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State of Emergency; An Apology 32 Years in the Making; EU Ministers Meeting in Brussels to Try to Solve Migrant Crisis. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 14, 2015 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: State of emergency, a pair of fast- moving fires in Northern California destroys hundreds of times and forces thousands to evacuate.

ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And an apology, 32 years in the making to a former winner of the Miss America pageants.

CHURCH: Hello and welcome to our viewers here on United States and all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church.

BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett. This is CNN Newsroom.

CHURCH: E.U. Ministers are meeting in Brussels in the coming hours looking for ways to solve the escalating migrant crisis but some countries are already on record opposing mandatory quotas for the number of migrants each European country takes in. Germany has imposed temporary controls at its border with Austria trying to stop the flow of people.

Police say, 16,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Munich over the weekend but other countries are taking action too. Hungary and the Czech Republic are also putting new boarder controls in place.

BARNETT: Now, our Senior International Correspondent, Atika Shubert joins us now from Munich with the latest on the situation there in Germany. And Atika, as we just mentioned, it is stunning to see there's some 16,000 migrants arrived in Munich over the weekend, the city there now at capacity according to officials. But, there is no clear plan for them all just yet. I mean the Germany feel they had to stop the inflow without a comprehensive plan from other E.U. nations?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is just it, what Germany has been saying is that while it will take in as many as 800,000 refugee applications this year it does need to have a better system by which people are coming in. And it appealed for help from other E.U. Nation that clearly coming to an agreement about 28 members is going to be very difficult.

And so, it's been a warning for sometime that it's going to be reaching for capacity and it may need to put in border control. So, it's done this temporarily. It's not unprecedented it's done border controls before for example during the G7 Summit for security reasons.

This is time what its doing is specifically checking all of the cars coming in for people with valid I.D.'s to figure out if they're all refugees. And if so, where do they register. They're also stopping a lot of the train traffic between Austria and Germany. My understanding is that most of the train have restarted in the last few hours. However, the main train that goes from South Berg to Munich is still not running. And what they have done is trying redirect all refugees on to one specific train to try and get them to the refugee centers to register quickly as possible.

So, this is basically, Germany's attempted to deal with this tremendous influx. The problem is it doesn't seem to be slowing down. In fact we know that about 16,000 came in yesterday. That's about as many as Germany put in a year of refugees. So, it's a staggering amount that's coming in. And they expect a similar number today. They don't know when that's going to end.

BARNETT: And in many ways Atika, this just reveals the difficult situation so many E.U. Nations are in as we wait today for E.U. diplomats to discuss a comprehensive plan. You have tens of thousands of people streaming into various European Nations. Some of them migrants, some of them refuges, so, they're offered a different type of legal status.

And it's juts a bit of confusion and chaos. In the main time, do you get the sense that in Munich though those who have arrived are being cared for or, is the city literally at its tipping point, its brink?

SHUBERT: I think what they're trying to do here is managing as best they can. They don't want to see any chaotic scene. And so they're warning a head of time when they start filling up. So what Munich is been doing for example is they're saying, "Well, listen, our temporary shelters are getting full, we need help distributing to other city that may have more capacity places."

They're also thinking of contingency plan such as whether or not the former Olympic Stadium should have temporary beds and shelters in there, whether or not, they can for example, take over some empty commercial spaces and transform them into temporary shelters.

So, it's not as though the city is completely overwhelmed, but what it means is that authority say to give people the best and humane conditions that we can. We need to be able to sort of spread the burden around to other cities as well, and to other countries.

The problem is not just that making quotas for every country and making sure that every country is able to accept a certain percentage of refuges. But it's also making sure that refugees have a legal and safe way to get to the countries that are willing to take them.

BARNETT: Atika Shubert on the line with us from Munich Germany. Ahead of what's an import week as far as establishing new guidelines and rules for these tens of thousands of migrants and refugees.

[03:05:00] And as you just said there, things are being considered like using former Olympic Stadiums just to deal with the massive influx being witnessed right now. Atika, thanks.

CHURCH: Now the constant flow of refugees and migrants also continues across the Aegean Sea, a dangerous journey and for some a deadly one.

On Sunday, a wooden boat capsized off the Greek Island of Farmakonisi. 34 people died, almost half of them were children. 99 others were rescued.

BARNETT: Now, in a separate incident of the Greek Island of Lessbos, dozens were forced into the water after there Dinghy sank. You see some of the pictures here. People desperately clang to inflatable rings. Others swam to water shore.

