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CNN NEWSROOM

Clinton Dismisses Trump As Blustering, Bullying; Trump Predicts He Will Defeat Clinton "Easily"; North Korea To Hold First Party Congress In 36 Years; U.N. Official: Some Attacks In Syria Are War Crimes; Australian Government: ISIS Recruiter Killed In Airstrike; Reports: Prince Once Addicted To Painkiller; Remembering the Holocaust; Alberta under State of Emergency as Wildfire Rages; Turbulence Injures 31 Airline Passengers. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 5, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:09] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles, ahead this hour.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: It sounds like the election for U.S. president has begun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think we can take a risk on a loose canon like Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She can't put it away. That's like a football team, they can't get the ball over the line. I put it away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the attack.

VAUSE: A fresh push for peace after fighting flares in Aleppo. CNN is in Syria, embedded with Russian troops.

SESAY: Plus, Prince and Percocet, the powerful painkiller, his apparent addiction, and just how close Prince was to the help he needed.

VAUSE: Hello everybody. Great to have you with us. We would like to welcome our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

VAUSE: There is no one left standing in the way of Donald Trump becoming the U.S. Republican presidential nominee.

SESAY: And his last rival dropped out of the race Wednesday. John Kasich had said he'd keep running even after a bad loss in the Indiana primary, but Wednesday he apparently told friends his heart wasn't in it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And as I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith, deeper faith, that the lord will show me the way forward and fulfill the purpose of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, the likely challengers in the general election both talked to CNN Wednesday.

VAUSE: Trump took aim at Hillary Clinton in an interview with Wolf Blitzer and Clinton fired right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: Do you think the general election campaign has already started, you versus Hillary Clinton, that for all practical purposes, Bernie Sanders is out?

TRUMP: Well I think what has happened, there's been a little flip, and I'm even surprised by it. I thought that I'd be going longer and she'd be going shorter. She can't put it away. That's like a football team, they can't get the ball over the line. I put it away.

CLINTON: -- and I don't think we can take a risk on a loose canon like Donald Trump running our country. Donald Trump has said it's okay for other countries to get nuclear weapons. I think that's just down right dangerous. He has said wages are too high. I think we need to have a raise for the American people. Raise the minimum wage, get wages back going up. I think when he says women should be punished for having abortions, that is just beyond anything that I can imagine, I think most women can imagine.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: He did walk that back.

CLINTON: Well, he's a loose canon. I mean, he's somebody who has said so many things, and I'm sure he'll be scrambling and his advisers will be scrambling, but he's already said all of these things.

(END VIDO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us now is (ph) Clint Arthur, a Trump supporter and a leadership and performance expert. We should note that we did invite a Clinton supporter on to balance it all out but unfortunately there's been a bit of a mix up with the Clinton campaign and that person didn't make it. Hopefully for the next hour.

OK, we're into the general election campaign now. Donald Trump says he will not be changing tactics. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would say yes. And, again, a lot's going to depend on how they treat me. If they treat me at a certain level, I'm not looking to do more -- you've seen I'm a counter puncher more than anything else. I don't like hitting people first, because I don't know how -- I guess I've always felt like I'm better -- like certain boxers, they're better counter punchers. I've been very successful. I've only been doing it for 10 months, Wolf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So kind of, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? Let Trump be Trump, right?

CLINT ARTHUR, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: He's got the hottest reality show on television right now. It's gotten real real for everybody and it's a new kind of reality show and it seems to be winning in the ratings, winning at the polls, why would he ever change?

SESAY: Take a listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say when she was asked about whether she was ready for a Trump-style battle. Listen to what she told Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: If he wants to go back to the playbook of the 1990's, if he wants to follow in the footsteps of those who have tried to knock me down and take me out of the political arena, I'm more than happy to have him do that.

COOPER: You're ready for him to do that?

CLINTON: Oh, please, look, this is, to me, a classic case of a blustering, bullying guy who has knocked out of the way all the Republicans because they were just dumbfounded. They didn't know how to deal with him and they couldn't take him on on the issues because they basically agreed with him, and they didn't know how to counter punch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: All right. Her point is, the GOP side weren't able to take him on the issues, and that's what she intends to do. Can he match her in that policy arena?

