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Trump Rails Against Clinton in California; Interview with Robert Reich; Leave EU Team Unveils Immigration Platform; EgyptAir Black Box Signals Detected; One Man's Vision to Rescue Yazidi Slaves from ISIS; Disgusting Reality Olympics Deal with in Rio's Water; IOC, WHO Reject Calls to Move or Postpone Olympics in Rio; Switzerland Celebrates Opening of Swiss Alps Tunnel. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired June 02, 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] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Trump force one touches down in California's capital. Trump's latest rally, filled with new attacks against Hillary Clinton.
VAUSE: Plus investigators catch a break in their search for the missing EgyptAir plane. They believe they're moving closer to finding one of the plane's black boxes.
SESAY: And the group that want Britain to leave the E.U., unveiled its immigration plan, including the requirement to, quote, "speak good English."
VAUSE: Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
VAUSE: Newly unsealed court documents show even some of the teachers at Trump University thought it was a scam, targeting the elderly and poor. They say students were pressured to max out their credit cards or use their retirement savings to pay for high-priced seminars.
SESAY: Donald Trump didn't mention it during a campaign rally in California's capital Wednesday.
CNN's Sara Murray is in Sacramento.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: On a day when Donald Trump took some sharp incoming fire, he made it clear e was ready to fire right back. Hillary Clinton labeled Donald Trump a fraud, saying he was trying to scam America just the way he scammed students with his Trump University case. Now as Trump, he showed up here in Sacramento and opened his speech by unleashing a s series of counterpunches against Hillary Clinton. He called her crooked Hillary and he said she was one of the worst secretaries of state of all time.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She is not qualified because she has bad judgment. Now who said that? Bernie Sanders said that about Hillary. She is not qualified. So here are seven points that I marked down which I think are important. And they talk about Hillary and her incompetence. She's one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country. Now she wants to be our president.
And look, I'll be honest, she has no natural talent to be president. This is not a president. They talk about me. Actually a lot of people think I look extremely presidential, if you want to know the truth. But do you really believe that Hillary is presidential? This is not presidential material.
MURRAY: Now Trump's swipe at Hillary Clinton's foreign policy credentials comes on a day when she is delivering what her campaign is calling a major foreign policy address in San Diego. As for Trump he'll be back on the campaign trail again in California, this time in San Jose. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thanks to Sara Murray for that report.
And Democrat Bernie Sanders is keeping up a hectic campaign schedule in California before the state's primary next Tuesday.
SESAY: On Wednesday, he held a rally in Davis, California. 475 pledged delegates are at stake in the last crucial contest of the Democratic primary race.
VAUSE: One of the big questions in this U.S. election, what will happen to all of those enthusiastic supporters who turn out in the thousands for Bernie Sanders? Where will they go? Especially now that Hillary Clinton is expected to clinch the nomination next week.
The senator from Vermont continues to turn out huge crowds. Thousands feeling the Bern and ignoring the math. It seems every candidate in this race sees an opening to win over those soon-to-be disaffected Sanders supporters. It's not just Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but also candidates for the Libertarian and Green parties.
I've been speaking with Robert Reich. He's one of the most prominent surrogates for Bernie Sanders. He's the former labor secretary for President Bill Clinton. By now he's a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, and is urging Democrats to come together to defeat Donald Trump.
You are very good with numbers. You like dealing with hard facts. It's not mathematically impossible at this point for Senator Sanders to win the nomination. But it would seem to be an overwhelming long shot.
ROBERT REICH, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY: I think it is a long shot. I don't think it's impossible. Stranger things have happened in this election year. You know, let me remind you, John. A lot of experts have made all sorts of predictions all election year. And they have been wrong. And so in this very unexpected year, let's not assume things before they actually happen.
VAUSE: OK. Well, just over a week ago, you wrote on your Facebook page. You posted a message urging Sanders supporters to back Hillary Clinton if she wins the nomination. You wrote this, "I urge you to work like hell for her. She'll be the only person standing between Donald Trump and the presidency of the United States. Besides, as I said before, she will be an excellent president for the system we now have, even though Bernie would be the best president for the system we need."
