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President Obama and Prime Minister May Meet; Pope Francis to Canonize Mother Teresa; Earthquake Felt in Seven U.S. States; Race for the White House. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired September 04, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... in the United States and U.S. companies in the United Kingdom. And that's not going to stop.

And we're going to do everything we can to make sure that the consequences of the decision don't end up unraveling what is already a very strong and robust economic relationship that can become even stronger in the future.

But first things first. And the first task is going to be figuring out what Brexit means with respect to Europe. And our first task is making sure that we get, first, TPP done but also that we move forward on the TTIP negations, in which we've already invested a lot of time and effort.

OK?

Thank you very much, everybody.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Theresa May, the prime minister of the U.K., and President Barack Obama, holding a joint news conference after their meeting there at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, both reaffirming their longstanding relationship, their close ties, despite this era of Brexit, reaffirming their commitment to fight ISIS, to come together on the migration crisis and to try and stop the Syrian war.

As far as the meetings between Russia and the United States, the President of the U.S. said we're not there yet as far as an agreement. But he certainly hopes if they can work through difficult decisions with differences with Russia.

Also the president was asked about the kerfuffle when he arrived between some Chinese officials and the U.S. And he said this isn't out of the ordinary; the U.S. has a big footprint, lots of media, helicopters, cars and such and they just wanted to make sure that the news media had access.

And there were some issues with the Chinese officials on that. So we'll continue to cover the G20 summit as it continues to march on there in Hangzhou.

And our Matt Rivers is there. He'll be covering it for us from his vantage point.

This news conference that just ended, Matt, this, the first meeting of Prime Minister May and President Obama?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. This is really the first time we have seen the new British prime minister take the stage at a major international conference like this, the first time she has held a joint statement like this with the president at an international conference like this.

What you heard, I think, more than anything else is both leaders really affirming their commitment to one another, saying, look, there's a lot of stuff that still needs to happen in order for a new trade deal to be worked out between the United States and Britain after Brexit happened.

And so there's still a lot of things to happen there but they both reaffirmed each other's strong stances in terms of how much they value the relationship between both sides.

The other thing that Prime Minister May brought up, she was asked a question, does Brexit actually mean Brexit?

Is there any chance that Britain would stay in the European Union?

And she said Brexit means Brexit, that the British people voted to leave; that is what's going to happen. And she said she's going to spend most of her time here at the G20, trying to lay the groundwork for negotiating new trade deals.

A very positive message from her, saying that economic data, perhaps not as bad as many economists feared after a post -- in this post- Brexit world we live in. But she was also very quick to say the road ahead will not always be smooth; things will be difficult, negotiations will be tough at times. It won't all be smooth sailing. That's is certainly going to be at the top of her agenda at the G20 summit.

ALLEN: Another meeting getting a lot of attention, Matt, is the one that will take place with President Obama and the Turkish prime minister, Erdogan. It's a big deal in light that there was almost a coup in Turkey recently.

RIVERS: Right. This is the first time that President Obama will meet with his Turkish counterpart since that failed coup attempt back in July. And this meeting comes at a time where there are very strained relationships between the United States and Turkey.

The United States really relies quite heavily on Turkey in its ongoing fight against ISIS, launching airstrikes regularly from an airbase in Turkey against ISIS targets.

And so the United States really has a very strong incentive to make sure its relationship with Turkey stays strong. That said, since that failed coup attempt back in July, Turkish officials have been really quite critical of the United States, saying the Obama administration did not support the Erdogan administration enough.

There's been some in Turkey that have even suggested America might have played some role in the attempted coup. Now American officials have strongly denied that but, still, American officials, including Vice President Joe Biden going to Turkey to make sure that the relationship stays strong.

He met with President Erdogan just a few weeks ago, reaffirming --

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RIVERS: -- the United States' commitment to President Erdogan.

The other issue, of course, would be the Turkish theologian, Fethullah Gulen, who's currently living in exile in the United States. Turkey wants to extradite him. The United States says they would rather see it go through a court of law. But both countries have a lot to discuss when those two leaders meet for the first time since that failed coup attempt in July.

ALLEN: All right. Matt Rivers for us in Hangzhou. We'll talk with you again as the summit pushes on. Thanks, Matt.

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ALLEN: Another story we are following closely in the coming hours, thousands of people will gather in Rome to witness Mother Teresa becoming a saint. Known as the Saint of the Gutters, Mother Teresa devoted her life to helping the poor in India. She received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in 1979. She died in 1997 at the age of 87.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now from Kolkata, where Mother Teresa founded her organization, Missionaries of Charity.

