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Voting Underway in Philippine Election; BBC Correspondent to be Expelled from North Korea; Alberta Blaze Scorches 150,000 Plus Hectares; Syrians Make the Most of Temporary Truce; Republican House Speaker Not Ready to Endorse Trump; El Chapo Moved to Prison Close to U.S. Border; U.S./Mexican Family Reunions; Competitive Campaign on "Game of Thrones". Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 09, 2016 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[01:00:13] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, the polls are open in the Philippines as a candidate who many compared to Donald Trump expected to win.

SESAY: Plus some possibly encouraging signs from North Korea. Pyongyang claims it may be willing to reconcile with Seoul.

VAUSE: Also ahead, Canada still fighting those fires there which have been out of control now for more than a week. But there could be some good news. We'll have more on that ahead.

SESAY: Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Well, millions of voters in the Philippines are heading to the polls right now to choose their next president and parliament.

SESAY: That's right. A controversial mayor has been leading the presidential race.

Our Michael Holmes has more on the campaign and the candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Campaign ads line quiet streets in the Philippines. Philippine law prohibits active campaigning by the candidates in the 24 hours leading up to an election. But the mood as voting gets under way is anything but quiet.

MARY GRACE LUZ, FRUIT VENDOR (Through Translator): I'm weighing up who is the best candidate that will make the country even better, a place where there is peace and order.

JINKY DESTAJO, HOMELESS MOTHER (Through Translator): I hope whoever becomes the president, they will help the homeless, provide work for our husbands and run the Philippines well. GEORGE MAYOR, SHOP OWNER (Through Translator): Someone who can make

the prices of goods go down so that for us who are poor, we can make a better living.

HOLMES: The five candidates for the Philippines' top seat made one last pitch to voters on Saturday, as the 90-day campaign period came to a close. Recent polls show long-time Davao mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, with a solid lead. Nicknamed "The Punisher" for his tough stance on crime, he's vowed to execute 100,000 criminals and, quote, "dump them into Manila Bay," if elected.

Senator Grace Poe is Duterte's closest rival. According to Filipino pollster Social Weather Systems, she has campaigned for what she calls a, quote, "caring," government, emphasizing public service and infrastructure. Poe has been challenged over her citizenship after being a U.S. citizen for several years, but ultimately was declared eligible by the Supreme Court to continue her campaign.

Interior Minister Mar Roxas, current Vice President Jojo Binay, and Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago are also in the running.

It's a big election for the Philippines. In addition to the next president and vice president, voters will elect half of the country's Senate, the entire House of Representatives, and tens of thousands of local posts.

Michael Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, joining us now from Manila is Eufracia Taylor, she's the Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk management company.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Eufracia, how do you explain the fact that Rodrigo Duterte, a man who relishes using coarse language, a man who is being dogged by allegations of having ties to death squads and extrajudicial killings, that this individual was leading in the polls ahead of this vote?

EUFRACIA TAYLOR, ASIA ANALYST, VERISK MAPLECROFT: I think we have to put it in some context. Firstly, the Philippines is being handover and pretty much better shaped than it has been in the past. Some of the strongest economic growth of an ASEAN under the Aquino administration. But the big problem with that, and what partially expands the rise of Duterte, has been the benefits of that have been incredibly limited primarily primary to the political elites to big business.

And while we see an expanding middle class, a lot of the -- a lot of the concern of that middle class, particularly around labor rights, law and order, and other issues, Duterte has really brought to the fore. They're looking to him, who's seen as a very strong leader, decisive, to actually pull through their (INAUDIBLE) most of them were they so broadly neglected under the Aquino administration. There seems to be strong hopes that the benefit and the success being

in Davao under Duterte can be emulated across the Philippines more broadly. So obviously they brought controversies with Duterte's character that may bring the possibility of actually getting that done into question.

SESAY: Yes, indeed, I mean, I just want to ask you about his chances of making good on his quick fix promises. That's his whole thing, right? I can do it quickly, I can cut -- you know, eliminate, cut criminality in six months.

TAYLOR: Absolutely. And there is that -- in the broader style of Philippine politics, there's a crowd favorite, they are bound to win over the voters that's been very frustrated by what they've seen under Aquino.

