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Trump To Announce Iran Decision Tuesday; Trump Expected To Withdraw From 2015 Agreement; U.K., France and Germany Urge Trump To Uphold Deal; WSJ: Trump Team May Decide By May 17 On Mueller Interview; CNN Poll: 40 Percent Say Things Going Badly In U.S.; Melania Trump Unveils "Be Best" Campaign; Sanders Rebuke "Washington Post" Reporting; Nigerian Army Frees 1,000 Women and Children Held Captive; Outrage After Two Rape Cases in Same Region; Destructive Volcano still Battering Hawaii; Alex Ferguson Remains in Intensive Care; Manchester City Presented with League Trophy. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 8, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:11]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: This is CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour --

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Just hours from now Donald Trump's decision on the Iran nuclear deal and the defiant Iran has a warning for Washington.

VAUSE: Plus, captives no more, a thousand hostages mostly women and children free from Boko Haram in Nigeria.

SESAY: And glowing red lava spewing out of sidewalks, streets, setting everything in its path on fire with no way to stop the destruction in Hawaii.

VAUSE: Hello. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM LA starts right now.

VAUSE: Donald Trump is set to make what could be one of those consequential decisions of his presidency. On Monday, he tweeted, "I will be announcing my decision on the Iran deal tomorrow from the White House at 2 p.m."

SESAY: The president campaigned hard against the nuclear deal calling it one of the worst ever made. Iran says it will not renegotiate the agreement which has been in place since 2015.

VAUSE: CNN senior producer, Amir Daftari, is live in Tehran. We also have correspondent, Ian Lee, for us in Jerusalem. Also here in Los Angeles, European affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas.

So, Amir, first to you, after this announcement, there has been defiance from Tehram. Here's part of the speech by President Hassan Rouhani, which was broadcast live on national television. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If America leaves the nuclear accord, it will soon see that this will entail historic remorse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, part of that (inaudible) is historic remorse. What is notable is the Iranians are not saying that (inaudible) the agreement altogether if the U.S. pulls out. So, what are the expectations when it comes down to Tehran's next move?

AMIR DAFTARI, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's a good question, John, and one that many are trying to figure out. Obviously, it comes down to what President Trump decides which way he goes, but as you heard there, a lot of tough talk from Tehran, them saying they will not renegotiate this deal.

It's all or nothing. Now there's been talk of retaliation threats, but again very little detail on what that retaliation may be. Foreign Minister Javad Sarif has talked about ramping up Iran's nuclear activity faster than before.

Other officials have talked about fleeing out of another international deal. The NPT, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which curve countries' ability to build up nuclear weapons in their nuclear ability, but again very little details on that as well.

Now the Iranians it seems are holding their cards close to their chest not giving much away, playing this sort of wait and see approach. But not only waiting to see what President Trump says, but also how these other signatories to the deal, Germany, France, China, Russia, how they respond as well -- John.

VAUSE: Amir, thank you. Ian, to you in Jerusalem. The Israeli prime minister has been a very critic of this deal from the very beginning. On Monday, he did not explicitly mentioned Iran, but it seems he had a clear message for Tehran.

Part of what he said, "Let the enemies that threaten us with destruction know that they will hit an iron wall and will put themselves in grave danger. Establishing a state do not bring about an end to others' desire to attack us. What it brings is the ability to fight back against our enemies."

So, the context here is that Israel has conducted repeated airstrikes already in targets in Syria while the Iranians have not retaliated, but that could change if the Iran nuclear deal is scrapped.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Israel and Iran have been really on a collision course if you been watching what's going on with neighboring Syria and how Israel has been responding. You have Israel really dealing with Iran on two fronts. You do have Iran's nuclear program and we recently had Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu come out with a presentation with a trove of documents that were stolen from Iran. He said these documents prove that Iran is lying about their nuclear program and that they're trying to develop it.

Although experts in international community as well as here said that there really was nothing new in these documents that people didn't know, but when you look at neighboring Syria that's where the immediate threat Israeli see coming from Iran.

You have Iran building up its presence there. Yesterday, we heard from the Minister of Energy, (inaudible) say that if Assad allows Iran to build up its military and established a strong military presence inside of Syria that the Assad regime and even Assad himself could be in danger.

Israel really has two big red lines when it comes to Syria. One, they do not want to see Iran building up its military presence, they see as a direct threat.

[00:05:12] And two, they don't want any advance weapons going through Syria to neighboring Lebanon and Hezbollah. Now, Israel has struck inside Syria a number of times going after weapons, going after Iranian interest there.

They carried out two notable airstrikes near Aleppo in Homs and it's been reported that well over a dozen Iranians were killed in these airstrikes. So, right now, they are preparing for Iranian retaliation in the north.

