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More Airstrikes Ahead of Syrian Ceasefire; Hillary Clinton's Apology; State Media: Syrian Govt. Supports Agreement; Airstrikes Kill At Least 58 In Idlib; Truce To Start Sundown Monday, Amid Sticking Points; War-Weary Syrians Skeptical Of Long-Term Peace; Damascus Residents Optimistic About Truce; S. Korean Protesters Burn Kim Jong- un Effigy; Latest Provocation Triggers Worldwide Condemnation; Clinton Regrets "Deplorables" Comment; Trump and Clinton Expected To Visit Ground Zero; Documentary Has Footage From Inside Twin Towers; Would-Be U.S. Presidential Assassin Set Free; UK Village Leading Green Revolution, Going Carbon Neutral; Cockroft Wins Gold At 2016 Paralympics. Aired Midnight-12:30a ET

Aired September 11, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:09] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: A truce is set to start in Syria in less than 48 hours, but as new airstrike hit and women and children are killed, the mood is hardly optimistic. Hillary Clinton makes a public apology after insulting half of Donald Trump's supporters. Plus a small town in England pursues big ambitions hoping to inspire a "Green Revolution." It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us, I'm Natalie Allen.

A nationwide ceasefire in a brutal Syrian civil war is expected to start at sundown on Monday. The Syrian government says it supports the deal, which was agreed upon by Russia and the U.S. State-run TV is acknowledging the agreement, aims to find a political solution to the conflict, but the diplomatic achievement has not changed anything yet. In Idlib which mostly controlled by rebels. Air strike slammed the key city on Saturday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the death toll has risen to 58, about half of them, women and children. It's not clear who carried out the bombings. If the ceasefire taped and holds for seven consecutive days, Russia and the U.S. say they will work closer together to fight terrorist groups. CNN International Diplomatic Editor, Nic Robertson has more for us from Geneva.

[00:01:40] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, this really broad agreement from Secretary Kerry to Sergey Lavrov to U.N., to the opposition, but from everyone across the border, this is a good opportunity to turn the situation around and some of the suffering. But what could be some of the sticking points, the issues going forward, the opposition concerned that there's no real sort of punitive measures to control Assad. What's going to be done if he doesn't agree and doesn't comply with the steps here? A concern on the Russian point of view, this breaking a part the delineation between terrorist rebel groups, Al-Nusra and the more moderate level groups have been fighting together on the battlefield, so getting them to separate, that's going to be tough as strong alliance is formed there. And for the opposition, really going forward, if this is a success, then they're going to want to see what hasn't happened in the past, real pressure. It would have to come from Russia on Assad to go into political transition and leave power. This is the biggest concern going forward. Russia hasn't done that in the past. The humanitarian effort in Aleppo, some confidence that can get going, the ceasefire can hold for a while, but in the past, these things have broken down fairly quickly, and it's often been blamed, at least in the battlefield level, been blamed on the Assad government, control of the Assad government precisely. How does that work? Nic Robertson, CNN Geneva, Switzerland.

ALLEN: The Syrian Army is trying to make significant gains in Aleppo before the ceasefire takes effect, just hours after the deal was announced, the military attacked rebel-held areas in the northern Syrian city. The head of the general staff of the Syrian army visited troops around Ramusa road, Saturday. Both opposition and government forces will have to provide safe access along this key road as part of the ceasefire deal. Aleppo residents and rebel fighters are skeptical about the peace deal, though many agree it is a positive step. No one knows for sure if this latest ceasefire will take and will hold.

ABO ALITH, FREE SYRIAN ARMY FIGHTER (through translator): In all the previous ceasefires, we saw the regime had no commitment to them, and it was ignoring all the terms of these agreements. This is why we are not supportive of the ceasefire at all. They suggest they are for ceasefire when they've been bombing the people from their planes. What kind of ceasefire is that?

ALLEN: That's a Syrian fighter. Some people in Damascus are a little more optimistic.

ALI MUBARAK, DAMASCUS RESIDENT (through translator): I'm optimistic. And Russian are our friends. They do not leave us, but yesterday's agreement is unclear so far, and concerning President Assad, it is a red line. Nobody negotiates the president's role with us.

ALLEN: Others add that a political solution is the only way to end Syria's civil war after five long years. Seemingly, everyone outside of North Korea is decrying the country's latest nuclear test. Unsurprisingly, South Korea has been particularly vocal. Protesters in Seoul burned an effigy of the North Korean leader on Saturday.

World leaders are also condemning the nuclear test, but what is less clear is what they plan to do about it. CNN's Will Ripley looks at reaction.

