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U.S. Attorney General Fails to Disclose Meetings with Russia; The Human Toll of The Philippines War on Drugs; Wrapping Up Mobile World Congress. 8:00-9:00a ET

Aired March 2, 2017 - 8:00   ET

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


[08:00:11] JONATHAN MANN, HOST: Hello. I'm Jonathan Mann in Atlanta, welcome to News Stream. The U.S. attorney general failed to disclose a

meeting with a Russian diplomat who some say is a spy. We'll tell you how Russia is responding.

Donald Trump hit the right notes with his first address to congress, but now comes the hard part, turning prose into policy.

And a mother's agony at the death of her teenaged son. This is the front line of The Philippines' war on drugs.

Thanks for joining us. Democrats in Washington are demanding answers as another member of the Trump administration is accused of meeting a Russian

ambassador during the U.S. election. The Justice Department is pin pointing its finger at its own chief, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

What he says he didn't do anything wrong. The pressure is mounting. Joe Johns has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Justice Department revealing Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak

twice during President Trump's campaign in 2016. Contacts Sessions did not disclose under oath at his Senate confirmation hearing.

JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have

communications with the Russians.

I would just say to you that I have no information about this matter.

JOHNS: Sessions denying any impropriety, releasing a new statement now saying, quote, "I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of

the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."

But the Justice Department revealing that Sessions met with Kislyak last July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

SESSIONS: Make America great again.

JOHNS: Four months after Sessions was named chairman of the Trump campaign's national security advisory committee. Sessions met again with

Ambassador Kislyak last September in a Senate office. The White House blasting allegations by leading Democrats that he misled Congress as

partisan politics, in a statement saying, quote, "Sessions met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services

Committee, which is entirely consistent with his testimony."

Sessions' spokeswoman says, quote, "There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer."

The denials from Sessions and the White House are in direct conflict with what the Justice Department says happened. Senior government sources tell

CNN that the ambassador is considered by U.S. intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies in Washington.

Last December, U.S. intelligence intercepted conversation between Kislyak and President Trump's former national security advisor, Lieutenant General

Michael Flynn. Flynn was later fired for misleading the vice president about discussing sanctions with Russia.

Meanwhile, "The New York Times" is reporting Obama administration officials scrambled to preserve any information about possible contacts between

President Trump's campaign aides and Russia before Mr. Trump took office. The officials quickly spreading information about Russia's efforts "to

leave a clear trail of intelligence."

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have nothing to do with Russia.

JOHNS: The White House has repeatedly denied any such contact.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I haven't called Russia in ten years.

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: At what point, how many people have to say that there's nothing there before you realize there's nothing

there?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Russia's foreign ministry has pushed back against the accusation that the Russian

ambassador is one of the country's top spies. We'll have more on that in a moment, meanwhile members of Session's own Republican Party are asking him

to recuse himself from any investigation involving ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: There is something there. And it goes up the chain of investigation. It is clear to me that Jeff Sessions,

who is my dear friend, cannot make this decision about Trump. So there may be nothing there, but if there's something there that the FBI believes is

criminal in nature, then for sure you need a special prosecutor.

If that day ever comes, I'll be the first one to say it needs to be somebody other than Jeff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Leading Democrats are taking it a step further calling on Sessions to resign. Congressman Elijah Cummings spoke with CNN just a short time

ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS, (D) MARYLAND: I think Attorney General Sessions ought to at least recuse himself and then I think we need to look in to

figure out, well, if he doesn't remember a meeting with the Russians, then that's a problem too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: The U.S. Justice Department is looking into the various strands of this tangled story

and the House intelligence committee appears to be one step closer to launching its investigation, it's to look into what cyber activity Moscow

used against the U.S. and whether Russia had links to political campaigns.

The committee is also to assess the U.S. government response and whether anyone leaked classified information.

Now, in the last few minutes the Kremlin has responded to the revelations saying the reports

are not Russia's headache. CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from Moscow. And, Nic, the details are dripping out daily. Are authorities there taking

much notice?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are. You have the foreign ministry spokesman today, Maria Zarahova (ph), on her Facebook page

addressing the issue of Kislyak, the allegations that he is one of Russia's top spies in Washington, saying is this the media low or can they fall

further? Dimitry Peskov, as you were just mentioning there, the spokesman for President Putin is saying - calling the situation in Washington at the

moment an emotionally charged environment. Don't believe the allegations about Kislyak, the ambassador

as being a spy.

