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Haiti Government Calls for Return to Normal After Violent Protests; Interview with Gord Rodin, Co-Founder of Hope Grows; Pregnant Women Risk Their Lives to Harvest Tea; Real Madrid Suffer Another League Setback; Ramos Sent Off as Real Madrid Lose to Girona 2-1; Nelly Korda Completes Family Australia Slam; Australia Win Inaugural SailGP Event. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired February 18, 2019 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): "I don't care. I believe Putin."
The former FBI deputy director says the U.S. president trusted Russia over U.S. intelligence about North Korea's missile capabilities.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): ISIS is about to lose its last bit of land in Syria but many of its fighters have likely fled from Syria to Iraq, with as much as $200 million in cash.
ALLEN (voice-over): Venezuela's opposition leader is calling on 1 million volunteers to confront a government blockade that's been holding back aid, now stockpiled at the Colombian border.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.
VANIER (voice-over): I'm Cyril Vanier.
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VANIER: So we are learning more about the stunning allegations by the former acting FBI director and the reverberations that they will trigger congressional action.
ALLEN: In an interview with CBS' ""60 Minutes," Andrew McCabe explained it was Donald Trump's own words that prompted a counterintelligence and obstruction of justice investigation into the U.S. president. In particular his comments about the Russia investigation. Other events the FBI looked into included Mr. Trump's asking FBI director James Comey to drop the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the president firing Comey, Mr. Trump asking the deputy attorney general to include Russia in his memo firing Comey which Rosenstein did not do, the president's comments on NBC about firing Comey.
VANIER: And the reveal in the Oval Office meeting with Russian officials in which Mr. Trump reportedly said Mr. Comey's relieved great pressure.
McCabe said Rosenstein even offered to wear a wire in his meetings with the president.
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ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: The deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the White House.
He said, "I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn't know it was there."
Now, he was not joking. He was absolutely serious and, in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had. I never actually considered taking him up on the offer. I did discuss it with my general counsel and my leadership team back at the FBI after he brought it up the first time.
SCOTT PELLEY, CBS ANCHOR: The point of Rosenstein wearing the wire into a meeting with the president was what?
What did he hope to obtain?
MCCABE: I can't characterize what Rod was thinking or what he was hoping at that moment. But the reason you would have someone wear a concealed recording device would be to collect evidence.
In this case, what was the true nature of the president's motivation calling for the firing of Jim Comey?
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VANIER: A statement from the Justice Department said Rosenstein never authorized any recording that Mr. McCabe references.
ALLEN: The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is promising an investigation into McCabe's claims.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: I know he is selling a book. But we need to take it with a grain of salt maybe what Mr. McCabe is telling us, but he went on national television and made an accusation that floors me.
You know, I can imagine if the shoe was on the other foot. If what we're talking about was getting rid of President Clinton, it would be front page news all over the world.
Well, we're going to find out what happened here and the only way I know to find out is to call the people in under oath and find out through questioning who is telling the truth because the underlying accusation is beyond stunning.
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VANIER: CNN legal analyst Areva Martin joins us now from Los Angeles.
So Areva, we learned in this Andrew McCabe interview that the president's own words are what prompted a counterintelligence investigation of him and this is really a pattern with the president. He puts himself in trouble.
AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Cyril. This pretty explosive interview by Andrew McCabe today not only did he talk about the words of Donald Trump which led him according to this interview the FBI to open this counterintelligence --
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MARTIN: -- investigation, but also for there to be some conversation or consideration of invoking the 25th Amendment and actually removing the president from office.
So we're learning a great deal from Mr. McCabe and what was going on immediately following the president's termination of Mike Flynn.
VANIER: Yes. About the 25th Amendment, so it was the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who brought it up and he wondered how many cabinet members he might be able to recruit in order to unseat Mr. Trump.
Is that overreach there from Rosenstein?
MARTIN: Yes. According to the Department of Justice,, you know, we're getting these conflicting stories about what was happening in the aftermath. What's pretty clear is that there was a pretty chaotic scene happening at the FBI. The firing of James Comey clearly led the FBI into this state of panic.
And you heard McCabe say that this counterintelligence investigation was opened the day after the firing. He wanted to preserve the record. He wanted to preserve an investigation.