CHURCH: U.N. Human Rights Officials are not happy about the new border control saying, it could leave thousands of migrants in Limbo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BOUCKERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH EMERGENCY DIRECTOR: Either we continue to build these borders and three people were brutally deploying the army and putting them in detention camps or we have to accept the asylum seekers will continue to try to come to Europe. And they have to be treated in the humane manner to claim their legal right to asylum.

BARNETT: Meantime, Hungary is quickly trying to finish a fence along its border with Serbia. Officials say they want to have this completed by October. The fence would be more than 11 feet or three meter's high and span of 110 miles or 177 kilometers.

CHURCH: And you can get much more on the story on our website. We have dedicated a special section to the migrant crisis. A look at their journey, who they are and some possible solutions and that is all at CNN.com/International.

BARNETT: And some other stories we're tracking for you. Turkey is facing an eruption of the worst violence there in some 20 years. Clashes broke out when authorities imposed another curfew in a mostly Kurdish town of Diyarbakir.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons of protesters who threw stones in reaction to the curfew.

CHURCH: Kurdish militants are blamed for a car bomb that killed two police officers at a check point Sunday. President Tayyip Erdogan is vowing the fight will continue "Not one terrorist is left."

BARNETT: A Yemen's excelled government is pulling out of upcoming U.N.-sponsored peace talks. President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi's office says, "He won't agree to talk with Houthi rebels unless they withdraw from areas they've seized including the capital Sana'a.

CHURCH: Meantime, the Saudi Coalition ground troops are backing 4,000 Yemeni tribal fighters in a ground attack in Ma'rib. That's in addition to dozens of airstrikes in the province. And we spoke with Hakim Almasmari, the Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen post. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HAKIM ALMASMARI, YEMEN POST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: These airstrikes have killed 92 above 600 some airstrikes (inaudible) civilians that called for the help (inaudible) Yemen. Only today alone in Northern Province separately although 150 airstrikes were conducted, yes it's a war zone there right now. But again, you cannot defeat or win this war by fighting. There needs to be permanent (ph) solution. Six months and still ongoing and preventing both side, need to understands that they cannot solve their differences of the war and both sides have severe wound in this war. But it seems that it's will only going to get worst because the as you seen today, by far the strongest. It's been -- in the Northern part of Yemen over the last six months

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: Now, the U.N. envoy to Yemen was expected to announce a time and place for the peace talks within two days.

CHURCH: Now, to a horrifying story, 12 tourists are dead and 10 others are injured after Egyptian security forces mistook them for terrorist. At least two of those killed are Mexican nationals and Mexico's President is demanding a thorough investigation. Ian Lee is in Cairo and joins us now with the details. Ian, so many questions and people wondering how on earth do security detail mistake tourists for terrorist. What happened here?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Rosemary, what we're hearing this morning is that there was a security operation underway in the area where these tourists were. It was a joint operation between the army and the police. They say that they were pursuing ISIS militants that this is where the confusion came in and where this attack on these tourists took place and 12 people were killed, 2 of them Mexican nationals, 10 injured including 5 Mexican nationals.

The Egyptian Government is investigating of what exactly happened as well as the Mexican government is pushing for that. But the Western desert is known as being a very -- a bit like the wild west of Egypt.

[03:10:06] There is a security presence out there but by in large it is barren, it is desolate. We have had ISIS attacks out there since the past year. Just last month they kidnapped and beheaded a Persian (ph) man.

So this is an area that is fairly dangerous. The Egyptian government has in the past told tourist not to go out there. Right now, we're hearing conflicting reports about whether or not these tourists actually had permits and had notified the government that they would be out in that area which is close to an Egyptian military establishment.

CHURCH: And of course, a shocking situation for those who were killed, for those who were injured, for the families involved. But, for the government of Egypt, of course, what they're confounding now, most people will be looking at this guy. "I'm not going to travel to Egypt." It's going to have an incredible impact on tourism for that country.

LEE: Well, that's exactly right.

Egypt right now is trying to revive the tourism industry, spending millions of dollars to promote the country. The minister -- the spokesman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried to downplay the ISIS treat here and the treat to security of tourist saying it was just isolated to the northern Sinai but, when you have tourist going out and being killed in the western dessert, far from the Sinai, it does make tourist wonder if it is safe.

And Egypt is trying to promote the image that it is a safe country to visit to. But when they had incidents like this is just hurts the country even further. And this is a country that relies heavily on those tourists dollars. They've been trying to get them back since the 2011 revolution. A millions of people in this country make their livelihoods off this and this is just another incident that the government and those tourism operators just didn't need.

