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Hundreds of Migrants Killed in Past Week at Sea; World Health Organization Rejects Call to Delay Rio Olympics; Trump Courts Military Veterans; European Union Holds Open House; Chinese Company Apologizes for "Racist" Commercial; Zoo Defends Killing Gorilla to Save Boy; "Top Gear" Back on BBC 2 with New Star Power. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 30, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:11] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, the Mediterranean Sea turning into a graveyard again. Fears that more than 700 migrants have drowned there in the past week alone.

Plus, the World Health Organization is rejecting calls to postpone the Olympic Games as worry over Brazil's Zika outbreak grows.

And later, the new season of "Top Gear" is off to the races. We'll see if critics and fans are going along with the new revamped ride.

Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

The U.N. fears at least 700 people may have died at sea trying to reach Europe from Africa in the past week. Most were on three boats that capsized within days of each other. Italian authorities say more than 12,000 migrants were rescued during that time.

As Ben Wedeman reports, more people are expected to attempt the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean soon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hundreds of migrants and refugees are missing and feared dead in what could be the deadliest week in the Mediterranean in more than a year.

Wednesday, a fishing boat crammed with refugees and migrants capsized. The Italian Navy was able to rescue many of the passengers, but many more are feared dead. Then Thursday, several hundred more are believed to have died when a boat they were on that had left Sabratha in western Libya started to take on water. Now that boat didn't even have a motor. It was being towed by another vessel that was also crammed with refugees. That boat went down, as I said. Several hundred feared dead in that instance.

Then Friday, there was another shipwreck. The Italian Navy was able to recover about 50 dead bodies. Other survivors, however, tell United Nations officials that many, many more are missing. Now over the past week, Italian officials say more than 14,000 people

have tried to make the crossing from Libya to southern Italy. More than 4,000 in one day alone. And now with the calmer seas of summer ahead, many more expected to try to make that crossing as the Mediterranean seems to be filling up with dead bodies.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, joining me now is CNN military analyst, retired lieutenant colonel, Rick Francona.

Colonel Francona, always good to have you with us. As you heard there, at least 700 migrants believed to have drowned in the span of some three days. To some, this is an indictment of the poor European Union response to this migrant crisis. How do you see it?

COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, first of all, I think we have to recognize how bad conditions are in sub-Saharan Africa that these people are willing to take such risks to get out of there. I mean, they're running from famine, from poverty, from civil war, from groups like al Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and they are just looking for safety. And Europe is beckoning call to them, and Libya is the pathway to get there.

And as Ben said, and I totally agree that we're going to see much more of this, and we're going to see a humanitarian disaster on the scale of what we saw of people coming out of the Middle East earlier this year. So I don't think this is going to lessen up. And I think the Europeans are probably going to do what they can, but they're going to be overwhelmed. You know, Italy is going to bear the brunt of this wave of immigration.

SESAY: I mean, when you look at the situation, and as you just laid it out, these people at the mercy of so many different terror groups there on the ground in Libya where the majority of these people are coming from, it would appear that the only people who are doing well in all of this would be the human smugglers, human traffickers.

FRANCONA: Yes, this is getting to be a big problem, and especially in Libya. Of course, you know, Libya itself is a failed state. Not only are these people running from failed states, they're going through a failed state to get out. You know, and in Libya, you can -- you can try and get on these boats, and there are people willing to take your money to get you out, even on the most rickety of boats. As Ben said, some of these boats don't even have motors. That's how bad and how desperate these people are.

Of course, on the other side of this, this sets up a perfect infiltration scheme for groups like ISIS who may want to move some of their own people into Europe. And the Italians are going to have to take that into consideration as well.

SESAY: So the situation in Libya on the ground there politically, incredibly complex. We know that. We know that that is a deep and complex situation. But let me ask you this. When it comes to dealing with these smugglers, these human traffickers, could the international community not do a better chance -- do a better job at reining them in so that they can't profit on the misery of these people?

[01:05:04] FRANCONA: Right, and it's going to require some sort of an international effort sort of like we had with the Somali pirate group. And then, you know, NATO could take this over, because it is in the Mediterranean. But right now, we're only seeing ad hoc enforcement by a couple of the nations. What we need is some sort of a NATO organization, an international organization to patrol this.

