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More Unrest in Ukraine; V. Stiviano's Revelations; Clamor for Kidnapped Nigerian School Girls

Aired May 03, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Fredricka Whitfield, you're in the CNN "Newsroom."

It is much more tense today and more violent in a growing area between eastern Ukraine and Russia, and it is not just on the border any more. Cities more than 150 miles into Ukraine had been overrun by separatists who support Russia. They have seized government buildings, forcing leaders to order residents to stay in their homes for their own safety.

Also today a team of United Nations observers that was captured by those separatists were set free. Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is in one of those flashpoint cities in eastern Ukraine. So Nick, it is late at night right now, but tell us what has been happening.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, those weren't U.N. observers, they were from a group monitoring the conflicts. They're called the OSCE that work across Europe. But these men have been taken eight days ago, 12 of them in total, seven foreigners, and the rest of them Ukrainian escorts, and paraded right in front of the media last weekend.

This weekend though because a Crimean envoy was sent here and talked to the (INAUDIBLE), they were released, headed now back towards Berlin, we understand. A rare bit of good news here. Perhaps some positive PR for the Kremlin and those they support, the pro-Russian separatists here as well. But frankly that has done little to distract from the general toll on the ground with the violence.

We just came back from a city called (INAUDIBLE) which this morning apparently armored personnel of the Ukrainian military moved towards a barricade there, opening fire, we saw great damage done to empty fuel tankers that has used to form a barricade there. Went to a hospital who told us there had been three people killed in the last 24 hours and brought just to that hospital alone, over a dozen, in fact, injured.

The town itself, quiet. No sign of the Ukrainian army, despite the Ukrainian interior minister saying that they actually were taking charge of key buildings. A bizarre situation. There is violence. There are clashes, but the Kiev is not reestablishing central control and authority in key parts of the country. It is still the pro- Russian militants and protesters with the upper hand. WHITFIELD: And Ukrainian leaders are promising that military operations will start again in the morning, right? Any signs that's indeed going to happen?

WALSH: Well, they're constantly on the move, Ukrainian military army. Wherever we look, there are tracks from armored personnel carriers. They're putting up checkpoints around (INAUDIBLE) rumors of them all over the place. The point is they don't be able to sustain their presence. They moved to (INAUDIBLE) today, they made a big mess. There was a lot of buses set on fire. There was a lot of gunfire and then they vanished. And despite Kiev trying to suggest they are in control of key buildings there, they're simply not.

The real concern is they're simply fermenting the unrest, the anger here by having these violence and these street clashes, but the net result is this territory is still under dispute. I think that's a way everyone is very worried and Russia feels it needs to intervene. It still has 40,000 troops just across the border. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much.

And now back in this country to the Donald Sterling controversy. The woman who recorded Sterling's racist comments is defending him. V. Stiviano opens up to ABC's Barbara Walters about her views on the 80- year-old owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, ABC NEWS: Is Donald Sterling a racist?

V. STIVIANO: No. I don't believe it in my heart.

WALTERS: Have you heard him say derogatory things about minorities in general, blacks in particular?

STIVIANO: Absolutely.

WALTERS: You heard him say derogatory things.

STIVIANO: Yes.

WALTERS: Don't they sound racist to you?

STIVIANO: I think the things he says are not what he feels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Right now, Sterling's L.A. Clippers are just hours away from a crucial game seven playoff game against the Golden State Warriors. Let's go now to our Ted Rowlands, outside Los Angeles Staples Center. So Ted, Stiviano says she is not Sterling's mistress, she says she worked for him as an associate, a confidante. She had like a litany of titles, didn't she?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, she does. Some of them she has given herself. Take a listen to what Barbara Walters, after Barbara Walters asked her what is your relationship with this guy? He's 80 something, you're in your early 30s. Take a listen to how she described her relationship with Donald Sterling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STIVIANO: I am Mr. Sterling's right hand arm, man. I am Mr. Sterling's everything, I'm his confidante, his best friend. His silly rabbit.

WALTERS: His what?

STIVIANO: His silly rabbit.