So, you know, for Russia, the drip, drip, drip, it's a very damaging feeling because they're being implicated as doing something wrong, which

they completely deny. They say they don't interfere in the affairs of foreign governments. They've said that for quite a while about the allegations that they

hacked into the DNC computer to influence the outcome of the elections. So, that's been on the record there for some time.

But in the case of this current situation, there's a growing frustration that they can't do business with the United States on the issues they like

to. They characterizing this as an internal domestic issue inside the United States. But there is a frustration because clearly they would like

to see a cease-fire inside Syria and that's something that they need -- they feel they need United States involvement there as part of the

negotiations involving the -- all the oppositions and the government parties there inside Syria. That's just one small tiny issue that's being

held up here.

So, frustration and emotive language being used here in Moscow.

MANN: I want to ask you about the Russian ambassador. To anyone's mind, he doesn't

exactly look like the James Bond type, but Washington is describing him as exactly that way. He is considered to be one of Russia's top spies and spy

recruiters. How much do we know about him?

ROBERTSON: Well, I suppose if you were a spy novelist, you might try to develop a character that looked like the anti-thesis this is the details we

know about him. He studied at the university in the United States, the Institute of Physics in '73. '77 he joins the

foreign ministry. He becomes the second secretary at the then Soviet mission to the United Nations. He's there for five years. That's '81 to

'85. '85 he goes and becomes the first secretary of the U.S. -- the Soviet embassy in Washington.

So he has about ten years in the United States.

Then he comes back to Russia and the foreign ministry various different ministerial positions. In '98 he goes to the Russian ambassador to

Belgium. He's the representative at NATO. '03, 2003, he comes back to Moscow. Deputy foreign minister. Then 2008 goes back to Washington again.

I mean, this is a man who has a very, very solid diplomatic career that is perhaps mirrored by

other ambassadors around the world. Perhaps where he stands out is that he did have that ten year

spell in the '80s in the United States and that his tenureship as ambassador in Washington, D.C. was perhaps a little longer than average.

He's been there for almost 10 years. But Russia's consistent position on this is don't believe the

allegations about him. Russia doesn't interfere in the affairs of foreign nations. And of course, you know, when the United States expelled just

around Christmas 35 russian diplomats from the United States, he obviously wasn't among them.

You might argue, and a novelist might argue, had he been a spy, he might have been therfore ejected, a counterintelligence operative might say well

if he was a spy and we knew about it, we'd keep him in place and we could keep watching him.

MANN: I just want to remind our viewers the Russian government is responding. And even at moment while we're talking the foreign ministry is

giving a briefing and we're monitoring it to see what they're saying about all of this, but as Nic has been telling us,

denials from the word go.

Nic, in addition to denials, are we hearing anything else from Russia? I mean, one of the astonishing things about this is how much this entire

drama is playing out in public at the highest reaches of the U.S. government. Are there any voices independent enough in Russia, free enough

to come forward and examine the possibility that Russia may in fact have been meddling?

[08:10:07] ROBERTSON: That's not a narrative that's emerging here at all. I think the sort of, if you can look for a narrative here in all of this,

it does seem to be that, you know, the leadership here in Russia does want to try to preserve in some way at some point the opportunity to engage with

President Trump.

You know, we knew during his campaign, we knew in the early weeks after the inauguration that there was a desire it appeared to be on his part to form

this closer relationship to make some deals with President Putin. That's clearly gone. But when you listen to Dimitry Peskov as he spoke in the

past hour to journalists saying that,you know, let's not make any judgments while these emotionally charged events are going on in Washington. Let's

not prejudge it in that context. He's clearly leaving the door open to wait for the temperature on these issues to lower.

But at the same time, I mean, he has recognized here that the relationship between the United

States and Russia is effectively being poisoned by what's going on in Washington at the moment.

He was asked the question do you see an opportunity for Trump and Putin to meet in the near future and he said clearly these events in Washington are

having a negative impact on when that could be, when such a meeting might become possible.

MANN: Nic Robertson in Moscow, thanks very much.

Yes about Russia and the attorney general are threatening to derail the momentum from President Trump's speech to congress. Mr. Trump heads to

Virginia in the coming hours to make his case for the agenda he laid out, but there's some concern about the price tag of his vision.

Our Jeff Zeleny has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: As President Trump basked in the glow of his big speech to congress.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much.

ZELENY: The hard work of turning those promises into reality was the first order of business today at the White House, with the president sitting down

for lunch with republican congressional leaders.

TRUMP: We're just here to start the process. It begins as of now. And we think we're going to have tremendous success.