But I think it's going to be more of a search and rescue because these people are going to keep coming. The only way to stop it is to prevent the Libyans from allowing them to leave, and I don't see that happening. The Libyans have no interest in preventing them from leaving. They can't handle these people.

SESAY: And then as you talked about the search and rescue operation as being the only feasible operation to undertake here, what kind of appetite do you see for mounting a credible search and rescue operation to deal with this situation?

FRANCONA: You know, Europe has so many problems right now. You know, they're dealing with this massive immigration from the Middle East. They are facing their own internal security problems. Look what's happening, you know, in France and Belgium and all of this. And now you've got this added on top of that. You know, the Italian Relief Services are overwhelmed. So no, there's not much appetite, but what choice do they have? They're going to have to address this, or it is going to become a humanitarian disaster on the European continent.

SESAY: It is very bleak indeed. Colonel Francona, always appreciate the insight. Thank you.

FRANCONA: Yes, I wish I had better news.

SESAY: Our thanks to Colonel Francona there.

In northern Iraq, officials say thousands of Kurdish troops have launched an anti-ISIS offensive near Mosul. Peshmerga-led forces aimed to dislodge the terror group from villages said to have been Kurdish. The operation began Sunday and is being backed by international coalition air support.

Local media say the offensive comes ahead of a joint Iraqi-Kurdish offensive to retake Mosul. Mosul is Iraq's second largest city and was captured by ISIS in June 2014.

Well, authorities in northern Mexico are searching for a kidnapped football star. They say Alan Pulido was abducted after leaving a party Saturday night. It happened in Mexico's border state of Tamaulipas, an especially violent part of the country. Pulido is a striker for the Greek team Olympiakos. He also played for the Mexican national team that went to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The alleged gang rape of a Brazilian teen sparked angry protests across the country. Demonstrators are demanding justice for the 16- year-old girl who said she was raped by more than 30 men in Rio de Janeiro. Officials say the accused posted video of the attack on social media. Police searched two slums in Rio Sunday but there's no word yet if anyone was captured. So far they have identified four of the men involved, including the girl's boyfriend.

The World Health Organization is rejecting calls to move or postpone the Rio Olympics due to the Zika virus. Zika has been shown to cause a rare birth defect, microcephaly, in children if their mothers contracted the virus while they were pregnant. Now a group of prominent medical professionals says holding the games in Brazil is too risky.

Ivan Watson has more from Rio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The World Health Organization is involved in a very public debate over whether or not it's safe to hold the Olympics here in Rio de Janeiro in August.

This coming after a group of about 150 doctors and medical researchers from around the world issued a public letter, challenging the WHO and saying it's simply not safe to hold the Olympics here. They must be either postponed or moved to another location, due to the threat of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

The physicians arguing that we don't know enough about the disease and that it would be irresponsible to welcome some 500,000 tourists from around the world here, where some of them could contract the disease and then bring it back to their home countries, where it could then potentially do great harm, particularly in poorer countries with worse health care systems.

Now the WHO has fired back, saying that Zika is being found in close to 60 countries around the world, and it is standing by its health care guidelines, saying that pregnant women should not come to the Olympics and adding that people who do come here should confine themselves to air conditioned residences at night. They should wear mosquito repellent practice safe sex because the virus is seen to be passed through sexual intercourse.

Not much to be said for the millions of Brazilians who live here, who are exposed to the mosquitoes that carry the disease as well as other diseases, such as dengue fever and yellow fever. So the debate continues to rage around this virus and its potential threat to the upcoming Olympics.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:10:04] SESAY: Well, let's send it off to Seema Yasmin now. She's a CNN medical analyst and professor of Public Health at the University of Texas. Doctor Yasmin, good to have you with us. So I know you agree with

this call by these prominent health experts that these games should be postponed or moved. I want to put up the response from the World Health Organization and get your thoughts on how they are answering this call. They say, "Based on current assessments, canceling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus."

What do you make of how they're responding?

SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think actually it's a fair statement that they're making, Isha. It's based on science. And it's also based on the fact that this outbreak has been going on for more than a year already. We haven't had the Olympic Games yet but already we've seen spread to about 60 countries and we've seen spread of the same strain of Zika that's in Brazil right now to West Africa where it has not been seen before.

