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Rep. Tlaib Rejects Israel's Offer to Visit, Trump Erupts; Trump Mocks Supporter at Rally; Hong Kongers Demonstrate for 11th Straight Weekend; Autopsy Reveals Epstein Died by Hanging Suicide; Greenland Tells Trump It's Not for Sale; Saudi Judge Denies Mom Custody for Being Too Western; Nepal Proposing New Rules for Everest Climbers; Peter Fonda Dies at 79; Tears, Heartache and the Kindness of Strangers. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 17, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have no choice but to vote for me.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): With reelection on his mind and an economy hanging in the balance, Donald Trump is striking back. But our sources say he's feeling the pressure.
Also this hour, protesters in Hong Kong gear up for more demonstrations as China sends a blunt message.
Also, an American mother's heartbreaking battle in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi judge denying her custody of her young daughter because the mom is too Western.
Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: Our top story, U.S. president Trump is slamming a Democratic congresswoman for rejecting Israel's offer to travel to the West Bank. Earlier representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib had been barred by Israel from visiting. Then Israel offered Tlaib permission to visit her elderly grandmother in the West Bank.
Tlaib declined. That prompted President Trump to fire off this tweet.
"The only real winner here is Tlaib's grandmother. She doesn't have to see her now."
Trump's focus on Congresswoman Tlaib comes at a time of increasing volatility and global financial markets. That's because the U.S. bond market this week flashed a warning signal that the American economy could be headed into a recession.
Not welcome news at the Trump White House, where the Tlaib controversy has largely overshadowed Wall Street's woes. Here's CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is rejecting Israel's offer to visit her family on the West Bank, an offer that came with conditions one day after the country denied her and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar entry at President Trump's urging.
"Visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in," Tlaib explained on Twitter.
Those conditions would have included a pledge not to promote boycotts against Israel while she was there. The president has faced widespread criticism for getting involved.
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JOE LIEBERMAN (I-CT), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: It is disrespect for the Congress and the American political system for our ally to keep two members of Congress out of Israel.
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COLLINS: But sources tell CNN, the president's advisors believe his fight with four freshman Democrats who call themselves "The Squad" could benefit him in 2020 which is why the president keeps hammering them on the campaign trail.
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TRUMP: It really is keep America great. Because we have these socialists who want to take it away from us.
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COLLINS: The one message sources tell CNN advisors fear won't work out for him is the economy. Shaky markets and unpredictable trade talks are stoking fears of a recession inside the White House.
At a campaign rally overnight in New Hampshire, the president struck a dire tone.
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TRUMP: You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401(k)'s, down the tubes, everything is going to be down the tubes. So whether you love me or hate me, you got to vote for me.
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COLLINS: With re-election on his mind, Trump now finds himself defending the very policies that are rattling investors.
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TRUMP: And we're imposing beautiful well-placed tariffs.
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COLLINS: Even admitting that his trade war with China may not end quickly.
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TRUMP: I never said China was going to be easy.
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COLLINS: Something he actually did say just last year when the president noted that trade wars are easy.
Amid the long-running trade war between Washington and Beijing, the Trump administration is moving ahead tonight with an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, a move guaranteed to anger the Chinese at a time when officials are trying to get trade talks back on track.
Earlier today, the president met with his national security team at his New Jersey golf resort for a briefing on the state of the U.S.- Taliban peace negotiations, talks that could end America's longest- running war. The U.S. still has roughly 14,000 troops in Afghanistan. And Trump has been adamant that he wants them out soon.
In the meanwhile, CNN has learned the president was forced to make an awkward phone call from Air Force One after he mocked the weight of a person he thought was a protester at his rally.
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TRUMP: That guy has got a serious weight problem. Go home, start exercising. Now he goes home and his mom says what the hell have you just done?
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COLLINS: But it was Trump who was left wondering what he had done after it was revealed the man he mocked was actually one of his supporters. A White House official telling CNN, Trump did not apologize but left the man a voice mail thanking him for his support. That supporter, Frank Dawson, said there are no hard feelings over the mix-up.