ZELENY: Yet, tremendous success depends not only on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan but on persuading the party's

rank and file to pay for his agenda. The president delayed again today the signing of a travel ban to replace the one blocked in the courts.

CNN has learned the Secretary of State, Defense Secretary, and National Security Adviser are all pushing for Iraq to be removed from the list of

majority-Muslim countries included in the ban. But in most of his primetime address, the president struck a more optimistic note.

TRUMP: A new national pride is sweeping across our nation.

ZELENY: But it remains an open question whether it was a lasting pivot or a one-night performance after a rough start to his presidency. In either

case, his wish list is an expensive and complicated one, even among republicans, not to mention democrats who are largely resisting the Trump

agenda. From health care.

TRUMP: We should ensure that Americans with preexisting conditions have access to coverage and that we have a stable transition for Americans

currently enrolled in the health care exchanges.

(APPLAUSE)

ZELENY: To tax reform.

TRUMP: It had been a big, big cut. At the same time, we will provide massive tax relief for the middle class.

ZELENY: To infrastructure.

TRUMP: To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in

infrastructure of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

ZELENY: After the speech, Speaker Ryan offered praise but walked away when asked about the price tag.

PAUL RYAN, UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I thought he did a great job.

ZELENY: Did he answer questions how he would pay for things tonight?

ZELENY: So Speaker Ryan not answering our question, how much this will cost. But several fiscal conservatives are raising the question, how much

will all of the president's agenda items actually tack onto the federal budget.

Now deficit spending no longer in vogue like it was some decades ago, this is all a key part of the question of how much the president will have to

push to get his agenda enacted.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: To France now where presidential race all but consumed by controversy just had another particular turn. Marie Le Pen no longer has

parliament immunity after a vote by EU lawmakers. The far right presidential candidate is under investigation for tweeting graphic images

of ISIS executions in 2015.

Melissa Bell is following developments in Paris and joins us now. Tell us about this decision. I gather it has nothing to do with what's seen like

much more substantial and important accusations, about her use of EU government money.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Jonathan. This is not the first time either that the European parliament has chosen to

strip Marine Le Pen of her immunity so she can face prosecution here in France. It has happened before. She likened Muslim who parade in the

streets to Nazis who'd occupied France in the way they'd conducted themselves while they were in the country at the time the lifting of her

immunity had allowed that prosecution to to go ahead here in France as well.

Now, this lifting of immunity this time was also asked for by French authorities. So, it is very likely that Marine Le Pen is going to be

facing another judicial inquiry in addition to the one that you allude to in which he is accused of having helped pay her staff with parliamentary

money quite illegally and a third investigation to do with party campaign financing.

Those three clouds now very much hanging over the far right leader's campaign. And yet, Jonathan, can this cost her her place in the polls?

Probably not. Her base of supporters really don't tend to hold this kind of thing against her. On the contrary, they buy her line that she is a

victim of sort of persecution on the part of judicial authorities.

Also Marine Le Pen is really the National Front since she took it over from her father. That is not the case for Francois Fillon. He is now third in

the polls and the Republican candidate is facing a deepening judicial investigation of his own. He is plowing on,

but the pressure today is really growing from within his own party. And the question is, really, and this is one being asked on television today by

people from his own side, can he survive until the April 23 first round of voting?

So, I would suggest that although both those right wing candidates are facing judicial procedures, the dangers facing Francois Fillon in terms of

his candidacy and his future as the party's candidate are far more serious.

[08:16:48] MANN: Still we're in the extraordinary situation now in a major democracy of two of the three leading candidates for the presidency being

under a cloud for misuse of government funds. There is a third candidate, though, and he was in the news today for a completely different reason.

Tell us about that.

BELL: And as you'd expect, Jonathan, he's trying to milk this for all it's worth. We're talking about Emmanuel Macron, the former economy minister,

who is now doing something that simply never been done in French politics before, trying to become president having never been elected to any office

in the past and with no established party behind him. So, today he finally, with just seven weeks to go until polling day, outlined the

substance of his program. There had been many questions about the fact that he appeared to be plowing ahead in the polls, second now only to

Marine Le Pen, but that no one really knew exactly what he was about.

Well, that all changed this morning with an extremely detailed program being announced about what he will do if he becomes president.

But of course, top of his list of priorities, and this will have been a decision made within the

last few days as a result of the problems facing his two main rivals, a huge emphasis on the need to clean up public life and to change the laws

here in France so that the political elites are less well protected than they currently are, Jonathan.

