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White Supremacist Rally Poorly Attended in D.C.; Investigation Underway into How Employee Stole a Plane; Deepfakes could Become New Tool in Misinformation Efforts; Final Moments of Yemen School Boys Captured on Video; NASA Launches Groundbreaking Solar Probe. Aired 1- 2am ET

Aired August 13, 2018 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Kids playing on a school bus and then tragedy. CNN has obtained a video showing the final moments of the Yemeni school boys before they were hit by an airstrike.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Plus, a counter-protest larger in the actual protest. A march for white supremacist and the U.S. Capitol did not have quite the impact many expected.

VANIER: And NASA is aiming for the sun by launching a new spacecraft that could make history.

ALLEN: It will be there just a few months. Hello everyone, thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen, we're in Atlanta.

VANIER: And I'm Cyril Vanier, CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

ALLEN: We have another chapter to share with you unfortunately and that Yemen tragedy. CNN has obtained cell phone footage showing the final moments of a group of schoolboys in Yemen before many of them were killed in an airstrike by the U.S. backed Saudi-led coalition. It was filmed by one of the students Osama Zeid Al Homran. It shows the classmates jostling and yelling during roll call, excited to be on the bus and playing chase with their friends.

VANIER: Now, the trip was a reward for the religious schools graduating summer class and their teacher told CNN that the boys had been sleepless with excitement for days. Less than an hour after the video ends Osama and many of the children seen in the video were dead. Some of the scenes in Nima Elbagir's reports are graphic and distressing but they reflect the reality of this horrible tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're taking roll calls. They're probably (INAUDIBLE). This is the day we're told the students had expressly been awaiting for weeks. The little boy filming, Osama, swings to self around to capture all his friends. They're due to graduate today after two months of some school. First stop is a shrine to the Houthi masses. It may not seem like a fun day out but in a city ravaged by war this cemetery is one of the few remaining green spaces. The children scatter in a games chase. Less than an hour later and most of the children you'll see in this video we're dead.

Osama's phone was found in the wreckage of the bus and with it the children's last moments. CNN obtained the footage from local Houthi official. This attack on the school bus carrying children by the U.S. backed Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen has drawn condemnation. The coalition maintains the attack hit a legitimate target, trainers and the closest are child soldiers. Still, the Coalition is investigating and says it is fighting to reinstate Yemen's legitimate president after his overthrow by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias. Three years on though, and the devastation in Yemen continues. The surviving children struggle to piece together what happened.

The scope of the tragedy still too difficult to absorb. (INAUDIBLE) is a medic, the first at the scene.

Many of the bodies found after the attack, are so mutilated that the process of identifying them has been drawn out and torturous. While the men busy themselves the digging little graves waiting to be filled one by one. You can hear the joy in Osama's voice. Ali, Muhammad, he pulls out chasing behind them, wait. Let's take a picture and the camera goes dead. Nima Elbagir, CNN London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Just a sweet little voice. The U.S.-backed Saudi coalition said it launched the airstrikes on missile launchers and it was "a legitimate military operation." It accused the Houthi rebels of using children as human shields. The U.S. Defense Secretary has come out in support of an investigation.

[01:05:00] JAMES MATTIS, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I have dispatched a three-star general into Riyadh to look into what happened here and if there is anything we can do to preclude this in the future even while we support State Department's call for an investigation.

VANIER: Mattis added that the U.S. is concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and supports a United Nations-brokered negotiation. There were reports of sporadic clashes in the city of Ghazni in Afghanistan. Taliban militants launched a fierce attack there on Friday. Now, Ghazni is on the main highway connecting Kabul with the country's south.

ALLEN: A hospital official says more than 100 people have been killed since the fighting between the militants and government forces began. Afghan forces are in control of government centers. According to a U.S. military spokesman, American planes conducted five airstrikes Saturday and four more Sunday.

In Washington, thousands of anti-racist protesters are cheering after a much-hyped racist rally fizzled out. Organizers had expected hundreds of white nationalists for the Unite The Right Two event but only about two dozen showed up. They marched near the White House wearing masks and American flags.

VANIER: But they were confronted by huge crowds of anti-hate groups who shouted "shame, shame" and "Nazis go home." Organizers for the counter protests said they marched in force to show white supremacists that bigotry and hate in the U.S. is not welcome. Now the rallies in D.C. wrap up a weekend of mostly peaceful protests on the first anniversary of the deadly Charlottesville riots.

