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EU, Turkey Reach Deal on Syrian Refugee Program. New Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET - Part 1>
Atika Shubert, Martin Savidge>
EU, Turkey Reach Deal on Syrian Refugee Program.>
[08:00:15] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream.
Now, attempting to solve Europe's migrant crisis: critical talks are underway to figure out the best way to handle the thousands pouring in from Turkey.
North Korea's neighbors are on edge after Pyongyang fires missiles into the sea.
And teaming up on Trump: what part of the Republican party's scheming to stop its frontrunner from reaching the White House?
At this hour, European leaders are presenting a new plan to Turkey's prime minister to deal with the millions on of migrants who want into Europe.
Now, the Brussel's summit is focused on the details of a plan that has several it advances Turkey's entry to the EU, it sends migrants in Greece back to Turkey and provides billions in aid to Ankara.
Now, Europe is trying to stem the flow of migrants flowing through Turkey to its member nations. And for the latest on how the EU is trying to manage this crisis, Atika Shubert joins us on the line from Berline. And Atika, tell us more in practical terms how would the EU deal work?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in practical terms what it means is that in exchange for Turkey not only preventing ships going across to Greece, but taking back Syrian refugees, the EU then would offer not only visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to EU, it would also extra mope, a possible 3 billion euros extra, and even reopening negotiations on EU membership.
Part of the deal also means that for every Syrian refugee that Turkey takes back, the EU will promise to settle an equal amount of refugees in Europe, up to 72,000 refugees.
So that, in principle, is the deal.
But there are many pitfalls here. One of them is legal. Turkey is not a signatory to the Geneval convention of refugees. So, how to ensure that every asylum case is treated individually according to humanitarian law.
But also logistical. The EU says it will resettle Syrian refugees that are returned from Greece to Turkey, but in the last six month it's only been able to resettle some 700 refugees from Greece and Italy.
So, that's very slow progress. It's not clear that it would be able to work quickly enough to actually prevent refugees from finding other ways into Europe.
LU STOUT: What's the latest thinking from Turkey on this EU plan? Could Turkey actually implement it?
SHUBERT: Well Turkey says -- it is promising to at least try its best to implement all of this. Certainly there has been some effort to prevent refugees from boarding those human smuggling boats from crossing the Aegean Sea into Greece, but it hasn't been entirely sucessful.
AS we know, there are still thousands that reach Greece every day.
So, there are a lot of doubts about whether or not this plan is feasible to begin with. And then how it would be implemented.
And it doesn't solve the problem entirely, because this is in reference really only to Syrian refugees. What about the thousands of Afghan refugees that are also taking this route across the Aegean? What would happen to them? would they be returned to Afghanistan or would they be processed -- or would their asylum claims be processed in Greece? This is something that really hasn't been addressed as part of this agreement.
LU STOUT: And Atika, there has also been push back from human rights groups. Why are they firmly against this deal?
SHUBERT: Well, what they're saying is that this goes against international law, that, you know, the fact that they will then be -- after they have reached Greece, that they are being pushed back to Turkey, refugees, and that there is no guarantee that each asylum claim will be considered individually.
So they are very concerned about the treatment of refugees once they return to Turkey. But also the fact in legal terms they should be allowed to claim asylum in Greece where they have already landed.
So, there's a lot of legal gymnastics that the EU will have to do to push through an agreement like this.
On top of the sheer logistical challenge of moving thousands of refugees that have already crossed to Greece back to Turkey.
LU STOUT: All right, Atika Shubert reporting live for us. Many thanks indeed for that.
Now, North Korea is once again provoking its neighbors and the international community. South Korean and U.S. defense officials say Pyongyang fired two ballistic missiles off the coast toward the Seat of Japan earlier today.
Now, one of them flew about 800 kilometers before landing into the ocean.
Now, South Korea is urging Pyongyang to stop such provocative acts. The Japanese prime minister also condemned the launch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[08:05:09] SHINZO ABE, PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN (through translator): This act is extremely problematic for the safety of ships and aircraft. This violates the UN resolution as well as the Japan/North Korea Pyongyang declaration.
