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Connect the World
Inside Girl Suicide Bombers of Boko Haram; al Qaeda Resurgent in Afghanistan; Sanders, Clinton Trade Jabs Ahead of Tomorrow's Debate; A Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Palestinian Youth. Aired 11:00a-12:00p ET
Aired April 13, 2016 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:10] JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did a cell phone game contribute to this deadly rail crash in Germany? The train
dispatcher is now in custody. We'll have the latest on the investigation.
Also ahead...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A young woman came in
to this market pretending to sell wears to these venders. The explosion so extreme it blew off the roof.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: Abducted, then sent to blow themselves up in a market. A rare look at how Boko Haram is turning girls into human bombs.
And lost innocence, young people increasingly caught up in the bloodshed in the West Bank.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World.
MANN: Thanks for joining us.
Just moments before two trains slammed head on in Germany, the man who was supposed to be controlling the train traffic was playing a game on his
phone, that according to investigators who say the train dispatcher's actions led to this deadly crash back in February.
He's under arrest right now accused of manslaughter and gross negligence, that as a 46-year-old man injured in the crash just died in a
hospital raising the death toll to 12.
Let's bring in CNN's Fred Pleitgen who is following all of this from London. Fred, this is astonishing. What happened?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is astonishing. And it really if you recall shortly after the
crash took place in February, there were a lot of people who really displayed sympathy for this dispatcher saying that this could have been an
honest mistake saying that they believe maybe he wasn't at fault at all.
And certainly now with this coming out, the mood is somewhat changing there in that region of Germany.
Now, what the investigators are saying is that this man has admitted that while he was on duty as the train dispatcher that he was playing an
online video game and they say that they believe that that led to him being distracted and that that in turn led to a chain of events which led to
these two trains crashing.
And they say there were two key incidents that happened. On the one hand, apparently, he gave a wrong signal that put these two trains on the
same track heading front on towards each other. And the second thing that happened is they believe that because he was distracted he might have hit
the wrong keys in the emergency signal and that meant the drivers didn't get the emergency signal at all. And therefore this train crash happened.
Now they say that he has admitted to being in this online video game but they also say that he claims that he was not distracted by this online
video game, certainly it's going to have to be the criminal investigation that we'll have to find out whether or not he's culpable.
But as you said, he is being charged with manslaughter due to negligence, and also battery due to negligence as well. And this is
something that could, of course, have great consequences for him. But it is certainly also an eye opener for people dealing with this case and
certainly for those who lost loved ones, or had loved ones injured in that train crash.
MANN: How did they find out he was playing a cell phone game? I mean, what means do they have to know what people are carrying or doing
while they're on the job?
PLEITGEN: It's a very good question, and certainly there isn't much detail about it. The only thing that we have from the public prosecutor's
office in that region is they say that he admitted to being on an online video game.
Now, presumably in an investigation like this they would have checked his phone to see whether or not he was on some like that.
Certainly, if you're on an online game, there will be some sort of trace on the web of where you are, and the phone itself also keeps records
of when and whee apps are opened in many cases. So, there certainly are ways to details how -- or detail the electronic path that this video game
would have taken, or when this video game would have been on.
But there is very little detail that's been given.
But one thing is clear, Jonathan, and that is that with the German railway company, the Deutscheban, they have very, very clear rules is that
when you are on duty you are not aloud to do things like be on your mobile phone. You're not allowed to -- or on your smartphone, on your laptop, use
any sort of electronic devices that could distract you from your duty. And they say that this new twist that this new information that they have
gotten does show that this apparently was the case and they believe that it certainly could very have played a
role in this train crash happening.
MANN: Fred Pleitgen in London. Thanks very much.
The Nigerian terror group Boko Haram is increasingly using kidnapped girls as human bombs. It's just one of the group's brutal tactics and it
is spreading. CNN's David McKenzie traveled to northern Cameroon near the border with Nigeria and found many young girl there are now viewed with
suspicion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crossing into Nigeria on foot with Cameroonian soldiers, headed to remote outposts
overlooking the fight against ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram, the world's deadliest terrorist group.
The soldiers say their forward operating positions on the mountain come under frequent attack.
Boko Haram fighters are based in these villages in the valley. But the trouble is that positions like this can be ineffective against an
increasingly unconventional fight.
[11:05:17] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One day they use unconventional attack, the next day an ambush, the following day suicide bombers.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): So Boko Haram still slips past the soldiers into villages like this one, where they burnt out the pastor's house,
destroyed the church, kidnapped scores of girls.
And further from the front, in cities like Maroua, they use abducted girls to kill.
Young women came into this market, pretending to sell wares to these vendors, the explosion so extreme it blew off the roof. Ten people were
killed. A new report says that increasingly girls and young women are being used in these attacks.
(voice-over): The UNICEF numbers show that the attacks have increased tenfold with Cameroon targeted the most. Now the market is often empty.
