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Migrants in Hungary Refusing Food, Water; MH 370 Debris Found; Trump Sticks with Republican Party; Force Friday Finally Arrives. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 4, 2015 - 03:00   ET

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


[03:00:00]

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The standoff on the tracks. Hundreds of migrants pressuring Hungarian authorities to let them leave the country.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also at this hour, pressure mounts for leaders to respond to the migrant crisis, live reports from 10 Downing Street and the Turkish capital coming up.

HOWELL: A later (ph) MH370. French investigators say there's proof this debris is from that missing Malaysian airliner.

ALLEN: Also, this hour, live coverage as a Russian Soyuz rocket docks at the international space station.

HOWELL: Cool to see.

ALLEN: Yes. Hello again. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ALLEN: Well, migrants near Budapest, Hungary are holding up signs and shouting at police, refusing to leave a train they thought would take them to Germany. This is the scene just about an hour ago. The people onboard fear that if they do leave, they will be sent once again to camps. The train will stop Thursday and the migrants were told it would not travel internationally.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

HOWELL: Hungary has responded to the influx of migrants, by building a barbedwire fence along its border with Serbia. In just a few hours time, European leaders are set to meet in Luxemburg to discuss this ongoing crisis.

For more on the developing story, let's turn to our own Fred Pleitgen, who is live in Budapest. Fred, thanks for being with us. So it's understandably a very tense situation with Hungarian security forces guarding that train. What's the latest there? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean,

it's certainly is a very tense situation here, George. What the Hungarian authorities have also done, is they've sort of tried to block the view that we have here of that train. If we just pan over there, you can see that -- only if we zoom into the area between those two carriages can you actually see what's going on there, on the other side. That is that train where those refugees are still hold up.

I mean, you're absolutely right. It is quite a tense situation here between them and the security forces. What's been going on is that, they've been refusing food and water. We saw something like that last night when -- at some point, very late in the night, the Hungarian authorities actually brought food here and water and well -- as well and there was sort of a small little makeshift demonstration that took place among them. I swear they were chanting, "No food, no food."

We've seen them hold up cards that they've drawn on, "No camp. No food. No water." So clearly, they are refusing everything at this point in time. Here we can hear them shouting again, "No camp, no camp," because they don't want to go to these camps.

And you're absolutely right, the standoff is about the fact that they want this train to continue to the border, between Austria and Hungary, so that they can then disembark and try and get into Austria and then ultimately, their goal is obviously Germany. That's something that the Hungarian government has said it was not going to happen. They have told these migrants that they should go into buses, which we're actually standing outside the railway station and then they would be brought to a camp, to then be processed there so that they could seek asylum there.

That's something that the migrants don't want to do because they say that they've been treated very badly so far here in this country. Many, of course, at the border between Hungary and Serbia were made to wait for a very long time with no food and water there. And they say the conditions here simply haven't been up to standard at all.

So this is a very tense standoff and one that continues through the night. I mean, they've been here, now, for, I would say, almost 20 hours. And understandably, we can see a little here, through the train cars that, you know, the children are very weak, the children, obviously, in very difficult conditions. It was also very cold here overnight.

So a very tense situation but also one where you can feel that the nerves of the people, those migrants really are starting to show, that they really are starting to get very frustrated at the situation there, George.

HOWELL: And Fred, again, as you mentioned, these are many of the same people, these are the same people, who were at that train station in Budapest who waited for so long. After all they've been through, you're saying that they are refusing food and water in protest.

PLEITGEN: Yeah. Yeah, they are certainly are. I mean, at least that's what we're hearing. I mean, that's what they're saying, is they're saying, "No food. No water." We've also heard from our own Arwa Damon, who was, of course, on that train and so well into the early morning hours here, that people were refusing food. The children were eating, the children were getting water, but by and large, that people that are on that train not consuming anything.

So you're absolutely right. They have been through a lot. Many of them, of course, for the past couple of days, before they came on this train here, were at that collected train station in Central Budapest where, again, they were made to camp out there, there were no facilities whatsoever, it was very difficult for them. There was various --

HOWELL: I've lost Fred's shot there. But again, Fred Pleitgen, telling us that authorities there are trying to block his view, quite frankly, of that train with migrants packed inside, refusing to get off the train. Again, also protesting, not taking food and water, demanding to have that train move forward.

