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Investors Eye Asia Pacific Markets; Thousands Demand Malaysian Prime Minister's Resignation; European Migrant Crisis; Gun Control a Hot Topic in 2016 White House Race; MTV Video Music Awards; WORLD SPORT Highlights. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 31, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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


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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Here we go again. Stocks in Asia begin the week with a tumble, could markets around the world again follow them down?

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Also ahead, Europe calls an emergency meeting on the migrants' crisis. This as another suspect is arrested in the deaths of dozens of people in the back of an abandoned truck in Austria.

VAUSE (voice-over): And we've got a protest in Malaysia; thousands demand the prime minister step down because of a corruption scandal.

ASHER: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Zain Asher

VAUSE: Hello, everybody, I'm John Vause. Great to have you with us. CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

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VAUSE: The trading week is off to another rough start across Asia. The Shanghai stock market opened in negative territory and has stayed there ever since. Concerns about China's slowing economy and low oil prices drove markets down last week. Government intervention stopped the plunge by week's end but now stock prices are again heading south.

ASHER: Let's take a look and see how the numbers are doing. Let's take a look at the numbers there. OK. So the Nikkei is down almost about 2 percent; the Hang Seng is down almost 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite looks like it's down about 2.5 percent.

Our Steven Jiang is in Beijing for us.

So, Steven, the Shanghai Composite is down about 2.5 percent.

Walk us through where Beijing goes from here, especially when it comes to restoring investor confidence. STEVEN JIANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Zain, that's right. But this kind of volatility is not entirely unexpected because remember even though the numbers plummeted early last week, but many analysts say compared to a year ago, the Shanghai Composite is still up.

And so that's why there is this much needed correction in the words of many economists that needs to take place before the numbers may bottom out.

Now remember even before the June 12th crash of the Shanghai stock market, the economy -- the Chinese economy had been -- the growth had been slowing down considerably and the economic data looked quite bleak for manufacturing data to export numbers.

All these things and -- as you mentioned the energy consumption as well -- all these things pointed to marked slowdown of this used to be -- what used to be a double-digit growth in the world's second largest economy.

So the stock market here really hadn't been accurately reflecting that slowdown. So many analysts say that's why you continue to see this corruption.

But on the other hand, the government here continues to play a very visible role in trying to prop this market. Over the weekend, they announced some high-profile detention of officials from the securities regulatory commission exactly that's from one of the country's largest brokerage houses as well as a financial journalist.

And according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, that journalist confessed to have written a fake report about the government halting intervention without really properly checking his sources with the government.

And the official they detained from the security regulatory commission confessed to have committed insider trading and taking bribery.

So this, again, is part of the series of measures the government is taking, trying to stabilize this market, trying to prop it up in the crisis, especially ahead of a very important political event, the huge military parade here on Thursday.

So everything's really politicized here. And that's something a lot of investors, especially from overseas, don't like because they want the government to keep their words of deepening market oriented economic reforms instead of trying to -- going back to their old ways of those kneejerk, heavy-handed tactics -- Zain.

ASHER: It's interesting that you mentioned that that reporter was accused of issuing a fake report. But, yes, as you mentioned, China is desperately trying to prop up the market.

So the question is, how does China sort of move into or transition, rather, into slower, more moderate growth without causing more turmoil in the stock market? JIANG: That's right. That's one thing the government, the leadership, including President Xi Jinping, has been talking about a lot. The use the term "the new normal," that is more moderate growth. But also restructuring the whole economy for more government investment and export driven to more domestic consumption driven.

And according to some economists, that's already taking place, although, you know, at a very slow but gradual kind of level. So one school of thought is that the whole economic picture may not be as bleak as many people have talked about.

For example, the service industry including travel, entertainment, they have been growing very fast, thanks to the rising disposable income of the expanding middle class.

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JIANG: But those growth -- the growth in those industries may take time to be translated into the economic data. For example, travel, entertainment industry, they may not use as -- nearly as much energy as manufacturing and steel mills, for example.

So the bleak economic data we have talked about in the past few weeks may not also be actually reflecting of the real economy. So there is still hope here -- Zain.

ASHER: Yes, we're waiting for those PMI numbers, measuring manufacturing activity coming out this week.