WALTERS: His silly rabbit? Is that what he calls you?

STIVIANO: No, I call myself. I joke around and I make him laugh. I do things that some people find very silly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Bottom line, Fredricka, it is hard to really grasp everything in terms of their relationship. One interesting note, I have been told that he was with her when she went and did that Barbara Walters interview. So they still are together in some silly rabbit type of situation there. I don't know what's going on, but there's a connection, despite what has happened.

WHITFIELD: Right. OK. One has to wonder how this controversy, now that it reached this level, given that she has spoken the way she has about him and their relationship, how this might impact today's game, or if a lot of players and coaches say I'm tuning out, tuning off, I am not going to pay attention to all these extra sideshows.

ROWLANDS: Well, that's what they have to do is concentrate on what's going on in the game. I think the NBA's response to Donald Sterling, the very firm and quick response, made a huge difference because the players for a while were really torn. Do we really want to play for the Clippers, this guy. When the NBA suspended him for life, very quickly, I think that made a huge difference. Stock Rivers, the head coach of the Clippers, says he is doing his best to keep the players focused and they seem to be playing great. Game six went down to the last second. It was a fantastic finish.

Tonight, game seven likely will be about the same. A lot of people anticipating this game getting under way here in Staple Center a few hours.

WHITFIELD: Well, hard to believe, even such a great season, now they're kind of the underdog simply because of the kind of pressure that they're under that no other team in the league has to deal with.

Ted Rowlands, thank you so much. Appreciate that outside the Staples Center.

All right. Tonight, one of the biggest nights on the D.C. calendar, the 2014 White House Correspondent's Dinner, affectionately dubbed Nerd Prom. Reporters in Washington rubbing shoulders with celebrities and people in power. It is really nothing like a prom. It is an annual event where no one is safe from light hearted jabs, not even the president.

CNN's Jake Tapper sat down with the host of tonight's dinner, comedian Joel McHale.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How does one prepare for the White House correspondent's interview, you just watch CSPAN?

JOEL MCHALE, COMEDIAN: No, I don't. I just won't do any political jokes at all, I will just stick strictly to Kardashians, strictly to things on E! A lot of bad girls club, a lot of single mom stuff from MTV, I think people will get it.

TAPPER: You think this crowd watches that.

MCHALE: Definitely, I think they love "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." I think everyone can relate, it is universal. Don't you think?

TAPPER: No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Pressure is on to be funny. That's just a taste of what we might expect tonight. For more, CNN's Erin McPike is at the White House.

Erin, all right, give us an idea, you know, who are some of the big names people are looking forward to seeing. Used to be that folks just had a list of, you know, correspondents and politicos they couldn't wait to see. It is something different now, right? The celebs, that list.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Celebs, the celebs are huge at this dinner, and one big name, Fred, that we'll be seeing this year is Steve McQueen. He was the director of "12 Years A Slave." And obviously was nominated for an Oscar for his work directing that film. I am excited to see him.

We're also going to be seeing the cast of "Modern Family" as well as the cast of "Scandal" and the cast of "House of Cards" of Netflix. And we'll be looking forward to seeing them as well. Now, also actress Diane Lane will be sitting at one of CNN's tables. Actress Cynthia Nixon who was on "Sex and the City," you may recall, she'll be there as well.

But, of course, as you mentioned, there will be a lot of politicians. CNN will be hosting governor Rick Perry, who is winding down his third full term as governor of Texas, as once and maybe future presidential candidate, also New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be with us as well, as many members of the Obama administration. But one other big name that I would like to point out is CNN's own Brianna Keilar. She will be going up to the stage tonight to collect an award for some of her reporting on the Obama administration on Benghazi that she did last year.

WHITFIELD: That's fantastic. Well, excellent. I was just about to say, all of the celebs are making the reporters and politico secondary, but not any more. Because now Brianna is going to upstage everybody. Congrats to her.

MCPIKE: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: All right. Erin McPike, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

All right. CNN gives you the best seat in the house for the Correspondent's Dinner from the red carpet to the main event, a live coverage starts tonight at 8:00 Eastern Time.

