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tv   CNN Newsroom Live  CNN  August 20, 2017 2:00am-3:00am PDT

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culture to a large degree. flip on the television set. it's had a profound influence on this entire nation. and has to be affirmed. a live image in barcelona, spain, remembering the victims as that city holds a memorial service remembering those killed in thursday's terror attacks. north korea sends another grim warning to seoul and washington ahead of joint u.s./south korean drills due to start monday. we'll have a live report. >> and ahead this hour, boston, massachusetts, breathing a sigh of relief as a potentially contentious demonstration is mainly peaceful. >> good to hear that. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm natalie allen.
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>> and i'm george howell. it's 5:00 p.m. here on the u.s. east coast. "cnn newsroom" starts right now. at this hour, spain is honoring those who died in this week's brutal terror attacks. ♪ this was in the past hour. a memorial service in barcelona. the king and queen of spain are attending along with other leaders. >> they're honoring the 14 people who were killed in barcelona and cambrils. authorities say a terrorist cell carried out who vehicle attacks. isis has claimed responsibility without offering any proof. the memorial comings while a manhunt is still under way for the driver of that attack in barcelona. authorities say this is the man that is the prime suspect.
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he was part of the terror cell that had about 12 members. >> several arrests have been made. five suspects were killed by police in cambrils. despite the manhunt, spain's interior minister says the terror cell has been completely dismantled. for more on the investigation and the memorial service, our isa suarez joins us just outside where that memorial has been taking place. hello, isa. >> reporter: hi, good morning to you, natalie. good morning to you, george. it is a somber mood here in barcelona. we're outside where that memorial mass is wrapping up. the last images we're looking at from inside. of course, for those who have been to spain or barcelona know how iconic this is and how some bollic it is that it's being held here. it is a somber mass that really
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is focusing on those who died, paying homage to those who have died, but also for the more than 100 or so injured. if we look at those images inside, it's being presided by the bishop of catalonia. it's a stunning church inside. it is being attended by the king and queen of spain. we saw them earlier. of course, we have seen both of the royals here in barcelona, laying wreaths in the main area where the attack took place and really being applauded for their presence here. we've also seen them visit several of the hospitals where more than 100 injured were taken to. we've also seen inside that mass the barcelona mayor.
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also, the catalan leader. so whilst there is a somber mood and a mood of reflection is by no means over, the investigation still very much under way. george, natalie? >> and isa, you reported from the little town that they had those explosions at that home. what more can you tell us about what you saw and the people that you talked to there? >> reporter: we no frknow from police, natalie, it was a cell of 12 operating in this house. they weren't renting this house. they were actually squatters. that's what the vice mayor told me yesterday. when i was there and what i saw was actually quite shocking. police have brought in really a
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strong builder to dig away some of the rubble. they're having controlled explosions. so strong were some of those explosions that we sort of -- perhaps gives you a sense of what these 12 individuals, the damage they could have caused and how much bloodier it could have been. take a look. a sleepy, unsuspecting community hidden by olive groves and embraced by the mountains. an ideal spot for a cell of 12. it's from here police believe the suspected terrorists prepare their attack on barcelona and on cambrils. what they discovered, a bomb-making factory littered with explosives. >> translator: the house where the explosions originated from is owned by a bank who says it didn't know there were people squatting. it has a septic tank that was being used to store explosives. >> reporter: a source close to the investigation tells cnn they
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have found traces of highly explosive tattp used in several european terror attacks. a discovery that's left some in shock. the shank family came here for an idyllic holiday. what they remember is the night the cell's bomb maker made a big mistake. >> we see two fireballs. the world is shaking. >> reporter: one local resident is still visibly shaken. a few days since, she's still trying to make sense of what happened on her street. >> translator: it's a feeling of impotence, of rage, of emotion. >> reporter: the suspects may have gone, but the echoes of terror remain. this was the fourth controlled explosion on saturday, but there were more, even while we were on air. >> -- being very careful, careful but focusing their
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information. oh, there was another one. i don't know if you heard that, lynn. i don't know if you just heard that. that was another controlled explosion. >> reporter: with each blast, police are clearing the ground of explosives. in doing so, they're learning more about this remote cell that used this town to mask its deadly plan. and george, natalie, we heard from the interior minister basically saying this terrorist cell has been dismantled, but the catalan minister being more circumspect. there's one man still on the run. he's a moroccan national. that's what authorities have to deal with, still one man on the loose. >> isa suarez for us in barcelona. thank you. spanish football players and fans are also honoring victims of the terror attacks. a minute's silence is being held before every spanish league game
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this weekend. ♪ this the scene in seville as the team hosted the other top-flight club. new threats are coming out of north korea as the united states and south korea prepare for joint military drills set for monday. >> pyongyang is lashing out at those long-planned military exercises. its state-run newspaper calls the drills, quote, reckless behavior, driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war. and it boasts that north korea's army and missiles can target the u.s. any time with a, quote, merciless strike. >> live in seoul, south korea, cnn's paul hancoa hancock.
