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Judging a Legacy; Lt. Gov. Accused of Lesbian Affair; Syrian Defector: Assad Must Go; Blind Beauty Contestant Finishes in Top 5; Ugly End to Clinton's Egyptian Visit; Deaths in Syria Continue to Rise; Myths & Facts on Weight Loss; Branson on Sharks

Aired July 15, 2012 - 19:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow in for Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's get you up to speed on the top stories of the day. Well, this is not good for the President of Syria. One of his most senior officials has defected and now he's talking. Nawaf al-Fares was until a few days ago the Syrian Ambassador to Iraq. Not anymore, he left his post and fled to another country and is now supporting the rebels trying to throw out President Bashar al-Assad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAWAF AL-FARES NEWLY-DEFECTED SYRIAN OFFICIAL (through translator): The Regime in Syria is a totalitarian regime and a dictatorship. There is only one person who gives the orders, one person who is the President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Fares talked exclusively to CNN from his secure location in Qatar.

Well, the Syrian capital Damascus has witnessed the most intense fighting yet today according to activists. The opposition said 57 people have been killed across the country. Activists also have a message for President Obama. They say the time for action is now regardless of how it might impact the election.

ABDULBASET SIEDA, PRESIDENT, SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL (through translator): With regard to America specifically, we would like to say to President Obama that waiting for election to make the right decision on Syria is unacceptable for Syrians. We cannot understand that a super power ignores the killing of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians because of an election campaign that a president may win or lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And an American pastor kidnapped in Egypt apparently had no idea that where he was traveling was a very dangerous area. Pastor Michel Louis was abducted along with a parishioner and their tour guide. His son talked with our Randi Kaye today about their ordeal and how it's taken a toll on all of them especially the pastor's wife. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. JEAN LOUIS, SON OF KIDNAPPED U.S. PASTOR: It's all undecided, and I just -- she even right now it seems like a dream to her -- a nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And another chapter in the global rate-fixing scandal. According to a report today in "The New York Times," the U.S. Justice Department says it is looking into possible criminal activity. Authorities around the world are trying to find out if some very big banks manipulated interest rates that impacted consumers right before the financial crisis hit. Ten big banks including, of course, Barclays which had that settlement -- Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase are all being looked at.

And police arrested NBA star Jason Kidd early this morning in South Hampton, New York. They say the newly-signed New York Knick was drunk and crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a telephone pole. Doctors treated him for minor injuries at a hospital. Kidd signed a reported three-year $9.5 million deal on Thursday.

And sad news for the entertainment world to tell you about, Academy Award-winning actress Celeste Holm has died at her home in New York. She starred on Broadway and television and in films but is probably best known for her role in "Gentleman's Agreement" which earned her the best supporting actress role in 1947. She was 95 years old.

Well, the State of Florida will now have access to a federal law enforcement database to challenge the eligibility of voters. State officials sued last month to get access to that database in an attempt to purge non-citizens from voting rolls. A handful of key states have been closely following the legal fight in hopes of pursuing their own voter rolls.

And Florida's Lieutenant Governor thought she would just be helping out the Romney campaign at an event yesterday, but instead she ended up defending herself to reporters, denying rumors of a sex scandal.

Here is Adrienne Moore from our affiliate WJXT in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. JENNIFER CARROLL (R), FLORIDA: I haven't done anything wrong. It's a total lie.

ADRIENNE MOORE, WJXT, FLORIDA: Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll didn't waste any time addressing the sex scandal that's making national headlines.

CARROLL: Immediately I've become an individual that's now accused and in America we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and now I'm guilty until proven innocent.

MOORE: Carroll was in Orange Park to help open a new campaign office for a presumptive presidential Republican nominee Mitt Romney? But spent much of the day defending allegations she had an inappropriate relationship with a female aide.

Her accuser Carlita Cole is a former employee who now faces felony charges for recording conversations with Carroll's chief of staff and giving them to a reporter.

CARROLL: I'm the one that's married for 29 years. The accuser's the one that's single for a long time. So usually black women that look like me don't engage in relationships like that.

MOORE: But Carroll not only had her husband and son Nolan on hand for support, but plenty of defenders who say the accusations are nothing more than a smear campaign.

JUDITH SNAPPLE, MITT ROMNEY SUPPORTER: Being a public figure, you're going to have things like that that come up, and you know when I heard that, I actually giggled about it because you know it's just ridiculous.

