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Stabbing Attack in Japan; German Suicide Bomber Pledged Allegiance to ISIS; Sanders Makes Appeal to Supporters: Support Clinton; DNC Hack; DNC Says Russia Hacked E-mails to Help Donald Trump; Turkey Targets Journalists, Academia, Activists in Crackdown; Problems Remain in Rio Ahead of Olympics; Heavy Rains, Flooding in Northern China; Prince Harry's Regret on Mother's Death. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 26, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:11] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour --

(HEADLINES)

VAUSE: Hello. Thanks for joining us. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.

A stabbing attack at a facility for the disabled is now one of Japan's worst mass killings since World War II. At least 19 people are dead. 26 others have been hurt. And the attack allegedly carried out by a former employee at the center west of Tokyo.

Anna Fifield is the Tokyo bureau chief for "The Washington Post. She is in Japan and joins us on the live.

Anna, so, explain to us, do we know what the motive was here? What do we know about the attacker and the fact that he turned himself into police an hour or so after the attack?

ANN FIFIELD, TOYKO BUREAU CHIEF, THE WASHINGTON POST: Right. So details have emerged as the day has gone on here. We know the attacker was a 26-year-old man who lived very close by to where we are right now outside the facility. He apparently had worked at the facility until February this year when he was either sacked or he quit the job. We're not quite sure what happened. But this came up with some disturbing statements from him. He reportedly sent a message to the speaker of the parliament here, a rambling long letter, suggesting all disabled people should be euthanized. Then it was forwarded to the police here who investigated him and he was hospitalized for a short period after that time. As you said, after today, he turned himself in at the local police station, which is not that rare in Japan. But this man immediately drove himself to the police station, walked in with a bag containing knives, and he said, "I did it," and he explained it by saying that he wanted disabled people to disappear from the earth. VAUSE: He was essentially known to authorities a few weeks before this

attack was with carried out. Yet it seems that nothing was really done despite those threats.

FIFIELD: Yes. I think details are still quite sketchy at this case. Police and medical authorities thought -- when the attack took place, it was 2:30 in the morning. We heard the man broke into the facility using a hammer on to break the window. He was familiar with the facility, maybe where with the security guard would be, where the staff would have been at that time of night. So he probably knew the staffing, and the staff and the victims.

VAUSE: What more do we know about the victims, the people that were killed? Also about those who were wounded?

FIFIELD: Right. The facility had capacity for 150 people with a range of physical, mental and intellectual disabilities. It was residential and offered a kid day care kind of service. The victims were ten men and nine women and ranged in age from 19 years old up to 17. The details were still coming out. But it appears that most of them were at the upper end of that range, the 19-year-old.

VAUSE: Anna Fifield, the Tokyo bureau chief for "The Washington Post," bringing us the latest information about what has been awful attack at a center which cares for disabled people.

Thank you, Anna.

Southern Germany has been rocked by four attacks in just the last week. A train stabbing, a shooting, a suicide attempt and now a music festival. 15 people were injured when a Syrian national himself up. Only the bomber was killed. Police say they found bomb-making materials in his home and he left behind a video pledge allegiance to the ISIS leader.

Senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, joins us from Germany.

Fred, walk us through what more we know about the suicide bomber, in particular, his psychiatric history.

[02:05:14] FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, apparently, he had some psychological issues. The authorities are also saying, John, that apparently he also tried to kill himself, at least on two occasions. He apparently had some other run-ins with the police, as well, for drug crimes and petty crimes, as well. This is someone who was known to the police and someone who, by with all accounts, that we know was very close to being deported from Germany.

What happened was he came to Europe in 2013 from Syria. He was registered in Bulgaria. He was told you have to go back to Bulgaria. At some point, he got the final order of deportation. And apparently, he was going to get deported within the next couple of weeks or months from Germany. It's unclear whether that played any sort of role. But certainly at that point, he did what he did. This is the sort of wine cafe where he blew himself up. And you can see down on the ground here, if we just pan down, there is still a chalk here which shows the area where apparently his body was found. By all accounts, the explosion happened probably over there. But that apparently is where he set off the explosive device.