Abdulrahman (ph) witnessed the last attack.
ABDULRAHMAN (PH), ATTACK WITNESS: Since that day, when I see a young lady or a girl I don't know, I am afraid..
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Even if it they escape abduction, young girls like Matawasa (ph) suffer. Both her parents were shot by Boko Haram.
MATAWASA (PH), BOKO HARAM SURVIVOR: When they attacked, we ran into the forest with people we did not know. I don't want to go back to my
village. The war is there.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): More than a million children like her have been displaced by this war.
To protect their school on the edge of the red zone, vigilante teams patrol, setting up checkpoints armed with rudimentary weapons. They check
every stranger to stop terror attack, especially girls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudilbe) Boko Haram has changed the way we perceive strangers. We don't want to be this way, but we don't
(inaudible).
MCKENZIE (voice-over): It's a society turned on its head. Girls should be protected; here in the far north of Cameroon, they are feared.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: CNN's David McKenzie is now back in Johannesburg joining us live.
David, I have to ask you about the girls. I mean, we have known about this for years, but is anyone taking stock of where all these girls have
gone off to? What happens to them after they have been kidnapped? What happens to them once you mentioned are released or free themselves and
can't go home?
MCKENZIE: Well, hundreds of girls are still in captivity, perhaps even thousands in those Boko Haram strongholds like you saw in the valley
just beyond where we were showing there's the Sambisa forest where many of the girls are believed to be kept.
When they are in that abduction, they are so-called wives of these fighters. They are raped. They have to deal with the bombing attacks by
the various militaries fighting Boko Haram and then potentially being sent on these, quote, unquote, suicide missions.
Often these girls of course don't want to blow themselves up. They are trying to get away from
the terror group. And when they are caught, to answer the other part of your question, when they
are caught before they can blow themselves up or have it remotely detonated, they are often punished or ostracized. And UNICEF and others
say that any girl who is in this situation, particularly those under 18, should be seen as victims of this, they're not perpetrators of any crime.
And so even if they survive the kidnapping and potentially survive being sent out as a human bomber, they are often ostracized by the community and
a lot of work needs to be done for these girls to have them reintegrate.
But many more still are still in captivity -- Jonathan.
MANN: Why is this still happening? I mean, you talk about a multinational force and has lost ground. But why do they still have any
ground at all?
MCKENZIE: Well, they have ground because some of these areas they have managed to fight back these militaries. You have the Nigerian,
Cameroonian, Chadian and to a lesser extent Nigeran (ph) militaries all involved in trying to squeeze Boko Haram out of its territory and protect
their own borders.
But those borders are pourous and these small groups of fighters can move in and out, raiding villages often at will.
The long-term issue is that this cannot be necessarily solved only through military might like we have seen in other parts of the world, but
through development and through stopping the reasons behind groups like Boko Haram finding a foothold amongst these communities.
So, if they can increase a developmental side of these things, maybe they can have a chance at ending some of Boko Haram's appeal to the people.
But I must say now several years after they started their insurgency, it's less about their reasons behind groups like Boko Haram fighting a
foothold. If they can increase a developmental side of these things, maybe they can have a chance at ending some of Boko Haram's appeal
to the the people. But I must say now several years after they started ttheir insurgency it's less about the symbolic appeal and more about their
reign of terror and how they can control people through the gun and not through any kind of ideology at all -- Jonathan.
MANN: Is this the l new normal for those four countries? I mean, are people just reconciling
themselves to the fact that as we saw in your report, villagers are using sticks and old machetes to try to protect themselves?
MCKENZIE: It's certainly the new normal in those parts of those countries.
Now, I don't want to make it seem to our viewers that the entire of Cameroon and Nigeria, or Chad are insecure like this. It's really in that
triangle in the northeastern part of Nigeria and the border regions of Chad and Cameroon and Niger where this instability reigns.
Because of those porous borders, because this group has managed to work with impunity for several years, frankly until quite recently, when
there was this joint effort to root them out.
You know, that that is the zone, this zone of insecurity and the fact that Boko Haram can be in those areas without really being rooted out by
those military groups.
It's not a region-wide issue, but it is a multinational issue right in that triangle, that triangle where girls, women and community members are
being shoved out.
More than 2 million people are displaced by this conflict. And you don't see it in the headlines globally like you do, maybe, other conflicts
and migrant crises, and certainly the people we met there said its time that the world pays attention to the plight of these girls -- Jonathan.
MANN: It is. David McKenzie in Johannesburg, thanks very much.
Now some other stories on our radar today. Syrian President Bashar al Assad casting his ballot in what critics are calling a sham election.
Syrians are choosing a new parliament but only those who live in government-controlled areas, about a third of the country, can
actually vote.
The election comes the same day that UN-backed peace talks for Syria have been scheduled to resume in Geneva.