Judging, though, by some of the feedback on your Facebook page, it would seem that didn't go over so well with many of Bernie Sanders supporters.
REICH: No. As a matter of fact, they are still very angry that I even made that suggestion. But as we get closer to the actual election, if it turns out that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, I suspect that many people who are now supporting Bernie Sanders will come over to support Hillary Clinton.
[01:05:13] Because the alternative is so reprehensible to so many people. That alternative being obviously Donald Trump.
VAUSE: How much harder, though, will it be to bring those voters over to Secretary Clinton if Senator Sanders continues to talk about the system being rigged, that somehow the fix is in. Because again if you look at the numbers, Hillary Clinton, she's won more votes, she's won most states, and she's won more pledged delegates.
REICH: Well, the system is rigged. I mean, our political and economic system is rigged. Rigged in the sense that when you have so much money and so much income and wealth at the top, it has political consequences. This is something what has happened this year. I mean, one of the reasons that so many people are so angry, particularly in the middle class but also among the old working class, the white working class, many people who are poor, is that it's become more and more evident to people that most people have absolutely no power in our political system. They have no voice.
That has resulted, in my view, in a kind of populist anti- accomplishment backlash of which, you know, Donald Trump is one symptom. I mean, some people have moved in the direction of a kind of authoritarian populist. Other people have moved in the direction of Bernie Sanders, who is a kind of democratic populist. But I think the challenge if Hillary Clinton is the nominee, is to show all of those disaffected anti-establishment Americans that she is really on their side. That she is not just another continuation of the establishment. I think that she can do that. I have a great deal of confidence in her. But it's going to be a hard sell.
VAUSE: One way of doing that, I guess, would be if Hillary Clinton chose Bernie Sanders as her running mate, as a vice president. Is that something you'd support? Do you think she needs to do that?
REICH: Well, I wouldn't presume to say that she needs to do that. I think that would be a wise move, or another progressive like Elizabeth Warren, Senator Elizabeth Warren as her vice president. But showing particularly all of the independents and Democrats who have voted and been very active on behalf of Bernie Sanders, that she is one of them, that she is very much on their side, will become very important.
VAUSE: You've also written about Donald Trump and you say he has perfected the art of the anti-politics. And you also say he is the most dangerous nominee of a major, and the key is major political party in American history.
REICH: I believe that. And I believe it's borne out almost every day. Donald Trump uses lies and intimidation against his opponents. Even opponents in the press, even in the media. He says things that, not only are politically incorrect, I don't worry about that. But he says things that are offensive, that are really -- one would not expect from a presidential candidate because they offend common decency.
This is a man who really, I believe, is not only exhibits bigotry in his behavior and what he says, but also poses the danger of a kind of xenophobia, a megalomania, a kind of reckless narcissism that makes him completely unsuited and I think quite dangerous with regard to the prospect of him ever becoming president.
VAUSE: Secretary Reich, it's good to speak with you. Before we go, a very quick mention of your latest book. It's called "Saving Capitalism." We should note it gets 4 1/2 stars on goodreads.com.
Thank you so much for being with us, sir.
REICH: Thank you very much, John.
SESAY: Fascinating.
VAUSE: Yes, he didn't hold back.
SESAY: No. He --
VAUSE: Had a lot to say about Donald Trump.
SESAY: Yes. He laid it on.
VAUSE: Yes.
SESAY: All right. Now U.S. President Barack Obama is lambasting the tone of the presidential election campaign. Mr. Obama was at a televised town hall. And without mentioning Donald Trump by name, clearly slammed the Republicans' rhetoric.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some of the boundaries that used to be there for how you debated ideas have broken down. What happens is that politicians get the most attention the more outrageous they sound. So if you're civil and quiet and polite, nobody covers you. But if you say something crazy or rude, you're all over the news. And that has fed, I think, this kind of arms race of insult and controversy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:10:11] VAUSE: The president has mostly stayed on the sidelines during the Democratic presidential primary. A White House source tells CNN, though, Mr. Obama wants to energy the Democratic base once the party selects a candidate.
