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NEWS STREAM

British Prime Minister Latest On Defensive After Panama Papers Leak; Bangladeshi Writer Latest Victim in Hacking Death; End of an Era: American Idol's Last Episode; CNN Style Returns; Nest In Trouble Just Two Years After Google Bought It. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired April 8, 2016 - 8:00   ET

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


[08:00:16] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream.

Now, calls for justice in Bangladesh after a sixth writer is murdered in 14 months for daring to challenge religious extremism in the country.

Now, Pope Francis says priests should be more accepting of gays, lesbian and divorced Catholics.

And the TV show that was social before social media, American Idol ends after 15 seasons.

And we begin with international condemnation and outrage over the horrific murder of a young Bangladeshi blogger on the streets of Dhaka. And police

say a gang armed with machetes attacked the secular writer Naiza Mudin Samat (ph) as he made his way home from class.

And then he was shot and killed.

His death is just the latest in a series of murders of those critical of radical Islam. Now, CNN's Ivan Watson joins me now with more on the story,

especially on the political issues at stake here. And Ivan, Bangladesh is officially secular, but is the government doing enough to condemn these

attacks and to protect the writers?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the government says that it has been trying to pursue the killers who have waged, led this

campaign of assassinations against atheists and secular writers.

The police officers that we have talked to have complained, though, and said, that hey, if some of these guys are under threat, then they have to

come to us and ask for protection. We can't just assume that they are at risk, even though there has been a hit list published more than a year ago

with the names of 84 people that some extremist group threatened to effectively kill.

But in the same breath that the government is making that argument, we're also hearing government officials basically arguing that the bloggers and

writers are almost inviting this danger on themselves by insulting religion, by insulting Islam with the things that they write.

Take a listen to an excerpt from an interview we conducted with one of the government ministers a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You call for a threat when you are hurting somebody else's religious feelings. It is quite natural.

Of course, we accept freedom of expression and expression of free thought. We surely -- we are willing to protect it. But the thing is, that it

should be to contain to that extent that it does not hurt somebody else's feelings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now Kristie, some of the members of what they describe as the free thinker movement in Bangladesh, these atheist secular writers, they say how

can you ask us to come to the police for protection when some of us are being prosecuted for violating a semi-anti-blasphemy law that the

Bangladeshi government has passed -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: You know, these writers in Bangladesh, these bloggers, they are anti-extremists. They are voices of reason. So, why are they under

attack?

WATSON: That's a good question. And it is one I posed to the widow of Avijit Roy. He was a U.S.-based Bangladeshi blogger, the founder of an

influential website, Muqta Mona (ph) that was promoting this free thinking movement. And he was murdered about 14 months ago in Dhaka, and his wife

barely survived that attack.

Take a listen to an excerpt from our earlier interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFIDA AHMED, 2015 ATTACK SURVIVOR: i had four stabs, machete stabs on my head.

WATSON: Why do you think these people attacked you?

AHMED: We have got to a point where criticizing Islam is becoming a very big crime, or a sin in Bangladesh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now Kristie, the U.S. State Department has condemned these attacks. They are speaking up in defense of freedom of expression. And

the State Department spokesman has also indicated that the department is looking at possibly trying to provide shelter to some of the writers who

are frightened, who are trying to get out of Bangladesh at this time.

The Bangladeshi government, they insist that the people behind these attacks and other violent attacks in recent months against religious

minorities across the country. I'm talking about Shiite Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and other

minority sects, that this is the work of homegrown extremists, and they insist that groups like ISIS and al Qaeda have not yet taken root in

Bangladesh.

[08:05:20] LU STOUT: All right, Ivan Watson there reporting on the blogger killings in Bangladesh, many thanks indeed for that reporting there, Ivan.

Now, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in talks with the Iraqi Prime Minister Hadi al Abady this hour. And it comes as the country's

political infighting threatens the fight against ISIS.

Now, Kerry's trip is part of a diplomatic mission across the Middle East. He already met representatives of the Gulf states to discuss Syria, Yemen

and the fight against ISIS.

