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Innovations Give Athletes Competitive Edge; Amazon is Tracking You; Power Grid Failure Leaves Half of India in Dark; Same-Sex Marriage May Become Part of Democrat Platform.

Aired July 31, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": And hello, everyone. I am Kyra Phillips. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West.

It's the biggest Olympic face-off of the London games. Real-time versus tape-delay. Viewers are spoiling for a fight.

Sound and fury in Warsaw, reporters provide the sound, Mitt Romney's press aide stirs up the rest.

And your mother may not know exactly what exactly you want for your birthday, but Amazon does. This hour, how the powerhouse online retailer gets inside your head.

Well, disappointment and heartbreak for some of our own, but that's not going to stop our best athletes from bringing home the gold and they'll have plenty of chances today.

For the women, it starts with soccer and taking on North Korea. Then we're going to hit the mats for gymnastics. As for the guys, nothing but net and swish as the U.S. basketball team goes up against Tunisia.

Then there's swimmer Michael Phelps, already a world record holder, but today, this will be a race like no other. He's not just going for the gold. He's trying to make history, once again.

Zain Verjee, no pressure for Phelps, right?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's just an easy, breezy thing. Just a few hours back there in aquatics center.

Kyra, remember this name, OK? Because you're going to be hearing also a lot today. Larisa Latynina. OK, she is a former Soviet gymnast and she actually holds the world record for the most Olympics ever. She's had it for 48 years and has 18 medals.

Now, Michael Phelps has 17 and he's competing in two events today, OK? So, he could either tie and get one medal or break that record and just make the history books, again.

So, all eyes are on Phelps to see how he does. He has not been performing as well as anyone expected that he would, but today is a really big day for him. PHILLIPS: All right, well, and speaking of swimming, tell us more about this 16-year-old Chinese swimming sensation. I already love her name, Ye Shiwen. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect.

VERJEE: Yay, she wins. She wins.

PHILLIPS: Exactly.

VERJEE: Yeah, well, you know, a lot of the focus is on her today. She is an amazing swimmer. She's only 16-years old. Now, the focus is actually because of what happened on Saturday. She won the 400-meter individual medley and she smashed her own record by more than five seconds and, get this, Kyra, she also, just if you look at the timing, was faster in the last 50 meters of that race on Saturday than Ryan Lochte, OK? Even he was just amazed.

But what's been happening is that she's being accused by one U.S. coach that's actually pretty reputable, saying, well, this is suspicious. How could she smash a record like this? This is just not human.

So, a senior British official today talked back and this is what he said. Just to put it into perspective about her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN MOYNIHAN, HEAD OF BRITISH OLYMPIC ASSOCIATION: She's gone through the water program and she's clean. That is the end of the story and let us recognize that there is an extraordinary swimmer out there who deserves the recognition for talent in these games.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: The Chinese also themselves are pretty a annoyed that the whole idea of doping is coming up in this. Shiwen says this. She says there is absolutely no problem with doping and the Chinese team has always had a firm policy about anti-doping.

So, the bottom line here on this story is she has not tested positive for anything.

PHILLIPS: Point, well made. And I love Ryan Lochte coming forward, Zain, and saying, it was pretty impressive. And it was a female. She's fast. If she was there with me, I don't know, she might have beat me.

VERJEE: She wins, she's fast, she may conquer a little bit later again today when she competes. But I was just looking at the numbers here. She actually was faster by Ryan Lochte by 0.17 seconds in the last 50 meters.

Lochte himself said this about her, "It was pretty impressive and it was a female. She's fast. If she was there with me, I don't know, she might have beat me."

We'll see how she does a little bit later today. PHILLIPS: We'll be watching her and, of course, we love our Missy Franklin, too. Only 17-years old there. Zain Verjee, thanks so much.

Well, it is one of the biggest tape-delay controversies we have ever seen. NBC is getting slammed for delaying Olympic coverage to get a bigger audience. And it was this promo that got so many people talking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you're 17-years old and win your first goad medal, there's nobody you'd rather share it with. We're there when Missy Franklin and her parents reunite. A "Today" exclusive, live from London, tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, here's the deal. That promo played six minutes before NBC aired Missy Franklin's gold medal winning swim, spoiling its own coverage of her win.

And then there's the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, real-time beating out the fight for ratings.