He didn't know if he would be fired, if he'd be replaced, if he'd be reassigned and he didn't want an investigation into whether, you know, President Trump was compromised because of some kind of financial ties or other ties to Russia to be, you know, forgotten about or to be swept under the rug.
So there's all of this activity going on. But we know that Rosenstein has disputed some of the claims that McCabe has made. So at this point, there are a lot of questions about what was going on and we're getting these conflicting stories, these conflicting, you know, no events or at least versions of events from now McCabe and Rosenstein.
VANIER: The FBI began an investigation to determine whether the president had committed a crime by firing James Comey. That's one of the two investigations. There was also the counterintelligence investigation.
We still don't know if a crime has been committed, right?
MARTIN: Still don't know. We haven't gotten the final report from Robert Mueller and based on what we now know from the new attorney general Barr, it's not clear that we'll ever get that report.
We know that the Department of Justice has a policy of not revealing a lot of information if there's a determination that there won't be an indictment of an individual, not likely that there's going to be an indictment of Trump and not clear that we'll ever find out whether the, you know, investigation from Robert Mueller came to some conclusion about whether there was a crime committed because of this Department of Justice policy against indicted a sitting president.
VANIER: And there's another telling moment in the McCabe interview. Donald Trump refused to believe that North Korean missiles could hit the U.S. despite the assessment of his own intelligence agencies and this because Vladimir Putin told him otherwise. This --
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VANIER: -- had opened their counterintelligence investigation into whether Donald Trump was acting on behalf of Russia.
MARTIN: Again, another stunning revelation from McCabe. And if you were to believe him, he said he was stunned that the president of the United States was taking the word of a foreign adversary over the information provided by its own intelligence agency.
McCabe again, you know, it's expressing his shock, his dismay, his disappointment and his incredulity really about the president's response to what was going on with, you know, the president and his refusal to accept the information from his own intelligence agency.
VANIER: CNN legal analyst Areva Martin, thank you very much.
MARTIN: Thank you, Cyril.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: We turn now to the Middle East: a military victory against ISIS in Syria won't be the terrorists' final defeat. U.S.-backed forces have the extremists under siege in their last Syrian enclave, Baghouz al-Fawqani.
But a U.S. military official says more than a thousand ISIS fighters have likely fled into Iraq, they could including former members of Al Qaeda in Iraq and they may have more than $200 million in cash.
VANIER: The defeat of ISIS also does not mean an end to the war in Syria. America's Kurdish allies may be caught up in a different fight and they can't always depend on U.S. support. CNN's Barbara Starr is traveling with senior U.S. officials in the region. She has more from Baghdad.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps more than 1,000 ISIS fighters have fled Syria in the last six months of fighting into the western deserts and mountains of Iraq and they may have $200 million in cash with them to finance future operations.
All of that according to the latest U.S. assessment. All of this comes as the U.S.-backed Syrian fighters with U.S. assistance are struggling to take the last ISIS stronghold in Syria. The big concern now is there may be hundreds if not --
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STARR: -- thousands of civilians in the area. many of them perhaps being held by ISIS.
The top U.S. general tonight in Baghdad talking about how little the U.S. may be able to predict when that last stronghold is taken.
PAUL LACAMERA, COMMANDING GENERAL, OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE: It's an active battle. I mean, they could capitulate while we're sitting here. It could be several days. I mean, there's a lot of fog and friction on the battlefield.
I mean, we were moving at a pretty good clip three, four days ago. And then, the amount of displaced civilians that is starting to come out, civilian fighters that were trying to infiltrate or exfiltrate out with families. We slowed it down so that we could do the proper screenings.
STARR: And what happens after the last stronghold falls?
Lieutenant General Paul LaCamera, the top commander here says that SDF, the Syrian democratic forces, that the U.S. has been backing will have to make some key decisions.
The U.S. is willing to continue providing weapons and aid, but that may only last so long. If the SDF decides its only option is to now align itself with the Assad regime.
LACAMERA: So, we are in Syria because of the threat to Iraq. They are our partners in Syria to fight ISIS. Once that relationship is severed because they go back to the regime, which we don't have a relationship with, the Russians we don't have a relationship with, when that happens, we're in longer partners.