One of the things the authorities are saying is they're not sure whether that device functioned the way that it was supposed to. They believe not all the load may have detonated because they think otherwise the explosion could have been much worse than it actually was. They found at the scene metal parts, the screws, nails, other things, as well, which they say seems to show that he wanted to cause a lot more casualties than he managed to do. They also praise the people who did not let him into this music festival, the entrance, which is right here. They say he tried to get in there. And eventually blew himself up. But they say he could have caused a lot more damage if he would have managed to get into that music festival right over there -- John?

VAUSE: Wow. Fred, four attacks in a week. How is the German government responding, both politically and in security?

PLEITGEN: Yeah. The German government is under pressure. You can feel many people in Germany are concerned about the situation. They have that massive influx of refugees. About one million people came over here. Now they're seeing there seem to be some people who want to cause harm here to this country. And it is something that is putting Angela Merkel under pressure.

But the big debate is what to do next. The discussion you hear about all this in press, in politics, it's one that is very responsible. It's very subdued. It's very matter of fact. We can't get carried away and we can't turn on the refugees that come here. Site would be led in a personal way. To talk about more powers for law enforcement personnel and also this is probably very important, they're also saying they need to do a better job of actually registering you all the team who have already come here because they are still very much lagging behind in that, lagging behind in the capacity to do that, as well. They say they need to get everybody registered, where exactly these people came from and then, of course, they also need to be able to deal with threats like this.

But one thing that authorities have also said is they've said whatever they do, they understand that there is never going to be 100 percent security even if they put in more tough measures. But, of course, they do want to do everything they can to protect the population here.

VAUSE: Fred, thank you. Fred Pleitgen, from the scene of that suicide bombing, with the latest details.

Well, Bryan Dean Wright is a former CIA agent and he joins us from Portland, Oregon.

Bryan, we were just listening to Fred Pleitgen, our senior correspondent, there in Germany saying that the response from the German government right now, more powers for law enforcement, presumably that would be better surveillance. Also a better job of registering refugees, an acknowledgement that you'll never be 100 percent safe. But will these measures, which you're outlining right now, how will that improve the situation in Germany?

BRYAN DEAN WRIGHT, FORMER CIA AGENT: I think it's very modestly speaking, I think the other piece that is critical is the degree to which you assimilate these individuals. There are 4.3 Muslims in Germany. We've had these million-plus influx. Not knowing who those individuals are and what they think and if, in fact, they share German values, that's going to be critically important trying on to ensure that these folks, you know, take part in it or are, indeed, Germanic in all ways. And I think that that's going to be an incredibly difficult thing for the German public to do, embrace, and, in fact, the government.

[02:10:10] VAUSE: That seems to be the long-term solution, I guess, is obviously to have them as part of the community as opposed to being, you know, separate to the rest of society. But one of the issues, though, is that Germany has been hit by a massive terror attack like we've seen in France and in Belgium. But, you know, despite what they're going to do here, do you think that maybe that kind of big terror attack is still on the cards?

DEAN WRIGHT: I would go so far as to say it's inevitable. If you look at the numbers, it's about 1.1, 1.3 million individuals coming in. They weren't screen or vetted. But 1 percent end up being criminals or terrorists. That's 10,000 individuals. So German intelligence and police, you can plus-up those numbers, try to register more folks, but the fact the matter is a lot of those individuals are there and they are going to do harm. So you have to do as much as you can to try to prevent some horrific things from happening. But there's no question, you're not going to stop it 100 percent of the time. We haven't been able to do that in the United States. The Germans are very, very good, very capable. They're not going to be able to stop each and every one of those attacks.

VAUSE: The German government, very calm, very reasonable about what is happening, also making the point that the risk of a terror attack from someone within the refugee population is no greater than a terror attack coming from someone within the general population. Is that accurate?

DEAN WRIGHT: The data does support that. But, again, I would emphasize, that doesn't go very far when you're trying to show and provide empathy to the family, for instance. The pregnant woman who was killed, she was killed and others are going to continue to be killed because there was a failed immigration policy allowing refugees to come to Germany, which certainly was a beautiful thing for the German people and the chancellor to offer, but the fact that they weren't vetted at all is a profound problem that the German government and the German people are going to have to deal with for many, many years to come. And I can't imagine a quick and easy answer. I think there's going to be more bloodshed coming forward.

