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NEWS STREAM

Death toll rises to 105 after Indonesia earthquake; New Iran sanctions, "most biting ever" as per Trump; U.S. military admits to civilian deaths in Raqqa; Rick Gates takes the stand against Paul Manafort; California still struggling battling fires; Earth at risk; Iran Sanctions; Terrorism By Joystick?; YouTube, Apple And Facebook Removed InfoWars and Jones Content; Dubai Tech. Aired at 8-9a ET

Aired August 7, 2018 - 08:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:00:00] KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to "News Stream."

Stories of survival. Earthquake victims in Indonesia are pulled from rubble as rescuers search for more who may still be alive.

Iran fires back. Hassan Rouhani issues a challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump.>

And a blaze of record size. California struggles to contain the largest fire in the state's history.

Rescuers are racing to find survivors two days after an earthquake hit central Indonesia. It took lives, toppled homes, displaced some 20,000

people. The death toll is now at 105, with 236 injured. But two days on, there is still hope of finding survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: A cause for celebration after rescue workers finds a woman alive in the rubble. She was quickly whisked away by ambulance fortunately with

only minor injuries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We tried to open up an access point a few times, but a refrigerator was in the way and that made it

difficult. When we did manage to open up the access point, we heard a voice. The victim wasn't pinned down by anything. There was a crawl space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: This man was rescued as well. He had been at the mosque praying when the quake struck. He was overwhelmed with emotion as soldiers helped

him walk away from the scene. It is believed that dozens of other people may still be trapped under the rubble.

Elsewhere on Lombok, people are returning to their villages and finding scenes of complete destruction. This man's home is now unlivable, like

thousands of other our survivors, he is now homeless.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We might be still in trauma after three to six months. I don't think it will be easy to return to the normal

life. We need to do it slowly because the trauma was extraordinary bad. But we dare not to sleep indoors. What is our plan for the future? We don't

know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: After two back-to-back major earthquakes and strong aftershocks, aid workers are warning that many people especially children are likely to

be suffering from the psychological impact of the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So for adults, obviously, it's incredibly traumatic in terms of missing your house, damaged or potentially even destroyed and

feeling the earth shaking under you first, you know, with the first earthquake would have been quite scary. The second earthquake would have

been terrifying. And then following that, you know, having to leave your home for the fear of a tsunami. So it would have been quite disturbing for

adults then you can imagine the impact on children?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: It was terrifying for tourists as well. Some 3,000 visitors were evacuated from the Gili Island and are stranded at Lombok International

Airport waiting to for flights out. But while the tourists have other countries to return to, the people of Lombok are picking up the pieces of

their homes while rescuers keep digging for survivors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And joining me now, Yudi Yudawan, a correspondent with CNN Indonesia. He is at the Mataram Regional Hospital on Lombok Island, and

Yudi, thank you for joining us. What did you see inside the hospital? How are medical teams helping and caring for the victims?

YUDI YIDAWAN, CNN INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, I'm live reporting from Mataram Hospital, which is this is one of the (inaudible) patient from

many others to nearby hospital especially for the small clinic (inaudible) north of Lombok, approximately 2.5 hours from the capital city.

In this hospital there were a hundred, almost 350 patients being treated under a tent like this, but at night they move inside the building of this

hospital. But one of other tower is under construction because of the damage of an earthquake hit and make the critical condition of the building

not really available anymore, not really suitable anymore for the patient to get treatment by the medical personnel.

The critical condition here, many of medical personnel need equipment like (inaudible) kind of like this especially if the earthquake still happens

and the shaking and the tremor continuing to happen, every single (inaudible) like me and our team are feeling what people feel and then the

shaking is totally hard a making people not feel comfortable living under the building.

[08:05:00] Another one, the hospital also needs the medicines because the medicine is running out very fast. The numbers of patients is getting rise

day by day especially in the central (ph) of Lombok. Many of the patients preference to go to Mataram to get special treatment, especially fracture

patient and also broken bones, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Medicine as you reported is running out. A lot of challenges for medics there to assist the victims of this earthquake especially when the

hospitals themselves, the structure has been compromised as well. Yudi Yudawan with CNN Indonesia reporting live from Lombok Island, thank you.