KENNETH BULTER, MITT ROMNEY SUPPORTER: That's so wrong, and I -- I followed her career long enough to know that's not in her personality. She wouldn't be doing that stuff.

MOORE: As for Carroll's focus now, putting what she calls outlandish rumors to rest. Serving the state of Florida and helping the Romney campaign get to the White House.

CARROLL: Under his policies and his leadership that this entire country is going to be better off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Thanks again to Adrienne Moore from our affiliate WJXT.

Well, Mitt Romney and President Obama are neck and neck in the polls except when it comes down to race. Romney has a 15-point advantage over the President among white voters, but only five percent of black voters in a recent Gallup surveys say they would vote for Mitt Romney. I talked about race and the election with Ana Navarro, Republican strategist and CNN contributor; and Frederick Harris of Columbia University political science professor.

And I asked Ana about Romney's speech to the NAACP last week and why he said if people only knew what was in his heart they would vote for him. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Think Mitt Romney has a problem emoting and I think we all need to hear more about what's in his heart but I don't think Poppy that Mitt Romney went to the NAACP to speak to the 5,000 people that were in that room and he knew he was going to get booed. I saw him get booed for the same (inaudible) in Carolina a month before when he spoke in front of a Latino audience. So I think what he's chosen to do is say look, I'm going to be consistent and I'm going to say the same thing to every audience. You're not going to hear me pandering and saying different things to one audience to another.

That's the choice he's made. It was courageous for him to go there. The NAACP is a nonpartisan organization and I think they've got to -- they -- they gave him a lot more applause than they did boos and they gave him or one or two lines than they did 25, 27 applauses. That's what we've all focused on, but, you know, and though they are non- partisan, though, they're members, of course, can be partisan and most of them -- most of them are Democrats.

HARLOW: Right.

NAVARRO: And most of them are for Barack Obama.

HARLOW: And as you say he was applauded --

(CROSSTALK)

FREDERICK HARRIS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Well --

HARLOW: -- he was applauded when you talked about defending traditional marriage and other topics. What do you think, professor? Why do you think that that he's having such a hard time resonating with -- with black voters?

HARRIS: Well, I'm not sure how courageous he is. I think it's really he's been strategic. I think he's trying to come off as this compassionate conservative as President Bush did in 2000.

And so I don't think black voters cared all that much about what's in his heart. I think they care more about what his -- how his policies are going to speak to black America. What -- what is Mitt Romney's plan for criminal justice reform? What is Mitt Romney's plan for the high levels of black unemployment? And so, you know, it was mostly rhetoric, it was mostly him bashing the President again about Obamacare.

And so unfortunately, the Republican Party has provided no new bold initiatives or alternatives when it comes to black America. We hear the same, old, tired proposals around vouchers that have been touted around ever since Reagan was in the White House in the 1980s. So I don't hear anything new that's coming from the Republicans.

HARLOW: Guys, let's talk about jobs and Ana, to you first right. Ok so even under this President, President Obama that has the support of the majority of black voters you've got almost 14.5 percent unemployment for black Americans. It's 7.4 percent for white Americans and it's 8.2 percent average and for Hispanics it's 11 percent.

So when you're -- when you're addressing that group that -- that was just so helpful to the President in 2008 in getting him elected and jobs are the number one issue, once again, the economy and jobs this election, has the president failed voters, black voters when it comes to jobs?

NAVARRO: You know, that's going to be a question that black voters are going to have to answer, but obviously, you're looking at black voters that have been disproportionately affected by this economy under Obama; 14.4 percent is a painful, painful statistic and not only that, but you know, I think one of the problems that Barack Obama has with the black voters is that there were huge expectations by the African-American community on what having that first African-American president would mean, the first black president would mean.

And I think many of them are disillusioned the same way that many Latinos are disillusioned. There were a lot of promises made by Obama four years ago that he has not delivered on and that's why, though, he still has the predominant support of the African-American community.

It has slipped according to polls seven or eight points.

HARLOW: Right.

NAVARRO: And that could make all the difference, Poppy, in states like Florida that are going to be very close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: For his part, President Obama says he's glad Mitt Romney spoke to the NAACP Convention saying it shows his rival is willing to speak to all Americans.