ALLEN: That's when white nationalist violence led to injuries and the death of a young woman, a counter-protester. Anti-hate groups were not about to let that happen again in Washington Sunday as we just reported. For more about it here CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a day of passion and high energy here in Washington and just about all it was on the side of the anti-racist protesters who vastly outnumbered the white supremacist protestors. There were several thousand anti-racist, anti-fascist demonstrators from a coalition of about 30 different groups and Black Lives Matter to Antifa to other groups opposing the white supremacist message. They showed out in force on the streets of Washington where the white supremacist only had maybe a couple of dozen people if that many and their message was drowned out.

This is just a bit of a flare-up toward the end of the day here where some -- a few counter-protesters, people who may have been white supremacist we don't know showed up with a flag and were confronted by some of these people here with a counter message. Again we don't know if they were white supremacists or not but there was a flare-up. There was a little bit of jostling. There were screaming at them. They quickly took refuge behind a line of police and that was what led to this confrontation here over my shoulder.

So some of these protesters are now leaving and kind of moving this way after police have basically cordoned off this area and gotten those few counter protesters out of the way to safety. So while you can say that the -- most of the protests were peaceful and it dispersed earlier in the day than anticipated some of the anger has not dissipated. So some of these people are still hanging around and you know, what we can say kind of carried the day is the security measures that the police have put up. Right here and elsewhere in Lafayette Park over here the counter racist protesters, the anti- racist protesters were not allowed to get really within about 100 yards of where the white supremacists were and that prevented what could have been a confrontation similar to what happened in Charlottesville.

The police are very cognizant of that but that really didn't happen in any large measure. And what did happen was that the white supremacists were so severely drowned out by the counter-protesters that they left. They didn't even finish their speaking program. Brian Todd, CNN Washington.

VANIER: The one-year anniversary of the events in Charlottesville, let's discuss with Mo Ivory, she's an Attorney and Professor of law at Georgia State University. Chris Faulkner joins us as well. He's a Republican Strategist. Mo, let me turn to you first. So, in the end, there were just two dozen people who showed up on the on the side of the extreme right. Do you take any comfort in that?

MO IVORY, LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: I do. I really do. I was very glad to see that you know, they were -- they just -- it was just so different from last year and you know it's sort --

VANIER: We were just discussing the legacy of Charlottesville yesterday.

IVORY: Yes, and you know, and Chris was even saying yesterday that it was just a disgusting display that they came out and I was thinking, I wonder what it will be like tomorrow. And so here today there was only a dozen, two dozen of them. I think it's a real symbol that you know Americans are standing up to this and they're saying no. I mean, greatly outnumbered. I had many friends who were in D.C. today and were out there and they felt that it was a -- they were a little bit disturbed about the way the police handled it and sort of that they got an escort and they had their own transportation but that's fine.

[01:10:15] VANIER: Yes, but that's a separate debate.

IVORY: Right. I think that the whole message of today was that we will not stand for that and that people will come out in great numbers to protest against it.

VANIER: Chris, yesterday we started discussing the legacy of Charlottesville when you're on and how it has changed the conversation on race in the U.S. What does today and what we saw from Washington today tell us?

CHRIS FAULKNER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think it's just a continuing evolution of race relations in the conversation on race in our country. I tweeted a photo earlier before we started on the show. You know, 1925 there were 15 or excuse me, there were 50,000 Ku Klux Klan members that marched down that same Street in Washington D.C. and today you could -- less than what 25 or something like that. And a great irony, the great irony that most of those police officers that were putting their lives and their personal safety on the line to protect the freedom of speech that they vehemently disagree with, those officers were mostly African American. If that doesn't speak just volumes to think about the -- is our country perfect absolutely not. The conversation of race inequalities needs to continue but we've shown obviously a lot of progress and I think that's very encouraging for anyone.

VANIER: So then I wonder and I want to put this question to Mo because this is something, Chris, you were telling us yesterday. You -- I remember the first thing you said was why are we talking about this so much and I sort of pushed back saying well this is a legitimate conversation. So Chris has a point, doesn't he? He has two piece -- if two dozen people show up maybe it isn't as big a deal as perhaps yesterday, only yesterday we thought it was.