We strongly demand North Korea to exercise self-restraint. We will take precautionary measures, including warning and surveillance activities, to be able to respond to any situations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Now, North Korea has a long history of provocative actions and threats. In December 2012, North Korea successfully launched a long- range rocket claiming it was a satellite launch. And the U.S. and South Korea considered it an act of aggression, a cover for ballistic missile tests.
In February 2013 they carried the regime carried out a third underground nuclear test, the first under Kim Jong-un. In the following month, the regime threatened a preemptive nuclear attack after scrapping the armistice that ended the Korean war in 1953.
In January of this year, Pyongyang carried out a fourth underground nuclear test and claimed to have a hydrogen bomb.
On February 7th, the regime launched another satellite into space.
And on March 9th, North Korea claimed it had successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads to a scale that could fit on a ballistic missile.
Now, North Korea's recent actions are raising tensions with the south. Ivan Watson got to see just how deep those divisions go with a rare look inside a library wing in Seoul dedicated to collecting information about North Korea.
But visitors be warned, most of the materials are banned in South Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the National Library in South Korea in the heart of Seoul. It's an entire wing of the library devoted to South Korea's Communist enemy to the North, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
There isn't any other place like this in South Korea, an information center focusing exclusively on North Korea. This library is full of books, magazines, daily newspapers, films, all produced on the Northern side of the demilitarized zone. This gives visitors a rare peek into the hermit kingdom.
I spent nearly a week working in Pyongyang but they never let me see North Korean money. This is the first time I've seen North Korean currency.
This is a resource for North Koreans.
K.J. Quan is CNN's Seoul producer.
And you've spent years covering North Korea.
K.J. QUAN, CNN SEOUL PRODUCER: It seems like this is the collection of photo newspaper.
WATSON: And have you physically seen a North Korean newspaper before?
QUAN: No, and it's quite interesting to see the quality of it. It's kind of intriguing for me.
LIM SULLIVAN, INSTITUTE FOR NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY: This library has enough data to support how the North Korean regime is very unique and extreme in terms of their control their people and in the ideology of ultra nationalism.
WATSON: Many of these publications are effectively banned in South Korea. Everything with a red marker is restricted document. And you could face jail time if you're found in possession of some of these. One of the restricted documents is this children's comic book called "Flower Bud." And inside there are stories about Japanese villains, about American villains who oppress the North Korean people.
Relations are the worst they've been in years between North and South, so it was a surprise under these tensions to find this, heart- felt hand- written messages calling for the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: A well known political journalist in China has been reported missing. Now according to his lawyer, Jia Jia (ph) was last heard from on Tuesday right before he was to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong.
But the lawyer says Jia Jia (ph) had been worried about his safety after authorities interrogated his relatives. It apparently concerns an article that calls for the Chinese president to resign.
Now Jia Jia (ph) says he did not write that.
A major political storm is gripping Brazil. And at the center of it, Prseident Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Lula da Silva.
Thousands of protesters spilled into the streets as Lula was sworn in as President Rousseff's chief of staff.
Now, critics say the move is an attempt to shield the former president from a corruption probe. And a judge had blocked the appointment, but state media say immediate say that injunction has now been overturned.
Now let's bring in Shasta Darlington now live from Sao Paulo. And Shasta, more protests today. What's happening on the streets there?
[08:10:29] SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, it has been a bit of mayhem actually. Water trucks just swept by, literally blowing protesters out of their way. More than a couple of dozen protesters had camped here on Avelina Faulista (ph) overnight.
This has really been the center of the anti-government protest movement. But this afternoon, we are expecting a group of pro-government marchers to show up. So, police came through, blew them out of the way with their water hoses. A few protesters are still hanging on right behind me. Lines of police, the riot police moved on with their water trucks.
But we are expecting this to be a tension-filled day here in Sao Paulo.
You know, ever since the president, Dilma Rousseff, appointed former president Luis Inancio Lula da Silva, really her mentor as her cabinet in chief, these protests have exploded with critics saying it was just a way to shield him from a corruption investigation that was really circling in on him.
So, these guys are saying they don't want to leave the streets until they get what they view is a corrupt government out of power, whether by impeachment or anulling elections.