So their argument is that, yes, we're talking about 500,000 people from nearly every country on the planet descending on Rio to the Olympic Games but that's still a very small proportion of all the travel that happens regardless of the Olympics. So we have international trade. We have people traveling on vacation. We have about 40 million people traveling to Brazil just from the U.S. in a given year. And they are saying that canceling or postponing the Olympics just won't make a difference.

SESAY: And you say what to that? Because the argument as I understand it from public health officials such as yourself is, yes, you have people coming in and out over a period of time but this is a concentrated number of people in Brazil all at once for this event.

YASMIN: I think it's pretty risky, Isha, because of the fact that we're learning so much more about Zika. It feels like every month we're learning more about what proportion of pregnant women with Zika can have a child with this birth defect. We're even learning about nerve damage in adults who have Zika. And my concern, I have to clear, it's not just about Zika. We're focusing on Zika understandably because it's quite a scary epidemic. But there are other health concerns in Rio, too, which I think for those reasons, the Olympics shouldn't go ahead there.

For example, about 50 percent of Rio's raw sewage goes into the bay where the Olympic sailors will be sailing and where people will be swimming. Already we've seen some of the athletes fall sick because they've come into contact with that water.

We've also had a lot of attention in the past few days to superbugs, antibiotics resistant -- sorry, bacteria that are resistant to many antibiotics. And we've seen record high levels of these superbug swimming in the bay in Brazil where the Olympic Games are going to be happening. So Zika is just one of the many health problems that is going to impact the Olympics.

SESAY: Is there reason to question the relationship between the IOC and the WHO, the International Olympic Committee? Some raising questions, eyebrows saying that they may be too close which is maybe clouding judgments being made here? Should we be questioning it?

YASMIN: Yes, I think we should always be questioning people in power. Questioning whether their decisions and guidelines are based on good science or are they based on financial and political relationships. That could be the case here but also, even as somebody who thinks the Olympic Games are risky to go ahead with, what the WHO is saying is based on science, and it is based on good public health practice.

There are definitely two sides to this. We'll continue debating this. But I do think probably regardless of what we think, the Olympic Games are likely to go ahead, and we'll still see more spread of Zika.

SESAY: Dr. Yasmin, the games, let's say they go ahead. Let's say this public health crisis, as some are warning, accelerates, who would be to blame? Who would carry the can, if you will, in that situation?

YASMIN: I think there are many people that we can point fingers at but I think it's important to think that this is the new normal. We're going to see more outbreaks, we're going to see more pandemics even. This isn't the first one that the World Health Organization has called a public health emergency of international concern. So it's easy for me to point fingers but really what I want to say is as an international public health community, we need to do better. We need to be in a situation where epidemics like this don't go on for a year and we're not asking questions like should this -- the Olympic Games carry on, should we be talking about travel restrictions?

We should be doing a better job of controlling these outbreaks early on so that we don't land up in this situation.

SESAY: I couldn't agree more. Dr. Seema Yasmin, so good to have you with us. Thank you so much.

YASMIN: Thank you.

SESAY: Now heavy rain is causing flooding and terrifying landslides across China.

That's just one of several slides that hit the southern region in the past few days and the flooding has claimed at least eight lives.

And heavy rain in the United States has led to two more deaths in southeastern Texas.

[01:15:05] Since Thursday, at least six people have died there in flood-related incidents. Police are searching the Brazos River west of Forth Worth. A 10-year-old boy who fell into the water.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us with more from the International Weather Center.

Derek, many problems in many parts of the world. What are you seeing right now?

(WEATHER REPORT)

SESAY: Very, very worrying indeed. Derek, appreciate it. Thank you.

Time for a quick break now, and coming up, Donald Trump honors America's veterans in the nation's capital. But past comments about one particular veteran are raising questions about Trump's sincerity.

Plus, growing outrage over the death of this endangered gorilla. Why the U.S. zoo says workers had no choice but to kill the animal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:21:26] SESAY: We're just over a week away from the final Super Tuesday of the U.S. election season. And for Democrats, the big prize is right here in California.