VAUSE: You talk about vetting. The German government is talking about registering these refugees. How do you register somebody who has no documentation westbound?

DEAN WRIGHT: That is exactly the point that was made many months ago to the German government. And is that was raised. You vet these people in Syria or in Turkey, vet them there first and then bring them in. That wasn't done and you're now seeing the results of that. So you're absolutely right, trying to use biometrics will be important. Those kinds of options and opportunities might be there working in collaboration and cooperation with U.S. law enforcement and intelligence to try to figure out who these folks are. But you're not going to get 100 percent in terms of validation and vetting. You're going to continue to have people slip through the cracks.

VAUSE: Bryan, thank you. Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA agent in Portland, Oregon. Appreciate it. Thank you.

DEAN WRIGHT: You bet.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back here on NEWSROOM, L.A., Bernie Sanders making an emotional appeal to get his supporters to get behind Hillary Clinton. We'll take you live to the Democratic convention.

Plus, even more Russian athletes are being forced to stay home during the Olympic Games.

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(RIO REPORT)

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[02:17:31] VAUSE: The raucous first night of the Democratic convention wrapped up a few hours ago. Thousands of delegates are in Philadelphia to nominate Hillary Clinton as their candidate for president. The official theme of the night, "United Together." But there have been deep divisions on display all day long.

Let's bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly, live from the convention center in Philadelphia where it's, what, almost 17 minutes past 2:00 in the morning?

Phil, one of the most important speeches of the night came from Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders. It was right at the end when he gave that full-throated endorsement of Secretary Clinton. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I), VERMONT & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care.

(CHEERING)

SANDERS: I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a fierce advocate for the rights of children. Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It was 14 minutes in his speech before he mentioned the Clinton word. There were boos from the floor throughout the night, not just when Bernie Sanders was speaking but when Senator Elizabeth Warren was as well. So given what Bernie has done tonight, is that going to be enough to get his supporters on board for Hillary Clinton?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, John, there will be a certain segment of Bernie Sanders supporters who will never get behind Hillary Clinton. If you want to know where they were, you can listen on the convention floor. There were pockets of them. However, the goal of Bernie Sanders' speech today and the close coordination between the Bernie Sanders campaign team and the Hillary Clinton campaign team is to shrink that group of holdouts. And they believe Bernie Sanders' speech tonight in Philadelphia was a very pig part of bringing them closer to that end game.

VAUSE: Yeah. This is the way the convention is meant to work, when the guy you beat gets up and gives you an endorsement. If different from happened at the Republican convention last week with Ted Cruz, who took the stage and didn't endorse Donald Trump.

[02:19:56] MATTINGLY: Ted Cruz said vote your conscious and that's a loaded term during this campaign season. That is essentially saying don't vote for the guy who is going to be the nominee. Bernie Sanders stayed very far away from that today. That was a very moment. Had he not gone there, this whole convention might have spun out of control.

But it's worth noting, the Clinton campaign and the Sanders team have been working very closely the last couple of weeks. The Clinton team was able to see Sanders' speech before it happened. They were working closely on the party platform. So their willingness to get together behind closed doors and work on this made very clear that they want to get to the point where Sanders supporters want to avoid what they saw in Cleveland last week and based on the platform negotiations, they're closer to that than Ted Cruz supporters ever were.

VAUSE: Clinton's Republican rival, Donald Trump, tweeted up a storm tonight. Earlier, he talked about Bernie Sanders and he seems to think that he has a pretty good shot of winning over at least some of those Bernie supporters, especially on the issue of trade. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I think his people are going to probably throw Bernie overboard. And I think they're probably going to choose somebody else, pick somebody else. But, you know, they want help. And I'll bet you a lot of their people come to us, seriously. And we'll take them, we'll take them

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Seriously? That going to happen? MATTINGLY: There's limited evidence, at least if you look at the

polling, that a large number of Sanders supporters will be heading over to Trump. Maybe working class white's in places like Pennsylvania or Ohio or Michigan. That could be a small group he'll tap into.

The interesting element is Donald Trump thinks that he can throw Bernie Sanders overboard. You talk to Sanders supporters, they are dedicated to the man, not just the movement. So Donald Trump, who has been attacking Sanders over the course of the last 48 hours, not helping his cause there. If you talk to Republican officials, what they really want to happen is have Sanders voters not come out. They don't expect them to come to Trump. They just don't want them to go to Hillary. Donald Trump, on the other hand, just kind of doing what Donald Trump does, going his own way a little bit, you could say -- John?