And for ways that you can help the victims of this earthquake, just go straight to cnn.com/impact.

Now, on the day that the U.S. is re-imposing sanctions on Iran, President Donald Trump is calling those sanctions the most biting ever as part of a

tweet he posted just a few hours ago and warns to the countries, "if they do business with Iran, they will not be doing business with the U.S."

President Trump ends the tweet by proclaiming all he wants is, "world peace."

On Monday, Iran's president had this to say by Mr. Trump's recent offer to hold talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translation): If someone is willing to use a knife against an opponent, stabs that opponent while

simultaneously saying that we wish to establish a dialogue and converse with one another, the first requirement is for them to extract the knife

from the body of that opponent before establishing dialogue.

So, I think the aim here is to sow doubt within the mind of the Iranian nation as well as use that their advantage somehow in the upcoming midterm

congressional elections. It's a psychological warfare against the people of Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now, Thomas Erdbrink is the Tehran bureau chief of the "New York Times." He joins me via Skype. Thomas, thank you for joining us here on the

program. We have heard from both Donald Trump and Hassan Rouhani, both of them have pronounced themselves open to talks but what's the reality here?

THOMAS ERDBRINK, TEHRAN BUREAU CHIEF, NEW YORK TIMES: Oh, I think the reality is that you really had to cut through the words of Mr. Rouhani, but

once you decipher what he says and especially (inaudible) there are many ways to not say something. But once you decipher what he says, he seems to

be quite open to talks.

Of course, Mr. Rouhani had some conditions. He mentioned the long history between Iran and United States that he said that the Iranian be served some

form of compensation for that. But overall, he also said I'm ready to sit down with United States at some point. He also said that President Trump

had shown some correct moves in recent days, which had in some way pleased him.

I think what it shows is that Iran and the United States are sort of slowly gearing up to talk together. If these talks will actually amount to

something, we won't know. And then, of course, Kristie, in September both men are very probable to run into each other at the general assembly

meeting of the United Nations in New York. So, that could be a venue for a photo opportunity or some kind of talks.

LU STOUT: Yes, but still a number of obstacles ahead before we reach a sort of climate that is conducive to talks. Meanwhile, you're there on the

ground, inside Iran. What is the real world impact of these reinstated sanctions and who in Iran are the most vulnerable? Who's going to get hit

the hardest?

ERDBRINK: Well, the hardest hit will be those people who have in the past five years managed to sort of improve their lives a little bit. What do I

mean like improve their lives? Young people who have just gotten a job, people from the lower classes who have just made it up into the lower

middle classes. Those people are really feeling the pinch of the decline of Iran's national currency, the rial that has lost over 80 percent of its

value in the last 12 months.

Now, when President Trump announced that America would pull out unilaterally from the nuclear agreement, that declined, the devaluation

accelerated even more. And as a result, prices of everything are going up. Last week, milk went up by 40 percent, butter went up by 40 percent. Not a

day goes by I don't meet Iranians in the elevator, in the bus, and texting on the street who complain about high prices.

And of0 course, Kristie, we have seen protests here in Iran in the last week, for in the course of five days. There have been protests in several

cities. Now note, this have not been massive protests especially if you compare them to protests that have been taking place in other countries in

the world.

But in Iran, to go out and to shout slogans against the Islamic leaders is, of course, a difficult and some would say daring act. So, those protests

are being acknowledged and actually President Rouhani also acknowledged them. Yesterday he said, I know the people have grievances, but he also

called upon the people to stand united against the United States, Kristie?

[08:10:07] LU STOUT: Thomas Erdbrink, Tehran bureau chief of "New York Times." The pulse of what's happening inside Iran. Thank you so much for

joining us. We'll talk again soon.

And now to the war in Syria. The U.S. military has admitted that the coalition it led killed dozens of civilians in last year's offensive on the

ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. The shocking mission comes as weeks after it rejected an Amnesty International report on civilian deaths resulting from

coalition air strikes. Amnesty's report says it documented the deaths of 77 people, mostly women and children.

