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Inside Syria; CNN Hero Brandon Chrostowski; 'The Wonder List' Takes You to Cuba. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 18, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:23] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The devastation left by Russian and Syrian regime fighters on civilian infrastructure in Syria could take generations to rebuild if it gets rebuilt at all. CNN's senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward went into rebel-held Syrian territory where virtually no western journalists have gone for at least a year. She met aid workers risking everything to save Syrians who are now being caught in the crossfire. Clarissa joins us now with more of your exclusive reporting.

So important. Tell us what we're going to see.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we're going to see, it's the fourth and final installment in this "Undercover in Syria" series and we wanted to look at the aid crisis, because this is one of the most profound aid crisis in the world right now. And we met this young British aid worker who, for the last three years, has been living in Syria, risking life and limb to try to help the Syrian people. And we followed him as he tried to deliver an ambulance to the ravaged city of Aleppo. Take a look at what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD (voice-over): It's a Tuesday in Syria. A British aid worker, Tauqir Sharif, is making the dangerous drive to Aleppo.

TAUQIR SHARIF, BRITISH AID WORKER: It's really important that we drive with the windows open because any kind of explosions that land close to us, the last thing we want is shrapnel of glass and so on and so forth, you know, landing in our faces.

WARD: He is traveling to the devastated city to deliver an ambulance, but it isn't long before he's diverted.

Four air strikes have hit. Sharif runs into the wreckage to see what's needed.

SHARIF: This was a house right here. Look, it's all houses.

WARD: Remarkably, no one has been injured or killed, but the sound of another jet means it's time to leave.

SHARIF: Everybody out. Let's go! Let's go! They're saying that the plane is in the sky. We can hear it. They're

saying a tactic that it uses when ambulances turn up they'll hit the same place again. So we're just going to try and get to a safer place.

WARD: Sharif is one of just a handful of western aid workers living in Syria.

SHARIF: Most of the big aid organizations, they don't want to go into the line of fire, in a sense. This is something that we have to do. This is something that is a human response. If we don't do it, then who will?

WARD: In the relative safety of an olive grove near the Turkish border, he told us that religious conviction played a big part in his decision to come here three years ago.

SHARIF: We need to look at, what do the people really want? And if the people are Muslims, this is not me saying it, if the people are Muslims and they want some form of Islamic governance, then it's important that we help them to establish that.

WARD (on camera): Is that what they want?

SHARIF: In my opinion, that's what I believe, and you can ask - you can ask, you can go around and ask the people, what do you want? And I don't think the people will settle for anything less, especially after all of this bloodshed. Their right, self-determination.

WARD (voice-over): For many of the 6.5 million displaced people in Syria, there are, perhaps, more immediate concerns. Most live in sprawling tent cities along the border. Conditions in the camps are brutal. There is a lack of food and clean water and they become more crowded every day.

SHARIF: We've just recently done a survey of this camp. Just this camp here alone, which is a conglomeration of about 40 camps, is around 80,000 people.

WARD (on camera): Eighty thousand people?

SHARIF: And this is just one on this border. There's another one over - not too far from here, another maybe 65,000, 70,000 people.

[08:35:02] WARD (voice-over): Sharif's favorite project is this smaller camp that houses roughly 100 widows and their children. Syria is now a country full of widows and orphans. Some still too young to understand what has happened to their country. Others who have seen too much. All of them dependent on the mercy of others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right, so let's start with the kids. Obviously the concern is, what are you making for this next generation? What are their prospects right now?

WARD: Well, you're talking about a lost generation, Chris. You really are. According to UNICEF, more than 2.5 million children in Syria are not enrolled in any type of school. I interviewed one woman who told me, you know, she had her six-year-old daughter next to her and she said, I really want to send her to school and I really want my daughter to be educated, but I can't take the risk of letting her leave the house and knowing that it's possible that she might not come back. And according to other statistics, one in three children in Syria were born in the last five years. That means, Chris, they have never known anything other than atrocities and war and chaos.