Authorities in Panama are going through documents collected from the firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal -- Mossack Fonseca. They
raided its offices in Panama City Tuesday to see whether the firm committed any crime.
The Panama Papers leak revealed how firm helped the world's elite set up offshore accounts to potentially avoid taxes.
Spanish police have arrested a man they accuse of supplying weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, the jihadist who attacked a kosher supermarket in Paris in
January of last year.
The alleged weapons dealer has been named as Antoine Denive was arrested in Malaga in cooperation with French police.
And a surprise discovery, a leaky roof led two French homeowners to stumble on one of
the long lost art treasures. This painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes was found in the attic of a home in the Toulouse region. It's believed to
be the work of the Italian master Caravaggio. And it may be worth $136 million.
al Qaeda is making a very strong comeback in Afghanistan, the beleaguered country's defense minister tells CNN. He says that terror
network is now once again working with the Taliban putting officials in Washington on edge as well.
Our Nick Paton Walsh sat down with the defense chief to talk about the growing threat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember why the United States came to Afghanistan?
Well, Al Qaeda are back and thriving, a big threat, finding safe haven here, according to Afghanistan's defense chief. Even U.S. officials here
admit there's a lot they don't know and there could be hundreds of Al Qaeda core members here.
MOHAMMED STANEKZAI, ACTING AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTER: They are really very active. They are working in quiet and deal organizing themselves and
preparing themselves for more bigger things.
They are working behind other networks again, giving them the support, giving them the experience they had in different places.
They are not talking too much. They are not making too many press statements.
(CROSSTALK)
STANEKZAI: Yes. It is a big threat.
WALSH (voice-over): A big threat, they say, because the Taliban, who was said to have regretted harboring bin Laden, have again decided to get
close to Al Qaeda.
STANEKZAI: The big cover is Taliban because they are enabling the Al Qaeda and the ISIL and the...
WALSH: The phrase "renewed partnership" is what John Campbell (ph) used, the former U.S. commander here.
STANEKZAI: And because as you know, they need the fighters. They need the support and the experience and they need recruitment from other
places.
This is why that they impressed them.
WALSH (voice-over): Alarms were raised by a 30-square mile camp found and obliterated by Afghan and U.S. forces in a remote part of Kandahar late
last year, revealing Al Qaeda's true strength to Afghan and U.S. officials.
MAJ. GEN. JEFF BUCHANAN, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, U.S. FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN: Very sophisticated ties back into Al Qaeda and a subset, which
is called
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.
To find them in Afghanistan also caused us quite a bit of concern.
If you go back to last year, there were a lot of intel estimates that said that, within Afghanistan, Al Qaeda probably has 50-100 operators or
50-100 actual Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. Well, at this one camp, we found more than 150.
So I think that...
(CROSSTALK)
[11:15:37] WALSH: ...gap in your knowledge as to...
BUCHANAN: I think there is. I think that, you know, there's not thousands of them but clearly in remote parts of Afghanistan there are Al
Qaeda leaders that we're concerned about and what they are capable of doing.
WALSH: And they are plotting still attacks against the West?
BUCHANAN: Absolutely.
WALSH: That's their core concern?
BUCHANAN: That is their core concern. They have made those announcements and they've never backed off of it.
WALSH: Well, clearly attacks the West, one matter of concern about Al Qaeda's resurgence here. But there is another spinoff and that has
potentially an enormous impact on what is the key tenet of U.S. and Afghan policy here with the Taliban and that's to find some sort of diplomatic or
negotiated settlement with them.
Now they're clear; the U.S. and Afghanistan, that that can't happen until the Taliban renounce, quote, "international terrorism," but it seems
quite the opposite is happening with this renewed partnership they have with Al Qaeda.
They have, in fact, made the new deputy of the new Taliban leader is a man called Siraj Haqqani, who U.S. considered to be the leading facilitator
of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
It does seem the Taliban and Al Qaeda are getting closer together rather than further apart although some officials insist they're a moderate
Taliban who still want to see some kind of peaceful settlement.
But as the Taliban expand in the territory they control here, there are fears that buys more space for Al Qaeda to potentially plot attacks
outside of Afghanistan and again find themselves safe havens here, 15 years after the U.S. intervened to try and catch bin Laden.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Still to come, how did one of Europe's most wanted men evade capture for months? We head to the Brussels neighborhood where Mohamed
Abrini was caught to find out.
And then the softer side of Donald Trump. The combative Republican presidential candidate takes a different tone when his family joins him at
a CNN town hall.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MANN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World. I'm Jonathan Mann.
Three people detained for questioning in the Paris terror attacks have been released. They were taken into custody Tuesday in Brussels. The
Belgian federal prosecutor says a judge released him without charge.
The last known fugitive in the Paris attacks was arrested in Brussels last week. Police say Mohamed Abrini also confessed to being the man seen
in surveillance video with two suicide bombers at the Brussels Airport.
