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Migrants Refuse to Leave Hungarian Train; Father Tells Story of Drowning of 2 Migrant Boys, Mother; Turkey's President Blames West for Migrant Deaths; French Officials Confirm MH370 Debris; China Flexes Military Muscle; Migrants Flee Syria's Devastating War; Concern over Australia's Tough Migrant Policies; German School Helps Migrants from Syria, South Asia, Africa; Western Style Appears in Non-Western North Korea; Sheared Wild Sheep Sets Record. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 04, 2015 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:12] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: New video from Hungary. Migrants stand up to Hungarian authorities trying to stop them from leaving the country. We have comprehensive coverage of the migrant crisis engulfing Europe.

At this hour, French investigators now certain the flaperon found in Reunion Island is from Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

And the movie isn't even out yet, but diehard "Star Wars" fans lined up for hours before the next best thing, new toys and stuff about the movie. Diehard fans will do anything. We will have that later this hour.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

Right now, migrants in Hungary are holding up signs and shouting at officials, refusing to leave a train they thought would take them to Germany. People onboard fear if they leave they will be sent once again to camps. This is just a few moments ago that we saw this scene. The train was stopped Thursday and the migrant were told it would not travel internationally. This is just the latest impasse as the migrant crisis in Europe grows more dire. Hungary has responded to the influx by building this, a barbed-wire fence, along its border with Serbia.

The conditions on that train we saw in Hungary are miserable, high, stifling temperatures, very little food or water.

CNN's Arwa Damon went inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Everyone flooded into the station, flooded on to one of the trains. Their logic is that if they were allowing them onto the station then the roads to Germany where they are all hoping to get must somehow be open.

This train is packed with people who don't really know exactly where it is this they're going. Some of them have heard that there are no international trains departing from this station but they are still packed into various different cars.

There is a very heart breaking scene unfolding as this train is stopped at the station because there's commotion outside with the police. People don't know if they will be forcibly removed from the train.

This family who say they he escaped death in Syria only to find it here. And they are so worried about the children.

We know that there is a refugee camp located maybe about 30 kilometers outside of Budapest. That is why everybody is refusing to get off this train.

Out on either side of this car that we're in, there are groups of men and youth who are holding on to the door handles, because they are afraid that police are going to try to come on board.

Even just being here for a few hours, I mean, this is very, very difficult. And especially hard for the mothers, who are struggling when it comes to holding it together. They are exhausted. They are emotionally drained. Their nerves are frayed. The kids will not stop crying. They are doing whatever it is they can to care for them, but it is difficult.

We have all been on this train for four hours, if not longer. And people right now are just trying to do what it is this they can to try to pass the time. There's two little girls sleeping on the floor right here. And it is very crowded obviously. Very hot in here. The kids are all thirsty. They're hungry. They haven't had food.

A police force outside standing guard and, just a short while ago, came through and, in Arabic, announced to everybody, asked them to get off the train, get on buses, and go and report to the refugee camps to get registered and processed. Problem is, nobody here is going to do that. They don't trust the Hungarians. They don't believe if they go into the camp they will ever be out. A lot of them are traumatized over what they already went through at one of Hungary's camps located on the border with Serbia. They felt they went through inhumane conditions and were treated like animals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: That's Arwa Damon. We will continue to follow that situation in Hungary.

We want to bring you news about an event in Germany. Reports that five people were injured when a fire broke out at a refugee shelter there. It happened south in Frankfurt. At this point, it is not clear how the fire started with you Reuters reports there have been more than 100 arson attacks on asylum shelters in recent months. More than 60 migrants from countries such as Syria and Ethiopia were housed in that three-story structure there.

The two little boys who drowned with their mother are expected to be laid to rest today in Syria, a country they were trying to flee. A photo of one of those boys, Aylan, as he was pulled from the water's edge lifeless, has gone viral, sparking more controversy about this crisis.

Four Syrian citizens were taken into custody Thursday suspected of human trafficking and contributing to their deaths.

The very distraught father of those two boys says now he has nothing left to live for. He tried desperately to save his family's lives as they slowly drown for hours in the water. He has told the tragic story of how he lost them when the boat capsized.

CNN's Hala Gorani has more now.

