Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Donald Trump Accepts Presidential Nomination; Brazil Foiled Terrorist Attack Ahead of Rio Games; Russian Track and Field Banned from Olympics; Turkey Revamping Military During 3-Month State of Emergency; Escape from ISIS Only Option for Some in Iraq; Roger Ailes Resigns from FOX Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations; Death of Internet Star Highlights Honor Killings; Weather Delays MH370 Search; Russian Track & Field Banned from Olympics. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 22, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:00:14] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I am with you. I will fight for you. And I will win for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The Republican Party has its presidential nominee. Donald Trump says only he can fix the nation's problems.
In Brazil, a possible terror attack averted with the Olympics just weeks away. Plus a CNN exclusive, families fleeing ISIS rule in Mosul after being threatened with death.
From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers around the world, I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
Good day to you. It is now official. The Republican Party in the United States has its nominee. Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president and for one hour and 15 minutes, the longest acceptance speech in decades, Trump painted a picture of America that he claims is falling deep into crime, poverty, violence, and corruption, a message well received by the audience in the arena.
But critics describe the tone as dark and harsh. But Trump pledged to be a law and order president saying he is the only who can fix a broken system and make the U.S. safe again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The day I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent, and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton. Death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness.
We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. To stop the gangs and the violence and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.
We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. God bless you and good night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Donald Trump there in the closing there.
Expanding on the theme that we have all heard about making America great again, let's now bring in CNN Politics reporter Tal Kopan live from that convention center in Cleveland.
Tal, it's good to have you with us. So, look, there is no question that Donald Trump energized the audience there in that arena. But we're also getting a sense of criticism from some people especially establishment Republicans who heard that speech.
TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, look, I think if you didn't like Donald Trump before tonight he didn't change your mind. But I'm not sure that was the point. So, you know, a lot of the criticism of the speech, the ideas that he played into fears, that it was a very dark picture of America I think kind of misunderstands why he's been so popular to this point.
There is a deep-seeded feeling in America that something is wrong for a lot of people. That is what is concerning them. And you know, during his speech many people were tweeting he said crime is going up. In fact that's not true. The numbers on violent crime showed that they've been trending downward for years.
That's not really the point. The point is that there is a group of Americans who feel that something is wrong and they feel that Donald Trump speaks to them. So in that regard, he continued of what has made him very successful to this point.
HOWELL: It was a speech, Tal, that was full of promises. Donald Trump made many promises to the audience there but critics also pointing out that there weren't many specifics there.
KOPAN: Absolutely. You know, when he talked about defeating ISIS he -- a couple of times he adlibbed these words into the speech. He adlibbed, "and fast." He would say, we are going to beat the terrorists, and we're going to beat them fast. And, you know, there was a lot of complaints that's not exactly a plan and he has given no specifics as how he's going to do it.
You know, one line that jumped out on me was that he promised on January 20th, 2017 on inauguration day if he became president that America would become a safer place.
[01:05:04] I mean that is a very tall thing to promise without, you know, clear specifics in some of the policies. He has gone into detail on such as trade have concerned people. So in that regard it was pretty consistent with what we've seen from Donald Trump on the trail. I don't know, however, that a convention nominating acceptance speech is really the place to get into sort of nitty-gritty policy details at the same time.
HOWELL: Tal, you know, so you point out the fact that indeed, Donald Trump was talking directly to his voter, the people there in that audience, and you got a sense of the energy and the support from everything that he laid out there. But this was -- if you compare it to the Reagan city on a hill vision, this was not that. This was something much different. So the question is, the hopefulness of the speech, one of Trump's challenges is obviously to bring in new support, broader support in a general election.
So is there a sense from what you're hearing from people who saw and heard this speech that the Republican candidate reached out to new voters?
KOPAN: That's absolutely true. And you know, one of the interesting things is the program for the night started out extremely conservative. You know, I've been here for four nights watching these speeches. I think tonight might have been the most socially conservative of all the nights we've seen.
You had some of the sort of leaders of the social conservative movement at the beginning and then you had this remarkable moment in the middle of his speech Donald Trump talked about LGBTQ Americans and the crowd applauded, and he sort of dropped out of character for a moment and sort of sincerely said how happy it made him to hear the crowd applaud that.
And it sort of stood in contrast with some of the speakers earlier. You know, Tony Perkins who sort of personally fought for conversion therapy to be in the platform to then have Donald Trump stand on stage and do that was quite remarkable.