They don't know when that will come. You know, it's been widely reported just in the past 48 hours that they believe an attack is imminent. We don't know if that is true or not that was widely reported in Israeli media.

But it does show that Israel is very concerned about what's going on in Syria and that they say they are preparing for what could happen if Iran decides to retaliate.

VAUSE: OK, Ian. Thank you, Ian Lee there in Jerusalem.

Let's go (inaudible) because we have a situation since (inaudible) Trump administration has pulled out of the 12-nation Transpacific Partnership, the Paris Climate Accord on global warming, slap tariffs on allies like Japan, Australia and Canada, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which is very controversial for many countries especially in Europe.

But it seems pulling out of the Iran deal would be the biggest slap in the face so far (inaudible) U.S. allies but especially so for allies in Europe.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: And I think even should he not pull out of it, the very fact that we have to wait until tomorrow for him to make this announcement should not be normalized. I mean, here we have somebody who is threatening to pull out of the deal that is one of the sort of the best examples of multilateral cooperation.

You know, it brings in the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany and the whole of the European Union and there have been such tremendous attempts made by Europe to underscore the importance of this Atlantic relationship and of the United States and allies with visits by Macron and Merkel, and the British foreign secretary. That it really would be a further weakening of this relationship.

VAUSE: Well, you mentioned, Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary. He is in Washington, D.C. He's actually not scheduled to have a one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump. So, he did the next best thing. He appeared on "Fox and Friends" on Monday. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: The president has a legitimate point. He set a challenge for the world. We think that what you can do is be tougher on Iran, address the concerns of the president, and not throw the baby out with the bath water. Not junk a deal because that's why I say, Plan B does not seem to me to be particularly well developed at this stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Francis Macron did something similar. He appeared on Fox Sunday shows, (inaudible) some nice words to Donald Trump, but is diplomacy via Fox News, how they seemed an ideal way of getting your message to the U.S. president.

THOMAS: Well, it's not an ideal way, but yet again it's become the new normal it would seem, right? It seems that international leaders understand that this is a network watch by the president of the United States.

And rather going through traditional and communication channels and staying away from Twitter that one has to appear on Fox News to be able to communicate, and so of course, this is far from ideal.

What it does point to the fact, though, is that international leaders are aware of the fact that one of the big problems Donald Trump has here is you could say rather being stuck to a rock and a hard place, is stuck between a tweet and a hard place.

And he is well aware of the fact that his comments about the Iran deal and what is perhaps making it so difficult for this administration to change their position because it would inevitably imply backing down.

VAUSE: So, taking him away out with his base?

THOMAS: Well, I think that the way Emmanuel Macron certainly spoke on Fox News was present in very simple and clear terms what was at stake in withdrawing from the Iran deal and perhaps soften and pave the way for discussions with Donald Trump. And we'll, of course, find out tomorrow whether he or Merkel was successful in doing that.

VAUSE: Well, (inaudible) and another think tank carried a simulation last year. (Inaudible) the consequences of what happens should be present decide to wave the sanctions and to reimpose the sanctions (inaudible) the Iran nuclear deal.

And it found in terms of U.S. objectives to improve this nuclear agreement, the United States did not present any concrete plan to achieve them. It really came clear that the American administration wanted other international actors, the European parties to the agreement.

France, Germany and Russia to exert pressure on Iran as well enforcing to meet the U.S. administration's (inaudible), which is very much where we find ourselves right now. What's interesting, the simulation found or went on to find that essentially the U.S. ended up having very little control of determining the final outcome here. So, is that something how you see this playing out now?

THOMAS: Well, I mean, what's interesting is that, first of all, the stakes for Europe are enormous and they are heavily invested in this deal for trade reasons, of course, but also for much greater multilateral regional stability.

[00:10:13] There are enormous implications in terms of human migration, in terms of terrorism, stability in the region, and one gets the feeling that the way in which President Trump is thinking about (inaudible) this should he not sign it is sort of like the North Korea is that you just push, push, push and threaten.

But, of course, the threat of conflict, you know, in the region is extraordinarily troubling to those -- one wonders really who he is listening to and what the objectives are here should -- not sign on for another 120 days on the deal.

VAUSE: Exactly. All will be revealed we think, believe at 2 p.m. Eastern Time at the White House. Thanks, Dominic. Appreciate it.

SESAY: All right. Well, a quick break here and it's hard to pin down whether President Trump is really willing to sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and a CNN source says Mr. Trump's new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is (inaudible) and embarrassing the president. Details just ahead.

VAUSE: Also, ahead, the U.S. first lady, Melania Trump's popularity numbers are on the rise bigly, could that be awkward in the White House? Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: May 17th, one year since the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

SESAY: That it may have (inaudible) this year according to the "Wall Street Journal," President Trump's legal team hopes to decide by then if the president will sit down with Mueller and testify in the ongoing Russia investigation.