We want to warn you that some of what you will see is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:05:] HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two brothers stand close together as they pose for a photograph. The taller child is 4-year-old Galip Kurdi. The smaller one with the cheeky grin is 2- year-old Aylan, the boy we now know as the tiny victim in this harrowing image.

The picture of Aylan, face down and lifeless on a Turkish beach has been seen by millions around the world. But that's not how his father, Abdullah, wants to remember him or his brother.

ABDULLA KURDI, MIGRANT (through translation): Is there someone whose children are not valuable to them? Children enrapture you. They wake up in the morning. Daddy, I want to play in the water. Is there anything better than this? Everything is gone.

Abdullah is the sole survivor from a small family from Kobani in Syria. In early hours of Wednesday, he was with his two sons and wife as they were swept from a capsized dinghy while attempting to cross from Turkey to Greece. He shared what happened with his sister in Canada.

TIMA KURDI, SISTER OF ABDULLAH: And the wave keep pushing him down. Those two boys, they were in his arms. He said, he tried all of his power to put them up, the water, to breath. And screamed, "Daddy, please, don't die." And then when he looked in his left arm, and the older boy, Galip, was already dead. So he let him go. And he said, I will try to save the second one. There was blood coming from his eyes. So he closed his eyes and he let him go. He looked around for his wife. She was floating in the water. Was like a balloon. He said you should see how she looked like. He says, "I did all in my power to save them. I couldn't."

GORANI: The family wanted to join her in Canada where she had filed a refugee application with the help of a local parliamentarian.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I delivered the letter to the minister and nothing. We waited and waited and waited. We didn't have any action.

GORANI: In June, the family was told their request was rejected.

Desperate to find sanctuary somewhere, they made their way here, where hope has now been lost.

KURDI: I plan to sit by the grave of my wife and children and that is it.

GORANI: Leaving behind the beach where a single little boy brought into focus the suffering of thousands.

Hala Gorani, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: So very tragic. And our thoughts are with that father who was grieving.

In an exclusive interview, Turkey's president told CNN's Becky Anderson he was with his children and grandchildren when he saw the photos of Aylan lying lifeless on that beach. He said the West is to blame for what happened to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translation): We saw it, we were devastated. And we asked the question to ourselves, where is humanity. Where is the conscience of humanity? It's a 3- year-old child. And it's not a first time this is happening. Many children, mothers, fathers, unfortunately, have been drown in the rough waters of the Mediterranean. Only our Coast Guard, since the beginning of this year, have saved more than 50,000 people. This is a tough time we are going through. But this picture, of course, was what made us cry.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who's to blame?

ERODGAN (through translation): To be honest, the whole Western world is to be blamed, in my opinion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:10:19] ALLEN: The migrant crisis will headline a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Luxembourg just hours from now. They are expected to discuss plans to intensify efforts to capture smugglers. The proposal has gathered support from some ministers leading today must also sign off on it. Prime ministers of Slovakia and the Czech Republic will also meet in Prague. Reports say that meeting will likely focus on the migrants stranded in Budapest, Hungary, right now.

This crisis is putting the focus on the number of asylum seekers who are accepted by European countries. Germany, with a population of more than 80 million, accepted the most migrant last year. Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and France completed the top five. Countries that received more than 1,000 applications but accepted the fewest asylum seekers included Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Cyprus. But keep in mind, they received far fewer requests than larger E.U. nations.

Many of Syria's refugees dream of making it to Germany. And now a school there is welcoming young migrants and refugees from all across the Middle East. Later this hour, we will show you how it is trying to help children forget the horrors of war.

We may be one step closer to solving one of aviation's biggest mysteries. Next, French investigators say they're certain what this is.

Also, next, U.S. Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, said he will stick with the party, no matter what, when it comes to the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good day. I'm CNN meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, with a quick look at your Weather Watch for the early parts of the week.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:16:05] ALLEN: French authorities now say with certainty that airplane debris discovered on Reunion Island belongs to missing flight 370. The flaperon is the first physical trace of the Boeing 777 since it went missing March last year with 239 people on board.

We are joined by Ivan Watson.

