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Turkey Mourns Victims of Peace Rally Bombings; Assad Army Advancing in Western Syria; More Deaths in Israeli-Palestinian Clashes; Iran Issues Verdict in U.S. Journalist's Case; German Town Struggles with Influx of Refugees; Israeli-Palestinian Violence Intensifies; Iran Issues Verdict for Jailed U.S. Journalist; Obama Says Clinton Emails Not a "National Security Problem"; The Other Candidates on the Democratic Ticket; Actor-Comedian Cosby Faces Multiple Legal Battles; Dodgers Infielder Suspended for Slide; Big Push in China to Study in the U.S. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 12, 2015 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, a massive show of solidarity in Turkey one day after a peace rally there is rocked by violence.
VAUSE: Another day passes and tensions between Palestinians and Israelis seem to be only getting worse.
SESAY: And a verdict is handed down in the trial of an American journalist being held in Iran. It's not clear at this exactly what that decision is.
VAUSE: Hello, everybody. We'd like to welcome our viewers all around the world. I am John Vause.
SESAY: And I am Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
VAUSE: Our top story this hour, anger is rising in Turkey as people demand answers to deadly bombings that rocked the capital over the weekend. Thousands of people marched in Ankara and other cities across Turkey on Sunday.
SESAY: Two blasts tore through a peace rally Saturday, killing at least 97 people and wounding almost 250 others.
CNN international correspondent Arwa Damon reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Why didn't you protect him? You should have protected my baby," the woman softly wails, finding little comfort. She, too distraught to speak. The pain of a mother who will never see her son again. He was just 23 years old. He came for peace, his cousin says.
Twin bombings on Saturday ripped through a peace rally, organized by labor unions and others, wanting to see an end to the renewed fighting between the government and the Kurdistan Workers Party, the separatist PKK. Instead, Turkey is now trying to come to terms with the single deadliest attack in its modern history.
But already the tragedy is playing out in the country's political arena. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government says it was an attack on the state. The pro-Kurdish opposition party, the HDP, says the state is responsible and angry crowds demanded accountability.
The pre-existing tensions evident, as opposition members of parliament try to reach the scene of the attack to lay red carnations, and were stopped by riot police.
(On camera): It's exactly what no one wanted to see happen here. All they wanted to do was lay flowers down at the scene of where the attack took place. Now they're being fired on and we're also being pushed back at this stage as well.
(Voice-over): This is all unfolding just weeks before the country's November 1st parliamentary elections. A rerun of those held this summer, whose outcome failed to result in seating a government. The country now further polarized at a time when many say real unity is the only thing that will save it.
Dilek Gundar witnessed the carnage.
DILEK GUNDAR, WITNESS: I realized one more time how important peace is. How important it is in the world to be together. Not be against each other. Just hold hands and just work for democracy.
DAMON: Many here still in shock, unable to speak of the depths of their pain. For one, best expressed in a sorrowful song that drifts over the others waiting for the bodies of their loved ones. Amid fears that it may not be the last time the country sees suffering like this.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Ankara.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Live now to CNN's Phil Black, he is in the capital Ankara with late details.
And so, Phil, no claim of responsibility so far. If we look at the anger, though, on the streets, is it being directed at the government because of security failures or because the government is suspected of somehow being involved?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does depend on who you ask, John. There is certainly suspicion and really an overwhelming sense of anger largely because of this belief that at the very least the government shares responsibility in this for allowing this to happen, for not preventing it, for allowing this deadly strike to happen in the heart of Ankara, the capital of the country that has very strong security and intelligence agencies.
And they're angry because it's not the first time it's happened in recent months either. There have been other attacks. July, the southern town of Suruc, more than 30 people were killed there. Again Kurdish activists killed by a bombing. It was blamed on ISIS, although ISIS didn't claim responsibility for that at the time. And before that at another opposition pro-Kurdish rally, two others were killed in a bombing there as well.
[01:05:06] And the belief among the opposition community, those who were here in such big numbers on Saturday, is that the government has not done enough to capture those responsible, hold them to account. And so in that sense it does share responsibility for what happened, John.
VAUSE: And in terms of who may have carried this out, at this point the main suspect would be?