STARR: Now that the U.S. is pulling its troops out of Syria, the SDF may have few options. They cannot align themselves with the Turks. They're enemies, of course and if they go with the Assad regime for protection, the U.S. will cut relations with them because the U.S. cannot legally do business with Assad -- Barbara Starr, CNN, Baghdad.
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VANIER: President Trump keeps promising a U.S. withdrawal after the military defeat of ISIS but his special envoy for Syria is more cautious and says a troop exit cannot be rushed.
ALLEN: Here is what James Franklin Jeffrey said at the Munich Security Conference this weekend.
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JAMES FRANKLIN JEFFREY, U.S. ENVOY ON SYRIA: First of all, this will not be an abrupt or rapid withdrawal. It will be an orderly step-by- step withdrawal. We are consulting very carefully and very closely with them.
If they felt that they were not consulted enough initially, we are doing our very, very best, night and day, believe me, to ensure that they don't feel underconsulted right now. And I suspect that if you ask them, they feel that they are in constant touch with us, because they are.
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ALLEN: Let's talk about this pivotal moment in the fight to get rid of ISIS in Syria. For more, we are joined by Gayle Tzemach-Lemmon. She's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
I want to ask you, when the last ISIS enclave is teetering, when its goes, what will this defeat of the ISIS caliphate in Syria represent?
GAYLE TZEMACH-LEMMON, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: It will represent the fact that the once unstoppable force, fighting force that was ISIS, has been defeated territorially. Right, the territory has been taken back. It was once controlled territory about the size of Portugal. And it's now down to the sliver of land as you and Barbara were just reporting.
The question that is pivotal now is what comes next.
And how do you keep the fight against ISIS ended?
How do you keep the pressure on as this fighting force tries to reemerge?
Because it is much easier to take territory and to defeat a terrorist than it is to defeat an ideology.
ALLEN: Right. I was going ask you that. So this is a physical defeat of ISIS but what really caused the ISIS presence in the Middle East physically was their network. The ideology, the propaganda, the recruiting.
Where is that?
LEMMON: It's still very much alive and what you see is they have slipped away and melted away from territory they once held and worked to reemerge. But it's fascinating; I was in Northeast Syria in late December and talking to a lot of young people in Raqqah.
And a lot of young people in Manbij and other parts of Syria said, listen, our fight is to basically force stability for economic prosperity, we are just trying to get on with our lives.
You talk to teachers in Raqqah and they are living on the front lines of this fight against extremism and they are really doing a tremendous job, every day, coming to school, educating kids.
And they are on the real front lines of what is this continuing battle extremism, which will not be won only territorially; it also has to be won by keeping pressure on this force as they try to regroup.
ALLEN: Right. When you say regroup, our report just indicated they may have $200 million and there could be thousands scattering across Iraq right now and joining forces with Al Qaeda in Iraq so that's a complexity.
Another complexity, is Americans pulling out --
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ALLEN: -- of Syria with Iran and Russia's interest and influence in the region, what might a void in U.S. military presence represent?
LEMMON: This is the question swirling since mid-December. There is no question that both Russia and Iran gain from a U.S. withdrawal.
But let's go back to Ambassador Jeffrey's point, that this is will be slow and orderly and there is a discussion now underway in U.S. policy circles about the when and the how of any withdrawal.
And so I think that while in mid-December a lot of people were quite worried that it would be overnight, I do think that there is a lot of discussion from U.S. policymakers as well as the forces that the United States has backed in the Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF, that there is a conversation going on now so there wouldn't just be a blanket void that other folks could and fill.
ALLEN: Finally, the other complexity is the Kurds. The U.S., of course, supported the Syrian defense forces which defeated ISIS, led by the Kurds.
So where will the Kurds align now, looking to protect their autonomy?
They reported have reached out to the Assad regime, which is, of course, supported by Russia.
LEMMON: It's a fascinating question because the thing that you see in town after town, in Northeast Syria is that the young people who have given their lives and their treasure to the fight against ISIS are young Syrians, right?
And there is the town of Qamishli (ph) and the town of Kobani. You can see row after row of white marble headstones of young women and young men who have given their lives in the ISIS fight backed by the United States.
When you talk to U.S. forces they talk of enormous respect for the fighting force that delivered on every objective the United States and the counter ISIS coalition has asked it to take.
And so the question is, how does this fighting force, this force that has really been quite successful with support from the United States, basically figure out its own way forward?