CNN's Laurie Segall has been following all of this. So, Laurie, there seems to be a pretty big disconnect between network TV, what it wants to achieve, and then the worldwide Web and how quickly things happen.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY: Yeah, well, Kyra, I certainly don't think that they can ignore the growing presence of social media and what this has really done, it's the first time we've really seen that impact in just how much it affects how you actually experience the games.

Now, people may hate the spoilers, but it's not actually affecting ratings. And what we've seen is people might know the outcome, but they're still tuning in during those primetime hours.

Now, check out what NBC had to say about this. In a statement, it said, "This audience number for the London opening ceremony is a great early sign that our strategy of driving people to watch NBC in primetime is actually working. We look forward to the next 16 nights of compelling Olympic competition."

And, so, Kyra, the bottom line is it may be a pain for people like us, but it's not affecting those numbers. And will it change next go around? Not really sure about that one.

PHILLIPS: Well, NBC also doing the live streaming of these events. How is that working out?

SEGALL: You know, the live streaming, we should definitely note that live streaming is happening here because a lot of people are saying, all right, we don't get to experience these events live, but you actually do get to experience them live if you go on your smartphone or your tablet, you can take a look there.

But people have also been going to Twitter to complain and give NBC that hash tag, "#NBCfail," because they'll go and try to experience these on their smartphones and on their tablets and what'll happen is it gets a bit delayed. You know, it might be a little spotty because so many people want to experience those events live and there's such an appetite for it.

PHILLIPS: Laurie Segall, thanks so much. And tape delay or not, 40.7 million viewers turned to opening night, the most watched summer games opening ceremony to record.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Just a quick note for those of you, if you're heading out the door. You can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone or, if you're heading to work, you can also watch CNN live from your desktop. Just go to CNN.com/TV.

So, if you want to know how Mitt Romney enjoyed his week-long visit to the U.K., Israel and Poland, you might not want to ask him at a photo-op . His handlers didn't seem to like it either. We'll get to that in just a second.

But first, the scripted portion of the candidate's day in Warsaw, a wreath-laying at Poland's tomb of the unknown soldier, followed by a speech in praise of Poland's economic and political ideals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The world should pay close attention to the transformation of Poland's economy. A march toward economic liberty and smaller government has meant a march toward higher living standards, a strong military that defends liberty at home and abroad and an important and growing role on the international stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Jim Acosta, traveling with Romney, joins me live now. So, Jim, let's talk about what Mitt Romney was wanting to accomplish in Poland.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what he wanted to accomplish here in Poland is basically to pay tribute to the Polish for their transformation from a former Soviet-bloc country to, basically, the economic envy of Europe.

The economy here is roaring ahead of the rest of Europe right now and Romney said there are lessons to be learned from what's happening here in Poland.

But I have to tell you, Kyra, it was very interesting to watch this campaign depart from this overseas trip and head back to the U.S. Mitt Romney is now in the air, heading back to the United States, which will basically put him smack dab in the middle of a campaign that will not stop until November.

We tried to ask Mitt Romney about some of these perceived gaffes that he's had over the last several days. It all started in London when he questioned that city's preparedness for the summer Olympic games and then in Israel he did give that moving speech defending Israel's right to exist.

But then at a fundraiser, he seemed to equate or he seemed to make a comparison between the Israelis and Palestinians, in terms of their economic vitality, and wondered whether culture might have something to do with the disparity between the Israelis and Palestinians.

And, so, it was here in Warsaw, Kyra, that we tried to ask the GOP contender about some of the comments he's made on this trip, whether some of these gaffes might have overshadowed what he tried to accomplish. And that's when his traveling press aide came up to us and, basically, shouted us down.

Here's what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Romney, do you have a statement for the Palestinians?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about your gaffe?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Romney, do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?

RICK GORKA, ROMNEY'S TRAVELING PRESS SECRETARY: This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't had another chance to ask him questions.

GORKA: This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, the traveling press secretary, Rick Gorka, that you heard in that video later called a couple of the reporters from the traveling press corps and apologized for those comments.

I had a chance to catch up with Stuart Stevens who is a senior adviser to the Romney campaign and, basically, he didn't want to have anything of these questions about gaffes and mishaps during this campaign. In his words, Kyra, he said that this overseas trip has been, in his words, "a great success."

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Well, Jim, what was the response from you and other reporters, you know, there with regard to was that a respectful moment or not, to yell out those questions at that particular moment?