IVORY: No, I don't think that. I think that what happened was that there was so much coverage and so much concern about what was going to happen on the anniversary of Charlottesville that I think America became mobilized then the anti-protesters came out to say no we're not having this again. But I don't think it all reduces the conversation that continues to meet -- that that needs to continue to happen. And you know frankly that legislation and that protections and that police reform and all kinds of things go together in to bring the racial tension down in America. That has to continue.

VANIER: All right, there's another aspect that I want to bring in now and it is this. A reality T.V. star turned White House aide is stepping up her attacks on her former boss. Omarosa Manigault Newman has been promoting her new -- and it has to be said mostly unverifiable memoir of her time, her short time in the White House. She writes the president own Trump is a racist and she likens him to a cult leader. And now she is releasing what she says are secret recordings of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her. She says those recordings were made in a Situation Room which by the way is supposed to be one of the most secure places in the White House and indeed in the world. Here's one of those recordings.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN, FORMER AIDE, WHITE HOUSE: Can I ask you a couple questions? Does the President -- is the President aware of this thing?

JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Don't -- let's not go down the road. This is a non-negotiable discussion.

NEWMAN: I don't want to negotiate. I've never talked -- had a chance to talk to you, General Kelly, so this is my departure. I'd like to have at least an opportunity understand.

KELLY: We can -- we can talk another time. This has to do with some pretty serious violations -- integrity violations. So let it go with that. So the staff and everyone on the staff works for me not the President.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, now, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is responding to Omarosa's secret recording.

VANIER: In a statement, Sanders writes that the very idea a staff member with sneaked a recording device into the White House Situation Room shows a blatant disregard for national security and then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee. So let's get back to our panel then. Attorney Mo Ivory, a Republican Strategist Chris Faulkner is still with us. Christian on the -- Chris on the anniversary of Charlottesville, the most recognizable African- American figure to have worked in this White House says number one of the President is racist and number two that he used her as political cover to hide that. What's your reaction to that?

FAULKNER: I think Dr. Carson would disagree with you. He is a member the cabinet heading up but --

VANIER: He's a member of the administration but not the White House.

FAULKNER: The administration is the White House. But to be -- to be clear here, I mean, the only group of people smaller than the clowns who showed up in D.C. today to rally for supremacy is probably the group of people that would actually buy her book. You know, I can't imagine a scenario where she would actually be in the Situation Room with that, in fact, does prove out to be true, it would be amazing.

VANIER: Note that the White House put out a statement and they didn't deny it.

FAULKNER: No they didn't deny it and I don't know what the details are. I wasn't there. I don't know the circumstance.

VANIER: I mean, if it were -- sure that's the first thing they do. They just deny it plain and simple like they do many things.

[01:14:59] FAULKNER: You know, I think, that there are -- there are a few hiring errors, certainly, in the beginning of the administration, it's good to see him corrected.

VANIER: Did -- Mo, did Donald Trump is indirectly caused this for himself by perhaps in the early days of the administration? Hiring so many people who maybe were not qualified for their positions?

IVORY: I was sure, but I think bigger than that, you know, Donald Trump sort of trained Omarosa in her -- you know, days -- early days from The Apprentice. And, you know, sort of helped her along, always bringing her back in to be sort of that -- you know, divisive personality.

And so, why wouldn't she do what he normally does which is say one thing one moment, say another thing another moment, turn your story around change what actually happened, or changed the story about what happened.

VANIER: Sure.

IVORY: I mean, she's following to me, she's following exactly his -- you know --

VANIER: In his playbook.

IVORY: In his playbook. I mean, that's what he does if it fits the situation at the time, say it. The minute it doesn't fit the situation, change the thought. And that's exactly what she is doing. She is trying to capitalize it on -- capitalize on it the same exact way he has.

VANIER: What about this argument that she was used as cover? As a cover to deceive the American people that this was a president who had some consideration for African-Americans. That's what -- that's what she's saying. IVORY: Yes. Well, maybe she was but she agreed to it. So, I don't -- I feel it's a little bit disingenuous, disingenuous of her to come back now. And to say, "Oh, he just used me." I mean, I watched Omarosa say a lot of things that were very offensive to me, not only as just a black woman, as a woman, as an American.

So, I don't think that she can now say, "Oh, you know, I didn't know what they were doing and they were just using me. It was a formative action hire, no." She was very well aware of what was going on. And I think, she also was well aware that one day, one point the day would come that it would be over.