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there was a great deal of fiery rhetoric, as we all remember, between both countries, including this from the president of the united states. let's listen to this, paula. we can talk about it here in a moment. >> north korea best not make any more threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> the question, was that an off-the-cuff remark, a planned remark. still not entirely known. here's the deal. these joint military exercises are set to take place between south korea and the u.s. the north is threatening again. what is the feeling there in south korea, paula, with this rhetoric again heating up? >> well, george, the kind of threats we're seeing from this article, it's nothing new. we have consistently heard from
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north korea when tensions are a little higher that they're accusing the united states of pushing the peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war. this is what they're doing once again, saying specifically about these military drills, this reckless behavior as they call it, is the reason for these increased tensions. now, we do have the u.s./south korean joint military drills starting on monday. they'll be going for ten days. we heard that they will go ahead as planned. the pentagon releasing a statement saying there's just over 17,500 u.s. troops that will be part of this, alongside south korean troops and the u.n. command. so they are annual drills. the u.s. consistently says that they are defensive, but it's simply not the way that north korea sees it. they see them as provocative. this is why we are seeing this kind of response from this article today. so as expected, north korea
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increasing the rhetoric just ahead of these drills as they often do. >> the rhetoric, as expected from north korea and these drills, as expected, as they do carry on during these times, is there a heightened sense of concern among people there, just given what we went through just a week ago? >> certainly the situation is different to what it's been in other years. there have been similarly tense times, some suggesting this is more tense than it has been for many years. i think the rhetoric on both sides last week being particularly higher about ten days ago certainly didn't help matters. that provoked the north koreans more than the measured responses we've seen from previous u.s. administrations, previous south korean administrations, but we heard from the south korean president, moon jae-in, just last week and he said there will not be another war on the korean peninsula. he said he'd do everything in
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his power to make sure that didn't happen. we saw measured remarks from the secretary of defense, the secretary of state in the u.s., saying diplomacy, political, economic measures are what is needed to try and solve this issue with north korea. but they have to have a viable military option as well. just today, this sunday, we know the head of the u.s. pacific command, admiral harry harris, is here. he's met with the south korean defense minister, clearly talking about the increased threat from north korea but also here most likely to watch over those military drills starting on monday. >> you point out what those officials have said, but recently the ousted former chief strategist of the white house, steve bannon, indicated in an interview that there was no real mill stair -- military strategy. paula, thank you so much for your reporting.
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there are more than one dozen u.s. military bases in south korea. osan air base is the closest one of them to the korean demilitarized zone, and it's home to fighter jets and spy planes that are keeping a close eye on north korea's next move. cnn's alexandra field reports. >> reporter: at osan air base, a u.s. air base in south korea, they are watching. >> we're up there. we are keeping eyes and ears on north korea. >> reporter: and they're waiting. >> so i can start to queue missiles, queue targeting pod. >> reporter: the control tower coordinates a few dozen military flights a day, sending these spy planes up over the korean peninsula. >> we're busier here than we've been probably in the last ten years. we're very busy.