[00:05:03] ARTHUR: She can't handle the TV aspects of it the way he does. See, TV requires a lot of energy and stamina, and he's just done so much TV that he's going to overwhelm her with his energy and power as a performer on television, and she hasn't come across an opponent like that who's been able to really press her with the showbiz aspects of being on TV.

VAUSE: But this sounds so incredibly shallow in the sense that it's all about theatrics, it's all about the TV?

SESAY: Doesn't the American public deserve answers when it comes -- details, policy details, about what your candidate intends to do?

VAUSE: They just don't care.

ARTHUR: The American public wants first and foremost to be entertained. America's greatest presidents have all been entertainers in chief. Ronald Reagan, arguably the greatest American president in the modern era, obviously an entertainer in chief. FDR was an entertainer in chief. He had the hottest radio show of the time when radio was the dominant form of entertainment. Go back to Abraham Lincoln. He was a motivational speaker, entertainer in chief. Americans want to be entertained and no one can take that away from Donald Trump.

SESAY: Americans want to be connected with, but at the time when Americans are hurting economically, they also want to know how people are going to fix things.

ARTHUR: Definitely, and that's the real advantage Donald Trump has over Hillary Clinton. He's had bottom line responsibility for decades and decades, where she's just a politician. She doesn't have any bottom line responsibility. She doesn't know how to create jobs the way he does. He creates real jobs with his real companies. What has she done to create jobs or put money in people's pockets?

VAUSE: OK, Clint, put your earpiece back in because I want to listen to what's coming up next because we now have an idea of how Hillary Clinton will go after Donald Trump. There was an attack ad that came out today, and it's pretty vicious. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am a unifier. We're going to be a unified party.

TEXT: A unified party?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is a con artist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A phony.

UNIDEINTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is the know-nothing candidate.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald is a bully.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an individual who mocked a disabled reporter.

TRUMP: Ah, I don't remember!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who attributed a reporter's questions to her menstrual cycle.

TRUMP: Blood coming out of her wherever --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency.

CARLY FIORINA (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The man who seems to only feel big when he's trying to make other people look small.

TRUMP: Don't worry about it, little Marco.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: OK, now that ad goes on for another 30 or 40 seconds. And what is telling about this, they're all Republicans slamming Donald Trump. This is the legacy of a blistery primary campaign.

ARTHUR: It's going to be very interesting to see how he does unite the party. It really will be interesting. But if anybody can do it, it's him.

VAUSE: But how?

ARTHUR: How?

SESAY: Yes.

ARTHUR: That's what we're going to see. I can't read Donald Trump's mind. I wrote a book about the way he performs, but I can't read his mind. I can react to the way he does it and give you analysis of it, but only Trump can come up with these answers.

SESAY: We heard today that former president Bush, W., is not going to be commenting on this election. He's not going to take part in it in terms of being on the campaign trail. How much does that concern you or how much of a blow is that to Trump when we expect President Obama and Michelle Obama out there on the campaign trail?

ARTHUR: I don't think Donald Trump has any problems with W. not showing up for him on the campaign trail. I don't think he really agrees with the Iraq war, as a primary example of policy gone wrong, what's wrong with Washington. Donald doesn't need any help. He's doing just fine all by himself and he certainly does not need any ex- presidents helping him.

VAUSE: He does need a vice president. He needs a running mate. So the big question now is, who will be his VP? Maybe it could be John Kasich. He talked about that today as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would be interested in vetting John. I like John. I've had a good relationship with John. I've gotten along with him well, but John -- whether he's vice president or not, I think he'll be very, very helpful with Ohio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Very quickly, Kasich says he doesn't want it. A lot of people say they don't want it. Why can't he get a running mate?

ARTHUR: I think he should pick his daughter. I think she'd be the greatest running mate.

SESAY: It would be a good show.

ARTHUR: It's helped "The Apprentice" ratings and that's what this is really all about. More ratings for the Donald Trump show.