All right. Overseas, search teams have spent millions of dollars and weeks of effort looking for flight 370. That was before an Australian company said it had found possible underwater evidence of an airplane. Now three ships are chasing that lead, straight ahead. We'll tell you what they may or may not have found.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An update now for the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Several navy ships from Bangladesh have been searching the Bay of Bengal for a plane wreckage and so far they have found nothing. Remember, that was the area identified by an Australian ocean survey firm that claimed to have detected some sort of airplane, far from the search areas, thousands of miles to the south.

Several of our aviation analysts say that company's claim never did hold water. The search drone called bluefin-21 hasn't produced any better results after 18 missions in the southern Indian Ocean. And in Beijing, officials told family members there of the missing passengers to go home. Passengers' relatives have gathered around (INAUDIBLE) at a hotel in Beijing, waiting for any word from the search. Government officials gave them until today to clear out. Flight 370 has been missing now for 58 days.

The people in charge of the search haven't completely given up on that alternative search area in the Bay of Bengal. CNN's Will Ripley is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The acting transport minister here in Malaysia is speaking more about that search happening in the Bay of Bengal for possible wreckage from MH-370. This is a news release from (INAUDIBLE) office and he says that there are now three naval ships from Bangladesh in that area, including a survey ship.

We know one of those ships is equipped with side scan sonar technology. That allows crews to look for debris along the ocean floor and the ships are also looking on the surface for any wreckage that may be floating there. Frankly, the move from officials here in Kuala Lumpur is they think it is highly unlikely that anything will be found in the Bay of Bengal which is why they continue to focus their efforts on the Indian Ocean off western Australia. And Monday there's a big meeting coming up where officials from Malaysia, Australia and China will get together and again come up with a blueprint for how to proceed in the weeks and months ahead.

We know this search could take up to a year and cost an estimated $60 million. But this meeting on Monday, this trilateral meeting will allow officials to decide how they're going to allocate their resources. So we will keep monitoring the situation and we'll keep you updated as we hear more on the search for flight 370.

In Kuala Lumpur, Will Ripley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And four words are catching fire on social media. Bring back our girls. From the internet to the streets, a desperate campaign to free more than 200 girls kidnapped last month by a notorious militant group.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring our girls back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the hope of a better tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: They were chanting bring my girls back. People rallied in Washington today to demand the safe return of at least 223 school girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria more than two weeks ago. Critics of the Nigerian government say officials aren't doing enough to try to rescue these girls and return them.

And this was the scene in New York where dozens tried to bring attention to the matter. This comes as secretary of state John Kerry is in Africa where he pledged support to help the Nigerian government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. STATE SECRETARY: Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by (INAUDIBLE) is unconscionable crime and we will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Militants from the Islamist group (INAUDIBLE) are accused of abducting the girls from a boarding school. The group opposes women education and human rights groups say the kidnappers use the girls as sex slaves. It is not known where the girls are right now. But officials think they were trucked into a remote forest near the border with Cameroun.

The failure to find the girls have inspired people to speak out around the world, many using the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.

Here's CNN's Samuel Burke.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hashtag #bringbackourgirls is the rallying cry for Nigerians on social media, expressing anguish and frustration with how their government is handling this country's nightmare. About 200 school girls are still missing after being abducted by suspected Islamic militants last month.

A look at trendmap.com shows that its not just the dominating trend there, all across the world, the story has resonated with social media users calling for increased media attention and world governments to offer assistance in the search. Nigerians are taking to Twitter, Facebook and to CNN's i-report. Emmanuel is a Nigerian living in Qatar, he sent in this photo showing him holding up a sign, pleading for the government to take action. It says "I have a girl, a child. She means the world to me." #bringbackourgirls.

Another I-reporter sent in this photo. She's a Nigerian graduate student living in Germany. She said "I am deeply effected by this tragedy, especially with the length of time it is taking the government of Nigeria to come forth with a positive result." And a radio presenter in Nigeria says the abducted girls are the constant topic of discussion at her station. Now, Nigerians are known for taking to social media to express discontent with their government, usually for rolling power outages. But this time, Nigerians are voicing a more profound disdain for how the government handled this situation. One Nigerian summing up many of his countrymen's messages. "The government of Nigeria is failing in its part of our social contract."