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but we are tasked every day to fly our mission. so we do that. >> reporter: pressurized suits allow pilots to soar at altitudes of 70,000 feet. that's twice as high as a commercial jet. the one-seater spy planes are flown by eight specially trained officers. the job, to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. a window for washington into north korea, needed now as much as ever. >> everything that this aircraft is collecting is almost instantaneously sent down to people who can process, exploit, and disseminate that information in minutes to our leadership. >> we would be ready to launch operations at both air bases at a moment's notice and be ready to fight tonight. >> reporter: major danny trueblood is on a two-year tour to south korea, taking up a job that u.s. troops have done for decades since the end of the korean war. >> the f-16s are pivotal to the -- to basically the defense and any potential actions.
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so with gps or laser-guided weapons, we can strike a variety of different targets. >> reporter: this u.s. air base is fewer than 40 miles from the north korean border. these super sonic jets can fly about 16 miles a minute. in the case of a conflict with north korea, they could reach the dmz in just two to three minutes. they practice daily, sometimes with mock battles. on this day, 12 of the air force's f-16 fighter jets take off. >> we don't know. with the unpredictability of things, want to may be, in fact, the night. so we train every night. >> reporter: still the same work they've done every day for decades. now with the world watching what happens next. alexandra field, cnn, osan air base. st stulill ahead, it was a powerful moment in the city of boston, massachusetts, saturday. this as thousands of protesters came on the city to condemn hate
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and call for unity. we'll take you there next. and dvr. all included. because we don't like surprises. yeah. like changing up the celebrity at the end to someone more handsome. and talented. really. and british. switch from cable to directv. get 4 rooms with hd, dvr, and every box included for $25 a month. it's our back to school beeone cent evente. at office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each! hurry to office depot office max. ♪taking care of business. right. in. your. stomach! watch this!... >>yikes, that ice cream was messing with you, wasn't it? try lactaid, it's real ice cream, without that annoying lactose. lactaid.
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"people united." in dallas, texas, people came together to celebrate diversity and i ddenounce white supremacy. activists tried to cover a statue of confederate general nathan bedford forest, with a banner that read "take me down." >> now we turn to boston. carrying signs that said "hate speech is not free speech," thousands of counterprotesters converged on boston, overshadowing a self-described free speech rally. >> let's look at that video there. in the middle, that was the free speech rally. look at that on the side, the counterprotesters. these are the people who came together. you see one group much, much bigger than the other. boston's police superintendent says the day was a victory. >> what we took away from here today, we talked about a victory that we had on the boston commons. we stood together as a city, and
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especially the youth of the city, and we took away a victory that we told people that are racist, that are hate mongers, that this is not accepted in boston. you saw many nations together today combatting racism. >> as you just heard him say, boston officials are praising the city's people and officers for largely peaceful protests there. they did arrest 33. for more now, here's andrew spencer. >> reporter: despite the fears it of a repeat of charlottesville, the peace held in boston amid a free speech rally and its corresponding counterprotest saturday. a group calling itself the boston free speech coalition organized a rally before the violence in virginia, tweeting this message a few days ago, denouncing all violence and telling participants not to bring any weapons or antagonize any groups. but the rotunda where they planned to meet was relatively empty compared to the throngs of
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counterdemonstrators barricaded a good distance away. thousands of people marched through downtown boston, speaking out against racism, nazis, and white supremacism. they carried signs, such as "united against hate," while other criticized president donald trump. a few vocal trump supporters could be found in the crowd amid the sea of counterprotesters. some in the front line of protests at times got confrontational with police. amid some particularly tense moments, several counterprotesters were taken into police custody. from the sky, you could see the huge visual police presence. some of the confrontations and a handful of people pulled into the crowd of police and taken away. i'm andrew spencer reporting. >> thanks for the report. again, the comment that was expressed by the u.s. president just a week ago, the comment raised a great deal of
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criticism. the u.s. president expressed his support for protesters in boston, tweeting this. our great country has been divided for decades. sometimes you need protests in order to heal, and we will heal and be stronger than ever before. another tweet, i want to applaud the many protesters in boston who are speaking out against bigotry and hate. our country will soon come together. keep those tweets in mind. let's now bring in a teacher of international politics at city university. those tweets i just mentioned, the president applauding one side of the equation, as he describes it, the counterprotesters who came together to stand up against hate. this tweet in stark contrast, who just a week ago suggested some sort of equivalency, which there is not, between protesters, neo-nazis and white supremacists. here's what he had to stay a
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week ago. >> i'm not putting anybody on a moral plane. i'm saying you had a group on one side, a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and horrible. it was a horrible thing to watch. but there is another side. there was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you've just called them the left, that came violently attacking the other group. yes, i think there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides, and i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either. >> the president there talking about a group that he says violently attacked the neo-nazis, the white supremacists, keeping in mind one young woman on the other side was killed in this incident. let's also take a look at this tweet the president said earlier in the day on saturday. this tweet says, looks like many anti-police agitators in boston. police are looking tough and smart. thank you.