Finally, a definitive piece of evidence. Hello, Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Natalie. That's right. The French say there's no question that this piece of Boeing 777's plane does in fact belong to missing Malaysia Air flight 370. And they were much more cautious about coming to this conclusion. It's been more than a month since this piece of wing was found off the coast of the island of reunion. The Malaysian government was very quick to announce that this did in fact belong to the missing MH370. But the French, they took longer to confirm this. How did they come to this conclusion? Well they say they went into the panel of this piece of wing with what they call an endoscope, basically a tube with a camera on the end of it, and there they were trying to find traces of three serial numbers. Then traveling to Spain where they went to the offices of a subcontractor of the Boeing airline manufacturers who make that particular panel and were able to cross con reference those serial numbers. That's how they came to the conclusion. As you very well mentioned, h is the only piece of debris that's been confirmed to be linked to that missing plane, that disappeared some 18 months ago with 239 passengers and crew on board -- Natalie?

ALLEN: And of course, their families have been waiting in agony and irate about information, they wanted to know what happened to this place and where are their loved ones. What is the reaction it at left something that they have that's concrete?

WATSON: Some of the people we've talked to, some of the relatives have been encouraged a bit. Some others say, you know, that's a piece of wing. That's not enough. I need to know not only where did the entire plane go, I need to know where my family members are. What happened to them? This has been a quest for closure for these people who have lived with the agony of not knowing what happened to their loved ones. We have to recall that this plane disappeared on March 8, 2014. It went missing for hours before the Malaysian authorities announced that the plane had in fact gone missing. And nobody has been able to come up with a real explanation for what happened to this plane. It is one of the great mysteries of modern aviation. So there are people that are still desperate for closure. Some people who have great suspicion about the Malaysian authorities and feel that they haven't been treated fairly and that they have not been given the truth, there does seem to be more credibility among the relatives that we've talked to in the French investigators, at least four French citizens on board that plane and French prosecutor's office in Paris have launched an investigation into the missing plane. Some people have been encouraged.

A big mystery here. How is it that this piece of plane traveled thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean away from the area where the Australian government has been leading a nautical effort to try to scour the bottom of the Indian Ocean for traces of this missing airliner -- Natalie?

[02:19:58] ALLEN: So much hope that this is the first piece of what will lead it other pieces found when you put this puzzle together.

Thank you, Ivan Watson, for us.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said he would not hesitate to run for president next year but that it depends on whether he and his family have the emotional energy for a campaign run. Biden's son, Beau, died of brain cancer just in may.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The factor is, can I do it? Can my family undertake what is an arduous commitment that would be proud to take under ordinary circumstances? But the honest to god answer is I just don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: On the Republican side, Donald Trump has signed the pledge. The Republican candidate promised to remain loyal to the party through the election next year. This means Trump will not run as third-party candidate and will support whoever the Republicans nominate.

New poll numbers have just been released. Our John King spoke with Anderson Cooper earlier about the numbers and the candidate who is gaining ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump leading with 30 percent, but Dr. Ben Carson in second with 18 percent. Jeb Bush down to single digits and Carly Fiorina only down to 4 percent. If you're Jeb Bush, you're going the wrong way. You're going down. If you're Ben Carson from 5 to 18 percent. Can he build this infrastructure into you port on the ground at the polls when people start to vote. Donald Trump, up from 26 to 30 in just a month. Why does Donald Trump say I'm Republican and I don't need to think about a third-party run? He has the reasonable path to be the Republican nominee. That's why he took the pledge today. His numbers are going that way.

ANDERSON KING, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: The poll asks about head-to-head match-ups. How did that turn out?

KING: Interesting question. Monmouth looked ahead saying, what if we get to a point where it is Donald Trump, versus another person, what would happen? Carson leads. Trump loses to Carson in a head-to-head matchup. Will we ever get a Trump/Carson race? I don't think so. Trump wins by 19 with Bush. So isn't it fascinating that Ben Carson and Donald Trump the two leading figures in this race, the two guys who have never held elected office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Now that pledge Trump signed is not legally binding. He doesn't have to stick to it, but he says he will.

A U.S. county clerk, who will not issue same-sex marriage licenses or allow her deputies to do so, is now in jail. A Kentucky judge ordered Kim Davis to stay behind pars until she abides by the Supreme Court ruling which legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. Davis said she is refusing licenses based on her religion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Religious liberty is not a sword with which government, through its employees, may impose particular religious views on others, nor may use religious liberty as justification to withhold essential government services.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Same-sex couples heading to the Rowan courthouse Friday morning could be given licenses. Five of six of Davis' deputy clerks say they will issue the licenses, some of whom hold her same religious beliefs.