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FRANK DAWSON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Everything is good. I love the guy. He's the best thing that ever happened --
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DAWSON: -- to this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: The president is insisting publicly he thinks the U.S. economy is doing just fine. But our reporting behind the scenes shows the president has a little apprehension because in part he's listening to people he hasn't always listened to in the past, like his hardline trade adviser Peter Navarro, who assures him there will be an economic rebound to the trade war and it will be worth it in the end.
But the president is also turning to people outside the White House, including a phone call today with three CEOs of banks where the president asked them what they thought about the state of the economy.
They told the president there were negative side effects to this ongoing trade war and they want it to be resolved as soon as possible -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, traveling with the president in New Jersey.
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ALLEN: Natasha Lindstaedt teaches government at the University of Essex in England and joins me to talk about these developments.
Always good to have you with us. First of all, I want to start with that last line from Kaitlan's story. That shows the devotion of Mr. Trump's supporters. The man he called out. But if the economy goes south, could that loosen Republican support, especially from moderate Republicans?
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: I think that's the big question. Trump probably has about 30-35 percent of his supporters are going to support him, no matter what. Even if he makes fun of them. They're going to support them because they truly believe that he is, as the supporter mentioned, the best thing that ever happened to the country.
And they identify with the way he wants to run the company. Particularly the way he starts stoking identity politics and making them feel lying their voices are heard. But economists are forecasting that we may enter into a recession fairly soon. By the end of next year even.
And Trump has been trying to add to his appeal by saying, I'm the one that is personally responsible for this great economy, this wonderful tax cut that I had is going to spur all this economic growth, improve manufacturing, increase investment.
And now when it looks like none of this has really happened. Growth rates will go down to 2 percent which is what they were when he entered. We see that factory output has decreased by 0.5 percent. Consumer confidence has dropped.
And the deficit has ballooned again. And wages aren't really rising enough to match inflation. So all these promises that he made aren't really coming to fruition. That might be problematic for attracting new voters, independent voters, even moderate Republicans to vote for him in 2020.
ALLEN: And he always tried to spin it his way. The economy is great. It is all because of him. If it's not, it's someone else. So the question is, how can he toe that line if the numbers just start to dwindle and people see changes?
LINDSTAEDT: We're already seeing what his strategy is. He is going to blame everything on the Federal Reserve head, Jerome Powell. He is saying the Federal Reserve chief is making all kinds of mistakes.
He might even start to blame other countries like the U.K. and Germany because we're starting to see these economies are contracting as well. He may blame Mexico. He has all kinds of scapegoats on hand that he will place blame on for the reason why the economy is not doing as well as it should be and, of course, he can go to his favorite place to criticize, just criticize the Democrats.
ALLEN: Right. Pretty much certain about that one. Let's talk about the other issue that dominated the headlines involving the president. He's not backing down on the congresswoman after she refused Israel's offer to visit her grandmother in the West Bank.
Did his prodding of Israel restricting access to two American citizen, elected officials, cross a new line for this president?
LINDSTAEDT: I don't think it crossed a new line for the president. He's been engaging in all kinds of behavior that seems to have crossed various lines all the time. Nothing really surprises me. We know that he personalizes everything. When he gets someone that is on his enemy list, he will repeatedly attack them, critique them --
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LINDSTAEDT: -- to the point where it doesn't seem to really benefit him. One of the people that he seems to criticize most is Rashida Tlaib. He is obviously criticizing representative Omar. He thinks that this helps with his base and his base really likes this.
In fact, when he does criticize these women at his rallies, this tends to get huge amounts of support.
But I don't see how this is going to add voters to -- add more people to support him, because it looked very vindictive. very petty. And it seemed to undermine the potential for these two women to visit Israel in the West Bank. And it might have had a positive impact on everybody involved.
So yes, it did step over the line, of course. But he's had a habit of doing this so frequently, it is hard to keep track.
ALLEN: Does the banning of these congresswomen at the urging of Mr. Trump threaten bipartisan support for Israel?
LINDSTAEDT: I don't think so. I don't think that's going to really impact the way that the U.S. Congress is going to support Israel. That alliance is very, very strong. I don't think that's going to affect it that much whatsoever.
I think it was a missed opportunity. They had planned to, speaking of Representatives Omar and Tlaib, they plan to take on the same itinerary that Democratic congressmembers had taken on the year before and these visits are often beneficial, person to person exchanges or often very positive.