Now, not far from the front lines against ISIS in Iraq, engineers are waging another battle. Now, they are working to save what's been called

the most dangerous dam in the world.

Arwa Damon investigates how the structure near Mosul is holding up with all the fighting around it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): It has been described by some as the most dangerous dam in the world, the Mosul dam.

The largest in Iraq which produces hydroelectricity is built on a foundation of soft gypsum rock, making erosion a constant challenge.

We enter the underbelly of the dam to see how it is even still standing.

Completed in the mid-1980s, what keeps it all intact is a process that needs to happen daily. Workers are drilling bore holes. This one will go

down 150 meters, or around 500 feet.

Drilling that particular distance takes about a week. And the machines go up and down along the length of the dam, breaking up and then repouring

cement to try to ensure the stability of the dam's foundation.

It's a process called grouting. When ISIS retreat took over the dam in 2014, this was halting for 45 days. Intense around the clock routing

reverse those weakness. The U.S. recently issued a stark warning describing the potential for collapse as "Serious and unprecedented." A catastrophic

event that would see Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and under ISIS control, entirely submerged with flooding as far downstream as Baghdad,

that warning saves the lives of up to 1.5 Iraqis would be at risk.

But the dam's manager Riyad al-Naemi insists that disaster is not imminent.

RIYAD AL-NAEMI, DAM MANAGER, (Through Translator): If the dam were to collapse, when the water level is at 330 meter above sea water then yes,

Mosul would be flooded. But with current levels there would be minimal damage.

DAMON: The seepage is one of the reasons why he says the U.S. is so concerned. But he claims his team has determined that it is not impacting

the dam's foundation. Still last year the U.S. installed an early warning system, they monitor regularly. And there is an urge need for repairs.

Millions of Iraqis are directly reliant on the Mosul dam in one way or the other. But years of neglect by the Iraqi government do to politics,

bureaucracy and corruption are already being felt.

Couple of that with security concerns that for years kept international companies from taking up the job. An Italian company has been contracted to

repair and refurbish the dam. But work is yet to begin. When Iraq where nothing is ever entirely predictable. It is always the best to plan for the

worst.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Mosul Dam, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: The British prime minister is the latest world leader to respond to the release of confidential documents concerning offshore companies.

David Cameron says he's got nothing to hide after he and his wife profited from an offshore account set up by his late father.

Mr. Cameron says he sold his shares in the Panama-based trust and paid all the taxes. It was his father who was named to the documents that came from

a law firm in Panama.

Now, our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen has more on the story from London. He joins us now.

And Fred, because of the leak, the British prime minister has been forced to defend his family's actions. What more is his saying?

FREDERIK PLETIGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the interesting thing is, Kristie, that he has been defending his actions for the past

couple of days. But it seems as though he is coming out with different statements that seem to vary each time.

Now, one of the things that we always have to point out is at this point in time there is absolutely nothing to indicate that there was any sort of

wrongdoing on the part of David Cameron, that he might have broken any sort of European or laws of Great Britain.

However, there are a lot of people who feel that there was a bad taste that was left after this. One of the reasons being that David Cameron in the

past has made a point to say that people should pay their taxes. He's heavily criticized people who use offshore companies to try and pay less

taxes in places like Britain, but also in other European countries as well.

Now as you stated, Cameron has come out and he has said he has nothing to hide. He believes there has been no wrongdoing on his part. Let's listen

in to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: We owned 5,000 units in Blairemoore Investment Trust (ph), which we sold in January 2010, that was

worth something like 30,000 pounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there a profit on it?

CAMERON: I paid income tax on the dividends, but there was a profit on it. But it was less than the capital gains tax allowance, so I didn't pay

capital gains tax, but it was subject to all the UK taxes in all the normal ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:10:43] PLEITGEN: Now that was the prime minister's explanation.