CUOMO: And with that lack of education comes an added vulnerability to extremism and the cycle then repeats. And that takes us to the next question about the future. The aid worker used such a beautiful line to American ears, the right to self-determination, but that does not mean that he wants or the people there want what we would expect here in the United States, the idea of everybody's going to be more free and equal. That's not necessarily what self-determination will mean.

WARD: I think sometimes we, obviously, believe that everybody would want democracy. But when you spend time in these parts of Syria, it's not that they don't want freedom. They do want the freedom to be able to choose what kind of governance they want, but they don't necessarily want the same type of governance that we do. And you'll hear a lot of people in these areas say that they want to live under some kind of Islamic law.

Now the problem is, they don't necessarily know exactly what that means. There are many different types of - well, there's only one sharia, but there's many different ways to implement sharia law. And the other issue you have really is that the people who are brave enough to go in, to brave - to risk life and limb to try to help the Syrian people are often people like the aid worker you saw here, very, very devout people who don't necessarily espouse the same types of beliefs that we have here in the west. So it's a sly complex and nuanced issue.

CUOMO: What was the general notion that you got from people about perspective on the west? Good guys? Bad guys? More, less involvement?

WARD: I think there is definite bitterness because the people of Syria feel that the west has abandoned them and they don't feel that the U.S. specifically has done enough to step up to Russia and to stand up for the people of Syria.

CUOMO: Boy, oh, boy, so eerily reminiscent of what we heard after involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, now Syria.

Clarissa, you are doing the toughest kind of journalism that also happens to be the most important kind of journalism. Thank you for bringing it to us here on NEW DAY.

WARD: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, and stay safe.

WARD: Thanks.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right.

President Obama preparing for his historic visit to Cuba this weekend. But CNN's Bill Weir beat him to the punch. We'll take a look at the new season of "The Wonder List." It kicks off in Cuba.

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[08:42:20] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Friday edition of the five things to know for your new day.

This stop Trump movement ramping up inside the Republican Party. Leading conservatives calling for a unity ticket, readying for a convention fight to keep Trump from being the nominee.

President Obama is also ready to pounce on Donald Trump. He's set to hit the stump to rev up the Democratic base and warn about the effects of a potential Trump presidency.

And the president also hitting back at Republican leaders snubbing his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. President Obama telling NPR, the GOP's refusal to consider Garland hurts American's faith in government.

North Korea has launched a pair of ballistic missiles off its eastern coast. The second test in a week following new sanctions by the U.N.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus will testify for a second time before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. That closed-door appearance happens tomorrow on Capitol Hill.

And for more on the five things, you can always visit newdaycnn.com.

Chris.

CUOMO: All right.

Everybody's favorite thing, this week's CNN Hero. So, in the past, he had a brush with the law, but now he's gone on to become an elite chef and today Brandon Chrostowski is helping other ex-offenders get back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRANDON CHROSTOWSKI, CNN HERO: Coming home from prison, after someone's done their time, everyone deserves that fair and equal second chance.

So, my left hand moves, my right hand follows.

I see that opportunity that someone deserves. I can see it. And I can feel it. And I've been given the gifts to fight to make sure that that door does get opened.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: Ah, opening doors, that's what Brandon is doing. You can follow his story at cnnheroes.com and you can nominate someone that you think should be a hero there as well.

CAMEROTA: All right, CNN's resident journeyman Bill Weir takes us next to Cuba. He'll share what he found on "The Wonder List."

CUOMO: He didn't finds a razor!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:07] PEREIRA: On Sunday, President Obama arrives in Havana for his historic visit to Cuba. But ahead of that visit, our Bill Weir travels to the island nation for the premiere episode of his second season of "THE WONDER LIST." He spoke to Cubans hoping for a tourism boost, but also people that are concerned it could come at a cost to Cuba's precious marine life.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BILL WEIR, HOST, THE WONDER LIST: Fish know no politics, right?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly, exactly. They don't have borders.

WEIR: Borders. Yes, and it goes beyond fish, it's migratory birds, it's even manatees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly. Manatees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sharks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dolphins.