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such a stark change in tone from his later tweets. does the president still have the moral authority to weigh in on this very divisive issue in the united states? >> i think what we've seen from president trump is a series of diversionary performances, which have effectively tried to come to the head of what is a mass i have amount of opposition. what has happened since charlottesville, at charlottesville in the aftermath of it, is a mass mobilization of american opinion across a whole range of different political and ideological and demographic forces within the united states. president trump has been shown to be somebody who was equivocating on the idea of neo-nazis and white supremacists. that was the kind of line he crossed, which he effectively unified people on the street level of american politics, right the way up to the republican party as well. i think all that has sent a message inside the united states and outside that actually president trump is a very
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unstable and incompetent and possibly a sympathizer with those kinds of forces. they drew a line. that has forced a degree of change since then, but unfortunately, that first tweet that you just read out about anti-police agitators, i think tells us that prurp hasn't fundamentally changed at all. he's going to carry on the kind of rhetoric around race and division, and i suspect that is what his administration is really going to be known for. because i'm not sure that president trump and his allies are particularly interested in governing the united states. i think they're building some sort of campaign to build a mass movement of some form which is focused around white identity and a white-working class opposition to the republican establishment. >> it is important to point out, though, in a new poll, speaking about the president's base, a new poll indicates many of his supporters do agree with him on this issue of these monuments,
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that they should be kept in place rather than be removed as we're seeing across the country. here's the other question and the last question. this moment that happened in the united states, charlottesville, virginia. how significant a moment do you believe this will be for a president who is just starting his term, quite frankly? >> i think on the question of the statues, there's a lot of division across the united states, including among african-americans who have been polled about removing these statues. that's a tactical question. there are many ways you can resolve that. but what does charlottesville tell us? i think charlottesville tells us the united states actually is not ready for a white supremacist in the white house or a sympathizer or somebody who sympathizes with neo-nazis. they've drown a red line. effectively, the united states is supposed to be the leader of the free world. people are drawing a line on that because that ruins the reputation of the united states more broadly in the world as well. but i think it tells us
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something deeper about things too. that there is a mass opposition. it's focused around the race question at the moment, but there are a lot more groups which have been organizing on an economic basis against inequality. i think most people have drawn a line around that. there's a lot of support for some of the elements of this, but a brookings poll showed earlier this week there's a very, very small level of support for the alt-right or kkk or neo-nazis in the united states. more people are actually opposed to the economic element of this program as well, and i think that's probably the thing that we need to watch out for. corporate america still is very, very -- it's their agendas which are still being followed largely by the white house, even though some ceos have resigned from the administration. >> thank you so much for your insight today. live with us from london.
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>> thank you very much. in other news, he was both a funny man and a fire brand. anyone who saw dick gregory perform never forgot it. >> gregory died saturday. he was 84 years old. he gained notoriety in the early '60s as one of the first african-american comics to perform for white audiences. >> gregory was not content to simply tell jokes. he used his fame to advocate for civil rights in an era of strict segregation. his experiences with discrimination and injustice became the backbone of his comedy act. >> later in life, he became an author and motivational speaker, advocating spir chalty and healthy eating. he had an event scheduled here in atlanta, georgia, but was unexpectedly hospitalized. the cause of dhis death has not been disclosed. dick gregory, dead at the age of 84 years old. and coming up, it's one of the last isis strongholds, but the iraqi government says not
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for long. the strategic importance. that's coming up. you're watching cnn newsroom. 'sl one cent event at office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each! hurry to office depot office max. ♪taking care of business. ♪...from far away. but they only ♪harsee his wrinkles.♪ ... ♪if only harry used some... ♪...bounce, to dry. ♪he would be a less wrinkly, winning guy.♪
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flonase. 6 is greater than 1 changes everything. that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home.