HOWELL: Well, certainly a Republican candidate who is speaking for a different ideals than we've seen previous Republican candidates for president stand for on that platform.
Tal Kopan live for us. Tal, we appreciate your reporting today.
As we mentioned we are hearing strong criticism from Trump's acceptance speech. The Hillary for America chair John Podesta released this statement.
It reads, "Tonight Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline and his answer, more fear, more division, more anger, more hate, was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States. He offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe. Just more prejudice and more paranoia. America is better than this."
As for the Democrats, their presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton is set to introduce her running mate on Saturday and sources tell CNN U.S. Agriculture secretary say Tom Vilsack on the left there and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine on the right, they are the top contenders. Clinton is expected to reveal her choice in a text message to supporters late Friday then to appear with her VP pick on Saturday in Miami.
Now we move on to Brazil. Police there arrested 10 people suspected of planning terror attacks during next month's Rio Olympics. According to Brazil's Justice minister the suspects are all Brazilian nationals and were all inspired by ISIS.
Our Shasta Darlington has more from Rio de Janeiro.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The summer games in Rio de Janeiro just two weeks away. Now police have arrested 10 people suspected of planning terror attacks during the Olympics. The Justice minister says the group pledged allegiance to ISIS but had no direct contact with operators, calling them loosely organized and amateur.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through Translator): Today has resulted in the first suspected plan of a terrorist attack in Brazil. Ten individuals were arrested and it is very important to point out that they went from making simple comments about the Islamic State to engaging in preparatory acts.
DARLINGTON: All Brazilian citizens they used Internet messaging group such as WhatsApp and Telegram to communicate but never personally met.
(On camera): When the group started talking about planning their own attack, that's when the cops moved in. One individual was trying to buy an AK-47 from an arms dealer in Paraguay, another talked about target practice, about getting training in martial arts, but they didn't mention a specific target.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems that Brazilian authorities are very keen to nip this in the bud before it got anywhere else. But in terms of an actual plot I don't know that I've seen much evidence of something very sophisticated yet.
DARLINGTON (voice-over): After the attack in Nice, Brazil stepped up security around the Olympic venues, widening perimeters and adding checkpoints. 85,000 police, soldiers, firefighters and traffic cops deploying in Rio to secure South America's first Olympic Games. More than double the security detail in London.
[01:10:10] Brazil has insisted he has no history of terrorism and no homegrown terror networks but these latest arrests have rattled residents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (Through Translator): Even though there has been this threat for many years and no attack has taken place I think now it could happen.
DARLINGTON: And officials say they are leaving nothing to chance.
Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOWELL: Shasta, thank you.
Now staying with the Rio Olympics, Russia's track and field team remains banned from the games after losing an appeal on Thursday. The ban follows allegations that Russia ran a state-sponsored doping program and there are now calls for Russia to be thrown out of the games entirely.
For more on this story, Clare Sebastian joins us now live from Moscow this hour.
Clare, it's good to have you. So Russia reacting angrily to all of this.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, George. The argument here is that that idea of collective responsibility, that all of their athletic teams should be banned, is not acceptable. They say that their athletes have kept up their end of the bargain. They are clean. They have been supervised by international doping authorities for the past six months. We heard that argument from the Kremlin, we heard it from the Russian Olympic Committee, we heard it from the Sports Ministry. And I think that gives you a sense of just how acutely this is being felt here in a country that considers itself an Olympic superpower. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): For the stars of Russian athletics now likely to miss the Olympics in Rio, it was a day of anger and dashed hopes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Court of Arbitration for Sports has dismissed the request filed by the Russian Olympic Committee and 68 Russian athletes.
SEBASTIAN: And none more so perhaps than two-time Olympic pole vaulting champion Yelena Isinbayeva, who represented the Russian athletes at the court in Switzerland.
In an Instagram post she said, "Let these pseudo clean foreign sportsmen breathe a sigh of relief and win their pseudo gold medals in our absence."
110 meter hurdler Sergei Shubenkov also posted this photo with a sarcastic caption in both Russian and English. "What a shame," he said. "Well done, congrats, enjoy clean sport."
(On camera): The Kremlin came out almost immediately in defense of its athletes saying they had nothing to do with doping and expressing, quote, "deep regret about the ruling." They also said they were asking the relevant agencies here in Russia to take a closer look at the decision.