So it is a missed opportunity there. And it is a shame that Trump decided to involve himself in the process.
ALLEN: We always appreciate your insights, Natasha. Thank you for joining us.
LINDSTAEDT: Thank you for having me.
ALLEN: The 11th straight weekend of protests is kicking off in Hong Kong. A massive pro-democracy march is set to begin next hour. Those protesters will have support from people across the world. Marches are planned in Taiwan and London. And it comes just days after clashes between police and protesters at the city's airport.
Pro-police groups will hold their own rally later Saturday. And the Chinese paramilitary troops who have been gathered for days along Hong Kong's border are continuing to perform drills. Their presence is raising fears China could send them in to intervene.
With me from Hong Kong, Will Ripley.
It seems the impact of last week's protests at the airport, it seems like it might have been a game changer here.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think this weekend will be a true test as to where this protest movement goes on its 11th consecutive week. We're about an hour outside the protest, which is one area where a lot of mainland Chinese tourists come by bus, by train.
This is the one, at this location, is to reclaim this neighborhood. People feel that the mainland has resulted in higher rent, local businesses closing down and an influx of Mandarin speaking tourists in Hong Kong, making some locals feel like their homeland is changing.
It is that gut feeling, the fear of the change of Mainland China slowly tightening its grip, that is fueling this protest movement that has enjoyed at some points of the summer, especially back in June, an extraordinarily large number of public support.
You had estimates by protest organizers of 2 million people out at one point. The crowds that we're seeing these days, much smaller than that. Not many people here. But there's still time for them to gather as they often do at the very last moment before the march is set to begin.
What does the city feel after the airport was shut down last weekend, after a reporter for China's "Global Times" was tied up and detained and really terrorized by a small group of violent protesters?
Those are questions we don't know the answer to. How many people turn out this weekend could be a good indicator of whether public support in Hong Kong toward the protest movement is turning. As for Mainland China, yes. We see the military vehicles assembled at
the border. It is more propaganda than anything else. There has not been that critical moment, the tipping point that would cause Hong Kong to request assistance from Beijing, which would then allow them to deploy their military.
Keep in mind there are thousands of Chinese soldiers stationed in Hong Kong. They have stayed out of the protests, despite the escalations.
ALLEN: And the other question will be, as these protests continue. What will be the police response? Is there any information on that?
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ALLEN: Any edicts or thing about how they might respond?
RIPLEY: They are obviously trying to keep these marches contained. Whenever a protest is organized, they have to submit a request for a permit from the city. Sometimes that request is granted with modifications. Sometimes that request is denied.
Later today, we'll have a briefing, where we expect to learn the plan for what are expected to be the much larger protests tomorrow kicking off at Victoria Park in Hong Kong. That's when we could see the crowds and as night falls, potentially more outbreaks of violence.
ALLEN: OK, Will Ripley. You'll be covering it for us. Thank you.
The U.S. customs officials say it was attackers that knocked their computers offline. That brought little relief for the passengers stuck in many long lines for hours. We'll have details about that ahead.
Also, how the U.S. president's plan to purchase Greenland gets left out in the cold. We'll tell you how the Arctic territory is responding to Mr. Trump's overture.
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ALLEN: New York's chief medical examiner has determined that Jeffrey Epstein died from suicide by hanging.
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ALLEN: His attorneys said they're not satisfied with the autopsy conclusion and will independently investigate his death. The 66-year- old multimillionaire died in jail a week ago while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
The U.S. Justice Department has unsealed a seizure warrant following its failed attempt to keep an Iranian tanker captured off Gibraltar from being released. The U.S. is alleging a scheme to support illicit shipments of oil by Iran to Syria. The Grace I was impounded last month. Gibraltar's supreme court ordered the ship released. Ryan Browne has more about it from the Pentagon.
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RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. government's Department of Justice unsealing a warrant where it said it sought to seize both the ship and the oil being carried by the Grace I tanker which had been detained by Gibraltar authorities after it was believed to be shipping oil to Syria in violation of sanctions.
The U.S. had attempted to seize the oil aboard prior to the ship's being released by Gibraltar officials, who say they have assurances from Iran that the oil will not make its way to Syria and that the hundreds of millions of dollars of oil aboard will not go to any sanctioned entity.