Hello, there, Alexandra. You've been talking with people that knew her and worked with her. This must be quite a moment for them.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Natalie, if you know nothing else about Kolkata, you probably at least associate the name of this city with the name of the woman who will become a saint in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

And that is creating a certain amount of joy for people who live in this city, even though it is a predominantly Hindu city and that is, of course, a Catholic ceremony.

But we're out here in front of the house that Mother Teresa lived in; it's where she worked, it's where she died, it's where her tomb is even today. She rose to international acclaim because of the work she did out here on the streets.

Of course, good deeds aren't enough to qualify you for Catholic sainthood. There are rigors, there are regulations, it requires miracles. We actually spoke to one woman, who says she did receive a life-saving miracle from Mother Teresa just a year after Mother Teresa's death.

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FIELD (voice-over): Mother Teresa's ascension to sainthood is rooted in a modest village in Eastern India.

FIELD: You believe really that you're here today because of a true miracle.

FIELD (voice-over): "I have been cured by Mother Teresa's blessings, not because of doctors' treatments," she says.

FIELD: Thank you so much for having us here in your home.

FIELD (voice-over): Monica Besra says there was a miracle here 18 years ago.

"I saw a spark of light emerge from Mother's photo and reflect on my tumor," she tells us.

Later a pendant given to her by one of Mother Teresa's missionaries was placed on that tumor.

"The sister left the locket on my stomach where I had the tumor and tied a black thread there and put me to sleep. When I woke up at 5:00 am, I saw there was a photograph of Mother Teresa behind me. I told Sister that the big tumor in my stomach is no longer there. Then I showed everyone where the tumor was and the locket."

FIELD: The majority of people here are Hindu. But after she was cured, Monica converted. There are now about 10 families in the village who are all Catholic. They even built a church in Mother Teresa's name.

FIELD (voice-over): To the Catholic Church, she is a saint in part because of Besra's miracle, one of two needed to fulfill the church's requirements for canonization.

But Mother Teresa's critics say the canonization is more veneration for a woman whose deeds never measured up to the size of her global reputation. Some have made allegations about poor hygienic conditions at facilities run by her charity.

A longtime volunteer for her organization, the Missionaries of Charity, rejected the claims, calling them "rubbish."

Dr. Chatterjee (ph) is one of her most vocal critics. He doesn't believe there was a miracle. He credits doctors who had previously treated Besra. Some doctors claim her tumor was really a cyst caused by tuberculosis.

DR. CHATTERJEE (PH), MOTHER TERESA CRITIC: Even in India, hardly anybody believes the miracles to be genuine. Her doctors made statements to the effect that there were a number of those. FIELD (voice-over): But Mother Teresa remains revered the world over. Catholic sainthood will further cement her legacy of doing good among admirers, among believers. To them, Monica Besra is living proof.

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FIELD: And the Mother House here in Kolkata, as it's called, is still the headquarters for the Missionaries of Charity. It's sort of the center of action in the city of Kolkata today. It is the place where Mother Teresa's sisters will be watching the canonization in just a few hours.

They've also set up a screen out here so people come out and watch and be a part of this moment, which is really a historical moment in the life of this city and we understand there are even a group of nuns who are headed to Vatican City --

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FIELD: -- to personally be a part of this moment watching the canonization of Mother Teresa -- Natalie.

ALLEN: We can sense the buzz there behind you, Alexandra. Thanks for that report, Alexandra Field for us in Kolkata and CNN will be providing coverage of the canonization as it occurs here in just a few hours.

There are no reports of damage after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Southern Philippines.

In the U.S., Tropical Storm Hermine is gaining strength along the East Coast. Derek Van Dam is following both of these developments for us and joins me now.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: So much to cover in the weather center at the moment. But we're going to start in the Philippines, where the 5.9 magnitude earthquake took place.

This was about 400 kilometers to the south and west of Davao, to the north and east of Davao City region, this is in the island of Mindanao. Take a look at my graphics and you'll see exactly where this particular system took place. I should say earthquake. Here's the details, 5.9 magnitude. The depth was 12.4 kilometers below the surface of the Earth. This puts it at a relatively shallow earthquake.

That's significant when we consider previous earthquakes of this magnitude. What that means, if it was a deeper earthquake, 300 kilometers or deeper, we would have so much more ground and rock and rubble to actually absorb the shock.

But the fact this is on the surface means that the shaking would have been felt and that ripple effect would have been felt for several hundreds of kilometers in radius.

So this is an area that we need to continue to monitor because even though it's the middle of the day in Mindanao as we speak, that doesn't mean that -- and there haven't been reports of damage thus far, that doesn't mean there won't be, especially as they start to assess the situation further into some of the rural areas.