BLACK: Well, the government talks about who has the capability to carry out an attack like this. It talks about ISIS, obviously. Turkey recently joined the international coalition going into open conflict against ISIS. It did so reluctantly and held off on doing that for a long time because it feared the sort of reprisal, if you like, that perhaps this sort of attack was. It feared that ISIS could strike on Turkish soil.
It talks also about Kurdish separatists. The PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, who the Turkish government has been effectively at war with for decades, although up until recently there was a period of relative peace, a cease-fire. That ended a few months ago. These two sides are again in open conflicts with one another. But you have to think there would be -- you have to really question why the PKK, these Kurdish separatists, would strike at a peaceful crowd, many of whom were, in fact, Kurdish.
And so it is because there is no obvious suspect at this stage that there is a lot of anger, that people are questioning what the government's role was, whether or not they could have done more to prevent this. But the government view is that this was an attack against the state as a whole, against its unity, and against its civility, John.
VAUSE: OK, Phil, thank you. Phil Black live for us this hour in Ankara, Turkey.
SESAY: Now the Iraqi military says an airstrike hit a convoy carrying shadowy ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Iraq says he was struck while traveling through western Anbar Province to a meeting with other senior ISIS members.
VAUSE: But al-Baghdadi's fate is unknown, but the Iraqi military claims it also hit that meeting, killing or wounding several leaders. The Pentagon says it cannot confirm the reports because in the past similar claims have turned out to be wrong.
SESAY: Now to Syria where there are signs the Syrian army and its allies are advancing in the western part of the country. A group monitoring the war says the Syrian army has taken control of several areas, including parts of Hama and Idlib Province. The Russian air force says its airstrikes may have cleared the way for government forces.
VAUSE: In an interview with the CBS program "60 Minutes," the American president, Barack Obama, has asked -- was asked about Russia's role in Syria and he pushed back on claims that Putin's military action is challenging American leadership in the region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally.
STEVE KROFT, CBS' "60 MINUTES": He's challenging your leadership, Mr. President. He's challenging your leadership.
OBAMA: Steve, I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, for the latest on Russia's Syrian campaign, we're joined on the phone by Ian Lee in Cairo.
Ian, President Obama pushing back in that "60 Minutes" interview against the claim that Russia is challenging U.S. leadership. Let me ask you this. What does the stepped-up Russian intervention in Syria mean for the U.S. standing in the region?
IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, the United States has had some setbacks recently. They tried -- they have a $500 million program to train fighters to go into Syria and fight ISIS. That as one senator put it was a joke after the U.S. was only -- have field four or five fighters. And so you do have Russia coming in here acting very aggressively, carrying out dozens and dozens of strikes, many of them, though, against anti-Assad fighters, not necessarily ISIS.
Now there have been some strikes against ISIS. But you look at neighboring Iraq and they're watching carefully, too. And you had Iraqi officials now saying that they would consider and potentially welcome Russian airstrikes against ISIS in their country as well. So clearly, there has been a challenge to the U.S.-led coalition in the region. Not just in Syria. But United States still very adamant about targeting ISIS. They have switched their strategy, arming fighters in the northern part of the country to take on ISIS. But Russia's involvement definitely challenging the coalition.
[01:10:03] SESAY: And as some would see as part of that challenge to the U.S. coalition, Russian president met with Saudi Arabia's Defense minister on Sunday in Sochi, Russia. We heard from Russia's Foreign minister after that meeting. And they said that -- Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow was ready to have closer cooperation with Riyadh. That's interesting on many levels. I mean, what might that look like? LEE: That's right, that is very interesting, because right now
they're about as opposite as you can get when it comes to the situation in Syria. The Russians, of course, the president Bashar al- Assad, and then you have the Saudis who are very much adamant supporting the rebel groups that are trying to oust Assad. And as we've seen in the past, Saudi Arabia has some of the harshest criticism toward the Assad regime. So seeing them come together makes them unusual partners.
But they did say that they would work together in combating terrorism, meaning ISIS. They also pledged that this -- they will talk about some sort of national reconciliation. What that would look like would be very difficult as the Russians are very adamant that Assad should remain in power. But they say that they will work on combating terrorism, although Saudi has questioned Russia's targets in Syria and their bombing.