Gibraltar said it had found evidence aboard the ship that the vessel was in fact headed to Syria before it was boarded by Royal Marines. The U.S. government's warrant says Iran had been using the oil and the Grace I tanker to launder money and to violate several sanctions pertaining to terrorist financing as well as other money laundering entities.
The U.S. has sanctioned a wide range of Iranian government and military entities as well as those in Syria and Iranian backed proxy groups operating in Syria, like Hezbollah. It is possible the U.S. government believes that the oil and the vessel were headed there.
However, Gibraltar released the vessel before turning the items aboard over to the United States government. So it remains to be seen what the U.S. can do now to ensure that Iran does not transport that oil to its forces or to its allies in Syria. Back to you.
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ALLEN: Well, international travel is stressful enough. But on Friday travelers needed an extra dose of patience. That's because the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol computer system was down for about two hours. As you can see, it caused backups and long lines at airports, including Dulles near Washington. For more about it, here's CNN's Rene Marsh.
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RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Customs and Border Protection experienced an outage with its computers at various airports on Friday. This left lots of international travelers in long lines.
The wait times at various airports really frustrated many of these passengers. They found themselves having to be processed by Customs and Border Protection manually because these systems were down.
It is unclear what caused the outage but we do know it created lots of travel woes for these international passengers. Many airlines forced to rebook these passengers because they missed flights -- Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: President Trump has reportedly expressed interest in buying Greenland but the Arctic island is giving the president a cold response, saying, we're open for business but not for sale. CNN's Tom Foreman has more on Greenland's reaction.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Completely insane. He's gone crazy. No, thank you.
The uproar in Greenland over the whole idea that President Trump thinks maybe the United States should buy the world's largest island has been swift and strong.
I can only laugh. He's lost his marbles.
The White House is not saying if this is a serious proposal and "The Wall Street Journal" which broke the story says, well.
VIVIAN SALAMA, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: It's definitely real in a sense that he's talked about it a lot. And it's something that's definitely on his mind. As far as how real? I mean, it's not just how real. It's, can he actually do it? The answer is probably no.
FOREMAN: No, because despite Trump's boast about his business skills --
TRUMP: Anybody read "The Art of the Deal" in this room? Yes.
FOREMAN: -- Greenland is home to Denmark and home to 55,000 people, whose autonomous government has tweeted, Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stock, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism. We're open for business, not for sale.
But why does Greenland, which is 80 percent covered with ice matter anyway? That's a clue. Greenland is gateway to the Arctic and as global warming --
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FOREMAN: -- opens the region to more exploration and traffic, a lot of countries are showing interest, including China and Russia. The U.S. already has its biggest northernmost military base there.
REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), FORMER SATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN : It's located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, which remains a critical area of the globe in terms of our ability to forge and defend against particularly Russian threats. FOREMAN: And history suggest this truly may not be a crazy idea. In 1867, the U.S. bought another huge cold place which was mocked as a folly. But Alaska has worked out pretty well for American interests.
And two times before, U.S. officials have raised the notion of buying Greenland. Still, the outlook for this real estate deal is not promising.
"It's not something you buy or sell. If countries want other territories, it's war."
Next month President Trump will travel to Denmark to meet with the prime minister and the premier of Greenland. Whether he'll take his checkbook, no one knows -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: Chinese state media are crafting a narrative around the Hong Kong protests that isn't very flattering to the protesters.
So what did mainland Chinese citizens think about what's going on across the border?
We look into that next.
Also, an American woman fights for custody of her daughter in Saudi Arabia. Ahead, her family speaks with CNN about the legal battle.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers in the U.S. and all around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen --
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ALLEN: -- with our top stories.
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ALLEN: China's government has been allowing news of the Hong Kong protests to work into the media but it has a very specific viewpoint and it shapes how Chinese citizens look at the pro democracy movement. Matt Rivers explains.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The struggle over Hong Kong's future continues in its defining images, scenes of peaceful marches and violent clashes. Just across the bay in Mainland China, there are no battles in the streets. But there is a fight going on, not one of protest but of perception.
"We want to warn the handful of violent criminals that those who play with fire will perish by it."
