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CNN NEWSROOM
Pope To Walk To Soccer Stadium; Weiner Campaigns, Accuser Looms; Americans Hurt In Train Crash In Spain; Snowden Waits Russia's OK To Leave Airport; Stomach Bug Spreads To Nine States; Closing Arguments In Manning Leak Trial; Deal Reached On Student Loan Rates; Facebook Shares Surge 25 Percent; Battling The Deadly Disease ALS
Aired July 25, 2013 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Pope Francis in one of Rio's poorest neighborhoods then he walks, yes, walks, to a soccer stadium. Is the pope risking his safety?
Also, Sydney Leathers and Carlos Danger.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was in love with him and then fell out of love him. The vision of him was not true.
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COSTELLO: Get ready to meet her. Miss Leathers may reveal herself today.
Plus -- airplane repo?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zip, baby. Pull right over.
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COSTELLO: A new TV show, tough task of separating rich boys from their toys. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. We begin this morning with Pope Francis in Brazil getting mobbed like he is a rock star. This was minutes ago as the pope headed from downtown Rio De Janeiro to a very poor neighborhood just outside of the city. The pope is in that small city now and is expected to pray with the people and bless a new altar. Then he will walk to a packed soccer stadium. It is a testament to his love for ordinary people, but it is also a huge security risk.
Miguel Marquez is in Copacabana Beach in Rio to tell us more. Good morning, Miguel. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Look, they are taking enormous efforts to secure the pope at every step. It is very clear now when he's moving he was in the pope mobile for a very short time as he went into the slum in the city of Rio. There was, I counted, 15, 16 motorcycles behind him, as many as 12, 15 of his personal security around him. There was a lot of uniformed security along the route as well. You know, people are coming up to him.
Some of these mothers literally almost throwing their babies at the pope as he is coming by. People that want to shake his hand, but he is in a moving car. They stop. You can see them jostling with the pope. Look, he wants to be touched by the people. He wants to touch the people. A lot of his speeches, he wants to knock on the door of Brazil -- of all Brazilians.
He even says, look, I would love to have a glass of water and a coffee with every one of you, but I just can't. But he's certainly making every attempt to touch every Brazilian that he can. He's kissed more babies than I have seen a politician ever kiss in a single day certainly. He's getting very, very close.
Right now he's in this little chapel and will bless the altar and present them with the challis will have a meet with several people from the flabella there. By the way, this is a flabella that is ground central for the drugs trade here. The -- gangs that run the drug business. The police have tried to pacify and calm this place, but it is part of a number of places in Rio, the Gaza strip here locally. It is so dangerous -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Miguel Marquez reporting live from Rio De Janeiro this morning.
Anthony Weiner is back on the campaign trail and facing fallout from his latest sexting scandal. At his appearance in New York a campaign appearance, several women in the audience turned their back on Weiner as soon as he started talking. The mayoral candidate could also face new details from his self-described sexting partner.
CNN has identified her as 23-year-old Sydney Leathers. Yes, that is her real name. There are reports she could go public as early as today. In the meantime, we are hearing from her confidant that spoke exclusively with Laurie Segall of CNN Money.
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LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: We looked at some chats that you had sent and she said -- she said -- I thought I loved him. I was in a bad place at the time. Was that tone of this?
LOU COLAGIOVANNI, FRIEND OF SYDNEY LEATHERS: Absolutely. Sydney -- you have to understand that when the initial scandal came out, it was a big disagreement between me and Sydney because I was not a fan of his behavior and she was and she wanted to give him a second chance.
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COSTELLO: Laurie joins us live from New York. So tell us more of what he told you.
SEGALL: I mean, look, he -- they have been friends quite some time. He said as this relationship got -- went on she got jaded. She initially liked him. I should put this into context. They wanted to make money. That's what he said. They wanted to make money off of this. He also shed light on the timeline of -- which is for when you think of this when they actually initially started talking. Listen to this -- Carol.
