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Italy Earthquake Survivors Living in Makeshift Camps; Leaving Syria Behind; New Life No Longer Under ISIS Control; Abuse Allegations Resurface Against Trump's New Campaign Manager. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired August 27, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


[02:00:12] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Italy tries to relocate earthquake survivors now living in makeshift camp as the country's leaders prepare to attend state funerals.

Busses packed with Syrians leave a decimated suburb of Damascus after being besieged for nearly four years. And he buy chocolate, he left his life behind in Syria's capital, but now this man is picking up his dream in Canada.

It's all ahead here on "CNN NEWSROOM." We're live the Atlanta. Thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

Saturday is a national day of mourning for the 281 people killed in Wednesday's massive earthquake in central Italy, the Prime Minister and President are set to attend a state funeral for about 40 of the victims.

Meantime, some residents went back to Pescara del Tronto on Friday to go through their belongings. Thousands of people whose homes were flattened are living in camps. Rescuers are trying to find survivors. Its unclear, how many people may be trapped.

For the people already rescued and in various hospitals, their trauma is far from over. Atika Shubert talks with some of the earthquake survivors who were pulled from the rubble.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little girl plucked from the rubble alive, rescued 17 hours after the earthquake. Many of the victims here were children, enjoying their summer holidays with their families. 4-year-old Georgia Renaldi survived because her older sister, Julia, shielded her from the rubble, sacrificing her own life for her baby sister.

This is Ascoli Hospital and this is where that little girl pulled out of the rubble was brought to for treatment. 99 of those injured during the earthquake were brought here and this is where family members wait for word of their loved ones still living the trauma of their ordeal.

Here, Georgia's father is coming to terms with the loss of one daughter and the survival of the other. He told doctors he was not yet ready to speak to media. But others talk to try and make sense of the destruction.

Giuseppe Bagnato was lying in bed with his wife Dominica when the earthquake struck. Now he is waiting for her to come out of a lengthy surgery.

"For us, it's the end", he told us. "It's a house with so many memories, so much life, but it's finished. We're scared. We won't be coming back. We saw death. We felt it, my wife", and then he breaks down in tears. He says, "We prayed the Madonna wanted to save us."

19-year-old Mattia Rendina was sleeping on the top floor of his family's summer house, his mother in the room next door when the house collapsed.

MATTIA RENDINA, EEARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: My first thought was my mother. My mother is here, but I can't help her.

SHUBERT: Rendina was buried in rubble. It took an hour for his uncle to find him and dig him out with his bare hands.

RENDINA: When I came out, I kissed him. Because -- and I said to him that he was in my life. And -- but my -- my thoughts are still on my mother because she passed away. She's gone.

SHUBERT: He survived with hairline fractures to several vertebrae. His greatest pain is the loss of his mother.

RENDINA: I like this because my mother teach me to be a person like this.

SHUBERT: To be strong.

RENDINA: To be strong, yes.

SHUBERT: Given new life, the survivors of Italy's devastating earthquake are healing slowly. Atika Shubert, CNN, Ascoli Piceno, Italy.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: And we wish them well. For the first time in nearly four years, some Syrian families are getting a brief respite from bombings and what some say are near starvation conditions. Under a just reached evacuation deal between the Syrian government and rebel fighters, thousands of civilians and hundreds of rebels are being given safe passage out of a besieged Damascus suburb.

CNN's Ben Wedeman has the details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Syrian government and rebels have reached an agreement for the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the Damascus suburb of Qayyarah.

Now, Deraya is in a sense of microcosm of the Syrian conflict. Their protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad broke out in 2011, they were peaceful.

[02:05:02] But slowly, the protest turned into an armed struggle. Beginning in November 2012, the suburb which had a population of several hundred thousand was surrounded and besieged by troops loyal to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Over those four years it was bombarded mercilessly and the population dwindled to somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000.

Now, according to this agreement, which is already been put into effect, civilians will be taken by bus to other parts of Damascus housed by the Syrian government. Fighters and their families will be transported, given safe passage by the government to Idlib in the northwestern part of the country. The fighters will be allowed to keep their personal weapons as they go.