As you can imagine for for his political rivals here, that certainly wasn't enough. There are some in the opposition who have accused him of hypocrisy

precisely because he is someone who, in the past, ahs criticized people who use these offshore companies, but also because the way that all this

was communicated.

In the first instance he came out and said that all of this was a private matter. Then, there were statements that came out that said, listen, he

doesn't have any sort of holdings in offshore companies. Then he said he wouldn't have any in the future. And then he gave that interview yesterday

to our affiliate ITV where he said that, yes, he had a share in the company that was set up by his father in the past, but that he had sold those

shares before becoming prime minister, which of course is something that is a very important distinction, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Now again, it is not illegal to set up an offshore community, but it's turn, the leak, has turned this into a politically damaging tide.

What is the greater political fallout, not just int he UK, but across Europe. Because we've been seeing leaders in Iceland, in the UK, Russia,

Ukraine, all under scrutiny, who is next?

PLEITGEN: well, you're absolutely right. It is very hard to say for who might be next. And certainly if you look at Iceland at this point in time,

it is by no means clear that the political crisis, really, that that country is in right now has been solved.

So, there is a lot of backlash, particularly is you look at countries like France, if you look at countries like Germany where for a very long time

politicians there have been highly critical of generally the use of offshore companies to try to get around paying taxes in those very high tax

countries.

Now, it was interesting in this particular case, in the case of David Cameron, that actually the French foreign minister came out and seemed to

criticize Cameron as well. Let's listen in to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN-MARC AYRAULT FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): It is both immoral and in certain cases illegal, because it is about avoiding taxes,

not showing what you have earned and how you earned it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So the Panama Papers certainly are causing a big stir here in Europe. And then if you look at the case of David Cameron specifically, of

course at this point in time it is also very important as the United Kingdom goes toward this referendum on whether it should stay in the

European Union, anything that weakens David Cameron is certainly not something that pro-European people in this country really want to see,

Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Fred Pleitgen there reporting on the fallout from the Panama Papers there in Europe. Thank you.

Now, from Simon Cowell's scornful comments to Kelly Clarkson and her rise to stardom, as American Idol comes to an end, we take a look at what made

it so successful.

Also ahead, a pioneer of smart home systems is in hot water. Why a company bought by Google is fending off angry customers. That story coming up

next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:22] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News

Stream.

Now the suspense is over. We have a winner for the final season of America Idol, and it's quite a shocker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN SEACREST, HOST, AMERICAN IDOL: The winner of American Idol season 15 is -- Trent Harvick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: The Mississippi farm boy, he took the big prize, stunning even the judges.

Now, the rest of the show was a trip down memory lane. Some of its greatest voices returned, including the Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson.

Now, rejected contested William Hung, yep, he was on stage too. His performance, a rendition of She Bangs, of course.

And the original judges, yes, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randi Jackson reunited.

Now, American Idol's 15-year run is nothing short of phenomenal. And Brian Stelter looks at how it captured a massive audience and changed the way

viewers interacted with TV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie.

This was truly the end of a TV era in Hollywood on Thursday night as American Idol wrapped up its 15th and final season on Fox.

Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of Fox, was in the audience, along with his wife Gerri Hall. Of course, the two of them married last month.

And there were also lots of TV executives, Hollywood agents, and some of the stars that were born thanks to American Idol.

It is hard to believe the show is ending, because it was so dominant on TV for so long. And of course it spawned so many imitations all around the

world.

But if you think about it, the show, it traced the history both the past and the present, and the future of television and the internet. It was

social media before we even knew what that term meant, because it premiered in 2002, which was before the iPhone, before Twitter, before SnapChat. And

back when interacting with what you were watching on TV was really a foreign concept.

So, it introduced the idea of voting by phone. You could call up using a land line and vote for or against the contestants.

And over the years, they added text message voting, Google voting, all sorts of ways to interact. But it was ahead of its curve at the time.

And now the producers of Idol are trying to get ahead of that curve again. They're trying to come up with new ways to reinvent the show, and maybe

bring it back in a few years.