[03:05:13] We'll stay in touch with Fred and continue to follow this story.

ALLEN: Yeah, we'll get more. Now, from Hungary, Zoltan Kovacs is Hungary's government spokesperson and he joins us live via Skype from Budapest.

We thank you, sir, for joining us. The world has been seeing video of this situation that we've just been talking about. These migrants families are desperate, they're exhausted, they've escaped war and ISIS brutality yet receiving harsh treatment from your country.

So many are asking, where's the humanity? What would you say to that.

ZOLTAN KOVACS, HUNGARY'S GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Well, harsh treatment is simply not true. The problem is that you are witnessing a couple of thousand people desperately wanting to go to Germany, because they've been told they are free to go, while we are facing 2,000, 3,000 people a day arriving to Hungary illegally.

So what we are trying to provide beyond giving shelter to all who are arriving to Hungary and therefore to the European Union, but it's not their choice if they're going to get it. It is impossible that Hungary institutionalizes, say, the Eastern Railway Station as a refugee camp while we have these temporary shelters all around the country like in all European countries.

What we see here is they -- basically, the complete lack of compliance with rules and regulations that apply, obviously, through illegal migrants.

ALLEN: Well, the people on the trains, they were worried when the media was sent away. Our reporter there, who was just live, said that the media has been blocked from seeing what's going on. These people are afraid to go to these camps, they want to get to Germany. Your country has said, "This is Germany's problem," so why not let them go?

KOVACS: Because it's impossible. That's not -- it's not the choice of an illegal migrant to decide where he or she would like to go, even with a family. There are procedures, there are protocols all European nations have to follow. And that's -- again, it's very sad to see that the complete lack of compliance would lead out to days for this kind of scenery.

Again, it proves the quality, actually, of Hungarian police that the past three or four days, we passed without any kind of atrocity. You'd be showing pictures of family lying on the rail, it just turned out that that guy, though desperate, has thrown his wife and kid on the railway and jumped after them, and police was trying to save them, just the opposite what the international media was trying to suggest.

So I'm afraid this is something which is surpassing the kind of rationality that would -- it would see. And again, what we require is the minimal amount of cooperation with Hungarian authority.

We are handling 2,000 to 3,000 people a day coming across our southern borders. Again, we have reached 160,000 this year. These hundreds of people you are witnessing in Bishka (ph) and Bolder (ph) stations is just one minor element, I'm sorry to say, of what we are facing in the moment.

ALLEN: Well, British Prime Minister David Cameron says European countries have a moral responsibility to help these people. We certainly know the EU needs a unified cohesive strategy here to deal with this. Do you think that's achievable in the near future?

KOVACS: We indeed share that moral imperative and there can be no question about that. But the first step to be able to put the right questions, to be able to find proper answers is to defend the borders of Europe. Without reestablishing border control, without reestablishing principle and discipline at the border crossing stations, if -- it's not going to work.

If -- take a look at what is happening of the so-called western-backed Iraq. There are countries which are simply not doing anything to stop the flood of illegal migrants. So they are not fulfilling their obligations under the European protocols, and that is going to lead to a disaster if you don't stop that.

That's why we ask Germany to stop double language. It is impossible to send out invitations to refugees and the same time require, as it is happening in Hungary, the fulfillment of all European regulations. That's not going to work at the same time.

So again, establishing law and order at the borders, discipline put into the flood of illegal migrants is the first step we have to take, everything else coming after that.

ALLEN: Well, what are you doing to talk to these people, to try to explain to them the situation? What is the near term solution for these families that are terrified to get off these trains?

KOVACS: Again, there's no reason to be terrified. They've been told repeatedly for the past couple of days what the normal procedure is. They already would be in safe conditions in a temporary shelter, provided bags, clothing, health care, even the daily allowance that is coming on the European regulations.