VAUSE: Mr. Trump's newest attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told the "Journal" every day the team swings a little different on which way to go and in a few of his tweets on Monday, the president called the prosecutors running the Russia probe, 13 angry Democrats even though they are not.

Michael Genovese, a political analyst and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University and he is with us now. Michael, it's always a pleasure to have with us.

OK. As expected the president and his legal team (inaudible) a much more combative approach with the Mueller investigation. So, given that it seems unlikely that the president is were to sit down for this interview with the Mueller prosecutors. So, ten days from now, we are likely to hear a no to that request. What happens then

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, then people have to decide how far they want to push. Do you want to push to a subpoena? Do you want to try to negotiate? Rudy Giuliani says that he's going to end this quickly.

[00:15:10] I don't see how he is going to shut down where he can't shut his mouth. But I think what we are going to see is that they'll be some heavy negotiating. No one wants a subpoena because that's going to come up the works.

But if it comes to that I'm sure Mueller is seriously going to pursue that avenue and what's that going to do is strengthen it out for a long, long time.

VAUSE: Months into years. Rudy Giuliani was asked about this subpoena scenario over the weekend. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what happens if Robert Mueller subpoenas the president, will you comply?

RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we don't have to. He is the president of the United States. We can assert the same privileges other presidents have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Is Giuliani actually a real lawyer? Because every legal expert I think has disagreed with that opinion that he doesn't have to comply.

GENOVESE: Well, in a narrow sense he's right. Other presidents have been subpoenaed, but they've all more or less complied or has gotten a deal --

VAUSE: And --

GENOVESE: -- they've made an arrangement -- right and so in the narrowest sense Giuliani is right, but I think he's just a lot of blustering. The circus is in town and he's the circus master, some can have two circus masters and I think Trump is going to get a little jealous of that. But, you know, I mean, when I was a kid I love the circus but not every day, every minute, and that's were getting with Rudy on top of Donald Trump is just a big circus.

VAUSE: I just wonder if Trump would (inaudible) illegal questions. During that same interview, Giuliani suggested it is possible that Michael Cohen, who is Trump's personal lawyer, who is under criminal investigation paid off additional women before the election not just to porn star, Stormy Daniels.

And a source told CNN that's an example to prove that Giuliani is, quote, "stealing the spotlight and he is embarrassing Trump." The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders was asked specifically about Giuliani and Trump on Monday's briefing. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the president pleased with the appearances of Rudy Giuliani over the last few days?

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I didn't speak with him specifically about his feelings about it, but certainly feels that he's an added member -- added value member to his outside special counsel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I mean, (inaudible) you can't argue that, but the value part seems to be the same questions, how anything that Giuliani is doing is helping the president in his legal strategy?

GENOVESE: And one even introduced that notion, he didn't have to say that. Just as you say to your clients say as little as possible. At times, the lawyer should say as little as possible. I think he opened his mouth and put his foot in it and he's getting a lot of press attention. He is going on all the shows. Donald Trump might get a little bit jealous, might have some spotlight, and the spotlight only shines on one person and Rudy grabs the spotlight, which is Donald show.

VAUSE: He dropped that information maybe because it's what's going to come out because all the documents ceased during the Michael Cohen raids.

GENOVESE: That's right. You might be sort prepping the nation for two, three, four, five down the road. If that's the case, then I think will be overwhelmed by the opposition both politically and in terms of the sort of the personal life of the president. I don't know if he survives too many more of these things. We saw what happened to Schneiderman today. That was a very extreme example, but, I mean, how much more can we take.

VAUSE: Giuliani has admitted that Trump knew about this $130,000 of hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. That comes despite what the president said on Air Force One last month. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, no. What else?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know where he got the money for the payment?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It seems (inaudible), but not according to Kellyanne Conway, the senior White House aide. This is how she try to spin up today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: I will tell you, though, in speaking with the president just yesterday, when the president said no, on Air Force One, he was talking about he didn't know when the payment occurred. A very fast-moving exchange between him and Catherine Lucy of the AP, I believe. He said he didn't know about it when the payment occurred, he found out about it after the fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: But you know, what she's saying could very well be true, but it's such a stretch and this has happened so many times over and over and over again. There was this stretch and you really have to try to, you know, give them the benefit of the doubt. It seems that (inaudible) that front.

GENOVESE: Well, you know, she's in a great dance and I did not know she's that good a dancer, but that's the problem. You can't be straight. You can't tell the real story. You're always dancing around the truth and we've talked about this before, the rule of 3 degrees.

If a lie is more than 3 degrees away from the truth, it's not believable, and her story while may be true is not plausible, is not believable. It just doesn't pass the smell test.

VAUSE: But despite all of these controversies, the opinion polls came out for the president on Monday, this is CNN numbers, I think it's pretty good at least in Trumpian terms, 41 percent approved, 53 percent disapprove.

