U.S. Proposes Cuts to Special Olympics Funding; Solskjaer Promoted from Caretaker to Permanent Manager.
VANIER: Welcome back you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Cyril Vanier. And we want to go to a story close to our hearts here on this show. Abu Dhabi, which is the show's home base as you know, just hosted the biggest Special Olympics games in history. Thousands of athletes with intellectual disability from 190 nations gathered in the city and they competed in Olympic type sports, from badminton, to volleyball, to martial arts. But now the non-profit organization may see its financing cut by a major donor. CNN's Stephanie Elam reports.</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dustin Plunket faced some hard times as a child, at home.</s>DUSTIN PLUNKET, SPECIAL OLYMPICS ATHLETE: Nobody in my family really knew how to support me because of my cleft palate and my intellectual disability.</s>ELAM: And at school where he was bullied until he discovered Special Olympics. Some 20 years later, not only is he an athlete, he's also an outreach manager and inspirational speaker for Special Olympics Southern California.</s>PLUNKET: 90 percent of seniors on high school campuses say that Special Olympics made of an impact and that's why the fund is so important to us.</s>ELAM: The funding that Plunket is worried about is federal. The Department of Education's proposed budget for 2020 would eliminate all grant money for the non-profit. Dropping it from more than $17.5 million to zero. Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, took heat from Congress as she defended the cuts.</s>REP. MARK POCAN (D), WISCONSIN: Do you know how many kids will be affected by that cut madam secretary?</s>BETSY DEVOS, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: Mr. Pocan, let me just say again, we had to make difficult decisions with this budget.</s>POCAN: Again, this is a question of how many kids not about the budget.</s>DEVOS: I don't know the number of kids I also know that I -- I think.</s>POCAN: That's 272,000 kids. I'll answer it for you that's OK, no problem. It's 272,000 kids.</s>DEVOS: Let me just say that I think the Special Olympic --</s>ELAM: In response DeVos release add statement saying, quote, the Special Olympics is not a federal program. It's a private organization. I love its work and I have personally supported its mission. Because of its important work it is able to raise more than $100 million every year. There are dozens of worthy non-profits support students and adults with disability that don't get a dime of federal grant money. But given our current budget realities the federal government cannot fund every worthy problem. Particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations. A spokeswoman confirmed to CNN that DeVos does support the non-profit privately and did donate part of her salary to the Special Olympics after opposing a cut in funding to the organization in her first budget.</s>TIMOTHY SHRIVER, CHAIRMAN, SPECIAL OLYMPICS: This is the third year in which the administration has proposed eliminating the funding for our movement our education work. So it's not a complete surprise.</s>ELAM: And the organization's bipartisan support has helped protect its funding.</s>SHRIVER: If this funding were removed our programs in over 6,000 schools would be sadly devastated. But we have no expectation that that will happen. And we are firmly committed to ensuring that it will not.</s>VANIER: And that report there from Stephanie Elam. And it's important to note here the cuts have not gone into effect and still require approval from Congress. OK, we have some breaking news that we're following. The Saudi government says it has temporarily released some of the 11 detained women's rights activists currently on trial in Saudi Arabia. Rights groups and a source familiar with events on the ground identified those released as Aziza al- Youssef, Rokaya Mohareb and Eman al-Nafjan. Several countries and human rights groups had been calling for their release. The women are facing charges over human rights work and contact with foreign journalists and diplomats. Now yesterday at this same time, in this show, I spoke one of the activist's brother, who told mean about the charges that his sister is facing. And you may be surprised at what is considered a crime in this case.</s>WALID AL-HATHLOUL, BROTHER OF JAILED SAUDI DISSIDENT: Most of the charges are related to her human rights activism. Like dealing with Human Rights Watch, contacting them and contacting the Amnesty International. These are the charges that she is facing. One of the charges is actually applying for a job at the United Nations. That's a charge.</s>VANIER: Well that is an official charge, applying for a job at the United Nations? That is written black and white as an official charge.</s>AL-HATHLOUL: Correct, correct. Yes, that is in the list of charges that she applied for a job at the United Nations.</s>VANIER: You heard that right. And we checked. It is in the charging document. He also alleges that his sister has been tortured and sexually harassed by Saudi officials. We'll continue to follow this story for you right here on CNN. Now to end the show, some big news from football's Premier League. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been named of the permanent manager of Manchester United. Solskjaer has been caretaker/manager since December when Jose Mourinho was sacked. His success the past four months that the club to promote him to the job permanently. CNN World Sport's Patrick Snell honors me with his wisdom and his presence.</s>PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Too kind.</s>VANIER: Patrick, each time this happens in any sport really, and for any club when you have a legendary player that then moves on within the club and stays with that family it's a great story for the fan base.</s>SNELL: It really is. You know, you used the word permanent there. As permanent as it gets at the top-level European football.</s>VANIER: Permanent for now.</s>SNELL: He is under three-year contract. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a popular Norwegian, revered former player. But let's just show you why the club has made the move to make him a full-time deal as it were at the club. He was appointed interim head coach shortly before Christmas last year. But you know, these stats don't mislead. He's won 14 from 19 games in all competition. He's brought back the feel-good factor at Manchester United, Cyril, and his win rate is highly impressive at just under 74 percent. Big game Saturday in the Premier League. United hosts Watford. He'll want to get off to a flying start in his permanent reign. But I also want to just get a reaction from the man who made this decision, the club's executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward. Saying, more than just performances and results, Ole bring a wealth of experience, both as a player and as a coach, coupled, with a desire to give young players their chance. And that's really crucial I believe given the ethos of the club. And a deep understanding of the culture. This all means he's the right person to take Manchester United forward. Exciting times. The fans are very happy. Excited as well applies to his former teammates. None other than David Beckham taking to Instagram earlier describing it as amazing, amazing news.</s>VANIER: He should. Lots of questions not that much time. So let me make it simple. What are the expectations for him this season, can he meet them?</s>SNELL: Win, win, win. That's is what I mean by ethos at the club. The club, look, under the Alex Ferguson it won the Premier League title 13 times during his reign. They haven't won it since 2013. This is Britain's biggest football club. They demand and expect success. It's a massive global brand. And I'll tell you what, it's just a question of getting that top four finish. And I say just, because it's really competitive out there. Now when he took over, United were 11 points off the top four. Seemingly out of the hunt. Why is the top four significant? Because the top four clubs in the English Premier League qualify for next season's Champions League and the lucrative pot of financial gold that is. So that is a minimum requirement, I believe, for Solskjaer to deliver a top four finish. And by the way, winning the Champions League would be nice. They produced the miracle in Paris recently against Paris Saint-Germain that through to the last eight of that as well.</s>VANIER: Winning the Champions League, I'm sure they'd like that. I'm sure that would be nice. Patrick Snell gracing us with his presence as I said. Love having you on the set. Thank you very much. Thank you for watching. Stay with CNN. END