And I think that she was making sure she had heard ship stacked for that moment.

VANIER: Yes. And, and I should have reminded our viewers, and Chris started doing this that we had to take this in the context of she has a new book coming out.

IVORY: Of course.

VANIER: And, and of course, she is seeking publicity and we all know that.

IVORY: Of course.

VANIER: Mo Ivory, Chris Faulkner, thank you very much. Pleasure speaking with you again today. Thanks.

FAULKNER: Pleasure, thank you.

ALLEN: It will be interesting to see how her book sells. We'll be watching that.

VANIER: Brian Stelter, just tweeted about that. It's actually number 17, that hasn't cracked the top 10 on the Amazon book list.

All right, still to come, investigators search for answers as to how an airline employee steal a commercial plane and wound up crashing to his death.

ALLEN: Also ahead here, NASA launches one of its most ambitious projects yet, a probe designed to touch the sun. More about it for you to stay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:03] IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: With your "WHETHER WATCH" I'm CNN Meteorologist Ivan Cabrera, across North America, a couple of areas of disturbed weather that will bring some heavy rain across the Southern United States and then, portions of the Mid-Atlantic and into New England, as well. We'll seeing some rainfall there in the form of showers and even thunderstorms, as well.

Plume of moisture coming out of the Gulf here and that has been affecting Texas also severe weather. We caught that through the weekend and at Vegas things beginning to wind down at monsoonal moisture here, shrinking a bit. So, we're not going to see as much as far as any significant rain across Southwestern U.S.

Looking at British Columbia, nice there. Temps in the mid-20s with mostly sunny skies. And we'll see that as well across the central provinces of Canada with temperatures in the 20s. And we'll have the typical afternoon thunderstorms across portions of Florida including Miami.

But there is New York with the afternoon storms with temperatures in the upper 20s. That system that has been impacting the region really for the last several days finally getting kicked out here. So, that will allow for more sunshine and once that happens, beginning on Tuesday and into Wednesday, especially. We'll see temperatures recovering nicely into the lower 30s at through the afternoon.

Extreme weather continues as far as the heat in the Southwestern at U.S. and that is impacting the fires as well as course, we've been there covering that. Slightly cooler temperatures moving into the Northeast midweek.

VANIER: Women and children are among the dead in an explosion in a rebel-held Syrian town near the Turkish border. A Syrian volunteer force says, at least 36 people are dead and dozens more are wounded in Sarmada. The group said the explosion went off in a building that had been housing ammunition.

ALLEN: Volunteers rescue 10 people from the rubble. Idlib province is the last strip of territory still held by rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

VANIER: The Turkish lira hit a new record low in early trading Monday, after last week's freefall. In a newspaper interview, Turkey's finance minister who is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son- in-law said he was launching an economic action plan to relieve the markets.

ALLEN: The move comes after President Erdogan claimed the U.S. had given Turkey a deadline to release an American pastor or face new sanctions. He blamed the lira's plunge on economic attacks on the capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): I want them to know that we will not surrender. We will keep producing and we will keep increasing exports.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Washington sanctioned two Turkish ministers over Pastor Andrew Brunson's detention. On Friday, President Trump announced that he was doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Turkey.

ALLEN: In the Middle East, U.S. President Donald Trump's often polarizing style has endeared him to the Israelis. VANIER: But on the Palestinian side, the reaction is very different. CNN's Oren Lieberman takes a look at how these divergent views on Trump may hinder or halt the peace process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These would be some of President Donald Trump's most loyal voters.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, we officially opened the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.

LIEBERMANN: If they could only vote in the U.S., no country has been so open and so loud about supporting Trump as Israel.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL: Welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for hosting us.

NETANYAHU: It is my pleasure.

LIEBERMANN: Led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has held those ties in every meeting with American officials.

NETANYAHU: You have no greater ally than United States, that's clear. But I think you have no better ally than Israel.

LIEBERMANN: Trump has cemented his status in the minds of many Israelis following his visit to the Western Wall, his opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The political bromance looks set to continue with both leaders touting the best relations ever between Israel and America.

Despite the strong ties, there is a risk to the unabashed love-fest warns analyst, Yoas Hendel.

YOAZ HENDEL, CHAIRMAN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR ZIONIST STRATEGIES: If Trump, President Trump, eliminates a President Obama legacy, probably the next Democratic president -- it doesn't matter who is going to be will eliminate Trump heritage and maybe legacy. And maybe we are part of it.