Bernie Sanders has been campaigning across the Golden State ahead of the June 7th contest. The Vermont senator told voters Sunday that he's the candidate who can defeat Republican Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And the message that we're going to take to the Democratic convention is that if the Democrats want a candidate who will beat Trump and beat him badly, our campaign is the campaign to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, Donald Trump received a warm welcome in Washington ahead of Memorial Day on Monday when Americans honor fallen members of the military. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke at the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally Sunday. The event pays tribute to prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

Scott McLean has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donald Trump talks constantly about his support for veterans, but it is not often that he gets to speak to a large crowd of them directly. And here today, he seemed to get a good reception.

But in many ways, this was a typical Trump stump speech. He seemed to tick all the boxes, talking about trade, about the Second Amendment, building support for our military, and of course, veterans.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Our veterans have been treated so badly in this country. You have a secretary that last week said, no, the wait time doesn't matter. Forget about wait time. I know people -- and I've gotten to know so many vets. And we just raised almost $6 million for the vets, because I didn't do a television show. I said let's do this. And we're announcing on Tuesday all of the groups that we put up this money. And we raised this tremendous amount of money because we love the vets.

MCLEAN: Now that money he mentioned was raised a couple of months ago when he decided to skip out on a FOX News debate. But ever since then, he has been dogged by questions about where exactly the money went. So as you heard, he is now promising a full accounting of that on Tuesday to try to put this issue to bed.

But Trump is also facing questions about comments he made last year about Senator John McCain, who himself was a former prisoner of war. Trump said, "I like people that weren't captured." Now McCain says Trump should apologize on behalf of other POWs. And then yesterday on CNN, former Senator Bob Dole, who is himself a Trump supporter, also called on Trump to apologize. Today we asked Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski whether or not he did plan to apologize, and he said, "Not that I'm aware of."

Scott McLean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, former U.S. presidential candidate Marco Rubio is apologizing for one of the most memorable moments of the Republican campaign when he joked about the size of Donald Trump's hands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: He's always calling me Little Marco. And I'll admit. He's taller than me, he's like 6'2", which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's 5'2". Have you seen his hands? They're like these. And you know what they say about men with small hands. You can't trust them. You can't trust them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: But in an exclusive interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, the Florida senator says he regrets the low blow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: And I actually told Donald at one of the debates, I forget which one, I apologized to him for that. I said, you know, I'm sorry that I said that. It's not who I am and I shouldn't have done it. And I didn't say it in front of the cameras. I didn't want any political benefit. I'm not a candidate now so I can say that to you because -- not because of him, but because of me. You know, I didn't like what it reflected on me. It embarrassed my family. It's not who I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:25:04] SESAY: Well, Rubio says he will support Trump in the general election and he's also willing to speak on Trump's behalf at the Republican National Convention in July.

And the U.S. now has a third choice for president. Former New Mexico governor, Gary Johnson, secured the Libertarian nomination at the party convention in Florida Sunday. With Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton viewed unfavorably by many voters, Johnson says the Libertarian ticket could play a pivotal role.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The end of the day, really, we polled from both sides, and, look, this is another voice at the table. It's arguably combining the best of what it is to be a Democrat and the best of what it is to be the Republican. Neither of which actually do very well at what they're supposed to be good at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, the Libertarian Party tends to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative while advocating free markets and as little government as possible.

The UK's top economists have weighed in on whether Britain should leave the EU and the results are dismal for the out campaign. Nearly 9 out of 10 said leaving the EU would damage Britain's economic future. More than 600 economists were polled. Supporters of an exit say it would cut red tape and free the UK to negotiate its own trade deals. The referendum date is less than a month away to be held June 23rd.

And as that vote approaches, the EU is trying to demystify itself. So it threw its doors open to the public. Erin McLauglin went inside with the visitors to find out what they think.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Europe. The European parliament, that is. A performance meant to entertain and to educate. One of many activities across the European capital.

(On camera): EU leaders say they realized they have an image problem. Many of their citizens simply don't know how the politics work. So once a year they open it up to the general public.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think there is a huge distance between citizens and the various institutions.

MCLAUGHLIN: Do you understand how European politics work?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not really, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the people don't know how it works, they will -- don't understand why it's important.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Officials say lack of understanding is a threat to the union's very existence. They are worried about the rise of euro skeptic far right parties across the continent. And, of course, the looming British referendum on EU membership.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does Europe deserve its own superhero? I think so.

MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Do you think that a lack of understanding of EU institutions is sort of fueling that debate in the UK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, absolutely. I think that there is a huge amount of ignorance about the European institutions about what they do.

MCLAUGHLIN: This is the room where 28 heads of state or government meet to decide on critical issues from the economy to foreign policy. With the UK referendum, the question now, will the UK give up its seat at this table?

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Quick break here. A Chinese ad has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. We'll look at the laundry detergent commercial some are calling racist just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:53] SESAY: Hello, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

The headlines this hour --

(HEADLINES)

SESAY: A Chinese company is apologizing for a laundry detergent commercial that many around the world called racist. It said, in part, "We hereby express our apology and sincerely hope the Internet users and media will not overanalyze."

Matt Rivers shows us the viral ad that led to all the outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: This advertisement has created quite the storm here in China with many people online calling the commercial for a type of laundry detergent unequivocally racist. Once you see it, it's not hard to see why.

The ad features a Chinese woman and a black man flirting. He strides over to her and when he leans in for a kiss, she pops a detergent capsule into his mouth and then throws him into the machine and waits for a bit and opens the machine later and a smiling Chinese man pops out to the woman's apparent delight.

It's incredibly offensive and has sparked backlash across the world and on Chinese social media. One user wrote, quote, "My god, don't Chinese marketing people get any education about race?" Another wrote, quote, "If you don't understand why it's racist, congratulations, you're a racist." The ad appears to be a blatant rip-off of a similarly criticized

Italian laundry commercial from the mid-2000s. A slim Italian man is washed with, quote, "colored" detergent and out emerges a muscular black man with the slogan "color is better."

A large number of Africans live here in China, particularly in the southern province of Guonchang (ph), and there have long been complaints of prejudice against people with darker skin across the country.

Matt Rivers, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Joining me now social and political commentator, Jasmyne Cannick; and Areva Martin, an attorney and legal affairs commentator.

Ladies, thank you for joining me to discuss this.

Let me just say, I have no words for that commercial. So I'm going to turn it over to you.

Areva, your thoughts when you first saw that Chinese ad?

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY & LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I was in shock, like most of the world that saw the ad. I think I was initially angry, but I was angrier after the so-called apology. Because the apology was, well, we're sorry, but it's really about the oversensitive population that's watching the commercial. And they're telling us don't overanalyze it, whatever that means. So I was really offended as much by the statement after the commercial as I was by the commercial.

[01:35:27] SESAY: Jasmyne?

JASMYNE CANNICK, SOCIAL & POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I agree. I've been to China before. I can understand just in the sense that this is America and we look at things differently. We're the most politically correct country in the world and they are not over there. I do think that the ad is extremely racist. I was probably more bothered by people here in America who didn't still get it, who took to social media and couldn't understand why people were so outraged by that.

SESAY: There were actually people on social media that didn't get it?

CANNICK: Yeah. And the idea that black is dirty, black is not good, and it reminds me as an African-American woman that still around this country, black people are looked at in a negative light. There was a Tide ad earlier this year that there were some issues with it. I can't remember the exact product they were selling. There was an issue there and other similar issues with other commercials around the world. I know that an ad like that would not get any play here in the U.S. because we would not take it.

SESAY: You've been to China. Talk about the culture that gave birth to this ad. CANNICK: You know, I've had a lot of conversations with folks who are

not American, not from here like Korea and China. And one person told me, an older person, when they came to America, the only thing they knew about black people is what they saw on "Roots." They brought that mind-set with them. I can't help but think about that because I know if you don't engage with African-Americans or black people and you only have seen what you see in social media or television, you may be able to get through life with just those kinds of stereotypes and thinking. When I look at an ad like that, whoever developed that ad had to have had no black friends, no interaction --

(CROSSTALK)

MARTIN: I don't know.

SESAY: In the 21 of century with social media and mass communication, nobody lives in a bubble anymore.

MARTIN: Yeah, but let's talk about the origins of some of these ads. I don't think we can say we have clean hands. Thinking about Aunt Jemima, Buckwheat, and all the way race was used to promote products. Although we've changed, if this were to happen in America, there would be an amazingly powerful backlash. But still the way African- Americans are portrayed in the media in this country aren't really, I think, so far away from what we saw. We are seeing it play out in our political campaign, our presidential election. The word "racist." People get really uptight about it. That was a racist commercial. Some of the things in this presidential campaign season are racist actions, racist words, racist comments. We've got to get comfortable with the race in this country if we're ever going to eliminate this way that we portray African-Americans as bad and dirty and white as virtuous and clean, which is what that commercial does, too.