He alluded capture for months in the Belgian capital. Our Kellie Morgan shows us how he apparently managed to hide in plain sight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[11:20:17] KELLIE MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the building where Mohamed Abrini spent his last night of freedom. The next
day, as he walked along this busy little street, just 20 meters away, police pounced on him.
Later that night they raided the apartment he'd just slept in. The front door was also dusted for fingerprints. The woman who lives here
arrested but later released without charge.
We were invited into the building by the man who filmed the raid, her neighbor, Joseph. We go to a park away from his home where he feels more
comfortable talking to us.
And he explains how he saw Abrini in his neighborhood, though he didn't recognize him.
JOSEPH, NEIGHBOR (through translator): He shaved his beard, cut his hair real short. Now that I have seen his picture all over the media, it's
like a flashback. I saw him last week, a few days before his arrest, but I didn't recognize him. It was very brief. I saw him when I was going back
home. I wish I had recognized him.
MORGAN (voice-over): As for the woman Abrini stayed with, she told CNN's French affiliate she didn't know he was a wanted man but wouldn't
speak to us to confirm her story.
The woman told Joseph that she met Abrini at a local cafe here near the fresh food market and they got talking. She'd just bought a new TV and
he acted the Good Samaritan and offered to help her carry it home.
JOSEPH (through translator): I think Abrini was trying to hide himself. He found a naive women. He tried to be friendly to her and tried
to pretend he didn't have a place to go.
MORGAN (voice-over): It illustrates how one of the most wanted fugitives in Europe evaded authorities by hiding in plain sight, moving
around in regular neighborhoods, living amidst unassuming residents.
JOSEPH (through translator): I live alone but all the other apartments are couples. We are all in shock. The situation is so complicated. We are
all collateral damage.
MORGAN (voice-over): Joseph wants people to know his neighborhood is not a hotbed for alleged terrorists.
JOSEPH (through translator): Since Friday, my life has become a nightmare. My girlfriend doesn't want to see me anymore because she says I
live in a neighborhood where there could potentially be terrorists.
"You live with terrorists," she said.
It's unfair.
MORGAN (voice-over): Yet another way Abrini has left trauma in his wake.
Kellie Morgan, CNN, Brussels.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Now to the race for the White House. Donald Trump's simmering feud with his own Republican Party erupting into full blown war. At a CNN
town hall he escalating complaints that the GOP is conspiring against him, rigging the rules to deny him the nomination.
The party's chairman is fed up and firing back, telling Trump in a tweet, quote, give us all a break.
Trump did show a softer side when his family took the stage. He says he's very capable of acting more presidential, that's what they'd like.
But hsa to remain tough on the campaign trail to knock out his opponents.
Let's bring in White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski for more.
Michell, you know, it's such an interesting experience watching the interactions two nights running now between the candidates and their
families. Last night, it was Donald Trump's turn and our turn to meet his family. Tell us about it.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Such an interesting dynamic. I mean, with John Kasich, his two daughters are 16 years old, not used to the
spotlight, you know, shy. And that was much, much different, obviously, than the Trump family last night.
I mean, first of all, his children are older and they've been used to the spotlight for such a long
time. Very polished, so we expected them to turn all of Donald Trump's controversies into a positive, saying that it shows how genuine he is, that
he's a fighter, that he's not afraid to put everything out there.
They joked about some of his tweets. And you know when his daughters were talking about how Trump empowers women -- so everything that's been
out that's been a negative for Trump in the press over a long period of time, they turned into a positive.
That wasn't to say that this was all sort of the company line, though, there were some of those, you know, genuine intimate moments when they
talked about their relationship as a family. And that was something we don't see all the time, especially as it relates to Donald Trump.
I mean, here was a situation where he wasn't in front of a podium in a huge crowd yelling and throwing out insults against his opponents, but he
was sitting there, and you could see, you know, the expression on his face, listening to his kids. And in many ways, he let them do most of the
talking last night Jonathan.
MANN: He did. You know, and once again everything you say so interesting to watch. And among the things that one of Trump's sons was
asked was about his father's habit of sending out these little explosive tweets. Tell us about that.
[11:25:04] KOSINSKI: Right. It was even funny how this came up, because it was something that was asked of John Kasich's family, too. You
know, when you have young children in the house -- and Trump does have a young son who is 10 who was not present last night for the town hall, but
he was asked, you know, do you monitor his social media. Are you worried about bullying. And then Anderson Cooper kind of turned the question
around afterwards and asked Trump's children, well, are you guys monitoring Donald Trump's tweets.
For the most part they laughed off the controversies, but listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Are there some days you wake up and you look at Twitter and you think really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It kind of makes him the person he is, honestly. It's so great to not see the sound bytes -- traditional politician sound
bytes that you read too often. I mean, he's so authentic. He writes the tweets himself. He doesn't have a team of hundreds and hundreds of people
behind him. And I that's actually what makes him the great candidate that he is.