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COLAGIOVANNI: She initially contacted him through Twitter. She was a fan. She said she was a fan. I assumed that based on how beautiful a young lady that Sydney is, Anthony Weiner had no choice, but act on his instincts and go after any pretty young woman that gives him the time of day.
SEGALL: Can you give as you timeline on this? Was this after he resigned from Congress?
COLAGIOVANNI: This was absolutely after he resigned from Congress. One conversation I had with Sydney, he remarked that he contacted her less than week after he had done his big magazine, capitulation in public, asking for a second chance. So this idea that Anthony Weiner somehow reformed or that he somehow is sorry for what he did is not true. He's sorry just like every other person who has ever been sorry when they get their hand caught in the cookie jar.
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SEGALL: Carol, I should say, you know, this man came forward because Lou as a confidant, you think why is he coming on if Sydney is not speaking? But he thought they would make money off of this. She ended up leaking it without him. He just can't -- just can't make this stuff up.
COSTELLO: It gets more tawdry. So how exactly are they going to make money off of this? Like what was their plan?
SEGALL: You know, look, he leaked multiple conversations online they had together. Initially was nervous about saying I want to go -- profit from this. As the conversations went on you could tell, you know, look, he is not the guy I thought he was. Maybe I should make money from this if we go about this the right way. I mean, they are -- there are pages and pages of conversations. She gave conversations she had with -- with Carlos Danger for Anthony Weiner. It is interesting stuff. She is a very politically active woman. She's on Facebook, has multiple Facebook pages devoted to politics. That's how they initially met -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you so much, Laurie. Laurie Segall reporting live for us this morning.
Major developments also this morning in a deadly train crash in Spain. We are now learning that there were Americans onboard the train although we don't know how many. We do know at least five of them were injured.
Also just in to CNN, this incredible video you are about to see, the entire crash, look at it, caught on camera. You can see the train leaving the track and slamming into that wall. Watch that little puff of smoke before the train crashes into the wall. Investigators are trying to figure out what that was.
They also trying to figure out how fast that train was going. They are now questioning the conductor of that train after a top transit official said it was going too fast when it derailed and then split apart. So par we know 78 people are dead. It is unclear why the train was speeding or exactly how fast it was going. Rescue crews are still going through the debris and expect to find more victims inside of the wreckage.
Let's head to Spain now to Karl Penhaul. Karl, tell us more about the investigation.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think we have to be very careful there Carol, because, yes, we have seen speculation in the local media that excessive speed could have been to play a part in this derailment. It certainly seems that fuel something of that is speculation, officials from the Ministry of Development who said at an earlier stage they thought this train was going too fast around that curb.
But the rest of the government led by prime minister himself, Mariano Rahoy, is kind of -- backing away from that or at least urging the investigators keep an open mind. He is saying that it is -- not a foregone conclusion that the train was going too fast and that all options should be considered.
However, one must also say that one of the options they don't seem to be considering right now is that this was a terrorist act and doesn't seem to be any question of that right now. Of course, this chilling video will be a key element there. Look at it again. The locomotive, when that comes off the tracks, the locomotive had come around the worst of the curb. Locomotive -- point it comes off the tracks is actually entering the strait again.
It is the eight wagons pretty much on that curb. As you mentioned before we see the locomotive come off the tracks about midway down the whole train of the length of the train, we do see a puff of something. Is it smoke? Is it dust? That's something that investigators will be looking at right now.
But there's something that none of us can -- the scale of this tragedy. One-third of the passengers onboard that train have died, 78 people confirmed dead now, around 100 still in hospital receiving treatment for their injuries. Safe to say nobody emerged unscathed from this accident.
COSTELLO: Just terrible. Karl Penhaul reporting live for us this morning.
Other top stories we are following this morning at 10 minutes past the hour, the drama continues in Moscow, the United States urging Russia to hand over Edward Snowden. The Russians could grant the NSA leaker a temporary visa at any time now allowing Snowden to leave the Moscow airport where he has been stuck for more than a month now. Snowden applied for temporary asylum in Russia. The response to that request could take many months.