Campaigners who want Britain to leave the European Union have unveiled their immigration platform.
SESAY: The Vote Leave team says the policy would control who can move to the United Kingdom. And that right now, the U.K. can't handle how many people are moving there.
Here's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, there are several reasons why the Leave campaign is targeting immigration. They feel that this is David Cameron, the Remain campaign's Achilles heel. Why is that? Well, you can look at it this way as well, that the government, David Cameron, has sort of won the argument, the economic argument, of reasons to stay in the European Union. That if we leave there are uncertainties. That generally seems to be accepted by some people, persuaded some people over to the Remain campaign.
On security, Britain's better off with its being part of the European Union to counter terrorism, these sorts of issues. The government's sort of won on that. But immigration is one where the Leave campaign feel that Cameron cannot win. You go back to the general election last year, where he said he would get immigration down to tens of thousands. Well, right now the latest statistics show that it's 330,000 immigrants in the past year, about 184,000 of those from the European Union.
So when the Leave campaign proposes a system to control immigration by this point system that limits the number of people that can come to Britain, that allows only those that come for jobs, who are qualified for the jobs, that are able to speak good English. That they are trying to control that -- the flow of immigrants.
And for a lot of people here, the number of immigrants coming into the country sort of correlates in their minds, particularly those who want to leave. They kind of see the number of immigrants as making it harder to get seen, when they go to hospital. They can't get their kids into the schools they want to. They think that this leads to higher unemployment. So these are touchstone, heartfelt issues for people.
This is the vote of a lifetime. It is a generational issue, with huge implications; and it's on that issue of immigration that the Leave campaign think that they can do most damage to David Cameron, and, of course, on top of that, it's a challenge to his leadership as well.
Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, a referendum on the Brexit will be in three weeks. And the polls show support is pretty evenly split between staying and leaving.
VAUSE: CNN went to the streets of London for reaction to the immigration plan put forward by the Vote Leave group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think. Because it's there for some other countries, as well. So why not for the E.U.? So if you see the immigrants, I mean, there are thousands coming in from other countries. But from the E.U., it's coming hundreds of thousands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's important that we, you know, pinch on immigration. But I don't think we should leave the E.U. and I think freedom of immigration is great. I work with a lot of eastern Europeans who are the best workers I can work with. They're a lot more sort of determined than -- kind of better workers than a lot of the British people I work with.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They will match the requirements of the economy with people coming in. So yes, I think it's a good idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's stupid. I think, like, the U.K. benefits so much from like free market in Europe and doing anything to stop that is just stupid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm out. I'm not against people coming from other countries to come and work here. But I'm against people that are coming here just to rely on our benefits.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that's fair. I think they should leave it as it is. And people come over. The foreigners bring in much more than what the English do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to work. And they pay their taxes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a good idea for controlling immigration because we need to do something. We've got far too many. However, I am of the in campaign. I think it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Three weeks until the referendum.
Move on here now, more than two dozen young women say they were sexually assaulted at a concert in Germany.
SESAY: Police say the alleged attacks happened Saturday at a big outdoor music festival with 80,000 people in attendance. Police have arrested three Pakistani men but say as many as 10 men they have been involved in the assaults.
VAUSE: A short break. When we come back, gunmen set off an explosion in a popular hotel in Somalia. We'll tell you who is claiming responsibility for what turned out to be a deadly attack.
SESAY: Plus investigations could be closing in on the doomed EgyptAir jetliner. The new clues searchers are working with, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:18:55] VAUSE: At least 13 people are dead after gunmen set off a car bomb and stormed a popular hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday. Local media say two Somali lawmakers are among those killed at the ambassador hotel. One man says the blast was so powerful he felt it from his office a kilometer away.
