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Rio Lights the Cauldron at Olympics Opening Ceremony; At Least 13 Killed in Bar Fire in France; Israel Charges Leader of World Vision in Conspiring with Hamas; Questions Surrounding Donald Trump's Mental Health; ANC Loses in South Africa. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired August 06, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


[03:00:10] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN HOST: Brazil adds its flair to the Olympics. Rio lights the cauldron at the opening ceremony as the games officially begin.

Rowing for gold, two best friends representing Angola aim to bring a first Olympic medal back to their home country.

Plus Donald Trump says rival Hillary Clinton is unhinged but some question whether it's Trump himself who's suffering from poor mental health. We'll look into that and other stories in this half hour.

This is CNN NEWSROOM, we're live in Atlanta, thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

How do you kick off the first ever Olympics in South America? You throw a big carnival-style party, of course.

Thousands of people filled Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for Friday's opening ceremony. It featured fireworks, dancers, acrobats and of course a lot of samba music. A formal recreation of the Olympics rings urged protection of the environment. Each Olympian will plant a seed in a park in Rio. The theme of the ceremony was rebirth and regeneration.

The lighting of the Olympic cauldron and the world's best athletes marking in the parade of nations were also highlights. CNN's Christina MacFarlane is the in Rio with more on Brazil's opening night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a week dominated by the Russian doping scandal protests and problems finally, it was time to on focus on the sort and the coming together of thousands of athletes. And it all went off without a hitch.

In front of a crowd of 80,000 and 3 billion people watching around the world, Brazil put on a flamboyant feast for the eyes with a homage to legends of Brazil past and present.

One of the stand out moments of the night came not from an athlete but a super model. Brazil's Gisele Bundchen striding across the stage to the sound of the Bossa Nova classic "The Girl from Ipanema." And then came the athletes from over 200 countries. Michael Phelps

stylish in red, white and blue leading the U.S. Contingent followed by the Russians, a bitter sweet moment that raised a cheer from the crowd amid the controversial cloud of doping.

One of the biggest cheers of the night, however, was reserved for the refugee team, a first in Olympic history and a moment who none who witnessed it will forget. Finally, the moment we've been waiting for three Brazilian Olympic legends combined to light the cauldron. Vanderlei de Lima the man who was poised to win gold during the marathon in Athens but was attacked by a spectator now getting his moment in the Olympic spotlight.

The ceremony is over. Let the games begin.

Christina MacFarlane, CNN, RIO.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The run up to the opening ceremony has been filled with drama and Friday had its share.

Brazilian riot police used tear gas in Rio against protesters after a daylong demonstration. The march even forced the Olympic torch to change course. Earlier, we spoke with our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh about this seen in Rio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A small handful of a dedicated group I would say two to 3,000 protestors at their peak were marching towards that opening ceremony.

Now they grew in number, they moved through the lines that police tried to put in their way at times including police cavalry who seemed to try and stop their path. But eventually a decreased number got to a park where they unceremoniously burned the Brazilian flag.

Now the remnants of that flag was then wrapped around a cardboard baton and one of the guy's dressed in black, young men frankly mostly looked like they'd be looking for that kind of trouble most Friday nights ran off down the streets around the corner screaming that this was their own independent torch.

At that point the police moved to crack down on things significantly outnumbering the remaining protestors. Tear gas was used. At one point we saw some of the protesters being hit by sticks. It is unclear if they had in turn attacked the police first. But remarkable, frankly on a day where you should be seeing nothing but unmitigated jubilation in the streets of Rio that there are protests like this.

Not necessarily the one you were seeing there, a lot of the small black crowd there as I say probably were looking for this kind of trouble most nights if they could but it was the one down on Copacabana behind me in the earlier hours of the day much larger, much angrier, much more relaxed sense of the crowd there but their message much clearer and more determined in their fury.

WALSH: At times they heckled and slowed down the government cars that went through their protest. Even Olympic officials as well furious at the government and furious as we've seen during the time here at how money that's been spent on the Olympic Games, those billions used to make this city sparkle have in fact ended up taking away from the budgets of things like hospitals and security and education.

[03:05:03]

WALSH: This country already struggling through an awful recession seeing the limited funds that it has pumped into the Olympic Games here often with corruption investigations following the decision to invest in various infrastructure projects. A lot of darkness in the minds of Brazilians around these games. Two thirds of them I think feeling according to some polling like they're not particularly going to enjoy it themselves and that frustration we've seen on the streets right now.

(END VIVDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Nick Paton Walsh there for us on a day of protests in Rio.

Within hours 12 gold medals will be awarded on what's officially known as day one. The first gold medal is in shooting, the women's 10 meter air rifle. China dominates that sport in world rankings.

Three-time Tour de France Champion Chris Froome will try to win gold in men's cycle road race. He's described the course as savage. And swimming kicks off in the off in the evening with four gold medals on offer.