The Americans would like to figure out a way for them to navigate on their own without the Americans being there forever. But this leaves them with a set of very challenging choices, you know.
They would talk to me in December about, look, we don't necessarily want to make a deal with Iran or Turkey or even the regime. But we will be in a position where we will have to.
And one fascinating point is that even in the town of Qamishli (ph) or the town of Kosoko (ph), which the U.S.-backed forces now lead, there is a regime presence, so there has been this very uneasy coexistence with the Syrian regime.
And I think what the Syrian Kurds will often say as well as the Arabs in the region is that if we can keep the gains we have, with local governance and some level of autonomy, perhaps this would be a way forward and everybody could live with.
ALLEN: Many questions in this next chapter following the downfall of the physical aspect of ISIS. We appreciate your expertise, Gayle Tzemach-Lemmon, thank you.
LEMMON: Great to join you.
VANIER: Venezuela's standoff over humanitarian aid heats up. The opposition leader wants supporters to fight the government's aid blockade and he's enlisting a million volunteers to get the job done.
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ALLEN: Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido is setting up a showdown with his political rival over the delivery of humanitarian aid.
VANIER: He's calling on a million volunteers to help bring supplies into the country by Saturday. The aid has been piling up in neighboring Colombia because sitting president Nicolas Maduro has refused to allow it in.
ALLEN: On Sunday, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio visited the warehouse where the relief is being stored. He said the supplies will be delivered with or without Mr. Maduro's help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) FLORIDA: Well, look, the aid is going to get through. And I think ultimately the question is whether it gets through in a way that he is cooperative with or in a way that he is not.
But there's no way you are going to stand ultimately in the wave of people whose children are starving to death, whose families are dying in hospitals because of preventable diseases and they don't have the medicine for it.
So, obviously, tactics or something, I'm not going to publicly announce to allow the regime and their allies to do and make efforts to block it, but I would say this.
Imagine for a moment if you're a member of the National Guard or the Venezuelan military, your own family is hungry. Your own family is starving. Your own relatives are dying because they can't get dialysis or HIV medications.
And you're going to follow an order to block that from reaching the people?
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VANIER: The humanitarian crisis continues to take a toll on Venezuelans. As CNN's Isa Soares reports, the lack of food and medicines has forced many to seek help outside the country.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For most of her young life, Vangen (ph) has only known hunger. Now, her body is feeling its impact. Frail, irritable and in pain, she has been unable to keep food down.
But her little tummy, suffering from severe acute malnutrition, in what was once the world's richest oil nation, just can't keep it in.
She is one of thousands of Venezuelan children leaving home with many being treated at this border city hospital in Bogota. Several floors up on the maternity ward, I meet several women who too have seen scarcity for months on end.
SOARES: (Speaking Spanish)?
What did you eat there?
Very little, rations.
SOARES (voice-over): I go further down the hall. And on a floor where pain and life go hand-in-hand, I come face-to-face with tragedy.
SOARES: She is telling me that her baby is dead, no heartbeat, nothing. No life, she is telling me.
(Speaking Spanish). Twenty nine, six months, so basically 29 weeks, so she's -- her baby has died.
SOARES (voice-over): This is the --
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SOARES (voice-over): -- toll of the humanitarian crisis Nicolas Maduro denies. The death and despair are not just contained within these hospital walls. I traveled through Old Cucuta and meet others desperate for help. Nineteen-year-old Cleva Salazar (ph) recently arrived from Caracas. He made the journey simply for survival.
CLEVA SALAZAR (PH) (from captions): If I stayed in Venezuela, I was going to die. I knew I was going to die. In fact, all my friends with HIV in Venezuela, out of 30, only one is alive.
SOARES (voice-over): He says he is HIV positive and desperately needed anti-retroviral drugs, unavailable back home. As he gets a checkup, the doctor at the NGO for which Cleva (ph) volunteers for tells me nine of his HIV patients died in 2018, all Venezuelans.
Cleva (ph) got out just in time. But getting here has come with sacrifice and the wounds he carries are still fresh. I do my best to delicately ask him if he ever had to sell sex to survive.
SALAZAR (PH) (from captions): Yes, I sold it and I sold it many times. And I sold it not only because I needed medicine, I sold it for food, I sold it because I needed many things.