(CROSSTALK)

WEIR: Larvae (ph) - Larvae (ph) that are passive migrators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a nice office (ph) you have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exaclty.

WEIR (voice-over): Jesse (ph) and Eric (ph) are Cuban marine biologists. Fernando (ph) is a Cuban-American devoted to using science to trump ideology. He used Castro's love of marine life to open a dialogue years before the politicians, so he credits manatee diplomacy with the change in Cold War tone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have a lot to do with that, our science diplomacy, breaking down barriers. From my perspective, I'm a Florida resident, so my work here in Cuba is selfish as well.

WEIR (on camera): You're downstream of ..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm downstream. So, whatever happens, if Cuban reefs aren't well protected, if we lose

this crown jewel of the Caribbean, Florida suffers. The Gulf of Mexico suffers. New Jersey suffers.

WEIR (voice-over): Florida is just 90 miles away, but reefs this healthy are impossible to find there anymore.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA: From "THE WONDER LIST," Mr. Bill Weir joins us now.

WEIR (on camera): Hello, friends.

CAMEROTA: Hello, welcome back.

WEIR: Thank you.

PEREIRA: I got a sneak peek of the episode, it's fantastic.

WEIR: Oh, thank you.

PEREIRA: Really fascinated by the whole look, but this idea of this manatee diplomacy.

WEIR: Yes.

PEREIRA: What an interesting way to attack the change that potentially could come.

WEIR: Well, that's what's so ironic. Fidel Castro was a scuba driver, and among the CIA plots to kill him was a planned -- a poisoned wet suit or an exploding sea shell they were going to put at the bottom of the ocean.

CAMEROTA: Crazy.

[08:50:04] WEIR: But it turned out his love of marine life, and that was the Bay of Pigs. You can now scuba dive the Bay of Pigs, which blows the mind of a kid who remembers duck and cover, and you know, the Cold War, end of the Cold War. But I just read the "Journal of Science" today, a couple academics proposed, hey, why don't we turn Guantanamo Bay into a world class marine research center, because the isolation of that has protected species that are suffering everywhere else. So, those are just little samples of the seismic changes that are happening there. And the place -- first time for me, and I went down with all these American preconceptions.

PEREIRA: But that changed?

WEIR: Oh, blew my mind.

CAMEROTA: Yes, let's talk about that, because it is the land that time forgot in some ways.

WEIR: Yes.

CAMEROTA: It's frozen for the past 50 years. So, what were some of the crazy things you saw?

WEIR: Well, for one thing was just the state of the island. You know, you -- the charming old 57 Chevys you think about.

PEREIRA: That hot pink one you got to drive around,

WEIR: Yes, that was a fuchsia Ford Fairlane I was driving past the U.S. embassy there. The cars are charming, the 1950s infrastructure not so much.

PEREIRA: Yes.

WEIR: Life there is so difficult.

PEREIRA: Even just getting water and things like that.

WEIR: Just getting water, because the pipes in Havana are so leaky...

CUOMO: Yes.

WEIR: ... that if they turn it on full pressure it creates puddles, and mosquitoes and malaria, so they ration water in the tropics. We were in this bar one night and this antique water truck pulls up and a guy fills a tank behind the bar, and that's just one sample.

You know, everybody thinks this place is going to be Miami next week or Cancun next year.

PEREIRA: But the fear, too, right?

WEIR: It's a fear, culturally, you know, physically they're not prepared for this, just because they blame the embargo. We blame the Castro dictatorship. But just for perspective, when you think about Florida and Cuba are basically the same size. Cuba right now gets 2 million visitors a year, Florida, 100 million. If, you know, 10 percent of those people go a little bit further south, it's going to change everything.

CUOMO: Oh, people all around the world are going to go to Cuba, too, if they get the chance to, especially from the states. And Bill's absolutely right, one of the beautiful things that he does in this is that he gives you the beauty of Cuba that you want to see, but then he let's you look beyond it, because it really is just skin-deep there. Even the cars, you know, you love how it looks, but it's being run by a Russian tractor engine, you know? And that's the reality there, and, boy, do you marry those two, this paradox so well within the storytelling.