[03:10:11] Most definitely, there is misinformation all around the route when they reach Hungary, that something else is going to accept them in Germany, but there's going to be the same procedure for them in Germany too. They are going to be put in camps until their case is being judge. That's not going to happen otherwise.

So compliance with the Hungarian authorities and with those universal -- I mean, in a European manner, universal principles is one must -- one first thing they have to comply with. And then again, on behalf of the authorities including police, it's patience that is going to help to ease that situation.

ALLEN: Well, we hope it's relieved soon for these people and that the country can figure this out. We know that the prime ministers of your country and some others and the foreign ministers from the EU will be meeting in the next few hours.

Thank you for joining us, Zoltan Kovacs.

KOVACS: Thank you.

ALLEN: Thank you.

HOWELL: Now, more on the Syrian toddler whose heartbreaking image has shocked the world. It's become a symbol of the misery that refugees fleeing Syria are facing and enduring. The boy's father hoped to take his family to Canada far away from the war at home, but now he is about to return home to Syria to bury his wife and two young sons.

Our Jake Tapper has this story. But first, we warn you, some of what you'll see in this report is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: This image of his small silent body is too difficult for us to linger on, but it's too important to ignore. So, here's another image, a better one, of the boy on the beach. Alan Kurdi was a 2-year-old Syrian whose plight was anything but small and silent, as he fled his war-torn country with his family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a human catastrophe.

TAPPER: And some world leaders are only now finally addressing the human toll of this humanitarian crisis of those fleeing the region that's been a source of heartbreaking images for years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to ensure that people are treated correctly, with dignity, with the rights that are coming to them.

TAPPER: Before he made headlines, Alan Kurdi was traveling with his four-year-old brother and parents in a small dinghy from Turkey to Greece. It was their third attempt to cross into Europe where thousands are being blocked by bureaucratic barriers.

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: It's about making decisions and those decisions must be made by the international community.

TAPPER: Migrants are dying as their fates lie in the hands of politicians overwhelmed by their masses and by politics, and by seemingly cold indifference. In countries such as Hungary, whose leaders seem to have forgotten its own refugee crisis in 1956, these desperate families are not welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't come. Why you have to go from Turkey to Europe? Turkey is a safe country. Stay there.

TAPPER: Alan's farther Abdullah tells CNN that a smuggler manning their boat from Turkey to Greece abandoned them and swam to shore when waves got rough. After they capsized, Abdullah said, "I tried to reach for my wife and children. I was in the water for 20 minutes."

Eight children and four adults drowned, including Alan and his brother and his mother. Families gather to identify their loved once in Turkey yesterday.

Abdullah, the father, told CNN, "Everything I was dreaming of is gone." Abdullah's sister, who lives in Canada had been sending him money to help his family flee to Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I shouldn't send them the money to go.

TAPPER: She and her relatives knew the journey was risky.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His wife told me, "I'm so scared of the water. I don't know how to swim."

TAPPER: But the danger is outweighed by desperation, and thousands will continue to seek refuge in safer lands, if only they can be accepted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want any family to go anymore. I don't want to see it.

TAPPER: Jake Tapper, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The crisis is putting a focus on a number of asylum seekers that are being accepted by European countries.

ALLEN: Germany, which I was just talking about with our guest, with more than 80 million people accepted, the largest number of migrants last year Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and France, also in the top five.

HOWELL: Countries that received more than 1,000 applications but accepted the fewest asylum seekers include Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Cypress. It's important to note though that these countries received far fewer requests than larger EU nations.

Meanwhile, Britain maybe revisiting its policy for how many migrants it takes in. Prime Minister David Cameron says he was moved by that image of the Syrian toddler who drowned and he says, "Britain is a moral nation, and we will fulfill our moral responsibilities."

Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson joins now live from Downing Street.

Nic, good to have you with us. The British prime minister is under more pressure to do more in sharing the responsibility with other European nations now.