I just wonder those number are being proven by this next poll which says 57 percent of Americans believe things are going well and what is notable there is that that is the highest number in more than a decade.

[00:20:11] GENOVESE: Well, I think there is a real separation between what people say about policy, economy is OK, moving in the right direction and about the personal issues that keeps Trump way down. And so, they are celebrating 41 percent that's not cause of celebration in normal times.

It may be in Trump's universe, 41 percent is still low, but now he is getting in to company of other presidents. Jimmy Carter was around this at this time in his presidency, but you don't want to be measured against the lows. You want to be measured against the highs.

VAUSE: I just wonder if that 57 percent have been there, the 41 percent was maybe like (inaudible) percent.

GENOVESE: Well, you know, people were willing to put up with a lot of these shenanigans because the economy was so good and maybe that's going to be repeated here.

VAUSE: OK, Michael, thanks so much.

GENOVESE: Thank you.

VAUSE: Now while President Trump's popularity has nearly budge above that 41 percent, the U.S. first lady is enjoying a big surge in support. According to a new CNN poll, 57 percent say they have a favorable impression of Melania Trump. That's up from 47 percent in January.

Well, politics and pop culture journalist, Jarett Hill, joins us now and he's here in Los Angeles. OK, so Jarett, let's start with Melania because this is a big day for the first lady launching her official anti-bully campaign at the White House. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, U.S. FIRST LADY: It is our responsibility as adults to educate and remind them that when they are using their voices (inaudible) or online, they must choose their words wisely and speak with respect and compassion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Clearly, this is a campaign which should begin at home, and maybe it is. We have this reporting from the "Washington Post" about life inside the White House of Melania Trump. She's being heard saying that she knows her husband has contributed (inaudible) today's online chatter.

One associate said she is persistent with her anti-cyber bulling efforts despite White House advise that she pick any other issue to champion. So, is this her way sending a message to her husband, the president, and also maybe to the rest of the world.

JARRETT HILL, POLITICS AND POP CULTURE JOURNALIST: The interesting thing is always how whenever surrogates from White House go on to television, we often say that they have an audience of one, they are speaking to the president of the United States. It's not lost on any of us that the person sitting directly in front of her was the president of the United States, sitting in the front row as she spoke about cyber bullying and using kind language and being thoughtful about the things that we say online. I don't think that was a coincidence.

VAUSE: Well, "The Post" also reports a strained relationship between the president and the first lady. Here's part of that report, "At Mar-a-Lago, the president also dines with politicians, business executives, and media personalities on the patio while Melania is often nowhere to be seen.

According to several current and former aides, the president and first lady often do not eat together in the White House either. They spend very little to no time together said one long time longtime friend of the president.

OK, now the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders pushed back on that reporting on Monday. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I make of the fact that just when you think the "Washington Post" can't get things anymore wrong they do and that is an outrageous and ridiculous claim. The first lady was here at the White House. We see her regularly and I think that's something that belongs in tabloid gossip, not on the front pages of the "Washington Post" and I hope that they'll do better next time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I mean, what was interesting, though, is that Sarah Sanders didn't really get into specifics. She specifically denied the substance of the report.

HILL: Well, we all know Sarah Huckabee Sanders is known for having an immense credibility and believability and always tell you that we can believe. I think what is interesting about this, Melania Trump's approval numbers are going up.

They are still the lowest of modern first ladies at this point, however, the polling seems to indicate that Melania seeming resistance to the president may be working in her favor, which is pretty entertaining if nothing else.

So, her snatching of her hand, the resistance to really being close to him and not as engaging him in a loving way seems to maybe be having a resonance with people because not only that like those of the very few things that we really get from Melania Trump.

We don't really hear from her very much. We just kind of see her on the side, kind of resisting the president.

VAUSE: The subtle power of a hand slap by the first lady. (Inaudible) for Melania Trump because she had this big launch day, always like coming out for the first lady, but it seems that brochure for the anti-cyber bulling campaign was essentially recycled from one which was published back in 2014, when Obama was president.

There are some minor revisions but essentially the substance is all the same and we have to note it's not the first time this issue of Melania Trump copying from the Obamas as you know all too well about that.

HILL: Indeed. Indeed. Everything was rather odd to have been to talk about this today and then on the way in to the studio the side of the story broke which was entertaining if nothing else.

[00:25:08] It makes you wonder who is working around the first lady and that's with all due respect to the team that works hard every day at the White House, but you have wonder if the White House is putting together an initiative to release to the world, and you know, that the first lady hasn't really (inaudible) and spoken a lot.

You know, that she has been relatively reserved, and she hasn't really been pushing a political agenda, and this is her first time stepping out on to the stage again really is as first lady to come out and make a stand and say this is something that I want to work on.