Now, what this means is that, in addition to being a victory for the Syrian regime, it means that many of the forces that were tied down besieging Deraya will now be free. The worry is that they're going to be focusing now on the city of Aleppo.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from the Turkish/Syrian border.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. and Russia are close to reaching a Syrian cease-fire agreement. They still have issues to work out. Both sides will try to finalize details while they continue meeting in Geneva.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I can say we achieved clarity on the path forward. We have completed the vast majority of those technical discussions which were primarily focused on making this cessation real in improving the level of humanitarian assistance and, thereby, getting the parties to the table so we can have a serious negotiation about how to end this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The U.S. and Russia are on opposite sides in the war, but share a common enemy in ISIS. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Syria since war began there nearly 5.5 years ago.

Iraq's next big goal is to liberate Mosul, which is the ISIS de facto capital there and the Iraqi army just retook Qayyarah which the officials want to use as a springboard to recapture Mosul.

Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon shows us how much life is already changing for those no longer under ISIS control.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the main road going through the town of Qayyarah, liberated from 24 hours ago from ISIS. And this is Bashi (ph), who we just met. He came out he was waving his (inaudible) item ...

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

He says because they told us to. The Iraqi army told people to come out carrying white flags.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

So I just asked him if he was afraid when the explosions happened and, yes, of course he was. A lot of people we have been talking to were telling us that ISIS was using them as human shields.

There was another father who we met here who was clutching his 2-year- old baby. And he said that ISIS fighters were shooting from his front door at the Iraqi security forces. There was incoming mortar fire and he just remembers grabbing his 2-year-old not being able to see anything and making a run for it out the back door.

We also met Daoud (ph), who is over here. And Daoud (ph) was telling us about how under ISIS -- and this may seem like something very simple, but they weren't allowed to wear shorts. And the adults that were saying shorts were forbidden. And the adults that we're seeing here are all newly clean shaven because under ISIS they had to grow long beards. Not maybe the simplest, the most basic of the hardships that people were going through. There is story after story.

One little girl who was talking to the Iraqi army when they first came in and talked about how her father was strong from one of these posts for three days accused of collaborating with the coalition. You see that thick black smoke. That is because the oil fields around here, that ISIS had set on fire, there's still a blaze. And people we've met, we've been talking to said this has been going on for the last six or seven months.

A number of them did loose their loved ones because of ISIS' brutal rule. All of them said that they would have fled if they could, but ISIS would not allow them to do so. Some of them are telling us about how ISIS separated men from the women and the children, kept people confined to their homes. It was the country's counter terrorism units. You see one of their Humvees coming down the road right now. Some of the other fighters flashing the victory sign that moved in, in the operation to liberate Qayyarah.

[02:10:10] And even though this is being considered as success because it was so strategic for ISIS and that is a very significant victory for the Iraqi security forces, the people here were saying as the town itself can be rebuilt. But what they've lost in terms of lives, that is something that will never be restored.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Qayyarah, Iraq.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: Decades old abuse allegations have surfaced against a Donald Trump ally. Up ahead here, why police responded to a call at Steve Bannon 's home? Also, officially, Ukraine has been under a cease-fire for more than 18 months. The view from the ground does not resemble peace.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: And welcome back. In the race for the White House, Democrats continue to accuse Donald Trump of racism. On Friday, their Vice President pick Tim Kaine told a Florida crowd that Trump promotes values of the white extremist group, the Ku Klux Klan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is their candidate because Donald Trump is pushing their values, Ku Klux Klan values, David Duke values, Donald Trump values, are not American values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemn Kaine's comment stating, "Tim Kaine sunk to new lows with dirty and deplorable attacks which have no place in this campaign. No matter how desperate he is to distract from his running mate Hillary Clinton's litany of corruption scandals, there is no excuse for these vial and baseless smears."

And there's more controversy surrounding Trump's new campaign CEO an old domestic violence charge has surfaced against Steve Bannon, a 1996 police report details an alleged problem between Bannon and his then wife. She claimed he was physically abusive.

We'll get more from CNN's Chris Frates.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Trump's new campaign chief Steve Bannon is already drawing Democratic fire.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The latest shake up was designed to, "Let Trump be Trump." So to do that, he hired Stephen Bannon. The head of a right wing website called breitbart.com as the campaign's CEO.