SESAY: The most powerful country on earth and you're reducing the race for the White House to the greatest show on earth?

ARTHUR: It's a popularity contest.

VAUSE: OK.

SESAY: Clint Arthur, such a pleasure.

ARTHUR: Great being back. Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: Cheers.

SESAY: All right. Now, North Koreans are getting ready for the highest political gathering in the country. The ruling communist party will hold its first congress in 36 years on Friday.

VAUSE: It's viewed as an opportunity for Kim Jong-un to show he is still firmly in charge. He's ordered North Koreans to work around the clock to prepare for the big event. Will Ripley reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:09:53] WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pyongyang's morning commute begins an hour early these days. Loudspeakers wake people up at 5:00 am instead of 6:00. The usual six-day workweek now seven. North Korea nearing the end of what they call a 70-day battle, preparing for a once in a generation political gathering.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do best for the building the thriving country.

RIPLEY: (ph) Hyon Un-mi says she hasn't taken a day off in more than two months. She's a full-time tour guide and on a work crew refurbishing Kim Il-sung stadium, one of countless improvement projects in a 70-day national campaign.

Everything we're seeing right now here in Pyongyang is the result of months of work, from the rehearsals for the mass demonstrations that will take place, to the tens of thousands of flowers that are planted along every boulevard. Now that the international media has been invited in, the North Korean government wants to make sure that every detail is picture perfect.

Millions of North Koreans acting on orders from their highest authority.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leader Kim Jong-un is our father, just like our father and just like mother.

RIPLEY: The supreme leader wasn't even born when the last party congress happened 36 years ago. But ahead of his own gathering, repeated shows of force. A purported H-bomb test in January. A satellite launch in February. And this submarine missile launch last month, along with three apparent mid-range missile test failures, triggering international condemnation and some of the strongest U.N. sanctions ever. But each successful test also allows the young leader to project power at home, ahead of North Korea's most important political gathering since 1980. 3,000 party members arriving in Pyongyang for Friday's seventh workers party congress.

This reads, great party, motherly party, and it's one of literally hundreds of political banners that have gone up all over Pyongyang. You can't turn a corner here without a reminder of what's happening this week.

Observers believe Kim will use the congress to consolidate his power and reinforce his plan, defying the international community by continuing to grow his nuclear arsenal while also trying to grow the North Korean economy, despite crippling international sanctions. Many outsiders doubt the two goals are compatible and say they'll only lead to further isolation and hardship. But inside this tightly-controlled world, doubt is not an option. All people can do is keep working. Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Now to the war in Syria. A top U.N. official says intentional attacks on hospitals and using starvation as a weapon amounts to war crimes.

SESAY: (inaudible) secretary for political affairs tells a security council, those responsible should be referred to the international criminal court in the Hague. He made those comments after the U.S. and Russia agreed to a cessation of hostilities to Aleppo. One human rights group says the ongoing clashes there between the army and rebels are the fiercest they've been in a year.

U.S. and Russia are now monitoring the situation in Syria to see if this fragile cessation of hostilities will stick.

VAUSE: Our Fred Pleitgen has been traveling with Russian troops in Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Russia's air force still flying missions at a high pace. We saw more than a dozen strike aircraft and fighters take off within only a few hours. A top Russian general says, they're intensifying pressure on ISIS.

Russian aviation was at work today in Raqqah, he says, also in central Syria and (inaudible). In total, Russian aviation carried out 87 sorties in the past four days. While the Russian air force has withdrawn several aircraft in the past month, it's ramped up other assets, deploying advanced MI-28 gunships that have already seen combat action.

Despite Russia's announcement that it would withdraw most of its forces from here in Syria, they maintain a fleet of strike aircraft and fighter jets, showing that Russia is still very much capable of playing a decisive role in the Syria conflict.

The Russians took us to what they say was the signing of a local reconciliation agreement near the town of Hama. Russian military brass say they're working closely with the U.S. to also make a ceasefire in Aleppo work to finally halt the bloodshed there. The general says, so far, cooperation with the U.S. has been positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): The coordination over air operations is going well, he says. In the past month, a national reconciliation, frank and professional contacts have been established. We share a lot of information.