VAUSE: Indeed, he's doing what he does.

But the real star of the night, the one who is making front page news, is First Lady Michelle Obama. It was a great speech. Listen to some of it here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't let anyone ever tell you that this country isn't great --

(CHEERING)

OBAMA: -- that somehow we need to make it great again, because this right now is the greatest country on earth.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: For a woman who doesn't like giving speeches, she gave a good speech. There's been a lot of praise. My favorite line, Oprah Winfrey tweeted, "When they go low, we go high."

So how important is this speech for Michelle Obama, someone who remembers vividly the animosity of the 2008 campaign between her husband and Hillary Clinton?

MATTINGLY: It's well known there's no love loss between specifically Michelle Obama and the Clinton family after the 2008 primary. And it's also worth noting, John, back in 2008, Barack Obama's aides more or less had to yank Michelle Obama on to the campaign trail. She didn't the like doing something like this. There's a couple of key elements here. But first and foremost, before Michelle Obama spoke tonight here in Philadelphia, things weren't going that great for the convention. There was booing and it could have tipped either way at one point. That all stopped during Michelle Obama's speech. You talk to a lot of Democrats, both Sanders and Clinton supporters, John, and they believe firmly this was a tipping point for this convention. That up to this point, it hadn't been going in a good direction. More broadly, you saw Michelle Obama lay out in a coherent tightly clipped speech was an argument you'll see from the Clinton campaign repeatedly in the months ahead. Michelle Obama put it kind of in the lens of her children. That's what the Clinton campaign wants to go for. I think you'll see that repeatedly in the days and weeks ahead.

VAUSE: Very quickly, I want to get to this last point. Anyone talking about the hack of the DNC and the e-mails and Debbie Wasserman Schultz?

MATTINGLY: 18 hours ago, seems so long ago at this point. According to Michelle Obama, that's why that was so important. Really, that's not -- I pointed to Michelle Obama. It started to lower the temperature a little bit, maybe move it on. But no question about it, there's still Bernie Sanders supporters, and members of Bernie Sanders' team, who are still very unhappy about that. It's not going away, but it's certainly not dominating like it was a few hours ago.

VAUSE: OK. Phil Mattingly, pulling late-night duty in Philly. Thanks for staying up. Much appreciated.

Fingers are now being pointed at the Russians being involved in that hack of the DNC. But the Russian foreign minister is dismissing those claims that his country was responsible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

SERGEI LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, I don't want to use volatile words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:25:15] VAUSE: The FBI is now investigating.

Here's chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. officials believe the hack of DNC e-mails bear the hallmarks of Russian cyber activity. The FBI is now investigating. But experts on Russian cyber attacks say the timing of the release, on the eve of the Democratic Party convention, points to a possible attempt to influence the U.S. election.

JIM LEWIS, CYBER EXPERT, CNS: They've certainly used hacking in the past to get political results. It's their modus operandi. They use hacking to shape opinion to get political results. So it fits with what they've done in the past.

SCIUTTO: Hillary Clinton's campaign manager took the allegation a step further saying the release was intended to help her rival, Republican candidate Donald Trump.

ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY FOR AMERICAN CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I don't think it's coincidental that these e-mails convention here and that's disturbing.

SCIUTTO: The cyber security firm Crowd Strike, which analyzed the attack, found digital fingerprints pointing to Russia, including time stamps matching Moscow's time zone and some coding in the Russian language.

Democratic Party officials and others have also pointed to Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort's past work for the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, as well as Donald Trump's own public expressions of support for Vladimir Putin.

TRUMP: I respect Putin. He's a strong leader.

SCIUTTO: Reported financial ties to Trump's businesses and Russian backers, and comments last week that he might not come to the aid of NATO allies under attack if elected president.

Donald Trump's son dismissed the alleged ties outright.

DONALD TRUMP JR, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: I mean, I can't think of bigger lies but that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do.

SCIUTTO: Russia has accused the U.S. of political tampering of its own. Moscow believes the U.S. orchestrated the pro-democracy protests in Kiev in 2013, which deposed President Yanukovych in favor of a more pro-Western Poroshenko.