Well, a major defection in Syria. One of the President's senior officials jumped ship and he's talking. You're going to hear him in his own words.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to Egypt gets ugly -- the report on what went wrong coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: In Syria a senior government official with 34 years of service now says he's on the side of the FSA, the rebel uprising. He's the highest ranking diplomat to defect saying he just can't be part of the dictatorship any longer.

Nawaf al Fares talked with one American network -- just one -- and that is CNN. Here's Ivan Watson in Doha, Qatar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nawaf al Fares was Syria's man in Baghdad for nearly four years that is, until a few days ago when the Syrian ambassador to Iraq suddenly announced his defection.

(on camera): What prompted you to say I've had it? I don't want to work with this government anymore.

NAWAF AL FARES, NEWLY DEFECTED FORMER SYRIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ (through translator): I served the Syrian regime for 34 years in many different positions, but after what happened in the last year during the holy revolution, all of the killing, the massacres and the refugees, I don't see how anyone can remain silent. So I decided to end my relationship with this regime.

WATSON (voice-over): Fares has long been one of the trusted lieutenants, an insider who knows how the Syrian government works.

(on camera): Who is making the decisions in Damascus right now?

AL-FARES: The regime in Syria is a totalitarian regime and a dictatorship. There is only one person who gives the orders. That person is the president.

WATSON: In his first interview with the U.S. news organizations since his defection, Fares rejected Syrian government claims that the Syrian rebels are al Qaeda terrorists. Instead, he accuses the Assad regime of cooperating with al Qaeda ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 by paving the way for al Qaeda militants to transit Syria to attack targets in neighboring Iraq.

AL-FARES: Bashar al Assad and his security forces are directly responsible for the killings of thousands and thousands of Iraqis and coalition forces because he gave al Qaeda everything it needed. He trained them and gave them shelter.

WATSON: Fares points to a controversial cross-border U.S. military raid in 2008 against the Syrian town of al-Sukariya. Fares claims the American target was an al Qaeda camp run by Assef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of the Syrian president.

(on camera): You saw with your own eyes Assef Shawkat was leading this al Qaeda in Iraq operation?

AL-FARES: One hour after the raid Assef Shawkat was there at the location. A conversation took place between me and him and he was angry about the attack made against al-Sukariya and he was kind of scared.

WATSON (voice-over): Fares is now in Doha under the protection of the Qatari government.

Syrian opposition members applaud the ambassador's defection, but tell CNN they don't trust a man who waited 16 months before joining the uprising.

(on camera): What message would you like to send to Bashar al Assad and to your former colleagues in the Syrian government right now?

AL-FARES: My former colleagues, I ask them to join the people and leave this corrupt regime. There is still time. To Bashar al-Assad I say you don't know history. Two wills cannot be defeated, the will of God and the will of the people. History will curse you for the crimes you committed in Syria.

WATSON (voice-over): a blunt warning from a man who was once one of the Syrian regime's top enforcers.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Doha.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Great reporting, Ivan.

Well, Nawaf al Fares says the Syrian government is staging al Qaeda style attacks in Syria. That's an accusation, the Syrian opposition has been claiming for some time. CNN's Fredericka Whitfield asked Retired Army General Mark Kimmitt whether he is surprised to hear about a possible link between the al Assad regime and al Qaeda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KIMMITT, RET. U.S. ARMY GENERAL: They were providing safe haven and sanctuary to al Qaeda elements transiting through Damascus, going into Iraq and killing Iraqi civilians and killing American soldiers and we told him this must stop.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq also telling Ivan Watson that Shawkat was furious that an al Qaeda safe house was hit in Iraq by U.S. Forces back in 2008. So does this information shed any new light on overall al Qaeda sympathizers?

KIMMITT: Well, what it demonstrates is that despite the Syrian denunciation of al Qaeda and their suggestion that they had nothing to do with al Qaeda, that they were actively involved in al Qaeda transiting Syria, going into Iraq and adding to the instability and Assef Shawkat was involved in that.

WHITFIELD: So what can the U.S. do with this information, if anything?