You think about this week's deal between the NFL and Twitter where Twitter will be live streaming football games. I wonder if there is a version of

American Idol that will show up on Twitter or on Facebook some day or in some social network that hasn't quite

been invented yet. But it will be very hard for Idol in whatever future it takes to capture the millions of viewers that it captured on Fox.

At its peak, the show was reaching 30 to 40 million viewers live on the Fox network. Nowadays it's more like 10 million, which is still impressive by

2016 standards. But that just goes to shows how television is changing, how television is being affected and warped by the digital age. And that's

what the producers of Idol are now thinking about.

Can they come up with a way to reboot, and re-imagine the show, to give it new life and new interactivity, taking advantage of all the tools that

didn't the exist 15 years ago. We'll see what they come up with. But for now, American Idol is in retirement.

Kristie, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:20:41] LU STOUT: Brian Stelter there.

Now, a call for more acceptance, more empathy, that's the message from Pope Francis. It's outlined a new paper. It's called "On Love in the Family."

It makes no change in doctrine, but says if you are a Roman Catholic and divorced, you should still be welcome in the church. Now the same goes for

people who are gay or Lesbian.

Now, the guidelines released a short time ago are viewed as an important moment in the pope's leadership of the church. Our Vatican correspondent

Delia Gallagher joins us now with more from Rome.

Delia, good to see you. And tell us more, give us the details. Exactly where does the pope stand on issues like marriage, contraception and the

treatment of gay Catholics?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, Kristie, this is a big document. IT's 260 pages all about family life. And the pope upholds the

traditional church teachings, there's no doubt about it. He reiterates the fact that for the Catholic church, marriage is between a man and a woman.

Gay unions are not equivalent to marriage. There is a no to abortion, there is a no to contraception.

So, all of the traditional teachings are in there.

What has changed is the emphasis, the way that those teachings are going to be put into practice. And Pope Francis says he doesn't want any harsh

judgments on people who are not in the ideal situation. So, for gay couples, for divorced and remarried Catholics, which was one of the big

issues going into this, because divorced and remarried people in the Catholic church cannot receive communion, that is considered full

participation with the Catholic church.

So, the pope said in his document, it is important that the divorce to have entered a new union should be made feel part of the church. They are not

excommunicated and they should not be treated as such since they remain part of the ecclesial community."

And this is the message, Kristie, of the entire document, that whatever your situation, even couples who are living together, and so on, the pope

wants to be sure that priests and other Catholics are being welcoming to those people and that those people don't feel excluded from the life of the

Catholic church -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: OK, so Pope Francis here, in this statement, he is calling for more acceptance, but especially in regards to gay Catholics, he is still

maintaining traditional values of the church. So, will this new message on families help bring back once ostracized Catholics back into the fold?

GALLAGHER: Well, the pope's idea here, and he says it, is I'm not going to set one rule that is going to cover all situations. In different

countries, in different regions, and different couples have different situations and those situations need to be discussed together with your

parish priest, or your bishop.

So, if you are couple in what the Catholic church calls an irregular situation: living together, divorced/remarried, et cetera, and you want to

participate in the life of the church, the pope says go to your priest, talk to him. And he says to the priest, talk to the couple and be open and

remember that the first rule of the Catholic church is mercy and forgiveness.

He says no one is excluded from the Catholic church -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right. CNN's Delia Gallagher reporting live from Rome. Thank you, Delia.

Now, it has been a rough couple of weeks for this man. Tony Fadel, he is one of the creators of the iPod and the head of the smart home company

called Nest, the maker of internet connected thermostats and smoke detectors. And Nest is a target of complaints by some angry users and

former employees. And it is leading to some awkward questions for Nest's parent company

Now, remember Nest was bought by Google back in 2014.

Now let's get more on the situation with Nest and what it means for Google. CNN' contributor Nick Thompson joins me now live from New York. He is the

editor of the New Yorker.com. Nick, good to see you again.

The list of problems here is long. I mean, sluggish sales, products being shut down, top engineers leaving. What went wrong for Nest?

