[Anderson:] You're watching Connect the World with me Becky Anderson, the top stories for you as ever at this time on CNN. Greece has formally requested a third international bailout. The government has asked for it to run for three years with a promise to introduce fresh economic reforms in exchange for the money. Greeks continue to queue at banks amid fears of what's known as a Grexit, or a Greek exit from the euro and the euro zone. Well, Greece isn't the only country with financial worries, China trying to contain a financial crisis that has wiped trillions of dollars in value from the country's stock markets. On Wednesday, the Shanghai composite dropped 8 percent on the opening and closed down 5.9 percent. Hong Kong has been hit as well. Reuters News Agency quotes an Iranian official as saying Iran has presented, quote, constructive solutions to resolve remaining disputes in the talks in Vienna. But that Iran won't back away from its own red line positions. A deadline for a solution in the talks has been pushed back again until Friday of this week. And Pope Francis wrapping up the first part of his South American tour in Ecuador. The pontiff expected to visit a nursing home and meet clergy members and then moves on to the next leg of his trip, which is in Bolivia. We're going to return to our top story today: Greece. Everyone, and not everyone in Europe agrees with austerity. One of Ireland's most well known politicians Gerry Adams says that Greece is being treated very unfairly. And he joins me now from Dublin in Ireland. Gerry, so how so Greece as the victim here. Explain your reasoning.
[Gerry Adams, Sinn Feing Party Leader:] Well, hello, Becky. And thanks for having me on your program. Well, the crisis in Greece wasn't created by the people of Greece, it was created by previous governments, corrupt governments and by financial speculators, by the European and international banking sector. Same thing happened in the Irish state as well. The debt is not sustainable. The people of Greece had this private banking debt hoisted on them. The new government led by Alexis Tsipras is making a stand. He went to his people. I commend that. It's very much a battle between democracy and a neo-liberal market forces. It's a battle between whether citizens have the right to have democratic control over decision which affect them in their daily lives and the people of Greece have said no to austerity, yes to democracy and yes for a sustainable future.
[Anderson:] Gerry, and I hear you. And I think there's a lot of politics involved here, perhaps moreso than economics at this point. I'm wondering whether you support a partial debt writeoff for Greece. And if so, why should debt relief for Greece be considered when Ireland, for example, had to swallow such harsh austerity measures. If Ireland could do it, why can't Greece?
[Adams:] Well, Ireland hasn't done it, just part of Ireland didn't ask for a debt write down because of the nature of our government. It was elected to ask for a debt write down. It received a mandate to renegotiate. It didn't renegotiate. It didn't ask for a write down. This state has a population of less than 5 million people. In eight years, we've lost half a million, mostly of our young people, across scattered across the globe. We have as we speak hundreds of people on hospital trolleys in corridors in our main hospitals. We have a housing crisis. We have a low wage economy. And most pitiably in a modern western society we have a third of our children living in consistent poverty. And that surprise that people hear about to pay for a very, very bad decision and series of decisions by our government. The Greek government took a different tack. They stood by their election manifesto and they are looking for something, which I think is to the benefit of people right across the European Union, not just Greece, and including Ireland.
[Anderson:] Yeah, your party Sinn Fein, has got very close links to Syriza. Just in March, the new Greek finance minister, in fact, came to address one of your meetings. I want our viewers just to listen to what he told you.
[Euclid Tsakalotos, Greek Finance Minister:] Syriza and Sinn Fein, as well as others as [inaudible] are part of a great realignment in European politics that has become apparent over the last couple of years. That realignment is a necessity exactly because we have such a crisis in existing arrangements.
[Anderson:] Yeah, but given how Greece has dealt with this crisis, is Syriza still the kind of government that you want to associate with, Gerry?
[Adams:] Well, we associate with the people of Greece, we associate with working people everywhere. Sinn Fein is an internationalist party. But don't rely upon me, the IMF have intervened just recently to say that the people of Greece need a bailout, but they also need, and I quote what they say, "a 20 years grace period before making any debt repayments." So this is bigger than just parties of the broad left across the European Union. And incidentally, there's nothing wrong with parties of the broad left having a sense of solidarity one with the other because the right wing forces who cause war, who cause destruction, who are engaged in militarism, who push people downwards, who privatize public services, who destroy workers' rights, they very easily unite. So, it is important that those of us who have a vision of a social European Union, a European Union which is based upon equality, should send clear signals of our support. And I'm very pleased. I commend the government in Greece, but more especially I commend the people of Greece for taking a democratic decision on Sunday.
[Anderson:] I wonder whether that social project that you want to see in Europe, though, involves the euro and the euro zone, and whether Greece wouldn't be better off out of the euro at this stage. Short-term severe shock, long-term though control over their currency. I've had it described to me as the euro zone and membership for Greece being the death knell for that country. Your thoughts.
[Adams:] Well, first of all the government in Greece has made it clear that it doesn't want to leave the European Union, that it doesn't want to leave the euro zone. There's actually no way of putting it out of the euro zone. So I think in many ways that question is a distraction. We're part of the European Union, but the European Union according to the founders of the European movement was to be based upon solidarity, was to be based upon equality. Here we have an example of that being torn up completely, that a country on the periphery that didn't cause this problem I listened to your earlier broadcast with the shop owner and restaurant owner in Greece, they didn't cause the problem. They're 100 percent right. The problem, as in Ireland, was caused by the elites, by those who lease the people off, who speculated and were fueled entirely by greed, gambled in the private banking system, lost and then the people are expected to pick up the tab for that. You people in America, in the USA dealt with it in a different way, in a correct way. So, the issue is one of whether a citizen has the right to democratic control over a decision which affects his or her life or the lives of their family.