CHURCH: Exactly, and we are of course waiting to hear more details on how this happened.

Ian Lee reporting there live from Cairo, many things to you. Errol.

BARNETT: Rosemary, Taliban insurgents raided a jail in eastern Afghanistan killing four police officers. A provincial governor says 350 prisoners were freed.

The militants detonated a car bomb in front of the jail. This is in Ghazni. And also used rocket-propel grenades in this attack.

A Taliban spokesman said the 10 suicide fighters carried out the attack, three of them died. The Afghan national police have reportedly arrested three of the escapees.

CHURCH: Well in the United States a county clerk who refused to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples will return to work in the coming hours. Kim Davis was jailed for five days, you might remember, for refusing those licenses which she's required to issue under state and federal law. But she says it is against her religious beliefs.

Our Chris Welch has the latest from Kentucky.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, the local police and the sheriff's department here have said they're preparing for potentially large crowds here when Kim Davis, the county clerk here reports to her job, Monday morning. This will be the first time she'll be at work since she was in jail for five days. She was of course in jail in contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

Now, while she was in prison, her deputies had been issuing those licenses. So now when she returns, the question remains, will she continue to allow those deputies to issue those licenses or will she step in and once again refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?

Now the judge did not mince word when he allowed her to leave jail last week. He had said that if she continues to deny these couples these licenses, he would have no problem holding her in contempt of court once again and possibly sending her once again back to jail.

Now, no one knows exactly what she will do. It seems the only person who knows what Kim Davis will do is Kim Davis herself.

Now, we also want to point out that for the last several weeks her attorneys have been filing motion after motion in the hopes of overturning this initial judge's order that ordered her to issue licenses to same-sex couples. They have been fighting. She even sent an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court that did not work. But on Friday, her team filed another appeal, yet again, this time with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal. And so far, they have not issued a response.

In Morehead, Kentucky, I'm Chris Welch, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: Still to come here on CNN Newsroom. Two growing wildfires in northern California are chasing thousands of people from their homes.

We'll bring you the latest developments next.

CHURCH: Plus, no rest for the weary in Havana with so much to be done before the Pope arrives. Find out what makes this visit so special for Cubans. We're back in a moment.

[00:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE RILEY, SPORTS ANCHOR AND CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sport headlines. Leicester City may lead the way at top of the English Premiere League right now but only one team can match them in terms of current form based on results this last April.

Claudio Ranieri's Leicester City are now up to second. The folks have now gone nine matches unbeaten in total in a league stretching back to last season, winning six of them. Their latest win coming at home to Midland's rival Aston Villa who blew away a two-goal lead in this one. The dramatic winner came from Nathan Dyer on his debut.

Its congratulations to New Zealand's Lydia Ko who we can now say is the youngest woman ever to win a major. The 18-year old beating the preview mark held by Morgan Pressel set in 2007 by some six months on Sunday after she won the Evian Championship in France. Ko's 63 was the best round of the week and it helped her come from two strokes back at the start of the game to finish 16 overall.

So, it was a bit of a down squared for England as their cricket campaign came to conclusion on Sunday against Australia, the host. We're a 138 rule out to give Australia an eight cricket win and told (inaudible) the result meant not only did the Aussies win on the day but they also won the series 3-2.

And that's a look at World Sports headlines, I'm Kate Riley.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARNETT: A rapidly growing wild fire in the U.S. has destroyed 400 homes in Northern California. You're seeing some of the footage here. Official say this so-called "Butte Fire" burned more than 50,000 acres or 20,000 hectares west of the city of Sacramento.

CHURCH: The governor has declared a state of emergency in two counties and we've learned one person may have died in this fire.

BARNETT: And to the east of Sacramento, firefighters are battling yet another wildfire.

CHURCH: Yeah. And in both cases thousands of people have been forces to evacuate their homes.

CNN's Nick Valencia reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(OFF-MIC)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two massive wildfires burning in Northern California are spreading fast threatening homes, property and lives.

LYNNE TOLMACHOFF, CAL FIRE SPOKESWOMAN: It's just a reminder. This is how the conditions are in California right now. I mean, with the temperatures and low humidity, force (ph) of drought is -- the conditions are very extreme.

VALENCIA: Of the 1,000 fire personnel battling the "Butte Fire" frames so far four suffered burn injuries. They've been transported to the U.C. Davis Medical Center where they are in stable condition.

MIKE LOPEZ, PRESIDENT OF CAL FIRE UNION: The firefighter they're -- I'm sure they're emotionally drained, physically drained after being stuck in a situation where, you know, your life is on the line doing your job.