SOARES (voice-over): Isa Soares, CNN, Cucuta, Colombia.
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ALLEN: Another horrific chapter we are learning from the Venezuelan story there.
Haiti's government is calling for peace but that may not be so easy. Protesters feel like the government is working against them. Next, hear why their anger is overflowing.
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ALLEN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.
[00:30:14] VANIER: I'm Cyril Vanier. We've got the headlines for you this hour.
The former acting director of the FBI says Donald Trump's own words prompted a counterintelligence and obstruction of justice investigation into the U.S. president. In a CBS interview, Andrew McCabe said the president's request that FBI Director James Comey drop the investigation into then national security advisor Michael Flynn and Comey's subsequent firing were also among the reasons for launching the probe. ALLEN: A territorial defeat of ISIS likely will not be the terror
group's total demise. They extremists are under siege in their last Syrian enclave, Baghouz al-Fawqani, but a U.S. military official says more than 1,000 have likely fled into western Iraq in recent months. They may also have up to $200 million in cash.
VANIER: A British parliamentary committee has reviewed internal Facebook e-mails and concludes that the social media giant intentionally and knowingly violated privacy and competition laws. The claims come in a new report to release Monday. Facebook denies these accusations.
ALLEN: Saudi Arabia has signed investment agreements with Pakistan worth $20 billion. They focus on energy projects and agriculture. Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman arrived in Islamabad Sunday to start a three-country Asia tour.
VANIER: Haiti's government is begging for peace in the streets after days of violent protests. The government is asking schools, universities and businesses to reopen on Monday. It's mobilized the entire country's police force to make that happen. Over the weekend, there was a tense calm as people scrambled to find food, water and fuel.
ALLEN: For more than one week, angry crowds have his been demanding Haiti's president step down over crippling inflation and corruption allegations. President Jovenal Moise refuses to resign. Haiti's prime minister on Saturday told protesters that politicians have heard their message.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Port-au-Prince for us.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a tenuous calm here in the capital at this point after nine days of protests, where they lit tires in the street, blocked the roads with boulders, pretty much shut down the entire city as well as cities around the country.
The police now on high alert throughout the entire country.
Haiti is known for its hardships, for protests. The protests that we are seeing now are sort of part of a string of protests that we have seen over many, many months. We talked to one activist about why this time is different.
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EMMANUELA DOUYON, ANTI-CORRUPTION ACTIVIST: Traditionally, people like me, we do not do things like this. We just have a job, and we keep living our life. We complain with our friends on social media. But it's the first time that people who have a job, people who don't suffer from like poverty are on the streets and saying it's enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUEZ: The prime minister spoke to the nation, saying that he called for an investigation into the corruption here, called for a 30 percent cut to his own budget, encouraged the rest of the government to do the same, said that government workers should lose their perks, and also said that there should be an increase in the minimum wage and would work toward all of those things.
What is not clear is whether that is enough. The protesters say that the president himself is ensnared in part of the corrupt culture of this country. And they have just had enough.
So what the prime minister is talking about, it is not clear where that fits into what the protesters want and whether the government itself, the president and the various bureaucracies, will allow an investigation to the degree that can win back the trust of the people of Haiti.
All of that we are waiting to see as there are calls for more protests in the days ahead.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Port-au-Prince Haiti.
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VANIER: Gord Rodin joins us here, the co-founder of Hope Grows, an aid organization that works in Haiti.
You're about an hour outside the capital of Port-au-Prince, and you have eight nurses currently working who have been working with you in Haiti with the communities there on the ground involved in education, in health programs, feeding kids. And they are looking to leave the country. But they have been stranded for several days.
Explain to us why they can't just get to the capital and leave?
GORD RODIN, CO-FOUNDER, HOPE GROWS (via phone): That's right, Cyril. Thank you for having us on.
At the best of times, that one-hour drive can go from one hour to four hours. But under the current circumstances, with the demonstrations and the uprising, it's just not -- just not possible to get through. There are just far too many roadblocks. And it's not safe. We wouldn't want them to venture out. We wouldn't let them venture out.
[00:35:08] And last week when we were scheduled to go, our driver said, "There's just not a chance." He would not -- would not even undertake it.