SESAY: Very, very interesting development. Ian Lee joining us there on the phone from Cairo.
Ian, always appreciate it. Thank you.
VAUSE: There are more deadly clashes over the weekend between Israelis and Palestinians. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and four Israelis stabbed.
SESAY: Clashes broke out in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed when he was shot with a rubber- coated bullet.
And we're getting conflicting reports about an incident at a West Bank checkpoint where a woman was severely burned.
VAUSE: Well, for the latest, Erin McLaughlin joins us now live from Jerusalem.
So, Erin, are the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders actually doing anything right now to try and rein in the violence? Are they capable of reining in the violence?
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israeli authorities, John, are increasing security. An announcement made out of Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet meeting. The Israeli prime minister yesterday said there are going to be increasing security across cities in Israel, calling up some 1600 additional border police reservists. This on top of an already-heightened security situation across Jerusalem. Cities in Israel as well as the West Bank, four additional military brigades deployed in the West Bank.
But, you know, the question is, will this be effective? Israeli authorities say that the type of lone wolf-style attacks that they've been seeing are very difficult to predict and prevent. Many of the people behind the attacks operating on their own initiative without warning. So the question becomes, what can security authorities do in response? Now in terms of what is inspiring the violence, well, that very much depends on who you talk to. Out of that cabinet being Prime Minister Netanyahu blaming the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, as well as the Islamic movement in Israel for inciting violence.
But for the -- the PLO yesterday releasing a statement of its own, blaming the Israelis for causing the violence, saying that they're trying to incite violence in order to exert more control over the holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the noble sanctuary. Israelis accusing Palestinians of spreading rumors about the holy site in order to cause violence.
VAUSE: And Erin, we now have a situation where this is both in Gaza, the Israelis have deployed the Iron Dome Missile Defense System, and there's concerns about rocket fire coming from the Gaza Strip. Does that take this now to a whole new level just simply beyond the so- called suicide stabbings?
MCLAUGHLIN: Well, it certainly is a concern. Yesterday in the early hours of the morning we saw marked escalation. Israeli air force targeting what they say was two Hamas weapons manufacturing facilities. Gaza City Fire Department saying that one of the bombs fell in an empty field causing a building nearby to collapse, in that building a 35-year-old pregnant woman, as well as her child, killing both of them. Three others injured.
Now those strikes, the Israeli military said, were in retaliation or in response to rockets that were fired from Gaza towards southern Israel. The Iron Dome Defense System having been deployed, successfully intercepting that rocket. But, you know, throughout last week we saw clashes along the border area. At least nine Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in those clashes.
[10:15:05] Israeli military saying that at least five Palestinians managed to breach the border fence. They detained those Palestinians. And last night yet another rocket fired from Gaza towards Israel. No injured. And the Israeli military in response to that rocket has yet to retaliate.
VAUSE: Erin McLaughlin, live for us this hour in Jerusalem. Thank you, Erin.
SESAY: Well next in NEWSROOM L.A., an Iranian court issues a verdict in the case of a "Washington Post" correspondent jailed for more than a year.
VAUSE: Plus the frustrations of a small German town as it deals with an overwhelming number of migrants.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. There are reports that a verdict has been reached in the case of a U.S. journalist jailed in Iran for more than a year.
VAUSE: This case has drawn international outrage.
John (INAUDIBLE) reports the Iranian court has yet to reveal the verdict or any sentence which might come with it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN DEFTERIOS, EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR (voice-over): Sentenced after nearly 450 days behind bars, on Sunday, Iran's judiciary confirmed a verdict has been reached in the trial of American journalist Jason Rezaian.
[01:20:05] But in a process that's been shrouded in secrecy from the start, even the verdict is not clear. The judiciary says Rezaian and his attorney have 20 days to appeal what has been handed down. The U.S. State Department says they are monitoring the situation and continue to call for all charges against Jason to be dropped.
Rezaian began working for the "Washington Post" in Tehran in 2012. In the spring of 2014, he and his Iranian wife Yeganeh talked with CNN's Anthony Bourdain about the challenges of reporting from Iran.