You would think the top priority would be not devolving back into the scandal of the last time that she really went in from of the world and made a major proclamation and of course, in this instance again the question is, what is the source material of all of this.

To be fair, it's an initiative that's being released to kids and it's a lot of recycled information, but it's just kind of mind blowing to me if I were someone that were leading this operation, my number one concern would be, let's make sure that this isn't look anything like the one that came before it.

Even if we're talking about the same things, even if were coming back with the same kind of information or the same overtones, let's just make sure that this does not look like the things that the Obamas did because we have a little bit of a history when it comes to maybe using familiar language.

VAUSE: Yes, it was that convention speech, large tracts of -- Melania used large tracts of Michelle Obama's speech and yes, it was an open moment and as you say, who is advising the first lady, that's the question. Jared, thanks so much. Good to see you.

SESAY: Still to come, freedom for hundreds of women and girls. They are no longer prisoners of the terror group, Boko Haram.

VAUSE: Plus, the essential violence plaguing India, another teenage girl has allegedly been raped and set on fire. We will go live to New Delhi in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. Thanks for staying with us. We'll take the headlines this hour.

Donald Trump is expected to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in the day ahead. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says Iran has been complying with the 2015 agreement, but Mr. Trump says the deal does not address Iran's missile program or its support for radical groups in the Middle East.

SESAY: (Inaudible) on where or when the expected meeting between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un will take place. Despite hints last week the release of three Americans detained in North Korea was imminent, there are no new developments on that either.

VAUSE: The "Wall Street Journal" is reporting President Trump's legal team is hoping he will decide by May 17th on whether he will testify in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. One of his attorneys, Rudy Giuliani says the president has felt what does he have to lose by sitting down with Mueller. Mr. Trump has promised to weigh his legal team's advice.

SESAY: Well, the Nigerian Army says its rescued more than 1,000 people held captive by Boko Haram in Benue State. Most are women and children and also some young men who were forced to become fighters for the terror group.

[00:30:00]

CNN's Farai Sevenzo joins us from Nairobi with much more. Farai, good to have you with us as usual. What more do we know about the circumstances surrounding these rescues?

FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This morning, Isha, since the army Brigadier General Texas Chukwu made that announcement yesterday evening, It's been enormously difficult to verify what's the Nigerian Army has been telling us. Of course, we can't say that it's not true. But it's been very difficult to verify exactly what happened, what the circumstances were. But I can tell you that according to the Nigerian Army's spokesperson Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, hostages were rescued from the villages of Malamkari, Amchaka, Walasa and Gora. All up there in the northeast of Benue State.

And of course, as you know, Benue State capital is Makurdi where in fact the Boko Haram insurgency actually began nine years ago. So, at the moment, we're trying to verify where this was rescued by the army and we actually had contact with Boko Haram and people would kill and lost their lives in that fight or whether these were just villages that had been in remote areas that had no access to the security forces.

The other thing you must remember is that the fight has been taken to Boko Haram also includes the multinational joint task force that has Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin amongst them. So as the day goes on, Isha, we hope to get some more verification about how this rescue was actually affected.

SESAY: Yes and not just how but when because that too has not been made public when this rescue as they put it took place. With that being said, also not knowing a timeframe what do we know of the condition of those who were rescued and where they are now?

SEVENZO: We have been told this morning by soliciting Northeast Nigeria that they have been moved to an army hospital to check on their conditions and their health. And that they include many women and children. Now, of course, just trying to surmise what it is, what kind of condition they are in.

Remember, the Northeast of Nigeria as Boko Haram in 2009 as I said. And we know from UNICEF's own figures at 10.5 million children are out of school and 60 percent of those are enrolled in Nigeria. 2 million have been displaced. This conflict as to 20,000 people since it began. So, what condition are they in? I suspect they'll be very, very grateful to get doctor's assistance. And even just from their mental state of mind.

SESAY: I mean, once of the questions to all of this has been obviously and the 112 Chibok girls to as yet have not been reunited with their families. The question of how can you have such a large number of people being rescued is whether those girls are amongst this group, anything coming from the Nigerian authorities to that effect, to say one way or the other?

SEVENZO: No, not at all, Isha. What is coming from Nigerians is that the army has rescued 1,000 people, where they say that mainly women and children. We do know that it is 112, are amongst them and of course as you rightly covered over many years of the issue of young girls being kidnapped by these militant insurgents of Boko Haram is at the very center of the insecurities but leads to over 60 percent of children not going to school in that part of Nigeria.

SESAY: The largest out of school population in the world. And very quickly before I let you go, Farai, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's president, obviously came to power in 2015 with vows of ending the insurgency. We know certainly the end of last year beginning of this year, Boko Haram being defeated. Clearly, that is not the case. Elections are coming up again in Nigeria in the next couple of months. Will this issue, Boko Haram, once again be on the minds of those?