OK. Steven Jiang, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right, we are staying in Asia. Malaysia is marking the country's independence from British rule. It's supposed to be a time of celebration but this weekend saw thousands of protesters rushing into the street, certainly outraged over a financial scandal involving the country's prime minister.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) across Malaysia appears to be on the rise. We have details from Michael Holmes.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Malaysia's capital for a second day on Sunday, sporting yellow T-shirts in support of Malaysia's birthing or clean movement. They're demanding Prime Minister Najib Razak's resignation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The government is dirty. They are corrupted very bad. We people cannot stand it anymore.

HOLMES (voice-over): Najib came under fire recently when the public learned that some $700 million was deposited to bank accounts in his name. Najib denies any wrongdoing, claiming they were legitimate deposits from unnamed foreign donors.

Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is the de facto leader of the protest.

MAHATHIR MOHAMAD, FORMER PRIME MINISTER: There is no more rule of law. The only way for the people to get back to the old system is for them to remove this prime minister. We must remove this prime minister.

HOLMES (voice-over): So far, though, Najib has weathered the storm as Malaysians began their independence day celebrations. Najib addressed the protests but not the accusations against him.

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We reject any form of street demonstration that will threaten the peace and trouble the people because it is not the right channel to voice concerns in a democratic state. There are parties who spark the fire of hostility if we're not united and lose our solidarity no problems can be resolved.

HOLMES (voice-over): Despite heavy police presence, the protests have been peaceful -- Michael Holmes, CNN.

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VAUSE: Most of the protesters came from minority ethnic Chinese and Indian communities and analysts say that's a key point in what might just happen next.

ASHER: When you listen to Michael Holmes' conversation with the "Financial Times'" Bangkok regional correspondent.

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MICHAEL PEEL, "FINANCIAL TIMES" REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's one thing that peoples and analysts picked out was that there wasn't a massive turnout from the Malay population, who are really the bedrock of the prime minister's support.

So the consensus among analysts seems to be that he can survive for now, even though he has got a lot of questions to answer. And of course, Mahathir Mohamad, the still influential former prime minister, has called for his removal. And indeed, yesterday, quite surprisingly, called for a people's power efforts to force the prime minister from office.

So he isn't giving up.

HOLMES: Yes, with a rather ominous turn, isn't it.

What does the former prime minister, what's his standing like in the electorate these days?

PEEL: Well, that's a very interesting question and his intervention shows how unpredictable things are these days, because of course, he's from the same party as the prime minister, Najib Razak. Mr. Najib was actually a protege of Mr. Mahathir's at one point. But somewhere along the way, they've fallen out very badly and different people will give you different opinions on whether that is due to -- solely as Mr. Mahathir puts it -- the national interest and his legacy or whether there are more personal factors in play there.

And of course there's something of an irony that Mr. Mahathir's government of -- when he was in office for 22 years, although it was praised for promoting Malaysia's development, it was also criticized for authoritarianism and cronyism and was neither exactly the two allegations being leveled at Mr. Najib's government at the moment.

And also Mr. Mahathir calling for people's power, again, I mean, he wasn't noted for his tolerance of dissent when he was in office, to put it --

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HOLMES: Yes, exactly.

And I wanted to ask you, though, the anti-graft agency in Malaysia says that these funds were paid into Mr. Najib's account by a foreign -- from the Middle East.

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HOLMES: But the donor hasn't been revealed.

What is the explanation for the core allegation?

PEEL: Well, this is at the heart of the matter and this is a huge question which has not been answered. And I think there are many -- there are people who are not politically partisan who say that objectively if a prime minister of a country says that almost $700 billion came into accounts in his name from a donation, from nationals of a foreign country, then it's reasonable to expect a full explanation of that.

That has not yet been forthcoming and unless and until it is, it's hard to see this conflict going away.

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VAUSE: And there was another big protest on Sunday, this one in Japan. Tens of thousands rallied against a plan by the prime minister to alter the country's pacifist constitution. New legislation would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.

ASHER: And there are many protesters who desperately want Japan to remain a pacifist nation and they're calling for Shinzo Abe's resignation.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Even if the security bill got scrapped, Abe might try to submit it again sooner or later. So I want him to step down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If I were to describe Japan with one phrase, it would be a peaceful nation. But right now, the unimaginable, the unrealistic is happening, where peace is being destroyed. That fear is being passed upon this nation right now.

ASHER (voice-over): The bills have passed the lower house and are now being debated in the upper. Critics fear the new laws would allow Japan to get sucked into foreign conflicts or even become a target for terrorists.

Riot police in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish region fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting daily clashes between government forces and Kurdish militants.