These next few days are going to be crucial. Today, in particular we are going to have to keep a close eye on what happens here in Sao Paulo, Kristie.
LU STOUT: Yeah. And Shasta, the fate of Lula da Silva, he was sworn in as chief of staff yesterday. A judge then blocked that appointment. So, where does Lula stand now?
DARLINGTON: Well, what -- in fact, a judge did block that appointment, however that has just been appealed. The appeal was accepted. I think we're going to see a lot of back and forth, a lot of legalese. But we have to keep an eye on the big picture here. The big picture is the government of Dilma Rousseff was in trouble even before all of this happened, rock bottom approval ratings, a prolonged recession. People were in a bad mood.
Add to that a corruption investigation, which has engulfed dozens of people in her worker's party. And now it seems to be circling in on the main towering political figure in this party, it really looks like their days are numbered.
Having said that, I think a lot of people are really intent on keeping this a Democratic process. They don't want in any way for this to turn into the chaos we have seen in so many Latin America countries in the past. A legal impeachment, a legal annulment of the elections.
We're going to see a lot of chaos, but people are really dedicated to ensuring that Brazil is fairly young, Democracy remain intact, Kristie.
LU STOUT: What a week of protests and political drama there in Brazil. Shasta Darlington reporting live fro Sao Paulo, thank you, Shasta.
Now, you're watching News Stream. And coming up, as a U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, he calls for the party to unite while a group of top conservatives is devising a plan to take him down.
We've got that story next.
Also, artificial intelligence is making real progress. Computer software beat a world champion at the game of go this week. And we'll be speaking with the vice president of IBM about the future of man verse machine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:12] LU STOUT: All right, welcome back.
Now, as U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calls for the party to unite behind him, a group of top conservatives is calling for Republicans to unite against him. It's another sign of desperation among the establishment to find an alternative nominee and to find it fast.
Let's talk about this effort to stop Trump with CNN's Phil Mattingly. He joins me now live from New York.
And Phil, GOP leaders there now planning to block Donald Trump but tell us how.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Trying to find some pathway, Kristie. And look, Donald Trump wasn't even on the campaign trail yesterday. But as usual, he was the only person Republican leaders were talking about in public, in private, everybody trying to find just one pathway to stop Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think it would be -- I think you'd have riots.
MATTINGLY: The GOP upping the pressure on Donald Trump two days after the frontrunner's interview on CNN's NEW DAY where he warned that riots could erupt if he is denied the Republican nomination after securing the delegates.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody should say such things in my opinion because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable.
MATTINGLY: Top conservatives meeting privately in Washington on Thursday, plotting any way to block Trump's path to the nomination, raising the possibility of a third party option.
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: It's not going to be me. It should be somebody running for president.
MATTINGLY: House Speaker Paul Ryan again rejecting talk he could become the Republican nominee through a contested convention. Trump hitting back at opponents in his own way, taking to his free attack ad platforms of choice, social media, with a series of posts aimed at Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton. And Trump's fiercest one-time rival Marco Rubio --
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) FLORIDA: Hopefully there's time to still prevent a Trump nomination.
MATTINGLY: ...speaking out for the first time after his bruising loss in Florida.
RUBIO: I'm not going to be anybody's vice president. I'm just -- I'm not interesting in being vice president.
MATTINGLY: Saying he's done with politics.
RUBIO: I'm going to finish out my term and Senate and then I'll be a private citizen in January.
MATTINGLY: And a surprise endorsement for Ted Cruz from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham after months of colorful digs.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: If you're a Republican and your choice is Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the general election, it's the difference between poisoned or shot, you're still dead.
MATTINGLY: Now telling CNN's Dana Bash he's raising money for the Cruz campaign.
GRAHAM: I think the best alternative to Donald Trump to stop him from getting 1,237 is Ted Cruz, and I'm going to help Ted in every way I can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Now Kristie, it is tough to overstate the animosity between Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, so those words right there almost jarring for who has covered the two gentlemen over the last couple of years.
Still, really underscoring the desperation here by Republican Party leaders as many efforts as they possibly can put together to try and attack Donald Trump. And yet every GOP operative I talked to who is involved in these efforts, Kristie, asks the same question, is it too late?