[01:05:08] And while they have been -- they've really pulled in the crowds and the polling members from other sector, in particular, there seems to be a lack of substance behind those. Also, how is he -- given how divisive some of his comments have been in regard to his attitudes towards women, towards close allies, such as the U.S., how is he going to make friends in Congress to actually pull through on any of those reforms.

The president may be very strong, but the president is not the be all, end all to this government. It will rely very much on Duterte's ability to make friends in Congress and convince them of his ability in terms of actually get many things done.

SESAY: Eufrasia, even though as you made the point that not necessarily everyone has benefited from development in the Philippines, economic development that is, there has been progress. We know that the annual growth of 6.5 percent, inflation is low, and because of it having a young English speaking population, the Philippines has become very attractive to foreign investment.

Does that hang in the balance now with the possible election of someone like Rodrigo Duterte?

TAYLOR: We have seen, there are definitely jitters in the market. But that's also very natural around any election where the outcome seems somewhat uncertain. And where the frontrunner, in this case has made very controversial remarks. I think in the short term it's going to be broadly business as usual. And Rodrigo Duterte still has a very good reputation actually when it comes to business. He's seen as very pro-investment, pro-business in Davao. So I don't think we need to worry too much at this stage. And in the grander scheme of things as well, Duterte's primary platform is to bring everybody up.

And it requires foreign investment and a greater look at restructuring the economy to bring everybody up. I think the issue that maybe foreign investors in particular are going to be looking out is the ability of Duterte to put some of those -- some of that rhetoric into practice and actually navigate the political elite in Manila. Duterte may be riding a wave of populism that could be coming out of that political elite. But that elite exists and it's going to be the one thing that Duterte is going to have to learn to manage in order to satisfy foreign investors and the public.

SESAY: Some great insight there. Eufrasia Taylor, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much.

TAYLOR: Thank you very much.

VAUSE: North Korea is expelling a BBC correspondent who was there to cover the Workers Party Congress in Pyongyang. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes was briefly detained at the airport and has since been released. The BBC says it's now trying to get him out of the country.

SESAY: Well, North Korean officials said they found his reporting, quote, "disrespectful" particularly to leader Kim Jong-un. Authorities said that Wingfield-Hayes will never be allowed back.

VAUSE: Let's go to Will Ripley now who is in Pyongyang for more details on this story. It seems this is quite a dramatic turn of events.

And Will, just going back looking at some of Rupert's reporting over the last few days or so, there is just one line in particular it seems when he wrote, "The dear leader Kim Jong-il is dead replaced by corpulent and unpredictable son Kim Jong-un." Is that essentially why he's being kicked out for one that particular line or is there more to this?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The North Korean official who gave the press conference said that Rupert Wingfield- Hayes who has been in North Korea since last week, he actually wasn't here to cover the Workers Party Congress specifically, but was invited in with a group of Nobel Laureates who came here to have discussions with North Korean officials and they made various stops touring around the country last week and over the weekend.

They say that his reporting was disrespectful of the supreme leader Kim Jong-un. They also say that he violated local customs and acted in an aggressive manner during the different -- the times during his trip which is the accusation from North Korea. And so as he was -- I actually saw Rupert yesterday at Yanggakdo Hotel as we were there shooting a report. He said that he had been spoken to very harshly earlier by the North Korean authorities about his reporting. He hadn't been reporting for the past few days. We believe he was at the hotel, the Yanggakdo Hotel, which is different from where we are here.

We're here at a different hotel, the Koryo Hotel. The Yanggakdo was on an island separate from the rest of the city. Anyway, he had been there for the past few days, not filing any reports. And had told me yesterday that he wanted to get on a plane today to leave the country. According to the North Koreans, as he was at the airport, he was detained, and questioned. A BBC correspondent who was at this press briefing, there was just a handful of news outlets there, he actually used the word interrogated and tried to ask the North Korean official if -- how the rest of the world would view the fact that North Korea detained and punished a journalist for reporting things that they didn't agree with. [01:10:12] But that question was not answered. The official walked

out of the room. We have now actually just been told that I need to put on a suit, bring my passport and we need to bring our camera and go back over to the Yanggakdo. Typically when we have to dress up and bring our passport it means that there is some sort of interview with an official. But we don't know who we're going to be speaking to or what the topic will be.