THOMPSON: It's not clear what went wrong for Nest, what's clear is that a lot has gone wrong for Nest over the last couple of months. It's stunning.

Nest was one of the most innovative, exciting, wonderful companies. They made thermostats sexy, right.

They were the first company that made the connected home seem like a real business possibility. Tony Fadel seemed like one of the men who was going

to change Silicon Valley, reinvent everything. In fact, Google bought his company so he could reinvent one of the classic failed products Google

Glass.

Like, this company had everything going for it two years ago. What's gone wrong appears to be

bad management, setting the wrong targets, confused engineers, acquisitions that didn't work, a whole bevy of things have led to a real disaster that

has unfolded like a soap opera over the last couple of weeks.

[08:25:11] LU STOUT: Now, let's talk more about the men at the helm of Nest, Tony Fadel, the founder and CEO of Nest who is also one of the

inventors of the iPod. He is a hero in Silicon Valley. Why is it that he couldn't make this work?

THOMPSON: Well, I don't know. My perception of Tony Fadel until this all started to come out and started to drip through is that he was a success

story. He was the the kind of person who when he touched something it turned to gold. I mean, that was what everybody in Silicon Valley thought.

He is a very charismatic person. You meet him and you think, oh, this guy is great. He really understands everything. He has been working building

cool products since he was 23. He helped make the iconic iPod.

But it turns out -- you know, what we're seeing with a lot of Medium posts, or Reddit posts from former employees or most importantly from a people a

company they acquired called DropCam, it seems like he is both a micromanager, that he is doing too much, and that he hasn't done a good job

of inspiring some of the people that work for him. And it's led to a lot of dissent in the rank. Throw in the fact that the products aren't selling

the way everybody thought, and it's turned the company -- the culture there seems to have turned a little toxic.

LU STOUT: Yeah, and a lot of angry blog posts about it, too, out there.

Now, Nest for a lot of people, has represented the Internet of things. So, if Nest is struggling, what does it mean for the future of the internet of

things?

THOMPSON: That's a huge question and it's a great question, because what it indicates is that things are moving a lot more slowly than people

thought.

One of the problems at Nest, and this has come out in reports, is that it's been really hard to get the different objects to talk to each other, right.

So, the dream of the internet of things is that all of your devices -- your refrigerator, your oven, your lights, your thermostat, your smoke detector,

will be connected to the Internet and they'll all talk to each other. And there will be some kind of a hub that connects them all, which you'll

control through an app.

Someone will build the hub, someone will build the app, all the devices will talk.

It turns out it is really, really, really hard to connect all these things. So, the reports coming out from nest are that the engineers have been

stifled. This hasn't worked, that hasn't worked. They haven't been able to get this spec to work. So it may be that the internet of things is

further along, and I guess they're going to have the next 15 CESes will all be about those things instead of just the last four, because it will be

slower and slower.

LU STOUT: Yeah, especially when the internet of things is really a tough business to be in.

Nick Thompson joining us live from New York. Thank you. Take care.

THOMSON: Thank you, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Now Brazil has been fighting an uphill battle in the lead up to the Rio Olympic games from political scandals to the Zika virus. And just

ahead, we will hear why organizers are confident that tickets will be sold out come game time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES

[08:31:10] LU STOUT: Now, Brazil is one of the countries worst hit by the Zika outbreak. And on top of that, it has been engulfed in political

turmoil and a sliding economy, all of this and just four months from the Rio Olympics. But organizers, they are still confident that the games will

be a sell-out success.

Now, Shasta Darlington is in Rio. She joins me now with more. And Shasta, why are officials there so confident?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, it is a tough call. At this point ticket sales are still the Achilles' heel of

these games. They have only sold half of them. London at this point was much further along. In fact, one Brazilian official said that government

might even buy up tickets and hand them out at schools.