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VAUSE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) including a child as well as two police officers were killed in separate incidents on Sunday following a break in a cease-fire between the military and the outlawed Kurdish -- Kurdistan Workers' Party.

ASHER (voice-over): The rioting has been happening almost daily since last month.

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ASHER: And want to update you on the migrant crisis in Europe, the unprecedented influx of migrants into Europe has prompted the European Union to call for a special meeting. E.U. ministers will meet on September 14th to work on a solution to the crisis. They're also asking the so-called hot spots in Greece and Italy to help register migrant.

VAUSE: Meantime, France's prime minister, interior minister and an E.U. commissioner will visit Calais and the Eurotunnel in the coming hours. The city has seen a spike in the number of migrants trying to access the tunnel to get to the U.K. Several migrants have died in their attempt. Thousands more are camped out in the port.

ASHER: Earlier, CNN spoke with Joel Millman about the migrant crisis. He is a senior spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

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JOEL MILLMAN , SENIOR SPOKESMAN, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION: We've been saying all along (INAUDIBLE) migration is the most important goal right now. When you make obstacles the way people have across Europe, particularly in Hungary right now, you're forcing people to make bad choices, to engage with smugglers who have clearly very little regard for the safety and well-being of their clients.

That's how you end up with dozens killed in that truck in Austria over this week. We fear this kind of thing can go on unless more humane solutions are adopted. Germany obviously has taken a step; Scandinavia's been very generous with asylum. The problem is that Europe has rules that were made in good faith but they dictated that people came request asylum should do so in the first country they've arrived in. And clearly Greece and Italy are the first countries and no one -- not too many people are asking for asylum there because very few of them have family in those countries and they want to go logically to where there families are, either in Central Europe, Northern Europe, U.K., Scandinavia.

And this is something that Europe never expected numbers like this. I don't think anyone did. And they need to starting thinking about how we can be flexible with the rules to give people what they think is the most logical solution.

I mean, the migrants themselves know where to go and know what to do. But it's just that there are regulations that they're being overwhelmed, let's say, by the numbers of people crossing.

ASHER (voice-over): Meantime, Hungarian police have arrested a fifth suspect in connection with the deaths of 71 migrants found in an abandoned truck in Austria last week.

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VAUSE: There was another migrant tragedy to report in the Mediterranean, a boat carrying migrants sank off the Libyan coast over the weekend. The Red Cross in Tripoli tells CNN at least seven people were killed. It's feared, though, another 30 bodies may be recovered as well.

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ASHER (voice-over): Officials believe --

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ASHER (voice-over): -- the boat was on its way to the Italian coast. The incident came days after another boat packed with migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, killing up to 200 people.

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VAUSE: A Greek photographer has been documenting the migrants' journey. Nikos Arvenitinos (ph) went to the Macedonian border as thousands of migrants waiting to cross.

ASHER: And what he has captured with his camera is a dramatic story of both desperation and hope.

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NIKOS ARVENITINOS (PH), PHOTOGRAPHER: We arrived on the border in the cross line. So it was very difficult to be there and very dangerous. And the (INAUDIBLE) one of my favorite because it shows all the pain and you know, the (INAUDIBLE). It's -- there are so many (INAUDIBLE), women and children, who are looking use of the (INAUDIBLE). And they want to have the (INAUDIBLE) one side; the refugees on the other side and you're in the middle.

This morning was surrounded by police and refugees and couldn't have an escape way from anywhere. (INAUDIBLE) I guess is a Muslim woman in a tent, which was -- I took about two hours to get one picture because every time she looked in the -- my camera, she was always hiding and couldn't have a single photo.

It's one of...

All the refugees were in the tent and waiting in 40 degrees, Celsius degrees, to cross the borders. And some of them had (INAUDIBLE) so they were in there with their families. This specific day, they had the refugees waiting for many, many hours, about 30-35 hours to cross the borders because the borders were closed.

And they were all over in the (INAUDIBLE) in Greece. And when they shared about (INAUDIBLE) borders were -- will open in some few minutes, they were -- came all over the borders and created this (INAUDIBLE).

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ASHER: And those striking images you just saw were of the Macedonian border. It had been closed for days to hold back the migrants.

VAUSE: Earlier, smart Macedonia officials relented and reopened the border. They supplied trains to take migrants north to Serbia.

ASHER: Coming up next, a major energy discovery off the coast of Egypt; why the find could make history.

VAUSE: Also ahead, a time for tears and healing for those who knew two murdered television journalists. The details on how their loved ones are remembering them when we come back.