MANN: It's an astonishing campaign so far. Melissa Bell in Paris. Thanks very much.

The British government says it's disappointed by a Brexit vote in the House of Lords, but

ads the EU exit talks will start votes will start on time despite the hitch.

The House of Lords voted to amend the Brexit bill demanding they guarantee on the rights of EU citizens in the UK after Britain's divorce.

The amended bill must now go back to the House of Commons for its reconsideration.

In the poor slums of The Philippines, a violent war on drugs that shows little mercy. We'll take you to a neighborhood where some of the most

shocking killings have been carried out. Plus, CNN's Arwa Damon returns to Mosul months after she was trapped in that embattled city. Her journey to

reunite with the shoulder she was embedded with in a new CNN special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:03] MANN: Welcome back. A North Korean man detailed in the Kim Jong-nam murder investigation is to be released. Malaysia's attorney

general say they don't have enough evidence to charge Rhee Jong-cho (ph), but they will deport him because he doesn't have valid travel documents.

The murder of the North Korean's half brother has strained diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur. Starting Monday, North Korean's will

need a visa to travel to Malaysia. Previously they'd been free to enter without one.

A new report called licensed to kill: Human Rights Watch is accusing Philippine police of routinely killing drug suspects and planting guns and

evidence to justify a claim of self-defense. It's just the latest controversy surrounding the government's violent war on illegal drugs.

Will Ripley takes us to the front line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another night to the streets of Manila. Another neighborhood echoes with the gut-wrenching sound of grief. Elaine

Soriano's (ph) 16-year-old son and his 15-year-old friend are lying dead in an ambulance. She's begging the drivers to release their bodies.

"Our boys are already dead," she says. "Please, have pity on us."

They don't have the $1,900 this funeral home wants.

They say once the bodies go in there, they're not going to be able to afford to pay to get them out. So they're trying to stop this ambulance.

The boys were killed here. Four gun men opened fire, seven people died, including four teenagers and a pregnant woman.

Neighbors say it was a party. Police say it was a drug den, the victims killed over a personal feud. So far, they've made one arrest.

Night after night, we see violence and slaughter in the Philippines poorest slums. The same neighborhoods long plagued by poverty and drug fueled

crime. Neighborhoods, President Rodrigo Duterte has promised to make safe again through his nationwide war on drugs, the president encouraging police

and citizens to shoot to kill when they feel threatened. Most Filipinos support the

plan despite the rising body count.

Less than eight months into the war on drugs, more than 7,000 people dead. Police say more than half unexplained or vigilante killings like this man

suspected of being a small-time drug dealer, shot outside his one room shack next to a sewage-filled creek. The assailant unknown.

Police shootings make up the rest. The officers who opened fire on these young men are quick to point out guns on the ground and shabu (ph), meth,

in their pockets. Nearly all reports say the accused fired first. The Philippines Commission on Human Rights says of 20 police shootings they're

investigating, there's zero evidence of suspects actually shooting at police.

The manager of this Manila funeral home says they usually get busy after 2:00 a.m. Sometimes the body sit for months. Those never claimed get the

same label.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. X.

RIPLEY: Mr. X if they don't have a name.

UNIDENITIFIED MALE: Yeah. It means no family.

RIPLEY: Eventually, they go to a mass grave.

Soriano (ph) wants to bury her son, Angelito (ph). She worries it will take weeks or longer to raise the money. The ambulance drivers with the two

boys' bodies inside eventually yield to the pleas of the families, or perhaps the glare of our cameras. They agree to transfer the body to a

cheaper funeral home. Soriano (ph) didn't think she had any tears left until her son's body appears, uncovered, riddled with bullets.

Another night on the front lines of the Philippines drug war, another mother will never see her child again.

Will Ripley, CNN, Manila.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:25:16] MANN: President Duterte war on drugs is affecting innocent men, women, and children from a grandmother mourning the killing of a 5-year-old

to a father who buried his son at a grave that was meant for himself. A special report at CNN.com/Philippines.

Now, to a very personal journey for some of our colleagues here at CNN, colleagues of ours who survived a terrifying of real.

On November 4, correspondent Arwa Damon and cameraman entered Mosul with advanced units of the Iraqi army fighting to liberate the city from ISIS.

Their convoy was ambushed and they spent 28 hours under siege. From the day they escaped they have wanted to return to find the soldiers and

civilians they were surrounded with.

And this excerpt from their special report Return to Mosul, Damon and Lane find the soldier they were embedded with.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's always a bit emotional going back after such an intensive experience. We are excited to see the

soldiers, again, but at the same time, we're a bit apprehensive, because we're not entirely sure who survived.