[03:20:00] VALENCIA: Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for many communities in the fire zone. A shaken Joyce Reim got out just in time.

JOYCE REIM, WILD FIRE EVACUEE: We were stuck in the middle of the fire for a while, and couldn't go either way. And where near we were stuck, we saw the flames going up the hill toward our house.

VALENCIA: Meanwhile just over 100 miles away, the Butte Fire has grown to more than 65,000 acres also fueled by dry conditions. STEVE MORTIMER, CALVERAS COUNTY RESIDENT: Lumbers were heading me and

I was going to take a picture now I didn't have to take -- time to take my phone out of my pocket to take a picture. That's how -- it was that hot and that fast.

VALENCIA: 6,400 structures are being threatened there. More than 130 of them have already been destroyed. In both fires residents say they had very little time to escape the fast-moving flames.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We smelled the smoke and we went outside and our neighbors were in a panic. They told us to leave. We went across them. We helped them and get their important things out of their home, their barn unfortunately burnt down.

VALENCIA: Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: Now our metrologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now to kind of give us the big picture of all of these, and one thing you keep hearing from people like we heard there is that they just didn't have time to evacuate, the speed at which these blazes burn and jump is kind of shocking.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METROLOGIST: Its one of the more prolific fires that I've seen as far as how quickly it's spreading, you know, and just doing some of the math we're seeing that it burned at a rate of about 34 acres per minute, or about half an acre per second. Half an acre is about a 21,000 square feet. So you're talking an incredible amount of land that is burning within one second. And that continues over 24-hour period.

So, you've gone from 50 acres to 50,000 acres in one days time and this is at land -- the exact land space that is actually burned across this region from Saturday into Sunday, very mountainous, very hilly, precisely what you expect to cause this region of California. And you go on for a closer look. In fact in just about 60 miles to the Northwest of Sacramento in Lake County, 0 percent containment.

That's the concern right here. It's been tremendously windy and that's really exacerbated the problems. And the images coming out of this region across the town of Middletown in California, kind of showing you how quickly things have gone out of control and precisely what Errol was touching on when it comes to having very little time to prepare. These hilly terrain do a fantastic job for channeling winds, the fires of course within themselves create windy conditions and then you have these embers that are carried downstream and deposited downstream so you create fires further downstream. And it just continues, and just to the east of Sacramento across portions of Amador County as well as other counties.

In this area we had 65,000 acres of land burned. This is has seen about a 25 percent continuum, but the concern is, that particular one, some 6,400 structures also threatened by the fires here.

So we had some rain in the forecast initially, unfortunately, it looks like it will be North of the valley fire not going to directly impact them and bring any moisture. But you're looking towards the middle portion of the week. The storm track takes a pretty significant storm for this time of year. The storm that will get towards central on Northern California on Wednesday could bring a couple inches of snowfall above 7,000 feet. So good news when it comes to at least getting some moisture across that region of California, but I want to share with you this story in the past several hours coming out of France because we know a significant flooding taking place across the South of France.

Really impressive footage considering no reports of any fatalities out of this region, but the rainfall totals also very, very heavy in a matter of just a couple of hours. Talking about four inches coming down in some areas in three to four period and you take a look, a lot of the rainfall kind of popping up within a very short time period over a very densely populated regions so the flooding continued downstream, and if you look for their forecast, a tropical storm by the name of Henry over the Western Atlantic. The remnants of the storm have been (ph) track across the Atlantic and we know by the middle portion of this week rain showers and plenty of them across the Western end of Europe.

So, we've got of course the other end of the spectrum being in fires and drought and were getting too much rain now across parts of France as well.

BARNETT: Yes.

CHURCH: Yes. It's a constant problem isn't it?

JAVAHERI: Constant problem yes.

CHURCH: All right.

BARNETT: Thanks Pedram.

CHURCH: Thank you.

JAVAHERI: Appreciate it.

CHURCH: Well some sports news now and a fitting in to an incredible year for the top men's tennis player in the world. Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in four tough sets Sunday to win the U.S. Open Championship.

BARNETT: Now it's his second U.S. Open title and third grand slam title of the year. Djokovic made it to the final of all four grand slam championships this year losing only the French open. He now has 10 grand slam championships overall.

CHURCH: Incredible. Oh well, Cuba is getting ready for a visit from Pope Francis. He will head to the island on Saturday before traveling to the United States.