SEVENZO: Well, absolutely, especially where there's most affected in the northeast. In February 2019, Mr. Buhari is trying to go back to the people of Nigeria. All added to six million plus of them to say that he is the man to lead this fight. There has been many, many accidents, people have been accidentally killed by the Nigerian Air Force for example not been run, just in 2017. The issue of Boko Haram continues to be part not only of Nigeria security concerns but it's going to be a big thing come the February 2019 elections, Isha. You're absolutely right.

SESAY: We'll be covering it. We'll be watching it. Farai Sevenzo joining us from Nairobi, Kenya, always appreciate it my friend. Thank you.

[00:35:02] Well, amid the outrage of sexual violence in India, another teenage girl was allegedly raped and set on fire. The 17-year-old survived the attack, which happened the same day. Another teenage girl in the same region was burned to death after allegedly been gang raped.

CNN's Nikhil Kumar joins us now from New Delhi with more on this. This is just awful, awful developments. And Nikhil let me ask you this. This rape, as reported took place in Jharkhand State, are there any conditions unique to this part of India though that explain why we've seen such horrific acts in these days.

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Isha, as you say, both of these - excuse me - both of these attacks took place in Jharkand, the Northeastern State, quite poor, quite rural. These two villages where the two attacks took place, one involving the 17-year-old that you mentioned that was burned to death - sorry, one to death on Friday, 16-year-old and the 17-year-old - the man who allegedly raped her tried to set her on fire who is now in hospital with 70 percent burns.

These two villages are in different section of the state but it's a poor, rural part of the country. And you know, one of the questions that have been raised in the aftermath of these cases coming to light in such quick succession. We first heard about the 16-year-old over the weekend. We heard about the 17-year-old just yesterday. One of the questions that are being asked is about the law and about the machinery indicates the 16-year-old -- she was allegedly gang raped on Thursday evening.

On Friday morning, her parents went to their local village counsel. These village counsels don't have any legal authority but they can have immense influence, particularly in these distant parts of the country. The village counsel in response to the parents seeking justice for their daughter imposes a fine on the accused. It asked them to put up money 50,000 rupees which is only about $750 and do 100 sit-ups. That is it. What was worst is that the accused also enraged by the fact that the parents even went to the village counsel. That is when they attacked the family. They sent the family home on fire and it is in that second attack, later that day that the girl which died.

So all of these is now with the police, but all of this that succession of events, the fact that I another rape, another attempt to set a girl on file. Later that day in a different part that state happened in the same region, all of that has raised some very troubling questions about the law and order machinery in that region. And of course the wider contexts are important. We're talking about this just a couple weeks after, thousands of Indians came out onto the streets yet again demanding action to make India's women feel safe.

The trigger for those protests with two other rapes again involving children, one an 8-year-old in Northern Jammu and Kashmir who was brutally gang raped, we're told, drugged, and then murdered and another one involving a 16-year-old where a lawmaker from the ruling party Prime Minister Narendra Modi is alleged to have attacked her last June and yet he was only arrested last month following all of that outrage, so some very, very troubling issues. Isha?

SESAY: Yes. Some very, very, troubling issues, people looking at Narendra Modi and his party and whether it's you know, brought in in the kind of - Hindu nationalism. It's kind of like fostering this kind of terrible act. Much to discuss and, Nikhil Kumar, we appreciate it. Thank you.

VAUSE: OK. So we'll break here. We're going to go back home. Destroyed, toxic gases in the air, lava in the street, and there is no end in sight of the volcanic eruptions in Hawaii. We'll have live report in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:53] SESAY: Take a look at this video from Hawaii's big island. You can see lava from the Kilauea volcano flowing across the street and devouring. Look at that devouring a car, and that lava is still spewing four days after the main eruption.

VAUSE: Two new fissures have now emerged at least 35 structures have been destroyed, including 26 homes. Some residents were able to briefly return to check on their property in the last 24 hours, some possessions remain the same. Some rescue pets, but the lava toxic gas and earthquakes have made even short visits to the volcano region, very dangerous.

SESAY: It's quite something now like a disaster movie. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us with more. Pedram, how is it looking now? How much longer is this going to go on for?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, weeks or months, is the best bet on this. You know, we're looking at historically speaking these sort of events, these sort of episodes that have occurred since 1983 on this particular rift zone had at least taken a few weeks or few months, each and every single time they've occurred.

You're looking at the number of earthquakes across this very region in the past seven days upwards of 1,000 quakes an average of 100 per day now occurring across this region. So, certainly a scary go for a lot of people across this particular region -- of Kilauea, I should say as you work your way towards the big island. Michael, if you can advance this graphic for you having some issues with to be able to showcase what's happening here.