KIMMITT: Well, I think this and other information can be part of the case file that should this situation end up in the International Criminal Court, it can be used against them in an International Criminal Court of law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, it is a dream musical matchup. Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney together live on stage in London, but the music comes to an abrupt halt. We're going to tell you why and show you why next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You don't have to be in front of the television to watch CNN. You can do what I do. You can stay connected. You can do it on your cell phone or you can do it from your computer at work. Just go to cnn.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, it's a match made in rock 'n' roll heaven -- Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen. There you hear them sing the Beatles tune "I Saw Her Standing There". But apparently not everyone in London's Hyde Park was into the superstar duet last night. The two were still singing when local organizers cut off power to the stage completely. They pulled the plug because the show ran past curfew. Not fun.

Well, no crown for the first legally blind woman to compete for Miss Florida USA, but Connor Boss finished in the top five in last night's pageant. The 18-year-old college freshman has a genetic eye disease that makes it very difficult for her to focus on objects right in front of her. Boss was chosen Miss Photogenic. She says she still feels like a winner even without that overall title.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNOR BOSS, MISS FLORIDA USA CONTESTANT: I've come to learn that it's not even about winning the pageant. It's about -- I am so glad that my story could be shared and that at least I can inspire one person and if I can inspire one person I feel like I've won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Good for her. We were all rooting for her last night watching the pageant in the NEWSROOM.

All right. Trivia question for you, what is the fastest growing immigrant population in the United States today? Here's a hint. It is not Hispanics. See how well you did after the break, but first --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: The best time to start planning for a child's education is as soon as you decide to have a child because it's never too early to start thinking about what you're going to need to do in order for the child to go on to college, not just from a financial perspective, but more importantly, academically. How you at home will prepare your child for college.

So I want you to start thinking about it in elementary school, but when you get to high school, that's when the real clock starts ticking. So I need you to make sure that your child has four years of English, at least three years of Math and preferably up to calculus, if at all possible, three years of a foreign language and I want you to take the highest science that they can in the school.

Now grades matter, of course. It's important to know that grades are not the only thing that a college is looking because what colleges also want to know is that your child is involved in extracurricular activities. So they should play at least two sports a year or be involved in at least two activities and they should have a leadership role. They should also participate in some sort of community-based activity.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, to say that Hillary Clinton's trip to Egypt ended on a sour note would be a huge understatement, but despite her pretty ugly farewell, the Secretary of State still held very important talks. CNN foreign affairs reporter Elise Abbott looks at the chaotic end to Clinton's trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: it was during the flag raising at one of the U.S. consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, and she was making some remarks ironically about how the U.S. wanted to support Egypt's transition and the fact that the U.S. wasn't picking any winners or losers. That's the criticism.

There were protesters outside the consulate and it was a little bit harrowing for her staff and us journalists. When we left they were throwing bottles of water. They were throwing tomatoes and they were throwing shoes which is considered a real sign of disrespect in the Arab world and they were chanting, "Monica, Monica." I think it was a reference to Monica Lewinsky. Obviously, they didn't understand that this was a totally new president or maybe it was a reference to bill Clinton, but certainly it was a little bit harrowing.

The secretary, though -- never in any trouble, never in any danger, her car and her vehicle were not hit. But and one of the Egyptian officials that was walking out with us did get hit in the face with a tomato.

HARLOW: Wow. Completely disrespectful and you know, it's interesting this comes after what seemed like a very welcome reception when she sat down with newly elected President Morsi yesterday and she also met with the head military leader there and also with Coptic Christians. You said that was a difficult encounter with her as well, meeting with the Christian group.

LABOTT: Well, I think there's a real sense and her aides kind of alluded to this when we were talking to them about this sense in Egypt that there's the perception that the U.S. backed the Muslim Brotherhood. In Egypt, obviously not everybody voted for President Morsi.

There were a great deal of people that were scared about the Muslim Brotherhood. They voted for the other candidate Shafiq who was more aligned with the military council and the old regime. And so when they met the Coptic Christians and other Christian groups when they met with Secretary Clinton they felt that you aren't protecting our rights, you are siding with the Muslim Brotherhood.

And what the secretary said in her speech at the consulate right before this event was the U.S. doesn't pick any win withers or losers. We're looking to help you with your democratic transition and she's talking to President Morsi to get his act together and get a government together. Also telling the military council, get back to your day job and the democratically-elected president's trying to get back to your real job of protecting the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Coming up on the half hour now, let's get you up to speed on headlines today.

First off, a very senior Syrian official breaks ranks with Damascus and now supports the rebels. This man, the one-time Syrian ambassador to Iraq -- he says President Bashar al Assad is a dictator who rules Syria by decree and says the only solution to ending the conflict there and all of the violence is international military intervention. The former ambassador spoke exclusively with CNN.

