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NEW DAY SUNDAY

Recovery Efforts Begin After Deadly Cyclone in Vanuatu; Rumors Swirl About President Putin's Health

Aired March 15, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty minutes past the hour right now. And always so good to see you.

You know, we are talking about these four Americans who are already back in the U.S. this morning following fears that they may have been exposed to Ebola. We know they have been taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for observation. Now, six more patients are expected to arrive, some today, others tomorrow, but they will immediately be transferred to either Emory in Atlanta or the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: So, again, 10 patients in total are being flown back home and none of the individuals returning has been diagnosed with Ebola. All of this after an American health care worker actually contracted the deadly virus and that patient is now being treated at the NIH facility and is listed in serious condition.

Recovery efforts are now happening after tropical Cyclone Pam ravaged the islands of Vanuatu over the weekend. Experts say it is one of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall. Aide workers described some areas as if a bomb went off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cyclone Pam is one of the worst cyclones I've ever seen having grown up in Florida. I've seen my share of storms but nothing to top what Cyclone Pam did to this area here in Vanuatu.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We stay in the house and run out from the house and the roof of the house, cyclone take out. Cyclone very strong storm. So, cyclone take out our roof and then we ran to another house to save our life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Six people are dead but the number is expected to climb. It's unclear how many thousands are displaced by the massive storm that bore the might of a category 5 hurricane. The storm pounded the island for almost an entire day. Aide workers are still trying to get a handle on the devastation and what exactly needs to be done now.

Alice Clements is on the ground in Vanuatu and describes what she saw after that storm hit. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICE CLEMENTS, UNICEF (via telephone): I've been traveling today to the outskirts of Port Vila. And as far as can I see, there is just destruction. It's, you know, trees are down, buildings ripped apart or roofs are off or windows broken. Just, you know, from what I understand, the storm was twice the strength of Hurricane Katrina, so this thing was really, really powerful.

So, we tried to move toward Aton which is the area of the island that Port Vila sits that we think was most affected by the eye of the cyclone, and a bridge had been completely destroyed by raging floodwaters that was generated by the cyclone. This was not a rickety wooden bridge, but this was a concrete bridge that looks like a big bite has been taken out of the side of it.

So, this is also the bridge that is the main way to get to this part of the island and the main way you take the relief trucks through. So, that's a huge problem for us. We have spoken to a woman who is nine months pregnant and due on the 9th of this month.

And at this point, there are huge challenges with the hospital. She doesn't have clean drinking water and she doesn't have food. She doesn't have power.

So, everywhere we go, we are talking to people who are in an incredibly desperate situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: What you saw there were some of the more structurally sound buildings. Behind us some of the homes are not brick and mortar homes, they're just made of the resources there, the natural resources people have, and under 200-mile-an-hour winds, they're not going to hold up.

PAUL: When you hear somebody say it was the twice the strength of Katrina, I think that's when it really jolts us here, doesn't it, Ivan?

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No question about it. And not just that, but the fact that, Katrina, we had, of course, the United States where we have buildings made of concrete here. These folks are living in huts literally and some in trees as well. So, they really just had no chance with this storm at 200 miles an hour as it passed through.

Here is the current wind speed 115 miles an hour as it passes through New Zealand. We'll get to that in a second.

But I want to take you, if you have now been following this -- here it is. It's made its way through Vanuatu, maximum sustained winds 165 winds, sustained winds. We had gusts to 200 miles an hour. That's equivalent of category 5 hurricane and the strongest landfall since we had in the Philippines back with Haiyan, and, of course, the strongest ever to hit Vanuatu.

And the fact the eye went over the capitol is like you standing in a room blindfolded, throwing a dart and hitting a bull's-eye. The chances of that happening are just unbelievably as far as meteorology goes.

There goes the storm. And this is what happened as far as rainfall. Over a foot has fallen here. But the main, of course, threatened, the main devastation happened because of the storm surge and because of those devastating winds.

Forecast radar looks good for the recovery efforts that will be clearly under way in significant fashion over the next several hours, days, weeks, months. Here is the storm as it affects the north island of New Zealand. We are getting reports of power outages in the north island. Wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour.

As the storm begin its transition what we call a post-tropical storm, what happens is, is the wind field kind of spans here and the winds are not found at the center of the storm, they're found in these bands that are going to be hitting the north island over the next 24 hours. Again, gust is 75, that's hurricane strength.

And, guys, as far as rainfall accumulations, anywhere from 6 to 8 inches of rainfall. So, still a little bit to go but certainly New Zealand can handle it and they are not going to get the brunt of the storm like Vanuatu.

PAUL: Good to know. Ivan, thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Questions this weekend about Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Not the typical questions what is he doing and why, but questions about where is President Putin? Is he ill? And what recent photos of him mean?