SESAY: The three attackers are dead. One of them in the car bombing, the other two by Somali special forces. Al Shabaab militants are claiming responsibility for the siege.
VAUSE: Somalia says its military has killed the man who planned last year's deadly attack on Garissa University in Kenya. The government says special forces took out the Al Shabaab leaders and 16 other militants Tuesday night.
SESAY: 148 people died when the terror group stormed the school in April of last year. A U.S. air strike killed Al Shabaab's intelligence chief last week.
VAUSE: Search crews looking for EgyptAir Flight 804 are working to pinpoint the exact location of the ping signals detected deep in the Mediterranean.
SESAY: They believe those signals are coming from one of the plane's flight recorders. Those so-called black boxes are vital to finding out what happened to the Airbus A320 and the 66 people on board.
[01:20:01] VAUSE: This appears to be a lucky break for search crews. The French ship Laplace which picked up the signal had only recently reached the crash zone and the emergency locator transmitter was still working.
David Soucie is a CNN safety analyst, a former FAA safety inspector, and he joins us now.
David, good to have you with us. What are the chances that this could be a false alarm and the signal might actually be something else?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, as you remember with MH-370, when the Malaysia Airline was lost, the same thing happened. The ship came into the area, within only a few short hours picked up these same pings. So it is possible that it's a mis-ping, something coming from another device. The last time, with MH-370, it had come from a fishing net, an illegal fishing net, and these were spotting pings that are very similar to the underwater locater beacon.
Now I don't anticipate that being the problem, but until I hear it myself, I'm going to hold judgment.
VAUSE: OK, how difficult -- you know, assuming this is, in fact, the electronic locater, how difficult will it be to recover the flight data recorder if it's at a depth of around three kilometers, 10,000 feet or possibly even deeper?
SOUCIE: Well, if this is indeed the underwater locater beacon, chances are it still is attached to the flight data recorder. Now when it's at that depth you have to be very cautious about how you retrieve it because those pressures is designed to take those pressures, but to make sure, just in case it had a leak or any water got inside, you have to maintain that pressure all the way to the surface. So you have to encase it in like a Plexiglas type box.
Put it into that box, maintain those pressures as you come up and slowly release those. Kind of like coming up out of a deep water dive as well.
VAUSE: OK, we have one signal from one so-called black box. Would you expect the other black box to be there? Would they be together?
SOUCIE: They may be or they may not be. There are at different locations on the aircraft. In this one, the flight data recorder is in the rear of the aircraft and the voice data recorder is in the front of the aircraft. So chances are they would be co-located, however, it still could be very difficult if the underwater locater beacon is only working on one device and not the other. It could be very challenging to find the one that's not working.
VAUSE: OK, let's assume they do find the boxes. How long before they can actually get to the data there, start piecing together what happened and will that information, once they get it, will it confirm or will it rule out a terrorist attack?
SOUCIE: The information's going to be very thorough. Now remember, with the flight data recorder, it's strictly the facts. It's strictly what happened. With the voice recorder, now that will give you how it happened because with that, you will be able to tell if some distress had happened inside the cockpit or if there was an explosion inside the cockpit. You might hear that explosion.
As you recall, we also had information from the ACAR system telling us that this happened over a small period of time, maybe a minute or two. So if the flight data recorder is found, we'll know very conclusively what happened to this airplane.
VAUSE: OK, I guess the assumption, too, is that should they find the black boxes, that looks like it's on track to happen, they should get the precise location, you know, the next couple of days or so, then from that point they can work out where the rest of the wreckage would be, pretty much expected to be on the bottom of the ocean?
SOUCIE: Yes, absolutely. They have been doing extensive searches on top of the water, to see if there's any floating debris, but if the aircraft -- if the underwater locator beacon and the flight data recorder is found, the crash site will be very close to that. The drift in that area, there were underwater currents that could drag it a certain amount in one distance or the other to the rear or toward the forward of where the aircraft impacted. But at this point, it should be very closely located to where they find that black box.