JASON REZAIAN, THE WASHINGTON POST: The difficult part is convincing people on the other side of the world that what we're telling you we're seeing in front of our eyes is actually there. When you walk down the street you see a different side of things. People are proud, the culture is vibrant. People have a lot to say.
DEFTERIOS: Six weeks later, Rezaian and his wife were detained, their home ransacked. Yeganeh was released on bail, but he remained in prison. Nearly five months later, he was charged with espionage. He was put on trial in May of this year facing a 20-year sentence if convicted.
(On camera): The last court proceeding was held in August, and the "Washington Post" again appealed for his release. Iran's judiciary news service has said his arrest has nothing to do with his being a journalist, with one Iranian official saying last week that Rezaian was linked to, quote, "a faction in the U.S. Senate who planned to bring about regime change in Iran."
(Voice-over): Recently, hopes for his release were raised when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested that Rezaian and other Americans in Iranian jails could be part of an exchange for Iranians convicted in the U.S. on charges related to nuclear technology.
HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): If the Americans take the appropriate steps and set them free, certainly the right environment will be open and the right circumstances will be created for us to do everything within our power and our purview to bring about the swiftest freedom for the Americans held in Iran as well.
DEFTERIOS: For now, those aspirations have been dashed as a secretive legal process plays out in Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: John Defterios there with that report. And also being closely watched around the world is Iran's missile
program. State-run media says Iran successfully test-fired a new precision-guided long-range missile on Sunday.
SESAY: The so-called surface-to-surface missile has a range of 1700 kilometers. It would be the first precision-guided missile capable of reaching Israel. The U.S. has previously described Iran's missile program as a threat to the region.
VAUSE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy believes more than a million refugees will make their way to Germany before the end of the year and that is a problem for many small German towns.
SESAY: Yes, indeed. Friedland, Germany is home to just 1100 residents. It now has almost 4,000 refugees prompting its mayor to declare a state of emergency.
Atika Shubert reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventy years ago, the tiny village of Friedland opened its doors to thousands without homes at the end of the Second World War. It had more than 100 emergency barracks to house those streaming back in. It was known as the Gates of Liberty.
Today, Friedland is still welcoming refugees. Nearly 4,000 at its peak. About four times the capacity this historic camp was designed to hold at any one time. Most are from Syria and Iraq but also Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Eritrea.
Camp manager Heinrich Hornschemeyer has worked here for nearly a quarter of a century, long enough to see waves of refugees come and go. More than four million have passed through from Vietnamese in the '70s to the Syrians that arrive today. It's open 24 hours, 365 days a year, rain or shine.
But even in this idyllic setting nestled in the German countryside, there is now a problem. Too many refugees. People queue everywhere, he says, whether in the registration offices or during meal times, sometimes up to two hours or when refugees get their clothing vouchers. It's a problem. Privacy is almost nonexistent. There are no private places and the infrastructure of the camp is maxed out, he says.
A festival tent has been pitched on the kids' sports field, now home to 200 refugees who hang their laundry on the goal posts. Mattresses line the office hallways of the camp. Every spare meter devoted to sheltering refugees.
[01:25:04] Ideally, refugees are here for two weeks before moving on. But the recent surge of refugees and a backlog of asylum requests has turned weeks into months. In the last two weeks, he says new arrivals in Friedland are brought to alternative housing facilities within 24 hours. "We're seeking to reduce the number of migrants in Friedland by half, which would still be more than double of what our capacity truly is," he explains.
Refugees now outnumber Friedland's residents 3 to 1. Friedland's mayor says the village has gone above and beyond for refugees, but it can't take any more.
"We do not have a problem with Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans," says the mayor. They have received a big welcome and the residents want to help. That said, there is a fine line between wanting to help people and being stretched too thin.
Just as it was 70 years ago, Friedland still welcomes those that need shelter. But it warns even the Gates of Liberty has its limits.
Atika Shubert, CNN, Friedland, northwestern Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Next here on CNN NEWSROOM, the U.S. president weighs in on the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy. He says she made a mistake.