A nasty stomach bug has now spread to nine states leaving nearly 300 people sick. The states are highlighted here, you can see it I hope, mostly in the Midwest and northeast along with Texas and Georgia. The bug is caused by a parasite. CDC cannot nail down the source, but it comes from contaminated food or water and cannot be spread person to person.
Closing arguments expected today in the court marshal trial of Bradley Manning. He is the army private accused of aiding the enemy in espionage after handing over government intelligence to Wikileaks. The prosecution is calling him a traitor. While the defense is arguing that he is a principled protester. If found guilty, Manning could face life behind bars.
The Senate has passed a bipartisan deal that keeps interest rates low for students taking out loans for college this fall. But as always, there is a catch. Alison Kosik has the details from New York. Good morning.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. That catch is that rates, Carol, are going to be tied to the financial markets meaning the interest rate on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond. That means that lower interest rates would go higher if the economy improves. The Senate is estimating those rates could go as high as 7 percent for undergrads and 8.5 percent for grad students by 2017.
Now once this bill passes, the subsidized loan rates will be 3.86 percent for undergrads and grad students will pay 5.4 percent. Parents will pay 6.4 percent retroactive to July 1 because on July 1 those rates on new loans actually doubled to 6.8 percent. What this deal does is it erases those doubled interest -- the doubling on the interest rate. This is for new loans only. Democrats were against tying rates to the market. So, Carol, as a compromise the rates will be capped at 8.25 percent for undergrads and 9.5 percent for graduate students -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, let's turn the corner and talk about Facebook because it is having a huge day. Tell us why.
KOSIK: Investors are liking Facebook today. Get it? All right, bad joke. Anyway, yes. It is having quite the banner day. Facebook up 25 percent. Shares trading at $33. The last time you saw Facebook trading at $33 was June of last year. Remember, this is a stock that debuted at $35 in its IPO. Facebook reported a huge jump in the number of local users in its second-quarter earnings report. Also, an increase in mobile ad revenue so what that basically is getting more than 40 percent of its ad revenue from mobile. So that's why you are seeing investors really cheer this stock today. It is music to the ears of any Facebook investor.
COSTELLO: I bet it is. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.
Let's head back to Brazil now to a little town outside of Rio De Janeiro. As you can see, the pope, as promised is walking to a nearby soccer stadium. He was just in a small church blessing some of the folks there and praying. Then he left the church and is now walking to the soccer stadium. I believe he will meet the soccer great Pele.
I'm not 100 percent sure of that. I think that Miguel Marquez mentioned that. Yes, he is going to meet Pele, but as you can see, he is right in the middle of the crowd. People are taking pictures. They are shaking his hands. Miguel Marquez said he thinks the pope has kissed a record number of babies. Maybe it will make the "Guinness Book of World Records" who knows.
The soccer stadium is not very far from the church, only about, what, 100 yards or so. But still, it is an amaze sight, seeing the pope out and among the people whose security surrounding him shielding him from the rain and you can hear the excitement in the crowd. Let's listen for a little bit.
My goodness, Catholics are amazed at this new pope. He is so different from Pope Benedict. There he is kissing another baby. This pope is so personable. Remember, this is a man who is in his 80s. Talk about energy and new ideas to bring to the papacy. It is just incredible.
I think Catholics have been waiting for this because they want, you know, Catholicism to get back to its roots. It is all about helping the poor, being with the people, blessing people, talking about positive things in our society.
Miguel Marquez is in Copacabana Beach, but these are amazing pictures, Miguel.
MARQUEZ: It is fantastic. Yes. Who could forget, amazing pictures to see. To watch him, he -- short time ago he hushed the kids around him, praying with them for second, blessed them. You know, presenting them -- presenting him with their soccer banners, it looks like, with -- t-shirts, with dolls, you know, everybody just wants to touch this guy. They absolutely are crazy for him.
I can tell you we are here at the beach now. It will be six, seven hours before he makes his way down here, but there are hundreds of people waiting out here in the rain. The sun almost came out a little while ago. The entire crowds are chanting, chanting for the sun. They are so excited to see this guy in every place he goes. The concern, obviously, is security.