VAUSE: OK. David; good to speak with you. Thanks so much.
SOUCIE: All right. Thank you.
SESAY: Now the battle against ISIS is raging on a number of fronts. In northern Syria, thousands of U.S.-backed fighters are trying to choke off the militants' access to land along the Turkish border.
VAUSE: The so-called Mandij Pocket inside of a crucial supply line to the ISIS de facto capital of Raqqa.
SESAY: Well, the Iraqi forces have Fallujah surrounded and they're expected to storm the city soon. The U.N. says about 50,000 civilians are still trapped in the city. And that ISIS is using hundreds of families as human shields.
VAUSE: Experts believe ISIS has booby traps, snipers and improvised explosive devices waiting for any attack.
SESAY: Well, among the many horrifying tactics uses is the sale of sex slaves online. Photographs of two women being offered for sale recently appeared on Facebook before Facebook quickly deleted them.
VAUSE: Using the girls and women are commonly targeted for slavery. One Iraqi man, though, is risking his life to try and save them.
Arwa Damon has his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bidding opens at $9,000. The item for sale, an 11-year-old Yazidi girl, advertised as beautiful, hard-working, virgin.
[01:25:05] The screen grab is one of many Abdullah Shiem keeps in his phone. Abdullah was a successful businessman with trade connections to Syria. When over 50 of his family members were among the thousands of Yazidis kidnapped by ISIS, he began plotting to save them.
ABDULLAH SHIEM, YAZIDI RESCUER (Through Translator): No government or expert trained us. We learned by just doing it over the last year and a half. So we gained experience.
DAMON: Now he has people who troll these ISIS malls on social media chats, looking for any hint of victims' whereabouts.
(On camera): This is one of the sites or the ways that the bartering and trading for some of these Yazidi captives happens. And in this particular case, the girl is being offered up for $10,000 in Duhok province.
(Voice-over): And that, a location, is a vital clue.
This is video from his most recent rescue of a woman and her two sons. It took three months to pull off. It's moments like these that make it all worth it. So far he says his network has freed 240 Yazidis.
He recruited cigarette smugglers who were already sneaking elicit produce in and out of ISIS territory. Sometimes the smugglers helped track the captives down. Sometimes the captives, like his sister, managed to reach out.
SHIEM (Through Translator): There was a wife of an ISIS fighter, who gave her a phone and said maybe you will be able to save yourself.
DAMON: Abdullah was able to get her out, along with her youngest son, 5-year-old Saif.
SHIEM (Through Translator): When Saif first got out, he was like a wild thing. We couldn't really talk to him. He was still applying to ISIS mentality that everyone is the enemy.
DAMON: He is still not entirely recovered from the brainwashing.
SHIEM (Through Translator): They put this in their heads that there is nothing better than a gun.
DAMON: It's the older boys going through ISIS indoctrination that Abdullah is most worried about, concerned they are at risk of turning into time bombs that will kill their own people. World powers, he said, have an obligation to save them and the other slaves.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Duhok, Northern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, tune in this Friday for Arwa Damon's reports on Iraq, investigating ISIS' atrocities and the sufferings of the Yazidi women and girls under ISIS rule. "ISIS in Iraq" airs Friday at 4:30 p.m. in London.
VAUSE: Well, still ahead here on NEWSROOM L.A. the polluted toxic reality for Olympic athletes headed to Brazil. Many will be forced to compete in water that looks like that right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look at this trail of garbage. Flip-flops, tennis shoes, blocks of wood on the surface of Guanabara Bay, very close to where the sailors and athletes are training.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:34] SESAY: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: And I'm John Vause.
The headlines this hour --
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: Meanwhile, Brazil's famous white-sand beaches hide a disgusting reality that many Olympic athletes are trying to deal with.