BARNETT: That's right. And Cuba has had Papal visits before, but as our Patrick Oppmann explains this one is especial for many reasons. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:25:00] PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in Havana's Cathedral square. And this is one of the places that Pope Francis visits on his first stop of his trip to Cuba and the United States. And as you can see let's walk over here towards the cathedral, they're getting everything ready in a furious pace still a lots of work being done though, streets being fixed up, buildings being painted across the country because this is a big deal for Cubans.

You can they're still repairing a lot of the -- of this Centuries Old Cathedral. And why is this so important for Cuba? Well, several reasons. This is the first Pope from this hemisphere, first Latin American pope, first pope even through two other popes have come here previously will be able to address Cubans in native Spanish. And (inaudible) this is a Pope that played a key role improving relations between United States and Cuba, urging Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro to make the deal that really ended 50 years of Cold War animosity.

So this will be his first opportunity to come to Cuba following this landmark deal. He says he wants to meet regular Cubans reach out to them, talk to them. And there's a lot of expectation about what the Pope will say when meets Raul Castro, whether he will meet former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. And whether he'll be able to continue and push forward his efforts to improve the reconciliation between these two counties, but right it's really just a race to get everything ready.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: So, as you just there, the pope will head to the U.S. after leaving Cuba. He'll be there for five days starting in Washington before continuing on to New York and Philadelphia. He'll also address a joint meeting of Congress as speak at United Nations General Assembly. All 10,000 tickets for a papal mass in Philadelphia were reporting the claimed in 30 seconds.

CHURCH: We'll take a short break here. But still to come on CNN Newsroom. The journey is always dangerous and often deadly, more on the migrant crisis from the border between Greece and Macedonia.

BARNETT: Plus, tensions are high among U.S. Republican presidential candidates, as the CNN debate looms on the calendar. Next, we'll give you a behind the scenes look at the big event.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

BARNETT: Welcome back to our viewers here in the U.S. and from all around the world, this is CNN Newsroom, I'm Errol Barnett.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church and it is that time we need to check the headlines those we've been following for the last hour or so. Germany is temporally imposing controls on its border with Austria trying to slow the flow of refugees and other migrants. Ahead of an emergency E.U. meeting on the crisis in the coming hour Germany is calling on other countries to take in more of the displaced people, but Hungary and Czech Republic a tightening their borders instead.

BARNETT: Mexico's President is condemning the shooting deaths of Mexican tourists in Egypt. Egypt Interior Administer says security forces killed 12 people in a tour group including at least two Mexican tourists and wounded 10 others after mistaking them of the terrorists. This happened in the country's Western Desert region.

CHURCH: In the U.S. the Governor of California has declared a state of emergency in two Northern Countries with a wildfire spreading quickly. The so-called "Valley Fire" has now burned 50,000 acres or more than 20,000 hectares West of Sacramento. 400 homes have been destroyed and officials say one person may have died in that fire.

Oh, I want to go back now to the migrant crisis in Europe, tens of thousands of migrants arrived at Budapest main rail station in the past week. Most of them need food, water and a little bit of human kindness.

BARNETT: Yeah, local volunteers are on hand to help them get through all the chaos and on to trains headed west. CNN caught up with some of those volunteers. Here they are in their own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI BURIMA, VOLUNTEER FROM LIBYA: At 6:00 from every morning these gates behind us is open for refugees. As you can see there are so many of them. All of them, they just want to go inside. And, they push its other so it's really hard to work in this situation. And our work now is not just how to solve this problem.

Some of them they didn't sleep since likely three days or more. And they just let someone, one of the family in the line. So, they let them inside toward the line, in the line, after that, he tried to call his family. When the family come the other people cannot understand that.

NILS JASPER, VOLNTEER FROM GERMANY: The problem is that the volunteers cannot organize all the refugees at once, like and they all want to reach the train and the problem is that there is too many people making too much chaos and there's basically no organization at the moment. And, for that reason we don't know what to do and how to deal with the situation.

MARKSADONCS, VOLUNTEER: There are 2,000 maybe here. But in the transit zone there are more -- there are more. Every day there are more and more.

HAYA AL MOHAMMAD, SYRIAN VOLUNTEER FROM HUNGARY: We put it the Facebook all the time. Some news about please everyone who speak the language, speak Arabic and English, speak Arabic and Hungarian, please come to (inaudible), we need your help. Sometimes coming the people but, you know, everyone here have his life, he have his work, he have his university. But when he can come in he come (ph).

BURIMA: My name is Ali Burima from Libya. I decided to help these people because as you know before we had the same situation in my country so we know what does it mean to be out of your country and there's the bombs and everything. It gives us like motivation to come here and help these people.

