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Clinton Meets With Russia's Lavrov On Syria; President Morsi To Address Egypt; Coaches Versus Cancer; "Forbes" Most Powerful People List; "Other - The Bi-Racial Poem"; Protests Shut Down Michigan Capitol Building; Apple Mac To Be "Made In USA"

Aired December 6, 2012 - 14:30   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in Jill Dougherty. She just called us from Dublin, Ireland where the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has held this meeting today with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Keep in mind, Russia here, really, resisted the efforts to speed the departure of the Syrian leader, Bashar Al-Assad. So Jill, do we know what was Syria's chemical weapon, was that discussed here in this conversation between the secretary of state and the foreign minister of Russia?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, yes, initially. There are actually two meetings between Secretary Clinton and the foreign minister. And you know, Russia actually does -- this is one area where they do agree.

Russia is very much opposed to any type of use of chemical weapons and in fact Secretary Clinton thanked him for speaking about that which she did in Brussels just yesterday, talking about that.

Although, Brooke, you know, you have to say that the Russians next breath say that they have raised that issue, in fact, with Bashar Al- Assad, the president of Syria.

And he assures them that there's no use intended and it is not a problem and, so, you kind of have two messages coming from the Russians, but you would have to say they're very much opposed to that and there's a lot of concern.

BALDWIN: So do they then -- do the Russians believe Assad when he assures them that he won't? And, are there new sign that is the Russians might be wavering in their support of Assad?

DOUGHERTY: You know, it's hard to say whether they believe it. I mean, I think what you have to say is at least on the surface they're saying we are taking him at his word that he wouldn't use them.

And they also say, President Putin said, there's no way that Syria is going to attack other countries, specifically Turkey because they're in enough of a problem with their internal conflict.

But, you know, I do think that the very interesting development, Brooke, is that it appears that is the Russians really are now moving toward re-evaluating that idea, that Assad can survive.

And you just have to look at what is happening here and there are also indications, you know, from an ally of Vladimir Putin being quoted by Interfax saying that Syria's government is incapable of doing its job properly and also our influence on the Syrian leadership is very limited.

So, I think there is some movement, whether it's going to change right now in these meetings with Lavrov, probably not at this moment but there's a shift.

BALDWIN: OK, Jill Dougherty, thank you.

Violent protests in Cairo. Tanks continue here to roll through the streets. Egypt's president prepares to speak to his country. We're live from Cairo straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Thousands are gathered in front of the presidential palace in Cairo waiting for President Mohammed Morsi to speak. This comes after a night of violent clashes that killed six people and left more than 670 injured.

Take a look, tanks, armored personnel carriers clearing the area, scattering crowds of protesters who have been fighting in the streets. The latest spiral of violence comes after Morsi's sweeping power grab.

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who back President Morsi are clashing with his opponents who say he has made himself a dictator. I want to go straight to Reza Sayah. He is outside the presidential palace in Cairo. So Reza, still the president not spoken, when he does, what might he say?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, nobody really knows what he's going to say other than members of his inner circle, but certainly, there's a lot of pressure on President Morsi to calm down this conflict that's been escalating over a few days, especially the last night.

We've been eagerly waiting for him to speak, but he hasn't spoken yet. We're not quite sure what the delay is. Initially, word was that at 6:00 p.m. local time, about three and a half hours ago, he was going to deliver his speech and then reports came that this was going to be a taped speech, and he taped the address.

Delivered it to state media and it was going to be aired very soon. That was about an hour and a half ago. We're still waiting. In the meantime, opposition, factions, opponents, critics of the president are steadily gathering out here in front of the presidential palace.

About 4,000 of them, not a huge number, but they're certainly spirited and loud, chanting for him to leave. Of course, they are eager, too, to see what the president has to say. Their position is that they want President Morsi to annul and cancel the constitution. Start over. Some are calling for his ouster. We're going to see what the president has to say in the speech if anything to calm the situation down -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: As we await for that speech, I want to ask you about resignations today, one of Morsi's top advisers, also the head of state TV. How significant is that?

SAYAH: Well, it's significant. These are his advisers. Today one of his advisers was a member of the Freedom and Justice Party that's a political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. If this trend continues, certainly, that's going to apply more pressure on him.