LU STOUT: Yeah. And I want to get your thoughts on that. Is it too late?
MATTINGLY: It depends on which pathway they try to choose, right. So, Kristie, uis it too late to have the delegates, the requisite delegates to stop Trump on a first ballot? All 1,237 delegates you would need to secure the nomination before the convention? Yes, probably. Ted Cruz, John Kasich, the two other Republican candidates that are there aren't on track to do that right now.
Still, the convention floor is the place where you see everybody pointing to. They feel like there is a way that if they can keep Donald Trump from getting those delegates that he needs beforehand, they can block him on the floor.
But again, that's where Donald Trump came out with a pretty stark warning a couple of days ago on CNN, saying there might be riots.
So there's just so many different elements, so many different variables right now, Kristie.
With all of them in play, Donald Trump with the upper hand.
LU STOUT: Yeah, indeed.
Phil Mattingly reporting live for us. Many thanks indeed for your reporting. Take care.
Now, the hacking collective Anonymous has entered the fray. It claims to have done what it promised, to hack Donald Trump.
Now, the group recently posted a video condemning Trump. And now it says it has posted his cell phone and Social Security numbers. It also published online information about people close to the Republican presidential candidate, including members of his family.
The Trump campaign has called for those responsible to be arrested.
Now, this week we have been telling you about the exploitation of tea workers in India. And after the break, we talk to an activist about what can be done to stop and to break the chain of human suffering.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:23:28] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong. You're back watching News Stream.
Now, all this week on CNN's Freedom Project, we have been showing you how traffickers are preying on young women working at India's tea plantations.
Now, journalist Muhammad Lila took us deep into the mountains where criminals are luring poor, vulnerable girls from home with false promises of legitimate work.
Now joining me with a closer look at the problem is Kathryn Collar from the rights group Stop the Traffic.
And Kathryn, thank you so much for joining us here on the program.
And first, let's talk about the scale of the problem. How many girls working in the tea industry are being lured and exploited by human traffickers?
KATHRYN COLLAR, STOP THE TRAFFIK: I think one of the issues we have is it's difficult to get that kind of statistic. You will hear that a lot of different reports will give you a different amount. And certainly Stop the Traffic is trying to look into how do we get a more reasonable estimation around what is going on.
LU STOUT: Understood.
COLLAR: But we know that there are definitely...
LU STOUT: And it's your understanding it's happening not just in India, but other tea producing countries as well, right?
COLLAR: Oh, certainly. We know that it is happening all around the world in all sorts of different commodities, but in tea we know it's happening in Sri Lanka, Kenya, in every place that there is a product being made, there will be people who are in what we call modern-day slavery and will be trafficked into those situatinos.
LU STOUT: And let's talk about the solution now. Starting with retailers. What can and what should retailers do to end the abuse?
[08:25:05] COLLAR: I think one of the important things is collaboration. So consumers want to be ale to able to buy products free from modern day slavery and trafficking. So, it's important to be working with lots of different organizations, NGOs, government enforcement, to make sure we are eradicating trafficking and slavery from supply chains.
The biggest issue, as I said before, is that we do not know the extent of this global crime. So, what Stop the Traffik is looking at doing is creating intelligence led prevention. So, gathering data from all around the world, overlaying it, and then analyzing it to find out what the specific global trends are in particular regions and countries. I think that's really, really key for retailers to be connecting in with people that are gathering that information.
LU STOUT: And also the consumer response. Because our global viewers of the Freeom Project, they are asking what can we do? What can we do as consumers to help stop the trafficking of girls in these tea-producing regions?
COLLAR: I think it's really important that consumers realize they have a powerful voice to be able to speak to government, to be able to speak to suppliers and companies to say they want to be able to choose their brands, to choose their products, but know that nobody has being exploited in it.
So, talking to business is really key. We often run petitions. We often run conversations with businesses and governments around how together we can make a change.
Consumers, every day people are incredibly powerful. So we want people to be able to take action really simply.
LU STOUT: All right, Kathryn Collar of Stop the Traffik, thank you so much for joining us on the program giving us some concrete steps, concrete action points that we should take. Thank you and take care.