Syria's opposition is calling on President Barack Obama to intervene in their fight, whether it hurts his re-election prospects or not. Activists say he cannot wait for election day to prevent this violence. That plea comes on a day when the capital, Damascus saw its heaviest fighting yet. In all, 57 people killed there today according to activists.

Well, 70 years ago American citizens across the United States were rounded up, and forced into internment camps just because of their race. Just because they were Asian. Now Asian-Americans are poised to enter the nation's most powerful legislative body in record numbers. Get this, 24 Asian-Americans are running for Congress this year across 13 states. Several are hoping to become their state's first Asian-American member of Congress.

We've got a very special guest with us to talk about it all. Congresswoman Judy Chu. Judy, thank you for being here. Congresswoman, we appreciate it and for our viewers that don't know you, in 2009 you became the first Chinese-American woman elected to Congress. It was interesting, you know, I was reading an article from back in 2009 and you said, "It was like a light went off in my head. It was the very first time it occurred to me that an Asian-American woman could be a leader." Very symbolic. What do you make now of what we're seeing in this election?

REP. JUDY CHU (R), CALIFORNIA: I feel that it's a great step forward for all of us when the people who are making the decisions about America look like America. I am so proud of these Asian-Americans who are now running because they see that it can be done.

HARLOW: So when you talk about your constituents right now, and obviously, you represent constituents of all different races, all different ethnicities especially in California. I looked and Asian voters were actually only 13 percent% of the districts that you won, what are the main concerns right now from your constituents across the board?

CHU: They are concerned about the economy. They are concerned about getting jobs. They want to make sure that they have opportunity to succeed and they want to make sure that they can care for their families in the future.

HARLOW: I do want to talk about the economy and jobs because this is issue number one across the board in this election and local elections and nationally. When with you look at the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it actually shows that Asian-Americans have a much lower percent of unemployment than the national average. It's 6.3 percent, the national average is 8.2 percent. What do you attribute that to at this point in time and is it something that you agree can be, you know, changed across the board? Why do you think that Asian-Americans have around six percent unemployment?

CHU: I think that the numbers may be somewhat deceptive. Actually Asian-Americans are unemployed for longer periods of time than any other racial group in this country. Also there are sub groups within Asian-Americans that are unemployed at a very large rate. For instance, Pacific Islanders are unemployed at twice the rate of 8.2 percent.

So we do have groups within us that are facing severe problems. I also think that it's possible that Asian-Americans are not filing for unemployment because they may be working at their family business.

HARLOW: That's very interesting. So you think that the numbers here in this report obviously don't tell the full story whatsoever and this is some criticism that I have heard that oftentimes Asian-Americans don't want to be grouped into one group, frankly, because they are so diverse, and as you pointed out when you look at Pacific Islanders, their unemployment rate is staggering.

CHU: Yes. In fact, in reality, every group has those that are successful and those that are not successful. In reality Asian- Americans are a very diverse group and there are those that are doing well, but we must remember that there are those like the Lao, the Muong, the Cambodians that are having a hard time just even having basic education.

HARLOW: Absolutely. And you know, the 2010 census showed this ballooning Asian-American population in this country. What I found that I felt is interesting is 36 percent of new immigrants are Asian while only 31 percent are Latino. I'd love your broad read on how you think that this change that we've seen from the 2000 census to the 2010 census in terms of immigrant population is going to affect politics both here in California and nationally.

CHU: Well, Asian-Americans are eager to be a participant in American society. It does mean that they are new to the process, but it's interesting to note that Asian-Americans are more enthusiastic than ever and in fact, five out of six look forward to voting in this upcoming election. I think it's because they really appreciate being American.

HARLOW: Five out of six and that's an impressive turnout if it actually turns out to be that. I appreciate you joining us, congresswoman, very much. It's going to be interesting to watch those 24 candidates in those 13 states running and possibly making history. Thanks for being with us.

CHU: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well some more trivia for you. When it comes to healthy nutrition, do you really have to count calories and can you exercise on an empty stomach? Can you eat before you go to bed? All big questions I have. Look, he's here! He's going to come talk to us. Our health expert separates fact from myth. That's coming up, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, there's nothing worse than working hard on your health and being led in the complete wrong direction. Let's talk about this, myth versus fact. Here in the studio, our fitness and health expert, Mark MacDonald. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.