But for now, he's given no indication that he plans to back down from his position. Yes, vice president and spokesperson, saying that the goal is to have this national referendum on December 15th for Egypt to vote on this constitution.

Will he have a change of strategy today and back down from that position? If he backs down, will that be a sign of weakness? A lot of questions yet to be answered.

BALDWIN: We'll be watching again for him to speak and possibly come back to you, Reza. Reza, thank you for us in Cairo.

Back here at home, marking a tragedy in Kansas City, family, friends saying goodbye today at the funeral for Kasandra Perkins, a day after her boyfriend Kansas City Chief player, remembered her boyfriend, Jovan Belcher. Some news about their little girl. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A funeral being held right now in Texas for the slain girlfriend of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, Kasandra Perkins is survived by the couple's 3-month-old daughter, Zoe. We're learning this.

Today from the NFL, under the league's collective bargaining agreement, Little Zoe, will receive at least $1 million as she grows up. Pictures taken from Belcher's memorial service right here in Kansas City yesterday.

Members of the Chiefs arrived on buses dressed in suits and ties. The team moved up the practice schedule so the players could attend the service. Belcher shot and killed Perkins last weekend before killing himself.

For more than 20 years, BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has been involved with a group called "Coaches Versus Cancer." Now that fight against cancer has become much more personal for Rose.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has his story in this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a cause that's close to his heart. And this year for the first time, Dave Rose, got to take his BYU basketball team to the "Coaches Versus Cancer" classic tournament. What made it all the more poignant for him is battle he fought with pancreatic cancer beginning three years ago.

DAVE ROSE, BYU MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH: If we can do something to try to help raise awareness, help find a cure, it's personal to me. I understand how these people feel.

GUPTA: His symptoms came on suddenly on an airplane in fact returning from a family vacation.

ROSE: I got really sick. To where I was light headed and I couldn't even actually sit up so they laid me down, moved some of the passengers and brought oxygen and cleared the plane and then brought medics on and carted me off the plane and took me to the hospital.

I had 10 units of blood transfused and they found the mass and then went in and removed it and told me I had cancer. That was the process. That was about a 48-hour, you know, process of really changed our whole lives.

GUPTA: The operation was a success. Doctors removed the tumor from Rose's pancreas along with the spleen. They also removed a blood clot that developed after surgery. He was back on the court two months after surgery. He continued to take his team to the NCAA tournament. He led the Cougars to their first appearance in the sweet 16 in 30 years.

ROSE: One of the guys here today they'll feel different than when they came in.

GUPTA: Now three and a half years after the day he collapsed, Rose is still cancer free.

ROSE: I feel like I've been given a second chance. There was a real possibility that my time here was going to be numbered and now I feel like everything I get to do is really just a blessing for me and that I really hope I can appreciate.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Sanjay Gupta, thank you. Make sure you watch "SANJAY GUPTA MD" on Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

All right, got a list for you today, "Forbes" magazine out with the most powerful people list for 2012 based on things like whether the person has power over a lot of people or a lot of power in multiple places.

So think about it, top five. Number five, the pope, no huge surprise there. Number four, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Number three, Russian President Vladimir Putin. So who are the top two most powerful, most influential people here? The answer after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Where were we? So we were showing you the five, four, three -- in terms of top five "Forbes" most powerful people of the year. The top two positions, many of you guessing on Twitter, one of you just guessed.

Number two, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, she is the most powerful woman in the world also according to "Forbes." And now for the most powerful person, someone just guessed it, president of the United States, Barack Obama.

The poem is called "Other." It's written by a beautiful young woman. Her name is Neo. Sadly, that word other is how people are forced to describe ethnicity because they don't fit into a certain box.

For Nayo, she says she was too light skinned for the black kids she grew up around. Teasing and taunts from childhood actually still haunt her today. Soledad O'Brien tells her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a poem about her life, but Nayo Jones is struggling to recite it.

NAYO JONES, PHILADELPHIA YOUTH POETRY MOVEMENT: They always called me white girl. I was never ashamed of myself until they taught me to be ashamed.