IKBAL, SYRIAN REFUGEE: First, started travel go Turkish in sea. Now I am in Budapest to train to Austria and go to German. I love German. I love Arabia, I love.

[03:35:00] HAYA ALMOHAMMED, VOLUNTEER, HUNGARY: I am mother and also I have my work. But just I am taken it off all them from the University Study. Everyone he finish his units in the University come to here, all the mother and father who he has time to come to here and help. We are coming to have help. All of them have a story and really there are too many terrible story.

I am listening to this story maybe from 11 or 12 family. There are some family, these taxi man he taken his child and she said if you don't give back your child you don't give me the money.

Really it's a terrible story, everyone has a story, everyone have something but I don't know what I said. But these now what we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: And there was another deadly capsizing in that Aegean Sea. Ivan Watson joins us now from the Greek-Macedonian border to talk about what he's been seeing and witnessing. I mean Ivan it was just last week you had shown us migrants from refugees in Turkey taking to the waters heading to Greece and now we're seeing the deadly outcome for some. Just -- walk us through what you've seen.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well in this case, it's a terrible and deadly disaster that the Hellenic Coast Guard is described as a kind of wooden hold boat which was not the typical smuggling vessel that we were seeing migrants using on the Aegean Sea, in this case a wooded hold boat that was believed to have held more then a hundred passengers, refugees and migrants with a terrible death toll when it capsized off of the coast of a very small Greek Island called Farmakonisi.

The Hellenic Coast Guards says at least 34 people drowned as a result of this capsizing. Among the dead, a large number of children, at least 15 children, 5 boys -- 5 girls rather, 6 boys and 4 infants. Now the Coast Guard says they rescued some 99 passengers aboard that vessel, but still, it's a terrible death toll when it comes about a week after another deadly incident, a little bit more than a week after another deadly incident when a raft overturned in waters very close to where this disaster happened, and we saw those awful images of a little boy who died and his body washed up on the shore of a Turkish beach.

There is an informal flotilla, you can argue, of scores, of different types of rafts and boats leaving everyday from the Turkish coast to Greek Islands. Thousands of people a day landing in this unofficial backdoor into Europe, and I'm on the Macedonian Greek border, thousands of people cross here everyday from Greece into Macedonia on their way into Central Europe and every person that I've spoken to has crossed the Aegean Sea on board one of these barely sea worthy overcrowded little vessels Errol.

BARNETT: And the fact that they continue to do so despite the dangers and the risks speaks volumes to what it is so many of them are running from. Ivan Watson live for us on the Macedonian-Greek border. Ivan thanks.

CHURCH: And CNN has been busy preparing for Wednesday's Republican Presidential Debate. Coming up, we will take you behind the scenes at the Ronald Reagan Library and show you things you won't see at the big event. We're back in the moment with that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

BARNETT: There's a bit of political drama in Australia.

CHURCH: Yes, there is.

BARNETT: The country's Prime Minister is now facing another leadership challenge from within his own party.

CHURCH: Yeah, just hours of Attorney Abbott brushed off speculation that party members were seeking his ouster former communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull stepped down and called for a leadership ballot.

Turnbull told reporters a different style of leadership is needed, Mr. Abbott last faced a challenge by members of his own liberal party in February. And of course he was saying, this is gossip, this is just political rumor like, well...

BARNETT: Today's reality.

CHURCH: So we are actually waiting to hear from Tony Abbott, he's going to react to it very soon, of course as soon as that happens we will bring it you.

Well now to politics in the United States, many presidential candidates took a break from campaigning Sunday but not Democrat Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Senator rallied support in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sanders has been gaining on Hillary Clinton in the polls, he's just 10 points behind the frontrunner nationwide.

BARNETT: And it was a rather quite day for Republicans for once, as those candidates prepare for CNN's PrimeTime Presidential Debate. Many of them are talking tough before the big event.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well I'm a deal maker. I'll make great deals for this country. Ben can't do that, Ben's a doctor and he's not deal maker. DR. BEN CARSON, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well I'm

gratify to see that so many people are actually starting to listen to what I'm saying, and evaluating it on it's merit as oppose to listening to what people have portrayed me is saying, it makes a big difference.

SCOTT WALKER, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're convinced in the State where caucuses are the name of the game and it's about five months out. We got the time to make the grassroots connections and get that message out.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have absolutely no doubt that I can come down to Congress not cave like other people have done and get the job done.