But of course, we know the numbers of quakes are not going to be tapering out anytime soon. The moral of the fissures were seen. Of course the more activity you're going to expect when it comes to rumble an additional lava being released, and really incredible to think that were going to have this up potentially carry on for several weeks to several months at a time. In fact, if you look at some of the images and I know our correspondent Stephanie Elam is on the ground across the streets and talking about the coloration of what is happening out there how it almost looks unreal, like these dark red, the oranges even the white coloration of all of these.

So the temperature with this is pretty spectacular in fact up to 1200 degrees Celsius when you're looking at the areas indicated in yellow once you're down to the orange colors, the red colors ironically is actually the cooler end of this scale down to about 800 degrees Celsius or so as well. Cold enough to begin the melting process - hot enough to begin the melting process of gold, copper, lead, even soften steel. So really talks about the significance of what is happening here. And in path of that, when you see these tubes that carry the lava downstream as far as 10 km away from the area there being ejected from the hardening material on the service, John and Isha, actually really does a wonderful job of preserving the heat insulating the lava and that is part of the danger here because you can have lava exits volcano carry 10 km away from where it exited and still be as hot as 1200 degrees Celsius.

So certainly again it's not something that you can move. It is not something that after it cools off you can work with as well so once it causes the damage it creates a new landscape that you can never rebuild on so it is a really incredible event taking place.

VAUSE: I'm just thinking the fact you said this could on for months --

SESAY: I know.

VAUSE: -- which is incredible.

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: Pedram, thank you.

VAUSE: Pedram, thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

SESAY: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Stay with us. World Sport is up next. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:44] Hello and welcome to CNN WORLD SPORT at CNN Center. I'm Vince Cellini.

We are keeping track of any new updates on the condition of legendary Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson who underwent emergency brain surgery back on Saturday. News of his condition came as a shock. A brief statement from United revealed that the surgery had gone very well, but said that he remained in intensive care, to assist in a comfortable and speedy recovery. Ferguson is 76 years old and retired as United's manager in 2013.

It's been almost 27 years at Old Trafford winning an extraordinary 13 premier league titles two European cups, a total of 38 trophies in that time. His personality and charisma transcended the game and to many football's most famous players. He was more than a manager. He was a father figure Ferguson's former assistant Brian Kidd, now the coach at United's rival Manchester City has been one of many to offer public support.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN KIDD, FORMER ASSISTANT TO ALEX FERGUSON: He's such an iconic person and divisibility something new to denote yesterday evening and this morning. I do not think you really think that Alex is indestructible in a revolving all over them. And again, what it is for Manchester United is (INAUDIBLE) you know with under pressure to the resulted every day to produce the day's phenomenal and obviously all of this on Manchester cities in our present thoughts with Kathy indicates you know. And we wish him a speedy recovery, so early and quick as well. You know and send all our love to him. But I think that is everybody. You know when you (INAUDIBLE). But he knows what is coming through. You know bless his heart honestly. And I can't thank you enough. You know the opportunity he gave me. You know never (INAUDIBLE). And you know we wish him well all over in the world and hope for his speedy recovery. God bless to him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CELLINI: We all share those thoughts. Brian Kidd was speaking after Mancini has been celebrating their premier league title on Sunday. It was nice to see the rivalry set aside as even city fans sent their best of the former United manager. These are heady times for blue half of Manchester City about 1-3 of the last seven league titles. The first to go since 2012 is a nail butter that went down to virtually the last kick of the season. And it might change everything.

Sergio Aguero score that ironic -- iconic gold. And Captain Vincent Kompany has been chatting with our Amanda Davies reflecting on how things might have been different.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIES, It's been almost 10 years since he joins Manchester City. When he joins - because you think you're going to be here for this period of time, time length of time?

VINCENT KOMPANY, MANCHESTER CITY CAPTAIN: No, no. I mean, do you know what, again on realistic - I didn't think we're going to win the league. But I was with the team we had 10 years ago. So it goes to show and then I was very lucky to the new investors came in. I was very lucky that they were also the type of people that they are. For that moment I was just, you know, hanging there. I worked as hard as I could to be the best I could be. And I always knew that I could play at this level.

DAVIES: Did you ever think about what would have happened and how would have played out. Sergio Aguero not scored. That's the goal. But that's first title.

KOMPANY: Three months in hiding. That's what would have happened until -

DAVIES: To you or everyone?

KOMPANY: For everyone until they were this - said, look, you've got a contract with you (INAUDIBLE) Thursday of the season. It would have been three months in hiding. That would have been so -

DAVIES: Do you think you have got title number two or title number three? - would come to Manchester City?

KOMPANY: You don't know these things. I mean, it could have been the case that three quarters of the two - to leave. Football is like this. You don't know. Maybe the manager would have been replaced at that time. Maybe a new manager would have come in which you know the first thing you get when you have a failure is of the next person that comes in, sees everyone else's the reason for failing.