To China now, where that country sent a signal to the world this week that its military is a force to be reckoned with.

But as Jim Sciutto reports, the U.S. appears to be brushing off China's latest show of strength.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China's massive military parade in Beijing --

(MUSIC)

SCIUTTO: -- delivered a very clear message far away to America. On grand display in the Chinese capital, new weapons, which U.S. officials believe are designed specifically to target U.S. military assets. A new ballistic missile with the range it strike the U.S. naval base at Guam, earning it the nickname the Guam Killer. A new anti-ship ballistic missile which analysts call the Carrier Killer unveiled for the first time.

(MUSIC)

SCIUTTO: And high above, a fly-over by China's new J-15 fighter, soon to be deployed on China's own new aircraft carrier. It's a first.

All this watched not just by China's elite but Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Pentagon brushed off the show of force.

CLARK COOK, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: People know the strength of our military. And I think it's safe to say that we don't need to display it at parades necessarily, for people to understand what the United States is capable of.

[02:25:00] SCIUTTO: Still, as President Obama gets ready to welcome the Chinese president to Washington for a full state visit later this month, China is increasingly flexing its military muscle far from its shores. Chinese naval ships entered waters off Alaska for the first time last week at the same time President Obama was visiting. And China continues to militarize man-made islands in the South China Sea, waters the U.S. considers international.

We came face-to-face with the Chinese military there on board a U.S. surveillance aircraft this May.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Chinese navy. Please go away, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Chinese navy is going to be operating as it increasingly as blue water navy around the world. And the United States will just have to get used to it.

SCIUTTO: The ceremony did not mention the U.S. Chinese company produced this video showing Chinese attack forces very much resembling American ones, with an overwhelming Chinese victory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Jim Sciutto with our story here.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the little boy whose body washed up on the shores of Turkey is making his way home to Syria for burial. We look at the war that forced his family and many others to leave in the first place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:29:48] ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN live coverage. I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories.

A stand-off continues near Budapest right now where migrants are refusing to get off a train they thought was headed to Germany. Police arrived in riot gear Thursday hoping the migrants would leave, but they are refusing out of fear they'll be put in refugee camps, yet again.

French investigators confirm a wing flap found on Reunion Island is in fact from missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370. This confirms what Malaysian officials said weeks ago. The Boeing 777 went missing in March of last year. 239 people were on board.

The suspect charged with killing nine church goers in Charleston, South Carolina, could face the death penalty if convicted. That's despite apparent objections from some family members of the victims. A prosecutor says the ultimate punishment absolutely fits the crime in this case.

Aylan Kurdi's father, Abdullah, reportedly paid smugglers $2,000 to get his family to Greece. Now he will take his dead wife and sons back to Kobani, their hometown in northern Syria, where they fled, which has been engulfed by fighting.

Our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, takes a closer look at how Syria got to this state.

We warn you, this story has disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Syria's trauma rarely is this visible. Aylan Kurdi, so innocent in death. You can almost feel his face in the sand.

Smugglers, an unfulfilled hope, put him there. But his family wasn't the first. Fleeing another morbidly visible part of Syria's spiral into the void.

Kobani, to some here, in sprawling camps, their onward trip to Greece or Canada would have been a lucky and expensive chose to leave behind forever the abyss after homeland. When does it end?

Even overlooking Kobani, when the world was able to watch the brutality of ISIS launch car bombs on the borders of NATO, the coalition smart bombs came but did not bring a war to a close. In fact, each time Syria's crisis deepens, it's horrors burst erupted on to our screens and the world asks, when will it end, the task seems all the more impossible.

(SHOUTING)

PATON WALSH: ISIS fighting rebels fighting al Qaeda fighting the Kurds, all of whom have or want their own fiefdoms, and that's just the north.

The Assad regime on the back foot but still using barrel bombs against civilians and a brutality that fuels the unrest and kills more than anyone else.

