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38 Medals Awarded In First Day Of Rio Olympics; Rebel Fighters In Aleppo Gain New Foothold; Skydiving Without a Parachute By Choice. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired August 07, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


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[03:00:10]

NATALIE ALLEN, HOST: The quest for Olympic glory is on with 38 medals already awarded in the first day of competition and world records broken.

Plus rebel firefighters in Aleppo get a moral boost after gaining a new foothold to get Syrian government forces laying siege to the city.

And skydiving with no parachute by choice. How this man did it and proudly tells the tale.

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ALLEN: What a tale that is. Hello, everyone. It's all ahead here on "CNN Newsroom" I'm Natalie Allen. Thanks for joining us.

Some major swimming events wrapped up the first full day of competition at the Rio Olympic games.

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ALLEN: Hungary's Katinka Hosszu broke the world record for the women's 400m individual medley to win gold. She was way out in front.

No major problems reported at these Olympics, too, other than a controlled explosion of a suspicious package near the end of the men's cycling road race. Nothing coming from that. Here's CNN's Christina Macfarlane with the wrap up of day one.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a busy opening day in Rio, where the 31st Olympiad got under way with 12 Olympic gold medals across seven disciplines.

And the first of the day went to the United States, 19-year-old Jenny Thrasher in the 10m air rifle pulling off a surprise upset to beat the 2004 Athens gold medalist Du Li of China.

Just days after 273 Russian athletes were finally cleared to take part in the Rio Olympic games after allegations of state-sponsored doping, Russia's Beslan Mudranov cemented his country's place on the medal roster with gold in the 60 kilogram judo competition. A poignant moment after a turbulent few months in the Russia doping scandal.

Perhaps the most dramatic event of the day, however, was the men's road race after Italy's Vincenzo Nibali crashed out in the closing stages. A three-way sprint for the line saw Belgian's Greg Van Avermaet take gold on the closing stretch of the Copacaba.

Over at the Baha'I Olympic Village meanwhile, the opening day of the men's gymnastics saw a horrific accident befall French gymnast Samir Ait Said has suffered a horrific leg break while performing in the vault. The 26-year-old's left leg folded beneath him as he landed badly during the men's qualification event. He's currently undergoing treatment in hospital for a broken tibia.

Well it was a record-breaking night for women's swimming after Hungary's Katinka Hosszu shattered the 400m individual medley world record by just under five seconds claiming the Olympic gold that has long eluded her after missing out at London 2012.

And shortly after that, the Australian women streaked ahead to defend their Olympic title taking the 4 x 100 meters ahead of team USA and medal favorite Katie Ledecky making her first appearance in Rio to close out the night.

Plenty more to come, though, from Ledecky on Sunday when she takes to the pool as the clear favorite in the 400m freestyle. And we could see our first glimpse of 18 time gold medalist Michael Phelps in the men's 4 x 100m relay. 14 gold medals in store for Sunday. The Olympic games in Rio well and truly under way.

Christina Macfarlane, CNN, Rio.

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ALLEN: So here's a look at the medals standings after the first day of Rio Olympics.

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ALLEN: Australia and Hungary are tied for first for the number of gold medals won with two each. The United States, South Korea, Japan and Argentina each won one gold. But Japan and the U.S. lead in total medals, both countries took home five.

Well here's some events to keep your eye on Sunday. The Men's 4 x 100m freestyle relay. As Christina mentioned, we could see Michael Phelps take to the pool as he looks to add to his tally of 18 Olympic gold medals.

Women's cycling promises to be an intriguing battle between 2012 silver medalist Lizzie Armitstead and the Netherlands duo of Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen.

And in hand ball Qatar has assembled a world select team to go up against Croatia.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: U.S. swimming sensation Katie Ledecky who Christina was just talking about could be one of the breakout stars at the Rio Olympics. She won gold at the 2012 London games at aged 15. And expectations are high for the swimmer in Brazil.

CNN's Coy Wire has a look at why Ledecky is one of the athletes to watch.

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COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is fear?

KATIE LEDECKY, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I don't know. Never heard of it. With swimming, it's never something that I've had to be fearful of.

WIRE: Before Katie Ledecky was ever smashing the status quo in world records, swimming was just something she started at the age of 6 to spend time her older brother, Michael.

LEDECKY: My brother's always been there for me. I couldn't be prouder of him. The person he is. The role model that he has always been for me. I've always looked up to him. We've always had a great relationship. You know, we love each other.

WIRE: How much of your parents, your family, sacrificed for you to chase your dreams?