SESAY: Plus the latest in Bill Cosby's legal journey. We'll look at the comedian's deposition on charges of sexual misconduct.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:01:30]
SESAY: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: Thanks for staying with us. I'm John Vause. The headlines this hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE (voice-over): Thousands of protesters gathered across Turkey on Sunday, a day after two deadly bomb blasts tore through a peace rally in the capital. At least 97 people were killed, almost 250 others wounded.
Two Turkish security forces have told the Reuters News Agency ISIS may have been responsible for Saturday's attack.
SESAY (voice-over): Violence between Israelis and Palestinians is intensifying with at least 10 deaths over the weekend. They include a Palestinian teenager killed by a rubber-coated bullet near Ramallah and a pregnant woman and a 3-year-old girl who died in airstrikes in Gaza City. Four Israelis were also stabbed in Hadiya.
VAUSE (voice-over): Iranian media reporting a court has issued a verdict in the controversial espionage trial of "The Washington Post's" Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian. Rezaian has been jailed in Iran for 14 months. The verdict and any sentence have not been revealed -- not yet -- but a court spokesman says Rezaian has 20 days to appeal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: U.S. President Barack Obama is weighing in on the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy. Mr. Obama says Clinton's use of a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of state did not pose, quote, "a national security problem." He was talking to Steve Croft on CBS' "60 Minutes."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE CROFT, CBS NEWS HOST: Did you know about Hillary Clinton's use of private e-mail server?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No.
CROFT: While she was secretary of state?
OBAMA: No.
CROFT: Do you think it posed a national security problem?
OBAMA: I don't think it posed a national security problem. I think it was a mistake that she's acknowledged. And, as a general proposition, when we're in these offices, we have to be more sensitive and stay as far away from the line as possible when it comes to how we handle information, how we handle our own personal data and she made a mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The president went on to say he believes the controversy has been, in his words, "ginned up" in part because of politics. Ms. Clinton is the Democratic front-runner in the race for the White House but her poll numbers have been hurt recently by this e-mail scandal.
SESAY: There are also new allegations that Clinton is being targeted in the investigation into the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. A staffer fired from the U.S. congressional committee investigating the attack now says the probe is politically motivated and almost entirely focused on the former secretary of state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: What do you say to any viewers out there who think you might have an ax to grind, that you're only talking because you were fired?
BRADLEY PODLISKA, FORMER STAFFER, HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: As I said earlier, I have a conscience. There's wrongdoing here and I think it needs to stop. And I do not want the investigation to end. I want the investigation to be refocused back to its original purpose.
The victims' families are owed the truth. Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do. We, however, did not need to shift resources to hyper focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn't need to deemphasize and in some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: We spent a lot of time on the candidates at the top of the U.S. presidential polls.
But did you know, besides Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, there are three other candidates hoping to win the Democratic nomination?
VAUSE: I had to look it up actually, yes, just to exactly find out who they are.
But here's Poppy Harlow who has more on the other candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chances are, you know her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie Sanders!
HARLOW (voice-over): And you know him.
But do you know them? Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb? They don't always make the campaign headlines but all three will share the stage with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders come Tuesday night.
MARTIN O'MALLEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND: Weather vanes kind of shift in the wind. I know where I stand.
HARLOW (voice-over): Let's start with Martin O'Malley, you could say the married father of four, who was born in Washington, D.C., was tailor-made for a career in politics.
At only 20, O'Malley left college briefly to work on the presidential campaign of Colorado senator Gary Hart. And by 28, was ready for office himself, winning a seat on the Baltimore city council. From there, his political aspirations grew, first mayor of Baltimore, then governor of Maryland.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HARLOW (voice-over): But here's something you probably didn't know about Martin O'Malley. He's fronted a rock band. And he even used his guitar skills to tease his presidential bid.
On the issues, gun control, O'Malley wants stronger expanded background checks, an assault weapons ban plus a limit on the size of gun magazines.
On immigration, he supports a path to citizenship.
And on climate change, O'Malley says it is real and a real threat. He wants stronger regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Lincoln Chafee, the one-time Republican U.S. senator, then independent governor of --
[00:01:35]
BLITZER: -- Rhode Island, has just announced he's running --
HARLOW (voice-over): Next, Lincoln Chafee, a former mayor of Warwick and a U.S. senator from Rhode Island. He was a Republican then but he became an independent in 2007 as governor.