(SHOUTING)

PATON WALSH: A full two years passed since Barack Obama's only red line on Syria, the use of chemical weapons, was crossed, suffocating, broke through the fatigue of Syria. The use of Sarin, given the White House's threat, seemingly al-Assad to goading the world to stop him, apparently calling the bluff. He already tested Washington's will to intervene again after Iraq in the Middle East. Huge scud surface-to- surface missiles against the rebel areas of Aleppo turned them into the surface of the moon. Children routinely hit by shelling, seem to be designed to be random to terrified. Hospitals in the cross hairs.

Enough to spur unified action back when Syria was a far, far less complex mess. And perhaps now, even this image still not enough when Syria has never seemed less fixable.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Australia's government has been criticized both at home and abroad for its tough immigration policies, including turning back migrant votes and detaining asylum seekers in camps.

Earlier, we spoke with David Mann with the Refugee and Immigration Legal Center in Melbourne, who says the country's methods are a cause for great concern.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MANN, REFUGEE AND IMMIGRATION LEGAL CENTER: The price for these policies which have significantly stemmed the flow of boats has been to essentially inflicting systematic harm and destroy the program to protect refugees and resulted in practice such as sending people away from Australia to places like Papua, New Guinea, to be indefinitely incarcerated in circumstances that in many cases replicate the same forms of inhumanity for which many people have actually fled. The other point it make here is that these types of hard line deterrent policies pushing people back it access asylum in Australia do nothing to address the real circumstances, the real desperation, that forces people to flee. All of those policies end up really doing is sweeping people from our doorstep, in Australia, to dangers and possible death elsewhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:35:35] ALLEN: Prime Minister Tony Abbot is defending his country's policies and says Australia will do more to help migrants. He said -- and here is a quote -- "A year or so back, we announced that because of the crisis in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, we were going to take an extra 4,000. We are in a position to increase our refugee and humanitarian intake."

For those that make it out it a new life, they can get much help. A school in Germany is helping students from Syria and South Asia and Africa adjust to new lives.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Atika Shubert, has that from Germany.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A school in Brandenburg, Ms. Albrecht is making a game of learning German and her students are eager to put words into practice.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: My name is Rosa (ph). I'm from Aiden.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SHUBERT: Just two of the dozens of young refugees going to school here. This is a welcome class for learning German, designed to get kids of all ages speaking as quickly as possible. Up to 16 kids, one teacher and two assistants. A lot of staff to make sure each child gets the support they need.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: They learn that they are very, very friendly, that they are very open-minded. They are very fast learners, especially from Syria. And they are happy here in Germany. And that makes me happy as well.

SHUBERT: Nearly 40 percent of the kids here are from refugee or migrant families. Students come from Syria and Iran, but also Albania, Afghanistan, Somalia and Chechnya. Some have been here for years, others only a few weeks.

"I have learned so much from them," says this teacher. "And they learn from each other. They talk all the time about the different ways they get to school, how they live, and what kind of food they eat. Personally, I'm grateful for it," she says.

Teachers are sensitive to the difficulties of adjusting to a new country, so there are home visits to refugee shelters and field trips to get kids comfortable with their new neighborhood. The goal is a class like this, confident student speaking fluent German.

And yet, there is nothing special about the school, insists Principal Goldberg.

"We simply want students to feel as comfortable as quickly as possible," she says. "We want this to feel like home and for them to forget the wars and conflict they have left behind."

For some of these children, it's not home yet. But it is a fresh start and, most of all, a chance at a normal life.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Brandenburg, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: That is nice to see right there.

Hungary's prime minister says, once its country has processed migrants that are stuck there right now, it's up to Germany to handle the rest. Next hour, I'll speak with the spokesperson for the Hungarian government on how his country is dealing with this dilemma. Many people criticizing the harsh tactics Hungary has taken.

Guatemala has sworn in a new president following Perez Molina's resignation. Former Vice President Maldonado is the country's new leader. The abrupt leadership change comes amid a bribery scandal allegedly connected to Mr. Perez Molina. A warrant was issued for the former President Perez Molino's arrest and he is now behind bars awaiting a court hearing today. The former president denies any wrongdoing.

Now to Venezuela where jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez (ph), could learn his fate today. Lopez is accused of inciting violence during protests that shook the country last year. The 44-year-old has been m prison since February 2014, when he turned himself in during public demonstration. If found guilty, Lopez faces up to 14 years in jail.