[00:14:54] PLEITGEN: On May 9, Russia will mark its national holiday, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany. A parade will also be held at the air base, even featuring Syrian troops. While Russia celebrates past victories, a clear end to its intervention in Syria's civil war still seems elusive. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, at the Khmeimim air base, Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We're learning more about the 12-hour long firefight in Iraq which led to the death of a U.S. Navy SEAL. The Pentagon says more than 100 ISIS fighters in 20 vehicles attacked a Kurdish Peshmerga check point, aiming to capture the town of (ph) Telscot.

SESAY: "The Guardian" newspaper exclusively obtained this video from that firefight. 31-year-old Navy SEAL, Charles Keating, was killed while helping to rescue U.S. military advisers. Coalition forces fought back with more than 30 strikes against ISIS. The Peshmerga are now back in control of that town.

VAUSE: And there's word from (ph) cambra that an Australia who was a top recruiter for ISIS has been killed in an airstrike in Iraq.

SESAY: Neil Christopher Prakash appeared in propaganda videos and magazines asking men, women, and children to join ISIS and encouraging acts of terrorism. Australian defense officials say he was killed in an airstrike in Mosul on Friday.

VAUSE: A short break when we come back. New reports about music legend Prince. An attorney says an addiction specialist was called in the night before Prince died. That's still to come.

SESAY: Plus, reports say Prince was one of the many Americans addicted to the painkiller Percocet. That story just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:17] SESAY: Well, we are getting new reports about Prince and his apparent drug use. A former attorney for two of Prince's siblings say they told him that decades ago, the music legend was addicted to the painkiller Percocet.

VAUSE: And that Prince used the drug to help him calm down after performances. The two siblings are now dead so CNN cannot independently confirm these reports.

SESAY: Our Sara Sidner joins us now live from L.A. Sara, you've been doing some digging into the extent of Prince's apparent relationship with opioids. SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, now we've heard from an attorney

for a doctor and his son who showed up at Prince's home for what they called a life-saving mission. They wouldn't say whether it was for addiction or pain management, but certainly we know from local law enforcement and from some of our sources that there were pills find on Prince's body and in his home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DISPATCH: Rescue need for a medical at Paisley Park. Person down, not breathing.

SIDNER: We now know, that dispatcher was responding to a 911 call made by Andrew (ph) Kornfeld who was at Prince's compound on April 21. Kornfeld is the son of a California doctor who specializes in treating chronic pain and addiction to opioid based painkillers. A lawyer for the doctor says Kornfeld was sent to help Prince.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He set into motion a plan to deal with what he felt was a life-saving mission and that mission was to get Prince to a doctor in Minnesota on Thursday morning.

SIDNER: But it was too late. Prince was dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrew heard the screams and went to the elevator where he saw that Prince was unconscious. Andrew was the person to make the 911 call.

SIDNER: Law enforcement sources have told CNN they found pain medication on Prince's body and in his home. Now, a Minnesota attorney says decades before Prince's sudden death, he was told by two of Prince's now deceased half-siblings that Prince had an addiction to Percocet. He said Prince's half-brother, Duane Nelson, explained how he knew.

MICHAEL PADDEN, ATTORNEY (via telephone): Duane told me that he witnessed him taking the drugs and he also procured Percocet for him. He was the person whose primary job was to procure Percocet for Prince.

SIDNER: What did Prince's brother say about his use of Percocet?

PADDEN (via telephone): He'd do a gig, and he'd be really amped up, and then he would have to use the Percocet to get mellow again to be able to, for example, sleep.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And he also made it really clear that he said that Prince really was just using this to try to help him deal with the rigors of his performances which are also, as you might imagine, very, very high energy, and he was a perfectionist. But of course, we couldn't independently confirm that, as you mentioned, because both of those siblings are now deceased. What we can tell you is that just six days before Prince died, his plane made an emergency landing because he was unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital in Moline, Illinois, where doctors there treated him for what could be an overdose, according to law enforcement sources. So there are a lot of different things pointing to that but no one is going to know for sure what killed Prince until that toxicology report and the autopsy is finally finished. John, Isha --

SESAY: Sara, and following on from that, in terms of things we do know, we know that the U.S. Attorney and the DEA have now joined the investigation into Prince's death. What does that mean for how this will be carried out, this investigation? How does that change things?