[00:05:05] WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The shockwaves are still being felt this weekend here in Japan, in South Korea, and really, around the world after North Korea's surprise nuclear test on Friday, believed to be quite possibly its strongest yet, 10 kilotons. The size of the explosion according to South Korean seismologist compared to 46 kilotons for the most recent test back in January, roughly twice the size. It just goes to shows how North Korea's nuclear program is rapidly advancing just like its missile program. There were three successful missile launches last week, and the week before that, a submarine-launched ballistic missile, very troubling for the United States, United Nations, and others. And you heard that chorus of condemnation everywhere from Ban Ki-moon, to President Obama, to South Korea's president, President Park, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. All of them saying that North Korea needs to stop. And even on Saturday, South Korea's top diplomat, the foreign minister saying that new stronger sanctions need to be imposed on the regime, but we've seen that sanctions thus far have not slowed or even had much of an impact at all noticeably on North Korea's weapons development.

Government officials, when I visited most recently in May, said they'd rather tighten their belts and go hungry than give up their nuclear and missile programs or slow the development that was ordered by their leader, Kim Jong-un, who says that this is the only way for North Korea to remain a sovereign state. And him building this arsenal really is an insurance policy according to many analysts who don't expect a nuclear strike, but they say that having a nuclear arsenal and these successful tests lets Kim Jong-un project power domestically and internationally. It allows him to advertise his weapons technology, which could eventually put up - be put up for sale to terrorist organizations or other rogue states. And they also feel it gives North Korea leverage internationally that if their arsenal becomes so strong, so large, that the U.S. and others will have no choice but to recognize North Korea as a full-fledged nuclear state, something that President Obama reiterated on Friday, absolutely won't happen. Will Ripley, CNN Tokyo.

ALLEN: Hillary Clinton is expressing regret for a comment she made about some of Donald Trump's supporters. The U.S. Democratic presidential nominee made the remark Friday night at a fundraising event in New York.

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the "basket of deplorables." Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, you name it.

ALLEN: Trump fired back with this tweet, "Wow, Hillary Clinton was so insulting to my supporters, millions of amazing hardworking people. I think it will cost her at the polls." He also said in other polls that Clinton showed hatred for millions of Americans, and that he respected all of her supporters. Clinton eventually released this statement, and we quote, "I regret saying 'half' - that was wrong. But let's be clear, what's really 'deplorable' is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called 'alt-right' movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values."

Clinton was apparently referring to Steve Bannon, the CEO of Trump's presidential campaign. Be sure to watch State of the Union for an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton. The interview was conducted Friday before her comments on Trump's supporters. That's Sunday at 1:30 in the afternoon in London, 8:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, only here on CNN.

Well, it is now 9/11 here in the Eastern United States, just eight minutes after midnight. 15 years ago Sunday, the world changed forever, when terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11, 2001. Presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will set aside their campaigns to remember the lives lost on 9/11. Both of them are expected to visit ground zero in New York City. Almost 3,000 people died on that day. Four airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks ushered in a new age of terror, but also unified Americans.

Sunday night, CNN will air the film "9/11, 15 Years Later," our Poppy Harlow interviewed the film executive producers and directors, Gedeon and Jules Naudet. The brothers were following a fire-fighter that day for a documentary, when he responded to the attacks. They captured the only footage from inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Here's an excerpt.

JULES NAUDET, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR of "9/11": Filming from the inside, I think, gives a unique point of view to - especially this new generation which is so visual, and 15 years later, a lot of the new generation were not born or were too young to remember it. And I think for people to see it, see from the inside where the fire- fighters lived, what they fought through to save, among - about 20,000 people, something like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

J. NAUDET: It's amazing. I think it gives you a renewed sense of - I know for me, have been grateful what they do - what they do every day, but on that day in particular.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jules, you've always said, "I didn't help anyone, I didn't save anyone, but I could film."

J. NAUDET: Uh-huh. That was the only thing I had. I had my camera. I was - you know, I was there, wasn't really in purpose, expect one that I could do, which was to document what was going on, without realizing that this would become a historic footage, but I knew that the moment I would stop filming, I would go crazy because of the worry for my brother, the worry for what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

J. NAUDET: It was almost like a defense mechanism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, to keep filming. It's also important to remember, 15 years later, the impact of 9/11 still lives on with all of the victims, all of the family members, no one that was in this city or this country will ever forget the fire-fighters and the first responders are still dealing with the effects, dying of cancer from the air they breathed that day. I mean, this is still perpetuating.