TRUMP: And more importantly the retweets. The retweets get me.
ANDERSON: The retweets gets you in trouble.
TRUMP: The tweets are fine. The retweets sometimes get a little bit shaky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: And we also learned I think for the first time last night how the infamous Trump tweets are born and how they get out there into the
world in Donald Trump's own words, he said he simply shouts them out to the young ladies in his office.
MANN: Can't you just see that. Can't you see him barking them out to someone who is
busily writing them down?
KOSINSKI: I think that's -- yeah, kind of paints a picture, right. I think that's very easy to imagine. Maybe that's the problem, though, maybe
at times he's yelling things out and not meaning all of those things to be tweets.
I think that would be a good explanation for some of that.
MANN: But an instantly believable a glimpse of what life is like inside the Trump bubble.
Michelle Kosinski, thanks very much.
KOSINSKI: Thanks.
MANN: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took an apparent jab at Trump Tuesday at his company's annual developer's conference he laid out
Facebook's ten-year plan and then also veered into political territory criticizing some of the controversial ideas emerging from the U.S.
presidential race as well as offering his thoughts on global problems.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK CEO: I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as others. For blocking
free expression, for slowing immigration, reducing trade and in some cases around the world even cutting access to the internet. It takes courage to
choose hope over fear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: We'll look at the Democratic race in about five minutes but the latest world news headlines, just ahead.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The hate that we have for them is our motivation. They are killing us everywhere. I can't accept
what is happening to my country. Many guys are killed while walking. No one can accept that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: The conflict has been going on for decades, but now a new generation is getting involved. We look at what's driving young
Palestinians to lash out against Israel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[11:31:22] MANN: The South Korean military is on alert for a potential nuclear test by the north. U.S. officials tell CNN Pyongyang may
be ready to launch a new missile and part of the U.S. mainland could be within range.
But there is still a lot of uncertainty as Barbara Starr explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kim Jong-Un could be planning an unprecedented military move. U.S. spy satellites have detected
early signs that North Korea may, for the first time, be preparing to test a mobile ballistic missile capable of hitting portions of the U.S. The
mobile missiles are mounted on huge vehicles like these shown in military parades. The launcher can move quickly, so an attack could come with little
or no warning. Even a test launch would have huge international security implications.
BRUCE KLINGNER, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I think that's going to lead to an epiphany for a lot of experts who have been dismissing the
possibility that North Korea could have such a capability for several more years. START: If the Regime proceeds with the launch, the latest assessment
is its most likely to fire the Musudan missile, which the U.S. believes has the ability to potentially hit Guam and perhaps an Shemya Island in
Alaska.
Two other missiles being watched are Kn-08 and the Kn-14 mobile ballistic missiles. They have a longer range and are potentially able to
hit the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.
U.S. officials caution they cannot even be certain if the missiles would work as advertised. Just this week Kim was in attendance during an
intercontinental missile engine test.
The mobile Kn-14 is especially mysterious. North Korea is believed to have displayed it at this military parade last year. The U.S. is not
certain what improvements have been made to this newest weapon, but worry it may have increased precision; the concerns compounded by the belief of
some in the U.S. intelligence community that North Korea has some type of miniaturized untested nuclear warhead device that could go on top of a
missile.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the prudent decision on my part to assume that he has the capability to nuclearize - miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put
it on an ICBM.
STARR: U.S. officials strongly emphasize they simply don't know what Kim's next move might be, either with missiles or some type of nuclear
device.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: First, he questioned her qualifications then her judgment, now her credibility. U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is
turning up the heat on front runner Hillary Clinton ahead of the crucial New York primary next week.
She's firing back, perhaps a preview of what we can see when they face-off in the CNN debate
Thursday night.
The Clinton campaign says Sanders is resorting to character attacks and has a record of what they call struggling with the truth.
CNN's Chris Frates is covering the Democratic race and joins us now from New York.
Chris, both candidates jockeying for every potential advantage. I guess today the headline is
endorsements.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Yeah, that's exactly right. It's a little bit of an endorsementorama, Jonathan. Bernie Sanders rolling out
another endorsement this morning in New York City, this one from the city's transit union. And it's 64,000 active and retired members.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE SANDERS, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to win here in New York State. Some of you may know we have won 7 of the
last 8 caucuses and primaries. We started this campaign 50, 60 points behind Hillary Clinton. The last few weeks there have been two national
polls having us ahead of Secretary Clinton.
So we're on a roll and your support today is enormously important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRATES: Now, the union support is coming on the heels of Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley announcing that he's also getting behind Bernie
Sanders campaign becoming the first sitting senator to endorse his colleague from Vermont.
Clinton on the other hand, well, she has the support of almost all the Senate's Democrats. And Clinton also answered Sanders' union endorsement
with one of her own, announcing the backing from local electrical workers and she made a splash on the news stand today with a front page endorsement
in The New York Daily News, which called Clinton both supremely knowledgeable and unsparingly clear eyed.