ACOSTA: Well, Kyra, as you know, shouted questions happen back in the States. Shouted questions are going to happen overseas. You should see the British and how they relate to their political leaders overseas. We witnessed that first hand when we were in London.

I have to tell you, just to put all this in perspective, in case there are some folks out there who are watching this for the first time, we were a good 100 yards away from the Polish tomb of the unknown soldier. We waited until Mitt Romney paid his respects. He started to walk away from that site with the mayor of this city. They were chatting for a good five to ten minutes.

And we were in a public plaza where there were other pedestrians walking around and taking pictures and it was as he was moving towards his vehicle to leave that scene that we started to ask those questions, so, this was very much another day at the office for the candidate and his traveling press corps.

I think perhaps there might be some frustrations inside the Romney campaign about some of the coverage of this trip. I overheard one Romney aide just yesterday complaining that too much of the coverage has been about the gaffes and not enough about the substance that they feel like they've laid out for reporters.

So, there were some frustrations there and they kind of boiled over today.

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Point made. Jim Acosta, thanks so much.

All right, let's talk about that hot, dry weather that's gripping the country right now. We are definitely in a drought, a drought of historic proportions. It's actually our "In-Depth" this week.

Just take a look at this map. The darker colors will show the most severe areas of the drought. Notice that there's not a lot of green in there. The green areas are the only places not seeing a problem.

The Midwest and Plains states are seeing the worst of it. And our Christine Romans is in Davenport, Iowa, for us this morning, her home state, actually. We sent her there on many stories, politics and now the drought.

What do you think, Christine? Have you ever seen it this bad in your home state?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, a lot of the farmers around here tell me that '88 was the last time they saw it like this. My parents say that, too. They remember very well '88.

Others say it's kind of maybe going to rival 1956. That is a time that most farmers don't remember, but a really tough year, nonetheless. I mean, this is not a perfect ear of corn, Kyra, but this is what it's supposed to look like and this, Kyra, is what is coming out of the fields now. You're getting a lot of this.

So, we've been walking through these fields, trying to figure out just how bad this crop is going to be and what farmers are going to do about it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What are the two things that farmers talk about when they sit around with a cup of coffee?

JOE DIERICKX, FARM OWNER: Will it rain? Did you get any rain? Who got rain?

ROMANS: Three versions of rain.

DIERICKX: Every farmer in Iowa feels they have a moral responsibility to do everything they can for this crop to grow as much as we can, even though we know it is going to be short.

This is one of the good-looking fields and this is ...

ROMANS: This is good looking?

DIERICKX: You know, from the road, I mean, this is a nice- looking field and it's pathetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Can I tell you, there is some hope for the soybeans. Those go in the ground a little bit later, Kyra, so some farmers, including Joe, are saying that, you know, they hope that maybe they're going to get some decent beans. They're just starting to flower, so if it started to rain, wow, that could really help the beans.

But there's no rain in the forecast. It's already like -- you know, oh, my gosh. It's not even noon and it's already 90 degrees here, so it's going to be hot. These corn leaves are going to curl up. They're going to try to protect themselves. They're going to go on defense and these ears of corn are not going to grow.

We're not going to know exactly how bad the crop is until farmers can get in their combines, Kyra, and can get out there and harvest it. That doesn't happen for another, I don't know, four, six, eight weeks.

So, at this point, it's still a guessing game for how bad it will be and they really want some rain, Kyra. Oh, boy, do they want some rain. A little rain would help, but it's not in the forecast.

PHILLIPS: Well, and it's going to impact our food prices. Think of all the things that contains corn, right? And corn is what feeds our livestock.

ROMANS: Absolutely. Absolutely. And not very far from me, there's a hog facility behind, not very far from me. They feed corn, they feed grains to the hogs and poultry in this country. So, it all goes all the way through.

You know, the government says the way they figure it, next year, take $100 food bill, right, at the grocery store. It's going to be more like $104, $105. That's what this particular drought is going to do to grain prices. Your food prices, rather.

It's so interesting, too, because around the rest of the world, where other nations spend much more of their income on food, it's going to be -- it's really going to hurt some other countries.

PHILLIPS: Christine Romans there in her home state. Christine, thanks so much.