It also said those killings probably breached international humanitarian law and may even be war crimes. With more on this, CNN's Arwa Damon who

reported extensively from Raqqa joins me live from Istanbul. Arwa, thank you for joining us. I want to get your reaction to this report on civilian

casualties in Raqqa and America's apparent reluctance to own up to this?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a couple of things to talk about here, Kristie. First and foremost, that

report is not surprising nor is the fact that as Amnesty International has said the actual number of civilian casualties is most likely much, much

higher.

Now, the U.S., the U.S.-led coalition for its part does say that whenever it receives credible information about civilian casualties, that it may

have caused, it does look into them. And it's worth noting that the coalition itself does take responsibility for 1,059 civilians

unintentionally killed during Operation Inherent Resolve from August of 2014 all the way through the end of June.

Now, this is not just in Raqqa in Syria. This, of course, spans across both Syria and Iraq, but it just gives you a little bit more of an idea about

the scale of civilian casualties, which are a reality of war. However, there has been much criticism of the coalition, especially from civilians

on the ground who are on the receiving end of those air strikes when it comes to the sheer volume of them.

Many civilians that we poke to both in Raqqa and in Mosul were wondering if there wasn't perhaps a military strategy that would have been a bit more

merciful towards them, because as they point out and as we have reported repeatedly, it is well known that ISIS used to hold the civilian population

hostage.

Additionally, there is a burden of responsibility on the U.S.-led coalition, which is another thing that Amnesty International is

highlighting in this report, saying that the victims' families need justice. They need accountability and they need to feel as if their pain is

being acknowledged. This is very significant and important when we're talking about a society that is trying to attempt at least, to put itself

back together again.

That being said, of course, it's also worth noting that, yes, the U.S. military historically, even when it was occupying Iraq, it was very

reluctant to acknowledge civilian deaths and civilian casualties. Of course, the military speak for that is collateral damage. But the reality

on the ground is very, very different.

LU STOUT: And as you say, accountability is needed because accountability is needed for justice for reparation (ph) for rebuilding Raqqa. Arwa Damon,

reporting for us. Thank you. You're watching "News Stream."

Still to come on the program, the high profile trial of Donald Trump's former campaign manager. Rick Gates takes the stand and he points the

finger at Paul Manafort as his old boss faces a string of tax and fraud changes.

Meanwhile, thousands of firefighters in California are battling the biggest wildfire the state has ever seen. The latest updates after the break.

[08:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. Now, for years, Rick Gates served as the right- hand man to Paul Manafort. And now in the most anticipated day yet in the trial of President Trump's former campaign chairman, Gates is telling all.

He has already admitted that he committed crimes sometimes in Manafort's direction, and that was just day one.

Let's go straight now to Alexandria, Virginia and CNN's Joe Johns who is outside the courthouse where Gates is expected to be back on the stand

soon. And Joe, this trial, it took a very interesting turn yesterday with the stunning testimony from Rick Gates. Tell us what he said so far.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's the star witness for the prosecution. He was up for about 45 minutes. He'll resume

direct testimony about an hour and 15 minutes from now here at court in Alexandria, Virginia. Really laying out the prosecution's case in his own

words describing what the government alleges are years and years of financial crimes that he and Paul Manafort committed before these same two

men became some of the very top operatives in the Trump campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): Blockbuster testimony in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a one-time apprentice turns on his

mentor. Manafort's longtime business partner and former Trump campaign senior aide Rick Gates, not holding back any punches, testifying he opened

15 foreign bank accounts with Manafort to hide money from the federal government.

Knowingly committed crimes at Mr. Manafort's direction and cheated Manafort out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by filing false expense reports.

Gates also testifying some of Manafort's accounts were tied to Konstantin Kilimnik, a man prosecutors say has direct ties to Russian intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It is always very damaging to the defendant when a flipper, a cooperator like Mr. Gates takes the stand

and says, I committed crimes, so did that man and here's how we did it together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS (voice-over): Gates flipped in February pleading guilty to lying to the FBI and has been cooperating with the special counsel ever since.