[03:15:33]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is, not just for the newspaper headlines here, the highlight, the death of that young boy and his brother and mother, but it is under pressure as well from European leaders to do more. This pressure that David Cameron finds hard to resist at the moment because on the one hand, he is trying to prepare Britain for a referendum on whether or not it should remain part of the European Union, that's next year. To achieve that and to get his political goals there, he needs, if you will, to keep the European leaders, like Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande of France. He needs to keep them sweet, if you will, because he needs to -- for his own political reasons here, to negotiate better -- a better terms of the European employment laws here.

This has all come about because of pressure domestically here in the UK on him over the migrant issue. Many people in Britain feel that there are too many migrants in Britain. The party that came in third in the last elections in terms of number of votes, Ukip (ph), won 4 million votes on that issue alone. So David Cameron has these two competing pressures, to be tough on migration, yet to accept that he does -- as he says, the country has a moral responsibility and as well, get along better with European leaders.

If you go back to the beginning of this week, he was focusing the issue as something that needed to be resolved in the countries where these problems began. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We need a comprehensive solution. A new government in Libya. We need to deal with the problems in Syria. I would say the people responsible for these terrible scenes we see, the people most responsible are President Assad in Syria and the butchers of ISIL and the criminal gangs that are running this terrible trade in people. And we have to be as tough on them at the same time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So you could see in part what David Cameron here is doing, is he's saying, the problem is not ours in here Europe. It's not mine here in Britain. The problem starts somewhere else. But it does seem that he is potentially going to raise the number of people that can seek and get asylum here in Britain because of those pressures, because of that domestic pressure, people here are feeling compassion towards migrants at the moment and at the same time that pressure from other European leaders.

HOWELL: Raising the number of people that the country takes in. But again, as you point out, the prime minister walking a very fine line. And also interesting to see how the so-called Brexit would come into play with this. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for your reporting there.

ALLEN: And coming up here, confirmation, French officials say a wing flap is from missing Malaysia airlines Flight 370. We'll have the latest on that straight ahead.

HOWELL: Plus a US county clerk stands her ground and ends up in custody over giving marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

HOWELL: Welcome back. Same sex couples could start getting marriage licenses in Rowan County, Kentucky. The country clerk who had been refusing to issue the licenses, she's now in jail.

A federal judge ordered Kim Davis behind bars until she abides by the Supreme Court order, the ruling which legalized same sex marriage.

ALLEN: Davis says she is refusing based on her religion and had barred her deputies from issuing the licenses. All but one of her deputies, that one being her son, now say they would issue the licenses starting later today.

We turn to France where investigators have confirmed a wing flap found on a French island is from the missing Malaysia airlines Flight 370. The flaperon is the first physical evidence found of MH370 since it disappeared in March of last year with more than 200 onboard.

Let's go to CNN's Erin McLaughlin, she's following this development for us. And certainly, this took the investigators a while. So this was a meticulous procedure. They wanted to get it right and are they saying how they reached this conclusion, Erin?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Natalie. Well, they are. If you remember, Malaysian authorities were quick to conclude that the flaperon was from MH370 but French investigators said that they wanted a definitive link. And so, they took a team of investigators, we understand, took a tool called an endoscope which has a camera and a light attached to it to search inside the flaperon. And inside the flaperon, they located three numbers that they were able to trace back to a subcontractor in Spain, that subcontractor responsible for helping to make Boeing 777 flaperons.

Now, they were able, then, to link one of those numbers, now, they said definitely to MH370. Now, initially, a source close to the investigation told CNN that that subcontractor had said that they had insufficient records to be able to do that. What we understand from the French prosecution's office and a press release yesterday saying that a team of French investigators actually went to Spain and found this definitive link which, of course, provides with a new degree of certainty regarding the flaperon as well as helping to solve one -- really, one of the greatest mysteries in modern aviation history.

ALLEN: Absolutely. One piece, hopefully, there will be more for these families that are trying to make sense of this.

Thank you. Erin McLaughlin, live in London.

HOWELL: You're watching CNN Newsroom. Turkey's prime minister is blaming the west for the ongoing migrant crisis. You'll hear more from him next.

[03:25:09]

ALLEN: Also, for weeks, people have been asking whether Donald Trump would stick with the Republican party if he doesn't get the nomination, he gives his answer to that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: A warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, you are watching CNN Newsroom. Good to have you with us. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories.