LIEBERMANN: Palestinians have had an equally strong if very different reaction to Trump. Rallies against Trump have become increasingly common. At first, Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas showed signs of cooperation, but those soon faded as the Palestinians froze contact with the American administration. Abbas hasn't looked back since.

MAHMOUD ABBAS, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE OF PALESTINE (through translator): We have cut all contact with American administration after Trump's decision on occupied Jerusalem. And those who do not like it should hit their heads against the wall.

LIEBERMANN: Abbas has shown little if any flexibility in his refusal to work with the Americans. Instead, turning to the international community.

The Trump administration is still working on its secretive Israeli- Palestinian peace deal to be presented at some point in the future. Right now, only one side is listening. Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:25:21] ALLEN: How can one stop hate? There's no simple answer, of course. But after the break, I'll speak for the Romans who might know she's a former neo-Nazi.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier.

ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen, here our top story this hour. Former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, is releasing what she claims is a secret recording of the White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, firing her in the Situation Room. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, says the recording shows, "A blatant disregard of national security from a disgruntled former White House employee.

VANIER: Sporadic clashes are reported in the strategic city of Ghazni in Afghanistan were Taliban militants are battling government forces for control. A hospital official says more than a hundred people had been killed since Friday's attack. A U.S. military spokesman, says Afghan forces are still in control of government centers.

ALLEN: An explosion killed at least 36 people in a rebel-held Syrian town near the Turkish border, Sunday. A Syrian volunteer force, says the explosion occurred in a building that housed ammunition in Sarmada, in Idlib province. Dozens of people were injured.

Turkey's Finance Minister says he's launching an economic action plan on Monday to relieve the global markets. The country's lira plunged to a new record low in early trading. It had already plummeted more than 20 percent last week, rattling investors. President Erdogan has said that the freefall is the result of economic attacks on Turkey.

[01:29:55] CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: Turkey's finance minister says he is launching an economic action plan on Monday to relieve the global markets. The country's lira plunged to a new record low in early trading. It had already plummeted more than 20 percent last week rattling investors. President Erdogan has said that the freefall is the result of economic attack from Turkey.

A show of division in the U.S. capital was shouted down by a louder show of unity. White nationalists, Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members gathered near the White House Sunday for their Unite the Right 2 rally.

Organizers expected hundreds of demonstrators; instead of that barely two dozen showed up. And they were met by hundreds of counter- protesters.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Somebody was shouting expletives, what with all the beeping.

The White Nationalists left Lafayette Park soon after they arrived, they say because of the stormy weather. This comes one year after the first United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia which ended in the death of a young woman, a counter-protester named Heather Heyer.

Her mother was there for a more peaceful rally in Charlottesville on Sunday.

Shannon Martinez joins me now. She is a program manager at the Free Radical Project and a Neo-Nazi and skinhead. In fact, she has a T- shirt that says what -- Shannon.

SHANNON MARTINEZ, FORMER NEO-NAZI: It says #IamaformerNeo- NaziAskmequestions.

ALLEN: And you were at the rally looking to reform others. Let's talk about that in a moment. But first to you Shannon -- you're so adorable. You've got the cute hat and the braid and the flower in your hair. How did you become a Neo-Nazi and why?

MARTINEZ: As a kid I always felt like the black sheep in my family and really struggled to have a sense of like fitting in anywhere. For the early part of my childhood, I played a lot of sports and that kind of helped me.

Now we moved when I was 11, we moved across country and that was a big blow to having a place where I felt like I deeply belonged. And then I ended up being sexually assaulted at a party by two white men -- they were not men of color -- but two white men just shy of my 15th birthday.

And I didn't have any adults in my life that I felt like I could really turn to. It was before the Internet. So I couldn't just like Google, like hey, I was just raped, what do I do.

And so I just took all of that unprocessed trauma and shoved it down. I was already looking for my identity in the punk movement so already trying to find out and figure out who I was in terms of like a counter-culture movement.

Now, on the periphery of that, the angriest people that were there were the skinheads. And the rage that I felt so consumed by within about six months of that sexual assault really resonated with the anger that they've displayed. And at the same time they always seemed to have each other's backs.

And so it felt like a place where the person who I was as a 15-year old girl who felt worthless, it was a place that I could belong.