SIDNER: Yes, now we have both the locals, and now that gives the indication that there is now a full federal investigation. The fact that Drug Enforcement Administration is involved gives you a clue as to where this investigation is going. We heard from our investigative sources that they have not been able to yet find a valid prescription for Prince for any of these kinds of medications, and so that is an issue. The DEA gets involved usually when there's illicit drug sales, so what you might be seeing here is a group going around trying to figure out how he was able to get some of these medications or any other types of drugs that they will be looking into and that's why the DEA is involved. The U.S. Attorney just gives you an extra agency from the federal side, so now you're seeing a full-blown federal investigation alongside the local investigation. Isha --

SESAY: Sara, appreciate it greatly. Thanks, Sara. And Dr. Glenna Tolbert joins us now. She is a rehab and pain specialist.

VAUSE: Dr. Tolbert is also an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California here in Los Angeles. Doctor, thank you for being with us. All these details which are emerging about Prince, a famous celebrity, a hip operation, he was in pain, he was seen recently using a cane too help him walk, the pain killers that were found on him -- is this sort of fitting a pattern which you've seen in the past, especially when it comes to celebrities and the abuse of pain killers, I guess?

[00:25:16] DOCTOR GLENNA TOLBERT, ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: Well I think we need to be really careful, first of all, before we say someone is abusing. Because people suffer, and they truly are in pain. There is abuse, there's addiction, there's tolerance, and there's dependence, and they're all difference. Addiction or abuse is when, I'm going to sell my kidney to get those medications. That's addiction. Tolerance is, I've been on medications a long time, they're just not working. And that's a chemical reaction that happens in the brain. It's the way the meds work. On the other hand, you can become dependent. I have awful hip arthritis. My medications are prescribed to me. I take them and I go do my thing and I'm a productive member of society. However, what you've said is, doesn't sound like they were necessarily managed. They are a tool, and just as you all are professionals, we are professionals. We're the specialists and we are to manage the patient and the medications are just a tool. They're not just to be used only, and I'm not a prescription -- I just don't write a prescription. I'm supposed to manage you. I'm your doctor.

SESAY: So as you talk about how physicians are supposed to manage the use of these medications, clearly something is going wrong here in the United States, because what we are witnessing is a painkiller addiction crisis --

TOLBERT: It's a crisis.

SESAY: -- which has led, according to the CDC, to the number of opioid-related deaths quadrupling since 1999. What has brought this about?

TOLBERT: That's a very good question. I think there's many reasons, but number one, again, here, you have a case where we can't find a prescription. In my practice, unfortunately, my patients and I are married to each other. I see them regularly. We have a relationship. All my patients who might be watching, they'll be saying, amen to that. We have a relationship. It's built on trust. I said, I'm not here to be your judge, I'm not here to be your police officer. I'm your doctor. Let me love on you. Let me take care of you. The other problem is, in our practice, we do multiple things besides just opioids, but the insurance companies do not necessarily want to pay. It's easier for them to pay for that prescription.

VAUSE: I would like to ask you about the response here that we had from Dr. Kornfeld, the addiction specialist who was involved in the case. I know you don't know the specifics yet, but what is interesting about that is that they reached out to Dr. Kornfeld, he put his son on a plane to go to Minnesota, Minneapolis, to try and deal with this, and of course then Prince is found dead. Was that the right course of action in a case like this that seemed to be an emergency? If you look at this math here, because we've got Paisley Park, which is Prince's estate, and then about four miles away from Prince's home is a leading addiction center, the Betty Ford clinic. It's open 24 hours a day. Is it a fair question here to ask, should the doctor in L.A. have called someone from that clinic to go and attend to Prince if it was such an emergency?