This year's drought is being mentioned as the worst since 1988. Christine mentioned that. That year, drought-related costs and damage amounted to around $40 billion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, rebels fighting government troops in at least five cities today, capturing military sites and vowing to take down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at all costs.

New video from Aleppo here, the country's largest city. Now, CNN cannot independently confirm its authenticity, but opposition forces say that they are gaining on Assad forces. We're talking about here, taking control of two police stations and capturing an army outpost near the city. We're told it was full of tanks and ammunition.

Now, we've got a map that shows how the battle for Syria has expanded. The U.N. now says that more than 100,000 people have fled the country, but our own Ivan Watson is still there and right there on the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fires are still smoldering after Sunday night's rebel attack on a large Syrian army base next to the main highway between Aleppo and the Turkish border to the north.

And look at the results of this attack, an armored personnel carrier blown open. And just take a look at how ferocious this assault was. The turret was blown off the vehicle, something like 20 yards away.

We were listening as the battle unfolded on Sunday night, tracer- fire lighting up the night sky, explosions, the Syrian army calling in artillery all the way from Aleppo which is located miles away.

And we could hear the rebels as they approached the earthworks around this army base, crawling on their stomachs, carrying rocket- propelled grenades which can only fire at close range to take out heavily-armored vehicles like this. The day after the battle, the rebels are celebrating.

This is why this outpost was such a strategic victory for the rebels. It overlooked the main highway that runs from the city of Aleppo all the way to the Turkish border and, with this taken out, the rebels have assumed control of a crucial artery, transport artery between these two destinations.

Ahmed Afish (ph) was one of the key commanders of this battle and he's now showing us the tanks and armored personnel carriers, just three of them, that they captured in Sunday night's battle.

AHMED AFISH (PH) (via translator): God willing, soon, we will meet the regime forces in Aleppo and take the tanks with us.

WATSON: The regime forces have been pushed out of this area, but they are still making their presence known with artillery strikes. We've now heard at least four shells crash, probably within a mile of where we are right now.

You can see dust over here from an artillery strike, which is our cue to get the hell out of here. Ivan Watson, CNN, (INAUDIBLE), Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Ivan on the phone with me now. Ivan, from your vantage point, what's your take? Who's winning the battle for this country? We continually get mixed reports.

WATSON: Well, I don't think there's any getting this genie back into the bottle. The rebels have gotten so much more coordinated, so much better armed than they were, even a few months ago, that they're carrying out complex operations.

And I think what's even a worse sign for the Syrian government is how much of the Syrian countryside has been effectively governed by the opposition, out of the government's hands for months.

We've been to villages that haven't seen any government presence since February, since March and April. They've been governing themselves. They've established opposition-ruled enclaves in the north of the country, so much so that we were able to visit a couple of days ago a prison that the rebels have established, full of more than 100 Syrian soldiers and suspected pro-government militia members and that was only about 25 miles north of Aleppo.

And that just gives you a sense of how confident the armed opposition is right now, even as they continue to struggle, street-by- street, for control of the largest city in the country, Aleppo.

PHILLIPS: And, Ivan, we should point out, you know, you are working as a team with Raja Razek. She's been translating for you, shooting for you, producing for you. You know, talk to us about how the two of you have been able to get such good access and be able to bring us these reports that we haven't been able to see within the past couple of weeks.

Prior, it was just getting video fed in from those who are in the battle, but you two have really been able to get some pretty incredible access.

WATSON: Well, first of all, the Syrian government has refused for the better part of half a year any visas, journalist visas, for CNN journalists, so, we've had to find other ways to get into the country.

Then, on the ground, we find that the rebels themselves are desperate to get their voices heard, to get their side of the story out to the outside world and are very accommodating to foreign journalists.

We operate by moving with locals from each community who drive us around the countryside and what's incredible is that the government doesn't control the countryside here in Northern Syria. We can drive for hours and hours on back roads through village after village where each waves victory signs as we drive through and we get up close and get to speak with the people in these towns.

It is truly an uprising, a rebellion, that is being led by the people themselves, farmers, carpenters, construction workers, and they want to tell the rest of the world what they're doing because they feel they're not getting any outside help whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: Ivan Watson, thanks so much.

And the U.N. says the conflict has now claimed almost 17,000 lives and the body count keeps rising.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: As we watch all our athletes go for the gold in London, it's hard not to think about the physical and mental preparation it takes for them to compete, but what is giving them quite an edge right now is technology.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at some of the new invasions.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Tyler McGill has an excellent chance of beating Michael Phelps but his underwater kick has to improve for this to happen.