ALLEN: Yes, Shannon -- a lot of people think that our president is promoting this hate because he in some ways espouses racism maybe in a veiled way. Do you think that is true?

MARTINEZ: I think it is absolutely true. And I, you know, think that our president -- I hesitate to say our president -- that the president that we have currently is very savvy and understanding his political base and is consistently trying to sort of straddle the line of staying in touch with his base who are people that generally people who are much more fear-based and really express fear about having the resources that they feel like are rightly theirs no longer being just theirs and also really understanding particularly in so much of the backlash after his abhorrent comments, after Charlottesville last year that, you know, that I think the counter-protesters who were out in such great number and just so outnumbered the white supremacists.

ALLEN: Right. Yes.

MARTINEZ: The more pressure that has put on consistently that this is not a cultural value that we share as Americans in the 21st century, that this is not -- white supremacy is not a legacy that we want to carry forward anymore.

ALLEN: Last question for you -- Shannon. We bring a lot of people on to talk about this issue. You may know more than most what it is going to take to heal outside of maybe the President being enlightened here. But how do you think this country will heal?

[01:35:02] MARTINEZ: I think one of the things that we really need to come to terms with is being ok with fear. That, you know, we are gun- toting, John Wayne-watching Americans; like we have to learn how to sit with the fear that we have instead of continually trying act on it. That so many of us see an uncertain feature and instead of a reactionary response to that, just sitting and being like it's ok, yes, we're free. We don't know what our future holds.

ALLEN: Right.

MARTINEZ: And even if we don't have solutions that not pretending that we have solutions that, you know, that we can answer in a two- year election cycle or anything like that, that is going to take us understanding and coming to terms. But I think we also very, very much need to starkly talk about the origins of our country that are based on genocide and slavery and violence; and exporting violence through war and we don't have to pretend like those aren't part of our story.

ALLEN: We appreciate your comments --

MARTINEZ: Thank you so much.

ALLEN: And the work that you are doing.

Shannon Martinez -- wish you all the best. Thank you for what you do.

MARTINEZ: Thank you so much for having me on.

VANIER: Investigators in the U.S. state of Washington are trying to figure out how an airline employee could have stolen a passenger plane. Richard Russell took an empty Horizon Air plane from the Seattle airport on Friday. ALLEN: He flew it for about an hour before the plane went down and

Russell died in the crash. Investigators have now found the flight data recorder and they hope it will provide some answers.

For more, our Kyung Lah is in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The NTSB says the flight data recorder is on its way to Washington, D.C. for analysis. They hope to begin that some time this week. It was recovered over the weekend by investigators. They say very little is left of the plane but the data recorder is intact.

The investigation shifting now to 29-year-old Richard Russell; he is the man, the Horizon Air employee who had worked there for three and a half years, a ground service employee. He stole the plane, flew it in the sky for an hour here.

Many people recording this, seeing the stunts that he took in the plane before crashing it into a remote island. He had security clearance. He is described by his family of having no outward signs of mental illness, also described that way by his friends at work.

To hear his voice on these recordings say the people who know him is heart breaking.

RICHARD RUSSELL, HORIZON AIR EMPLOYEE: I have a lot of people that care about me and it is going to disappoint them to hear that I did this. I would like to apologize to each and every one of them.

Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose I guess. Never really knew it until now.

MIKE MATTHEWS, RUSSELL FAMILY FRIEND: It may seem difficult for those watching at home to believe Beebo was a warm, compassionate man. As the voice recordings show Beebo's intent was not to harm anyone. He was right in saying that there are so many people who have loved him.

LAH: Beebo is the family name for Russell, that's how they referred to him. Before that family gave a statement to the press, they held hands, they prayed, they said their faith in God is the only thing helping them get through this.

Kyung Lah, CNN -- Tillicum, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: It is our closest star but we hardly know anything about the sun. Now NASA's helping to change that with this latest mission.

ALLEN: We will have more about that in a moment.

Also an amazing display of strength and team work -- a crowd jumped into action when a giant sink hole starts swallowing cars in China.

[01:38:59] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: All right. We've got this for you.

Japanese Princess Ayako has officially become engaged to a commoner Kei Moriya, a Tokyo shipping company businessman.

VANIER: You're watching pictures of a tradition ceremony on Sunday when Moriya sent a messenger bearing gifts to the princess. Their wedding will be held on October 29th.