TOLBERT: Yes, I understand where you're going with this. It's hard to play, what did I call it, your Monday night -- I have three sons, I live with four men, I know it's something to do with sports, so -- yes, it's difficult when you're not in that position. It's difficult to say when you're not in that position. Who knows when you're not there? We hope, especially as a physician, we take that oath that we're going to do what is best for our patient, so I can't say because I wasn't in that situation, but clearly what resources, to have something that close to you, no doubt, no doubt.

VAUSE: Should have been used, perhaps.

TOLBERT: I think that's a good option, clearly.

SESAY: Glenna Tolbert, such a pleasure. Thank you so much. We'll talk a little bit more about this and the broader epidemic next hour.

TOLBERT: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: Thank you. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM L.A., remembering the holocaust, how Israel plans to honor those who were murdered and how some survivors are recapturing a piece of their stolen youth.

SESAY: Plus, what firefighters can expect in the coming day as they fight a wildfire that's forced the evacuation of an entire city in Canada.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

[00:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VAUSE (voice-over): Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY (voice-over): And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES)

VAUSE: In a few hours, this solemn occasion as well and the world will honor the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem with more on this Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And, Oren, this is such a solemn occasion and a moving occasion, especially there in Jerusalem.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely is and perhaps the most powerful moment of Holocaust Remembrance Day is coming up in about 2.5 hours, when the siren will sound, a memorial siren will sound throughout Israel, throughout Jerusalem and the entire country pauses.

It is, again, perhaps the most powerful moment this entire week. But as we learn, some Holocaust survivors this week were given a reason to smile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): This ceremony has been 70 years in the making. It's a bar mitzvah, a Jewish rite of passage, a celebration.

Bar and bat mitzvahs mark the passage to adulthood at 12 or 13 years old. But these men and women are in their 70s and 80s. They are Holocaust survivors and they lost their youth --

[00:35:00]

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): -- much earlier.

It was torn from them in concentration camps or as they fled the Nazis. They never had a chance to have bar mitzvahs. This is a chance to reclaim their youth at one of Judaism's holiest sites, the Western Wall. SOLOMON MOSHE, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR (through translator): After we finished, everybody had a spirit of harmony. Here we are. We've done it. We're here today, more complete. What we felt we were lacking, we got back.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Solomon Moshe is 79 years old. He was born in Athens, Greece, in 1937. As a young boy, he moved with his mother from one home to another every few months, fleeing the Nazis.

He came to Israel in 1956 but never had a bar mitzvah. He says there was no one to celebrate with as he focused on a new life. His bar mitzvah, decades later, made him feel something he never imagined.

MOSHE (through translator): I felt we met those in Heaven who were looking at us below, the previous generation, who would not have imagined that a 13-year-old could have a bar mitzvah at the Western Wall.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Moshe now shares his story with groups across Israel. On stage with his grandson, he reveals a family secret: the very Yumba that he had with him during those terrifying years in hiding.

As he shows me the bear, his voice cracks for the first time in our interview.

MOSHE (through translator): This bear, I will show it to our children and we will tell them, Yumba was with your great-grandfather in the worst possible moments for the Jewish people. And I will hold onto him until I go.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Moshe says he will give this bear to his grandson, a way of passing on a story that is finally complete.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIEBERMANN: There are a number of events here in Israel and connected throughout the world to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, the message that will be repeated over and over again is never again -- John.

VAUSE: And Oren, this year there seems to be a real focus on the thousands of Holocaust survivors who are living below the poverty line there in Israel.

LIEBERMANN: And on that note, there was a very powerful speech President Reuven Rivlin, who said the Jews who were here the decades before the Holocaust, who came before the start of World War II, such as President Reuven Rivlin, whose family here in Jerusalem goes back generations, said his people, then, didn't do enough back then to help.

And that's a very powerful message, especially coming from the president. And he brought it to present day, saying, to this day, the State of Israel doesn't give enough help for Holocaust survivors. He called on Israel to do more to help those survivors who are still alive. VAUSE: Yes, 45,000 Holocaust survivors living below the poverty line in Israel.