We were just talking about, you know, what really worked and what doesn't. Let's talk first about counting calories. You say there's a big myth here.

MARK MACDONALD, FITNESS AND HEALTH EXPERT: When people want to lose weight they feel they have to cut, restrict, cut all their calories and create that deficit and they lose weight, but then you get those cravings back and they re-gain the weight. That's yo-yo dieting. Rather than using food for calories in versus calories out, it's all about stabilizing your blood sugar. Eating the right amount of calories per meal, the right balance of protein, carbohydrates so you stabilize your hormones and release your stored fat.

HARLOW: Don't throw your body off, don't confuse it.

MACDONALD: And just don't create deficits. Everyone thinks - when is a deficit ever a good thing?

HARLOW: Not for our economy.

MACDONALD: So when people want to diet they think they just want to cut, cut, cut. They'll get results and then they rebound.

HARLOW: Right.

MACDONALD: And shift how we look at food.

HARLOW: What about eating before bed? Because we've always heard like eat small meals and then eat dinner or much many hours before you go to bed.

MACDONALD: I've heard that you can't eat past 8:00 p.m. since I was a kid and that is totally wrong. The reality is this, if you never spike your blood sugar, and you don't eat too much you can't store fat. So you should eat before bed. Think of a baby. A baby feeds every three to four hours with a balance of protein, carbs and breast milk and eat a certain amount of calories. They eat before bed. We just have to eat the right thing before bed. So you can eat before bed and it keeps your blood sugar balanced. It makes your body burn fat.

HARLOW: Do you know what I ate before bed last night?

MACDONALD: What?

HARLOW: Gummy bears.

MACDONALD: Now, my son loves gummy bears.

HARLOW: I love that.

MACDONALD: Eat a little protein with it. When (INAUDIBLE) eats Skittles, he eats some string cheese with it.

HARLOW: Your son is how old?

MACDONALD: He's seven.

HARLOW: I'm 30.

All right. Now, also I had heard that is this a myth too? Do your cardio before your strength training. Does that really matter?

MACDONALD: It matters. You don't want to do your cardio before your strength training. It takes your body about 20 minutes to really start burning fat.

So by simply doing your strength training like Pilates -

HARLOW: First.

MACDONALD: First, you will burn sugar and then you will burn probably 30 to 40 percent more fat with that fat burning doing that same type of activity.

HARLOW: Or you can do cardio and strength together. I've been doing those with those kettle bell swings.

MACDONALD: Yes, you can do a whole hybrid of it. But many people like that walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then they do strength training and switch that up and you're going to burn much more fat.

HARLOW: And I think a lot of women especially think I can't lift weights because I'm going to get too big, that's not the case.

MACDONALD: No. One pound of fat is three times larger than one pound of muscle. Muscle is your friend. It controls your metabolism. When people get bulky it's because they put on muscle and they don't lose fat. If you eat right and you actually implement the right exercise, you get tighter and leaner.

HARLOW: What about exercising on an empty stomach? Good idea?

MACDONALD: Bad idea. When your blood sugar is unstable, your body burns muscle. Whenever the blood sugar is low, so get a balance meal in. it could be like a half meal something to fuel your body and that will help you burn fat and not muscle.

HARLOW: Spot reduce, you can't say I would like my arms to be much smaller, but keep my legs the way they are. You can't do that. It's got to come across the board.

MACDONALD: In a perfect world, you could, but it's not the reality of it. You start losing in your face, then your neck and then your limbs and then you get your trouble areas. Unfortunately you gain weight in the areas you want to lose first and it takes you longest to lose that in those areas. So just be patient, implement the right strategy and you can take your body wherever you want.

HARLOW: I would just point us. Sleep is so critical.

MACDONALD: Huge! Sleep controls our stress hormone cortisol. So when you're in a sleep deficit, your body overly secretes cortisone, makes you store fat. If you can manage your sleep and your stress, it will take your body to a whole other level.

HARLOW: If someone can teach me to sleep eight hours and manage my stress it will be a perfect world.

MACDONALD: Well you don't have to sleep eight hours. You learn how to sleep right. You want to optimize your sleep.

HARLOW: This is true. Thank you so much. Good to see you in person.