But the support of the union, which can use their members to help Sanders and Clinton canvas voters and get them to the polls that are really
key here, Jonathan.
[11:36:03] MANN: But let me ask you. When you look overall at what's happening in New York, what's happening nationwide, the delegate lead, some
people are saying Bernie Sanders is a zombie candidate, he's dead but doesn't know it yet. What's your sense? Is there much of a race left?
FRATES: Well, I can tell you from the Clinton campaign's perspective, you know, they feel like they are well ahead here. And if you look at the
polls, there's reason to believe that. They are leading by double digits in almost all the polls that are out. In fact, she left the campaign trail
yesterday to go down to Florida to raise money there going forward.
So they are feeling pretty confident going forward about their chances. And that's also because of the math, Jonathan. You know, Bernie
Sanders is lagging Hillary Clinton by about 230 delegates, and there's 250 delegates at stake on Tuesday here in New York. But there's not a winner
take all scenario, it's a proportional scenario. So, Bernie Sanders needs to win
about 77 percent of all the at stake delegates remaining in order to clinch that nomination.
Hillary Clinton, she needs just 35 percent of those delegates. So that's why, you know, not only does Bernie Sanders need to win here in New
York, he needs to win very big in order to start to get the kinds of delegates that would close that deficit for him, Jonathan.
MANN: Chris Frates following the campaign in New York. Thanks very much.
Some call it the nuclear option, a scenario where delegates of the upcoming Republican convention would be released from all commitments, free
to vote vote for whomever they want. It is highly unlikely, but one veteran member of the Republican rules committee will help determine how
the summer's convention is run is lobbying for that very option, another unexpected turn in an unpredictable race. Read about it and more at
CNN.com.
A wave of street attacks that gripped Israel for months finally appears to be on the decline. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
says there's been a drop in Palestinian attacks against Israelis, but Oren Liebermann looks now at how a new generation of
Palestinians has been increasingly caught up in the cycle of violence in the region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the streets of Bethlehem, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict doesn't erupt, it repeats.
Clashes today echo clashes from past decades. Israelis firing tear gas and rubber bullets, Palestinians throwing stones and wearing masks.
But the faces behind the masks appear younger now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I am here to defend my country. I want to throw stones at the soldiers. My parents don't know
I'm here. I am not afraid.
LIEBERMANN: A no man's land of drifting tear gas and burning tires separates the two sides. Now that separation has all but vanished as some
Palestinians barely teenagers have put down rocks and picked up knives.
But why? Why would a young teenager carry out a stabbing attack when it could mean they never come home?
Reema Sanad, 37-year-old mother of five from Bethlehem, says it was her recurring nightmare.
REEMA SANAD, MOTHER (through translator): I always saw the children that went for the attacks. They were the same age, like my daughter,
Sabrin. Some want to be famous, and some want to have revenge. They want the curiosity of living the experience of taking part in the intifada.
LIEBERMANN: Sanad's nightmare came true on December 1, caught on cell phone video. Her daughter, 13-year-old Sabrin, left school and walked to a
checkpoint where Israeli soldiers found a knife in her backpack.
Sabrin spent a month in military prison after pleading guilty to carrying a knife.
We meet her back at home doing her schoolwork. She has dreams of becoming a journalist. I ask her why she did.
SABRIN SANAD (through translator): I was not concentrating on anything, not playing or even doing homework. I was only watching al Aqsa
TV. I saw all those guys and girls doing what they do and I want to do the same for my country.
[11:40:04] LIEBERMANN: al Aqsa TV is Hamas TV. It calls for more attacks on Israelis, hailing the perpetrators as heroes. It's on during
our visit.
Her 21-year-old brother doesn't approve and turns it off. But the language of hate has seeped into Sabrin's vocabulary.
SABRIN SANAD (through translator): The hate that we have for them is our motivation. They are killing us everywhere. I can't accept what is
happening to my country. Many guys are killed while walking. No one can accept that, because we love Palestine, and we want to
defend it.
LIEBERMANN: Sabrin will not accept her mother's explanation that violence sets back the
exact cause she's trying to support.
SANAD (through translator): Let's say that you went out and stabbed a soldier and killed him. What did you do? You did nothing. You ruined the
situation more. This is exactly what Israel wants.
The occupation wants to say to the world, look, they are stabbing us and killing us, we are in danger. And suddenly everything is the opposite.
Those who are oppressed and under occupation are terrorists and the occupation that is actually killing us with the siege every day is the
victim.
LIEBERMANN: Fadi al-Ghoul is trying a different approach. A performance mixing in humor and emotion based on his own story. His mother
was killed in the Israel/Lebanon war in 1982.
FADI AL-GHOUL, ARTIST (through translator): We need to show those children that the resistance has many other ways that I believe in. As a
human being, as an artist, and as Fadi the father, I do believe that there are many ways of resistance that we can use.