O'BRIEN: She calls her poem "Other" or the biracial poem. It's about being bullied by black kids for being light skinned.

JONES: I always remember the taunts well in to the nights. The brands of weirdo and vanilla took years to fade. I became ashamed.

O'BRIEN: Now the tough part. She has to perform it at the first spoken word poetry competition of the season. It's painful and she can hardly get through it.

JONES: I pretended I didn't know. They were all wondering if I was adopted. No black mother to explain how this tall white man ended up with a short chestnut skinned girl. They doubted he was ever my father.

O'BRIEN: Only seven hours until show time and Nayo can't remember her poem.

PERRY "VISION" DIVIRGILIO, PHILADELPHIA YOUTH POETRY MOVEMENT: Find it. You got it. I can tell you why you're not remembering. It's pieces and personal we don't want to connect to it. I wrote it. I'm done. That's the beginning. Part two is owning it like spitting it out there in the world. Proclaiming this is what it was.

JONES: They always called me a white girl. I was never ashamed of myself until they taught me to be ashamed.

DIVIRGILIO: Don't, don't.

JONES: I don't want to -- this is gross.

DIVIRGILIO: It is not gross.

JONES: Just so frustrated. I don't know.

DIVIRGILIO: It's OK. I promise you it gets easier. Come here. Come here. Let go. You got this. It's all right, sweetie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: You can watch more of Soledad's reporting as she examines questions about skin color, discrimination and race. "Who is Black in America?" it premiers Sunday night 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

A bold and costly move by Apple after years of making its high tech products overseas, find out why the company will soon manufacture a computer right here in the USA.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are getting pictures in here from Michigan and show you and tell you exactly what's happening there. There are large protests, basically closing down the state capitol building here. This is Lansing, Michigan. Eight people have been arrested.

State police say there are a couple thousand people protesting inside the building. You see a number of them outside the capitol building. Police, they say they're not letting anyone else inside. Just about 50 state troopers are there on the ground.

The protests are over a push by the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, to make Michigan a right to work state. Letting workers in Michigan decide whether or not they want to join unions.

So the capitol is scheduled to close in just about two and a half hours from now. So police say anyone who refuses to leave will be arrested and will be charged with trespassing. We'll keep an eye on what's happening there in Lansing.

I want to talk about this, though, one of the biggest companies, the biggest companies without a doubt in the world moving jobs out of China bringing them back to America. Apple CEO Tim Cook with this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM COOK, CEO, APPLE: So we've been working for years on doing more and more in the United States. Next year, we will do one of our existing Mac lines in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Existing Mac lines. Dan Simon, let me go straight to you. You cover all things technology here for us. You know, Apple's been under all kinds of pressure to move production back here, back to the U.S. Why now?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, they've been under pressure to do this for some time. Something to do with the human rights abuses that you see in those China plants and also, you know, I think there's a way of looking at it in terms of, you know, they've been so successful and here's an opportunity to give back, you know, something to the American economy.

The way you look at things is, you know, the company is going to be spending $100 million in terms of bringing back jobs to the U.S. Some may say $100 million, you know, is not a lot of money considering that Apple has more than $100 billion in the bank. But I think this is a positive sign in terms of how many workers we're talking about here --

BALDWIN: Yes, how many jobs?

SIMON: We don't know precisely or the skills necessary, for instance. It's a great question probably in the thousands of jobs. Remember, this is one existing Mac line. This is not the iPhone or iPad. It's one Mac line so probably in the thousands -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: In the thousands. And so, Apple just chocked up its biggest one-day stock drop in years. Do you think the shift in production, adding thousands of jobs, has to be a profitable move for Apple hopefully?

SIMON: Well, you know, there are two ways of looking at it. You know, they are using cheap labor in China. You're not going to have that in the United States and also you're talking about adding infrastructure costs.

How that might impact the bottom line, you know, remains to be seen and Tim Cook made it clear that this is not a financial move necessarily. This is a move to really bring back jobs to the United States and do something positive for the American economy.

BALDWIN: Yes. I guess, I say hopefully just precisely the point. So many people want the jobs in this country. Dan Simon, thank you.