Now, Google says that Alpha Go's victory, it shows how AI, or artificial intelligence, can find solutions that we have never even thought of.
Now, after the break, we're going to look at how close researchers really are to creating AI that can-can solve real world problems.
Also ahead, a controversial killer whale program is coming to an end. We look at Sea World's history with Orcas when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
[08:30:40] LU STOUT: Now earlier this week, in a battle of man versus machine, Google's Alpha Go software scored a decisive victory in its human know-how. Now, this is a huge leap for artificial intelligence.
Now, IBM was one of the first to bring the power of AI to public attention with Deep Blue, the computer that beat the chess grand master Gary Kasporov in 1997. And its super computer Watson bested Jeopardy champions at the game in 2011.
Now, the company has since been researching and further developing Watson and technology that can think. And IBM's vice president of cognitive computing, Guruduth Banavar, joins me now live from New York with more.
Guruduth thank you for joining us here on News Stream.
We have seen major progress in AI programs, mastering board games, winning game shows. And we have to ask, how close are we to having AI that has human-like cognitive abilities?
GURUDUTH BANAVAR, VP OF COGNITIVE COMPUTING, IBM RESEARCH: Thank you, Kristie, for having me on the show.
First of all, I would like to say that cognitive it is an idea of partnering between people and machines to do things that neither one can do by themselves. So, at the end of the day, cognitive computer is trying to leverage the strengths of humans and combining that with the strengths of machines to solve the world's big problems.
So, it is not a question of how close computers are to humans. I think it is a question of how we combine the powers of computers with the powers of humans to solve the big problems like health care, education, environmental problems and so forth.
LU STOUT: So it's about collaboration and working together.
Now, earlier this week, of course you and the world we all witnessed that moment when an AI defeated a master go champion. And yes, you saw comparisons to Skynet, comparisons to Terminator. They were made. And we can joke about it.
But a number of people out there are still very afraid of artificial intelligence. Should we be afraid?
BANAVAR: Well, I'm not afraid of artificial intelligence. And the reason is because these are technologies that are really powerful in terms of helping us solve the big problems.
Like I said before, if you look at health care, the amount of data we have in the world is tremendous. And if we look at environmental problems, we have a lot of data. But we don't have the insight to solve those problems today.
When we apply these technologies, we actually understand what's underneath that data. And we can come up with the right solutions.
You can look at education. You can look at other fields like industries of all kinds. We think we can actually use this toolkit that is being developed by AI to solve these big problems.
LU STOUT: So these toolkits developed by AI can be used to solve problems in education and health care.
Give us the update on Watson. IBMs AI, what is it up to now? Since Watson won on Jeopardy, how have you expanded its capabilities?
BANAVAR: So, since winning Jeopardy, Watson has acquired a lot of skills. It can now see images. It can now do analytics on different kinds of data. It can also do speech and text translation of different kinds.
And so when you take all of these pieces of technology and you can combine it in ways that can address problems, we've seen that it can make a revolution in different industries.
So for example, in health care, we have seen it being applied to cancer treatment, coming up with personalized treatments for patients who are going through many different kinds of chronic conditions and very different lifestyles.
We have also seen it being applied in creating personalized education regimes for students. We have seen it applied to providing public services and information for citizens.
We have seen it being applied for understanding the environment, understanding patterns of industry and other kinds of traffic and use of many resources in a city environment to address smog and other issues like that in a project we call green horizon in Beijing, which has also now being expanded in other parts of the world.
So overall, Watson has become a set of solutions that are focused on very practical problems in the world that it can use its capability for understanding huge amounts of data and then partnering with people to make the right decisions and provide the right insight.
LU STOUT: Yeah. I found it interesting when you talk about AI you say there is nothing to be afraid of AI, AI is a partner. And this is a collaborative relationship. And my final question to you is this, what can AI learn from us? What can we learn from AI?
BANAVAR: Well, AI has always been something that people at the end of the day have trained and built. So even today when we have algorithms that we call machine learning, or deep learning, or deep reinforcement learning, there is a pretty big role for people to train these computers to learn the knowledge about the world, and more importantly, to come up with the right problems to solve.