(Voice-over): It was a slightly less measured response from the Sports minister Vitaly Mutko. "Disband the IAAF," he tweeted furiously, at a news conference later still not backing down. VITALY MUTKO, RUSSIAN SPORTS MINISTER (Through Translator): I think
it is time to even appeal to a civil court because it's just a violation of their human rights.
SEBASTIAN: Irina Rodnina, a three-time Olympic figure skating champion and now a member of parliament, agreed.
IRINA RODNINA, RUSSIAN LAWMAKER (Through Translator): Here for some reason they're punishing these guys who are not involved in anything. They're not politicians. They have clean doping tests. They are very good sportsmen judging by their results. Or it's altogether. It's like just because you're Russians, we're punishing you all together. That's, I'm sorry to say, a type of genocide.
SEBASTIAN: Russia's Olympic Committee, which just one day earlier had announced a 387-member Olympic team which included the banned athletes, said the decision set a dangerous precedent and it would fight for the rights of its clean athletes to the end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SEBASTIAN: So, George, the ball is now in the International Olympic Committee's court. They are set to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday. We know that they have been considering a blanket ban across the entire Russian Olympic team. Not just track and field. So that will be very closely watched here in Russia.
HOWELL: If that indeed happens it would send a very strong message. We'll have to see how this plays out.
Clare Sebastian live for us, thank you so much.
Now in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt in Turkey last week, the EU says parts of the crackdown that followed are unacceptable. CNN asked the spokesman for Turkey's president why the government needs a state of emergency. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:16:48] HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.
In Turkey and the aftermath of last week's failed coup attempt the European Union says the crackdown that followed is unacceptable. The EU is calling on Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to respect the rule of law, human rights and freedom of expression. On Thursday the country's parliament approved a three-month state of emergency.
Earlier our international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, sat down with the Turkish president's spokesman. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The president has announced a state of emergency. What powers does that give you that you don't have now and what do you need them for? IBRAHIM KALIN, SPOKESMAN FOR TURKISH PRESIDENT: Well, the emergency
was announced primarily to deal with this terrorist threat and to make sure that such coup attempts do not happen again. So now according to certain part of the Turkish law, you need some extra powers, like the state of the law of emergency to bring those people to justice and to make sure that, you know, they do not misuse the legal system and the state institutions to their advantage.
ROBERTSON: So what exactly does that mean, "putting them to justice"?
KALIN: Primarily, of course, you know, putting them on trial for treason because they violated the constitution. They attempted a coup. They actually were involved in the coup attempt and they killed people.
ROBERTSON: But is none of this possible as things stand right now?
KALIN: Some of it is possible. But there will be some additional clause and legislation that will allow the government to pursue these people within the state institutions. For example, according to the current law -- legislation, if you are put on trial, you can appeal and maybe come back, you know, from an appeals court as a regular civil servant.
And now that will prevent -- that is really the primary goal of this, so that those people who have been involved in this coup attempt and who killed people, murdered people basically on the streets, will be put on trial without any chance to coming back to the state focus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Erdogan's spokesperson there. And joining now to talk more about this is CNN.com contributor Frida Ghitis. Also a world affairs columnist for the "Miami Herald" and "World Politics Review."
Frida, it's good to have you with us. So we just heard the spokesperson talking about extra powers, more powers if for Turkish president. But you even wrote here a comparison to his vision for Turkey, perhaps what we see in Russia with Vladimir Putin.
FRIDA GHITIS, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the president -- President Erdogan has been a very divisive figure in Turkey. And the optimists thought that after this coup perhaps he would change his tone a bit, that he would use the opportunity to try to reunify the country, to lessen some of the practices that have polarized the country so much. And what we have seen since the coup is quite the opposite. He has only accelerated, intensified his moves to increase his power, to move towards a total autocracy with him at the helm.
HOWELL: So let's talk first of all about the people that have been rounded up when it comes to the legal system, the judges.
[01:20:03] GHITIS: Yes, in the first -- the first day after the coup on Saturday, the government that is directed by Erdogan immediately dismissed more than 2700 judges. Immediately. And it's very curious that these lists already existed. The assault on the judiciary system is very, very troubling. It's crucial for Turkish democracy that the rule of law prevail and if the judges are not independent then rule of law just doesn't really have any meaning. And you know, the firings and detentions have just continued to grow. They have expanded.