ALLEN: Congrats to the happy couple.

Social media companies now face a new dangerous challenge in their fight against misinformation. Deepfakes are doctored videos that look very real and are not easy to spot.

VANIER: Especially as the technology to create them is improving. Experts warn that they could become the new tool used to meddle in upcoming elections.

CNN's Laurie Segall takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN SENIOR TECH CORRESPONDENT: This video isn't real and while even more fake videos like it ARE appearing every day online, tech companies are struggling with how to stop them.

OBAMA: Now, you see, I would never say these things at least not in a public address, but someone else would, someone like Jordan Peele.

SEGALL: You're watching part of a bi-feed (ph) PSA warning viewers about the rise of spoof videos like these on the Internet. They are known as deepfakes. And they're made by using the (INAUDIBLE) to merge different images or audio on to videos. Some could be relatively harmless like this set of deepfakes in turning Nicolas Cage into other actors' movies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I thought my jokes were bad.

SEGALL: But others can have serious repercussions. There's already an online community that inserts celebrity faces into pornographic videos. And since the celebrities themselves aren't actually in the videos these films are often not covered by existing (INAUDIBLE) laws. And they might not be able to force creators to take them down.

Some deepfakes can be as simple as a funny viral video. But others are dangerous blurring our perception of realities and that creates a whole new set of problems for the tech companies. They have to determine which ones violate their guidelines.

And it's far from black and white. While the onus is on big tech to finding solutions most of the major social platforms had been vague about their plans.

Hosting platform (INAUDIBLE) has started using algorithms to combat deepfakes on its platform. But that software could take hours or days to detect the content and take it down. Also the tools only apply to newly uploaded posts so deepfakes that already have a platform have to be removed manually.

(INAUDIBLE) The researcher at Carnegie Mellon has been able to detect some deepfakes by analyzing a subject's facial pulses. So if the pulse from the cheek doesn't match the heart rate on the neck, that's on one clue that a video could be fake.

[01:44:59] Researchers at the University of Albany are also trying to combat deepfakes in another way. Their team looks for unrealistic blinking patterns that tell us a video is real or not.

Still if you're watching a video alert (ph) and someone hasn't blinked for a weirdly long time, chances are you're watching a deepfake.

But all of these tools are still in the early stages and viewers can't be expected to time eye blinks or heart rates whenever they watch content on line. That's why companies like True Pic a photo-op indication (ph) are getting big investments to join in the fight (INAUDIBLE) videos.

As it stands, deepfakes are shaping up to be a valuable tool for those who want to spread fake news on the Internet. Remember, you can't always believe everything you see online.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: You knew that wasn't Obama.

VANIER: She is real.

All right. NASA is on a one of a kind mission, sending a probe to explore the sun's atmosphere. Why this launch is so historic -- just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: We have this just in to CNN. North and South Korea have agreed to hold a summit in September in Pyongyang. It follows high level talks between the two countries on Monday.

[01:49:58] VANIER: And it comes as experts doubt whether the North is committed to getting rid of its nuclear weapons. Pyongyang is putting pressure on Western countries to start lifting sanctions.

Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro says he is open to the FBI helping in the investigation into what he calls a failed assassination attempt. In a televised addressed, Mr. Maduro accused opposition groups of orchestrating last week's failed attack and claimed that the financiers and planners of this attack or attempted attack lived in Florida.

ALLEN: The U.S. has indicated it will cooperate with the investigation. But CNN is unaware of any formal FBI offer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. Lift off of the mighty Delta 4 heavy rocket --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: It was a mighty rocket and with that launch, NASA aims to make history starting its first ever mission to explore the atmosphere of our sun.

VANIER: The unmanned Parker solar probe will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft, any manmade object for that matter has entered before. More now from our Lynda Kinkade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The (INAUDIBLE) robotic probe, about the size of a small car is literally one of the hottest in science.

GERONIMO VILANUEVA, NASA PLANETARY SCIENTIST: It's going to be very, very close. We're going to have it actually touching the particles of the sun.

KINKADE: It's a seven-year mission with a price tag of a billion and a half dollars. That will bring NASA about 6 million kilometers from the sun's surface.

The craft is designed to withstand searing temperatures which could reach more 1,300 degrees Celsius.

VILLANUEVA: Not only do we have to fly in very fast entering the sun atmosphere but we also have to go reaching with millions of degrees temperature. So we have THIS special heat shield that is going to be around five inches thick and that thing is made of special materials.