Hello.

And we're looking for Major Hassan, he's Salahideen's (ph) commander, and as we walk up to him, he breaks into this huge smile.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: He's always joking. A classic tough Iraqi man constantly trying to hide his emotions with dark humor.

One of the first soldiers we saw was Nisam (ph) who had been wounded in his side.

(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

They keep asking about us and if we're okay. And I'm like, no, we're the ones that were worried about you, wondering if you guys were okay.

And then Ahmed walks in. He was the staff sergeant who was shot in the leg that day. Despite

being wounded he had taken complete control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

We looked at the photos on my phone of the men who were with us that day and all four were killed.

This is Haider (ph), and he was the soldier who was killed the day He was the soldier who was

killed the day in that first suicide car bomb that hit the back of the convoy. And now they carry this picture with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Return to Mosul, a CNN special report with Arwa Damon and Bryce Lane (ph).

We'll be seeing it several times this weekend. You can catch it Saturday at noon if you're in Hong Kong, 3:00 p.m. if you're in London right here on

CNN.

Sill ahead, more on the accusations that the U.S. attorney general mislead congress. How the Trump administration is responding to this latest

controversy.

And Snap is launching it initial public offering soon. We'll have an update on how the important first day on the New York Stock Exchange could unfold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[08:31:32] MANN: Let's return now to our top story, U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions and his failure to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador.

Senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns joins us now from the White House. And Joe, thanks so much for being with us. We saw your report

earlier in the program. And Jeff Sessions put forward what sounds like a perfectly reasonable explanation for the discrepancy between his meetings

with the Russian ambassador and his -- well, this testimony to the congress.

Does his explanation put those questions to rest or does it raise more questions?

JOHNS: I think the major problem for Senator Sessions is the fact that he did not disclose before the United States Senate in a confirmation hearing

under oath that he'd had contacts with the Russians. The rest of it seems to fly. The fact that there was a meeting

with the Russian ambassador and a group of other ambassadors outside of Republican convention during the summer. That led to a meeting in his

office, in September. That's all plausibly understandable, especially given the fact that

he was a member of the United States Senate armed services committee.

So there would be reasons to sit down and have a meeting with the Russian ambassador. The problem for the senator and the thing that raises the

questions is the fact that he had an opportunity to disclose the meetings with the Russian ambassador and he didn't do it.

MANN: So, where do things stand now? Some Democrats are calling on him to appoint a special prosecutor, some Democrats are calling on him to resign

as attorney general. Do their voices matter much in the way this is going to unfold?

JOHNS: I think you can say at least at this stage, the talk of a special prosecutor or some type of a special independent investigation outside the

United States Senate gets an increase possibility, given the fact that the nation's chief law enforcement officer now apparently was not completely

candid about his own contacts with Russia. So that's one thing.

The other thing, I think, and the thing you did not mention is recusal. That would be recusal of the attorney general from the investigation -- I

should say the multiple investigations that the FBI is conducting. And he said this morning on another network, NBC, that when appropriate, he will

recuse himself if necessary.

He also expressed a bit of bewilderment of the fact that there have been suggestions that he talked about politics. And he said once again, he

didn't have a conversation with the Russians about the campaign or about politics, Jonathan.

MANN: Can we take a step back and just try to explain what this is all about? And why we're following it this close to the tail? I mean, do

informed Americans, do Democrats, really believe that there was a Russian conspiracy to turn the American election towards Donald Trump and it was actively aided by Americans close to Trump himself?

JOHNS: When you look at the CNN/ORC polling, Jonathan, to be quite honest with you, the public split. What we do know is that very high interest in

the story, something like 7 in 10, 8 in 10 Americans has paid close attention. But then there's a big split. And one

of the big splits is about whether people believe Russia actually influenced the election. Another big split, and it goes

along party lines, fewer Republicans think the Russians interfered, Democrats think it's more likely.

Also Democrats are more concerned about it. They tend to see it as a more serious problem than Republican voters do. So like everything else in a

divided country, the United States public seems to be divided over the significance of the investigation into Russia interfering in the U.S.

election.

MANN: Joe Johns in Washington and the investigations, I guess we can say, just getting going. Thanks very much.

You're watching News Stream. After the break, it's the grand finale from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We'll tell you about the gadget

that got the seal of approval from the CNN team there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Welcome back.