VANIER: OK. Explain that to us. Who is at those roadblocks, and why would you not -- what is the risk, and why would you not take it?
RODIN: The risk is physical. The reports we hear back, that was windows being smashed and people threatened, although not hurt, other than a terrifying event. And then turned around and sent back where they came from. Roadblocks have been put up by, I guess, in many cases simply part of
the protest movement in opposition to the government. And these roadblocks simply are impassible. Now, some of the rural roadblocks that we encounter in this circumstance, they've figured out that they can collect a toll. So motorcycles will get by, but cars and vehicles will not. And it's just -- it's absolute impossible to get through. Between here and Port-au-Prince.
VANIER: So there's -- in addition to the protests going on in the capital, there's a delinquent criminal aspect to the roadblocks and the people that are on the street?
RODIN: Yes, you could call it that. I think it's -- it's probably a survival instinct, too. When they figure out that it's worth cash they'll do it. Not -- we're not talking lots of cash.
VANIER: Sure.
RODIN: But it's an incentive for them to keep it going.
VANIER: I read that you were concerned to the point that you thought perhaps you could be taken or the nurses could be taken and held hostage?
RODIN: Well, it's always of concern. When -- when you're hosting a team, that you make sure that they safely get where they're going to go. We don't know the potential outcome of any event. We just want to be very, very practical and err on the side of absolute caution.
VANIER: You set up a -- you set up a GoFundMe page, right, to raise money so that you could actually not drive to Port-au-Prince but actually fly, take a helicopter. Fly into the capital and, from there, fly safely out through the airport?
RODIN: Yes, the nurses did set up a GoFundMe page, and it worked extremely well. Much -- much better than they were -- even imagined. And there are a few helicopter services which are providing quick response. And all things being equal and Lord willing, tomorrow they will venture from here to the capital. It's really by helicopter only a 15-minute ride. So if the weather is right, and the helicopter is able to come in, then that's the way that we'll get them out of country.
VANIER: Gord Rodin, thank you so much for joining us.
RODIN: Great, thanks very much for having me, Cyril. Bye now.
ALLEN: We will have to check back in and see if they do, indeed, get lifted out by helicopter to safety.
Well, next here it is the sign of India's profitable tea business you don't see. Many women, some of them pregnant, picking tea leaves for long hours and little pay. Why they're willing to risk their lives in the fields. That story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [00:40:22] ALLEN: Tea is big business in India, earning the country hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
VANIER: But as Kristie Lu Stout reports, to bring that tea to the world, pregnant women are risking their lives.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tucked away in the northeastern tip of India are the lush green hills of Assam state. More than half of the country's tea leaves are grown in plantations here.
But the bright vistas hide a dark reality. Some female tea pickers get pregnant while working and feel that they have to stay in the plantations until they're full term. Two of them spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: We receive no help from anywhere. There is no facility in the tea garden hospital for even a simple fever.
STOUT: Temporary tea pickers who spoke to CNN said they collect leaves nine hours a day, six days a week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: I have to work from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. I have to pluck 24 kilos of leaves in a day. If I meet the target each day, only then I receive my daily wages.
STOUT: The women say they get less money if they don't fill up their baskets.
The tea industry says it ensures that tea sold internationally meets the highest standards of health and labor protections by working with independent accrediting agencies. But at two unaccredited plantations, as CNN visited, workers complained to CNN of a lack of medical care.
JAYSHREE SATPUTE, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: Assam has about 1.5 million tea plantation workers. More than 70 percent of this workforce are women. These women have been working in the slave-like conditions for over decades.
STOUT: Since 2005, the Indian government has introduced programs to provide free prenatal care, tests and births in public hospitals, helping many people across the country.
But Assam state still has a high maternal death rate: 237 women die per 100,000 births, more than in any other state in India. The state health director says the death rate is improving, and he hopes things will continue to get better as they introduce new public/private partnership with the plantations. JVN SUBRAMANYAM, ASSAM STATE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL HEALTH MISSION: We
are moving into the tea gardens with our mobile medical units. So we will expand into the tea gardens. Because the land belongs to the tea garden owner, or the tea garden company, but we are now -- we want to get into these tea garden areas so drastically so that finally, the human rights are taken care of.