LIEBERMANN; al-Ghoul speaks to the memory of his mother. He promises to make her proud. He promises to live.
AL-GHOUL (through translator): If you really love Palestine, take care of yourself. Don't put yourself in danger. Your soul is so dear to
us all. Resist with all the tools you have, but keep yourself safe for your country.
LIEBERMANN: One young girl in the audience who lost her mother breaks down in tears. Al-Ghoul's message, she hopes, has gotten through.
He reaches out to the young, those most likely to carry out attacks. 70 percent of Palestinian attackers against Israeli civilians and soldiers
have been between the ages of 16 and 25, according to the Israeli military. Another 10 percent were even younger.
Israeli's called the wave of attacks terrorism, Palestinians call it resistance. It is a cycle that has not yet been broken.
PETER LERNER, ISRAELI MILITARY SPOKESMAN: At the end of the day, we are left with a reality on the ground, of extreme violence, which is
encouraged, embraced, and glorified by the society. Whatever reason they feel it be, this is the result.
LIEBERMANN: Palestinians describe a different reality, one of suspicion and humiliation from Israeli soldiers. Psychologists speak of
trauma.
TAWLEEK SALMAN, PSYCHOLOGIST: Many of those kids told me, look, doctor, now you want to try to help us here in your office, but when --
while we are going back home, Israeli will stop us, will humiliate us again. We will forget your advices. We will go home with the last trauma,
with the small kids, they have to go to their schools, to go to their school, to go to play, to express themselves, not with the knives, not with
the stones.
LIEBERMANN: They should be kids.
SALMAN: They should be kids.
LIEBERMANN: The West Bank, where for Palestinian children, the challenge is just to stay
children.
Oren Lieberman, CNN, Bethlehem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World. Coming up, what do windmills, nipples, and the way America picks presidential
candidates have in common? Donald Trump describes them all as one thing. Find out what, ahead.
Plus we take you to the preschools of South Africa where a new startup is creating some of the the most tech savvy toddlers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:46:31] MANN: Welcome back.
There certain things you'd expect to find in a preschool classroom -- crayons, pencils, toys but an iPad isn't normally one of them. In
Johannesburg, however, one child care center is giving toddlers a head start in the digital age.
CNN's African Startup brings you there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At Little Ashford preschool in Johannesburg, iPads can be found alongside a colorful array of crayons and paint brushes.
What education entrepreneur Jenna Mukina (ph) says perfectly symbolizes her start-up that aims to infuse the best of traditional teaching models with
cutting edge technology.
UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: We are one of the first preschools in African to introduce the iPad in the classroom. So, one of our primary goals is to
ensure that we prepare our children for the future so that they are able to succeed in the digital age.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jenna started her first school in 2009 after being unable to
find a suitable daycare center for her own daughter. The company has grown organically and today eight of her boutique preschools can be found in
Johannesburg's trendier suburbs.
A total staff compliment of 135 has been hired to care for more than 500 children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We call ourselves a learning organization. So everybody is here to learn, whether it's the teachers, the parents, our
entire community is here to learn.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Parents pay an average of $280 in school fees per month and this includes access to an iPad library.
According to Mukina (ph), the kid-friendly and intuitive interface of the tablets allows for a
more multisensory interactive learning experience. All downloaded apps are educational and age appropriate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not taking away anything from the traditional ways of teaching and learning. We're just enhancing their
learning experience. So all the kids still get to play outside, to have fun, to experience preschool the way preschool should be experienced.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Usage of tablets for these tech toddlers is strictly supervised and screen time is capped at five minutes for 2-year-
olds and scaled up for older kids to a maximum of 15 minutes per day.
Running the school is a capital intensive venture and Mukina (ph) cites this, as well as finding the right staff, as her main challenges.
Mukina (ph) sees her school as being ahead of its time, and says that outmoded teaching modalities in Africa are ripe for an upgrade.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nelson Mandela once said education is way (inaudible) to change the world. And that's what we're here to do. We're
here to change the continent, we're here to change the world through education and with the use of technology.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World. Coming up...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Disgusting reporters, horrible people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: Ouch. There's a long list of other things Trump is calling disgusting as well. We'll take you through them, next.
And a simple fix for a global health problem. Connectors brings you one initiative that's
initiative using technology and a little luck to combat iron deficiency around the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[11:51:42] GAVIN ARMSTRONG, FOUNDER & CEO, LUCKY IRON FISH: The Lucky Iron Fish is a simple health innovation to combat iron deficiency around
the world. And so it's simply a specialty formulated iron ingot that you put in your cooking pot when you're boiling liquids.
I'm Gavin Armstrong, founder and CEO of the Lucky Iron Fish and this is our team.
Iron deficiency is a global problem that negatively impacts the lives of an estimated 3.5 billion people. Cambodia has some very high rates for
iron deficiency.