We are up to by some counts more than 60,000 people who have been purged from a variety of positions within Turkey, within the government, and the educational system and ministries and the bureaucracy. So this is really quite extensive and it's definitely a source of concern.
HOWELL: So you talk about the judicial system. Let's also talk about education. President Erdogan obviously wanted the United States to extradite a cleric who is presently in Pennsylvania. Has been involved in education as well. But Erdogan now taking a very hands-on approach when it comes to the education system there in Turkey.
GHITIS: Yes, all of this is not new. Erdogan has been trying to undo some of the separation between religion and state that was supposed --
HOWELL: Because --
GHITIS: That was a very vital part of the secular state that was established after World War I by the founder of the country, Kemal Ataturk. So he has been trying to move away from that. Over time he's been trying to introduce more religious education, and things that were really not permitted before. And now with this coup, he has found an opening to intensify this campaign. That's why it looks like the coup has become a pretext for him, to pursue his policies that existed before the coup ever started.
HOWELL: What about these critics who say that this seems to almost been orchestrated by the Turkish president.
GHITIS: Well, I don't see any evidence that this is what some people in Turkey called coup theater.
HOWELL: Right.
GHITIS: And by the way, one of the people who says that is Fethullah Gulen, the cleric who lives in Pennsylvania that Erdogan accuses of having orchestrated the coup. He denies it. I -- as I was saying, I don't see evidence that this was orchestrated by Erdogan. But it is very curious that he had already the lists of people, so many people, to fire, so soon after the coup. I think he was expecting to take these moves regardless of the coup at some point, perhaps at a slower pace.
HOWELL: I want to talk about the people that we saw on the streets there, these people who when the president said we want people to go to the streets, they did. But when we talk about the support for the Turkish president, is it support for the Turkish president or is it a support for democracy?
GHITIS: It's -- that's a really important question. The president has some very passionate supporters but the country is very divided and the last parliamentary elections had to be run twice because they weren't able to put together a majority. There are people who feel very strongly against the president because he has been accumulating power the way he has but many people oppose the coup of the opposition parties very openly and vehemently oppose the coup because they said they want democracy. And what they said is the worst -- democracy is worse -- is better than the best coup.
So people are opposed to a coup. They want democracy. And now what they're facing is trying to salvage a democracy from a man who seems determined to accumulate as much power as he can.
HOWELL: And you write all of that in the CNN.com article. Again, contributor Frida Ghitis, thank you so much for your insight.
GHITIS: Thank you.
HOWELL: Now on to Iraq. In the pitch-dark of night on rough terrain in north of Mosul, men, women, and children desperate to escape, they make a break for freedom. For them the misery and murder of life under ISIS has become so intolerable that fleeing is their only option.
CNN's Ben Wedeman has this exclusive report for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They emerged from the darkness, some unable to walk, others completely exhausted. These people are fleeing ISIS rule, reaching Kurdish lines northeast of Mosul.
Night after night, they risk minefields, snipers and mortar fire. Risks worth taking, they say, to escape a reign of terror.
"They kill you if you don't fast," recounts this man. "They kill you if you don't pray. No prisons, no fines. The only punishment they have is to kill, kill and kill."
[01:25:03] Many of these people are Shabbat, a religious and ethnic minority that has felt much of the brunt of ISIS' draconian rule.
These Kurdish positions are just 16 kilometers or 10 miles from Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and under ISIS control since June 2014. The lights in the distance are Mosul.
Wary of ISIS infiltrators, soldiers order all adult men to remove their shirts and get down on their knees while others search the few belongings they could carry to confirm it, this soldier says, their identity and determine if they are with ISIS or not.
For children, the experience is terrifying and traumatic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's depressing. I mean --
WEDEMAN: John is a volunteer medic from the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kids were dehydrated, they were exhausted. You could tell they traveled for a very long time. It's very, very stressful on children, those kinds of situations. So you could tell it really took a toll on them.
WEDEMAN: Iraqi government and Kurdish forces, backed by coalition aircraft and troops, are preparing for an offensive to retake Mosul. When that happens, hundreds of thousands more are expected to flee the fighting.
At a nearby base, the children sleep while their parents recount what they left behind.
"Our life was very hard," says this woman. "There's no work, there's nothing to buy. It was really bad."
From the base, they will be moved to camps further away from the front lines. They've escaped the darkness of ISIS rule to a limbo of life as refugees.