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and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. here are the headlines this hour. barcelona has held a memorial service for victims of this week's terror attacks. the city has held it in the iconic sagrada familia church. spain's king and queen attended. 14 people were killed in the attacks. meantime, a manhunt is still under way for the driver in the barcelona attack. authorities say this man is
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their prime suspect. he is believed to be linked to a terror cell of about 12 people. several arrests have been made, and five suspects were killed by police. north korea threatening its neighbor south korea and the united states over their joint military drills. those drills set to start monday. north korea's state-run newspaper accuses the united states of driving the situation into an uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war and says pyongyang is on high alert to, quote, contain its enemies. the iraqi government announced it started an offensive sunday to retake the city of tal afar from isis. it's one of the last areas in iraq controlled by isis after iraqi forces drove isis out of mosul last month. in a nationally televised address, iraq's prime minister told the isis militants, surrender or get killed.
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>> translator: all axes have been mobilized today to start the liberation of tal afar. i tell daesh, you have no choice but to surrender or get killed. >> i spoke earlier with the chair of contemporary middle east studies at the london school of economics. i asked him about the strategic importance of taking tal afar. >> it's the last urban city -- one of the last urban cities controlled by isis. it has served as a hub between isis nominal capital in raqqah and mosul. it borders both syria and turkey. it is an important city strategically and also in administrative terms. many of isis' leaders have escaped from mosul to tal afar. you have more than 1,000 skilled isis fighters in tal afar. so it's a major battle, and the
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iraqi army will have no choice but to recapture tal afar as it did mosul after nine months of bitter and costly battles. >> let's talk about that, retaking mosul. we all know, you know, what it took to do that. we covered it. we saw the images. as the battle under under way there, what lessons do security forces take from the battle. >> we covered the battle for nine months. few people realize the severe costs that that the iraqi security forces incurred in mosul. they have lost between 8,000 and 500 men in the battles of mosul, including many thousands of special forces. tens of thousands of civilians suffered a great deal, and you still have tens of thousands of refugees of mosul.
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isis fought to the last man in mosul. even as we talk, you and i, there are still some cells that have survived the fight in mosul. what's unique about tal afar, the battle that's going to take place in the few days, weeks, and months, you have no escape routes for isis. tal afar has been basically isolated and encircled since march 2016. everything that we know about isis tells me that it will fight to the lastman. it's going to be bitter. it's going to be costly. but the reality is tal afar is going to be much easier than mosul because mosul was the second largest iraqi city, and isis had thousands of skilled fighters in mosul. still ahead here on "newsroom," we take you to the largest confederate monument in
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the united states. you'll hear among visitors who think the controversial memorial should stay or whether it should be removed. >> plus, the u.s. isn't the only country with remnants of its controversial history. we'll have a report on how russians feel about preserving statues of leaders from its past. that's coming up from moscow.
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it's our back to school beeone cent evente. at office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each! hurry to office depot office max. ♪taking care of business.
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that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. welcome back. in the united states, the fight over confederate statues is nothing new, but the horrifying scenes in charlottesville, virginia, last weekend has given new debate to removing these monuments. >> stone mountain park is just to the east of atlanta here in the u.s. state of georgia. my colleague fredricka whitfield
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reports it is a place that many people see very differently. >> reporter: with a bird's eye view of atlanta, just 20 miles away the nation's largest monument memorializing civil war confederate leaders. the 90-foot-tall carving of jefferson davis, robert e. lee, and stonewall jackson prominently on the north face of georgia's nearly 900-foot-high stone mountain. the center piece of a state park, attracting 3 million tourists, bikers, joggers, and hikers a year. >> seeing the world from kind of god's eye view. >> reporter: and now again the carving here making it a centerpiece of discussions as hot as the august sun. >> yeah, i'm conscious of them. >> is it kind of comfortably ignoring it? >> yeah, pretty much. >> why is that? >> because i believe that stands for the old way of the united states was. now we're more, you know, a melting pot more than ever now.