SESAY: One thing about that commercial is not just obviously that the clear connotation between black being dirty and white virtuous and favorable. But also the sexual connotations attach to the black male there which plays into, and some of our viewers may not know this, thus longstanding like --

(CROSSTALK)

CANNICK: Predatory, right.

SESAY: This obsession with black males that they are predatory when it comes to white females, which this ad also touches.

MARTIN: We saw that in the Italian ad. You have a white guy going into -- being transformed into this African-American that plays into, again, black men as being sexualized and being predators. I think there's a lot to this ad. We should talk about American companies again. Colgate has a toothpaste ad that runs. It's very popular in Asia. Uses the name of the product as "Darky." Even though they made some names with respect, there's this sense as long as the product is selling and there's brand identity with the name, they'll not make the changes we think would be the kinds of change that would reflect there's a recognition of how offensive these ads and these portrayals of African-Americans are.

SESAY: Jasmyne, you study cultures. How does this change?

CANNICK: I don't know how it changes. In America, we have our way of doing things. An ad like that would run on television. They'd be at the headquarters ready to burn it down, OK? When you're talking about different cultures, a different country, they look at things differently and react differently. Most Chinese probably didn't find anything wrong at all with that ad. So again, I get kind of about that because I don't like going into other countries telling them what they need to feel is racist or what they should not be doing. But my response was more to the people here in America who looked at that and were just like, what's wrong with that? There's a lot wrong with that.

[01:40:29] SESAY: A lot, indeed.

MARTIN: You're right. The response amongst Americans has been shocking. People who don't get it and are afraid to deal with, confront, say the word racism, and just get it out on the table. Some things are racist. We can say it. It's liberating. We can say it.

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: You came and put it out there on the table.

Jasmyne, Areva, a pleasure. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: All right, moving on now, and a quick break. A U.S. zoo is facing a lot of criticism for the death of an endangered gorilla. Ahead, why zoo workers say killing it was tragic, but necessary.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: A zoo in the U.S. is defending its decision to kill an endangered gorilla to save a little boy.

CNN's Rachel Crane explains how it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A day of panic and desperation at the Cincinnati Zoo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is at the Cincinnati Zoo, and this is in a gorilla cage, and a 3-year-old child has fallen into the gorilla cage.

CRANE: A 4-year-old boy slips into the zoo's gorilla habitat and over a moat wall. Suddenly, Harambe, a 17-year-old 400-pound gorilla, approaches the boy. His mother watches in horror at what happens next. (SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, everybody, back up.

UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER: Mommy's right here.

[01:45:07] CRANE: The young boy screams. The urgent calls to 911 can be heard on this bystander video.

The family tries desperately to keep him calm as Harambe takes him out of sight. Harambe drags the boy around the moat and up a ladder for a total of 10 minutes as the zoo's dangerous animal response team anxiously decides what to do next.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: The little boy had already been talking about wanting to go in, go in, get in the water. His mother is like, no, you're not. I don't know if the screaming did it or too many people hanging on the edge, if he thought we were coming in, but then he, you know, pulled the boy down further away from the big group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Engine 32.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The gorilla has the child and it dragged him around the pen.

CRANE: Officials considered the incident so threatening, deciding Harambe must be taken down immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED CINCINNATI ZOO WORKER: The reason that tranquilizing him was not chosen is in an agitated situation, which the male was, it may take quite a while for a tranquilizer to take effect. But certainly, if he were hit, he'd have a dramatic response. You don't hit him, he falls over. It would take several minutes. The child wasn't under attack but all sorts of things could happen in a situation like that. He certainly was at risk.

CRANE: They say their only option, a rifle.

(SHOUTING)

CRANE: Harambe was shot and killed. The child was taken to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We have rescued the child. Children's has been notified for a trauma.

UNIDENTIFIED CINCINNATI ZOO WORKER: It's a sad day all the way around. The right choice was made. It was a difficult choice.