HOWELL: A standoff near Budapest right now where migrants are refusing to get off a train that they thought was headed to Germany. Police who are on scene, they are hoping the migrants would leave but they are refusing, out fear that they will be put in refugee camps yet again.

Two little boys drowned with their mother and they're expected to be laid to rest soon in Syria. A photo of one of the boys, Alan, as he was pulled lifeless from a Turkish beach has gone viral and has sparked more controversy about the migrant crisis.

Four Syrian citizens were taken into custody Thursday, suspected of human trafficking and contributing to their deaths.

ALLEN: In the United States, a county clerk in Kentucky who refuses to issues same sex marriage licenses has been jailed for contempt of court. A judge in the State ordered Kim Davis to stay in custody until she complies with the United States Supreme Court ruling legalizing same sex marriage. Davis says she opposes gay marriage on "God's authority."

[03:30:00]

HOWELL: Let me give you a very interesting view of something we're keeping a very close eye on, very far away. These are live pictures from the International Space Station where a three-member space crew, a Russian, a Kazak and a Dane is about to begin a very delicate docking maneuver.

ALLEN: This particular mission is full of firsts for the International Space Station. Let's bring in Mike Wall, senior writer at space.com. He joins us from San Francisco via Skype.

Hi, Mike. Thanks for being with us.

MIKE WALL, SENIOR WRITER AT SPACE.COM: Sure.

ALLEN: We always like some news from outer space and a good old docking. Tell us what we're about to see here.

WALL: Well, what we're about to see is a Soyuz spacecraft, Russian Soyuz spacecraft, is going to dock with the International Space Station that's carrying three astronauts and they're going to -- it's going to dock with the space station in about 10 minutes, probably. And yeah, if all goes according to plan, it'll just kind of sidle up to the station automatically using its onboard radar and just kind of latch on and it'll start flying around the Earth with the space station.

ALLEN: Yeah, and this is routine. This happens a lot, but it's always -- it looks easy but it's certainly not. Remind us how fast this space station is moving.

WALL: It's fast. It's going about 17,000 miles an hour around the Earth. So it's -- yeah, to actually like just kind of rendezvous with that and kind of sidle up to it. You know, when you see them next to each other, it looks like neither one of them is moving because they're flying in tandem so perfectly. But they're -- yeah, both of them are going about 17,000 miles an hour and they have to be just so perfectly matched up for this to work.

ALLEN: So they're talking to each other right now?

WALL: Yeah, and they're -- yeah, emission control is keeping an eye on everything. Everything about their docking should be automated. It should just go automatically with the onboard instruments on the Soyuz, taking care of everything. But if like something goes wrong, then they can -- they can take over manually and try to do it that way.

ALLEN: So these are -- this is kind of considered a taxi service. Sometimes the Soyuz comes in and it's just a garbage pick up or something like this, but this has a lot of human cargo and it's going to be a little bit crowded on this space station. How many will be there?

WALL: Yeah, this is unusual. So there are already six people aboard the space station now, which is it's kind of usual for a compliment, that's what it usually has, kind of as like -- just like for like maximum. But there are going to be nine on there for about the next 10 days because it's -- it gets all kind of like tied to the fact that there's like a year-long mission going on on the space station right now. And they like need this -- like this particular Soyuz that's going to dock in a few minutes, they actually need this Soyuz to take down these two astronauts who will be up there for a year and need to come back down and get them this coming March.

So this is kind of an unusual mission and yeah, it's tied to this year-long mission NASA and is like doing on this space station right now.

ALLEN: Well, as you say, it will happen in about 10 minutes. Perhaps we'll see it happen there live. We'll get back to it if it does. Mike Wall, as always, thank you.

WALL: Sure thing.

ALLEN: We appreciate it.

WALL: Thanks.

ALLEN: We'll take a quick break here. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:35:00]

HOWELL: Welcome back. Returning to our top story, there are very few countries in Europe that are unaffected by the migrant crisis and it's hard to wrap your head around the severity without seeing these numbers.