TYLER MCGILL, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: This is me here and, as you can see, I'm in the air and Michael, along with everybody else is still on the block. And, so, my reaction is ahead of everybody else's at this point and I have a lead. You'll notice that everybody has caught up by the time we reach the 15 meter mark. DAVID MARSH, U.S. OLYMPIC ASSISTANT SWIM COACH: The breakout portion of this race compared to Michael, who is coming out of it at a little bit faster time move over here to the 15-meter mark to the 35 meter mark, he's at 11.3. 0.3 doesn't sound like a lot, but in swimming it is a lot of time.

GUPTA: BMW has taken video analysis to the next level designing high-performance cars and applying it to swimming.

RICKY BERENS, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: One of the most important parts of swimming. It's faster than on top of the water, but you really don't know why they go so fast or why you go faster than them. This technology, adding numbers and adding equations to this will help us evolve as swimmers.

GUPTA: Ricky Berens is experimenting with this new technology. By marking six points where the body bends on the swimmer, the wrist, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and toe, the software connects the dots.

CRIS PAVLOFF, TECHNOLOGY ENGINEER, BMW: We have the kick frequency and the kick depth and the kick rate. This is really going to help USA swimming to help determine what makes a great dolphin kick.

GUPTA: What swimmers wear affects their aerodynamic. This year, it evolved even more.

TYLER CLARY, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: The more fabric you can put on the human body, the faster it is going to be, to keep the body as uniform as possible, kind of like a torpedo.

GUPTA: Incidentally, the same goes for track and field athletes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a texture to the suit to make it faster. If you look really close, there's dimensions to it, texture to it. So, it turns out smooth. Does not equal fast. It shaves off 0. 02 seconds. Not just a difference between first and second place, it is the difference of being on the podium or not. This is the spread shoe for the 100 meter, extremely lightweight, extremely supportive. Independent, loose cables that gives you a perfect fit.

GUPTA: For marathoners, shoes have to be even lighter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only 160 grams light. Can save yourself 90 percent, which is how much lighter than our favorite marathon shoe. At the end of the race, you would have saved yourself the weight of a car.

GUPTA: For basketball players, the weight of their shorts could impact their game. And their shoes can track their performance. Just some of the ways technology is shaping the London Olympics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 33. That's awesome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: I have to say, I'm very disappointed because I thought you would come dressed out in full garb.

(LAUGHTER)

GUPTA: I have it underneath my clothes here.

PHILLIPS: Right. Can you imagine, Sanjay Gupta, that would have brought out ratings if Sanjay came out in his swim suit?

I was actually -- yes?

GUPTA: They have to be longer. They're not the Speedos --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I didn't mean to throw you off. Did I make you nervous there? You're turning red.

(LAUGHTER)

But we were talking about this at home last night and I actually said, OK, I would have thought less would be better but you said more coverage and, also --

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: The texture to it.

PHILLIPS: The texture.

GUPTA: It decreases friction. These swimsuits, by the way, they're so delicate and skin tight you have to put them on with gloves.

PHILLIPS: It is like wearing Spandex. You wouldn't know about that, but that's exactly what this is.

GUPTA: No. Now you'll pay more attention to swimming. This is what the U.S. Team is wearing, the men. Also the caps. Women typically wear two caps. One is just to compress the hair down and the other to get rid of a profile on the back of the head, but they get a teardrop shape. They collect the hair on top of their head to get that tear drop --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Right, because you see so many of the female swimmers have such long hair and I even said, these are all the things we were talking about at home the other night. You would think you would want to cut your hair, less weight, less bulk.

GUPTA: They can make it work for you in these compression caps. They wear two caps, the women do. Dana Vollmer lost her cap at the bottom of the pool.

PHILLIPS: At the bottom of the pool, yes. GUPTA: Goggles. Essentially two seals, the outer seal and an inner seal. You let water collect in here and that gives you more compression against the face and gives you that really nice streamline sort of look.

PHILLIPS: So, goggles always fog up. You know, as kids we spit in the goggles and clean them out.

GUPTA: You have an outer layer of water that is the same temperature and you're not getting the fluctuation in temperature, they're not perfect. But also the great shape.