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PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're tuned into CNN. This is Weather Watch and I'm Pedram Javaheri and we're watching the weather across North America right now, where the change in the patterns here, notice some snow showers across some of the Canadian Rockies and also getting in some rain showers toward the Northwest after a pretty impressive bout with a windstorm. Hurricane force winds in recent days across that area, the temperatures will continue to cool off in the coming couple of days. In fact, 500,000 customers without power, some of whom are -- including my family members -- in that part of the world.

But we have rain showers around Vancouver, working way to the south. It does turn into sunshine across the City of Angels, 26 degrees; Atlanta, a gorgeous day at 28 degrees; some morning showers possible and of course we do have what is left of Erika here, producing some thunderstorms and rain showers. But the vast many of it remaining offshore in drought-stricken Southern Florida.

And notice this also sees some monsoonal activity this afternoon and this evening into the early morning hours now across areas of Phoenix, where they're experiencing one of their driest monsoons on record. So certainly much needed rainfall there.

Speaking of showers and thunderstorms, they're in place around Belize City, Guatemala City and also Mexico City; temps ranging from 23 degrees to 27 degrees. The hot spot around Belize City should be into the low 30s. And if you're tuned in from Quito, a lot of wet weather in place as well, the drier conditions expected around Rio, Salvador should be around 27 degrees there, rain showers across the wet season in northern portions of Brazil.

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ASHER: Welcome back, everyone.

An Italian energy company said that it may have made the largest natural gas discovery in history.

VAUSE: Eni says that they have done a super giant gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off Egypt's northern coast. They believe that it covers about 103 square kilometers, and could produce the energy equivalent of more than 5 billion barrels of oil.

ASHER: Eni plans to develop the field and determine its true size but says it could set aside Egypt's natural gas demand for decades.

VAUSE: In China's boom, the city of Tengzhou in Northern China boomed along with it. But now China's economy is starting to slow.

ASHER: Tengzhou and its 1.5 million residents are certainly feeling the pinch. CNN's Will Ripley has more.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is China's version of Roman ruins, relics of rapid economic growth, left crumbling by a changing economy. Tengzhou, a small industrial city by Chinese standards, 1.5 million people, a GDP bigger than Jamaica, but the economic slowdown is taking a toll on people like Mah Shiching (ph) and Yuan Dishan (ph). Each spent 20 years working at this machine factory.

"Business was bad," he says, "so they shut it down."

RIPLEY: So what was in here?

RIPLEY (voice-over): Their job today: watch the empty buildings.

Everyone else transferred or laid off, fading factories a familiar sight in this neighborhood.

At the nearby marketplace, two-thirds of Yuang Chanmei's (ph) customers are gone. "Of course, I'm worried," she says. "I'm barely getting by."

The world's second largest economy is still growing but traditional factories pumping out cheap exports are no longer a booming business.

For years, China paid top dollar for oil, demand in prices were high. Factories like this full of workers.

Today, they're cutting jobs, upgrading operations, moving to modern energy-efficient facilities. Combined with declining auto sales, the world's largest energy consumer, which pumped up oil prices for years, is now driving them down.

These 65-year-old factory workers aren't sure where they fit in China's new normal.

RIPLEY: What's it like being here and it's just quiet all the time?

RIPLEY (voice-over): "Just two old men. It's boring. Nothing to do," he says. "So we just started farming while watching this place."

Before the reforms, before Chinese industry became robust, Mah (ph) and Yuan (ph) were farmers.

Now once again they find themselves tending crops, surrounded by reminders of their past, left behind, wondering about their future.

RIPLEY: Even growing pomegranates.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Will Ripley, CNN, Tengzhou, China.

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VAUSE: We head to the USA, to Virginia now, family and friends are remembering two TV journalists gunned down by a former colleague. They gathered Sunday to honor the lives of Alison Parker and Adam Ward.

ASHER: And later today, Ward's family will hold a memorial and a church service celebrating his life. That is planned for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Alison Parker's parents have vowed to pay tribute to their daughter by fighting for gun control reforms.

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ASHER: Gun control remains a hot topic as the 2016 U.S. presidential race gathers steam. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders says he is in favor of stricter measures just as much as his Democratic rivals.

VAUSE: This comes after a Hillary Clinton supporter criticized Sanders' mixed record on backing gun legislation. Sanders says in addition to stronger gun policy, more needs to be done about mental health. And he spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT.: What I believe is we need to do a lot, lot better job in terms of mental health in this country.