MACDONALD: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Well, there is a critical shortage of, guess what? Truck drivers in the United States. Next, why the difficulty to find people to fill those positions and why it could ultimately cost you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Think about all of the things you need to make it through the day, the essentials. Most of those things make it to the store and then into your home because a truck delivers them. Now there's actually an alarming shortage of truck drivers and it could cost you. Our Athena Jones explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his 42 years as a trucker, David Boyer has traveled more than five million miles. That's like going to the moon and back ten times.

(on camera): How long does it take a normal person you said to get -

DAVID BOYER, TRUCKER: It takes a person to drive a million miles about 125 years.

JONES: So in other words, it's impossible.

BOYER: Yes.

JONES: I mean how much longer do you think you'll go.

(voice-over): When I joined him for a ride, he explained why at 59 years old he's not ready to hand over his keys just yet.

BOYER: You can sit here and do an 180-degree view and everything that you see, a truck brought it in, the trees and the grass. I mean, you know, the brick in the wall, the metal in that wall, the flowers over on that grave. Anything that you get each day, a truck ends up bringing it. We're essential to the nation.

JONES: Boyer loves being on the open road and takes pride in his work. Still, many drivers around his age are calling it quits.

(on camera): As more and more truckers retire, trucking companies are having a hard time filling their jobs. Every year one million positions become available according to trucking industry analysts.

(voice-over): Why? The job can be lonely. With drivers spending days away from home. Drivers must also be 21 years old and undergo extensive training to get licensed, with a six-week course costing $4,000 to $6,000 on average, making it difficult to attract a new generation of truckers.

Starting in 2013 new federal rules that reduce the number of hours drivers can be on the road will require companies to hire even more to meet demand. Driver shortages could delay deliveries and add to freight cost. They rose 30 percent in the past two years according to FTR Associates which tracks the industry.

SEAN MCNALLY, AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION: At the end of the day we pass our expenses on to customers and their customers pass it on to their customers and ultimately it winds up that the end consumer winds up bearing a brunt of that.

JONES: As more trucking positions become available. Analysts and folks like Boyer says companies should recruit veterans to join the field, since many of those leaving the military are used to handling heavy equipment and being away from home for long stretches.

Athena Jones, CNN, Elkridge, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. Sure, your smartphone can make calls. You can send e-mails. You can play videos, but a new iPhone add-on promises self-defense. Can you guess what it does? Is it going to fend off evildoers with flames? Electric shocks. Maybe love? That's next.

And don't forget, you can watch CNN live on your computer while you're at work or on your smartphones. Just head to cnn.com/tv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: So there's a start-up company that's promising a new interesting feature for your iPhone, turning it into a stun gun. That's a tease for you. That story coming up in just a moment.

Tech Pro, John Abell is with Reuters and he joins me from New York where he tells me it's a monsoon. So thank you for coming in. I appreciate it.

Let's talk first about what made headlines near the end of this week. Yahoo hacked 450,000 passwords online. Anonymous Hack, the hackers say we want this to be a wake-up, not a threat. Yahoo apologizing but saying look, it's less than five percent of those breached accounts actually had valid passwords. What's your overall take here? How big of a concern is this?

JOHN ABELL, COLUMNIST, "REUTERS MEDIAFILE": Not a huge concern. This is sort of thing is happening a lot. LinkedIn was hacked a month ago. It happens. It's bad. The real lesson here is don't use the same password multiple places. Because even though this attack wasn't all that terrible, if they got your password and you use it at your bank and believe me, someone's trying, that would be terrible.

HARLOW: So overall for Yahoo! not good news for this company that really didn't need any more problems right now. We've heard a lot about this. So hello, folks, if you have the same password or an easy one, change it.

Let's move onto the story that I really love for this segment, turning an iPhone case into a stun gun. Apparently this Army reservist has done just that. What has he come up with?

ABELL: Well, apparently, he was attacked in his phone and thought the answer to his problems would be to create a cover for the iPhone, the number one handset in the world which also converts into a taser, a stun gun.

HARLOW: Wow.

ABELL: He's trying to raise money on one of this crowd funding site called indy go go. It's not doing that great. He has $12,000 in about 13 days and his funding request is 100 grand. But he'll get to keep -- the rules are different. He'll get to keep the money that gets pledged to him. He's going to fill these orders. You know, we talked about, there's an app for that and now there's a cover for this, I guess.