So, we've got rowing, we've got cycling and we have Derek van Dam on with the first day weather for Rio.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Also tennis as well. So those are some of the key sports that are going to be impacted by the weather but fortunately Natalie they picked the best month of the year in Rio de Janeiro to have the Olympics being August. Typically not seeing much more than 25mm of rain.

Follow me I'll show you the details because -

ALLEN: -- Thank you something positive for Rio.

VAN DAM: -- There it is, yes, that's right. They got this one spot on. They called the meteorologist, which was on speed dial, I'm sure. They said all right, what month should we host the Olympics? August. Because you can see on either side of this calendar, January, February, November, December, of course their summer months that's when they see the bulk of their rainfall.

This time of year, being winter in the southern hemisphere, picture perfect blue skies. No rain in this forecast. Temperatures are somewhat cool at least by Rio standards. 28 degrees on average for the month of August. We will actually bump that temperature up a few degrees above average

for the day today of course the first day of competition although I think by the afternoon, we'll reach about 31 and similar forecasts to end off the weekend. But the cool down comes Monday, Tuesday into Wednesday and really our next chance of rain for the Olympics not until the middle of next week. So enjoy athletes and spectators.

Now this certainly isn't from Rio, but this is an image coming out of the west coast of India. That's where we've had monsoonal rains that have brought flooding to this region. Of course an annual event over this part of the world. They get heavy rainfall throughout the course of the months in the season and we're right in the middle of it as we speak and rainfall totals across this area have exceeded 150 millimeters in several locations leading to scenes just like that you saw a moment ago.

Good news here, though. We had a bit of a deficit in terms of our monsoonal rains. Remember about 1 billion people rely on this annual monsoonal rain. We bounced back in July so overall across the entire subcontinent we're at 2% above average monsoonal rain. So that is good news.

I want to end with a spectacular video coming out of the United States. Take a look at this. New to CNN, this is a waterspout. You go, well what's the difference between a waterspout and a tornado? Well a waterspout just forms over water. It is a tornado. Also, water spouts can form over land and move over water. So there are two different types of water spouts. Fair weather water spouts and tornadic water spouts, the latter being the most dangerous. But that's a beautiful sight. It still can be associated with strong winds but that's generally a fair weather waterspout that you are looking at right there. That's why that gentleman was able to get those shots.

ALLEN: In Iowa, too.

VAN DAM: In Iowa.

ALLEN: All right, Derek, thank you very much. See you later.

VAN DAM: You're welcome.

ALLEN: All right, we're going to turn to other news now. At least 13 people were killed, six injured when fire swept a bar in northern France. It happened in Rouen in Normandy.

Carolyn (Inaudible) from our affiliate BFM in France told us more a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Local media also reported that there was a birthday party last night here in the basement of that bar of the Cuba Libre with young people attending. And that some of the victims were young adults, between 18 and 25 years old. But that information, as I was saying, still needs to be confirmed. But it appears and the official that the fire was accidental, that the police have to determine the cause of that disaster now, how it really started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: (Inaudible) for us and if she finds out more we will speak with her again here at CNN.

The Black Lives Matter movements staged protests in the U.K. Friday. : The demonstrations marked five years since police in London shot and killed Mark Duggan, a black man. His death sparked riots across the capital and other British cities. An inquest in 2014 found Duggan was killed lawfully, even though he did not have a gun when he was shot.

[03:10:05] Israel has charged the Gaza Director of World Vision with funneling funds to Hamas. It says while working for the U.S. based aid organization, he sent millions of dollars to the militant group. World Vision denies the allegations. CNN's Oren Liebermann has the story for us from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This investigation focuses around Mohamed el Halabi, a 38 year old Gazan and the Director of the Gaza branch of World Vision, a U.S. based Christian humanitarian organization.

El Halabi is charged with siphoning millions of dollars away from are World Vision and directing or funneling that money to Hamas according to an indictment filed in Israeli District Court. Hamas is the militant group that runs Gaza.

El Halabi was arrested on June 15th at the border crossing between Gaza and Israel. Shin Bet which conducted the investigation and which is Israel's Security Agency says el Halabi used his position as the Gaza Director to funnel money away from donations, and take money away from humanitarian projects and give that to Hamas's military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Shin Bet says he sent about $7.2 million a year that way using a number of different methods including according to the Shin Bet inflating the cost of humanitarian projects and sending the difference to Hamas and taking building supplies, supplies that were meant for humanitarian projects and sending that to Hamas with construction of attack tunnels into Israel.

El Halabi's lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud told CNN that El Halabi has no links to Hamas and he says that the fact Israel held El Halabi for 50 days without charging him is a sign that Israel's evidence against El Halabi is weak and he says that evidence will fall apart in court.