We're going to turn to the movies in a moment. "Star Wars" fans around the world rejoicing. The first trinkets, toys, you name it, souvenirs, from the upcoming movie are now on sale. We will tell you why people are packing stores to buy them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:43:21] ALLEN: Derek Van Dam stopped in to talk about the heat that is causing a lot of problems in the U.S. and even on the courts in New York.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The tennis courts. You're an athlete, I'm an athlete. I'm a runner. You and I have probably experienced cramps before, and I know I have. It is a terrible thing and has to do with electrolytes in our body. We often have those drinks that help prevent heat cramps. Some had to be carried off the court. Take a look at this footage of jack. He was unfortunately, again, hit with these heat cramps and muscle fatigue that's just all thanks to heavy work he's been doing on the court. And --

(CROSSTALK)

ALLEN: And the women playing for three and a half hours, the longest match for a woman at the U.S. Open. And they hung in there.

VAN DAM: And one of the women as well had to be treated for heat exhaustion as well. Yeah. Not great. Really the best thing that you can do here is try to cool your core body temperature down as quickly as possible. And well it doesn't appear that he was fortunate to continue play. He today actually could be escorted right off of the court. This is the forecast for the U.S. Open in New York and temperatures

are still on the warm side. There is a slight dip in daytime highs but as we head into the weekend and early next week, they rebound right back into the upper 80s. As we continue on through Labor Day weekend with the U.S. Open, players and fans are going to have to contend with this hot weather as well. Here it is the stifling east coast. However, weak cold front, bringing a slight relief. But we have an area of high pressure, bringing back the heat. Bringing back places like Minneapolis and Chicago, well above average the rest of the weekend so plan accordingly.

Check out the Western half of the United States. Sunny and dry across California. What's new there. But what I want you to notice is across the four corners. An amount of monsoonal moisture. It sparked off a number of thunderstorms in the area that could create about a half inch to three quarters inch of rain fall but I want to talk quickly about the sandstorm that moved through the phoenix, Arizona area. Picking up dusty sand and scattering it across the ground. Can you see this roll here? I want you to see the footage so you can tie these two things together. Take a lock at this. This is in Phoenix and U.S. state of Arizona. That, Natalie, is a haboob, or sandstorm. Very hazardous for anyone breathing the outside air and also for air travel. They want to try and avoid that, as you can imagine. Sand and engines do not work well together.

[02:46:17]ALLEN: No. Right. It goes from sunny to dark.

VAN DAM: That's right. Very creepy. And it happens across other parts of the world as well, including Russia and the Middle East.

ALLEN: All right. Derek, thank.

VAN DAM: Thanks.

ALLEN: We want it move on here to North Korea, which regularly fires off anti-Western rhetoric, as you know. But the strange country now seems to be adopting some surprisingly western styles, from music that the Koreans are now hearing to the designer clothes the first lady wears.

Here is CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to North Korea's hottest pop dance.

(SINGING)

LAH: A violin wielding, high-heeled wearing Kim Jong-Un-loving girl group, from to put out propaganda by the supreme leader himself.

At this concert a long range missile launches on the big screen behind them. Frenzied fans on their feet. Music crescendos as the missile strikes a picture of the United States.

(SINGING)

LAH: North Korea's age-old message delivered by women in a Communist version of a Chanel suit. It is a modern powerful twist for the oppressive brain washing of its people. While Kim Jong-Un executed members of his own family and inner circle he is pitching himself as an exciting young leader.

YU HO YO (ph), NORTH KOREAN STUDIES PROFESSOR: He, Kim Jong-Un, is a leader, who is a new and otherwise (INAUDIBLE)

LAH: It is a calculated departure from the propaganda of his father's era.

North Korea's only airline, flight attendant ditching the Soviet-era uniforms and replacing them with this, the leggy outfits gracing the cover of North Korea's magazine.

The new North Korea spotted on Kim Jong-Un's very own wife. She is North Korea's Kate Middleton, spawning a Westernization of fashion in Pyongyang, down to the high heels.

But nothing happens by accident on the propaganda TV.

"No citizens on earth are as happy as u," says North Korea's announcer as Kim Jong-Un takes a ride at this brand new amusement park. Pictures on his private plan show him as a progressive leader cementing his people's loyalty.