VAUSE: Our reporter in Rio is Ivan Watson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Athletes training for peak performance. Members of the German Olympic sailing team preparing for what will be the first Olympic female competition in this class of sailboat. On the surface, the view off the coast of the Olympic host city, Rio de Janeiro, pretty spectacular. But the sailors are trying hard to stay out of the water.
UNIDENTIFIED OLYMPIC ATHLETE: We don't want to swim in it.
WATSON: They say the bay here is terribly polluted.
(on camera): You hit garbage out here?
UNIDENTIFIED OLYMPIC ATHLETE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED OLYMPIC ATHLETE: Yes.
WATSON: What kind of garbage?
UNIDENTIFIED OLYMPIC ATHLETE: A lot of plastic bags. But training partners of us also hit a chair or some wood.
WATSON: Furniture?
UNIDENTIFIED OLYMPIC ATHLETE: Yes.
WATSON (voice-over): This is the kind of stuff they're talking about.
(on camera): Look at this trail of garbage, flip-flops, tennis shoes, blocks of wood on the surface of the bay, very close to where the sailors and athletes are training.
[01:35:11] (voice-over): Rio has been struggling with its notoriously polluted waters for decades.
We caught up with the city's mayor at the opening of a brand-new sewage treatment plan. It claims to provide modern services to hundreds of thousands of residents of Rio for the very first time.
(on camera): Do you think the water will be safe for the Olympic athletes? EDUARDO PAES, MAYOR OF RIO DE JANEIRO: Yes. We had, first thing,
because where in the bay the sailing is going to happen, it's the cleanest area of the bay, the entrance of the bay.
WATSON (voice-over): But people who make a living in Rio's waters disagree with the mayor. We don't get far in Menendez's (ph) boat before the motor stalls. The propeller, tangled in a plastic bag. Travel a little further and we find this.
(on camera): It smells awful here. And not just like mud at low tide, but something far more toxic. And the fishermen we're with say this is basically raw sewage that has washed down out of the city.
WATSON (voice-over): The untreated waste of millions of Rio's residents that do not have modern sanitation. It all drains into canals like this, where local fishermen moor their boats.
(on camera): How is the fishing?
(voice-over): "We don't fish here," he says.
(on camera): Impossible?
(voice-over): "Look at Rio now," he tells me. "We will host the Olympics. But we don't even have a basic sewage system."
The pollution here, one of the sad realities facing residents and now athletes at the upcoming Olympics.
But these German sailors say they're willing to risk the dirty waters for their shot at Olympic glory.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Joining us now is Professor Amir Attaran, from the University of Ottawa. He joins us from Ottawa, Canada.
Professor Attaran, good to speak to you once again.
The IOC and WHO have rejected the call made by you and more than 100 other health experts for the Rio Olympic games to be postponed or moved. WHO said in a statement, "There is no public health justification for postponing for cancelling the games." What is your response to that?
AMIR ATTARAN, PROFESSOR, FACULTIES OF LAW AND MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA: The WHO bases that foolish guidance on a lack of science. They contextualized what they said, by saying, look, Zika is in 60 countries already. If you will, the horse has left the barn and you're too late. That's scientifically nonsense.
I want you to hear what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, said about the call to postpone or move the games. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There's so much travel between South America, Brazil, and the rest of the world any way, that to think that you're going to have a substantial impact by cancelling the Olympics, I don't think is scientifically based.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: There will be those at home watching our conversation. And they'll point to the confidence of someone like Dr. Fauci. And they're wondering why they should believe your analysis versus his. What do you say to them?
ATTARAN: True. It's not my analysis solely. I'm representing, now, the view expressed by over 200 health experts from 35 countries, who have signed an open letter to WHO. You can say I'm wrong. But that leaves 199 people left, who you also have to say are wrong, all of whom are highly trained physicians, PhDs, experts in public health, medicine, bioethics, and that sort of thing. There is more to it than Dr. Fauci is saying. I respect him enormously. And this time, he's just plain wrong.