People call my office, they call offices all over this country and say, you know, my brother, my husband, I'm really worried about what he might do to himself or other people.

We do not have the capability of treating those folks. When people have mental health issues, when they're a threat to others or themselves, they should be able to get counseling immediately. That is not the case right now.

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VAUSE: The first day to vote in the party nomination process is Iowa and a new poll from "The Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg Politics shows Hillary Clinton's lead over Bernie Sanders is narrowing by a lot.

ASHER: And that is a big difference from last -- from the last poll in May. Clinton was leading Sanders 57 percent to 16 percent among likely Iowa voters back then.

VAUSE: OK, short break. But when we come back, after a shaky week, the stock market's all eyes once again are on Asia. We'll check in and see how the new trading week is going. That's just ahead.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Glad you could stay with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher. Let's give you your headlines.

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ASHER (voice-over): France's prime minister, interior minister and an E.U. commissioner will visit Calais and the Eurotunnel in the coming hours. The city has seen a spike in the number of migrants trying to access the tunnel to get to the England. Meanwhile, the E.U. ministers will meet on September 14th to try to find a solution to the migrant crisis.

VAUSE (voice-over): It is national day in Malaysia but celebrations were overshadowed by anti-government protests. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are demanding the resignation of the prime minister.

Najib Razak has been under fire after reports of a transfer of about $700 million USD in an account in his name. He denies any wrongdoing. ASHER (voice-over): In Japan, another huge protest, this one against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's military reforms. Crowds in Tokyo fill the streets near the parliament building Sunday with signs reading, quote, "No war" and "Abe should step down."

The new legislation would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since WWII.

VAUSE (voice-over): Some markets in the Asia Pacific region are off to another rough start. Let's have a look at the numbers. Australia's (INAUDIBLE) Sydney down by more than 1.5 percent. The Nikkei also down almost 2 percent. In Hong Kong, shares down by 0.75 of 1 percent but everyone watching the Shanghai Composite is being down by more than 3 percent but right now down by more than 2.5 percent.

And with that, let's go live to Hong Kong now. Andrew Sullivan, managing director of sales at Haitong Securities, he joins us live.

Andrew, it would seem this report in the "Financial Times" seems to be pretty spot-on the money, Beijing giving up trying to boost the stock market which is why the composite is down.

So given that, how low can it go?

ANDREW SULLIVAN, HAITONG SECURITIES: Well, I think it can go a lot lower if it wants to. But I think the reality is that the government will look to try and implement measures to try and support the market. The reality is though that however much money they want to throw at it, there are an awful lot of retail investors out there that are pretty worried at the moment.

VAUSE: Given that, Beijing is down about $200 billion into the stock market. (INAUDIBLE) having a round here on the numbers, that's about the equivalent of the entire year's budget for social security.

So was that $200 billion they dumped into it over the last couple of months, has that been a complete failure?

SULLIVAN: Well, not a complete failure because, I mean, if you think about it, the rally in the stock market took a lot of pressure out of the housing market for them and it also took a lot of pressure out of the shadow banking system, which were the sort of issues that we were talking about at the beginning of the year.

And more importantly, the property market is a far bigger part and driver for the GDP than the stock market is, unlike Europe or the U.S. The stock market in China is actually quite a small part of the whole economy.

VAUSE: It's a small part of the Chinese economy but yet that the falling stock market and the Shanghai had such a big impact globally last week. So given what we're seeing today, does that mean that Europe and Wall Street had better buckle up? I mean, look at the Dow futures right now, they're not looking pretty flash. SULLIVAN: Well, no, and I think what happened with the devaluation, nothing happened to the real economy in China. It's just people's perception. And that's what we've got globally at the moment. For the last 10 years, I guess, or slightly longer since we've had QE, we've really looked at the central banks to give us guidance and to set us on our way.

And just in the last couple of weeks, we haven't had that guidance. The surprise was China devaluing. That's the first time since 1994 it's done that. We still have uncertainty over whether the Fed's going to raise rates at the next meeting. And in Europe, we're uncertain as well, we've seen the bottom on the way up or we're still bouncing along the bottom as far as the economy there goes.

So there are a lot of uncertainties out there.

VAUSE: There are a lot of uncertainties, but one thing is certain: officials in Beijing are going after these rogue traders, never a bad thing.

But not exactly the underlying cause of the problems in the stock market, is it? It seems that they're looking for scapegoats.