One of Beijing's biggest fears is that the pro-democracy message of the Hong Kong protests takes root among the public in the mainland. Over the last month, the government has sought to discredit that movement, calling it a series of illegal assemblies and riots, labeling protesters not as pro-Hong Kong but anti China. Ungrateful, unpatriotic radicals steered by Western countries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would call it, extremist. If it goes further, it might become a terrorist action.
RIVERS (voice-over): And the fight to characterize protesters as extremists has worked with some.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They attacked police. They made life hard for ordinary people. Hong Kong is not safe anymore.
RIVERS (voice-over): We have seen protesters throw bricks and gas bombs. Beat people inside the airport and shut down public transportation. Scenes that have flooded the Chinese social media. And those images have been broadcast widely by state-run media whose job is not to be objective but to push government narratives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hong Kong, the Asian financial hub has been weighed down by radicalized protests and escalating violence.
Anyone who harms the city will surely be severely punished by law and condemned by the people.
RIVERS (voice-over): The media has said foreign countries are a major reason for the protests, she says. Consider though what the government and its media outlets have not focused on, like images of police brutality and severely injured protesters, use of expired tear gas.
Instead they choose to zero in on the tiny fraction of protesters committing violence while ignoring the millions of people peacefully marching for change. Further, the Chinese government has not taken any public responsibility for actions that critics would say spark these demonstrations in the first place. Because all of that, well, that doesn't fit their narrative.
Any objective observer would tell you that there have been mistakes made on all sides of the Hong Kong protests. From the protesters to the police to the government. But here on the Mainland China side, there is only one side of the story being told and that is exactly how China wants it -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Hong Kong border.
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ALLEN: The CEO of Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific is out of a job. Rupert Hogg resigned with hundreds of flights canceled and bookings down. He and the airline have been caught up in the turbulence of the pro-democracy protests.
To make it more complicated, Beijing had demanded the airline ban any staff who had participated in protests from working on flights entering China or flying in Chinese airspace. His resignation will take effect on Monday.
An American woman living in Saudi Arabia has been denied --
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ALLEN: -- custody of her own daughter because the Saudi court deemed her too Western to rear the child. Now Bethany Vierra is fighting to be with her child. CNN's Nick Watt has our story.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meet Bethany Vierra and her 4-year-old daughter Zaina. They're in Saudi Arabia. Cell phone videos are all the contact Grandma and Granddad back home in Wenatchee, Washington, have right now -- all the contact they might ever have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Zaina can't leave, she won't leave.
MYRON VIERRA, FATHER OF BETHANY VIERRA: It makes perfect sense that she won't give up. We also realized that she may lose her life doing this or we may never see her again.
WATT: Bethany has divorced her Saudi husband, claims he was an abusive drug user which he denies. I messaged him for comment but got no reply. A Saudi judge just denied Bethany Vierra, an American citizen custody of her own daughter, ruling the mother is new to Islam, is a foreigner in this country and continues to definitively embrace the customs and traditions of her upbringing. We must avoid exposing Zaina to these customs and traditions especially at the early age.
M. VIERRA: We may have different languages but we're really the same. We're human beings. We should be able to get along.
WATT: Custody of Zaina now officially given to her Saudi grandmother. Both Bethany and her ex were found unfit. Her parents tell us there's now a warrant out for Bethany's arrest after she allegedly missed a visitation that her parents say she wasn't even told about, that Bethany has been banned from leaving the country for ten years and been told not to talk to the press that's why we're talking to mom and dad.
M. VIERRA: She wants to be able to have the right to go and come. She used to have that right. Bethany won't give up and -- because that's her daughter.
WATT: Saudi Arabia has softened slightly. In the past few years, women for the first time have been allowed to compete at the Olympics, vote in local elections, drive cars. But this remains one of the most male-dominated societies on earth. The so-called guardianship system is still in effect.
ROTHNA BEGUM, SENIOR RESEARCHER, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Which means that a woman from birth to death must have a male guardian. The idea is that they are not capable and they and men know better.
WATT: Under Saudi law, a woman's word still worth half that of a man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One plus one equals?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two.
WATT: According to the judge who took Zaina away from her mother, she'd been speaking too much English not assimilating into Arab culture.
M. VIERRA: Bethany was talking to lawyers and they overheard the verdict and started counting in Arabic to prove that she could speak it.