Let's take you to Barcelona where CNN's Kristie Lu Stout and Samuel Burke have been following the latest tech at the Mobile World Congress. But of

all the new and astonishing things the tech world threw at them in the past few days, which one do they like the best?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL COXRRESPONDENT: This is it, Samuel. We made it to the final day of the Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona.

The biggest mobile tech show on the planet.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN MONEY: But I've trying to push my way through the 100,000 people who are here. I still haven't found that one product that

really, really moves me.

LU STOUT: That's right, we've got to find that one cool thing that's going to be an epic search. Let's do it.

BURKE: Let's go.

LU STOUT: Kristie, check out the smart glasses for the blind. It's from a California startup called Ira. For 200 bucks a month, a visually impaired

person has a camera on these glasses, and they carry their phone in their pocket. That way a 4G connection sends the video of whatever is in front

of them, back to an agent in the United States who is at their computer seeing whatever is to the left and to the right. And then that person can

give the blind person audio cues through speakers in the smart glasses and tell them to move to the right a bit, move to the left a bit.

So, I'm going to try and navigate the crowds here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello there, Samuel. I see you are approaching a sign.

BURKE: I see that there's an escalator in front of me so I'm really going to test this now and move out line with the escalator to see what the agent

who is actually in California tells me.

So, here you go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you want to take two steps to the left to find that escalator ascending up.

Perfect, great.

So, that sign on your right was actually telling the different exhibit floors. The social hashtag is #mwc17.

BURKE: Well, Kristie, it is difficult getting around with so many people, whether you're visually impaired or not. But the audio instructions did

seem to really help, indeed pretty clear.

The other thing that's interesting about this company is they have a special agreement with wireless carriers in the United States to give

priority access to the 4G network for the blind. So, if everybody is using their phones and the network is very busy, the blind will be able to keep

on using this service.

What have you found, Kristie?

LU STOUT: This is the one cool thing we found here at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. This is the Sony Xperia Touch. It's a projector

that allows you to you directly manipulate and interact with images and apps that it projects. That's right, you can directly touch, zoom in, zoom

out, thanks to this infrared sensor located right here.

Now, we have Oscar marketing manager with Sony who is going to man the controls for us. Give it a go.

(MUSIC)

[08:40:11] LU STOUT: And you can also play the piano. Can't quite to fur elise on this, but very, very, very impressive.

The Sony Xperia Touch just launched this week in Europe and Japan. It will retail for roughly around $1,600. Kind of out of reach and pricey for

some, but still, this is pretty cool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Fun stuff.

And while we're talking tech, Snap, parent company of Snapchat looks for a successful IPO. It's scheduled to start trading on the New York Stock

Exchange soon. And right now, the demand for its stock is strong despite concern about Snapchat's user growth and it's struggles to actually make

money. Snap will take in about $3.4 billion from the IPO, that gives the company a market value of almost $24 billion, the largest U.S. tech IPO

since Facebook.

Now, Snapchat is wildly popular, especially for Millennials, but it's definitely losing out on

one major market: China. An app that's remarkably similar to Snapchat is successful in filling that void. Therese Pham (ph) has more on the appeal

of snow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THERESE PHAM (PH), CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the app giving Ssnapchat a run for its

money in Asia. And this is one of the most popular features on the app.

Snow is a Snapchat copycat and it is huge in Asia.

Like Snapchat, Snow's publicly shared videoes disappear after 24 hours and they cap out at ten seconds. There are lots of filters and plenty of face

filters, lots of them. Some are nearly identical to Snapchat's and others appeal to more Asia tastes. Literally.

And this is how Snow hooked users, by offering hundreds and hundreds of free and cute and

weird effects and tailoring them to the local market.

Snow launched in South Korea in 2015, four years after Snapchat debuted in the U.S. Its parent company says more than 100 million people have

downloaded the app and they have at least 40 million monthly active users.

Now, that's a lot fewer than Snapchat has, but Snow's success was enough up to catch Facebook's eye who reportedly tried to buy the app last year.

Snow is hugely popular in Japan, South Korea and China. And that last country is key because Snapchat, like Facebook and Instagram, is banned in

China. After Snap's massive IPO, there will be more pressure for Snapchat to add users, but the company has not made any significant inroads here in

Asia. Instead, Facebook and Instagram and Snow all copied Snapchat's most popular features, and between them, they've got a pretty big church of the

market.

Now, some analysts say the Asian market is diverse and it is still growing and there's plenty to tap, but others say there's just not a lot left here

for Snapchat.

Therese Pham (ph), CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: And that's News Stream for today. I'm Jonathan Mann. Don't go away.

END