You know, 1981, John Paul II was -- was shot in St. Peters Square. That was controlled environment. This is not his home turf. He wants to be here and chat with people. You know, in his speeches, he talks about knocking at the door of every Brazilian, having a glass of water and coffee with them. This is a guy that wants to be loved. Here's a great shot of the pontiff as he makes his way to the soccer stadium.
COSTELLO: So tell us, Miguel, he will go to the soccer stadium. What will happen there? He is going to meet Pele. I know that. Will people be packed in the soccer stadium as well? Will he conduct a mass? What will he do?
MARQUEZ: Yes. Well, it is not going to be mass. We believe this place will be packed and will meet with a coach that teaches kids soccer in this very poor area. Keep in mind this is one of many in an area of -- Rio. There's a street along them that the gangs fight over, drug gangs, fight over. The Gaza strip collectively. It is a very, very tough area.
A lot of his trip has been spent here talking to the young people about not giving in to greed and drugs and money and power, but to keep your eyes on the ball essentially. He even met with crack cocaine is a very big problem here and met with recovering addicts at a hospital in a new wing the Catholic Church is opening up here. If we could come back, maybe live, want to show what you it looks like out here now.
Not only do you have hundreds and hundreds -- maybe a thousand people now out -- looking for the best position for tonight's big opening ceremony, there's also several different warships out here, Brazilian Navy has been patrolling several days now. They've really picked it up. There are even more than there were before, five, six, seven, eight ships or so out over the beach.
It is absolutely amazing to see this effort taking off. I see. I heard the strange sound. They are trying to get the televisions on here. Huddled masses here to see what's happening.
COSTELLO: Miguel, thank you so much. Just incredible pictures. We'll be right back with more.
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COSTELLO: It's a cruel disease, ALS, we know about it because of Lou Gehrig's graceful exit from the game he loved. Who could forget that famous image of Gehrig telling a cheering crowd I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Very few know what came after that moment. About Gehrig's death or 73 years later, what caused his disease, ALS.
Suzanne Malveaux knows all about ALS. Her mom has the disease. She is here to tell us about it.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, thank you so much for paying attention to this. It was just a year and a half ago when my mother got the diagnosis. It has challenged her and our family in a way we couldn't possibly predict. It is also redefining what it means to be alive. This is our story.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alarms are going off. Mom is choking. She can't talk or swallow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was struggling for the next breath.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): But just five months prior, she was leading the mardi gras parade at her birthday party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is the life of the party. No doubt about that.
MALVEAUX: Always vibrant, glamorous and energetic, young looking beyond her years, but then my father started to notice subtle changes.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: Pretty much -- there loss of a smile. She had the most radiant smile. She was unable really to control her facial muscles and her lips and so on. She says -- I can't kiss anymore.
MALVEAUX: But soon other difficulties developed.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: She tripped and fell a couple of times and then her voice.
MALVEAUX: After several trips to various doctors, our family got the shocking news. Mom was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.
DR. JEFF ROTHSTEIN, ALS SPECIALIST: It is a disease where the cells in your brain and spinal cord, cells that control our muscles, slowly degenerate. They die.
MALVEAUX: A fatal condition that would paralyze her limb by limb, first taking away her ability to swallow then speak then breathe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really devastating.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: You become angry, cry a lot.
MALVEAUX (on camera): I just felt like being on the floor was the most comfortable place, only place I wanted to be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been angry as hell.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: Whole host of emotions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was very afraid.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Mom responded differently, embracing her New Orleans roots. Let the good times roll. In 2012, we squeezed in two family reunions, a beach trip, a birthday party, a visit to the White House and her own wish come true, to drive an 18-wheeler. But life for mom got tougher fast. Within a year she could no longer swallow or breathe on her own. Speaking also became very difficult.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: Are you angry?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I'm not angry. I'm just dealing with it day by day. No, I'm not angry.