Ben Wedeman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, the head of FOX News in the United States resigns his post. Just ahead we'll see why he left and who is running the network now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:00] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following this hour.
(HEADLINES)
HOWELL: In the United States, Roger Ailes, one of the most powerful leaders in American media, he has resigned from FOX News amid sexual harassment allegations. His departure is effective immediately. Rupert Murdoch is now the chairman and acting CEO. It comes after two weeks after former host, Gretchen Carlson, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him. Other women have come forward including Megyn Kelly. Ailes has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing but Murdoch and his sons, who jointly run FOX's parent company, pressured Ailes to resign.
Let's bring in Matthew Belloni, the executive editor at the "Hollywood Reporter."
Matt, good to have you.
This is a big change at the head of FOX News. Ailes really created the DNA there of that conservative network.
MATTHEW BELLONI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Absolutely. This is the most significant change in American media in at least a decade. This is a man who created a genre of media and the number one capable network among the news outlets. It is a huge change. HOWELL: With that change is there concern that the network will
continue as it has for so long now? A very lucrative network. The messaging, you know, the way the network is structured, it really has been run by Ailes.
BELLONI: Right. FOX News was conceived by Roger Ailes and run for two decades by Roger Ailes. It was a manifestation of everything that Roger Ailes believes in. The question is what is FOX News after Roger Ailes and I think the fact that Rupert Murdoch who is in his mid-80s is going to oversee FOX News in the interim is an admission they don't have anyone in the wings who can replicate what Roger Ailes has been doing there. It's also a messaging to the viewers and to the people who work at FOX News that at least in the short term, FOX News is going to continue with the kind of media it has been putting out for two decades which is conservative leaning and very -- a very kind of specific kind of media in America that doesn't exist elsewhere.
HOWELL: This change at the top of FOX News that is something that Murdoch's sons have wanted to see. Help our viewers to understand the rivalry, I would say, between Ailes and Murdoch's sons.
BELLONI: It is interesting. Rupert Murdoch has a very close relationship with Roger Ailes and has for many years. But Rupert transferred power to his two sons. They not only do share their father's political views. They haven't had a very good relationship over the years with Roger Ailes. In fact, a conflict between Lochlan left the company for a short time. This was a matter of time. When the sexual harassment allegations came out and the lawsuit became public and embarrassing for the company it was time for the James and Lochlan to sit down and say we have an opportunity here to move this guy out and put our stamp on the company and that's what they did.
HOWELL: Matthew Belloni, thank you so much for being with us, live in Los Angeles. We'll all have to see how this plays out. Thank you.
BELLONI: Thank you.
[01:34:48] HOWELL: Officials will meet in a few hours to discuss the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Why Australia says the search is delayed. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOWELL: Welcome back. The murder of a social media star by her own brother in Pakistan last week has highlighted the issue of honor killings in that country. There have been more than 200 reported cases in Pakistan this year alone but many go unreported.
CNN's Alexandra Field looks back at a few cases we have reported on in the last few months.
A warning, her report contains disturbing details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She wanted to stand up for women who had been treated badly and dominated by society. A few hours after posting that message, Qandeel Baloch was killed, drugged and strangled by her own brother, who confessed to the crime. The social media star with thousands of followers now another victim. She's among hundreds of other women killed in Pakistan every year in the name of honor, murders rarely met with justice.
18-year-old Zeenek Rafique (ph) married against her family's wishes. Her mother and brother confessed to killing her, tying her to a bed, dousing her with gasoline, setting her on fire.
This woman helped a friend elope. A council decided she should die. The 15 year old burned, tied to the backseat of a van, strangled with ropes. More than a dozen people and her mom are under arrest.
(on camera): In Pakistan, the law allows families of victims to grant clemency to killers who are often also relatives in exchange for blood money setting suspects, even confessed killers, free.
Officials have promised reform. Pakistan's prime minister saying, in one case, "Such a barbaric act is not only un-Islamic but inhuman and just plain murder."
But critics say there has been a lack of action. They say deaths are also being underreported concealed as disappearances or suicides.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A majority of the cases, they are not brought to life. And it is settled within that community. It is settled within that jurisdiction. Pakistan penal code is not active on any issue. Most of the people who got killed it's settled between the family and in the village.
FIELD (voice-over): Investigators decide this 18-year-old supposedly killed herself, claims her family can't believe. They say a group of assailants stormed into the family home after she insulted the father of a man that was courting her.