Manafort staring down his former deputy as he read his plea deal aloud in the courtroom, Gates refusing to make eye contact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARRIE CORDERO, FORMEMR COUNSEL TO ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: He is incentivized to tell the truth in this trial and that's

because he really is testifying for his life. His cooperation agreement and his truthful cooperation will affect how he is sentenced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS (voice-over: But Gates did praise Manafort calling him one of the most politically brilliant strategists I've ever worked with. President

Trump watching the trial closely as the Mueller probe appears to be moving closer to his inner circle. The White House trying to distance the

president from Gates and Manafort.

Gates was Manafort's deputy for the three months he served as Trump's campaign chairman. He stayed on with the campaign even after Manafort was

ousted amid questions on his work in Ukraine. Trump campaign officials praising Manafort and Gates at the time for their work developing a general

election strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have to credit Manafort and Gates for putting so much of that together before we arrived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So, the big question here is how Gates will hold up as a witness, if you will, once the defense gets a hold of him in cross-examination.

They've indicated they will do everything they can to try to discredit him including talking about the money he says he stole from Manafort while they

were working together and also trying to lead the jury in the direction of reasonable doubt by suggesting that it was Gates behind the scenes pulling

the strings that led to the underlying wrongdoing in this case, Kristie.

[08:20:00] LU STOUT: Yeah. Gates will be back on the stand in just over an hour from now. Joe Johns, live from Alexandria, Virginia. Thank you.

Firefighters in California, they are right now battling the largest wildfire in the state's history. The Mendocino Complex Fire, which is

really two fires, has doubled in size in just a few days. It has burned over 114,000 hectares. Luckily and amazingly, no one has been reported

injured.

Elsewhere in northern California, the Carr Fire continues its path o4 historic destruction. For more, let's go straight to Dan Simon who joins me

live from Lake Port, California. And Dan, I believe you're at the scene of what we described as the largest fire in California state history. What are

you seeing out there?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is just a massive blaze. It's about the size of the city of Los Angeles, and you've got about 30 percent

containment. So you have thousands of people who have been evacuated. You have thousands of homes that are currently under threat, but I have to tell

you, this may be the biggest wildfire in the state's history, but it is not the most destructive.

And the reason why that is, Kristie, it is burning in a very remote area, so very tough for firefighters to get to. We're talking about very rugged,

steep terrain but they are beginning to make a difference. We do have a lot of firefighters, thousand of firefighters on the lines trying to put this

blaze out.

We should note that this is actually two separate fires. This is the river fire and ranch fire. But because they're very, you know, close proximity to

one another, very close by, they are basically treating this as one very large fire, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Dan Simon, we appreciate your reporting and to you and the crew, do stay safe out there.

Now as these wildfires rage in California and a heat wave sweeps Europe, a group of researchers warns that the Earth could soon reach a point of no

return. It is an alarming new report and in it they say a temp rise of just two degrees celsius from pre-industrial levels could trigger a domino

effect that would make some areas of Earth uninhabitable.

They say the Earth is moving toward a so-called "hothouse" state. And that is when global temperatures stabilize a four to five degree celsius above

what they were before the industrial evolution. They say he higher temperatures would trigger a rise in sea levels of up to 60 meters,

flooding coastal communities.

And perhaps the scariest part of the report, global warming of two degrees celsius could trigger so-called feedback that cause more warming even if we

completely stopped emitting greenhouse gasses. For more on this, let's go directly to a co-author of the report, Johan Rockstrom, and he joins us now

live from Stockholm. Thank you so much for sharing your findings with us and joining us here on the program.

The report, it lays out this evidence that we are at risk of crossing a planetary tipping point, and that continued warming could transform planet

Earth into a "hothouse" Earth. What would that look like and what would that feel like?

ROHAN ROCKSTROM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STOCKHOLM RESILIENCE CENTRE: Well, if we -- we are already at one degree celsius warming and are seeing the

impacts in terms of high frequency extreme events like droughts, floods, fires. Now, if we pass two degrees celsius, most indications although we

can still adapt. But if we reach three to four degrees celsius warming, from the evidence we have today looking back to logically, it would mean

the planet that cannot basically serve the modern world as we recognize it.