MALVEAUX: Mom decided to fight. First by going before the FDA to make drug trials more available, something that was too late for her. Mom also wanted to tell our family story. But the week we were scheduled to do our interview mom was rushed to the E.R. with pneumonia, which changed everything. FLOYD MALVEAUX: She was having difficulty breathing and she says, "I'm exhausted."
MALVEAUX (on camera): She was so scared. You could see it in her eyes how scared she was.
(voice-over): Mom was transferred to John's Hopkins where there are ALS specialist.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: I thought we could have lost her that night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your mother was in the end stage of ALS. She would have moved into a coma and would have died within a few days.
MALVEAUX: Instead mom chose an extraordinary life-saving measure, to get a tracheotomy. A tube hooked to a machine that would force air into her lungs and breathe for her, a game changer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't cured her of the disease but keep them alive.
MALVEAUX: Ninety percent of ALS patients do not get a trake either because they don't have the money, the resources or the desire. Keeping alive is hard work for mom. Since she cannot clear her throat a machine has to do it for her. A procedure which is done at least a dozen times a day relieves the feeling that she is drowning. Mom uses a word board to spell out our conversations. Occasionally through a speaking valve, she is able to talk a few sentences at a time. Can you say hello?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.
MALVEAUX: It would be nine weeks in the hospital learning how to care for her before mom would be able to come home on life support.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking out, getting out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good luck. Good luck.
MALVEAUX: Her journey is bringing us closer together and changing us as a family.
FLOYD MALVEAUX: I learned I have inner strength I didn't think I had.
MALVEAUX: Mom's message to all of us --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be strong.
MALVEAUX: Because, after all, mom is still mom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is still, you know, giving me a hard time about my curly hair being messy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is the glue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is a fighter. MALVEAUX: These days, mom has a new sense of freedom, zooming around the house in a motorized chair usually with grandkids in tow. Surrounded by family, she is still leading the parade.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: I want to give you a big hug.
COSTELLO: I want to give your dad a big hug. I can't imagine how he is dealing with this.
MALVEAUX: Everybody is doing OK. My mom is in great spirits. You saw she has a motorized chair and has a van. There's a new sense much independence and she gets out now. She goes to church and, you know, it is -- one person described it for me this way. To imagine sitting in a chair being duct taped from head to toe and your spirit is there. She enjoys our company. You see -- they love to be with her there. When I'm having a bad day she tells me -- don't be a wimp.
COSTELLO: That's right. Yes. After 73 years, Lou Gehrig came down with the disease, 73 years ago and researchers still don't know what causes it.
MALVEAUX: No. It is amazing, too. You think bit. It mimics a lot of other things or things related to it, lyme disease, MS, all kinds of other things, but they don't have a clue. It is 90 percent of the cases here. It is not passed on by your family. It really is completely sporadic, random. They have a couple of groups they believe that perhaps they look at these groups, veterans, athletes, blunt force trauma, maybe there is something in the environment. It is mysterious and indiscriminate. It was really shocking.
COSTELLO: So tomorrow you are going to -- be back with us and bring us another segment. It is so powerful.
MALVEAUX: I know. Carol, everybody watches it and it is just like you want to just give you a hug there because it is hard to watch and hard to endure. But one of the amazing things is that the people who I have met have the most amazing spirit and drive to live.
And one of those people, NFL player, Steve Gleason, he's 36 years old. Just 36 years old. He's absolutely incredible. He is a father. And he uses technology to -- to just by blinking his eyes to tweet, tweet 27,000-plus followers.
So he is very inspiring. We're going to have him on the 1:00 o'clock hour. And we're also going to -- as well, have the Cake Boss and his mom, very similar to my own, was diagnosed with ALS. And we're going to have him live as well.
COSTELLO: Well thank you Suzanne for bringing -- bringing us the story.
MALVEAUX: Thank you, thank you Carol.
COSTELLO: And we look forward to hearing part two tomorrow. Thank you so much.
MALVEAUX: All right I appreciate it.
COSTELLO: If you want to know more about how to find -- help find a cure for ALS, go to CNN.com's Impact Your World. That's CNN.com/Impact. You can also go to Suzanne's Web site, MalveauxMission.org.
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