[00:50:09] And like I said to hang in that moment in time is a flip of a coin. So much would have changed so think you can and you know on to the next one.

DAVIES: And of course, all the talk now has moved on to the fact that this could be a properly record breaking season in terms of points and goals. How much are you driven by those kinds of records?

KOMPANY: You know, this season it would be great to achieve those goals. The manager is driven by it. The team is driven by it. But I want to look further and see if we could win maybe one or two more straight up on the back of this.

DAVIES: But honestly, being part of a team that has - being part of - or being responsible for some thumping, proper thumping's must be difficult not to get carried away when it happens so regularly.

KOMPANY: Most of the things that I have kind of experienced before a season, definitely not the way we've played this season. But in terms of being successful and how I need to react to success, yes, I just want to look to what we can still achieve. This holding on to what we've done and what we created is such a big, big task. Such a difficult task and let you guys enjoy and I'll just kind of focus on that.

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIES: -- corner of the dressing room?

KOMPANY: I'm actually probably leading celebrations to be honest.

(LAUGHTER)

But I'm the guy who goes back - come on guys, go up, let's go out and celebrate in the next day and we need to focus. It's not good enough.

(LAUGHTER)

So Mr. Grumpy is bold to go and tell them that you know you've done nothing yet. Let's do more.

DAVIES: How is your kind of role within the club changed and your relationship with Pep and the rest of the club captain?

KOMPANY: I think to be a captain is the easiest job in the world when you have a manager like Pep. Most of the things he installed are being respected by the players without necessarily having too much policing involved which is great. We have a group of all the players will take on the responsibility and we're lucky that the team is extremely positive. So a lot of the job is actually easy than it used to be in the past. But at the same time, now -

DAVIES: Is that all of the keys because it's been a notable shift that hasn't it? That it's not just yourself, there are the key figureheads within the dressing room.

KOMPANY: We have a wealth of experience between ourselves. And we're able to share it with the younger players in there. They're willing to receive it. For the rest, I think we've enjoyed the ride like anyone else. And we've played our part on the pitch and after pitch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CELLINI: Las Vegas one of the biggest gambling cities in the world that if you know anything about it you also know that the house always wins. Sure you might get lucky in the beginning but in the end of the day, you'll probably end up a little short. This year, Las Vegas has also become a sports town. They've got a new ice hockey team. The Vegas Golden Knights and this establishment is cleaning house.

The Golden Knights have brought through the NHL first season and Sunday shutout win against San Jose, took them into the Western Conference Finals. Such immediate success is just unheard when expansion team back in 2015 they franchised owner Bill Foley ambitiously said he wanted to make the playoffs by year three. Win the Stanley Cup by year eight. And now, it looks like he could do it with his first roll of the dice in Las Vegas.

Much more ahead on World Sport, do you hear it? Tick, tick, tick, apparently, time is not on their side in the Bundesliga. Things may be about the strike midnight for Hamburg.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:55:52] CELLINI: It is not life or death. But there is also nothing fun about being relegated. In Hamburg, they have not had to deal with it for more than 50 years. In fact, they celebrate that fact with a massive clock that shows the time that is past just the Bundesliga was founded and they have always been in it. It is almost 55 years, but their time could soon be running out after a 3-0 defeat at Frankfurt on Saturday. Their hopes of survival now hanging by a thread and they might need a new clock is Frankfurt's fans brought one to the game. How very clever of that.

In France, there is a team that you probably never heard of who were fighting against relegation from the third division. They are called Les Herbiers and we mentioned it because they are also preparing to play in the French Cup Final. They're journeying to the title games remarkable, but they might soon be awakened rather brutally from their fairytale because their final opponents are Paris Saint-Germain, one of the richest clubs in the world and is arguably going to be the biggest mismatch in the history of the game. To put things in context, their annual budget of $2.4 million would pay the biggest Paris star Neymar for only 16 days. But whatever happens in the final. If they do end up being relegated Les Herbiers will be playing the same division as PSG's reserve team next season.

What was for can possibly bring you closer to nature than surfing just a rider, a board and the ocean will check that notion. Surfing included in the Olympics in Tokyo in two years. And now we have this. We got a glimpse of the future. Over the weekend in California where a new event that the founders got was held in an artificial massive wave pool that the first. It's also the first time in surfing countries that competed against each other as well as mixed teams of men and women, South Africa's Jordy Smith, led the world team to victory against teams from the United States, Europe, Australia and Brazil. This man-made venue appears to be part of surfing's big future finances. They still do not have a venue for the inaugural event in Tokyo. They just might get build it on land.

And that it's it. As we wave goodbye. I'm Vince Cellini.