More than 347,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean as of September 3rd, this is according to the UN.

ALLEN: It is just staggering. More than 229,000 people landing in Greece and other 115,000 in Italy and nearly 2,000 in Spain. The number of deaths at sea also at record levels with more than 2,700 reported dead or missing to date.

HOWELL: So who's to blame for this deepening crisis? Turkey's prime ministers is pointing the finger at the west. Our Becky Anderson joins us now live from Ankara with more from her exclusive interview with the prime minister.

Becky, good to have you with us. So please explain, what did Prime Minister Erdogan have to say?

BECKY ANDERSON, HOST OF CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, we sat down with him just after the release. So what was that shocking image of Alan Kurdi washed up on the beach near a Turkish resort by the name of Bodrum, His family clearly trying to get to Kos, which is one of the routes for Syrian migrants or refugees to get into Europe.

And the Turkish president really very, very specific, he said that he blames Europe and the western worlds for what he sees as the objects failure to understand the root cause of this refugee crisis. He called the Syrian civil war quite simply a human catastrophe. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: You have accused Europe of turning the Mediterranean into a cemetery.

Did you mean that? RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRIME MINISTER OF TURKEY: Well, yes, I meant that. Well, I said that wholeheartedly because that's the reality on the ground, because the countries bordering around the Mediterranean, they do not want these people, no matter what the cost.

But that's not our outlook on the matter, that's not how we see it. If they are at our borders, if they want to come in, we do welcome them in as guests. And then if there are those who need to descend back to their countries, that's what we do.

But otherwise, if we have the means to house and welcome them in our country, that's what we do. And that's the reason why the number of people from Syria and Iraq in Turkey is in excess of 2 million as we speak.

For instance, Greece, Italy, Spain and other countries, including France, Hungary, well, they could easily do the same thing. Unfortunately, it hasn't been done so far. The same goes for Germany.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And since the beginning of the Syrian civil war now in it's fifth year, George, let's just set some context. You were quoting the figures four people trying to get into Europe, 80 percent of those are Syrian migrants trying to get away from the way. But just consider what's going on and what has been going on in this region, we all talking upwards of 2 millions Syrian refugees being accommodated by Turkey at a cost of over $2-and-half billion, then consider Lebanon, another million and then Jordan, 685,000.

So to a certain extent, those figures for Europe are relatively low when you consider there are more than 500 million people living across that European space. Things here are absolutely desperate. The impact of refugees and migrants on the infrastructure for these regional countries in the Middle East is quite shocking and yet they are being accommodated.

[03:40:16] And the story here really is the shock that regional leaders have felt as they have watched this sort of crisis emerged across Europe of late, five years into a Syrian civil war with no clear solution inside.

I was talking to the Turkish president about what he sees as a short- term solution. He's always said that it is the removal of President Bashar al-Assad which will begin the process of renewal. We all know that the Syrians, quite recently, signed up to the international coalition for air strikes against ISIS in Syria. They are also, it has to be said, the Turks bombing Kurds in Iraq and in Syria.

They see them as providing as sort of the seize of a domestic insurgency, domestic terrorism here lead by the PK case. There is a domestic terrorism issue in and of itself for Turkey to deal with amnesty international story which is sitting right on their borders.

Meantime, Abdullah Kurdi, the father, of this young boy plus his other son and his wife, their bodies were patriated (ph) from Bodrum to Istanbul overnight and he will take their bodies onto southeast Turkey today, where he will try to cross into Kobani, in Syria where this family are from and where he says he wants to bury his family. George.

HOWELL: Returning back to Kobani. Becky Anderson giving us the take from Turkey on this migrant crisis. And again, her exclusive interview, you can find more of them on CNN.com. Becky, thank you.

ALLEN: I sure hope that father has a lot of support to when he gets back.

HOWELL: Yeah.

ALLEN: He needs. Well, we've been talking about the docking that's about to take place between the International Space Station and the Soyuz which is arriving in apparently.

HOWELL: Just a few minutes.

ALLEN: They have a made a contact. We've been seeing some pictures of the Soyuz approaching the International Space Station and we've been seeing graphics and such.