Obviously this is a very sensitive issue for all journalists who come into North Korea to report. And the North Koreans take very seriously any comments made about their leader.

VAUSE: It's a very rare time in North Korea when foreign journalists are allowed into the country. I think they have more than 100 foreign journalists in there right now. And clearly this will be very stressful for a number of officials who are not used to this. Could the expulsion of Rupert Wingfield-Hayes essentially be some kind of shot across the bow to the rest of you to, you know, toe the line and make sure you don't cross the line, if you like?

RIPLEY: Well, certainly journalists always keep that in mind when they come here to report inside North Korea. This is my tenth trip reporting in the country, although I have been found that I've been able to speak relatively freely on live television and in taped reports saying critical things about the country as long as I can back up those statements with fact, either with reports from the United Nations or other agencies and as long as we also get the North Koreans a fair opportunity to respond.

That has been my personal experience. However, if you in your reporting, if you say things that you perhaps wouldn't say about another world leader, but you say them to describe the North Korean leader, there could potentially be big problems in this country. They take a few things if anything more seriously than comments that are deemed disrespectful towards their supreme leader. Think about that movie "The Interview" and then the subsequent hacking attack on Sony Pictures.

Although North Korea was never officially tied the United States and FBI and many others believe that North Korea was behind it. A coordinated attack essentially as revenge for a film that they found almost as an act of war because of the way that it portrayed their supreme leader. So this is serious business here and something that every foreign journalist must keep in mind when reporting inside this country.

VAUSE: And just to be very specific here, Will, and I know you probably need to go, but it's just Wingfield-Hayes is being expelled, the BBC is will still allowed to continue to report there. So this does seem to be almost personal in a way.

RIPLEY: Right. There was another BBC crew, a producer and correspondent and cameraman in the press conference with us. We were the only American network. There were some Chinese networks there as well. It was a very small room on the third floor of the Yanggakdo hotel. For reference, the third floor is where that University of Virginia student, Otto Warmbier, is accused of sneaking up and trying to steal a political slogan off of the wall. So it's a part of the hotel that I've actually never seen before.

And the BBC was allowed to come in to cover the press conference. They attempted to ask a question, the question that I mentioned earlier, about how the world would react to this. There was no answer. And then they gave a brief statement afterwards just essentially saying that Rupert is in a car right now. They're trying to figure out a way to get him on a flight out of the country. If the flight schedule that we have is accurate, there might be an afternoon flight, an Air China flight that he could get on to leave within the day.

And I think that's the goal right now of BBC is to get him out of the country before they comment further. They say they do want to tell their side of the story. But right now their main priority is making sure that their correspondent and his team are allowed to leave.

VAUSE: Yes. It is always a fine line you walk, especially in places like North Korea.

Will, thank you. Will Ripley reporting live from Pyongyang.

SESAY: We shall see what happens when he turns up at that meeting.

VAUSE: Yes. That flight, a couple of hours. It's a very quick trip to Beijing. We'll have more details in the coming hours.

SESAY: Yes.

Next on CNN NEWSROOM, six years of austerity in Greece and no relief in sight. Why police battle protesters in the streets on Sunday.

VAUSE: Also ahead, thousands are forced to flee their homes as massive wildfires rage across western Canada but a change in the forecast could bring some much needed relief.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS HEADLINES)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:18:17] SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Greek lawmakers have passed new austerity measures demanded by the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

VAUSE: Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged approval of the pension cuts and tax hikes, but outside parliament anger boiled over among Greeks already suffering from six years of harsh cuts.

Protesters threw Molotov cocktails and police responded with tear gas. The country's largest labor union calls the reforms the last nail in the coffin for workers.

SESAY: Now crews battling the raging wildfire in Canada may finally be getting some relief. Officials say lower temperatures and the chance of rain are just the kind of weather they'd hoped to see.