"They beat her up. They dragged her around naked it and put petrol in her vagina and then set her on fire. The police officers offered her money on behalf of the other party but we don't want it. We want justice."
(SHOUTING)
FIELD: In a rare move, police are investigating Baloch's death as a crime against the state. That could give the court could have the power to overrule a desire to pardon the brother, who confessed to killing his sister, the woman who wanted to stand up for other women.
Alexandra Field, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:40:34] HOWELL: Government ministers from Malaysia, Australia, and China, will meet in a few hours in Kuala Lumpur. They're expected to discuss what will happen next in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Relatives of victims on that flight want officials to do more. Australia says poor weather is delaying the search in the Indian Ocean for MH370.
CNN Matt Rivers is joining us live from Beijing.
Matt, good to have you this hour.
What is the very latest on the search and the questions about whether it will even continue?
MATT RIVERS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, the search is going to continue in the near term. There's that 120,000 square kilometer search area that was identified as the most likely area this plane would be found. That is still being searched, 110,000 kilometers have been searched. Until that is searched this search operation will continue.
But there have been major, major delays so far. Six to eight weeks behind schedule at this point. It was in the last couple days that officials said that the search could go on into the winter months because of the bad weather conditions in the area. So the search will continue until the area is searched.
But after that, what authorities have said is that unless credible information is found that could point investigators to the location of the plane, the search will end once this designated area has been thoroughly vetted -- George?
HOWELL: That's the thing that many of these families are, you know -- it's difficult news for them to hear. Just talk to us about the impact of all of this on those families.
RIVERS: Absolutely. Well the families came out and spoke in Kuala Lumpur yesterday local time after meeting with investigators who gave them an update on the search. The families want this to continue. You can't blame them for that, I suppose. They want some kind of closure is what you hear over and over again. And they are wondering if this is just an issue of money if the three governments involved in the search, China, Malaysia and Australia, are just unwilling to continue the search for financial reasons. If that is the case, the families say, that is unacceptable. They have consistently petitioned the governments to continue the search. But the word is that unless that piece of evidence is found, they will not continue this search once that area has been combed through.
HOWELL: One can only imagine how those families are, you know, taking that, the fact that, yeah, after a certain point the search will likely stop.
Matt Rivers, thank you for your reporting.
This is CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for being with us.
I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour.
But first, "World Sport" starts right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:45:38] KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Welcome along to "World Sport." I'm Kate Riley.
With just a little over two weeks until the start of the Rio Olympics, we're starting with the latest in the Russian doping crisis. Nearly 70 of the track and field athletes learned their appeal to have a ban lifted was denied. Most likely that dashes any hopes of competing in Rio. Will that ban extend to all of Russia's Olympic hopefuls?
CNN's Claire Sebastian has the story from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLAIRE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the stars of Russian athletics likely to miss the Olympics in Rio it was a day of anger and dashed hopes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court of public arbitration for sports has dismissed the request filed by the Russian Olympic compete and 68 Russian athletes.
SEBASTIAN: And none more so than this pole vaulting champion who represented the athletes at the court in Switzerland. In an Instagram post she said, "Let these pseudo-clean foreign sportsman breathe a sigh of relief and win their pseudo-gold medals in our absence." The 110-meter hurdler also posted this photo with a sarcastic caption in Russian and English. "What a shame," he said, "well done, congrats. Enjoy clean sport."
(on camera): The Kremlin came out in defense of its athletes, saying they had nothing to do with doping, and expressing, quote, "deep regret" about the ruling and asking the agencies in Russia to take a closer look at the decision.
(voice-over): It was a less measured response from the sports minister, Vitaly Mutko. "Disband the IAAF," he tweeted furiously at a news conference, still not backing down at a news conference later.
VITALY MUTKO, RUSSIAN SPORTS MINISTER (through translation): I think it's time to even appeal to a civil court because it's just a violation of their human rights.
SEBASTIAN: A three-time Olympic figure skating champion and now a member of parliament, Evgeny Pluschenko, agreed.
EVGENY PLUSCHENKO, MEMBER OF RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT & FORMER OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATER (through translation): Here for some reason they are punishing the guys who are not involved in anything. They are not politicians and have clean doping tests. They are very good sportsman or it's altogether. Just because you are Russians we are punishing you altogether. That is, I'm sorry, to say, a type of genocide.