This is what we know so far from the U.S. Geological Survey. We have had around 235,000 feel strong to very strong shaking from this magnitude 5.9 earthquake. So as you can imagine, the potential for fatalities exist and comparing previous earthquakes of this magnitude, previous earthquakes of this depth, this is what the USGS puts out as a probability of fatalities, a 65 percent fatalities between zero or not, to one fatality.

So that would be our best chances and it drops off dramatically from there and you can see that fatalities out of this magnitude of an earthquake, similar to this, would likely not pose a fatality threat greater than 100 people.

We're going to flip gears here. We need to talk about the East Coast of the United States. If you're traveling in and out of New York, Boston, into Philadelphia, perhaps Baltimore, even the nation's capital, you need to pay attention because this particular area is, well, very close to a tropical disturbance.

It's called a post-tropical Hermine. But we don't want to get mixed up in the terminology because this is just a lot of meteorological information. What I'm going to try to portray for you is that this storm is going to slowly meander closer and closer to the New England coastline, that would be into the United States, over the next several days.

Look at the latest tropical storm warnings, anywhere you see that shading of blue. It includes Atlantic City. So the major concerns here are going to be a tropical storm surge threat, 3 to 5 feet above normal high tide.

The rain looks as if it will stay just off shore but, Natalie, you don't need to be a meteorologist to understand just how close that is to some of the major metropolitans of the United States. They will definitely feel the winds, at least, from this storm as well.

ALLEN: It's still out there.

VAN DAM: It is. It will continue to churn for several days to come.

ALLEN: All right. Derek, thank you.

VAN DAM: All right.

ALLEN: We also have our eyes on perhaps what is a manmade earthquake from the state of Oklahoma. Authorities there are ordering the closure of 35 wells that dispose of toxic wastewater.

Oklahoma's governor says the wells may have played a role in the earthquake on Saturday. For more about that, here's meteorologist Allison Chinchar.

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ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Here is what we know. It was a magnitude earthquake of 5.6. Now that ties for the strongest earthquake in Oklahoma recorded history. It was about 74 miles north- northeast of Oklahoma City and about an hour west of Tulsa.

But it's the depth that's most important with this particular earthquake. It was only 6.6 kilometers deep or about 4 miles.

When it's that shallow, and it may not seem like it, 4 miles may seem pretty far away. But in earthquake terminology, that's incredibly shallow. And that means that areas that are pretty far from the epicenter will still feel some of that shaking.

Here is a picture of a well-built brick home in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is about 30 minutes away from the epicenter. Notice the giant crack that runs through the center of that building. In Stillwater, not the only area that felt it, we had 3.7 million people that felt some form of light --

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CHINCHAR: -- shaking with this earthquake and over 200,000 people that felt moderate shaking. In fact, this particular earthquake was felt in as many as seven different states.

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ALLEN: Allison Chinchar with that for us.

Donald Trump spent the day trying to win support from minority voters at a church in Detroit. But outside the church, he wasn't so welcome. We'll have that coming up for you.

Also, Turkey opens a new line of attack against ISIS. How the military operation in Northern Syria is evolving.

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ALLEN: On the U.S. campaign trail, this weekend, Donald Trump is reaching out to African American voters.

The U.S. Republican presidential candidate took his campaign to Detroit, Michigan, Saturday, where he attended a service at a predominantly black church. It's the first time he's directly addressed a largely black audience since he began his presidential campaign. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more now.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump took his outreach to African American voters right to the African American community here in Detroit. Donald Trump's spoke to the great faith ministries where he abandoned his characteristic brashness, in favor of a little bit of a more subdued tone.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For centuries, the African American church has been the conscience of our country For centuries, the African-American church has been the conscience of our country. So true.

It's from the pews and pulpits and Christian teachings of black churches all across this land that the Civil Rights movement lifted up its soul and lifted up the soul of our nation.

It's from these pews that our nation has been inspired toward a better moral character, a deeper concern for mankind, and spirit of charity and unity that binds us all together. And we're bound together and I see that today.

This was -- this has been an amazing day for me. The African American faith community has been one of God's greatest gifts to America and to its people.

DIAMOND: That rhetoric was very different from the kind that Trump has employed on the campaign trail in recent weeks, as he's made his outreach to African American voters largely before predominantly white crowds.

Donald Trump has talked about African Americans saying that they have, quote, "nothing to lose in voting for him," saying that they have no jobs, no schools.

I also caught up with Dr. Ben Carson, who went with Donald Trump to his childhood home here in Detroit. And this is how Dr. Carson talked about Donald Trump's remarks.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, if you ask him about those comments, though and allow him to explain it, you'll see he said very readily, I have a lot of African American friends who are very wealthy, who do very well and I know that the majority of black people don't live that way.