CHURCH: And as we gear up for CNN's Republican Debate, our event moderator Jake Tapper has a behind the scenes look at preparations taking place at the Ronald Reagan Library in California.

BARNETT: Here he shows us some of the secrets the library reveals about the late U.S. President it's named after, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN Correspondent: The debate may still be days away but it is all systems go here at the Ronald Reagan Library. This is it, the stage where all the magic is going to happen on Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Museum and Library. You can see and hear workers getting the stage ready. Normally this floor doesn't even exist here. We're all getting prepared for what could be a momentous evening in presidential politics.

The Republican Candidates will have these as there background, Air Force One.

MELLISSA GULER, SPOKESPERSON: This is the plane that flew President Reagan for all eight years of his administration.

TAPPER: It's one of many impresses pieces of Presidential Memorabilia on display here at the Reagan Library.

Library Spokesperson Mellissa Guler says Air force One1 was always fully stocked.

Was there anything on there that was particular to President Reagan.

GULER: There sure was, he love chocolate cakes. So -- board every single flight there was a chocolate cake in the back alley not just because he loved them but just in case someone went to him and whisper at some point in time. "President Reagan, did you know its Jake's birthday." The cake could come out and they could sing happy birthday.

TAPPER: More than 350,000 people each year visit the library to experience the spectacular Simi Valley setting and pay their respects to our 40th president. He was laid here to rest in his beloved California facing westward so he can forever look out towards the Pacific. This is real?

GILLER: A real piece of the Berlin Wall. Came down in 1991, Ronald Reagan was here in '94 when we received the piece.

TAPPER: Inside the museum an exact replica of Reagan's oval office complete with a jar of jelly beans or jelly bellies that he always kept at hand. And it was a way that he...

GILLER: He gave up smoking.

TAPPER: ... gave up smoking. And so whenever he had a fix he would grab a jelly...

GILLER: He had jelly beans, jelly bellies everywhere.

TAPPER: The plane, the oval, trappings of the very office the candidates will be battling to reach Wednesday night. I am Jake Tapper for CNN in Simi Valley, California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: And we'd like to remind you not to forget to tune in Wednesday to CNN when the Republican presidential candidates face off in back to back debates. Watch live on September 16th starting at 11:00 p.m. in London. Midnight in Berlin, you can see the entire broadcast again at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday London time, that's 9:00 p.m. in Central Europe, only on CNN.

CHURCH: And the winner of this year's Ms. America pageant is, well that's coming up. Plus, the Ms. America pageant issues an apology to former pageant winner Vanessa Williams, those details and much more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAVAHERI: Changing season, the changing pattern. You certainly can see it, you can feel it and look at the satellite imagery, big drought here digging in across the North West of Europe. You pick up the stratocumulus clouds. Telltale sign here we have cool air mass beginning to filter in. The color contour do a pretty good job showing the air begins to shift farther towards the South, well back to the East. It is still pretty toasty (ph) across portions of say the Balkans but severe weather threat also in place.

On a scale of one to three we've got a two across portions of Southern France and also Northern Italy working their way into the Alps and severe thunderstorm is possible. The main concern will be some win and hail associated with these thunderstorms across say Rome 27. High temperature, windy and a little wet across London, not something that you're unfamiliar with across the region. We certainly get that around the southern portion there at the English Channel as well, but the heaviest rains, northern portions of say Portugal on into Spain getting in some 100 to 150 millimeters in the forecast here over the next 24 hours.

Back to the southwest portion of Asia we go where it is consistently dry this time of year of course and temperatures into the mid 40 are on the Arabian Peninsula. Well, back to the west of Africa. Temp is about 31 in Dakar where he waits at the South Monrovia, 28 degrees and thunderstorms right where you expect it across this region at this time of the year, temps into the upper 20s and low 30s. Down around Cape Town will shoot for 27 while some showers around Zanzibar, 30 degrees, very high (ph).

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[03:50:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well it has been more than three decades since former Ms. America Vanessa Williams has been on the pageant stage.

BARNETT: That's right, the actress and singer was the first African American to win the crown but she had to resign back in 1984 after nude photos surfaced. Those images were taken before she claimed the title. On Sunday night, Ms. America's CEO apologized to Williams. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM HASKELL, MISS AMERICA CEO: On behalf of today's organization I want to apologize to you and to your mother Ms. Helen Williams. I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Ms. America you are and the Ms. America you always will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: It took some time but there it is. Williams helped judge Sunday night's contest and 21-year-old Betty Cantrell of Warner Robins Georgia is the new Ms. America. Cantrell beat 51 other contestant this Sunday to take home this year's crown.