SULLIVAN: Well, I'd agree with you entirely. I mean, I think it's part of the initial deflection that the government always seeks to put in place. I mean, if you remember, the main part of this rally started back in April when the "People's Daily" in China said that Hong Kong was cheap and sort of rather goaded people into buying Hong Kong so they connect.

That's what really drove it. And then even when they had the first correction, government officials were still praising the market and saying it wasn't too late. I think they just got overwhelmed by the amount of retail money that was involved.

VAUSE: Do you see any good news, this measure passed by China's parliament to limit government debt, local government debt at $2.5 trillion?

SULLIVAN: Well, I think that's hopeful. I mean, the reality is that the government debt and the local government debt especially could well be the next big hurdle that China has to overcome.

The short term is, though, and obviously they're looking forward to this parade and they are making that move towards becoming a more consumption based economy. But they are still at the moment, the SOE's a very much rust driven industries and it's going to take them a long time to change that from that reliance on exports to developing the domestic consumer.

VAUSE: Yes, you talk about this big parade on Thursday marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in WWII, that kind of --

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VAUSE: -- which amazing how all these things tie into each other -- only in China.

Andrew, it's good to speak with you. Thank you for your clarity. We appreciate it.

SULLIVAN: You're welcome.

ASHER: (INAUDIBLE) to the U.S. now where President Barack Obama is going to be heading to Alaska on Monday to raise awareness about climate change. He says global warming is evident in Alaska, where they celebrated ice melts, wildfires and vanishing glaciers as well.

VAUSE: Mr. Obama would be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Arctic on his trip. He'll also rename North America's tallest peak from Mt. McKinley to Denali in a nod to the region's native population.

Now for the first time ever, there is not one, not two but in fact three major hurricanes going simultaneously across the Northern Pacific ocean. Our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is here to tell us all about it.

One's weakening. What about the other two?

JAVAHERI: They're all still major hurricanes. So that's important to note. But one of them is weakening; the other two are category 4s.

(CROSSTALK)

ASHER: -- close attention to Hawaii, but it's probably going to pass to the north --

JAVAHERI: That's right. The first one looks like it's going to pass to the north and we often talk about multiple typhoons in the same area. But never before have we seen them all a category 3 or stronger, which is where we are at this point with 180 kph winds.

So here's what it looks like --

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JAVAHERI: -- (INAUDIBLE) --

ASHER: (INAUDIBLE).

JAVAHERI: -- yes, a tropical trio of hurricanes out there and across the Eastern, Central Pacific as well. Ignacio's the main concern right now because it's very close towards the Hawaiian Islands.

And again, when you're talking about this, and never before have we seen three of them in a major scale. So pretty impressive sight. And here we go with Ignacio, right about 150 or so miles north of the Hawaiian Islands. It is in closer proximity to kick up the waves. We know tropical storm warnings have been issued over the islands as well with the heavy rainfall expected over this region.

So Ignacio again, kind of brushes by to the north; good news when it comes to the folks across the islands there. But the storm system brings in some rainfall, enhances the moisture across this region and then, again, with the winds picking up, look what happens back behind it. Jimena, another hurricane, lines up; this particular one a strong category 4, sitting there with winds about 240 kph.

In fact, want to leave you with an image courtesy of Scott Kelly, one of our astronauts on board the International Space Station, look at this. That's the moon in the bottom of your screen. That is Hurricane Jimena in relation to the moon, incredible sight, and a model indicating Jimena has the potential to ride very close to the Hawaiian Islands.

It's important to know as we touched on Honolulu's flooding issues last month -- last week -- 13 millimeters is what they typically see. They've seen 200 millimeters so far in August as far as rainfall. So that is 1,400 percent above normal. So any of these storms coming in close proximity, that area's already been hit very hard with heavy rainfall.

VAUSE: Already saturated. OK, Pedram, thanks.

ASHER: Thank you.

VAUSE: When we come back, the hottest young music stars get together for awards show; it all got a little crazy. It always does.

ASHER: (INAUDIBLE) go wrong? Uh-oh.

VAUSE: We'll be back.

ASHER: (INAUDIBLE) for the first time ever.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE).

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VAUSE: Hi and welcome back, everybody. MTV promised an unforgettable night of music and moments and that's pretty much what we got at this year's Video Music Awards.

ASHER: It was all about Miley Cyrus.

VAUSE: It was.