But let's go back to Mike Wall with space.com. He's talking us through this. And what are you seeing there when we see the close-ups there of the International Space Station? How close are they, Mike?

WALL: There -- yeah, they are like extremely close. And now, they're just waiting to kind of formalize everything and put the sort of hooks on so that they really grapple together and they like lock on. And once that happens, once the sort of hooks go in and they lock together, then that docking has occurred officially, and that should be happening any moment. You know, I can't hear like any of the commentary NASA officials are saying because I'm talking to you guys. But it should be happening any minute now.

ALLEN: Yes, and how long -- once they do that, did the two open up the hatch and say, "Hello," and everyone...

WALL: Yeah.

ALLEN: ... speaks freely or...

WALL: Yeah, it's not going to be immediate. That's actually going to take about two-and-a-half hours because they have to do all these kind of system checks, they have to make sure there aren't any leaks in the spacecraft and there -- like there are no dangers, everything is like airtight and perfect. Because like, obviously, there are three people aboard, they want to make absolutely sure everything's perfect. And all of those checks take about two-and-a-half hours.

So the three people who are crammed into that Soyuz are still going to be crammed in there until about 6:15 Eastern Time and then they'll go floating in -- like into the space station and they'll shake everybody's hands and they'll all celebrate that they've arrived. ALLEN: And do all of these people that are going to be on the space

station, do they all know each other at this point or were they just meeting some of their new comrades?

WALL: That's a good question. I -- yeah. I mean, I bet some of them know each other. I bet some of the NASA people know each other and yeah, it's a pretty small community, right. There are only about 550 people who -- like who have ever flown in space. So if you count going back to the dawn of the space age and they all train together because they all launch from the same place, Kazakhstan, and they had -- like they all launch on this Soyuz because it's the only way to kind of get up there right now.

So I bet that their paths crossed quite a bit. It's a pretty tightened community.

ALLEN: And we know that two aboard the space station are in a year- long stay on the space station. Perhaps, they'll be glad to have some more folks to talk with.

WALL: Yeah, true. That's a big deal. Yeah, that's twice as long as -- yeah, most astronauts stay up there for about five-and-a-months and that's a big deal, you know, being away from your family, from your planet, your home planet, being away from it for six months is a big deal, and then if you double that to a year, you know, yeah, they -- that would be a big commitment to be up there. You're missing a lot.

[03:45:00]

ALLEN: Well, NASA had just confirmed the hooks are in and they are formally docked. So now, as you say, they'll be going through their checks to make sure everything's good to open the hatch and progress.

What kind of research are these new astronauts going to be working on?

WALL: Well, there are hundreds of experiments that are going on in -- like in any one particular time. This is an interesting flight, where we're talking about earlier, just because now they're going to be nine people up there for a brief spell, for about the next week. And actually, two of the people who have like just arrived are only going to be up there for like a week and then they're going to come back down again.

So they're probably not going to get very much research in there. They have got just kind of a quick tourist stay and they're going back at another week. But yeah, I mean, as for the other people up there, they're doing a lot of research in this like year-long mission that there -- yeah, two of the astronauts are embarked on now, that's generally just to see how like humans adapt to long duration space travel and that's its geared with kind of getting to faraway destinations such as, actually, Mars. That's what -- that's all geared towards.

So -- because that -- like that's a long flight, that's about either nine months. And so, we want to know what that does to the human body and how we can best prepare astronauts for that trip. ALLEN: Well, you know, our news is so much dominated by the world's

ills, it's nice to pause and just go out into space and explore our future.

Thanks so much, Mike, for joining us. We appreciate it.

WALL: Sure. Thanks for having me.

ALLEN: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:50:00]

HOWELL: Welcome back. In the race for the White House, Republican candidate Donald Trump believes sticking with the Republican party is the key to his victory.

ALLEN: He didn't say that at first?

HOWELL: No, he did not.

ALLEN: Now he's saying it.