But organizers say that simply won't happen. One person even called it ridiculous saying, listen, Brazilians are late buyers in general. And they

have been so distracted that they haven't gotten around to it. But once the torch relay starts, once the Olympic Games are in the headlines, they

are going to will snapping up everything that's left, despite problems at home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DARLINGTON: On the ground, the obstacles seem nearly insurmountable from dueling political protests fueled by a crippling recession and massive

corruption scandal, to a Zika virus pandemic, spread by mosquitos and linked to devastating birth defects. But, so far, those obstacles haven't

had the impact you might expect.

As the glossy promo videos show preparations for the 2016 Olympics actually are looking pretty good, more than 95 percent of the venues complete,

without going over budget.

Organizers are betting the Olympics will be the game-changer.

MARIO ANDRADA, SPOKESMAN, RIO 2016: We want the games to be the turnaround moment. We want the games to bring good energy. We have been working for

almost 10 years for this moment to happen.,

DARLINGTON: A challenge still to be overcome, only half the tickets have been sold. Can they fill these stands?

ANDRADA: We're very confident in the Olympic ticket sales that we're going to sell everything we have remaining around the beginning of the torch

relay.

DARLINGTON: He says Brazilians are always late buyers. As for international tourists, organizers still expect half a million visitors to

descend on Rio.

The hotel association says there haven't been any cancellations despite the spate of bad publicity. In fact, just the opposite, they say thanks to the

cheaper currency, hotels are almost 100 percent booked during the Olympics already.

On the beach, tourists are concerned, but not enough to stay home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are so many beautiful things here, but I know as well about the corruption and about the problems that this society has.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're a little more concerned about the Zika virus.

DARLINGTON: City officials are convinced the Olympics will actually inspire return visits,

ANTONIO PEDRO VIEGAS, PRESIDENT, RIO TOURISM BOARD: We're going to showcase the city and probably we're going to have in 2017 a lot of people

wants to come to Rio.

DARLINGTON: Perhaps for those magic encounters like we had with singer Seu Jorge, who sums it all up.

Marvelous city, a thousand enchantments.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DARLINGTON: And just another little detail here, Kristie, according to organizers, although they have sold only half the tickets, they have been

the high end ticket, the premium tickets. So, they have already taken in about 76 percent of revenues.

LU STOUT: Yeah. A lot of hope for these games. But a tall order to actually succeed on that and to fill all the stadium seats.

Shasta Darlington Darlington reporting live from Rio. Thank you.

Now, Chinese authorities have made an arrest after a video went viral. It shows what appears to be an attack on a young women inside a hotel in

Beijing.

Now, a warning, some of what you are about to see may be disturbing.

Now, the alleged victim, she posted the video on social media. She says that the male attacker

grabbed her from behind, pulled her to the ground and tried to choke her. A hotel worker showed up but did not stop the man. Now, minutes passed

before a female guest finally intervened.

Now, this incident has sparked heated debate over what some believe is China's ingrained sexism.

Now, there are media reports that several Chinese activists who supported Hong Kong's pro-democracy protest have been jailed. A court in the

southern city of Ghuangzhou found four people guilty of insighting subversion of state power and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from

one-and-a-half to more than four years.

Now, the verdict cited comments that they made against the Communist Party. The four men apparently took to the streets of Guangzhou in support of Hong

Kong's occupied protests.

Now, the court did not say whether that is linked to their conviction

Now, you're watching News Stream right here on CNN. And up next on the program, it's

back CNN style. Now, the show returns with exclusive access to the best in art, fashion, and luxury. And we're going to be meeting the new host.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[08:37:52] LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now, for fans of art, design and fashion, we have exciting for you here at CNN. This Saturday, CNN Style returns. The monthly show gets exclusive

access to the biggest names and events in the worlds of art, fashion, and luxury. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK BLASBERG, HOST, CNN STYLE: I'm Derek Blasberg, welcome to CNN style.

SHEIKHA AL-MAYASSA, ART COLLECTOR: Art is very powerful because it has no boundaries. And you don't need to long to any country or religion or

social class.