But now he wants to be the next president as a Democrat.
On the issues, health care, Chafee not only likes ObamaCare but if president says he would take it a step further, pushing for even more Americans to be fully covered.
On defeating ISIS, Chafee opposes American boots on the ground in Syria but insists America must forge stronger alliances in the Middle East.
In 2002, Chafee was the only Senate Republican to vote against war in Iraq.
On social issues, Chafee supports a woman's right to choose to have an abortion and supports same-sex marriage.
JIM WEBB (D), VA. I am unbought and I am unbossed.
HARLOW (voice-over): And then there's Jim Webb, a highly decorated Marine veteran, former Secretary of the Navy, former U.S. senator from Virginia, author, teacher, husband and father of six.
On the issues, climate change, Webb wants to limit the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate emissions and the supports the Keystone Pipeline and energy expansion.
Immigration reform, he wants to see a path to citizenship but says the border must be secured first.
On prison reform, Webb wants there to be more focus on treating mental illness and drug addiction and would push for more dialogue on ways to reduce the high rate of incarceration among minorities -- Poppy Harlow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Please join us for the Democratic debate right here on CNN. Live coverage from Las Vegas starts 1:30 Wednesday morning if you happen to be watching from London.
SESAY: And if that time doesn't work for you, we will replay the entire debate at 8:00 Wednesday night in London, 9:00 Central European time, it is only right here on CNN.
VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, why the makers of "Pan" wish they could run away to Never-Never Land and never, never come back, ever.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:01:40]
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VAUSE: It's been a rough few days for comedian Bill Cosby. On Friday night 27 of the more than 40 women who accused him of sexual abuse appeared together on the U.S. network, NBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Tonight, an unprecedented interview.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never done an interview this large.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Dozens of his accusers together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: That was after he took a legal bath on two fronts. His lawyers failed to have lawsuits thrown out in both California and Massachusetts.
VAUSE: And for the first time in almost a decade, Cosby was forced to answer allegations under oath about the sexual assaults, in particular the case of Judith Huff, 14 years old in 1974, when she was allegedly assaulted by Cosby at the Playboy Mansion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Per the order of the court, Mr. Cosby did appear for his deposition in the case in which we represent Judy Huff against Mr. Cosby. The deposition began in Boston at approximately 9 o'clock am Eastern Standard Time and ended at approximately 4:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: For more victims' rights, attorney Lisa Bloom joins us now here in Los Angeles.
Lisa, thank you so much for joining us.
LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY: Thank you.
SESAY: The details of Friday's deposition are sealed, they are confidential. But one thing we do know is that attorney Gloria Allred has said she's seeking a second deposition.
What does that tell us about Friday's meeting? BLOOM: Right. So let me be clear that she's my mother but we
practice in separate law firms and all I know is what I know that's been officially reported in this case.
What happens when a deposition is ordered for a second day is the attorneys are claiming that something went wrong in the deposition, that the attorneys were obstructing, that they weren't allowing certain questions to be answered, that there was a debate as to an issue of law. Those are the most common ones.
And so I assume that Ms. Allred's going to go into court and claim that these errors happened and that the judge should order Mr. Cosby to ask certain questions that he probably did not answer and that there should be a second day of the deposition.
VAUSE: Judy Huff faces a grilling from Cosby's attorneys later this week. We know they're pretty aggressive when they go after his accusers.
BLOOM: Yes.
VAUSE: What will she be facing?
BLOOM: Right. And I am up against the same attorneys in my case, where I represent Janice Dickinson --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: So you've had experience?
BLOOM: -- Bill Cosby and I've had many cases against these same attorneys. Yes, and they can be very aggressive. They're a very high-paid legal teams. And in fact, he has teams from several different law firms.
So yes, they're going to be very aggressive. But the good news is that everybody has to comply with the law and they're certainly entitled to ask her about her claims and her allegations against Mr. Cosby. And if they get too far afield then they'll have to go into court and argue about that, about whether the questions were appropriate or not.
SESAY: So to be clear, in these situations, these depositions, in terms of the line of questioning, what amount of restrictions are there?