STOUT: For now, though, many women don't have access to or are not aware of what services should be available to them. They work until the late every stages of pregnancy, and sometimes give birth in the fields.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
GRAPHIC: I have fear, but I can't miss my work. Because if I miss my work, I will not get any help from the tea garden.
STOUT: The women are afraid of what might happen but just can't afford to miss out on a full day's pay.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: And that is CNN NEWSROOM. We thank you for watching. I'm Natalie Allen.
VANIER: I'm Cyril Vanier. Up next you have WORLD SPORTS [SIC], and we're back 15 minutes after that with another hour of news. That's at the top of the hour. Stay with us.
ALLEN: See you soon.
KATE RILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Thanks much for joining us. Welcome along to WORLD SPORT. I'm Kate Riley at CNN Center.
We're start off in Spain, and if you're a Real Madrid fan, then you may just want to look away for the next minute or so.
Here is exactly why you have to go back to November the 25th last year. The last time the 15th-place Spanish Girona won a game in La Liga.
And Real's opponents on Sunday, yes, you guessed it: Girona. Quite simply, nobody saw this one coming. The host taking the lead with a header from the young Brazilian, Casemiro. And at that time, it all seemed like plain sailing for Solari's men.
But then came a plot twist. Sergio Ramos handled the ball and conceded a penalty. He was booked for his trouble and allowed the visitors back into the game.
Cristhian Stuani equalizing on the spot, and then, with 15 minutes to go, Girona actually take the lead here. Douglas Luiz did well to win the ball and take it forward. He passed it to Anthony Lozano, who tried his luck from the edge of the area. And although it was saved, attacking midfielder Portu was there for
that dramatic winner.
All right, well, Ramos getting another yellow in the last minute of the match for the attempted overhead kick. That's two yellows, and you know exactly what that means, don't you? It's a red.
Incredibly, it's his 25th time that Ramos has been sent off as a Real player. And it gets worse for the defender, though. Not only does he hold the top spot in Spanish league history, but also the record for the most red cards in all major European leagues.
However, in 161 appearances for Spain, though, the World Cup winner has actually never been sent off for his country. Would you believe it?
Girona hadn't won in the league since November, but they've just beaten the European champions in their own backyard.
Pressure cranked up once against on Los Blancos manager Solari as well. Real now 9 points behind the leaders and reigning champs Barcelona.
And earlier CNN's Patrick Snell caught up with our football expert, Mark Bolton, who's based in London, to discuss Real Madrid's latest woes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK SNELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Mark, let's start with Sergio Ramos. Of course, no stranger to red cards during his grid. Twenty now for him in La Liga.
Of course, coming off midweek in the Champions League against Ajax is now denying that he deliberately got booked in that one. Where do you assess his position right now? Where are they at with him in the impact and the affect this is all having on Real Madrid and their season?
MARK BOLTON, SOCCER JOURNALIST: Well, some would suggest that his unscrupulousness at times is, in part, what defines him. He's undoubtedly effective in that totemic leadership role that he took on when, perhaps, Guti retired. He's been a wonderful leader, and we have to look at results. Whatever the methods are, Pat, when we look at the results of Real Madrid in recent times, they speak for themselves.
And Ramos has been at the forefront of that. Yes, sometimes he drifts into areas that are questionable in terms of the morals and the ethics; and that's why you're looking at what happened in midweek. But there's no doubt about it. He leads from the front.
And often -- more often than not, those red cards that we see, 25 in total, for Real Madrid in 601 appearances, they just tip over into two yellow cards rather than straight reds. So they're more accumulative type offenses, tackles when Real Madrid need them. Stoppages in play when Real Madrid need them. Niggling fouls, when Real Madrid need them.
They're effective, they work. But at times when there's too much controversy, I'm sure Real Madrid turn around and think, "We don't quite need this kind of unsavory press."
UEFA will make their decision. It could cost him an extra game, of course, in the Champions League. The suspension that will follow on from today's dismissal will mean that he misses Levante but crucially back for the two Clasicos against Barce (ph) in the Copa del Rey and also in La Liga.
So this one potentially not as damaging today, but the fallouts from what happened in the Champions League against Ajax may well be. Wonderful character. As we said, it kind of defines him to some extent, Pat. That's his style of leadership. That's kind of why we love him. We like a pantomime villain, and he's a great player.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RILEY: All right, then. Over in France, there was some late, late drama there in Ligue 1. And once again, it was the teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe confirming just exactly why he is such a superstar.