Oren, thank you.

Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem.

SESAY: Now an update is next on a ferocious fire that's scorching a Canadian city. Details on what crews are dealing with.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SESAY: Well, the Canadian province of Alberta is under a state of emergency at this hour as an enormous wildfire tears through the region. Flames have forces some 88,000 people from their homes. The entire city of Fort McMurray has been evacuated.

VAUSE: The fire's scorched about 10,000 hectares since it started on Sunday. Firefighters are struggling with some very strong winds, which are fueling the flames.

SESAY: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us live now.

Pedram, as we know, this is a massive and destructive fire.

Is it still raging out of control?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: In a lot of these areas it is, Isha, absolutely. Mother Nature certainly hasn't been helping out the last couple of days. Just a remarkable trend of temperatures. We want to show you what's transpired.

You see the aerial perspective there. You go in for a closer look and these thermal signature of these fires really shows you why this has been so destructive for this one town across this region because, look at it, literally it encompasses the entire community. So no matter where you go, a lot of folks here reporting they are having a tough time even trying to evacuate because smoke and fire billowing across much of this region makes it very, very dangerous.

And in fact, when you think about this, I believe John just gave the number of about 10,000 hectares, the amount of land that's been consumed across this region, you look at that, you break that down to square kilometers, that's just about 100 square kilometers of land that has been consumed.

That is the equivalent of the size of Hong Kong island, in fact, slightly larger than the size of Hong Kong island in its size. So again, it shows you what a large area we're talking about when it comes to consumption and the incredible nature of this heat is absolutely remarkable.

Fort McMurray sits right there across the 60-degree latitude mark. And the reason I bring this up, that is as far north as Helsinki in Finland. So again, it shows you how far north it is. Now when you look at these temperatures, certainly doesn't resemble something you would see at that latitude. A city like Fort McMurray has about four hours of daylight when it comes to the winter season. The sun, it sets in the 3 o'clock hour.

Look at this perspective. We go from 19 degrees -- that was on Saturday -- up to 33 degrees on Tuesday. The normal is down here. It's around 16 degrees. More than doubling the normal temperature at that latitude is absolutely incredible. It drops off over the next couple of days, but still above the normal, that is the concern, of course, tremendous heat, tremendous wind.

In fact, I think you guys would find this interesting in Los Angeles, even in Atlanta, outside of CNN Center, look at this, Fort McMurray at this hour warmer than Los Angeles at the USC campus there, warmer than Atlanta at this hour in the month of May. Absolutely remarkable. That is the impressive nature of this heat extended that far to the north.

And the reason we got here is something called a omega block because it resembles the Greek letter omega. It's a massive ridge that sets up shop and it's extended the heat well to the north, again, cooling is in store the next couple of days.

Unfortunately, it does look like it wants to warm back up towards Saturday and Sunday. The winds will die off initially so I think firefighters will get at least several days of the upper hand potentially on these fires. But then by Saturday and Sunday, we see the winds pick back up, the temperatures do want to warm back up. We actually go back up to the upper 20s. That is about 82 degrees Fahrenheit come Saturday afternoon at an area, again, this is 60 degrees north latitude, just south of the Arctic Circle when you look at how far north this area is, guys.

SESAY: It's a massive undertaking to get this under control. Pedram, appreciate it. Thank you.

VAUSE: Thanks, PJ.

Well, some terrifying moments for passengers and crew on an Air India flight, which was hit by severe turbulence.

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SESAY (voice-over): Thirty-one people were injured Wednesday on the flight from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, Indonesia. Most of the injuries were minor but nine people were sent to the hospital. The Airbus did land safely in Jakarta.

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SESAY: Very, very frightening. VAUSE: Wow.

SESAY: That's why I'm scared of flying.

VAUSE: Really?

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: Planes have never crashed because of turbulence.

SESAY: Yes, yes, yes, I know that.

OK. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. "WORLD SPORT" is up next and we'll be back with another hour of news from all over the world. You're watching CNN.

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