FRATES: But now the conservative new chief is drawing headlines of his own. Bannon was charged with battery and domestic violence stemming from a 1996 incident involving his then wife.

According to documents obtained by CNN, an argument over money allegedly got physical after Bannon's then wife told him she wanted a divorce. The responding police officer wrote, "She appeared as if she was very upset and had been crying. I saw that her eyes were red and watery. She first said, "Oh, thank you, you are here."

[02:15:06] The police report went on to say that Bannon grabbed her by the neck and wrist pulling her down and leaving red marks where he grabbed her. The report said she fought back, got away from Bannon and dialed 911.

Neither the Trump campaign nor a Bannon spokeswoman return request for comment. Bannon joins the line of someone Trumps inner circle who had drawn controversy.

Former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort's lobbying ties to Ukraine and Russia and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's rough treatment of a female Breitbart reporter drew unwanted scrutiny and defending Trump from a decades old rape accusation, that Ivanka Trump later walk back. Trump attorney Michael Cohen argued, "Of course, understand that by the very definition, you can't rape your spouse."

Trump friend and unofficial adviser Roger Ailes left Fox News, the channel he founded, following allegations of sexual harassment.

Well, Trump seems to invite controversy sometimes. On Friday news broke that the campaign hired Bill Stepien as his national field director. Stepien was a top aide and a campaign manager Chris Christie but then New Jersey governor fired amid to 2014 Bridgegate scandal that's where some aides closed lanes on the George Washington bridge as political retribution.

Now, Stepien was never charged in the federal investigation case. But just this month court documents revealed a text between Christie's aides and said the governor has fled out -- lied about Stepien not being involved in the lane closures, Christie denied there was any truth to that text. But it shows how the controversy lingers two years later.

Chris Frates, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: Well, Derek Van Dam is here and he's got the news of a typhoon that sounds quite ominous just from its name only during the ...

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Lion Rock, very interesting name, to say the least, Natalie. This one is well, not affecting land at the moment, but going forward over the next two to three days, you want to watch out if you are located in or around Tokyo or perhaps you have plans to travel to Tokyo.

Here is the latest from the joint typhoon warning center. This is the latest on typhoon Lion Rock.

At the moment, it is equivalent to a strong category 2 Atlantic hurricane. But remember, we're in the Western Pacific. Here is Taiwan, there's Mainland China. There's Japan at the top portion of your TV screen. Winds at the moment sustained at 175 kilometers per hour. So there has been an uptick in the wind strength right around the center of circulation.

They say, Derek, why do we care about the storm? It is well offshore and it is moving away from shore. That's right. The forecast path for the next 48 hours has it moving in a general northeasterly direction. But look what happens on the extended range models three days out, four days out, it curves it back towards the Northwest. That means mainland Japan, basically the northern half of the northern prefectures need to be aware that this could impact them by the early ponds of next week.

So take precautions, Tokyo to Sendai and into the Hokkaido region. Of course, these computer models still a bit uncertain with all the dynamics taking place here. But there has been that general shift to move this in a northwesterly direction from three to five days out.

Certainly a rainmaker for this area, so we could definitely see some flooding as we go into the extended period. Showers and thunderstorms already present across mainland Japan associated with this tropical system churning about, all right.

I want to bring you to the United States because this is some immediate news that happening in the U.S. State of Missouri. We're going to bring you right in the Kansas City, because they have had a line of showers and thunderstorms that have moved over the metro area for a continuous period of time, maybe three to six hours or so. And this dumped a significant amount of rainfall in a short period of time.

We have flash flood warnings taking place in this area. 150 millimeters plus in that short period left scenes just like this take a look at the flooding into the Kansas City area. You can see cars completely inundated. Of course, it's still night time in this part of the world. We will truly be able to assess the damage of the flooding, the flash flooding that's occurred there once the sun rises this morning about 7:00 a.m.

ALLEN: And that video kind of tells you the story of the cars that they ripped out.

VAN DAM: That's right. First Louisiana, now Missouri.

ALLEN: All right, Derek, thank you.