Paris Saint-German away to St. Etienne on Sunday, and Mbappe getting the match winner here, scoring an off-balance superb volley. It really was extraordinary. And with a 1-0 win, PSG now move 12 points clear at the top of the French league. Yes, lovely stuff from the teenager there.
All right. Well, every athlete wants to win big, don't they? But depending on which family you come from, it could even be expected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NELLY KORDA, WINNER, AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Thank you. I'm finally a part of the club.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: Yes, why spending just a little face time with your own sister never felt so good.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RILEY: Welcome back to CNN WORLD SPORT.
Keeping up with the Kordas is clearly no easy feat. Just imagine being part of a very successful sporting family. Your father's a grand slam tennis champ, and both your siblings also have prestigious titles in their names, too.
Well, on Sunday, Nelly Korda put her name up there in lights by winning golf's Australian Open on the LPGA tour. And this is so special, too, because everyone else in her family already had an Aussie Open title to their name.
Well, afterwards her sister Jessica could be heard screaming with joy on face time to congratulate her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KORDA: Thank you. I'm finally a part of the club.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: Well, back in 1998, her dad Peter won the Australian Open tennis tournament, and that's young Jessica in his arms there; and his wife was pregnant with Nelly at the time.
Fast forward to 2012, and Jessica's now a professional golfer herself herself. She won her first title on the LPGA tour, and it just so happened to be the Australian Open.
Then in 2018, almost 20 years to the day since his dad won the tennis at Melbourne, now 18-year-old Sebastian Korda won the junior title at the Aussie Open, too.
So you can understand why Nelly was feeling a bit left out, but on Sunday she truly joined the club, completing what they're now calling the Korda slam.
It was an absolutely heart-breaking weekend in Mexico City for Germany's formula-E driver Pascal Wehrlein. Just for context here, this series involves electric-powered cars. And here's a reason we're mentioning it off the very top.
Because straight to the very first lap, and check out the leaders' graphic here and how much on you power they have left. Well, Wehrlein had been leading from pole position, but he was down to just 1 percent. And with the finish line in sight, it actually dropped to zero. As the checkered flag came down, his car failed him and the Brazilian Lucas di Grassi flew pass past him to seal victory for himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUCAS DI GRASSI, WINNER AT MEXICO CITY: I think today was my best Formula One race ever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
DI GRASSI: It was unbelievable. Wehrlein was very dodgy. Closing the door and changing direction many times. So I tried to put pressure on him and make him more use [SIC] energy. And then in the last corner he just slowed down, tried to close the door, and I crossed the line sideways. It's unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:55:24] RILEY: Belgium's Jerome D'Ambrosio finished fourth, so he returns to the top of the standings. Di Grassi is a former champion and, after his first win of the season, he's now into fourth.
We have a fresh new look to the international sailing calendar as the weekend's first ever SailGP event took place down in Sydney. This is a two-day event. And team Australia were trailing Japan by a point at the halfway stage, but the Aussie skipper, Tom Slingsby, turned things around, winning all three of their races on the second day to claim the inaugural event here. The next one will be in San Francisco at the start of May.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM SLINGSBY, AUSTRALIAN SKIPPER: We don't take losing lightly, and that first race really shot us into gear. And I expect a lot of myself. I expect a lot of these guys, and these guys delivered today. And I'm happy to say I delivered and, yes, we got the win; and we won three races straight. It's amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: Yes, well done there.
Well, it has been an eventful last seven days, to say the least, on the ski slopes of Europe. You'll remember, of course, that last weekend we saw Norwegian star Aksel Lund Svindal calling time on his storied career. And not only that, but the American legend Lindsey Vonn also breaking the news of her retirement, as the most successful woman on the World Cup circuit.
Austria's Marcel Hirscher can also claim to be one of the best, and on Sunday he won the men's slalom at the World Championships over in Sweden. His seventh gold medal at these championships. And no male skier has won that many since the late 1950s.
And he continues his domination of the sport. He's also closing in on an eighth consecutive overall World Cup title. Many congrats.
Now that is it. From the whole team and me, many thanks for watching, as always. Stay with CNN. The news is next.
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