LEDECKY: I don't think they view it as a sacrifice which really means a lot to me. I think they enjoy it as much as I do. I always say that I'm almost happy that I haven't gotten my license yet because that time in the car that I have with them driving to and from practice, that's valuable time that I have talking to my parents.

WIRE: Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, Ledecky met a lot of celebrities and developed an affinity for politics. Despite the 19- year-old's busy training schedule, she's closely following the U.S. Presidential election.

LEDECKY: This is my, the first year that I get to vote, so I know that I have to pay special attention and no matter what, I'll be going in and voting in November. So I better be paying attention.

WIRE: Is it true that after a long day of training, studying for school, reading, you'll just kick back and watch CNN?

LEDECKY: It is. I am, like, addicted to CNN. Like, it's almost bad. Yes, I've got to catch up on my news, my breaking news.

WIRE: Over time, the distances and stakes have grown for Ledecky. She'll enter Rio with high expectations to bring home multiple gold medals but she doesn't feel added pressure when she dives into the pool.

LEDECKY: It's something I started for recreation, playing around in the water with my mom growing up. In some ways that's what it still is in my mind, just seeing how fast I can get up and down the pool a couple times.

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ALLEN: And she's chilled out. She'll be one to look for Katie Ledecky, there.

Just a few hours ago Ledecky and her American teammates took home the silver in the women's 4 x 100m relay.

You can keep up with all the news out of Rio on our web site. It has the latest on the athletes, the venues and the competition. It's all at cnn.com/Olympics.

Heading out to the campaign trail, Donald Trump suggesting again that Hillary Clinton is not mentally fit to be President.

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ALLEN: The Republican presidential candidate is using a term Clinton used to defend how she handled classified e-mails while Secretary of State. On Friday Clinton said she "short circuited" when implying that FBI Director James Comey said Clinton had been truthful in explaining her handling of the e-mails to the public. That was false. Comey said her answers to FBI questions were truthful.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was in front of some friendly reporters. They asked her a very easy question and she short circuited. She used the term, short circuited. She took a little short circuit in the brain. And she's got problems. I mean, if we had real people, this would be a real problem for her, but I think that the people of this country don't want somebody that's going to short circuit up here.

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ALLEN: Wikileaks is walking back a claim that it is trying to get its hands on Donald Trump's tax returns. Trump has yet to release them despite many calls for him to so. The initial comments came from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the end of an interview with Bill Maher on HBO.

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BILL MAHER, HBO: Why don't you hack into Donald Trump's tax returns?

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: Well, we're working on it.

ALLEN: Saturday morning, Wikileaks sent out a tweet saying "Wikileaks isn't working on hacking trump's tax returns. The claim is a joke from a comedy show. We are working on encouraging whistleblowers."

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ALLEN: After a very busy and outspoken week for U.S. President Barack Obama, he's finally on vacation with his family.

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ALLEN: They arrived in Martha's Vineyard Saturday for their yearly summer vacation on the island. And before he left, Mr. Obama did not mince words when it came to Donald Trump.

Here's our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The President is now out of here. At least for two more weeks. I mean, he's officially on vacation. We may not hear from him again while he's there. But he seemed to relish the opportunities he had in this past week at press conferences that were designed to be focused on other things to hit Donald Trump and hard. And it felt like the gloves are now off.

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KOSINSKI: The political storm growing ever fiercer. President Obama gets away from it all. Sort of. For what he hopes will be a quiet two weeks on Martha's Vineyard. But not before leaving behind some surprising zingers of his own, aimed directly at Donald Trump.

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes. I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as President. He keeps on proving it. He's woefully unprepared to do this job.

KOSINSKI: And he kept on going. At a press conference alongside the Singaporean Prime Minister, extending the sentiment to Republicans.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? What does this say about your party that this is your standard bearer? There has to come a point at which you say, somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesn't have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding, to occupy the most powerful position in the world.

KOSINSKI: This is a long way from early in the race when President Obama rarely uttered Donald Trump's name. Would make veiled references or speak broadly about all the Republican candidates. Remember them?

Now, though, since his endorsement of Hillary Clinton and the conventions, President Obama seems freer, willing and eager to speak his mind.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?

KOSINSKI: This was during a press conference at the Pentagon after a meeting on ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your assessment today as you stand here about whether Donald Trump can be trusted with America's nuclear weapons? PRESIDENT OBAMA: I've made this point already multiple times. Just

listen to what Mr. Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad.

KOSINSKI: Referring back to his sharpest barbs only days earlier.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: There has to come a point at which you say enough.