We'll have large track of (inaudible) dry lands and be uninhabitable. Massive movements of people. Difficulty in producing food. Pandemics and

different extreme events occurring as normality. No more ice sheets at all. You would have people moving up in the Polar Regions and probably be one of

the few places still livable on earth. Enormous movement of ecosystems. So this would be a different planet entirely.

LU STOUT: Yes. It would fundamentally change the planet. It would cause serious disruptions as you laid out, to ecosystems, to society, to our food

supply, to economies. So what can we do? You know, is there hope? Can we steer the planet away from such a future?

ROCKSTROM: Well the good news is that to begin with, the scientific warnings is actually something that can be translated into actions. Now we

have the scientific evidence that we have planetary boundaries. We need to stay away from a two degrees celsius warming. We have the Paris Agreement

to potentially all countries in the world have signed to stay well below two degrees celsius.

And the good news is that we have more and more evidence that transforming the world to, you know, a 100 percent fossil fuel-free world economy is not

only necessary, it's both possible and also has social, economic, healthwise and security benefit. So, the path to success is there and the

window is still open to succeed.

This paper provides, you know, friendly fire or scientific ammunition for ramping up the action even further because we do not want to approach a

risk of crossing tipping points, which would mean that the planet tips over from being our best friend, dampening warming to becoming an enemy, self-

reinforcing warming.

[08:25:13] LU STOUT: Got it. You say that the path to success is there to avoid this, you know, this very dire future that you've laid out, this

"hothouse" Earth. We'll leave it at that, but thank you for sharing your findings with us here on the program. That was Rohan Rockstrom, scientist

and executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, joining us live from Stockholm. Thank you.

Now, you're watching "News Stream." Still ahead on the program, that apparent failed assassination attempt on the head of state using armed

consumer drones. Does this mark the beginning of a new type of terrorism? We ask an expert in the field.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching "News Stream" and these are your world headlines.

Now, the death toll from Sunday's earthquake in Indonesia has reached 105 with over 230 injured. This man's house collapsed. He says the trauma may

last for months. He doesn't dare sleep indoors. And we are now learning some 84,000 people have been displaced by this latest earthquake.

The U.S. military admits the coalition against ISIS killed dozens of civilians in 2017 in the offensive on the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2017.

Amnesty International said in June that it documented 77 civilian deaths saying the killings could amount to war crimes. U.S. Military first

rejected the reports but now accepts the deaths occurred.

Rick Gates will be back on the witness stand today as the tax and fraud trial of his former boss and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort

continues. Gates says the two men hid 15 foreign accounts from the U.S. government and that they knew it was illegal.

U.S. President Donald Trump calls U.S. sanctions re-imposed on Iran today the most biting ever. His tweet says, "Anyone doing business with Iran will

not be doing business with the U.S." and ends with him asking for "world peace." The revived U.S. sanctions follow President Trump's withdrawal from

the Iran nuclear deal back in May.

Now, senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in London. He joins us now. And Nick, is President Trump going to get what he

wants from these new, fresh sanctions? Are they going to curb Iran's ambitions as well as its regional ambitions?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not like world peace, which seems to be the biggest ask in that particular

tweet. So I mean, bear in mind too, he's also saying that people who do business with Iran will not do business with the United States.

[08:30:01] Now, that is the thrust of this and that is what Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president continue refers to with the idea of psychological

warfare, that basically you have to make a choice if you are part of the global economy, if you want the enormous market of the U.S. with a perilous

small one of (ph) Iran?

Many companies are making that choice and heading in a U.S.-only direction. But (INAUDIBLE) some which oddly one of the U.S. key allies. The European

Union has said they're trying to (ph) provide some kind of protection too, potentially if they wish to do "legitimate business" with Iran. That's the

strength of feeling in Europe. You really disagree with the Trump administration putting out of this particular deal as well.

One other point too, these tweets are extraordinary, often how many inaccuracies have managed to crammed into so few characters. We are also

not really talking about the toughest sanctions ever.

Possibly you might argue that when the sanctions in November against the banking and oil sector come and then you replicate the Obama era sanctions

which were probably the toughest ever and maybe since then there have been certain individual, people sanctioned in Iran for other different reasons

that potentially meaning the Trump administration is worse never before come November.