We'll dive into that conversation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Two people were arrested at a protest in St. Louis, Missouri, last night. One of them was Phillip Montgomery, a freelance photographer from Mashable. According to St. Louis police, about 75 to 100 protesters entered government buildings and two were arrested for impeding the flow of traffic and they were issued summons and they were released.

What you're looking at here the hundreds of people who packed Madison East High School to remember 19-year-old Tony Robinson. He was the unarmed teen shot by police in Wisconsin March 6th. In the past, he had pled guilty to armed robbery, but his family said he was turning his life around and planning to attend college and his friends say he was a good kid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think those things need to be shown that he was a real person and he had a real soft side.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just remember him playing with all of the kids. He was the biggest kid, so he'd pick them up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Robinson family is asking for peaceful protests for the biracial teen who was shot by a white officer. Police say Robinson assaulted an officer and that is why the officer shot him. The Madison police chief took heat for publicly apologizing what he calls a tragic incident. Wisconsin state investigators have started an inquiry into that case.

BLACKWELL: There's a lot of speculation about Russian President Vladimir Putin's health. He cancelled several engagements last week. So, the Kremlin release these images of him Friday to try to put rumors to rest. Now, we don't know if this meeting with the head of Moscow's supreme court actually took place on Friday.

Former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty joins me now on the phone.

Jill, undoubtedly, the president has been sick before. There is flu whipping across Moscow. Would he just not be seen for so many days because of the flu, because of a cold, or could there be something else here?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF (via telephone): You know, Victor, I think as I read and I talk to people, excuse me, I think the most likely think he simply is sick. I mean, there is a flu in Moscow right now.

But one of the problems here is that the Kremlin is not used to explaining a lot. So, when he disappears and he has been out of the public eye, at least live on TV for almost like nine or ten days, they -- all they can do is say, no, he is healthy. Well, how do you parse that? I mean, yes, healthy, may be down with the flu.

So, this, in turn, is fueling this enormous output. I mean, just go on to Twitter or any social media and you will find all of this, everything from, you know, theories or rumors about a coup d'etat, that has his security forces have taken over to maybe his alleged girlfriend in Europe is giving birth to a baby.

I mean, it's really kind of crazy but that is what happens when there is really no structural way that they can give some objective information about what's happening.

BLACKWELL: You know, Jill, I feel like the international media just did this a few months ago when Kim Jung-un of North Korea was out of the public eye for so many days. It turns out, he came out back later with cane, and people were wondering if he was still in power. That's the international media.

But in Moscow, are people as enthralled with this and have all of these theories as well?

DOUGHERTY: Well, you know, average people who are not on the web and who are not watching national state-run TV probably don't hear anything about this. There is very little in the, let's say, the state media. A lot of this is happening on the web with people who are more, you know, hooked into news. They are absolutely going crazy.

But in Russia, as a whole, they are kind of, you know, plodding along as if not much has happened. The problem here is that there's a very nervous mood, especially among people who follow politics, follow developments in Russia right now, and, you know, there's a lot of nervousness since Boris Nemtsov, the opposition politician, was shot down near that bridge near the Kremlin. The sanctions about Ukraine are hurting the Russian economy, and you also have the war in Ukraine continuing.

So these things, in a way, it almost seems funny. I mean, I've been looking at these things like Putin is dead and you see crazy pictures about where could Putin be? But there is a very unfunny side to this. If the president of Russia, you know, his absence can't be explained, it makes people nervous.

Now one thing, Victor, we should watch. Monday, he is scheduled to be meeting with the president of Kyrgyzstan in St. Petersburg. And that's really kind of a test. I mean, after all of this, and all these days, if he doesn't show up in St. Petersburg on Monday, I think you have to start really questioning what's going on.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll look ahead to that.

One more we go, Jill, this dragon ride announced by the U.S. army, this caravan of striker vehicles, 1,100 mile convoy through six European countries to assure the NATO allies that the U.S. has their back, exercises along the route -- obviously, a message to those six countries. Is this going to be a message that resonates at all at the Kremlin?

DOUGHERTY: Well, the Kremlin, of course, will probably criticize it, if they haven't already. And it's -- this is another illustration of how the nervousness is building. People in Europe who were formally, let's say, part of the Soviet Union are very worried about Russia could do next ala Ukraine, and then the Russians are saying -- you know, we are concerned about what NATO is doing and stirring up trouble. It's very, ultimately, kind of nerve wrecking and, ultimately, could be dangerous because you have Russians, Russian planes flying overhead in Europe unmarked, military planes unmarked.

And that could get very dangerous. I mean, I think that is a concern that all of this, it's not a Cold War but when you're dealing with military equipment over flights, with nuclear armed countries, that can get dangerous.