GEDEON NAUDET: It is incredible to - for people to discover that 9/11 still kills, even today, and it's terrifying to - for first responders that have to go to health check-up annually. That it's like a lottery for them. They never know what they're going to get, if it's going to be the red flag of this are horrible cancer that already so many have died of. I mean, just inside the wall of Metrotech, which is a FDNY headquarter in Brooklyn, you now have a special wall with 117 names of fire-fighters who passed away due to cancers, related to 9/11. ALLEN: Be sure to watch the Naudet brothers' film, "9/11, 15 Years Later." You can see it on CNN 6:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, 8:00 p.m. in London, and 8:00 p.m. in New York.

A man who tried to kill a former president rejoins society after decades. Why he's being released? Coming up next here. Plus, we'll show you how a small town in the UK is sewing the seeds of an ecological revolution.

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[00:14:49] ALLEN: The man who shot U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981 is now out of a Washington psychiatric hospital. Officials there released John Hinckley, Jr. on Saturday. A court order will allow the 61-year-old to live with his mother in Virginia. Officials say Hinckley is ready to re-assimilate after years of treatment. Our Richard Roth shows us how we got here.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was March 30th, 1981, and John Hinckley wanted to assassinate the President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley waited outside the Washington Hilton Hotel with a revolver as Reagan exited following a speech. He fired six times. A U.S. Secret Service agent and a police officer were injured. Presidential Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head. President Reagan was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off a limousine. The bullet lodging in his chest and he was rushed to the hospital. Hinckley was charged with attempted assassination, and to the amazement of much of the country, was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Why did he do it? Hinckley was obsessed with teenage actress Jodie Foster. He had written her letters, phoned her, stalked her on a campus in Connecticut. He believed that only by killing a president would he be able to impress Foster. Hinckley was then confined in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington for nearly 35 years. Eventually, he was given supervised released privileges to see his parents in Virginia. Prosecutors at several points said he was not fit to be out, however, eventually a federal judge declared that he was not a threat to himself or others. There were many ramifications to Hinckley's attempted assassination, one of them the Brady Bill, named in in honor of James Brady, the presidential Press Secretary seriously wounded in the assassination attempt. Brady died in 2014. He death was declared a homicide, but John Hinckley would not be charged with that death, because he had already been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

ALLEN: All right. We're going to turn to the weather now. And Derek's here, and what is this I'm saying, "If you thought your weather has been bad recently, well, it may get worse." When you say bad, what do you mean? Hot?

[00:17:11] DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: No.

ALLEN: Or do you mean floods, drought and fires?

VAN DAM: More rain - more heavy-rain events, more flooding. Not good. Remember what happened in Louisiana last month?

ALLEN: Of course.

VAN DAM: Well, we have a new study, just confirming what scientists have already known basically, Natalie, but this new study from NOAH, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration here in the United States, is saying that warming due to an increase in Greenhouse gases are increasing our chances for extremely heavy rain events, specifically across the gulf coast where Louisiana is, and where the picture is that you're looking on the TV right now. The theory here is that more water vapor in the air, obviously with a warmer planet, means that we have the capacity to expel more rainfall, more heavy rainfall events. And I'm going to get into some detail what this study actually says. But this is just a flashback of what took place in the middle of the month last August, or rather 30 days ago, roughly. It was quite amazing, because nearly 800 millimeters fell in a three-to-four-day period leading to flooding scenes like that.

So, here's the specifics of the NOAH study, the NOAH findings. And this is really crucial because this is not just for the gulf coast, this is for other parts of the world, as well. What we're seeing - we're using Louisiana as an example, but what we're seeing is a 40 percent increase in the risk of similar events taking place, but in a shorter span of time. Let me explain. So, comparatively to the year 1900, where heavy rain events like this would occur every 50 years, now we're seeing that today, 2016, those heavy rain events occurring every 30 years. And it's not only the frequency becoming less and less, it's also the intensity going up and up. In fact, by about 10 percent, that three-day rainfall event in at least in inches, increasing with these heavy rain events. So, we're talking about a comparison from 1900 compared to today, roughly two inches or roughly 100 millimeters. So, you can see just how much rain could potentially fall out of these extremely heavy rain events.

And look what's happening across Southeast Asia, and the potential of more rainfall. We have flooding into, at least, Thailand - or not Thailand, rather Taiwan, and into Southeast China, as well as the Japanese mainland. And this is all thanks to a severe tropical storm that is headed that way. And think about the topography across this particular region. Remember, mountains allow for more rain to fall in an area, because it's basically taking a wet sponge and pushing that up against a wall, for instance, and squeezing out all of that available moisture. This is a storm that we're going to monitor very, very closely for the days to come. But isn't that a fascinating study here by NOAH? It's really just proving what scientists have been saying for years and years and years. Now, they have hard evidence to show that.