WATT: The State Department official told CNN, due to privacy considerations, we will not have a specific comment at this time. Our embassies and consulates abroad have no greater responsibility than the protection of U.S. citizens overseas, but added that U.S. citizens abroad are subject to local laws.
M. VIERRA: We love our granddaughter. I think our deepest fear is that we might not ever see her again.
WATT: And Bethany Vierra is going to file her appeal of the judge's verdict on Sunday. She is hoping it is successful. She is hoping that someday she and little Zaina will be able to come back here for a visit -- Nick Watt, CNN, Wenatchee, Washington.
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ALLEN: Officials in Nepal say new rules could save lives at the top of the world. Coming up, why they want to keep amateur climbers off Mt. Everest.
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ALLEN: Officials in Nepal want new stricter rules to determine who gets to climb Mt. Everest. They hope to prevent needless deaths by keeping inexperienced climbers and tour companies off the world's highest peak. Here's CNN's Bianca Nobilo.
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BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Images remained of a crowded mountain path, scores of climbers jam-packed into a single route, all clamoring to reach the world's highest summit.
Eleven people died on Mount Everest in this year's spring climbing season. Not from a single climbers this event, but in part because of fatal traffic jams like these.
Now, Nepal wants to keep it from happening again by changing who is allowed to scale the tallest peak on earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All taking system and (INAUDIBLE) system.
NOBILO: Nepali officials are formally proposing a series of restrictions on would-be climbers and tour companies leading expeditions at Mount Everest. It's an effort to deter inexperienced hikers and guides which experts told CNN at base camp in May contributed to the deaths on bottlenecks this season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're super slow, they didn't have much techniques about mountains. It looks like they have -- they have never been on the mountains except Everest.
NOBILO: Now, many veteran climbers welcome a possible change in the lack of oversight and regulations on the mountain.
ADRIAN BALLINGER, MOUNTAIN GUIDE: So you got inexperienced climbers with inexperienced leaders.
NOBILO: Adrian Ballinger summitted Mount Everest eight times and spent 12 years on the mountain. He says the number of people there has steadily increased overtime, particularly as tour companies have few requirements for climbers.
BALLINGER: There used to be somewhere in the vicinity of about 10 to 12 companies guiding the mountain and most had years and years of experience.
And today, I would guess in Nepal there's 40 to 50 companies guiding on the mountain and many of them have come out of nowhere with no experienced leader, but seeing the opportunity of financial gain. There's no barriers to entry to start a company.
NOBILO: The proposed changes suggest requiring minimum qualifications to get a climbing permit including basic and high-altitude training. A fee of at least $35,000, experience climbing at least one other Nepali peak over 21,000 feet or 6,500 meters high. And tour companies would need, at least, three years' experience organizing high- altitude expeditions.
For expert, climbers like Ballinger, who himself going to tour company that takes climbers to the summit, the proposals may not go nearly far enough.
But he says they are stepping in the right direction. That is if they can be executed.
BALLINGER: I want to believe it's possible and I want to find ways to support Nepal and the ministry of tourism in implementing these rules. But I think it is going to be very, very difficult. And the companies of the ones that we're going to have, actually, make these changes and thus far we haven't seen the companies that interested in making the mountain safer. NOBILO: Ultimately, Ballinger says the owners may still to climbers to ensure their own safety --
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NOBILO: -- a risky proposition on one of most dangerous ascents in the world -- Bianca Nobilo, CNN.
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ALLEN: It's not what you want to see when you go to the beach. It is nasty, smelly, gross and causing a lot of problems for the environment on various beaches in the United States and beyond. It has covered up one of the world's most beautiful beaches. It is a banner crop of what is called Sargassum seaweed.
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ALLEN (voice-over): With sugary white sands, crystal blue waters and stunning scenery, once pristine shores like these in Tulum, New Mexico, now look like this. Huge mats of ugly brown seaweed blanketing large swaths of land, turning waters a murky brown.
Top beach destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean to South Florida are inundated with huge masses of sticky, foul-smelling seaweed known as Sargassum, upsetting tourists and locals alike.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All you can smell is this bad aroma. It's terrible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is my first time here at the beach. I thought the beach would be nicer. So I will be disappointed on it.