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>> i don't think you can erase history. it happened. i think people have to learn from it because if you erase it, people don't know. >> you can voice your opinion, but don't force it on somebody else. >> reporter: passionate views following the disturbing images 500 miles away at the white nationalist gatherings in virginia involving a confederate monument. the death of anti-hate protest demonstrator heather heyer, laid to rest this week, and following the u.s. president's comments about removing confederate symbols. >> you're changing history. you're changing culture. >> reporter: and his tweets, the president asking who's next. on stone mountain, among those we talked to, a resounding feeling that actions speak louder than symbols. >> you know, it's a really sad issue. i don't think taking away the carvings are going to change anybody's heart. you have to change the heart first. >> reporter: while this nation's largest monument to confederate leaders may be a high point to other individuals and groups, like this one -- >> god bless america!
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>> reporter: posing atop the mountain with confederate flag, posting it on facebook, and later saying they would defend the monument. is it really etched into the consciousness of everyone who comes here? >> not necessarily. a lot of the people that take advantage of what the park has to offer really don't come in this area. >> reporter: john bankhead, the public information officer for stone mountain, says this summer for the first time in a long time, it received a cross burning request by a group identifying itself as the ku klux klan, a request denied this month. >> how much of that is true? >> this request was made in may. we had to go to the legal people here in georgia, the attorney general's office, to get opinions on what we can do do deny. we never intended for that to go on here. we know the history of this park. we know the history of this mountain. we're just not going to allow that to happen. >> has a request like that happened often this year? >> no, first time. first time it's ever happened,
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other than 1962. >> part of the memorialization was an effort to try to remember these men who had sacrificed during war, but it happened at the same time that a much broader kind of political project was going on in the south in which the south -- southern states had passed laws that were disfranchising african-americans and were restoring kind of white rule. >> reporter: in georgia, despite a flurry of tweets from a democratic gubernatorial candidate urging the removal or sandblasting at stone mountain and the georgia naacp stating -- >> we, as the birthplace of the civil rights movement, must act in accordance with true american values. >> reporter: any change at stone mountain is complicated. georgia state law has a clear mandate for the memorial, saying it should be, quote, preserved and protected for all time as a tribute to the bravery and heroism of the citizens of this state who suffered. the carving of this monument was a 60-year project initially
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involved a sculptor of south dakota's mt. rushmore. stone mountain would be completed under president richard nixon's administration. 45 years later, under the nation's 45th president, stone mountain's carving and confederate monuments like it, both landmarks and lightning rods. fredricka whitfield, cnn, stone mountain, georgia. >> some say it's there to preserve history. others see it as symbols of hate. a new poll shows many americans agree with president trump on keeping confederate statues as they are. an npr/pbs poll says 62% of registered voters should remain as historical symbols. 27% say they should be removed because they can be offensive to some people. the u.s. isn't the only country debating what to do with the remnants of its controversial history. russians are divided still over statues of their former soviet leaders. >> since the fall of soviet union, many of the monuments
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that were not destroyed ended up preserved in a sculpture park. our matthew chance has this report. >> reporter: sometimes the heroes of one age fall out of favor, and their monuments once revered are torn down. it's happening now in charlottesville, and it happened here in russia a quarter of a century ago with the collapse of the soviet union. even knonow, russians remain divided about the legacy of their past. back in 1991, the toppling of one soviet statue in particular became the symbol of a new era. the towering image of the founder of the much-feared secret police, the kgb, was dragged off its pedestal to popular approval. >> translator: it was right to remove some but not others. i think it was best to take down the statues of stalin because
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there are lots of negatives associated with him which have not yet been fully accepted in this country. >> reporter: in the pro-democracy fervor, other icons were toppled too. busts of stalin and lenin. many were placed here, kraeting an historical sculpture park in the center of moscow. >> translator: these statues never bothered me. this is my life. i grew up with it. it's my childhood. and i wouldn't be worried if they were returned. it's history and you can never forget history. >> reporter: but that history and its monuments remains controversial across the former soviet union with some now independent states, most recently ukraine, moving to erase what many there see as reminders of past oppression. in the baltics, too, now eu and nato members views towards soviet era statues have
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hardened. but here in russia, the picture is more complex. under vladimir putin, soviet icons have been rehabilitated. soviet leaders are spoken of not as tyrants but of strong leaders. these once despised symbols of soviet power are once again being revered. matthew chance, cnn, moscow. >> matthew, thanks for the report. still ahead, a ship that played a decisive role in world war ii has now finally been found. wait until you seat underwater images of the "uss indianapolis" ahead. also ahead, it's being called the eclipse of the century, at least by many in the u.s. we'll tell you how to watch the solar event without even stepping outside if you don't want to.
