drugs. Listen.

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PAUL RYAN, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: Today, the house continues to work on legislation to address the heroin and opioid epidemic across this country. This allows prosecutors to go after drug traffickers in foreign countries if we believe their drugs will make it to our shores.

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HOWELL: Ryan went on to say that the opioid epidemic impacts all demographics and U.S. families everywhere.

He lost a leg in war. Why that only encouraged this former soldier to scale the heist most of us only dreamed about. Stay with us.

SNELL: Hi there, I'm Patrick Snell with your CNN world sport headlines. Starting in Berlin, were emotions for running high on Saturday's outgoing Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola took charge of the Bayern's for the last time. The occasion with the German Cup Final and a meeting with perennial rival Borussia Dortmund and after a goal stalemate, it's the Brazilian Douglas Costo with a winning strike in the penalty shootout for Munich, an emotional occasional round for Guardiola in the 18th German Cup title of Bayern. Saturday also seeing Roma Stadio Olimpico and hosting the Coppa Italia Final between (inaudible) Juventus and Milan. This game would also be goal is off to 90 minutes, but it would be Juven who strike in extra time. The young Spaniard, they form around the good man Alvaro Morata, scoring straight after coming on as a sub, 1 nailed the final score.

And one of the biggest days on the U.S. horse-racing calendar. The 141st Preakness Stakes taking place on Saturday, the question on everyone's list remain, could the highly-fancy Nyquist take the second step en route to emulating American Pharaoh?

[04:50:05] The one of the sport's coveted Triple Crown for the first time in 37 years. Well in the end, disappointment for Nyquist as the Kentucky Derby win could only manage a third place, finished leading any Triple Crown hopes are now over the winning horse for the record, exaggerated, emerging triumphant on that occasion. Thanks for joining us. So that is a little bit of your CNN world sport headline. I'm Patrick Snell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Take a look at the ash from this volcano on Costa Rica's capital. The plume of smoke hasn't stopped since the mountain erupted on Friday. Wind is blowing the ash west toward nearby San Jose. The activity has caused flight delays and has elevated health hazards throughout that region. Local reports say the volcano threw ash and rock some three kilometers, that's nearly two miles into the air. Let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN INTERNATIONAL WEATHER ANCHOR: Can you imagine seeing that? I mean, just three kilometers of ash spewing right into the atmosphere?

HOWELL: You know, I think I would turn around and go the other way.

VAN DAM: I would go the other way. And I've actually got a couple of images that shows people moving away from this volcano. Probably the best decision they made all day. The interruptions have been occurring since Wednesday of last week. And now, here's a look at the ash, actually drifting into a San Jose suburb. This is Guadalupe, Costa Rica. And we're talking about 50 kilometers from the actual volcano itself. Evacuations for villages nearest the volcano, in fact, there was an evacuation zone roughly 5 kilometers, at least a radius around the actual volcano. You can see people trying to clean up after the mess from this, well, particular volcano. By the way, there were some people that were actually hospitalized, just because they were breathing in this toxic air. It lowers the air quality index, and it has been known that volcanic ash can actually burn your skin as well. So some people were hospitalized for that. I talked about images of people actually leaving town and leaving the volcano. Well, here's a few of the local residents and tourists across this area trying to, well, at least protect themselves while wearing masks, and another image I'll show you now of a few farmers trying to exit the region. This is just to give you a geographical reference point. Again, we're east of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Here's a look at the farmers evacuating the 5-kilometer evacuation zone around this particular volcano. I got to switch gears, because there's another big weather story that we've been talking about for the past several days, and that is a cyclone that has impacted Bangladesh. This area is so extremely susceptible to damage from cyclones, because they have very little geographical mountains to work within this area. It's extremely flat. We're talking about sea level of about 0 to even 10 feet above the ocean. So you can imagine that coastal storm surge can easily inundate this region, especially when you have excessive rainfall. That's over 15 inches in some locations. We're talking about Northeaster India, Bangladesh, and into Myanmar. This is all thanks to the remnants of a tropical cyclone that is dissipating but still has the potential to bring more flooding into this area. Take a look at the video. We'll end with this. Because, some astounding new video coming in to CNN, unfortunately of the damage that is taking place there. And George, it's tough to talk about, but unfortunately, there are some fatalities with this particular system as well, 21 so far confirmed.

HOWELL: Goodness. Derek van dam, thank you so much.

I want to tell you now about Chad Jukes who was maimed for life in Iraq, but now the former U.S. soldier is approaching the summit of Mt. Everest. Jukes and his team of climbers have been climbing to benefit veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Here's the story.

[04:55:15] CHAD JUKES, FORMER U.S. SOLDIER: Personally, I have lived with PTSD as have many of my soldiers with whom I served.

I'm here to try and help the American public realize that this is a very serious issue, and we need to do everything that we can to address it.

That's Mt. Everest.

Knowing that I'm here to climb Mt. Everest, it was pretty amazing and overwhelming to initially look up at the peak and think like, wow, I'm going there.

Most of the foreseeable challenges that I could have climbing Mt. Everest with a prostheses, I've been able to mitigate through experience and planning. I'm very proud of the work we've done raising awareness, while climbing this mountain.

HOWELL: Incredibly inspiring. We thank you for being with us this hour for "CNN Newsroom." I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'll be back after the break with more news from around the world. Thank you for watching CNN. The world's news leader.