ALLEN: Fascinating. Depressing.

VAN DAM: A little bit depressing at the same time, but it's important -

ALLEN: Thus come back to warming.

VAN DAM: But it's important that we understand it and know it, so we can start taking actions to prevent it.

ALLEN: Yeah, we need to. Then leading to one town in the UK is doing just that. And Isa Soares has their story.

[00:20:18] ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Picturesque, quaint, and traditional, Ashton Hayes is a village that is quietly living a "Green Revolution." And its youngest are leading the change.

What are you trying to teach other people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not to make waste and not to waste energy.

SOARES: It's a principle they live by. In the last three months, Ashton Hayes primary school has become carbon negative, running entirely on free electricity, thanks in part the roofs covered with solar panels.

These five peoples have become eco leaders, sharing tips with others on waste, energy, and water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've learned like not to leave the tap running while you're brushing your teeth, and we've learned not to leave your light on, like, so you can open your curtains, and then the sunlight - so the sunlight shines in, instead of just leaving your light on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've learned that air-conditioning and things like that, windows would do just as good as the job.

SOARES: Luckily for the children and the community here, there's no enforced Eco homework, that's because Garry Charnock has made his Going Carbon Neutral project fund a political and volunteer.

GARRY CHARNOCK, CREATOR OF GOING CARBON NUETRAL PROJECT: We've not told anybody to do anything. We've just said would you please share with us what happens when you do something. And it's the sharing of the community of ideas, which inspires others, so it's this grassroots movement, rather being told from the top. It's all come up from the bottom, and some people do certain things, and we learn from them, and we all help one another to do the next step.

SOARES: So, they do what they can. Some swap the dryer for the clothesline, others use a hybrid, some install water and solar panels, and others buy locally-sourced fruit and vegetables.

These changes of habits, these sacrifices, such as getting on your bike rather than using your car, already reaping rewards. In the last 10 years, the community here has been able to reduce emissions by a quarter putting Ashton Hayes on the map, and on its way to becoming England's first carbon-neutral village.

For this community, this is a huge source of pride. After all, they've been able to get here on their own initiative without a single politician insight. An inspirational community that is hoping their ideas to save the planet can inspire others further afield. Isa Soares, CNN, Ashton Hayes, England.

ALLEN: We'll just make Ashton Hayes our "village of the day." Coming up, she is nicknamed, "The Hurricane," and she's the Paralympic champion, yet again. And look at Team Great Britain's superstar when we come back.

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[00:24:38] ALLEN: We have a story now on a Paralympics racing champion. She is champion yet again at the Rio Paralympics. The British wheelchair athlete Hannah Cockroft won the T34 100 meters Saturday. She won the same event in 2012, as well as the 200-meter. Here's a look at Hannah, the athlete nicknamed, "The Hurricane."

HANNAH COCKROFT, BRITISH WHEELCHAIR ATHLETE: I think people don't realize how much rivalry there is in wheelchair racing. Once you get off the track, we're all quite good friends, but when you're on that track, you're racing as an individual sport. As people hitting your hands off the rims, as people trying to push you out of packs. It's a bit like being in a pack of lions. And you've got to keep up or else you're going to get left behind. My name is Hannah Cockroft. I am a British wheelchair racer. I race in T34 category. T34, the T stands for track, and 34 stands for athletes with brain damage and cerebral palsy. When I was one, I had two cardiac arrests. The first one happened about three minutes after my birth, and that damaged some parts of my brain. And the second one happened a week after my birth, and that damaged other parts of my brain. And there is no one else in the world like me.

There is a chair custom built to fit me, so the bucket is built for around kind of my lower body. I sit on my legs, which is incredibly uncomfortable. There is the front wheel that's attached to kind of - I guess it's like steering, and then something underneath, like a triangle, but a lot of people know if we hit during the race, that actually does the steering for us when we're in a track race, so you're not missing pushes to go up and steer on the handlebars.

I hold the world record for the 100, 200, 400, and 800-meter. I won two gold medals at the London 2012 Paralympics. London feels like it was yesterday, and at the same time, it feels like it never happened. It changed the world for me and for every Paralympian. People start to look at us as actual athletes. Wheelchair racing, it's my life. When I'm in the chair, I'm totally free. I'm independent and I can do anything that a person on their feet can do. If I put you in a race chair, I bet you couldn't go faster than me.

ALLEN: The Paralympics are still underway in Rio. That's CNN NEWSROOM. This is (INAUDIBLE) it's coming up next. I'm Natalie Allen. Thanks for watching.

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