(on camera): North Korea's watchers say updating propaganda from this to something more modern, more outside world, does has some political benefit. There is some risk to the regime.

(on camera): The ladies, perpetually in praise of Kim Jong-Un, clearly got some ideas from their enemy on the other side of the DMZ --

(SINGING)

LAH: -- South Korea's K Pop band.

(SINGING)

LAH: Letting some new ideas --

YO (ph): They want it look beyond the screen. Maybe it's a risk.

LAH: A challenge not on the military front, but one of human curiosity.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Seoul.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And we'll have more news for you right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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DON RIDDEL, CNN WORLD SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey, I'm Don Riddel with your CNN World Sports headlines.

We are almost certainly going to have some new faces at the European football championships next summer. Let's start with Iceland. They beat the Netherlands, 1:0. In qualifying in Amsterdam, a second half penalty. Iceland now on the brink of qualifying for a major tournament for a first time. Wales haven't been in a major tournament since 1958. That long draught looks like it will soon be over after their 1:0 win in Cyprus.

It feels like there has only been one sports story in the U.S. today, Deflategate. A federal judge has nullified the NFL's four-game suspension of New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady. He is now cleared to play in their first regular season game next week. But Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL will appeal Judge Richard Bunning's (ph) decision to nullify that suspension. Brady can play during the appeal.

The head of a cycling team says they were very close to pulling out of the Spanish race after two of their riders were injured by television motor bikes and forced to pull out themselves. The riders were both sidelined after crashing with the bikes. And feeling pressure from his team, emergency measures have been introduced to protect the cyclists for the rest of the tour.

Those are the headlines. I'm Don Riddel.

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[02:53:37] ALLEN: All right. For the millions of "Star Wars" fans in the universe out there, this is for you. Friday is finally upon us. Stores around the world from Sydney to Rio de Janeiro to New York have begun selling the latest toys, books and trinket from the film franchise. Of course, this is all part of the enormous buildup towards the December release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." So far, the action figures are causing the biggest buzz because they speak actual lines from the film. And fans are analyzing every word spoken, looking for clues about the top-secret story line of the movie.

An Australian sheep spent years wandering in the wild, growing a massive and glorious fleece. Perhaps you've seen it on-line. When Chris was finally sheered, he may have broken a world record.

CNN's Jonathan Mann has that.

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JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not a woolly mammoth but certainly a mammoth amount of wool. And it all comes from one single sheep. This is Chris, a massive Moreno on the outskirts of the Australian capital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is a sheep with a big personality and big coat to match.

MANN: The animal was so overgrown it could hardly walk. So much so that the sheep's very life was in danger. Local veterinarians brought in a champion sheep shearer to give Chris a much needed hair cut.

UNIDENTIFIED SHEEP SHEARER: The weight of the fleece was pulling on the skin. So in part I double cut it to get the weight of the fleece off it and come back out with the skin so it doesn't cut the sheep.

[02:55:10] MANN (on camera): Almost 45 minutes of careful cutting, this is the result, a massive pile of fleece. Unofficially, a woolly world record.

UNIDENTIFIED SHEEP SHEARER: This fleece weighs 4.5 kilos. The average fleece after 12 months of growing would be 5 kilos. So it is quite amazing. I reckon the sheep was about seven years old and never sheered before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had no idea until last night as the media started asking us about the world record that we were even close.

MANN (voice-over): This is Chris now, a newly short sheep looking much lighter and apparently feeling better too.

UNIDENTIFIED SHEEP SHEARER: He seemed very happy. And the vets were quite pleased with the look of the sheep after.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just went back and looked at him. He is doing fine. In fact, I think he's a new man. Not only half the size but his personality changed.

MANN: What happens to Chris's coat? There's enough for a slew sweaters. Shearers say it is too matted to do any good. But his story is getting attention from all around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've taken phone calls from as far as Hong Kong and Dubai. It has been mad.

MANN: And with all this attention, it's probably leaving Chris feeling a bit sheepish.

Jonathan Mann, CNN.

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ALLEN: Chris is a new man, they say. Watch out ladies.

That's it for this hour. I'm Natalie Allen. I'll see you in two minutes for another hour of news.

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