Samuel Burke, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And you can find out more about how you can join the campaign at our website cnn.com/impactourworld.

And next hour, you'll meet a woman who got the campaign off the ground.

Also, a deadly virus from the Middle East has spread to the U.S. heartland, it's called MERS. The acronym stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The Center for Disease Control says an Indiana hospital is treating the first American with MERS. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tracks the patient's time line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: He is a health care worker. He was working in Saudi Arabia in that capacity, and he flew back April 24th, went from Saudi Arabia to London, then to Chicago by plane, then took a bus to Indiana. It was three days later it sounds like he started to get sick, started to have fever and difficulty with his breathing. It sounds like he is in stable condition, not on a breathing machine, just getting oxygen. And I guess most importantly he is in isolation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So far, 262 cases of MERS have been confirmed in 12 countries.

The woman who brought down Donald Sterling and didn't stay out of the public eye, and when she was out and about, she was kind of easy to spot, don't you think? Just had to look for the woman with the big old visor covering her face.

Coming up in the half hour, "Sanjay Gupta, M.D."

GUPTA: Fred, as a neurosurgeon, I am intrigued by the signs of happiness. When I heard that actress Goldie Hawn was bringing mindfulness into schools, I decided to look for myself, to find out more. "SGMD," 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The ex-girlfriend of Donald Sterling went on record with Barbara Walters to talk about the visor she made famous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTERS: People have seen you walking with a visor. Why the visor?

STIVIANO: I am hurting, I'm in pain. It hurts to see someone that you care about hurting. It hurts to see people speculate, assume, say, throw darts at you when they don't know you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Ironically, that visor made her a bigger target. Here is Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It is the elephant in the room.

(voice-over): The elephant on Donald Sterling's alleged girlfriend's face.

STIVIANO: I'm trying to walk my dog.

MOOS: In that. We can't see through it, but we can certainly marvel at it, stylish visor or eyesore?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a beekeeper? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That visor is the bee's knees and you know it. Am I the only one who loves this visor? It's the ultimate in privacy. Are you kidding?

MOOS: One blog called it Paparazzi Kryptonite, able to block the shot for any photographer.

V. Stiviano's visor is being compared to a welder's mask, or what serial murder, Dexter, wears to protect from blood spatter. Folks are having a ball equating it to "Space Balls."

(on camera): You know what this thing really needs? Windshield wipers.

(voice-over): On a rainy day, not especially suited for something called a solar shield, New Yorkers did their best to pay me no mind. There was the occasional double take, the lingering stare. It is believed the solar shield was first popularized by women in China, worried about sunburn and fair skin.

(on camera): Do you think it's a good look or not a good look?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it's not a good look, it is weird.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a good look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little strange.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's fashion forward.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very Daft Punk.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

MOOS: We were lucky enough to get our solar shield overnighted from Amazon, $29 plus shipping.

(on camera): One size fits most.

(voice-over): Even a cnn.com colleague was confused.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a spit guard?

MOOS: V. Stiviano joins other celebrities who chose to cover their heads, from Shia Labeouf and his I am not famous any more bag to the unknown comic from the old gong show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took my dog to the plea circus, he stole the show.

MOOS: That's Woody Harrelson hiding from the paparazzi. Lady Gaga is always covering in something. Michael Jackson didn't just cover himself, he covered his kids. As for V. Stiviano, we don't know if she's hiding or planning to drop her very own visor line. This tweet suggested. (on camera): Not recommended for driving. Yet, there she is in her Ferrari. At least the headband can expand when she gets a swollen head. When she gets bored with the visor, we recommend this.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: OK. You laugh. Guess what? Sold out, especially that pink one on Amazon.com. So, you're not going to get one.

Thanks so much for joining me this afternoon. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Right now, keep it here for Sanjay Gupta, M.D.