HOWELL: Now he's saying it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: He's even signed a loyalty pledge, there he is holding it up, ruling out a potential third-party run. Trump made the announcement earlier.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The best way for the Republicans to win is if I win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up. And for that reason, I have signed the pledge.

So I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stand and we will go out and we will fight hard and we will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Those comments from Trump come with a new poll show with an increase in support among likely Republican votes. The Monmouth University poll shows Trump has expanded his lead and is now up to 30 percent. But then Carson also saw jump, he came in second and 18 percent rounding out the top spots, Jed Bush who is tied with Ted Cruz at 8 percent.

HOWELL: US Vice President Joe Biden says he wouldn't hesitate to run for president in 2016, but he says getting into a lengthy campaign race depends upon the emotional energy of his family after the recent death of his son, Beau.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The factor is, can I do it? Can my family undertake what is an arduous commitment that we'd be proud to undertake under ordinary circumstances? But the honest to God answer is, I just don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: A lot of people waiting to see what the vice president decides, but he's saying, you know, the -- you know, the stress on his family is his major focus right now.

ALLEN: Yeah, I can't imagine.

HOWELL: Yeah. For the millions of Star Wars fans in the universe, force Friday, it is finally, finally upon us. Stores from Sydney to Rio de Janeiro have begun selling the latest toys from the film franchise.

ALLEN: Yeah, the first Star Wars movie in 10 years will be in theaters in December. I think I've been talking about this movie, I don't know, for a long time. December is finally in the near future.

CNN's Paul La Monica is here to tell us about this buying binge, what it's all about and what they're grabbing and finding in the stores, the little secrets maybe leading up to the film.

PAUL LA MONICA, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there were hundreds of fans waiting outside the Toys "R" Us in Time Square in New York, a smaller line outside the Disney store as well and people were really excited about any characters from the new movie such as Kylo Ren. I got this little bobble head for my son. There are BB8, that little cute droid. All of those products went up pretty quickly, and Captain Phasma, another new villain that's played by a woman. I think she might be the first female villain in the major Star Wars films. Those toys went really quick there. People complaining about how they weren't on the shelves long enough.

ALLEN: Interesting that this is September and there -- everything is very calculated, right, leading up to the actual film.

LA MONICA: Oh, without question, because there is going to be another round of toys that will come out closer to the release because they are very careful at Disney, all the toys that have come out pretty much are mostly tied to people we've seen in the two trailers. They did not give any spoilers, you know, there's one new character, Finn. A lot of people have speculated about what his role maybe and another one, Rey, everyone hoping she is the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia. But all of the new toys absent of surnames for both Rey and Finn. So we have no idea who exactly they're going to be, and I don't think we'll find that out until December.

ALLEN: Have you got something with you? Did you make a purchase?

LA MONICA: I did. I've got this bobble head, I'm going to show right here, a little Kylo Ren bobble head for my son, and I also got an old school millennium falcon as well. ALLEN: Was it a hard decision what to buy?

LA MONICA: I just wanted to get as -- you know, get out of the store as quickly as possible. So it wasn't that difficult. And all the BB8 stuff was already gone. So just getting something new was nice.

ALLEN: Was it as bad as being in a Toys "R" Us at Time Square on the day after Thanksgiving, which I've done and regretted it?

LA MONICA: This was not. I think the Black Friday crowds are always much bigger. This was tame in comparison.

[03:55:05]

ALLEN: Yeah, just some little nibbles for the Star Wars fans. Well, we hope your son enjoys the bobble head.

LA MONICA: Thank you.

ALLEN: And let us know if you find any hints to what the movie's all about. Thanks so much, Paul.

LA MONICA: Thank you.

HOWELL: And again, you know, we continue to follow the migrant crisis. And I want to show this picture that Fred Pleitgen just posted here to Instragram. You can actually see it. I'm not sure if you can but again, it's of the train. You know, he has his view blocked a bit from another train. Authorities are making it hard to see, but this is a picture he just posted. You get a sense of the frustration many people are facing in that train.

ALLEN: They're not moving yet. We'll wait and see what happens.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. Early Start coming up for our viewers here in the United States. And for viewers around the world, stay with us, CNN NEWSROOM continues.