Venezuela's Maduro Attempts To Stop Aid Delivery; White House, U.S. To Keep About 200 Troops In Syria; Vatican Summit; Married Into ISIS
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: As the second day of the Vatican summit on child abuse by clergy gets underway, we hear what survivors hope the church will do. Also, we're live in eastern Syria for the latest on the flight of civilians trying to get out as ISIS falls apart. Plus, from victim to villain, the American TV star charged with a felony after faking his own attack and calling it a hate crime. Police say he thought it would be a good career move. These stories, all ahead this hour. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. And this is CNN Newsroom. And thank you for being with us. Pope Francis said the people of God are watching and they want the Catholic Church to finally end the scourge of predator priest and bishops. And now, at 9:00 a.m. in Rome the second day of an unprecedented Vatican Summit to tackle the sexual abuse crisis is getting underway. The pope gave the leaders a 21-point guideline for addressing the crisis and taking concrete steps to handle things differently. Our Rosa Flores joins us from Rome. She's covering the story. Rosa, survivors gathered there and watching around the world are for action and not words from this meeting. What is expected today?</s>ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know the focus of today is accountability. We're expecting for the day to have a morning prayer and I believe we have live pictures of this because day two just kicked off. Some speeches and then the day will conclude with some survivor testimonies as well. So very dramatic testimony we're shared yesterday. And so, we're expecting some of the same emotion today as day two kicks off. Now, I asked survivors about what they thought about day one, their reaction. And for the most part I think it's safe to say that survivors agree with Pope Francis that concrete action should be taken. What they don't agree with is exactly what that means.</s>CAROL MIDBOE, SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR: I'm Carol Midboe. I'm a survivor from Austin, Texas.</s>PETER SAUNDERS, SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR: My name is Peter Saunders. And I'm a survivor of childhood abuse from the United Kingdom.</s>LEONA HUGGINS, SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR: I'm Leona Huggins. I'm a survivor from Vancouver, B.C., Canada.</s>FLORES: Survivors from across the globe have descended on Rome for the unprecedented bishop's meeting on clergy sex abuse with high hopes that abusers and those who cover up abuse will be held accountable. Pope Francis kicked off the four-day event with a prayer and in short order set a firm tone asking for bishops to come up with concrete guidelines.</s>POPE FRANCIS, LEADER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): The holy people of God are looking at us and expect of us not simple condemnation but concrete and effective measures to put in place. We need to be concrete.</s>FLORES: Normally we would need to read between the lines to figure out what the pope means by concrete measures. But this time he released a list of 21 guidelines.</s>HUGGINS: I'm disappointed by what we saw today on that list of reflection points. When number one is we're going to create a manual or a handbook. I thought they already had the handbook.</s>SAUNDERS: Concrete measures means zero-tolerance be is not just a word. Zero-tolerance means excluding priests and other religious who rape and abuse children from ministry, permanently.</s>FLORES: Behind the scenes, Pope Francis has been meeting with survives. In an encounter with Polish survivor Marek Mevlechek (Ph). Pope Francis kissed his hand and looked visibly emotional.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He told CNN emotions rose up inside of me and it was like a roller coaster, I was able to say, I'm a child abuse victim from Poland. I was holding the photo of myself as a teenager. The pope took my hand in his hands. He looked at me and I could see he was teary eyed.</s>FLORES: Survivors say they relived their trauma every time they share their stories. And hope this historic meeting means they never have to tell their story again.</s>FLORES: now here is the thing. Regardless of what comes out of this historic meeting, one thing that we have seen across the world is that civil authorities have lost patience. We're seeing investigations not just in the United States and Chile but also in other countries, Natalie. And with that means for survivors is a chance at real justice. We saw of course the Pennsylvania grand jury report in the United States and granted even though a lot of those cases were historic, so they could not be adjudicated because the statute of limitations had passed, the fact that those stories were acknowledged meant so much for survivors. It was a different type of justice. You know, it was different, but in a way, it was acknowledgement that for so many of these survivors had been decades in the making. Natalie?</s>ALLEN: You know, the way you began your story and talking with these survivors, and getting their names and where they're from. I mean, you could sense their pain and you could sense their hope. And their -- you can sense also from the people you talked with, they're concerns about people being held accountable and i's stopping now. What is at stake, Rosa, for Pope Francis in this situation? And what he wants to see happen.</s>FLORES: You know, the stakes are really high. I've heard people say that the credibility of the church is at stake. It really is. Because I can tell you from traveling to multiple states across the United States and from talking to Catholics and advocates and survivors is, they're fed up. I covered one story in Buffalo, for example where -- in Buffalo, New York where people stopped putting money in the Sunday basket and they started putting notes for Pope Francis for the church. And those notes say until the bishop is removed, I am not donating money. I am not coming to church anymore because something needs to happen. And Natalie, what we keep in hearing a lot of the times from the church is that, for example, in the United States, that after 2002 there were reforms, and that most of the cases are old and -- you know, a lot of us in the press keep on pressing on this issue. And the thing is there was reform in 2002 in the United States. However, that reform held priests and deacons accountable. It did not say clergy which would include bishops. So that's the thing. I think what I keep on hearing is that the church forgot to hold bishops accountable. And this time, that's what survivors are asking for. Not just abusers to be held accountable but those who covered up the abuse.