World Vision also released a statement denying the charges and calling on Israel to conduct a fair trial. That statement reads in part, "World Vision programs in Gaza have been subject to regular internal and independent audits, independent evaluations and a broad range of internal controls aimed at ensuring that assets reach their intended beneficiaries and are used in compliance with applicable laws and donor requirements."

Following the Israeli investigation one country, Australia announced that they would be suspending the funding they give to World Vision projects in the Palestinian territories pending the conclusion of the investigation.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Aid was delivered to the Jordanian/Syrian border on Thursday for the first time since it was closed in June. 75,000 displaced Syrians are stranded there. The border was sealed after a suicide bomber drove an explosive ridden car from the Syrian side into a military post killing six Jordanian border. The U.N. World Food program says it used cranes to drop 650 tons of food and medical supplies. The organization explained this unorthodox delivery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGEED YAHIA, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME, COUNTRY DIRECTOR: As you can see, this is the first time we use the crane. And this was the only way that we could do this distribution, given that there is no access. We could not cross to the other side nor can the population come across to this side. So we came up with this idea that we could drop the food in there and then monitor the distribution from the Jordanian side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: A creative way to get that job done.

The U.N. Refugee Agency says ISIS is capturing thousands of internally displaced people IDPs in Iraq as they attempt to flee their northern villages for Kirkuk. They reported 12 of those people were later killed.

ISIS has been known to try to use so-called IDPs as human shields. U.N. data says more than 4 million people - such people are in Iraq.

Donald Trump's about face. Next why the U.S. Presidential candidate changed his mind about supporting members in his own party. It was quite a week.

Plus, Hillary Clinton says she may have short circuited the answers about her e-mail controversy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:16:15] ALLEN: After refusing for nearly a week U.S. Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has now endorsed the country's highest ranking Republican.

He had been at odds with fellow Republicans after declining to support house speaker, Paul Ryan in his re-election campaign. On Friday Trump reversed himself reading from prepared remarks he said it's time to unite the party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: In our shared mission to make America great again, I support and endorse our speaker of the house, Paul Ryan. [ applause ] Paul Ryan, good, he's a good man. He's a good man and he's a good guy. And we may disagree on a couple of things but mostly we agree and we are going to get it done and we're going to do a lot of wonderful things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Trump also said he now supports Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte in their primary races. He had also refused to do that earlier this week, as well. Trump is escalating his attacks on his rival, Hillary Clinton. He took swipes at her character during a rally in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She's really pretty close to unhinged. And you've seen it. You've seen it a couple of times. But people in the background know it. The people that know her know it and she's like an unbalanced person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Who is unhinged and unbalanced? Well Trump is no stranger to attacks on his mental health. Democrats and some Republicans have implied Trump acts unpredictable because he's "crazy". Our Tom Foreman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It may be the most biting talking point from the foes of Donald Trump. But there it was again. Listen to Democratic vice presidential contender Tim Kaine.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENT NOMINEE: He recently criticized me saying I was a bad Governor of New Jersey. And people --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He confused you with Tom Kean.

KAINE: Yes, Tom Kean was Governor of New Jersey 26 years ago. I absolutely think he's confused.

FOREMAN: At the Democratic convention it was a constant theme.

CLINTON: He spoke for 70 odds minutes, and I do mean odd.

FOREMAN: That Trump is somehow confused, delusional or just not with it.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Together, let's elect a sane, competent person with international experience.

FOREMAN: And it didn't start there. For months, Democrats have savaged Trump's ideas this way on the economy, women, foreign affairs.

CLINTON: They're not even really ideas. Just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.

FOREMAN: To be sure Trump's behavior is often unexpected.

TRUMP: And I said oh I'm going to hit them.

FOREMAN: Erratic.

TRUMP: I don't remember.

FOREMAN: And unconventional for a presidential contender, spurring critics to call him a sociopath, mentally ill and plain crazy. But others soundly reject those claims.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You know, he's not crazy. At the end of the day, he doesn't have discipline.

FOREMAN: There is zero medical evidence to back the accusations against Trump. A statement released by Trump's doctor of almost 40 years says the nominee has almost no significant medical problems and a recent complete medical examination showed only positive results. Trump brushes off insults about his temperament like lint.

[03:20:04] TRUMP: I think I have the best temperament or certainly one of the best temperaments of anybody that's ever run for the office of president, ever. Because I have a winning temperament, I know how to win because my whole life I've been winning.

FOREMAN: Still Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass has started an online petition demanding a psychiatric evaluation saying Trump's impulsiveness and lack of control appear to be symptoms of a mental disorder.

CLINTON: A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.

FOREMAN: It is worth noting many of the things that trouble Trump's foes delight his fans. His willingness to break the rules of Washington to challenge political correctness and to say what he thinks and that has kept him within spitting distance of Clinton in the polls, so maybe he's crazy like a fox.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Well, Hillary Clinton is pulling ahead of Trump in several swing states where the Republican led just weeks ago.