HARLOW: I mean, I guess. I wonder if the company, you know, taser, is going to be interested in this technology at all.

ABELL: Well, there are lots of stun gun type things. But literally, this has to be the first thing that actually attaches to your phone. The idea is you always have your phone. So there's that theory.

HARLOW: OK. All right. So this has a kick, I guess. I want to read you what the inventor told us. He said " Well, I knew that if I was going to put this thing out into the world, I had to test it myself so that's what I did" and he added there's only a guy with U.S. military experience did, what I supposed "it hurts." Now we're assuming this is a pretty tough guy. So -

ABELL: Well, you know, it's 650,000 volts or whatever it is. Of course, in the funding video, there isn't a piece of him actually getting stunned by this. So we're going to have to take his word for it. But he probably did. And the technology is for real. The question I have is whether or not you going to want this on your lovely sleek phone. It makes it very very fat, bulky, how do you carry it, you know, that sort of thing. We'll see. I'm not sure it's very practical but it certainly is original.

HARLOW: Well, yes, and you're not going to be allowed to take it on planes obviously.

ABELL: Or on dates probably.

HARLOW: Nor on dates. But on a more serious note, he was attacked in his home, you said, so this is very serious for him.

ABELL: Yes, I'm sure that his motives are genuine. Like I said, the idea is very original. You know, personal defense industry is quite lucrative. He might be on to something. We'll have to see.

HARLOW: All right. Ingenuity at its best. Thank you for coming in. Appreciate it. Have a good night.

ABELL: You, too.

HARLOW: Well, sharks often misunderstood by so many. They're just as hungry for the same things in life. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: Sharks. I am terrified of them, as you may be. They're often misunderstood by humans as Jeanne Moos reports, sometimes they just want the same thing that we do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a tale of two fish stories, one on a deck in South Carolina Tuesday, the other in a boat in Australia last year. In both cases, a person fishing hooks a fish only to have a shark snatch it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

MOOS: South Carolina, Australia.

Now both parties took the name of the lord in vain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Jesus -

MOOS: That's where the similarities end.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a shark! A shark! A big old shark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty cool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Geez, I hate sharks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh jr, god!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a dirty scum. MOOS: Sarah Brame had never before caught a fish let alone encountered a shark.

SARAH BRAME, NOVICE FISHERWOMAN: I was actually kind of scared because I seen it jump. And I was like, oh, my gosh, it could jump up here and get me.

MOOS: When you combine the list of Americans with the chill in Australians.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bloody sharks.

MOOS: You get the catch of the day. Holy bloody shark.

Last year, Australia's nine network morning shows sent a reporter to fish for a shark supposedly sighted in a lake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will give you one chance to catch this shark.

MOOS: His cast was impressive but his catch missed the mark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a bird! I got a bird!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop now, stop now. That's enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peking duck, anyone?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awkward.

MOOS: But at least the duck was fine, unlike the mackerel that failed to duck the shark.

(on camera): Now the one place you will never catch a shark is in a New York City subway, right?

Well maybe you couldn't catch one but you could buy one. The Web site, Gossimis obtained photos of a guy selling a live baby shark aboard a J train at 1:00 in the morning and wanted 100 bucks for the little shark. He said it caught it at Coney Island after it bit him on the butt.

But seriously, your chances are way better of hooking a bud than hooking "Jaws." And grabbing a brew sure beats being shark stew.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: I knew I had a reason to be scared of sharks in lakes. Well our own Soledad O'Brien has her own shark tale she and British business mogul Sir Richard Branson swam with them near Cancun, Mexico. You're looking at them right now. Branson is on a crusade to save sharks from being slaughtered. He said they're killed by the millions to make shark fin soup and he can't stand for it. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What was your reaction the first time that you were sort of eyeball to eyeball with a whale shark.

SIR RICHARD BRANSON: Just the sheer beauty of it. The biggest fish in the ocean. This enormous gentle giants in the ocean. I just couldn't bear the idea that people are slaughtering them in their millions for soup. And so decided to devote part of my time to try to draw attention to it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Soledad is brave for jumping and swimming with the sharks. You can see more of her interview and adventure with Branson. That's on Tuesday morning CNN, "Starting Point." I'm Poppy Harlow at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'll see you back here at 10:00 Eastern. But right now, "CNN PRESENTS."