</s>ALLEN: Yes, absolutely. And that's what one of our guests said last hour repeatedly. That must be part of this deal. Rosa Flores, thank you for your reporting and your perspective. And later this hour, I'll speak with an abuse survivor who now leads the organization Snap, the survivor's network of those abused by priest. So more to come on this developing story. Well, the White House says the U.S. will keep about 200 troops in Syria despite President Trump's order for a full withdrawal. The troops who would remain will advise the Syrian Democratic Forces, the SDF in the northeastern part of the country and near the border with Iraq and Jordan. Meantime, the SDF is bringing civilians out of the last enclave in eastern Syria, still held by ISIS. The U.S.-backed troops are expected to launch a final push to reclaim the territory any day now. Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, live this hour in eastern Syria. And Ben, we've been saying any day now for a few days now. So, does it appear that these remaining ISIS combatants appear to want to fight to the death?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That would be -- appear to be the case, Natalie. We were actually out near the front yesterday when it was expected that several thousand civilians including some fighters who had surrendered would be brought out. But what we saw was about 30 trucks going in the correction of this town of Baghouz al-Fawqani and then a little while later those trucks coming out empty. Now they're going to try again today to get more of the civilians out. It appears at this point they are leaving a voluntary and although it is believed that there's still some civilians left inside being kept as human shields. It's believed that they're also holding prisoners including fighters with the SDF and other groups. So, yes, we've been saying now for a very long time that this operation to finally eliminate the last pocket of ISIS in Syria is about to happen. We heard this morning yet again, the spokesperson for the SDF saying that they hope they will be able to get them out today and that the next step is either a surrender, a final surrender by those last ISIS fighters inside or there will be an assault to retake this camp which I must stress we have seen is not very big. It is somewhere between 600 and 700 -- by 600 and 700 meters square. So, it's not large but what has surprised us from the very beginning is that the number of people who come out of the area controlled by ISIS is always higher than anybody has estimated. So, there's no real clear idea how many civilians are left inside or how many fighters. Natalie.</s>ALLEN: All right. I want to ask you also, the ISIS fighters that are fleeing, that are running, do we know where they're going?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, they're not really fleeing in a sense. They're surrendering. They are received by the Syrian Democratic Forces. The first thing they do obviously is make sure that they don't have any weapons or explosives on them. And then they are tracked to a spot on the plains nearby where they are taken to American, Kurdish, French and British intelligence officers who are -- will try to identify them if it is believed that they are ISIS members. They are taken to a separate -- high security camp. And of course, beyond that, the question is what happens to them, what happens to their families? And what we have seen in the case of this one woman who claimed to have been American, the United States will not take her back. We know that the United Kingdom is not taking these people back. So, in the end it's a huge burden on the authorities in this part of Syria. They would like the countries from which these people come from to take them back but it appears that they're stuck with them for the time being. And we did hear President Trump in one of his tweets saying that if they are not taken back, we will have to release them, with the obvious consequences that that would bring. Natalie.</s>ALLEN: Absolutely. We'll have more on the female from the United States who joined ISIS in her quest to get back to the United States a little later this hour. Ben Wedeman, there for us in eastern Syria, thank you, Ben. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is trying to prevent aid from entering the country. He's been doing that for some time. He announced he is closing the border with Brazil where supplies are being stock piled and he's considering doing the same for Colombia. Along that border, Venezuelan troops are blocking roads to stop aid from coming in. The closures are creating major traffic jams as you can see right there. At one road block soldiers clashed with lawmakers trying to drive trucks to the Colombian border. You can see the tension there. Despite Mr. Maduro's refusal of western aid, he seems open to accepting Russia's help, a shipment carrying medicine has reportedly arrived in the country. In the meantime, a benefit concert for Venezuelans is being set up. Thousands expected to attend hosted by billionaire Richard Branson.</s>RICHARD BRANSON, ENTREPRENEUR: We were asked to do this concert by Juan Guaido. And he will be coming to the other side of the bridge with maybe a million of his supporters. And I suspect both of us, both sides will be handing flowers to the military and the people guarding the bridge and seeing whether they can be persuaded to do, you know, what they must realize is the right thing. I mean, they'll have -- the military will have relatives that are suffering as well. And they'll know people who are suffering. So, we hope and pray that sense will prevail.</s>ALLEN: Well, Mr. Guaido of Venezuela self-declared president has promised to distribute the relief supplies on Saturday. We'll keep you posted on that story of course. Chicago's top cop said he's angry with American actor Jussie Smollett.</s>EDDIE JOHNSON, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.</s>ALLEN: But the actor denies he helped orchestrate a hate crime in which he was the target. More on this shocking twist and turns right after this. Plus, actions have consequences for long time Trump advisor Roger Stone, the new restrictions ordered by a federal judge.