CRANE: Harambe was a western lowland gorilla, a critically endangered species. The zoo had hoped he'd eventually father other gorillas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love this zoo. It's very friendly. Everything is beautiful here. But when you see something like that and then the disappointment because how -- what do you say to your grandchildren?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Very sad day all the way around.

That was Rachel Crane reporting there.

Next on CNN NEWSROOM, "Top Gear" has raced back to the airwaves. We'll have the specs on the new season coming up.

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[01:51:34] SESAY: Lots and lots of fireworks to celebrate Real Madrid's latest Champions League title. The team and its fans partied in Real's home stadium. Real Madrid won their 11th Champions League title Saturday against Atletico Madrid.

British driver, Lewis Hamilton, has won the Monaco Grand Prix becoming only the 15th driver in history to win the race multiple times. Hamilton has cut teammate Rosberg's lead at the top of the standings.

And Alexander Rossi has won the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. He's better known in the Formula One world than on the Indy car circuit.

And remaining in the world of fast cars, "Top Gear" has raced back to the airwaves on BBC 2. It's one of the most watched shows in the world. This season features a new host and Hollywood star power as Matt LeBlanc joins the team.

Joining me in L.A. to discuss the new season is Sandro Monetti, the managing editor of the "Los Angeles Business Journal."

Sandro, you watched it. Thumbs up? Thumbs down? What do you think?

SANDRO MONETTI, MANAGING EDITOR, LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL: Thumbs somewhere in the middle. After this new series was shot in nine countries over eight months with six hosts, I was expecting something new, difference, spectacular. It was just the same as before with different hosts.

SESAY: No changes to the format?

MONETTI: Same studio, some of the stunts were the same. Jeremy Clarkson wasn't there and the other two. Suddenly, we have Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc. But, yeah, my reaction was somewhere in the middle. The petrol heads hate it.

SESAY: They loathe it. Let's read some of the tweets. Go on Twitter, because it's hilarious what they're saying online.

This from Jack Pendleton, #topgear, no matter how much time, effort and money you put into the show, nothing will ever compare to these three."

All right then. Blue Screen tweeted this, "Sorry, @BBCTopgear, but there's no other way to describe your new format, 'Top Gear,' #flopgear," which we're hearing a lot of.

And this last one, "If someone had just given Clarkson a steak, we wouldn't be in this position."

(LAUGHTER)

You want to explain that to our viewers?

MONETTI: That's refers to the circumstances under which Jeremy Clarkson finally lost his job after about his seventh final warning from the BBC. There had been several controversial incidents. And filming on location, March 2015, he refused to provide hot food for Jeremy Clarkson at the end of the day, and that sparked what the BBC called a fracas and the press called punching out the producer, allegedly. And so that -- the upshot of that was Clarkson's contract was not renewed at "Top Gear."

SESAY: That's how we ended up with these guys.

MONETTI: That's how we wound up with these guys.

SESAY: We love the intrigue. Ahead of the show launching let's talk about Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc maybe not being the best of friends. Did you detect any tension?

MONETTI: There was certainly a lack of chemistry. Maybe that will come in time. It certainly wasn't there at the start. Yeah, they just didn't work well together. There's been some accusations that Chris Evans, a hugely famous TV presenter in Britain, was trying to impersonate Jeremy Clarkson.

SESAY: You said his modulation and --

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[01:55:11] MONETTI: The inflections of his voice were Clarkson- esque. As long as he doesn't punch the producer or complain about the food, he'll be fine.

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: It's an interesting one. This is all about the brand, the brand "Top Gear," which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And the question is, even though the three may not be the best fit, will the brand still do well because, at the end of the day, people love the concept and the format.

MONETTI: Like anything else in entertainment, the audience will be the judge. The alternative is whether they want to watch Clarkson, Hammond and May this September or October when their new show, "The Grand Tour," their new car show, starts on Amazon Prime. Or will people stick with the BBC version, also on Netflix tomorrow. And it's an interesting dilemma. Is the brand bigger than the star? That's what remains to be seen. Clarkson was such a huge presence on his own. People watched the show for him. So for casual viewers, the show still works as a piece of entertainment. But for serious car fanatics or petrol heads, it's lacking.

SESAY: #flopgear they're saying.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks, Sandro. Appreciate it.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

The news continues with Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett right after this.

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