VAUSE: The blaze has scorched an area nearly half the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. More than 160,000 hectares have burnt so far.

Here's Paul Vercammen.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Isha, I'm in front of a center here in Edmonton where many of the fire refugees are getting supplies and-or spending the night. They've been through a harrowing ordeal. That fire right now, you could hear the wind, is blowing toward the east, and firefighters are hoping that it continues to slow down just a little. By blowing east, that means away from Ft. McMurray, that's the city that was absolutely ravaged by fire last week. You can imagine a difficult ordeal for anybody, but imagine this through the eyes of a child.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE CHILD: I saw the flames and they were very bad. and, like, the fire, it was made like very big. We saw the smoke downtown, and we thought my school was burned down, but it wasn't. It's like very bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:20:02] VERCAMMEN: Families grateful for the 1500 firefighters battling blazes across Alberta, some 40 in all. And firefighters are beginning to feel the effects of this. Many of them have been working nonstop, relief going to come later in the week from both New Brunswick and Quebec. Ontario firefighters already here. It's been a long and arduous assault, and an ominous note, officials here saying, this could be the start of a rather long and dastardly fire season.

Back to you now, Isha and John.

SESAY: Our thanks to Paul Vercammen for that.

We're joined now on the phone by wildfire manager of the Alberta fires, Chad Morrison.

Mr. Morrison, thank you for speaking to us once again. Bring us up to speed with the very the latest. How much of the Fort McMurray fire has been contained?

Mr. Morrison, can you hear me?

CHAD MORRISON, WILD FIRE MANAGER, ALBERT FIRE: Yes, ma'am?

SESAY: Thank you for joining us once again. I was just asking --

(CROSSTALK)

MORRISON: I'll talk about the fire if you'd like.

SESAY: Yes. Indeed. How much of the fire has now been contained in and around Fort McMurray?

MORRISON: Yes. We've been able to -- we had a very good day here today. We were able to hold the line in the community on the fire. It really was held due to the efforts of all the firefighters out there. We had a cooler day with a little bit of help from Mother Nature with a trace of rain. But the fire is still 161,000 hectares, approximately 32,000 acres.

We continue to secure all the areas within Fort McMurray as the fire continues to spread out into the east here, east into the forested area away from the community and industrial facilities. We had high winds today up to about 70 kilometers an hour. With the frontal path so we do expect some late-day growth to the east. But we've had good success today. Over 700 firefighters now on scene, on the fire and in the community with over 20 helicopters. And we have 27 air tankers available to help us should we need them.

SESAY: All right. Chad Morrison, joining us there with the very latest on the Alberta fires. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

VAUSE: OK. Let's take a closer look at the weather forecast for the fires. Pedram Javaheri joins us now from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta.

So, Pedram, there's some good news there but this is far, far from over.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This is. This is a pretty expansive fire of course. And I always say, with fires, John and Isha, Mother Nature always has the upper hand. And we know the winds, as you heard in the previous phone call there, up to 70 kilometers per hour.

This is a front the general was talking about when it comes to getting in weather that really helped out the scenario as far as cooling the temperatures off eventually. And now getting some rain showers. But this shows you how quickly this fire spread to the west, then to the south, back to the north, to the west. And now we see portions to the east beginning to see some of the thermal signatures associated with the fires. And the officials really hoping that the fires do continue if they're going to grow, growing on the farther east side where it's more role as oppose of course then more densely populated area of Fort McMurray.

So that's what's going on in this region over the past several days. But just to put it in perspective. When you do the numbers of the amount of land that it's being consumed, about 16,000 square kilometers of land, that is actually roughly equivalent to the size of the country of Kuwait. That is what a large area of this region we're talking about that has been consumed. And on Sunday alone, the fires grew large enough to take over what would be equivalent to the size of the city of London.

In fact, getting just slightly larger than that. About 1600 square kilometers of land consumed in the past 24 hours. But here's where the good news come in. Some showers, potentially some thunderstorms. That's not the best part, but the temperatures being below the average of 16 for this time of year, for potentially five days. That is wonderful news across this region.