BLOOM: Well, it's actually a fairly broad net. Anything that's likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence is OK at a deposition. In trial, it's a very narrow set of questions. They must be strictly relevant to the issues before the court.
But this is discovery, this is pretrial, so attorneys can ask a much broader category of questions because they're just getting discovery, they're just learning about the facts of the case. VAUSE: This transcript, maybe even the video of this deposition, sealed for 60 days.
BLOOM: Yes.
VAUSE: Will it be unsealed in 60 days' time?
What do you think?
BLOOM: That will be up to the court.
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: The court has put a tight lid on it. My gut is it would probably remain sealed until the conclusion of the case.
The Andrea Constant (ph) case from 2005-06 is probably the guide. Those records were sealed for many years. Only a few months ago they were unsealed when the Associated Press went in and said to the judge, you know, Judge, this is a high-profile case, this is massive public interest in this case.
And the judge said, OK, and released some of the record but not all of it. And so we have the First Amendment in the United States. The media is intensely interested in the case. And the judge has to weigh that against the interests of the private parties in this case -- or Mr. Cosby, at least -- to keep it private. I'm sure Ms. Huff is happy to have everything be released.
SESAY: Mr. Cosby facing legal woes on multiple fronts.
BLOOM: Yes.
SESAY: Friday a judge in Springfield said the defamation suits brought by three women can proceed.
Put that in context for us what that means and what we're looking at here.
BLOOM: Right. So Bill Cosby's not only losing, in my opinion, in the court of public opinion, he's now losing in actual courtrooms. Judges are clearly turning against Mr. Cosby. So what happened on Friday was very, very significant. A defamation case brought by three women is allowed to go forward.
That's very similar to the case that I have on behalf of Janice Dickinson. So Mr. Cosby's motions to have these cases thrown out, those motions are being denied.
VAUSE: Lisa Bloom, victim rights attorney and also representing some of those who are accusing Bill Cosby, we should throw in.
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VAUSE: We appreciate you being with us, thanks so much.
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SESAY: Appreciate it, thank you.
California just became the first state in the U.S. to stop public schools from using the name Redskin for teams or mascots. The Racial Mascots Act bans the name Redskins which many Native Americans consider a racial slur. The ban applies to public schools using the word as a school or athletic team name, mascot or nickname.
VAUSE: The Washington Redskins currently play in the NFL and many want that name to be changed. But for now it will stay. And this new law in California will not impact that in any way. But it does go into effect in the state here January 1st, 2017.
SESAY: So here's a question for you.
Would you spent $25,000 just to apply to go to college with no guarantee of acceptance?
VAUSE: Probably not.
SESAY: It's happening all over China. We'll explain why next on CNN NEWSROOM L.A.
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SESAY: Hello, everyone. A baseball player that broke one player's leg and has led to a two-game suspension for --
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SESAY: -- another player, but there's still debate over whether Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Chase Utley was just playing hard or made an illegal slide.
VAUSE: He was playing hard.
Take a look at what happened during the National League playoff game on Saturday. Utley was sliding into second when he collided with New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada.
Utley suspended for games three and four of The Best of Five Series. The league says while his actions were not intentional they do warrant discipline.
I was watching that game last night. Dodgers were trailing 2-1 for most of it. I turned it off because nothing was happening.
SESAY: Then everything happened.
VAUSE: Then it all happened.
SESAY: ESPN is saying Utley is going to appeal.
VAUSE: Good.
SESAY: So we'll see what happens. Poor (INAUDIBLE) Tejada. That looked awful.
Now poor "Pan."
VAUSE: Poor "Pan."
SESAY: Well, "Pan," the new movie starring Hugh Jackman had such a miserable showing at the weekend box office. mashable.com says it is unofficially the biggest bomb of 2015.
value Let's make it official. "Pan" took in $15.5 million in the U.S. But (INAUDIBLE) cost $150 million to make. The film about Peter Pan's origins also panned by the critics even before its debut.
Meantime, "The Martian" still riding high, making more than $220 million globally -- Matt Damon.
SESAY: Yes. Surprising, though, that Hugh Jackman wouldn't be a box office draw.