KINKADE: The probe will eventually swoop into the solar corner. The outermost part of the sun's atmosphere known for its magnetic charges and solar wind. There, energized particles are whipped into space, which interfere with certain technology systems back on earth.

VILLANUEVA: The sun emits a lot of particles, hydrogenated (ph) particles that (INAUDIBLE) with communication systems. So when we get a massive throw happen in the sun, they may kill, you know, satellite or a power grid here in our planet.

KINKADE: It's the first time NASA has named a mission after a living person. Astrophysicist Eugene Euan Parker (ph), the pioneer of the study of solar wind.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VANIER: All right. Crews are making progress against one of the massive wildfires raging in southern California. The so-called Holy Fire was only 10 percent contained on Friday. That has now jumped to just over half -- 52 percent as of Sunday evening.

ALLEN: So they're making gains on it. At least 21,000 people forced to evacuate have now been allowed to return home. That's got to feel good.

One man is in custody. He is accused of starting this fire and sending threatening messages to the fire chief for instance saying the place is going to burn.

Check out this display of determination and sheer muscle in China. Dozens of people used rope to keep a van from plunging into a huge sink hole.

VANIER: Now the hole that opened up during heavy rain and flooding on Saturday, it swallowed two parked cars. Thanks to this crowd though, a third one, we got it -- that one was spared.

ALLEN: That's pretty good team work right there.

VANIER: Nobody was in the car, that's important.

ALLEN: Yes they were out of the car.

VANIER: Ivan Cabrera from the CNN Weather Center. Ladies and gentlemen -- all about geology there.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Natalie and I are from a part of the United States in Florida where it's all about limestone and --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: Have you ever seen one though?

CABRERA: It's porous soil and so you get --

ALLEN: It looks creepy.

CABRERA: Yes, they are.

ALLEN: Sink holes are creepy.

CABRERA: Sometimes it can happened right under your house.

VANIER: You have one in your street.

CABRERA: Very common, very common indeed, and in China as well especially in that particular part. Should we talk a little about sink holes? Come on over here to the geology department of the CNN Weather Center.

We talk about the days of heavy rain that have basically stalled the longest. This is where we have the sink hole essentially. And that is what resulted in sometimes with quite dramatic pictures.

This entire area, by the way, away from the coastal region is made up primarily of limestone underneath. It's that porous rock, water gets through it, becomes acidic and it just takes over once the, of course, cave forms underneath the ground can give way rather quickly here.

How about more rainfall on the way -- not as heavy as we have had in the last few days, I must say, about 25 upwards of 50 millimeter additional rainfall.

Look at this blob here. Let's not ignore that, right. That is heavy rain that is going to be coming in from another feature that we are going to be following here for the next few days.

And then I have take you to the tropical depression -- I have to tell, this is what's going on in the tropics. This is my primary concern right now, Hainan because it's a stalled out system. You know when we talk about systems that don't move. They do what they are doing over and over again.

[01:55:07] And what this one is doing is dumping a lot of rain across the region here. Look what this loop-de-loop is going to do. It's really not going to move all that much -- 72 hours and we're still dumping tropical rains on top of southern China here.

So this is going to start accumulating day in and day out. Look at that, a quarter of a meter heading into the next 24 - 48 hours. And then upstream we do have tropical storm Lee Pi (ph). We don't have to worry about Lee Pi because Lee Pi is well out there and we have days to track it before it impacts any land mass. So there you go -- there you have it.

ALLEN: Stay out there -- Lee Pi.

CABRERA: Yes.

ALLEN: Ok.

VANIER: All right. Ivan -- thank you.

ALLEN: Thank you. Thank you for the sink hole report as well.

CABRERA: Sure.

VANIER: Now, we want to take you for a walk down the aisle with a look at one wedding that just would not be canceled.

Monsoon floods could not deter one very determined bride in the Philippines.

ALLEN: Can you blame her, ladies? Of course not. The couple moved ahead with their wedding plans despite the high water reaching into the church, as you can see.

The video has won the hearts of Filipinos with some calling it the wedding of the year. Love it. Do you love it? Come on. VANIER: I love it. It is cute.

Thank you for joining us. I am Cyril Vanier.

ALLEN: I am Natalie Allen.

Rosemary and George are next.

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