But want to show you something. When it comes to thunderstorm activity across this region, and anytime you have this expansive fires take place, of course you know the flames themselves generate tremendous heat. With this you have rising air, the air wants to cool, it condenses, creates droplets in the atmosphere, creates pyrocumulus cloud essentially weather that is generated by the fires themselves.

Unfortunately you have downdrafts associated with these, these are what kicks up the winds. And then you get ember there carried downstream, and then you have other fires begin to develop. So certainly it is a two-part story here when you get these sort of storms that come in. They do help the scenario out. But of course, they could have more of a negative impact. And just to show you how expansive it is.

A scene from the International Space Station, look at the plume of smoke traveling hundreds of kilometers across portions of Alberta. In fact parts of the Gulf Coast states across the United States, into Georgia, into parts of Alabama and the state of Mississippi, also seeing smoke associated with these fires. It shows you how far the winds can make these travel, guys.

VAUSE: And, Pedram, just very quickly, the fires -- rain is helping the firefighters, they're making conditions easier but it's not expected to alleviate the fire conditions themselves, right?

JAVAHERI: No, no. The immediate future, The next two to three days, cooler or wetter, beyond that, warmer, drier. So yes, when you look at the long term, definitely not going to be improving across the area.

VAUSE: OK. Pedram, thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

[01:25:03] SESAY: Time for a quick break. Next on CNN NEWSROOM, a temporary ceasefire brings people back into the streets of Syria. And diplomats are pushing to make it a sign of things to come instead of only a short break in the brutal civil war.

VAUSE: Also ahead, in the U.S., Republicans are divided over the presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Coming up, the civil war heats up in the GOP.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I am Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour.

A BBC correspondent is being expelled from North Korea. Authorities cited disrespectful reporting, particularly on leader Kim Jong-un as the reason he's being sent home.

VAUSE: Millions of voters are casting ballots in the Philippines' presidential election. Ahead of the vote, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was leading in the polls against four other candidates. He stirred some controversy with his tough stance on crime and has promised to execute 100,000 criminals and dump their bodies into Manila Bay.

SESAY: Well, Greek lawmakers have passed new austerity measures demanded by international creditors. But outside parliament, anger boiled over at the pension cuts and tax hikes. Protesters threw Molotov cocktails. Police responded with tear gas.

VAUSE: The Syrian civil war will be at the center of a meeting in Paris later Monday at the so-called Friends of Syria Nations. Ministers are expected to discuss ways to try and find an end to this five-year-long conflict.

[01:30:00] SESAY: Though actual fighting continues, a temporary ceasefire has brought some semblance of calm to parts of Syria.

As Fred Pleitgen reports from damascus, war-weary Syrians would welcome permanent peace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNFIRE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a recent spike in fighting in Syria's brutal civil war, at least in some parts of the country, some respite. Residents crowd cafes and restaurants in the government-held part of Damascus, one of several cities where limited ceasefires have been agreed and put in effect in recent days.

"We were so concerned for our daughters," this man says. "We wouldn't even let them leave the house. But look now, we're taking them with us."

And this man adds, "Things are so much better than before. I think local reconciliation like in some neighborhoods could be a solution."

Russia and the U.S. brokered ceasefires between government forces and many rebel factions in damascus and the Latakia region. It will last between 48 and 72 hours. The truce has been extended to Aleppo as well where heavy fighting killed hundreds of civilians in the past two weeks, including one of the last pediatricians in the rebel-held part of the city in a strike on a children's hospItal.

Now many Syrians hope this new period of relative calm could last more than just a few days.

(on camera): Of course, people here are discussing the prospects of political reconciliation, or a longer-term ceasefire. The majority of the people we spoke to here say in the government-held part of Damascus say, right now, they're just enjoying this moment where they don't have to worry about machine gun fire or mortars raining down on their heads.

(EXPLOSION)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But in many places, the civil war rages on. Dozens of pro-government and rebel fighters were killed in heavy fighting outside Aleppo on friday. An Islamist group even filming the battle with a drone.

After five years of fighting, many here say they're simply fed up with the violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My heart is broken. I see what's happening there. Syria is -- everywhere is my country. And everywhere is my family.