Ukrainian Armed Forces are testing a new guided precision missile. Official say it has a range up to 300 kilometers and can use a variety of war heads. Publicized missile tests are not typically the stuff of peace time, but Ukraine's case is somewhat unique. A cease-fire has been in effect there for more than a year and a half. But as our Phil Black shows us, the truth exists in name only.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Through this gate is one front line of a war still ravaging a country and destroying lives a year and a half after all sides promised to cease-fire. Where would Ukrainian soldiers (inaudible) in the country's east as they try be to hold the position against pro-Russian forces.

That's incoming fire slamming into the walls of this shed, the people here say that this is what it's like every single day. They're not just lobbing stuff at each other. They're trying to move forward and take each other's territory. Captain Andrei Skarupski (ph) tell us we must now run.

CAPTAIN ANDREI SKARUPSKI (ph): Quickly, quickly, quickly.

BLACK: This short dash for cover draws fire. We shelter in the remains of another devastated building. The source of the incoming fire is very close. So your enemy is out that way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this way. It's only 100 meters.

BLACK: One hundred meters away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

BLACK: A pause in the shooting allows us to move forward. We cross more open ground between old buildings. This industrial site is a fiercely contested prize. The Ukrainian forces say they've lost 10 men here in the last month and there are casualties every day.

Captain Skarupski wants to show us one of the positions they're being attacked from. Yes, just there.

SKARUPSKI (ph): Yes. The building just there.

BLACK: A tall tower-like building so close we could stroll there in less than a minute. We're going to go there. At that moment the fighting picks up. There's incoming fire from several directions. There is now fighting during the day every day, and so this is there, but more than that it's in the evening, 4:00 o'clock like how quick this begins.

(OFF-MIC)

Why is this position, this territory so important? He says, "The enemy has already moved beyond the line of control set in the peace deal known as the Minsk Agreement. He says if the pro-Russian forces move forward from here, they could keep going and take any city in Ukraine.

From relative safety, we listen to the noise of war. Until it gets too close, mortars land just outside. They punch through this building before.

OK. Ready? Chris, you're good?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

BLACK: Bullets whistle around our team during the final run to safety. This is what a cease-fire looks like in Eastern Ukraine.

Phil Black, CNN, Avdiivka.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: And we thank Phil and his crew for bringing that story to us.

In Syria, he owned a chocolate factory that was destroyed in war. As a refugee in Canada, he's rebuilding his life one sweet bite at a time. The story let's have here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:25:02] ALLEN: In a small Canadian town of Antigonish has rallied to help a man who fled the bitterness of Syria's civil war, Residents helped Assam Hadhad build a chocolate business to replace the one he lost. As the CBC's Tom Murphy reports the refugee named his company Peace by Chocolate to honor his new sweet life.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TOM MURPHY, CBC NEWS: How sweet it is when a dream comes true.

TAREQ HADHAD, SON OF SYRIAN CHOCOLATIER & REFUGEE: He is saying it's a big happiness.

MURPHY: Once a desperate refugee, Assam Hadhad, this proud chocolatier just seven months in Canada officially opened his new factory on this day, a tiny but tasty enterprise, he now feels he has truly arrived.

HADHAD: Work is his life like whenever you go out whenever you work, you will have interactions with you and you're community as well as you will develop your ideas and your skills and more.

MURPHY: Long before his new life here in Antigonish, Hadhad was a successful chocolate maker in Damascus, in Syria. He had a large factory employing 30 people, shipping his treats all over the Middle East. Then it was all destroyed in the war.

He came to Canada battered, but not beaten his dream to continue his life's work. His adoptive community Antigonish helped make it happen, buying his chocolates at every turn, at the local market and through special orders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Antigonish is a very caring, loving community.

MURPHY: The community helped build his little building. In turn, he donated chocolate sale proceeds to the Ft. McMurray wildfire victims. Hadhad may know little English, but the fruits of his labor, his chocolates, leave people almost speechless.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very good.

HADHAD: This is like a small community, small town, you know, in this province. But, you know, people here have so many big hearts. So we feel that our duty now is to start this process of turning back.

MURPHY: To pay back.

HADHAD: Yeah, to pay back, you know, for the community here, start hiring, you know, offering jobs.

MURPHY: From refugee to entrepreneur, yes, how sweet life is right now for Assam Hadhad. Tom Murphy, CBC news, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Peace by chocolate, remember that one. Thanks for watching "CNN NEWSROOM." Winning Post" is up after a quick check off our top stories. See you in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)