Pope Francis Celebrates Sunday Mass in Azerbaijan
ASHER: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Zain Asher. Let's get you caught up on your headlines at this hour. As fighting is intensifying in Aleppo, Russia is warning the U.S. against attacking the Syrian Army. The Russian Foreign Ministry says such an attack would have terrible consequence across the Middle East and could create a power vacuum that will be filled by terrorists. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked about possible steps to normalize the situation in Aleppo in a phone call on Saturday. The public is getting a look at one of the U.S. Republican presidential candidates' tax returns. The "New York Times" obtained portions of documents filed from 1995. They showed Donald Trump declaring a loss of $916 million which could have helped him avoid paying taxes -- paying taxes for many years. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of those documents for now. And Haiti and Jamaica are bracing for Hurricane Matthew. Shoppers are stocking up on any supplies they can find. The powerful category 4 storm is expected to hit those countries on Monday. The Dominican Republic has also issued a tropical storm warning for its southern coast. And the Pope has just finished celebrating mass Sunday in Azerbaijan. It is the last leg of a three-day visit to the Caucasus region between Europe and Asia. He was in Georgia on Saturday and it's back to Rome later Sunday. Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher has been following the Pope's travels. She joins us live now from Azerbaijan. So, Delia, just explain to our audience, because Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim country. It only has a few hundred Catholics. So why did the Pope choose this country to visit?</s>DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, you know, Zain, probably precisely for that reason. It's such a tiny Catholic community. I mean, there is one Catholic Church in the entire country and that's the first place he went when he got off the plane, it's where he said mass. There are only seven priests, there are five nuns, they're Mother Theresa's Missionaries of Charity. And there's about 500 Catholics and most of those are not from Azerbaijan. They would be diplomats or people working for the oil companies here. That's a big part of their economy, obviously, in Azerbaijan. There's also a small community of Filipino workers. So the first priority, let's say, for the Pope whenever he travels is to visit with the Catholics of the country. Now normally those can number into the millions. But here we've got a small group of about 500 so it was the first thing that he wanted to do. But of course in the broader sort of political spectrum he's making this visit to these former Soviet republics. He began in Armenia in June, and then Friday and Saturday was in Georgia and now finishing up in Azerbaijan, as part of his interests in reaching out to those areas that are also involved in conflicts, in disputes. The Pope, we know, is a Pope of peace, so he comes with a message of peace and Azerbaijan is dealing with a border dispute with its neighboring Armenia, so the Pope is going now after lunch to speak to the government leaders here, and that will certainly be one of his main objectives, but one of the highlights here, as you mentioned, it is a predominantly Muslim country, so he will be visiting a mosque and the mosque here in Baku, in the capital city, is unique because it is one of the few mosques in the world where both Sunni and Shia Muslims pray together, and the leader of the community here, the Muslim leader, the Sheikh Pashazade, is the only Muslim cleric who is recognized by both branches of Islam. So that's going to be one of the things we're looking at this evening because there will be speeches both by the sheikh and by Pope Francis -- Zain.</s>ASHER: And Delia, before the Pope was in Azerbaijan, he was actually in Georgia and that was an interesting choice, as well, for the Pope to visit because there was a lot of tension between orthodox Christians in Georgia and the Catholic Church, and we're hearing that there were protests, as well. Just explain to us, I mean, how bad were these protests, are they still ongoing, even though the Pope has left. Just explain that situation there to us.</s>GALLAGHER: Yes, it was kind of unusual because you don't normally see protests when you travel with Pope Francis, but I have to say it was a handful of fairly hardlined Orthodox protesters who are reflecting a dispute which frankly goes back a millennium, and that is the original split between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and they are suspicious of the Pope and the Vatican coming into their country, what they think maybe trying to convert the Orthodox to Catholicism. Those are animosities that go back a long way and are still kind of deeply entrenched and what the Vatican tries to do with the various Orthodox churches, there are Orthodox churches, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, et cetera, is you know, make these churches, make these trips, come and have dialogue and that's what the Pope spoke about yesterday. They are not coming to try to convert anybody, but they do want to have dialogue because they are both Christian churches. So that is what they call ecumenical outreach on the part of the Vatican. It's very important for them -- Zain.</s>ASHER: All right, Delia Gallagher, live for us there on the phone. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. All right, Donald Trump is trying to win over Bernie Sanders' young supporters and he's using a speech by Hillary Clinton to do it. A conservative Web site posted a clip of Clinton's speech back in February. It says it was obtained from a Clinton campaign staffer's hacked e-mail. Take a listen.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some are new to politics completely. They're children of the great recession. And they are living in their parents' basement. They feel that they got their education and the jobs are available to them are not at all what they envisioned for themselves. And they don't see much of a future. I think we all should be very understanding of that and we should try to do the best we can not to be, you know, a wet blanket on idealism. You want people to be idealistic. You want them to set big goals. But to take what we can achieve now and try to present them as bigger goals.</s>ASHER: And you heard Hillary Clinton there basically referencing younger voters living in their parents' basements. Well, now Trump is actually accusing Hillary Clinton of ridiculing Sanders and his supporters. Take a listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton thinks Bernie Sanders supporters are hopeless and ignorant basement dwellers. Then, of course, she thinks people who vote for and follow us are deplorable and irredeemable. I don't think so.</s>ASHER: Now the Clinton campaign is not denying the clip's authenticity, but it is disputing Trump's interpretation of what Hillary Clinton said. The Clinton campaign actually issued a statement noting -- let me read it for you here. As Hillary Clinton said in those remarks, she wants young people to be idealistic and set big goals. She is fighting for exactly what the millennial generation cares most about, a fairer, more equal, just world." And Trump has spent much of his campaign in attack mode. He's never been afraid to go after anyone who he feels has insulted him. Our Sunlen Serfaty looks back at his history of feuds.</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's penchant for public feuds didn't start with his foray into politics. They have been part of his persona as long as he's been in the public eye. One of his earliest squabbles was over 30 years ago with author Graydon Carter. A few Trump carries on to this day. Carter was the editor of "Spy" magazine in the '80s and referred to Trump as a, quote, "short-fingered Bulgarian." Trump had never let it go. Listen to Carter this year on</s>NPR. GRAYDON CARTER, AMERICAN JOURNALIST: He'll send me pictures, tear sheets from magazines, and then -- with a gold Sharpie, he'll circle his fingers and in his handwriting say, "See, not so short." And I know it just gives him absolute fits.</s>SERFATY: Marco Rubio baited Trump with it during the debate, prompting this over-the-top response.</s>TRUMP: Look at those hands. Are they small hands? If they're small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee you.</s>SERFATY: And who could forget Rosie O'Donnell? That feud still going strong after a decade. It all started in 2006 when O'Donnell lambasted Trump as a hypocrite for almost taking the crown away from then Miss USA pageant winner Tara O'Connor after tabloids revealed her drinking and using drugs. Something that Trump finally publicly forgave her for but invoked O'Donnell's ire for the man known as a playboy.</s>ROSIE O'DONNELL, ACTRESS: There he is, hair looping going, everyone deserves a second chance.</s>SERFATY: Trump immediately doubled down.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting. I mean, both inside and out. You take a look at her, she's a slob. She talks like a -- like a truck driver.</s>SERFATY: And it's a feud that lingers today with Trump actually mentioning O'Donnell during the first debate.</s>MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS HOST: You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. Your Twitter account --</s>TRUMP: Only Rosie O'Donnell.</s>SERFATY: For a campaign desperate to modulate their presidential contender, Trump's consistent feuds and his inability to let go of them has proven even more problematic. The thin-skinned business titan going after Fox debate moderator, Megyn Kelly, back in March after Kelly brought up past derogatory remarks he had made against women.</s>TRUMP: There was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her -- wherever.</s>SERFATY: In July, he continually clashed with the Khan family belittling the parents of Humayan Khan, a Muslim army captain killed in Iraq after they spoke out against him during the Democratic National Convention.</s>TRUMP: His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say.</s>SERFATY: And when it comes to those Twitter outbursts, his preferred way of needling his enemies, he had this to say to David Letterman.</s>TRUMP: The Twitter thing, the tweeting thing does get you in trouble. You say things and you think it's so cute and so smart and it comes back to haunt you.</s>SERFATY: Advice from the past that many are hoping he'll take now. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.</s>ASHER: We're going to have to squeeze in a quick break here on CNN NEWSROOM. When we come back, Columbians head to the polls in the coming hours to vote for a landmark referendum. They'll be saying yes or no to a peace deal with the country's rebels and now the FARC is making a dramatic offer to the victims of the conflict. We'll have details just ahead. Plus, a volcano spews ash and smoke over western Mexico. The eruption is affecting local villages. That's also ahead.