But right now, it is simply isn't the case. As of midnight, precious metals, foreign currency reserve, the automotive sector certainly have

sanctions against them. But its banking and oil, a fifth of the GDP in Iran that's due pretty as the midterms hit Donald Trump in early November.

Those are keys right now. Kristie, the background in all of this, too, a fascinating and perhaps unexpected diplomatic power (ph) so to speak by

Hassan Rouhani. He talked about how he might possibly be in talks with Donald Trump "right now."

Well, he seemed to suggest that he would like to see sanctions ease or ameliorated before those talks did happen. He said, you can't talk to

somebody who's got a knife in your arm or back, I'm paraphrasing there.

But perhaps he after -- some might say not particularly successful performance of Donald Trump on diplomatic stage in Helsinki with Russia and

Singapore with North Korea where really it is his opponents who defined what was decided often in those meetings.

Maybe Hassan Rouhani thinks a one-on-one with Donald Trump can buy him some time or possible support on the world stage. We don't know. I think frankly

it's unlikely.

Too many hardliners on both sides don't want a meeting and looks like now is facing down the dark tunnel of what will happen in November which will

significantly damage the Iranian economy which is already struggling frankly with a collapse in its local currency and sporadic protests because

of what's happening to the economy, a lot of which due to sanction pressure. Kristie?

LU STOUT: Nick Paton Walsh with the economic impact of these first sanctions, the power dynamics at play here, and fact checking the Trump

tweets. As always, thank you, Nick.

Now, the president of Venezuela, he is pointing a finger at Columbia for a failed attempt on his life. Nicolas Maduro says he has "enough proof to

link the government of Colombia to the weekend drone attack." It happened during a military parade in Caracas.

Venezuelan officials say several national guard members were hurt when the drones detonated. Six people are under arrest. The outgoing Colombian

president denied involvement and said he was more focused on baptizing his daughter before leaving office.

My next guest is a former director of counter-terrorism at the CIA. Bernard Hudson says this type of attack is tantamount to terrorism by joystick. He

joins me live from a Washington bureau. Sir, thank you so much for joining us here on the program.

Venezuela, its government says consumer drones were used in this apparent assassination attempt. Before we get into the general threat posed by

consumer drones, I want to get your thoughts on what Venezuela is saying. We consumer drones used to attack Nicolas Maduro?

BERNARD HUDSON, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COUNTER-TERRORISM, CIA: Certainly all the information that's available to the public would indicate that there

were commercial drones used to try to kill him in that parade he was watching the other day.

LU STOUT: Got you. And so, was that a proof of concept, that a consumer drone can, yes, be capable of carrying a payload, like bricks of C4

explosive to assassinate someone in a public place?

HUDSON: Unfortunately the technology does exist to allow a product, commercial drones that otherwise do a lot of great things for the economy

and relief operations, you can use them as sort of a suicide bomber in a box. You can weaponize these devices and you can send them against targets.

That is completely technically possible now.

LU STOUT: You're saying it's technically possible, this risk is real. So, what is needed to mitigate that risk?

HUDSON: The biggest problem with detecting commercial drones is, if you don't see it, you can't stop it. Drones are small. They tend to fly quite

low. The air traffic management system in the United States, Europe, Asia, is not really designed to find things that are flying so low.

In cities especially where you have a lot of crowded airspace, tall buildings, a lot of electromagnetic signals that can really jam up

detection. So the biggest thing that's got to be done is find a way to detect these things so that you can bring in other technologies to stop

them.

[08:35:04] LU STOUT: There are counter-drone systems out there like jammers. Could those be effective in dealing with this threat?

HUDSON: Unfortunately the commercial drone world itself is immature in a new industry. Within that industry, the counter-drone piece of it is

exceptionally immature. There is a lot of probably oversold and overpromised, overheight technologies that out there.

At the time, there's probably -- the only way to kind of stop the drones with the technology available is what I would call a layered approach where

you bring in different things. You bring up an excellent point about jamming.

The problem with jamming is that once you turn a jammer on, you can't necessarily discriminate against the things you're turning off. In a city,

there could be a lot of other things that you'll knock off-line.