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VAUSE (voice-over): There she is now. She's gotten hosting duties. She wore some fairly revealing little numbers there. That was just one of them. ASHER (voice-over): I thought that she couldn't shock me anymore but apparently tonight she certainly did. And then you had superstar Taylor Swift. She was the big winner of the night, taking home three of the coveted new men awards, including Video of the Year for her smash hit, "Bad Blood."

She was very gracious, especially with her interaction with Kanye West --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE (voice-over): This all got real when Nicki Minaj came out for her award.

ASHER (voice-over): How could we forget.

VAUSE (voice-over): And this was a moment which everyone must have left wondering is this real? Has this been staged? So Nicki Minaj got there and if she had bucket plans because --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE (voice-over): -- very large posterior. I don't know.

ASHER (voice-over): It was certainly a handful.

VAUSE (voice-over): Yes. She called out Miley Cyrus because apparently they have some beef going on that Miley Cyrus criticized her -- there she is, just dropped the B word, the B ma dog word, and, yes, so these two went at it big time during the awards. That was one of the highlights.

Also Justin Bieber, last one, we heard that, Justin Bieber breaking down and crying.

ASHER: We'll have much more in the next hour. But thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Zain Asher.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. "WORLD SPORT's" up next and then another edition of CNN (INAUDIBLE).

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ERIN HAWKSWORTH, CNN HOST: Welcome to CNN WORLD SPORT. I'm Erin Hawksworth. Less than 24 hours before the start of the U.S. Open, and World number 3 Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the tournament with a right leg injury.

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HAWKSWORTH (voice-over): The five-time Grand Slam winner broke the news, saying, quote, "Unfortunately I will not be -- [00:45:00]

HAWKSWORTH (voice-over): -- "able to compete in this year's U.S. Open. I've done everything possible to be ready but it just was not enough time.

"To all my amazing fans, I'll be back in the Asian swing in a few weeks and look forward to finishing the year healthy and strong."

To the Premier League, Swansea stunned Manchester United with a comeback victory on Sunday to see off the English giants. And it was an entertaining match. Juan Mata gave United the lead just after the restart. But in the 61st, Swansea leveled when Gylfi Sigurdsson crosses not at home by Andre Ayew. Then moments later, the home side took control when Ayew turned provider with a splitting pass toward Bafetimbi Gomis, which wasn't home. Swansea wins it, 2-1. Here's an angry Louis Van Gaal.

LOUIS VAN GAAL, MANCHESTER UNITED: You are asking now things what you don't know. What I don't know. You think you are smarter than I, but it is not like that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm only asking about the transfers. And so we will play again.

HAWKSWORTH (voice-over): I know I'm not smarter than Louis Van Gaal.

It was a great weekend all around for Manchester City, who led the way with four wins from four more on that in just a minute.

Meantime, the Swansea victory over United puts them in fourth with Swansea and Southampton both winning at home Sunday, the Saints beat Norwich 3-0.

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HAWKSWORTH: Man City have made it very clear that they want to win back the league title this season. And on Sunday, they confirmed the signing of Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg on a six-year deal. They haven't disclosed any figures but it's said to be a club record fee in the region of $85 million.

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KEVIN DE BRUYNE, MANCHESTER CITY: I think the Premier League is probably the best league in the world and afterwards there probably will be Germany. I think in Germany I had a great time, I had a successful 1.5 years at the club. We won some titles. So yes, I think now it's a new chance to be better as a player and hopefully I can do good. I just want to try to help the team and hopefully at the end of the season we can celebrate together if we won some titles.

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HAWKSWORTH: Paris Saint-Germain were in Monaco on Sunday as they look to continue their best league start since 2005-06. Angel di Maria made his debut after his highly anticipated blockbuster signing. But it was Edinson Cavani who scored twice in this one, including this first goal of the match here, a near post header gives PSG the lead.

And then in his debut, there's di Maria, set up a goal here for Ezequiel Lavezzi, as PSG ended their winless lead run against Monaco to maintain their perfect league start, 3-0 at end.

Moving on to the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the Barclays South Korea's Bae Sang-moon and Australia's Jason Day, they shared the overnight lead at 11 under par. But Jason was yet again just too good on this day.

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HAWKSWORTH (voice-over): Donald Trump, he was in attendance, schmoozing with fans. Meantime on the 7th hole, Henrik Stenson was (INAUDIBLE) a charge. He (INAUDIBLE) the long birdie from the fringe to move to -11. But as we said, this was Jason's day here on the 11th hole par 3. Day stuffed the tee shot to the par 3 and that will set up the easy birdie for him to move to -16. And on 15, Day was on fire with the putter as well, curling in the long putt to move to -18. The crowds loving it.