When the research started, we actually used an iron disk. And though that was found to be
scientifically effective, nobody wanted to put this ugly block of iron into their pot. A symbol of a fish was a symbol of luck and prosperity in
Cambodia, so we shape the dish like a fish and then suddenly everybody wanted to use it because they thought it would make them lucky.
We sell the fish in developed markets. And if it you buy one for yourself, we give one away for free in our fish tank program in a
developing country.
LYDIA SUMMERLEE, IMPACT & ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST, LUCKY IRON FISH: My name is Lydia Summerlee, and I'm the impact and engagement specialist for
the Lucky Iron Fish. We partner with different NGOs and health clinics to provide the
fish to people who need it the most. So, my role is to partner with those NGOs and health clinics to establish that relationship.
From the Cambodia piece, we have been able to actually be on the ground. We have been part of different workshops and actually been
visiting people in the villages to see them cook with the fish and also talk to them about the use of the fish.
GORDON PETERS, LUCKY IRON FISH: Hi. My name is Gordon Peters, and I'm the board chair based in Cambodia with Lucky Iron Fish.
I think it's important that some of the board members are based in Cambodia. This is where the idea was started and the business was founded.
It's grown fairly rapidly. I think we were all quite surprised the online sales component took off. And that has supported a
lot of our on the ground work.
We are also in the midst of growing geographically across the Mekong region.
DAVUTH HEAM, CAMBODIA OPERATIONS MANAGER, LUCKY IRON FISH: Hello. My name is Davuth Heam. I'm an operation manager in Cambodia for Lucky Iron
Fish.
I get feedback from local NGOs, from the companies, from the customer who (inaudible).
One time we hire some sales people, door-to-door sales. We found that this is not (inaudible) way to spread the Lucky Iron Fish.
Then as a team we think of the idea to the work with the NGOs. The Lucky Iron Fish get to the people who need the fish quickly.
ARMSTRONG: We're trying to demonstrate that a simple technology can solve such a cmoplex global problem.
So, I mean, teamwork is fundamental for what we're doing.
(END VIDEOTAPE0
MANN: Brilliant idea.
You're watching CNN. And this is Connect the World. I'm Jonathan Mann. Welcome back.
Let's turn back to the U.S. campaign trail where Donald Trump has been pretty sure of himself. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm winning with everything.
We're going to have so many victories that you're going to be bored of winning.
I don't need anybody's money. It's nice. I'm really rich.
I'm really smart -- really, really smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: Well, you can't accuse him of false modesty. And while he praised his own record,
others can come in for harsh criticism.
Jeanne Moos takes a look at things Trump doesn't like.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[11:55:09] JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can tell how upset Donald Trump is by how many disgustings he uses per rally.
TRUMP: It's a rigged, disgusting, dirty system. It's disgusting. Really disgusting. Clean up this dirty, rotten, disgusting system.
MOOS: The fact that he was so disgusted at the electoral system got us wondering, what else disgusts the Donald?
Plenty. Starting with us.
TRUMP: Disgusting reporters. Horrible people. Sure. Some are nice.
MOOS: By now, we all know that Donald thinks --
TRUMP: Rosie O'Donnell's disgusting. She's disgusting.
MOOS: But Bette Midler also got the Rosie treatment, as did Barney Frank. Brace yourself, disgusting nipples protruding in his blue shirt.
When it was suggested Trump has cheated at golf, he told "People" magazine that's disgusting.
Disgust has been the subject of an academic study.
Disgust, sensitivity researchers call it, people with more conservative viewpoints were found to be more easily disgusted by things
like touching toilet seats.
And the one thing the Donald really finds disgusting, bodily fluids. Remember when Hillary returned late from a debate break?
CLINTON: Sorry.
MOOS: The Donald went off.
TRUMP: I know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about it.
MOOS: Then there was the attorney who got in a fight with Trump about taking a break from a deposition to breast pump.
ELIZABETH BECK, ATTORNEY: He shook his finger at me and he screamed, "You're disgusting, you're disgusting."
MOOS: And the Donald was always mocking Marco Rubio for sweating.
TRUMP: Honestly, it was disgusting. All right?
MOOS: And talk about tilting at windmills.
TRUMP: Disgusting windmills.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --
TRUMP: It's disgusting.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: It's disgusting.
And if you've ever almost missed your flight, you'll know how stressful it can be. But in tonight's Parting Shots, how about a flight
that only just misses you. That's exactly what happened to one plane spotter in St. Barts. Luckily, the plane didn't hit most swooping past his
head there.
Though he told CNN its wheels did actually graze him leave a black mark from the tires on his finger. The pilot was coming in for a tricky
landing, already his second attempt, as he tried to get plane down on the runway known for a difficult approach.
I'm Jonathan Mann. This has been Connect the World. Thanks for joining us.
END