LU STOUT: Yeah, like law enforcement or commercial aircraft, even. As of today, how prepared it the U.S. government, let alone other governments

around the world to deal with the threat posed by the malicious use of consumer drones?

HUDSON: So, you know, the world security forces are always on the lookout for bad actors who want to misuse technology. The creation of commercial

drones and their misuse by these folks didn't create more terrorists. So I think the kind of the commitment across the world to find these people is

pretty impressive.

What is lacking right now is the technological ability to kind of detect these things that are flying around before they harm somebody. Commercial

industry is working on that.

The role of the U.S. government and foreign governments will be to sort of test that technology as the commercial world creates it and then pick which

ones work the best and then put them into the air traffic management system.

LU STOUT: Bernard Hudson, we thank you for laying up the threat for us. Bernard Hudson joining us live from Washington, D.C. Take care.

Now, conspiracy theories and false information, just two things that have become synonymous with InfoWars and its founder, Alex Jones. Now, some of

the biggest names in techs say that Jones will have to peddle those claims somewhere else. YouTube, Apple, Facebook, they have removed content from

Jones and his channel, saying that he violated their policies.

Jones has alleged that the U.S. government was involved in the September 11th attacks and that student victims in the Parkland school shooting were

actors. And this is what he said about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX JONES, FOUNDER, INFOWARS: The official story of Sandy Hook has more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

My gut tells me the White House -- people controlling the governments were involved in this. So don't ever think the globalists that have hijacked

this country wouldn't stage something like this. They kill little kids all day every day. It's not our government. It's the globalists. I mean,

they're doing it. They're doing it. They're staging it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Just a sampling of InfoWars there. And Alex Jones, he responded to the move on Twitter saying that his users could still access his website

directly, calling it his words "the one platform that they can't ban."

You're watching "News Stream." And coming up, no water to grow crops? Well, no problem. How Dubai is using vertical farming to help boost agriculture.

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LU STOUT: Welcome back. Now, Dubai imports up to 90 percent of its food but that can all soon change as the city embraces vertical farming

technology in a big way.

[08:40:06] Samuel Burke explains how it can help farmers thrive in a country with one of the most harshest climates on the planet.

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SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS CORRESPONDENT: In this industrial estate in the heart of Dubai, there is a dynamic technology with

a potential to revolutionize the way the city sources its food.

Badia Farms is the first commercial indoor vertical farm in the region using hydroponic technology. It's producing 27 varieties of leafy greens

without the need for soil, sunlight, and chemicals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We use LEDs. These LEDs are special LEDs to mimic the sun. We also use a lot of sensors, climate control systems to regulate

these conditions. Lastly, we've got the fertilization system which I like to refer to as the brain and that regulates the irrigation, the timing, the

scheduling, and the different nutrients for the plants.

BURKE: Dubai is quickly becoming a hot spot for this phenomenon. Emirates Airline is about to start building the world's largest vertical farm at

Dubai World Central Airport. When it opens next year, it plans to produce 6,000 pounds of leafy greens per day for its catering department.

In the backyard of this building, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, you'll find two acres of the land the minister has set aside

for 12 vertical farms.

THANI AHMED ALZEYOUDI, MINISTER OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENT, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The beauty of the Badia Farm, the Emirates Airline

announcements, open the eyes of business people to the topic. And you cannot imagine the interest which we received after those announcements.

Many people are interested and exploring the idea. They even are trying to bring international partners onboard and international technologies to the

country, and they are asking us to provide more and more lands.

BURKE: Dubai has big ambitions with its arid climate, it's forced to import 90 percent of its food. But this technology has the potential to

allow Dubai to enter crop production in a major way. The ministry says the ultimate aim is to begin exporting home-produced crops throughout the

region.

ALZEYOUDI: What we are going to do this very soon. And again, the distinguished thing of the crops is going to be the quality. And we will

not only export the products, we will export the technology as well after applying it here in the U.E.

BURKE: Back in Badia Farms, they are pushing ahead with plans to double in size over the next few weeks and launch a similar vertical far in

neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Samuel Burke, CNN.

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LU STOUT: And that is "News Stream." I'm Kristie Lu stout. Don't go anywhere. "World Sport" with Alex Thomas is next.

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