KOSINSKI: You know at one point in there it sounded almost like the President was saying well I've said enough now, I've made my point, can we move on to other things. And what can we expect from him on the campaign trail? You know he hates to get into a back and forth with Donald Trump. He doesn't want to respond to every single tweet. But what we're seeing is that when things become highly controversial or divisive like those Trump comments about the parents of the fallen Muslim soldier, White House sources say he's absolutely going to be willing to weigh in in this way. Even then some. Especially at political events. Although the settings that we saw this past week were not.

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ALLEN: White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski reporting there for us.

People in Thailand are voting on whether to approve a new constitution drafted by the military.

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ALLEN: This is the first time Thais are going to the poll since the army coup in 2014. The Junta says the new constitution would prevent corruption. Critics say the document would give even more power to the military. The prime minister promises a general election next year regardless of the referendum results.

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ALLEN: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is ramping up his war on drugs.

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ALLEN: He's named more than 150 government officials who he says are involved in illegal drug trafficking. The list includes congressmen, police officials and members of the judiciary. Since Duterte took power last June, at least 524 people suspected of drug crimes have been killed. His administration is accused of carrying out extra judicial murders. But Duterte insists many of the suspects died in shootouts with police.

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ALLEN: He looks to make history yet again at the Rio Olympics.

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ALLEN: Coming up here, CNN's Ian Lee introduces us to an Egyptian fencer.

Plus who needs parachutes? Not this skydiver. His death-defying plunge will tell you how that came out and why he did it when we come back.

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ALLEN: People in the Syrian city of Aleppo had a rare moment to celebrate on Saturday.

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ALLEN: Their city has been racked by war for years. So why are they celebrating? Well the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says rebel forces broke through part of the government siege of the city. An alliance of Islamist factions has been working to reopen supply lines after they were cut off last week. Some 250,000 civilians are trapped amid the fighting. Rebels are trying to open up an exit route for them to escape.

Elsewhere in Syria, the Syrian rights group says ISIS has lost nearly all of the strategic city of Manbij. U.S. backed forces are still working to completely overtake it after months of fighting. Manbij lies between the Turkish border and Raqqah but many view as ISIS main hub in Syria. Losing Manbij would leave Raqqah largely isolated and that would be a major advantage in the fight to oust ISIS.

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ALLEN: Belgian police say a man wielding a machete wounded two female police officers Saturday in the city of Charleroi.

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ALLEN: A third officer shot and killed the attacker. Police say the assailant was heard shouting "allahu akbar" an Arabic phrase meaning god is greatest. The city - the city south of Brussels where suicide bombers killed dozens of people in March

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ALLEN: A sudden collapse of ceiling times at a subway stand in shanghai created panic for people passing through a week ago Friday. And we just like the video, right? It's kind of creepy. And as Derek says, it is related to weather.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's related to weather. And we dug deep for this one, didn't we, Natalie? We saw this and we said we've got to share this with everybody at home. Because well, just think about it. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAM: You're going to be walking along minding your own business, about to catch a train underground, and then what happens? The ceiling tiles fall above you? Yes. Terrifying. I'd be running as well. Goodness you have no idea what's going on.

Well, an investigation actually concluded that the humidity in Shanghai - remember Shanghai is a coastal city, it was so high that it actually corroded some of those ceiling tiles. There was also a change in the pressure underground from wind associated with the underground subway trains and that ultimately led to the collapse of the ceiling. Scary stuff.

Know what else is scary as well? What's happened in the State of Veracruz in eastern Mexico. Unfortunately there was a landslide that just took place recently within the past 24 hours because of the remnants of what was hurricane earl. This is some of the images coming into CNN.

There were fatalities. Six confirmed fatalities so far with this particular landslide. But you can see the destruction that landslides can create. And basically what happens is we get this extremely heavy rainfall. This particular time associated with a tropical storm or hurricane. Eventually the mountainous terrain just gives way to gravity and that soaked soaked soil. And the slope fails. And ultimately we get our landslide.

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DAM: Now get a load of this. We have rainfall totals in excess of 250 millimeters. That's in a 24-hour period across the Veracruz region. This is again the remnants of what was Earl. It's now starting to move across southwestern sections of Mexico about to exit into the Pacific Ocean. So I find this absolutely fascinating. Because as it does so, more rain expected away from Veracruz, mainly across the Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco region and then it has its eye set on the Baja Peninsula. But what I do find interesting is that this storm which was officially named Earl in the Gulf of Mexico is now moving into the Pacific so now they have to rename it Javier. So that is something that we anticipate here within the next 24 hours.