And finally on 18, Jason Day, finishes up with one last birdie to shoot 62 on the day and finish at -19 for a six-shot victory.

So just what a great story, fresh off the PGA championship victory, Jason Day has now won three of his last four starts. And one incredible side note is the American Brian Harmon becoming only the third PGA Tour player to make two holes-in-one in the same round, which was also managed on Sunday.

And with that, CNN WORLD SPORT -- we'll be right back.

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HAWKSWORTH: The World Athletics Championships are over for another year and we had some terrific entertainment in the Bird's Nest Stadium. How about the women's 4x400 meters? It was the USA who were the favorites to take gold but nobody told the Jamaican team that.

The Americans were shocked as Novlene Williams-Mills, she powered down the accelerator on the last 50 meters to catch Francena McCorory as the Jamaicans clocked 3:19.13, the best time in the world this year.

So let's check on the final medals table. And it makes for a really good story.

Kenya sits proudly at the top for the first time ever at the World Championships. Their final tally: seven gold, seven silvers and three bronze medals. Jamaica were second with four less silvers; the USA had the most medals with 18 but it was the fewest medals they've won since 2003.

The countdown continues to next month's Rugby World Cup in England where New Zealand will be looking to do what no team has ever done before and that's when back-to-back titles. The headline act: Richie McCaw, who will captain his country in his fourth World Cup.

And on Sunday, the Kiwis unveiled with their 31-man squad with Coach Steve Hansen choosing 17 forwards and 14 backs. There's a place, too, for 24-year-old flying wing Waisake Naholo, who's been named in the squad following a surprise recovery from that broken leg.

So who's one former All Blacks star tipping to win the tournament?

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CARLOS SPENCER, FORMER NEW ZEALAND PLAYER: The All Blacks of course, OK?

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SPENCER: I don't think anyone else is going to come close now.

OK. I've always had a All Blacks better. I think at the moment, they're probably the team going with the most memory to England, you know, home advantage, Ireland's starting to play some really good rugby as well. And (INAUDIBLE) the South Africans, you know, (INAUDIBLE). And probably the Australians, you know, so there's probably five teams, you know, only a day could win the World Cup.

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HAWKSWORTH: Serena Williams will be taking center stage at the U.S. Open over the next couple of weeks. But American fans will also have the Bryan brothers to root for, Bob and Mike are the dominant force in men's doubles. They're a World number 1 pair and the defending champs as Flushing Meadows, as twin brothers, they've hardly been apart in 37 years. So we decided to test just how well they actually know each other.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which pair, past, present, would I most like to see live?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to say Maroon 5 or Jay Matthews band. But I'm going to --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maroon 5.

What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jay Matthews Band. You joke p-

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the one thing I would want from a desert island?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guitar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was going to say that, but I need matches and (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know you do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the first thing, not a person, that I would save in a fire?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'd save your cold mouth first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh. You're right. Now that you think of it, I would. But I didn't put that.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My keyboard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too heavy. I don't think it could get it out of there.

MIKE BRYAN: OK, Bob. When is my wedding anniversary? You'd better get this right.

BOB BRYAN: November 23rd or 24th, 25, 26, 27.

(LAUGHTER)

BOB BRYAN: I don't know.

MIKE BRYAN: You don't know it, man, that's rough. You were my best man.

BOB BRYAN: When is it?

[00:55:00]

MIKE BRYAN: It's the 25th.

BOB BRYAN: OK, well, come on. I got it down in here.

MIKE BRYAN: It doesn't count, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What superpower would I most want?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I said teleportation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man. That would be fun, yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that would be great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want that. I don't want my invisibility; I want what you wanted for me.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which fictional character would I most like to be?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which superpower or...?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fictional character; it could be anyone. Could be Smurf. Could be any fictional character.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Superman. It'll help your serve.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a layup for you, man.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What temp is the thermostat set to at my house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's set to 72.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like 59. But no, my wife and kids like 72.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You like 69 -- you have it in your hotel rooms, set at 69.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bad luck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know I was going to say 69.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At my house, it's 72. And Michelle likes 72. I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to break this over your head.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which historical figure would I most like to have dinner with?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to figure this out for myself first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Jordan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. You got it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was lucky.

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HAWKSWORTH: Ah, he came up big on the last question. I loved that.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Erin Hawksworth. This is my last day at CNN so I want to thank all of you for tuning in. I'll miss you. Take care, everyone. Yes.

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