LEWIS HAMILTON, FORMULA 1 DRIVER: I'm not particularly interested in people telling me, oh, that's going to be worth something. You should get

that. I'm more interested in things that catch my eye.

TRACEY EMIN, ARTIST: I think this show is the most mature show that I have done. And I think it really is me thinking about what art is for me, what

it can do for me.

BLASBERG: I think it's also sort of exciting to have new eyes looking at your work and seeing what you're up to.

EMIN: It's exciting to me, but it's nerve-racking as well. It's this whole New Chinese, Asian audience that will be working at my work for the

first time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And Derek Blasberg, the host of CNN Style, joins me now live from New York.

Derek, it is a pleasure to meet you. And many congratulations on the launch.

And I've got to say like many, many people out there, I grew up watching CNN Style with the icon Elsa Klensh. I remember it was on CNN on Sunday

afternoons. She defined style for viewers in the U.S. and the world. And I want to get your thoughts on being the

new host of CNN Style and what is your vision for the program?

BLASBERG: Well, Elsa Klensch was I think an icon to so many people, including myself. So this show is really an homage to her and sort of the

fashion world that she really brought to CNN viewers.

What's interesting, though, about what we're doing in this revamped edition is that we are exploring also art, furniture design, automotive. It is a

broader and more flushed outlook at style in general, which I think is a real testament to the connectivity of the world. You know, style today

isn't just fashion, now it's a whole bunch of stuff.

[08:40:08] LU STOUT: And just sort of a philosophical question here, what is style? And why does it matter?

BLASBERG: Well, what is interesting about the word style, is that I think a lot of times people automatically assume it is sort of fashion, but Coco

Chanel, the designer, once sort of explained that style is the way that we walk down the street, it's a gust in the air. And that's sort of what

we're looking at here is how all these different mediums and its art or architecture are designed or fashion sort of -- they all relate to each

other.

And it's also in a way a reflection of our times and society. So, what we're doing on this show, and I hope everyone will tune in, is peeling back

those sort of layers and looking at style from a multitude of different platforms.

LU STOUT: So it is about peeling back the layers not just in the world of fashion but in other industries like product design, art, architecture.

And of course as you know, there is a world of style out there. So, what is it like and how challenging is it to cover style in a truly global way?

BLASBERG: Well, it's a big world, right?

LU STOUT: Yeah.

BLASBERG: So, in this first episode, we were in Hong Kong. We went to Qatar. We met the Sheikha al-Mayassa who is one of the most influential

women in the United Arab -- sorry, in the Middle East, who has one of the biggest contemporary art collections.

So, it's a big job but one that I think we are all really excited to sort of be explored and looking at.

LU STOUT: Yeah, absolutely. Now, you were recently here in Hong Kong. I'm sorry I missed you, because I was away on vacation. But you were here

for Art Basel checking out the Chinese art scene.

What captured your attention while you were here?

BLASBERG: Well, what's really sort of impressive about the Chinese market in general, is that it now accounts for nearly 20 percent of contemporary

art sales around the world. So there is this really big push into the asian market. There is new Asian artists. There's new Asian clients.

Nearly 100 new personal museums are opened in Mainland China per year.

So, it sort of -- Tracey Emin in this first episode sort of explained it as the California gold rush of contemporary art. So there's a -- everyone is

sort of looking to see what's happening next and it looks like what is happening next is happening in China.

LU STOUT: Yeah, I'm looking forward to see how you share discoveries from Hong Kong and in China and of course elsewhere in the world in the next

episode of on style, the first one, of course other ones to come.

Derek, we'll leave it at that. Thank you. Congratulations again.

BLASBERG: Thank you so much, Kristie. Thank you.

LU STOUT: Now, this month's episode, it focuses, as Derek just said, on the contemporary art world and visits Asia's international art fair Hong

Kong Art Basel. You can catch it Saturday, 1:30 p.m. in London, that's 8:30 p.m. Hong Kong time. And it's not just on TV you can check out the

content online, just go to CNN.com/style.

And that is News Stream.

END