Some see potential Russian payback in the attack on the DNC.

LEWIS: They want to undermine our information hegemony and win the battle in the information space. This is just another part of that effort.

Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: We have breaking news now. A witness in Mogadishu telling CNN he has heard two large explosions near the airport. He says he can see black smoke and he can also hear heavy gunfire. We'll bring more details on this as soon as we get them.

In the meantime, a short break. When we come back, Turkey is taking more drastic action after a failed military coup. Now, rights groups are concerned that dozens of journalists are being targeted.

Also, we'll look at how the Olympics are transforming Rio de Janeiro.

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[02:31:23] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES) VAUSE: Turkey has issued arrest warrants for 42 journalists. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is targeting anyone it seems who he blames for the coup attempt earlier though month.

Jared Malsin is the Mideast chief for "Time" magazine. He joins us from Istanbul.

Jared, good to speak with you.

What is known right now about the treatment of those who have been detained in this crackdown by the government?

JARED MALSIN, MIDEAST BUREAU CHIEF, TIME MAGAZINE: We've had some reports servicing from the centers, more than 10,000 people have been detained in the round up crackdown that's taking place since the factions of the military teamed a military coup a little over a week ago. And CNN International reported yesterday they have credible evidence of torture, beatings, allegations of rape, people being held in communicado. These are mostly the majority are soldiers who allegedly participated in the coup attempt. But, obviously, a very serious situation for those who are still being held.

VAUSE: And including the journalists who have had a warrant issued for their detention, we're looking at, what, 60,000 people have been targeted in that crackdown. This is just the start of that state of emergency which has been issued by the government. Clearly, we're just at the beginning of all of this rather. A long way before it comes to an end.

MALSIN: That's right. And no one really knows where this is headed, but there's a great deal of anxiety here, as mentioned. The state of emergency declared last week and, you know, among the government's first actions under the state of emergency, which was can declared by the president, approved by parliaments was to extend the amount of time that detainees can be held. And since then, with we've had this arrest warrant issued according to Turkish media yesterday. Last week, respected journalist and human rights lawyer detained and later released. And so there are really signs that the crackdown this the very -- this is a government that is very understandably concerned about security after officers of the government's own military staging a serious insurrection in which more than 200 people died in this attempt to reassert control. It seems the circle is widening further and further from the people who directly participated in the coup. So a lot of concerns for journalists, academics and researchers activists.

[02:55:10] VAUSE: If we look at the situation with reporters right now, President Erdogan has never had a particularly warm relationship with the media in Turkey. Is this now seen as an attempt to basically bring an end to any kind of free and independent reporting inside Turkey?

MALSIN: Well, the representative of reporters without boarders yesterday called it a witch-hunt of journalists. And, yeah, I think if you talk to Turkish journalists, they'll tell you there are real -- for what remains of independent press. And it's really up to the government at this point what it decides to do at this moment. But when there is an actual state of emergency following a very serious national security threat and, obviously, for journalists and researchers, anyone who has been in the line of fire with the government in the past, it's a very worrying moment.

VAUSE: It's very difficult to be a journalist in Turkey at the moment, I would imagine.

Jared, we appreciate your reporting there. Jared Malsin, with "Time" magazine, their Mideast bureau chief in Istanbul.

Rio has transformed itself for the 2016 Olympics, now less than two weeks away. There are a number of improvements throughout the city, but there are still some pretty big problems.

Shasta Darlington takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Designed by renowned street artist, Cobra, using 3,000 spray cans and more than 200 gallons of paint, a massive graffiti mural is under way.

"There are a lot of problems in Brazil, inequality, politics, health services," he says. "But it's important to bring the Olympics here. It brings a legacy, it changes the city, improves it."

It started with a bang, wiping out a highway overpass along the port, a sketchy place to avoid at all hours, now transformed for the 2016 Olympic Games into with a cultural hub in the heart of Rio.

"The reforms have improved the city," she says. "But I'm not sure it was a top priority for society."

There's the eye-popping Museum of Tomorrow. And in place of cars, a new tram.

(on camera): The train was built to help get around downtown, but it's turned into a tourist attraction itself.