BARNETT: Now she performed an operatic number during the talent competition -- there she goes realizing she won, and during the question and answer portion she responded to a question on NFL quarterback Tom Brady and the cheating scandal, the so-called deflate gate, her chosen platform will focus on healthy kids. Congrats to her.

CHURCH: Absolutely. Well before singer Sam Smith lost 50 pounds. The British pop star says he contemplated suicide during struggles with his weight.

BARNETT: Also in this week's edition of InTouch weekly magazine. U.S. actor George Clooney is proposing a solution to the gender imbalance in Hollywood.

CHURCH: And some actors are already garnering multiple Oscar pass after screenings at the Venice Film Festival.

Kim Serafin joins me now with all the Hollywood news. Thanks for being with us again. So Kim, let's start with this startling admission from singer Sam Smith who says he wanted to kill himself over weight issue. That was a real concern and a frightening message to be putting out there just how bad did it get here for him?

KIM SERAFIN, CNN NEWS REPORTER: Yeah, it's scary. Sam Smith have seen him recently he looks dramatically different. He's lost about 50 pounds. He did this by working with a nutritionist apparently, but he said that would encouraged him what made him want to lose weight was that he saw himself in a picture from New Year's eve on the beach and it made him want to kill himself because he just felt so bad about himself, looking at himself in that picture. So, I mean great message he did it the right way. He lost weight with a nutritionist. He said he has money to so it's a little bit harder to eat healthy when you don't have the money. But, yeah, really scary to think this guy who won so many Grammy's he was so successful got that low in his life by just looking at a picture of himself.

CHURCH: Absolutely. I mean it is worrying that if fans sort of see that and think that that is a reason why someone should even can contemplate suicide, very worrying indeed. But on to happier things, actor George Clooney has a solution for sexism in the entertainment industry with a little nudge from his friend Sandra Bullock ensuring that male roles get rewritten for women and that was certainly the case in the upcoming movie, "Our Brand is Crisis". Is this likely to catch on?

SERAFIN: You know, it's such an obvious way to solve a problem because so many roles are written for men and you could convert them to women with this role specifically that Sandra Bullock just played in "Our Brand is Crisis." It was written for men, it was based on James Cordwell's story really about a political strategist doing a political campaign overseas. Sandra Bullock, actually it's her idea really, she apparently put the word out that she was looking for film for role that may have been written for a men that hey could convert to women and then George Clooney just at the press conference stated about it and said, you know, we could do this with more roles. Though it is obvious that, you know, George Clooney the man is getting all the credit for this solution for women that Sandra Bullock really first started.

CHURCH: Yeah, it really emphasizes this whole problem with sexism in the entertainment industry, but good on Sandra. And it's good to see George backing her up on this, but it is her idea.

[03:55:02] SERAFIN: Yes. He does like powerful women. We know that, look at his wife. So...

CHURCH: Yeah, exactly. And of course that takes us to Oscar buzz for some actors after screenings that Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival and Sandra Bullock is of course one of them right?

SERAFIN: Yeah. Yeah. Of course, this is the time and the year when the movies that open are the Oscar-worthy movies and for the Oscar- worthy roles. So you're starting to get buzzed about some big stars. First off, Sandra Bullock in this movie as you just mentioned. She's gotten a lot of Oscar buzz and then also you have Johnny Depp playing Whitey Bulger in "Black Mass." This is getting him a lot of Oscar buzz which he really need. You know, he's had those iconic roles as Captain Jack Sparrow but he hasn't had a good needy role. This one apparently he just transforms into Whitey Bulger. People who knew Whitey Bulger are saying it's kind of eerie how similar he is.

And Matt Damon another favorite Oscar winner from a long time ago is getting a lot of buzz for "The Martian" so that's another one you should look forward to. This could be Matt Damon's -- second Oscar for Matt Damon. And then of course you have new movies opening with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep and then movies like "Everest" and the Steve Jobs movie. So this is a great time of the year to see movies coming up and again these are the Oscar buzz worthy movies.

CHURCH: Yeah. Great movies and great actors in the mix there, Kim Serafin always a pleasure to chat with you. Thanks so much.

SERAFIN: Great. Thanks so much.

CHURCH: And great movies she's from there.

BARNETT: Yeah.

CHURCH: All right. Well thanks for your company I'm Rosemary Church.

BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett, we appreciate you've kicking off your week with us. Early Start is next for those of you in the States, for you elsewhere stay tuned for CNN Newsroom.

CHURCH: Have a great day.

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