I'll leave you with this. We talked about how Rio has been picture perfect and today is another beautiful day. But our computer models are starting to pick up on the chance of rain and quite a temperature drop for the athletes participating in those outdoor sports, running, cycling, any of the athletic events there. Beach volleyball, for instance. So maybe perhaps the weather will play a factor tomorrow.

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ALLEN: Yes, all right.

DAM: Like my play on words there?

ALLEN: Yes of course Derek. Thanks. DAM: You're welcome.

ALLEN: All right. And Egyptian fencer hopes to make history yet again at the Olympics. When he won silver at the London Olympics it was a first for Africa. Now in Rio he says he won't be happy with anything less than gold. Our Ian Lee caught up with him in Cairo.

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IAN LEE: Crossing swords with a world champion takes lightning reflexes. When Alaaeldin Abouelkassem, on the left won silver in men's foil at London's Olympics, history was made. The first African to win a medal in fencing.

ALAAELDIN ABOUELKASSEM, EGYPTIAN OLYMPIC FENCER: A lot of Egyptians tried for years and Africans tried for years to get medal in fencing. So for them, my medal was like their medal. So I felt that we were really one family.

LEE: But Ala, as his friends call him isn't satisfied.

ABOUELKASSEM: So I won't accept less than the gold medal in Rio.

LEE: Ala returned from the 2012 games determined. He moved to France to focus on fencing full time. Expectations are high for the Egyptian, and so is the stress.

ABOUELKASSEM: I worked very hard for four years now. I moved out. I'm living in a new city. With new friends, away from my family. So I'm just very motivated that my work will be paid in the next Olympics.

LEE: Working hard means training six days a week. The 25-year-old French coach helps with footwork, strength, technique and attacking.

ABOUELKASSEM: It's more the defense was always my strong point. Now I'm working with more because I cannot win with only one action.

LEE: What is foil? It's a style of fencing. Simply, hit the torso with the tip of the sword before the other guy. For someone who's never fenced, Ala shows me the basics. First, stand on guard. Second, a little footwork. Then you strike.

Not often you get trained by an Olympic athlete. Training Egypt's national team, Adam Kaszubowski from Poland. He's preparing the country's eight fencing Olympians for Rio.

ADAM KASZUBOWSKI, COACH EGYPTIAN FENCING TEAM: For other coaches, this is the basic, you have to understand that (inaudible) of your player, his mentality, his mentality of defense. And after this, we create our strategy.

LEE: He hopes the strategy pays off in medals. Ala aims to make history again. This time to be the first African to win fencing gold.

Ian Lee, CNN, Cairo.

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ALLEN: We turn now from the Olympics to a less conventional sports feat. A U.S. skydiver fell to earth in spectacular fashion last week, netting a world first. He did it all with no parachute. For more on the fallout, we go to our Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who needs a parachute? Not the guy in green. 42-year-old Luke Aikens was aching to free fall all the way.

LUKE AIKENS, SKYDIVER: I've been training this for two years. My whole life's been dedicated to skydiving.

MOOS: He's made almost 18,000 jumps. Now from almost five miles up, Luke aimed for a net the size of a third of a football field in the desert north of L.A.

AIKENS: So that net is going to catch me like if you were going to catch a raw egg.

MOOS: Either that or Luke's going to end up scrambled on a live Fox T.V. broadcast with his wife and 4-year-old son watching.

[03:25:05]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd be lying to say I'm not a lot nervous.

MOOS: They tested and tested the net. Using 200-pound dummies. One time it failed.

AIKENS: It actually ripped through the net and went boom on the ground and hit the ground.

MOOS: So they made the net stronger. Just a day or two before the stunt, Luke says the Screen Actors Guild, the union, told him he couldn't make the jump unless he wore a parachute. Since he had to land on his back, Luke said wearing the chute back there would be dangerous and at the last moment the Actors Guild relented.

One by one Luke's teammates opened their chutes, leaving Luke alone like a 120-mile-per-hour speeding bullet headed for the net. Almost a decade ago, a daredevil in shorts jumped without a parachute, a skydiver locked on like mating butterflies and fastened the guy to his harness. The pair floated down together.

For free falling Luke, the critical part was turning his body a second before he hit the net so his back would hit first. He lay there a moment, the net was lowered. He hugged his wife.

AIKENS: I mean, I'm almost levitating it's incredible. The thing that just happened I mean, the words I want to say I can't even get out of my mouth.

MOOS: Swish nothing but net.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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ALLEN: Absolutely crazy.