(voice-over): But the transformation has been over-shadowed by the collapse of a seaside bike lane meant to be part of the legacy, killing two people. And a new metro line, still unfinished, far over budget. Also concerns the suburbs were left out of the big Olympic plan.

The mayor insists it can't solve all the problems, but it is a different city now than it was years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has brought great change to Rio, if you compare Rio to Rio.

DARLINGTON: An hour's drive north to a working class suburb with few frills and fewer public spaces. But here, an empty lot has been turned into a park ahead of the game. Kids cool off in the shadow of the Olympics rings. During the games, they're going to turn it into a live sight with

giant screens.

For these boys at the skate park, it's been a game changer.

"Before, a lot of people just stayed at home," he says, "or got involved in things they shouldn't."

Now, they've got their own games going on.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And the governing world body of aquatics has banned seven Russian swimmers from Rio. An independent report found significant evidence Russia engaged in state-sponsored doping. Watch dog agencies called for Russia to be kicked out of the games entirely. But the International Olympic Committee said it would not want to issue a blanket ban.

Let's bring in Dave Wallechensky, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians.

Dave, good to have you with us.

Seven Russian swims have now been banned. The IOC basically left everything up to individual sports federations to decide who will compete and who won't compete. Will there be more athletes who will be kicked out of the game?

DAVE WALLECHENSKY, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF OLYMPIC HISTORIANS: Oh, most definitely. Even in swimming. What the swimming federation said was in addition to this, the last world championships were held in Russia. And so they're going to be testing every Russian athlete who was tested at those world championships. They'll be retested. So you could see more Russian swimmers gone. Each federation is doing its own testing.

[02:40:05] VAUSE: How about the logistics of that, though. There is such a time crunch to get this done. Can it be done in any substantial and meaningful way?

WALLECHENSKY: It's going to be -- I'll put it politely. An exciting few days ahead. Some of these findings are questionable.

VAUSE: They've asked for more detail, haven't they?

WALLECHENSKY: They did not do a lot of competition testing last year. So they just said, well, it's up to each -- we've always felt each country does their own testing. That doesn't really work right now.

VAUSE: And it's not just the Russians who are involved in massive doping. There are other countries involved, as well.

WALLECHENSKY: Definitely. Definitely the United States has one of the major sprinters, Justin Gatlin, who has served two doping suspensions. Yet he's a medal favorite against Usain Bolt.

VAUSE: Why did the IOC hand a lifeline to the Russians?

WALLECHENSKY: I think it's a combination, to give them the Benefit of the doubt, they didn't want to punish non-doping --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Like tennis?

WALLECHENSKY: Yeah, equestrian, archery. I think Russia is almost too big to fail. They're too powerful, too strong, too many friends, like that.

VAUSE: How much of a cloud now hangs over the Olympics?

WALLECHENSKY: I wouldn't go that far because there's still months ahead. I think after the Olympics are over, you could see an even bigger crackdown. They're going to continue investigating. There were hundreds of positive tests that the Russians covered up and changed to negative. And I think you're going to see more investigation.

VAUSE: Finally, apparently, we're overhearing President Putin will skip the opening ceremony. Is that a surprise?

WALLECHENSKY: No surprise. No Surprise. I don't think he would really want to be there.

VAUSE: Dave, good to see you. Thank you so much.

WALLECHENSKY: Thank you.

VAUSE: And a baby born in Spain is the first in Europe with Zika- related Microencephaly. Health officials say the mother contracted the virus after a trip to Latin America. The virus has spread to at least 65 countries and territories. And it's one of the major issues that they're dealing with in Brazil right now.

A break, but when we come back, it's been nearly 20 years since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and now her son, Prince Harry, opens up about his feelings and his regrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:46:01] VAUSE: Firefighters in California are struggling to bring several wildfires under control. Flames in the valley spread to 14,000 hectares. Officials say it's just 10 percent contained. To the north along the coast, between Carmel and Big Sur, flames spread across 6400 hectares. There ever been orders by officials to evacuate.

Heavy rains and floods are taking a toll in northern China. The ministry of civil affairs says at least 164 people have been killed in the past week. More than half a million have fled their homes because of the rising water and unstable ground. Hundreds of thousands of homes have collapsed or been damaged.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri now with more details on the flooding in China.