PHILLIPS: This is the real stuff. They sent this to you.

GUPTA: This is the real stuff. They said they wanted me to join the team, but I said I was busy. I had to do a live shot with you.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: He was behind in his training. He wasn't quite ready for the guys.

(CROSSTALK)

I could see you in there with Lochte, Phelps and Gupta.

GUPTA: I might be doing it.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: You'd be cheering them on.

GUPTA: That's right.

PHILLIPS: You'd be blowing the whistle.

(LAUGHTER)

Definitely interesting. This is something we were talk about at home and a lot of people notice these things and wonder --

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: You'll see incredible times. Keep in mind, everybody has access to this technology. The playing field is level across countries, but overtimes it makes a difference.

PHILLIPS: You're seeing record times this time around.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You can catch more coverage of the games this weekend when Sanjay looks into the science behind doping and profiles an Olympian that almost couldn't compete in London due to a heart defect. Watch Sanjay Gupta Saturday 4:30 p.m. eastern and 7:30 p.m. eastern on Sunday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We talk all the time about how much of our personal information is compiled by Facebook, Google and Apple. But did you know Amazon may know a whole lot more?

Alison Kosik, tell us about this recommendation system and what you found out.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To Amazon's credit, Kyra, this is not all that different from what other web sites do right now. You are there to shop, after all. You know, think of all the times you are looking for a dress online and then you see the store's ad pop up on another site you were on later in the day and you thought, gosh, how did they know that? All about how they track your shopping online.

Now, you probably noticed if you're on the Amazon site and you're browsing there, a bunch of items pop up that are called recommended for you. You think, oh, wow, I like that. But Amazon's recommendation formula is pretty simple because it bases its suggestions on what you bought in the past, which items you have in your shopping cart, the items you rated and what other customers have viewed. So, let's say you're a new parent and you may see suggestions for bottles, diapers and other things for a newborn. And sports fans, you know, they may get recommendations for collector's DVDs and things like that. It does have an appropriately technical name, as well, item-to-item collaborative filtering -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: You click on something you are interested in and you see all these other recommendations and you buy more than you had planned on buying and Amazon profits.

KOSIK: Exactly. It's a winning formula. But what Amazon isn't really saying what its sales numbers are and when people buy these recommended items. What they're telling fortune in a very artfully way is saying, "Our mission is to delight our customers by allowing them to serendipitously discover great products." That sounds nice. The company reported 30 percent sales increase in second quarter compared to the same time last year. And it did say that it thinks recommendations are its biggest metric of success."

Now, the company does have a little bit of work to do to perfect it. One analyst at Wells Fargo says she was recently recommended to buy a chainsaw carrying case for no apparent reason. There are a new nuances but I find it helpful. I like to see the suggestions, how about you?

PHILLIPS: I have to admit, I purchased more than I plan on purchasing when I clicked on a number of things, Alison.

Thank you so much. KOSIK: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Judging by Amazon's success, the recommendation system does work. The company reported nearly $13 billion in sales during the second quarter this year. That is up from $10 billion during the same time last year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, medical teams in Uganda are racing to stop a deadly outbreak of Ebola. At least 14 people have died this month of the highly infectious virus that can be hard to diagnose early on. It also makes it hard to track down people who may have come in contact with Ebola patients, which is exactly what teams from Uganda and the World Health Organization are trying to do. Ebola kills more than six out of 10 people who have it.

No light, no TV, no trains, and maybe worse of all, no air conditioning for 600 million people. The second collapse of the Indian power grid in two days and almost twice as bad as yesterday's. Almost half of the population of the world's second most populous country is in the dark. Well, governments scramble to get the power flowing, first to hospitals and then to train lines and then to everybody else.

CNN Harmeet Singh joining me now out of New Delhi.

Tell us what is causing all of this.

HARMEET SINGH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Indian power minister spoke earlier in the day and he hinted that the states, several states in India and most of them, he said, are overdrawing power. Now, why they're overdrawing power when I spoke with analysts, they told me, because it is considerable shortfall of power in this country. And that shortfall is in the range of 8 percent to 9 percent and this is the figure of our deficit that India suffers. Now, states are overdrawing, overdrawing the power beyond their sanction load. That is causing the collapse to happen because it added additional pressure on the grids.