SESAY: You've called -- you and your colleagues, with this letter, have called for a transparent advisory process of outside experts to decide, wisely, as you put it, about Zika and the Olympics. Have you had direct conversations with the WHO or IOC about that actually happening?
ATTARAN: Well, when the WHO and IOC got an open letter from 200 experts in 35 countries, you would think they would get in touch. They haven't done so. That, I think, tells you something. The other thing is, they haven't come out and pointed to a single sentence or a single study cited in our open letter to say, it's erroneous, it's wrong. They've simply denied the conclusions we come to without pointing to a single error. That looks like organizations that are trying to hide from a conclusion, not ones that are trying to honestly discuss it.
[01:40:12] SESAY: Last question, WHO, IOC, they're on the same page. It appears they are proceeding with preparations and these games are on track to continue in August. What's your next move?
ATTARAN: We don't know. We are scientists. We follow the evidence. We follow the data. When new scientific findings come, when new epidemiological numbers come, that's when we'll talk. We're not in this, supported by big money or by political movement or with an agenda, apart from the agenda of science and truth. And we'll only speak when the science backs us. That's not true of the IOC. They have billions of dollars at stake. And their messages are all about saving that money and saving the prestige. And unfortunately, the World Health Organization is compromised by it, too. Just this past weekend, we heard the head of Zika, from the World Health Organization, say, well, there's a huge investment at stake. What is someone in the World Health Organization doing worrying about investment? That's not his place. That's not WHO's place. Their place is to worry about global health. And I'm afraid, right now, independent scientists and health experts are representing that better than WHO is itself.
SESAY: Professor Amir Attaran, it's great to speak to you. Thank you for sharing your perspective.
ATTARAN: Thank you.
SESAY: We hope to speak to someone from the WHO next week. We'll put the accusations to him. The personal views, that they lack --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Yes. It will be interesting to see what the view will be about relocating and changing the timing of the Olympics. Don't think it's going to happen.
SESAY: No. I don't think so.
VAUSE: We'll take a break. When we come back, a rail worker strike in France is causing chaos for travelers. We'll tell what's pushing the workers to walk off the job.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:45:32] VAUSE: Authorities say an engineering professor is the victim in Wednesday's murder/suicide on the UCLA campus. The shooting happened in the engineering building.
SESAY: California's lieutenant governor says Professor William Clug was a father, and husband of two, and brilliant teacher. So far no word on the gunman's identity or motive. Most classes are expected to resume on Thursday.
VAUSE: Travelers in France are facing train delays and cancellations because of a workers strike. The walk-out started Tuesday evening. If it lasts much longer, it could cause major disruptions for millions of travelers attending the Euro 2016 football tournament later this month.
SESAY: The strike is the latest in a series of moves against a proposed labor reform bill that gives employers more flexibility to hire and fire workers and weakens the power of unions.
VAUSE: It took 17 years, 2200 workers and 3,200 kilometers of cable, but the world's longest, deepest tunnel is now open.
SESAY: It creates a high-speed rail link between the Swiss Alps, connecting northern and southern Europe.
CNN's Lynda Kinkade has more on the tunnel and the celebrations in Switzerland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dancing construction workers, angels with giant heads, and whatever these things are --
(SINGING)
KINKADE: -- it's a surreal ceremony for the opening of what's been billed as Switzerland's construction of the century. Leaders from Germany, Italy, Austria, and France, joined the Swiss president at the spectacle in Switzerland, where a record-breaking 57-kilometer tunnel now cuts through the Swiss Alps. The engineering project links the stations of the north of Switzerland to the south.
Work on what's now the world's longest and deepest tunnel, started 17 years ago. In 2010, an enormous subterranean drill smashed through the last few meters of rock.
Trains will zip under the Alps in under 20 minutes, reaching speeds up to 205 kilometers an hour. When full operations start in December, it will shave an hour off travel times between Zurich and Milan. The speediest subterranean route does sacrifice an alpine view. The tunnel bypasses the picturesque but slow lines. But tourists should not be disappointed. That winding route that crosses 205 different bridges will remain open.