WEIR: Well, the other thing that -- and that's the thing, I was expecting, you know, 11 million pent-up capitalists just waiting for the Castros to fade away so they could go back to "Godfather II," you know, and turn it into a playground.

But a lot, almost to a person, the Cubans I talked to are resistant of that. They really want to maintain their soul. They complain about their government. I was thinking, you know, people would be worried to speak their mind. No, plenty of perverse jokes about the Castros, plenty of gripes about the system.

PEREIRA: But isn't the (inaudible) part of it, right?

WEIR: But at the soul of it - yes...

PEREIRA: They want to preserve their soul.

WEIR: They want to preserve their soul and they - and they - and I think they believe in the ideals of the revolution. They're proud of the medicine, they're proud of the education.

PEREIRA: Yes.

WEIR: The fact that they pull together as a community and have to live their lives, you know, with duct tape and improvisation just to get through the day.

PEREIRA: Look, folks, this was just a teaser. You do not want to miss this because you have great things coming up in season two, but you can watch the season premiere of THE WONDER LIST: INSIDE CUBA, 10:00 p.m. right here on CNN, on THE WONDER LIST.

Thank you so much, Bill. This is really...

WEIR: Thanks for having me, friends.

PEREIRA: It is -- you're always welcome here.

WEIR: Well, I appreciate it.

PEREIRA: Bring rum next time.

CAMEROTA: Did you bring us any presents or anything?

WEIR: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Good.

WEIR: I got you some cigars.

CAMEROTA: All right.

CUOMO: The timing, serendipitous because Cuba is the place to be. President Obama is going on there. NEW DAY will be live in Havana, Cuba, on Monday and Tuesday next week. We'll be there with the president. There's going to be a lot of history made down there, and we'll show it all to you.

[08:53:48] CAMEROTA: Okay, also, a firefighter steps up to help a family in need. You'll hear about his efforts and how he went beyond the call of duty. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. Here's a great setup story for a Friday. First responder in suburban Detroit, goes on a call, ends up helping a family in need. CNN's Miguel Marquez introduces us to a firefighter who went way beyond the call of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For firefighter Ryan McCuen, every call a mystery. In February one call bowled him over.

RYAN MCCUEN, FIREFIGHTER: I just happened to be put in that spot to do what I was supposed to do.

MARQUEZ: McCuen's squad arrived at this mobile home in suburban Detroit. In the living room, 18-year-old Troy Stone suffering a severe type of muscular dystrophy, needing a ventilator to breathe, electricity to the home cut off.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Without electricity, how long would Troy live?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not sure, but it wouldn't be too long.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Christy Stone and her husband have five kids. Two have Duchenne muscular dystrophy. For Troy, breathing's so difficult it takes seven machines, all running on electricity, to keep him alive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's been through a lot, and -- I'm sorry.

MARQUEZ: Christy's husband, out of a job for a year and a half, now working, but the family still struggling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ryan was standing there, and he just looks at me and he goes, I'm going to pay your electric bill. I was just like, are you serious?

MARQUEZ: He was. McCuen paid all $1,023.76 of it.

MCCUEN: Seemed obvious what the solution was, because they just need their bill paid.

MARQUEZ: A good deed from a guy in no position to do it. McCuen himself was laid off four years, rehired two years ago. Last year he married Andrea and they just had their first. That's 3-month-old Camilla.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He never -- surprises me when he does something nice. It's just -- it's Ryan.

MARQUEZ: McCuen's act of kindness made the local paper, sparking a round of help.

A routine call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ryan's his hero, he said.

MARQUEZ: Neither will ever forget. Miguel Marquez, CNN, Clinton Township, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PEREIRA: Wow.

CUOMO: So, you want to be like your favorite firefighter right now? You can help the stones.

PEREIRA: What a guy.

CUOMO: You can go to the GoFundMe Web site and search Troy and Tyler fund.

PEREIRA: Let's do it.

CAMEROTA: That's beautiful. All right, great way to end the week.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.