ALLEN (voice-over): Although seaweed is a valuable part of marine life, this foul-smelling invasion comes from an unusual massive bloom growing this time of year in the ocean called the Great Atlantic Sargassum belt. It stretches from West Africa all the way to the southern U.S., carrying millions of tons of exceed seaweed. Scientists can only speculate why.
CHUANMIN HU, MARINE SCIENTIST: The fertilizer used and also the deforestation have both increased in the past 10 years. We speculate those increases would increase the nutrient release from the Amazon River.
ALLEN (voice-over): A team of researchers at the university of Southern Florida have observed the Sargassum bloom each July since it was first observed by satellite in 2011. Generally it has grown over time and shows no signs of stopping, indicating this could be the murky brown wave of the future.
Posing problems more menacing than a bad smell, decomposing Sargassum can attract insects, create bacteria and release toxic gases into the air, creating a health hazard that is, in turn, toxic to local economies which depend on tourism to their usually picturesque shores. Mexico's government is spending over $2 million to rid their famed
beaches of the unsightly seaweed and there are urges to search for a more long-term solution.
GABRIELA GOMEZ, GEOGRAPHY RESEARCHER (through translator): If the seaweed problem is not dealt with, the Caribbean as we know it will disappear and that will cause environmental, social, economic and ultimately political problems. So it has to be dealt with immediately.
ALLEN (voice-over): A massive clean-up is also underway in Miami, where local media report Sargassum is at unprecedented levels. But researchers warn these fixes may only be temporary and it might be time to embrace the inevitable.
HU: I have seen people use the Sargassum to make bricks, make a house, make shoes. People are smart. If this really becomes the new normal, then people will invent many ways to make use of this.
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ALLEN: The Sargassum epidemic is in part believed to be caused by the warming oceans.
Next, hear the amazing kindness of strangers. The story of a man with no family and the hundreds who came to help share his grief with him.
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ALLEN: Celebrated Hollywood actor, writer and director Peter Fonda has died. He was 79 and had been battling lung cancer. The son of legendary actor Henry Fonda, Peter Fonda's prolific career spanned nearly 60 years in movies and television. Fonda was nominated twice for the Oscar and will forever be remembered for his role in the 1969 film "Easy Rider."
His older sister, actor Jane Fonda wrote, "I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother, the talker of the family. I had beautiful alone time with him the last days. He went out laughing."
It was a special evening in El Paso, Texas, Friday, inside a crowded funeral chapel. There were tears, songs and the realization that love is far greater than hate. A woman killed in the El Paso Walmart massacre was remembered and her husband, now left with no family, found solace from hundreds and hundreds of strangers. Gary Tuchman has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you have ever started to lose your faith in humanity, this will bring it back. We are standing outside this large funeral home in El Paso. You saw inside, where there are 500 people inside. Now this is the waiting line, people trying to get in. These are members of motorcycle clubs holding American flags.
None of these people know Tony Basco personally. But in this line I have counted over 400 people waiting to try to get in. They are not going to be able to get in because it is full inside.
It is just amazing. This all began because Tony lost the love of his life, Margie, married 22 years. She was one of the 22 people killed at the Walmart and he has no other family left in the world.
He lived a very difficult life he was desperately sad. He said, I just wish people would come to her funeral. There will only be a few people there when she's buried. This is the last of the 22 funerals.
There were tweets from members of the media and --
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TUCHMAN: -- a Facebook post from the funeral home and we see a total inside and outside of the church of at least 850 people.
I want to give you a look at the line, how far it spreads. Right now in El Paso, it is 99 degrees outside. This is the line here. People waiting here with the fans. Most are from the El Paso area and nearby Mexico. But I talked to people from California, Arizona and Utah that have driven here.
The line continues over here. People with the fans knowing at this point they can not going to get in but they don't want to leave. And then the line wraps down in that direction.
We spent the day with Tony yesterday, he's such a nice man. He told me that if so many people came, he would be forever grateful. When he walked in this building today, it's not officially a church but a large funeral chapel.
When he walked in and he looked at me and he said, I can't believe there really are this many people here. He was so thrilled and honored and happy. It makes us very glad to be a part of this. It really feels like this is what humanity is all about.
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ALLEN: It certainly is. I will be right back with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for watching.
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