[Anderson:] Gerry Adams with us tonight out of Dublin in Ireland. It's a pleasure, sir, thank you. United Airlines has resumed flights after they were grounded for more than an hour today, because of a computer operation problem. Large queues had formed at airports. And United had to hand write tickets for some passengers at airports. United have apologized for any inconvenience. Let's get you the very latest. Rene Marsh is standing by for you at the CNN bureau in Washington Rene.
[Rene Marsh, Cnn Correspondent:] So, what we know is that 4,900 flights have been affected as a result of this very widespread computer issue that led to United Airlines having to ground their flights. As you mentioned, flights have resumed and they have addressed this computer glitch. But at this hour, we still do not know exactly what caused the computer glitch. The explanation from the airline is rather vague. They are only saying we experienced, quote, "network connectivity issue this morning that they're working to resolve." We received an updated statement from them that you're looking at on your screen there saying that they are recovering from the network connectivity issue this morning and that they are resuming regular flight operations and they also went on to say that passengers will be able to get a waiver on United.com. So essentially if you needed to rebook because the delays are just not going to work for your personal schedule, they are not charging you, they are trying to help flyers avoid those change fees. So they are awarding a waiver. But back to this issue that they've been experiencing again this is not just here in the United States, this was a worldwide problem, it affected their operations worldwide. And now we are all waiting to find out exactly what was behind that.
[Anderson:] Rene Marsh is in Washington for you. Thank you. Well, to a stunning admission by the U.S. Defense Secretary. Ashton Carter says the United States has trained only about 60 so-called moderate rebels in Syria, far below the goal of several thousand. ISIS on the other hand has been very active in its recruiting of both young fighters and even jihadi brides, as you are well aware. The terror group waging a sophisticated propaganda war that has spread to all parts of the world calling for future jiahdists to fulfill their religious duty. Its main tool: social media. Now, an initiative to counter the ISIS media war has been launched by the United States and the United Arab Emirates. I sat down with U.S. undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Richard Stengel, here earlier today and asked him if it's about countering ISIS's messaging or censorship.
[Richard Stengel, U.s. Undersecretary For Public Diplomacy:] It's actually both. I mean, it's two sides of the same circle in the sense that some of it is countering what they're doing and just saying this is wrong. You say the caliphate is a paradise, it's not. The plumbing isn't working. You say you'll find a spouse here? No, you're not going to be able to. So some of it is directly undercutting what they're saying and saying it's a lie and it's false and how you are trying to lure these people is incorrect. On the other hand, we're also trying to promote a positive narrative, positive vision, a vision of mainstream Islam, a vision of moderate Islam as a much, much better choice. And by the way that is the choice that most young Muslims are making around the world.
[Anderson:] I want our viewers to have a look at the introduction to the Saub Center one what is its YouTube channel today.
[Unidentified Male:] Just as they have hijacked a religion, they have also hijacked the world of social media, using it to spread their malicious and destructive ideology.
[Anderson:] Having looked at this introduction, can you and the staff at the center really replicate what these ISIS militants are doing?
[Stengel:] Well, in fact we're trying not to replicate it. I mean, if you look at a recent Brookings study that showed basically there are about 500 to 2,000 of these hashtag jihadis, of people who are out there tweeting, who have followers and trying to marshal those followers, that isn't so many. So part of what we're doing in this actually great relationship between the U.S. and the Emiratis. And the Emiratis have stepped forward. The Saub Center will be a hub for the coalition eventually. So they've been very strong on that. So, we're not really trying to replicate that, but we're trying to get both the counter message and a much more positive vision out there that will then resonate with other people around the world and create other centers like the Saub Center.
[Anderson:] Who is going to work at this center? I mean, if you've got young Arab speakers, young Arabic speakers, young Arab men and women who really understand the mindset of those who are...
[Stengel:] You know, Becky, I just came from there. And it's you know, I was twice as old as anybody there. These are people it will mainly be in Arabic. These are people who understand your Arabic market. These are young people who devoutly believe in what they're doing and will look to create their own large supporters that they will have.
[Anderson:] Let's take a look at what President Obama said earlier in the week.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] In order for us to defeat terrorist groups like ISIL and al Qaeda is going to also require us to discredit their ideology, the twisted thinking that draws vulnerable people into their ranks. As I've said before, and I know our military leaders agree, this broader challenge of countering violent extremism is not simply a military effort. Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they're defeated by better ideas.
[Stengel:] And we are offering better ideas, that's one of the whole points of the Saub Center is that and this is an idea that Muslims around the world and I can't speak for them, but they understand from their daily life, this what I am living is a better alternative to what they are offering. What they're offering is a dark lying vision of what life can be. And I think we are offering those better ideas.
[Anderson:] Fascinating. Live from Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. Coming up for you, we turn to Morocco where authorities there are trying to give Islam a friendlier face with female preachers. That story is up next for you. And despite crippling sanctions, Iran's tourism sector is growing. I want to get you some of the main attractions of that, and that is in about 10 minutes. Back after this.