BLACKWELL: All right. Former CNN Moscow bureau chief, Jill Dougherty, thanks for speaking with us this morning.

DOUGHERTY: Thanks, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Sure.

Christi?

PAUL: You know, this Sunday, we are asking what can modern technology uncover in the real story behind Jesus, Judas and the Last Supper. We're talking to a religious studies expert coming up and I think we are going to be surprised at some of the things we learn here together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So, if you hadn't a chance to check out CNN series "FINDING JESUS" yet, it's a new show taking an in depth look at some of the artifacts and the evidence that surrounds Jesus' life and death.

And this week's episode takes a closer look at the disciple Judas, his betrayal, how it may have all started at the Last Supper. Take a look here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Jesus and his disciples met for the Last Supper, the tension is really building up. Through the week that they've been in Jerusalem, there have been increasing conflicts with authorities.

Something big was about to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think there's a real sense of foreboding at the Last Supper, the way that it's portrayed in the gospels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's that moment at the meal, this intimacy, to eat a meal with somebody is to be family with them. Jesus announces that one of you, one of the 12 will betray me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: April Deconick joining us now from Houston. She's the chair of the religious studies department at Rice University.

April, so good to have you with us. Thank you.

APRIL DECONICK, PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL STUDIES, RICE UNIVERSITY: Thank you for having me.

PAUL: Of course.

Let me ask you, first off, do you think we have the story of Judas right, wrong, somewhere in the middle?

DECONICK: I think that each new piece of evidence gets us a little closer.

PAUL: To what? What is the story, do you think?

DECONICK: Well, in terms of what we know now is we have a new gospel. The gospel is called, the Gospel of Judas. It's a real lost gospel. We knew about the gospel of Judas because a bishop in the middle of the second century, Bishop Irenaeus mentions it, but we didn't have a copy until very recently. That copy was published in 2006 by National Geographic.

PAUL: And what does it tell us that we didn't know before? What surprises were there for you?

DECONICK: Oh, there were lots of surprises for me. In terms of religious studies, finding a new gospel like this is like finding a new planet for a physicist.

So, this is a lost gospel, and it tells us a story of Judas that's a little different. Irenaeus had told us that the gospel of Judas spoke about Judas being a hero, so we were all very much expecting this when we first started working on this text, but as I worked through this text, I found that in this text Judas is portrayed as a demon and a rather evil demon at that.

PAUL: My good -- and, I mean, the bible says that Judas sold Jesus out for 30 silver coins.

DECONICK: Yes.

PAUL: What do you learn about that particular exchange, if anything?

DECONICK: This gospel does also mention a money exchange, but it seems to imply that Judas did this because this was his destiny. So, it adds that layer of complexity to the story.

PAUL: But that's so interesting because we think who knows their destiny? Are they suggesting Judas knew he was supposed to do it? Because who amongst us feels like we know what we're doing, where we're supposed to be going.

DECONICK: Exactly. What this gospel has is Jesus telling Judas what his destiny is going to be. Judas in the text is uncomfortable with this destiny and he's fighting it, but Jesus says to him, there's nothing that he can do about it, that it will happen.

PAUL: All righty. Hey, April Deconick, so good to talk to you, thank you so much for sharing your perspective.

DECONICK: Me, too. Thank you.

PAUL: Sure. And don't forget, you can catch "FINDING JESUS". It's 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here, only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: This week's human factor focuses on a comedian who is turning cerebral palsy into an educational punch line.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYSOON ZAYID, COMEDIAN: Mom, you're not going to hit a disabled child, are you?

(LAUGHTER)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Comedian Maysoon Zayid has cerebral palsy. It's an incurable neurological disorder that affects body movement, leaving some patients confined to a wheelchair. But not Maysoon.

ZAYID: I learned how to walk because my dad taught me how by putting my feet on his feet and just walking. And my parents also sent me to dancing school. I could hold on to the dance bar and that's how I learned to hold up my body to stand up.

GUPTA: Maysoon's parents also used other non-traditional methods like piano lessons to help her increase her dexterity.

ZAYID: Those piano classes served me because I wouldn't be able to type and tweet.

GUPTA: Maysoon still dances and even does yoga.

ZAYID: Before I started doing yoga, the resting position of my arms was this. It was nearly impossible to flex them and to relax them. And doing yoga has allowed me to have so much more coordination.

GUPTA: Maysoon has never let cerebral palsy stand in her way. She has headlined popular clubs, co-founded the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. And at a TED talk in 2013, Maysoon even proved that comedy is a universal language.

ZAYID: I've got 99 problems and palsy is just one.

(LAUGHTER)

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Very talented woman, no doubt about it.

Thank you so much for starting your morning with us.