PHILLIPS: And you've talked about this overdrawing and it's not only impacting, as we mentioned, the air conditioning and the trains and we're talking about 600 million people in the dark, but now we're learning of these miners that are trapped. What more can you tell us about that?

SINGH: I spoke with the officials about the miners that were trapped and they said there is no cause of worry as of now because they have the emergency supplies and most of the miners will be pulled out within a couple of hours or so. I spoke to the officials there and they said they are using emergency supplies to power the lifts and power the elevators to pull them out. When I spoke to them maybe about an hour or two hours ago, 60 percent of them reported underground, and officials say they are pretty safe and no need to panic at all and no need to worry at all. PHILLIPS: Final question, Harmeet, what is being done to get the power back on? What are officials telling you and also, long term, how is this going to be handled?

SINGH: Officials are drawing up power from sources. India is largely dependent on coal and now also tapping into hydropower to meet the short fall. When you talk about long-term plans, one thing is to be, to put into prospect here is, India is no stranger to power cuts. Power cuts happen seven to eight hours a day in most parts of the country especially during summertime. There are many parts still that are not even electrified. So Indians are no stranger to power cuts. But, yes, this grid collapse happened in -- and that, perhaps, exposed the urgency in the Indian government's effort to seek $400 billion of investment in easing supply.

PHILLIPS: Harmeet Singh, thanks so much.

Lack of rain is aggravating India's power problems as well. Farmers rely on wells with electric pumps.

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PHILLIPS: A possible major policy move by Democrats support for same-sex marriage may now be a part of the platform at the Democratic National Convention come September.

CNN political editor, Mark Preston, in Washington.

What do you think, Mark? Good political strategy?

MARK PRESTON, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, certainly could be history-making if, in fact, Democrats continue to move forward and this becomes part of the platform. Right now they're at the draft level stage. They drafted language this past weekend. Still needs to go through another round of review in a couple of weeks and then, of course, on to the platform. If it does go through, we shouldn't be too surprised. Only a couple of months ago where we saw President Obama come out and express support himself for same-sex marriage, which is pretty interesting in itself.

Now, what could be troubling is for some Democrats, who represent states that are conservative or districts that are conservative, that might not necessarily embrace the idea of same-sex marriage -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We have been talking for months now, and black pastors have come together across this country and said, because of this, don't vote for Barack Obama. So is it more of a message to stay home, don't vote, or get out and vote for Mitt Romney?

PRESTON: I think it is the same message. In fact, these are the same black pastors that didn't vote for Barack Obama in 2008. They think that he's too liberal on social issues. But just on the issue of same-sex marriage in the black community, look at this poll that came out in the past couple of hours from pew, which shows right now in fact a majority, albeit a slim majority of blacks do not support same-sex marriage, but we should note from the time we sit now to 2008 that support for same-sex marriage has increased by 14 percentage points. So now 40 percent of blacks do in fact support same-sex marriage. Let's talk about the bigger picture now and really doesn't matter that we have these black pastors out right now saying that they shouldn't vote for President Obama because of this issue.

Let's look at this exit poll. Look at the numbers from the exit poll back in 2008. 95 percent of blacks supported President Obama. He clearly has a lock on the vote. The most recent poll from Gallup a month ago shows 89 percent right now of blacks still say that they will vote for President Obama in November.

So the only hope that these pastors can hope and Mitt Romney can hope is to chip away at this as the black vote, try to suppress a little bit of the turnout. That could potentially help them in some states such as Ohio, Florida, North Carolina -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Mark Preston, thanks so much.

For much more on the presidential election and today's state contest, like the contentious race between two Texas Republicans, check out CNN.com/politics.

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PHILLIPS: Michael Phelps will get a chance to redeem himself today. He'll compete in the 200-meter butterfly, his signature event. He has 17 total medals now, two short of the most ever for any Olympian, and has a chance to break the record during the games. He told our Piers Morgan he wants to use his celebrity now to help others.

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MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: I'll be the first one to admit I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. And -- but I think being able to have the opportunity of being a celebrity, you know, it helps me achieve some of the things that I want to do with the goal to raise the bar in the sport of swimming. I think, one, people should learn how to swim more, just for safety. But, two, also try to get them involved in our sport. And, you know, we have seen a significant change over the last, you know, 10 years, but in my eyes it can change so much more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: He's also scheduled to swim in the 200-meter butterfly around 2:34 p.m. eastern time.

Thanks for watching, everybody.