VAUSE: Doesn't look like Hugh Jackman, though, have you seen it?
SESAY: Yes, kind of looks just --
VAUSE: Weird.
SESAY: -- weird. All right.
For all you James Bond fans out there, you're in for a real treat on the Sunday as cars from the hit franchise paraded down the streets of Paris. People were in to take pictures of the Aston Martin DV-10, the fancy, fancy car featured in the newest Bond film, "Spectre."
VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) James Bond, well, you know, Daniel Craig, he plays the superstar spy and he's not happy apparently about being 007. He admits he's burned out after four straight big blockbusters.
He told "Time Out London" he's tired of always having to look the part -- which he doesn't.
When asked about doing another Bond movie, Craig said this, "I'd rather break this glass and slash my wrists."
SESAY: You seriously you don't think he looks like a Bond?
VAUSE: He's a poor man's Jason Bourne.
SESAY: I think he's very debonair and very charismatic as Bond.
VAUSE: Fire him. Bring back Pierce Brosnan. SESAY: You're living in the past.
VAUSE: Sean Connery.
SESAY: Sean Connery --
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VAUSE: Is he still alive? I think he is.
OK.
SESAY: Moving on. I think Craig was just tired there. I feel for him. Poor baby.
All right. Moving on, a new push in China for students to study in the U.S. is turning into big business.
VAUSE: Some companies are out there charging families not just $25,000 just so they can apply to American schools. Details from Saima Mohsin.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing?
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Moving abroad can be a culture shock. So these students have made a witty guide on YouTube.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Usually I do it on the balcony but since we don't have one.
MOHSIN (voice-over): But for thousands of Chinese high schoolers like Brittany (ph), it's precisely the differences that draw her to the U.S.
BRITTANY (PH): You have a different perspective from students around the world. And you get to -- I get to join these different clubs, extracurricular activities. But in China, the student focus more on their career.
MOHSIN (voice-over): She's not alone. Her friends want to study in the U.S., too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to go to one of the liberal arts colleges because I like their sense of very tight community and diversity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like the open curriculum that some colleges offer because I will be able to try out so many courses.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love Brown University because I think it is one of the happiest schools in the world.
MOHSIN (voice-over): Chinese students make up the largest number of foreigners studying in the U.S., going up from just under 70,000 in 2007 to more than 270,000 in the 2013-14 academic year, more than a quarter of a million.
There's a big push for the next generation to branch out and learn from the West and then to bring knowledge back home to help narrow the gap between the world's biggest and second largest economies.
Brittany's (ph) interested in politics and wants to be a human rights lawyer, something that may prove difficult when she returns home.
BRITTANY (PH): I'm attracted by the level of civil engagement in the U.S. The citizens can choose their president, can choose their delegates for Congress, your words can be heard by the government. It feels pretty good for me.
MOHSIN (voice-over): Back at home, Brittany's (ph) parents didn't take her study plans seriously at first. And it's hard for some Chinese parents to let go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I only have one child. So I wanted her to stay with me. Especially when we parents get old.
MOHSIN (voice-over): She and her mom made a trip to the U.S., and then both her parents were on board.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): There's definitely no --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): -- harm to get to know this culture and this country.
MOHSIN (voice-over): And it's not cheap, either. In addition to college fees, the agency the family are using charges $25,000 with no guarantees of admission. But Brittany's (ph) hard work and determination, her mom says, whether she gets in or not, means she's worth every cent -- Saima Mohsin, CNN, Beijing.
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VAUSE: It's incredible what parents in China will do for their kids.
SESAY: It is indeed.
Now you are about to get on a plane, heading to Vegas?
VAUSE: Couple of hours, exactly. I'll be heading off to Las Vegas for the Democratic debate, only here on CNN. You can see the debate there, the time on your screen, 1:30 on Wednesday morning in London. But our coverage, of course, begins tomorrow and we'll have a lot of the previews and what people can expect.
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SESAY: You'll be there, I'll be here --
VAUSE: -- we'll have a lot of interviews, a lot of analysis, a lot of good times to come.
SESAY: It will be gracious. So do join us.
VAUSE: That is all, though, from us here in Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. Stay with us. The news continues with Rosemary Church right after this.
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