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megan's smile is getting a lot of attention because she uses act® mouthwash. act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. a team of researchers led by billionaire paul allen has found the wreck of a famed world war ii ship at the bottom of the pacific. the "uss indianapolis" was lost july 30th, 1945, after being hit by japanese torpedos. the ship had just finished secretly delivering parts of the atomic bomb that would be dropped on hiroshima.
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its sinking was immortalized in the hit film "jaws" where shark hunter quint tells the story of sailing on the indianapolis. >> most of the sailors survived the sinking, but after four to five days floating at sea, only 316 were found alive. many died from dehydration and exposure. here's how a retired u.s. admiral described it. >> he survived the sinking. he was in command of a raft. the survivors were scattered about, but he was -- there were a number of them within eye shot of where he was. he would be just another man in the water trying to survive. that was a horrific ordeal for anyone to survive. but he never relinquished command. you know, he was in charge of everything that he could see. he maintained discipline. he issued orders that resulted in the saving people's lives and
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maintained command. you know, you could forgive him for going -- you know, he was just trying to stay alive. he didn't act that way at all. and because of what he did, more of the crew are alive than would have been otherwise. >> the captain of the "indianapolis," charles mcveigh, was court ma-martialed for the s of that ship. across a wide swath of the u.s., eclipse fever is reaching a frenzy. we got it. on monday, millions of people will witness a total solar eclipse when the moon blocks the sun and daytime turns into semi-darkness. >> so will the weather cooperate with the view of this eclipse of a lifetime? our meteorologist is here. in the howell household, we're debating. do we get on i-85 and drive up toward greenville to see it or just stay away? >> i'm going a secret way, but i
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can't tell anyone so no one will go my way. >> you know, it's fascinating because there are estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are going to jam the interstates. it's phenomenal. but not just here. even into these small towns, salem, oregon. casper, wyoming. another one of those cities where they're going to descend. idaho falls. i love idaho falls. they are jammed with people. they're pitching tents. this is a big deal. it's been about 100 years since the last total eclipse across the united states. this one sweeps from the northwest all the way down to just about my favorite city in the whole world, charleston, south carolina, where i'm from. in this narrow area, tending about 100 kilometers or about 60 miles, maybe 70 miles wide, this is where you're going to see it. but who's going to be impacted by the weather? that's kind of key.
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we have people descending from all points of the globe. hopefully you haven't landed where we think across the midwest. that may be the trickiest weather. unfortunately, it looks like for charleston, south carolina, maybe some tropical moisture making its way in there. no, i didn't say hurricane. i didn't say anything like that. but i will tell you that you need to trek yoprotect your eye. if you want to see eclipse coverage, keep it here on cnn and cnn international. we're going to have it all. it's going to be amazing. >> everybody headed out to cover it. i think we're going to see it for ourselves. >> watch out for the fake glasses. there are fake glasses out there. get the real thing. >> very dangerous. karen, thank you. eclipse fever goes on. thanks for watching this hour. i'm natalie allen. >> i'm george howell. i'm sure you'll see me in traffic somewhere.
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our coverage continues with cnn's "new day" right after the break. and one we re-earn, everyday. #1 trusted. #1 awarded. it's got to be tide. and life's beautiful moments.ns get between you switch to flonase allergy relief. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. flonase helps block 6.
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choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. countdown to total see eclipse. coast-to-coast. >> i don't think you should look at the sun. might be in your eye. >> monday is the big solar eclipse. experts

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