In the battleground state of New Hampshire Clinton is up by enormous 17 points.

In the historically tight and critical state of Florida she leads Trump by 6 points. And to in a surprise twist, Clinton is also ahead in Georgia which typically is deeply Republican. The spread is only 4 percentage points within the margin of error, but Georgia has gone for a Democratic president only three times since 1964. The last time it went for a Democratic President it was Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton admits she may have in her words short circuited some answers about her controversial emails.

She's been under fire for recent interviews where she claims the FBI said she was truthful to the public. Clinton tried to explain what she meant on Friday to Hispanic and African American journalists at a conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: What I told the FBI which he said was truthful is consistent with what I have said publicly. But I do think you know having him say that my answers to the FBI were truthful and then I should quickly add what I said was consistent with what I had said previously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The email controversy has been dogging Clinton's campaign. Many voters say because of it she's not trustworthy.

The party that has ruled South Africa for 22 years is facing its worst electoral defeat since the end of racial segregation under apartheid.

Voters in local elections are showing their discontent with the African National Congress or the ANC, that's the party Nelson Mandela helped build into a national powerhouse.

Our David McKenzie is following developments from Johannesburg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The election results are a stinging rebuke for the ruling ANC. It's their worst showing for more than two decades in a Democratic South Africa.

The key issue here are the major metropolitan areas, three major cities the ANC was unable to get that majority to rule those cities outright. And most embarrassingly, they lost Nelson Mandela Bay to the opposition Democratic Alliance. Nelson Mandela of course their most famous struggle icon.

It's a different picture in the rural areas. The ANC is still an election juggernaut but many South Africans in the cities are angry at the level of income and equality and the sluggish economy. Youth unemployment is more than 50% in this country.

The ANC now faces tough questions after this election particularly about Jacob Zuma, the country's President. He's been wracked by a series of corruption scandals. Many people right now are blaming him in part for the loss.

David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: Well day one of the Olympics its rowing and the rowing team from Angola will make history when they take to the water in Rio. CNN's Christina McFarlane spoke with them about their Olympic journey and aspirations for gold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCFARLANE: On the lake four years ago where the world's best rowers raced to glory, a new dream is just beginning. This is Angola's first ever rowing team to qualify for the Olympic Games.

ANDRE MATIAS, ANGOLIAN ROWING TEAM MEMBER: To turn on this space and now that Olympic champions are made here, even going to the Olympics, there's a lot of responsibility. It's a great honor for us and we hold ourselves to the high standards to honor the Olympic spirit.

[03:25:12] MCFARLANE: In October 2015, Andre Matias and Jean-Luc Rasamoelina made history taking the only qualifying spot in Africa for the men's lightweight double skull.

MATIAS: No-one thinks or associates rowing with Angola and even in the rowing world a lot of the countries at the African level have more established teams of hundreds of athletes to choose from various clubs. In Angola we have you know a dozen athletes and at this level we're the only two. (inaudible.)

MCFARLANE: Have you already seen that what you have achieved is actually changing rowing back in your home country?

MATIAS: Certainly because in 2007 there's only one boat in Angola with wooden skulls and now with the medals we go with a team of about eight or nine rowers to the African championships. We have more people interested knowing what we're doing and younger rowers in Angola that we look forward to showing to the world and the future. But it takes time.

MCFARLANE: In this sport success comes with seamless coordination and team work. Something these two have been building since childhood.

JEAN-LUC RASAMOELINA, ANGOLIAN ROWING TEAM MEMBER: Well we've known each other for quite a long time for like more than 20 years and we used to do a lot of sports when we were in school in Angola and Andre always told me to try rowing because I used to play football and tennis. In 2010 I gave it a go so I tried and in 2013 he called me, he asked me if I wanted to try to make a double for the African Chance with him, I said yes, and we joined in Switzerland.

MCFARLANE: So Andrea you already had your eye on Jean-Luc and you were thinking this guy one day I'm going to get him in a boat right?

And what do you think now Jean-Luc that you've come together, what do you make of this team?

RASAMOELINA: Well I mean I have no regrets at all, I mean we have accomplished a lot of things. And I think I'm proud to do that with especially one of my best friends. MCFARLANE: As the pair head to Rio determined to do their country

proud, it will be also be a special moment for their coach who has dedicated his life to the sport.

PHIL ROWLEY, ANGOLIAN ROWERS' COACH: I think to make the Olympics is -- well, it's their dream come true. It's my dream come true. I've been in this had sport for 56 years now. And this, for me, is the cream on the cake. And I'm going to enjoy it.

MCFARLANE: Christina McFarlane, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The Olympics finally underway, thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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