SEBASTIAN: Russia's Olympic Committee, which just one day earlier announced a 387-member Olympic team, which included the banned athletes, said that the decision set a dangerous precedent and it would fight for the rights of its clean athletes to the end.
Claire Sebastian, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RILEY: So what's been the reaction to the decision?
Christine Brennan spoke to me earlier on and said that today's decision is the right one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN ANALYST: This message is loud and clear. It's like the Supreme Court and it has said that the Russian athletes should not be allowed at the Olympic Games plain and simple and that cheating is overwhelming and we cannot trust that these track and field athletes are clean and if they go to the Olympics it will be a tainted competition. That's what the court of arbitration for sports says. It goes to the IOC and if they bow to the pressure of Putin and Russia or if they say, hey, got to kick them out, that clearly at every step of this process, it had been found that these 68 athletes are being told they cannot be at the Olympics. One stage to the next to the next, and they keep being ruled out because of this incredible history of doping by the Russian Track and Field Federation.
RILEY: Sunday is a massive day. What do you expect from the IOC in a few days' time?
BRENNAN: This is the test of a lifetime for the IOC president, Thomas Bach. He is new in his presidency of the sports organization. And he has got the biggest decision that anyone could possibly have to make. I would hope that they could kick all of the Russian athletes out unless they can prove they have been clean using Western testing. There are two track and field athletes who have been proven that they are OK and can compete in Rio under a neutral flag. I would hope Thomas Bach would kick them all out.
But what will Thomas Bach do? This is Russia and Vladimir Putin. Two and a half years ago, he spent $51 billion to put the games in the middle of nowhere, Sochi, Russia. That is not lost on any IOC member. And to be honest with you I would be shocked if Bach defies Putin. But we shouldn't be surprised. It's Putin and Bach, the oldest of the old boys' network in Europe. We'll see how it turns out. I have to believe that Bach is going to allow these athletes in to Rio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:51:03] RILEY: Our thanks to Christine Brennan there.
Meanwhile a major development on Thursday as Brazilian police arrested 10 terrorism suspects who were said to be planning attacks during the Olympics. They pledged allegiance to ISIS but had no direct contact with the group. He also said no specific targets were mentioned and said that the suspects were not part of any organized cell.
Coming up, we've got big news from football next. Spain has appointed its next coach, while the England FAA is close to doing the same. It's not much of a surprise, though. Details on the way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RILEY: We're back with major news out of the NBA as the league pulled the 2017 all-star game out of Charlotte, North Carolina because of the state's controversial anti-LGBT law passed in March mandating trangender people use public bathrooms corresponding with their gender on their birth certificate. No alternative venue has been announced.
Some football news to bring you now. There is a pattern emerging this week, new managers. On Thursday, Spain announced their new coach, the former Porto boss is the new man at the help and replaced the last manager after Spain crashed out of the Euros. Spain are in group G. They will face Italy once again. Who is he? He's a former goal keep whoever played in la Liga and at the age of 49 he has managed national youth teams in Spain. They were winners of the European under 19 and under 21 championships. When he was the Porto boss he made it to the quarters in his first season before being sacked in January.
[01:55:08] In London, we were expecting Sam Allardyce to be named the New England boss on Thursday. That announcement has been delayed. Employees of Sunderland are seeking compensation from the football association and the issue is yet to be resolved. Big Sam helped Sunderland avoid relegation in the English Premier League last season.
Chris Froome looks unstoppable for his third Tour de France title. Thursday was short stage 18, 17 kilometers but it was an uphill time trial. The reigning champion started off slowly but overcame the leader who won his first time trial last week and the Brit finished first by 21 seconds. Froome won the Tour de France in 2013 and again last year. And the team Skyrider has tightened his grip on the tour increasing his lead. Let's look at the standings with three stages to go. The final stage taking place on Sunday in Paris. One surprise name is Adam Yates. He is in third.
Friday brings stage 19. This is happening with the gorgeous backdrop of Mont Blanc. A short stage. That said, it will be far from easy, the riders have four very steep climbs to overcome.
You never want to be accused of -- try to avoid that. You have to feel sorry what happened to the Minnesota United goalkeeper against Bournemouth. This is the mother of own goals. The poor keeper clearly was mortified. So he's got a bit of time to hone his skills. Bournemouth plays Manchester United on the opening weekend of the new season. Poor lad.
That's it for me. I'm Kate Riley. Thank you so much for joining us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:00:09] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