Pedram, we haven't talked about the flooding this China for a while. But this certainly is not uncommon, certainly to this extent in China.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. You know, it's an annual thing, right? I know you've lived there, you've experienced this before. When you see yourself in the month of July and August, you've seen rainfall accumulate in some areas. Unfortunately, the impact of damage, the number of fatalities this particular year is comparable to the last such event that was this significant. This was back in 1998. And you see, again, some of the images around Beijing, in particular in recent days, even south of Beijing. This is a shopping center, but these are shoes, boxes, and is shopping bags that literally washed over from the tremendous amount of rainfall and, of course, the ensuing floods that have taken place across this had region in recent days. And then on the roadways, some of those mountainous communities really begin to see the communities with land slides in place, as well. So the question is, how do we get here? How can this happen so quickly? It actually for the month of July has been an impressive month meteorologically speaking. Any given July, you get about 176 millimeters of rainfall. We have almost doubled that. But what's even more impressive than this had is what occurred in the past couple of weeks. The first two weeks of the month, how about almost -- it's about 10 or so millimeters came down and here is what's occurred in the last couple of weeks. Almost all of that rainfall that we've seen has come down in recent weeks. Because you have the frontal boundary, the seasonal rains. In place, weakening somewhat over the in fact next couple of days, the energy shifts a little to the east. Notice Beijing getting a break. Here is the forecast from Beijing. Temps generally stay in the lower 30s. The rainfall potential is limited. We think Saturday afternoon with some afternoon storms. Look to the south. Something happening here. We think this storm might have enough time to become a full blown tropical storm or typhoon, for that matter. But what it will do is slowly meander through that region, eventually push its way across northern Vietnam. And Hanoi, in particular, could get very heavy rainfall in the next couple of days. Notice the rainfall there. That's over 250 millimeters in the next couple of days, this time, to the south -- John?

VAUSE: OK, Pedram. Thank you for the update. Appreciate it.

[02:49:11] We'll take a short break here. When we come back, an historic journey that took 16 months to complete. The first plane to make an around-the-world flight fueled only by the sun.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Prince Harry is sharing his own regrets about the death of his mother. At a mental health awareness event, Harry admitted he wished he could have spoken about it all sooner.

Max Foster reports.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: The funeral of Diana, princess of Wales, was one of the biggest media events in history. For many, it will be defined by the two young princes walking, heads bowed, behind her coffin.

The family has taken many years to come to terms with that moment, of course. But everyone was quite surprised to hear that young Prince Harry didn't even talk about it until about three years ago.

This is the moment he revealed that.

PRINCE HARRY: I really regret not ever talking about it, you know? The first 28 years of my life. I never talked about it.

FOSTER: Prince Harry speaking to Rio Ferdinand, a famous footballer, who lost his wife last year. He was asking advice from Prince Harry on how to deal with that grieving process with his young children. That's how those comments from Prince Harry came about.

But it was part of a wider campaign by Prince Harry, and his brother, Prince Williams, and his wife, the duchess of Cambridge, to try to get rid of the stigma of mental health, which is a huge problem of society and often rooted in not dealing with childhood depression and trauma. So this is part of a bigger campaign getting famous people and royals to talk about their mental health problems.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

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[02:54:46] VAUSE: Verizon is buying Yahoo! for nearly $5,000. Yahoo! will be integrated with AOL, also owned by Verizon. U.S. federal regulators are expected to approve the new deal. A Yahoo! spokesman says it's too early to say if CEO Marissa Mayer will stay on. But if all goes according to plan, the sale will end Yahoo!'s 21- year history as an independent company.

And it might not a worldwide phenomenon, but Pokemon Go may not be the money spinner Nintendo had hoped. The company shares plummeted on Monday after investors were told the game will only have a limited impact on earnings. But as the Pokemon Go craze continues, Nintendo could profit by add-on features for the games.

Two pilots can add their names to aviation history. They completed a 16-month journey around the world with no jet fuel. Solar Impulse landed at Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the same place where the adventure began in March last year. The pilots traveled 35,000 kilometers using the sun as their only source of energy. It certainly wasn't on time, but they made it.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angels. I'm John Vause. Stay tuned for more of CNN's live coverage of the Democratic National

Convention.

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