(SINGING)
KINKADE: With typical Swiss precision, the new $12 billion tunnel was completed on budget and on time, an impressive engineering feat that's cause for celebration.
Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Those are remarkable celebrations.
VAUSE: Looked like Eurovision. Very happy. Very proud.
SESAY: Very proud of the tunnel.
VAUSE: Nice tunnel.
SESAY: Still ahead, the Trump University on how to be courteous to the media may be a course that Trump skipped.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The guy right over here from ABC, he's a sleaze in my book.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [01:52:41] SESAY: A $15,000 Lego sculpture that took three days to build was destroyed by a young boy in a matter of seconds. Here's what it looked like. A life-sized statue of a fox from the Disney film "Zootopia."
VAUSE: The artist is apparently a schoolteacher. This is what it looked like. He painstakingly put this masterpiece together, brick- by-brick, and put it on display in southern China. But within the first hour of that expo, all of the hard work was wiped out when one little boy knocked it all over, sending Lego bricks flying. The parents said sorry. The artist did not ask them to pay for the damages. But everyone was tip-toeing around because the little bits of Lego hurt when you step on them with bare feet.
(LAUGHTER)
Who says it is worth 15 grand?
SESAY: I don't know.
VAUSE: Who came up with that?
SESAY: Can we just take in the fact that he built that out of Legos. That's remarkable.
VAUSE: He has time on his hands.
SESAY: Three days, three nights.
VAUSE: There you go. He can do it again.
SESAY: Trump University is under scrutiny this week for its practices. Now, it seems the man who owned it could have used a few of its classes.
VAUSE: The school's handbook has a lot of advice on dealing with the media, a lot of dos and don'ts, including being polite to reporters. But The Donald doesn't seem to practice what they teach at Trump U.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump is famous for knowing --
TRUMP: Excuse me. Sit down. You weren't called.
MOOS: -- how to handle the media.
TRUMP: The press should be ashamed of themselves.
By the way, the world's most dishonest people are back there. Look at all of the cameras going.
Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. MOOS: But maybe he should sit down and read his own Trump University
media guidelines. The company playbook, released by the course, included tips for dealing with the media, such as, "expect to be scrutinized."
TRUMP: I like scrutiny. But you know what? When I raise money -- excuse me, excuse me. I've watched you on television. You're a real beauty.
MOOS: Nowhere on the list does it say humiliate the press.
TRUMP: Even the horrible press, which is -- look at those people.
(SHOUTING)
MOOS: Nowhere does it say treat the press with condescension.
TRUMP: Are you ready? Do you have your pad?
MOOS: But some of the actual media tips could be useful. "Reporters are rarely on your said and they are not sympathetic."
And just as Trump excuses some Mexicans --
TRUMP: They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume are good people.
MOOS: -- he also gives some reporters a pass.
TRUMP: Disgusting reporters, horrible people.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Some are nice.
[01:55:14] MOOS (on camera): From a reporter's point of view, the playbook's last media tip is our favorite. "Remember, courtesy gets you a long way."
(voice-over): But Donald definitely didn't read that one.
TRUMP: Like this sleazy guy right over here, from ABC. He's a sleaze.
MOOS: Trump's harshest press insult?
TRUMP: They're scum. Absolute scum. Remember that. Scum.
MOOS: OK. We'll try to remember.
ANIMATED VOICE: Scum. Scum. Scum.
MOOS: Maybe The Donald needs to write up some new press guidelines. "I'm here to take your compliments," might be a good one.
But it was Jimmy Fallon as Trump, who pronounced The Donald's golden rule of media management.
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: The only one qualified to interview me is me.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: You can never go wrong attacking the media. It's not going to do him any harm.
OK. You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
VAUSE: I'm Isha Sesay.
The news continues with Rosemary Church, right after this.
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