But the problem is we have a very large percentage --

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CARSON: -- of people in our inner cities who are not experiencing any of the benefits of our society. And that's a problem for all of us.

DIAMOND: But here outside the church where Donald Trump spoke to African American voters, there were a number of protesters who showed up and they said that they're not going to forget Donald Trump's brash words anytime soon.

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ALLEN: And here's a look at those protesters Jeremy just mentioned.

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ALLEN (voice-over): While Trump spoke to the congregation inside the church, these protesters outside were calling for him to leave their city. Trump has been criticized throughout his campaign for not reaching out to African American voters in their communities.

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ALLEN: In other news we're following, more than 30 people have been arrested in Venezuela for mocking President Nicolas Maduro. Mr. Maduro was inspecting a state housing project when scores of people started banging on pots and pans and jeering him.

His popularity has declined as a result of the country's economic crisis. Saturday's arrests followed a massive anti-government protest on Thursday.

Police in the Philippines are looking for three people they want to question about Friday night's deadly explosion in Davao City. The blast killed 14 people at a crowded market and wounded nearly 70 others.

The national police chief says it was caused by an improvised explosive device made of mortar rounds and he says that points to involvement by extremist groups. People in Davao are in shock at what happened. They came to a vigil to lay flowers and pray for the victims of the blast.

Turkey is expanding its military operations in Northern Syria against ISIS. Turkish tanks helped rebels sweep militants from several villages. This offensive represents a new line of attack against ISIS.

Turkey also moved forward with construction of a border wall near the Kurdish town of Kobani. Angry demonstrators have been protesting against it and there have been clashes with Turkish police.

And inside Turkey, officials say more than 100 Kurdish PKK militants are dead after clashing with security forces in the southeast. State media says seven Turkish soldiers were also killed and 21 others wounded.

In neighboring Iraq, security forces dropped thousands of leaflets south of Mosul on Saturday.

The messages read, "Our goal is to clean your town from ISIS soon. Protect yourself, don't be human shields for the enemy. Leave the town immediately. You don't have enough time."

The Catholic Church will soon canonize Mother Teresa as a saint. Our Mallika Kapur knew Mother Teresa in Kolkata. She'll share her memories with us right after this.

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ALLEN: Mother Teresa, the nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor in India, will soon join the ranks of other Catholic saints. CNN's Mallika Kapur grew up in Kolkata, where Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity. And she shares her memories of the woman in the white and blue sari.

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MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Mother Teresa came to India, a young nun following her calling, she came to this bustling city in the East and never left. Kolkata became her home. It's where my --

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KAPUR (voice-over): -- home is, too. I enjoyed a simple, happy childhood here. It revolved around family, friends, school and Mother Teresa figured prominently in each of those spheres of my life.

KAPUR: Initially, Mother Teresa was part of the Loretta Order of Nuns, the same order that set up this school, Loretta House, my school. And I remember sitting in these very classrooms, listening to nuns tell us stories about Mother Teresa.

KAPUR (voice-over): Locals call her simply Mother. And I often saw Mother and her sisters going about their work, helping, caring feeding the poorest of the poor. Back then, I had no idea I was watching history unfold.

She lived in the heart of the city, in this simple room where she later died. Visitors from all faiths and all walks of life were always welcome at Mother's house. It's where I first met her.

KAPUR: She gave me this prayer and then she took my hand in her hands. She had a really firm grip.

And then she said to me over and over again, "God bless you, my child, God bless you."

KAPUR (voice-over): Mother adored children and many local families, including mine, often helped out at her home for abandoned children.

KAPUR: When I was a little girl, I wrote a poem on Mother Teresa. And the next time I came here, I had just tagged along with my mother, who was volunteering here at the children's home.

And Mother Teresa met me and she said, "Come here, come here, I want to show you something."

And she had taken my poem and framed it -- and, by framing, I mean putting it in a sheet of plastic. And she had stuck it right here. KAPUR (voice-over): Some residents complained she put Kolkata on the

global map for the wrong reasons: poverty and desperation. But most locals are protective of her. They say they're proud our city produced a saint -- Mallika Kapur, CNN, Kolkata.

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ALLEN: Her canonization, the ceremony, begins in just a few hours in Vatican City.

Zoo Atlanta, right here in our town, is welcoming not one but two newborn giant pandas. They're not giant quite yet. Nineteen-year-old Lun Lun gave birth to twins Saturday. We're seeing this video of mom and cubs now. The little babies so tiny, so pink.

It's the second set of twins for Lun Lun. They're her sixth and seventh cubs with Zoo Atlanta's male, Yang Yang. So congrats.

Pandas, such interesting little creatures when they're so tiny.

Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. Our top stories are right after this.

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