PLEITGEN: Despite the current calm, no side of Syria's civil war seems willing to back down, leaving many worrIED that the quiet like here in damascus could be all too brief.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Damascus, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Less than six months now until election day in the United States. President Barack Obama has issued a new executive order, pretty standard, called the Facilitation of a Presidential Transition. And part of it reads, "It's the policy of the United States to undertake all reasonable efforts to ensure that presidential transitions are well coordinated and effective without regard for party affiliation."

After what seems to be an almost unbelievable primary season, this is a reminder that, come november, there will be a new president-elect. On the Republican side, now that he's the presumptive nominee, it could very well be Donald Trump. But right now, there is a civil war within the Republican party. And later this week, Mr. Trump will meet with the most senior elected Republican, House Speaker Paul ryan, who has said he is not ready yet to endorse Donald Trump.

Jeffrey Lord is a CNN political commentator, was also political director in the reagan White House. He's a Trump supporter. He joins us from harrisburg, pennsylvania.

Good to speak with you, jeffrey.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hello, John. How are you?

VAUSE: I'm well, thank you.

It seems the civil war went up a notch over the weekend. Donald Trump said maybe unity within the party isn't all it's cracked up to be. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: We want to bring the party together. Does the party have to be together? Does it have to be unifIED? I'm very different from everybody else perhaps that's ever run for office. I actually don't think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In the past, it was the simple fact, divided parties lose elections. Will it be different this time?

LORD: Yeah, i do think it will be different. This does remind me to some degree of 1980. Ronald reagan's opponents was Illinois Congressman John anderson. He was doing, he thought, very well. Caught on in the media. He lost to ronald reagan and decided to run as an Independent. So he got himself on the ballot as a third-party candidate in the fall. Ronald reagan beat both anderson and, of course, Jimmy Carter pretty handily. There is precedent for this kind of thing. It's not the best situation. It's not optimal, but yeah, it can be done.

VAUSE: There clearly is tension between Trump and Speaker Ryan. Speaker Ryan is also chairman of the party convention On sunday, Donald Trump, he seemed to stop short of calling on ryan to step down as convention chairman. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST, MEET THE PRESS: If he can't endorse you, do you think he should be chair of the convention?

TRUMP: I don't want to mention now. I'll see after. I will give you a very solid answer if that happens about one minute after that happens. OK? There's no reason to give it right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It did seem like a bit of a threat there. I guess the question is, can Paul ryan be convention chairman if he doesn't endorse the party standard bearer?

[01:35:13] LORD: My answer would be no. I like Paul Ryan. We both worked for Jack Kemp during different periods of Jack Kemp's career. I think he's terrific. But I think he made a major mistake here. Donald Trump is going to be the nominee. If you're the speaker of the House, you step up. I mean, as Newt Gingrich, who was a former speaker, said that if he, back in 1992 when he was Republican minority leader, said, well, he wasn't quite sure whether he would support George H.W. Bush or not, there would have been hell to pay. This was a mistake on Speaker Ryan's part. I hope he rectifies it quickly.

VAUSE: It seems Donald Trump is holding back a little. Sarah Palin, a high-profile supporter of Donald Trump, she's not holding back when it comes to Speaker Ryan.

LORD: Right.

VAUSE: Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR & FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His political career is over, but for a miracle, because he's so disrespecting the will of the people. And, yeah, as the leader of the GOP, the convention certainly, he is to remain neutral. And for him to already come out and say who he will not support was not a wise decision of his.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: This doesn't seem like the party coming together. There's a list of high-profile Republicans who aren't going to the convention that are who's who of the party. Is it up to Donald Trump to be the uniter here or up to the party establishment?

LORD: It's up to all of them, in truth. The presidential standard bearer does have that -- some of that responsibility, no question. But so do the rest of these folks. I might add, this isn't about Donald Trump. This is about the will of the Republican voters. These voters had their choices of 17 candidates. This is the one they picked. They picked him fairly overwhelmingly. Case closed. That's it. You rally to the winner. Folks, at this point, that don't seem to get a grasp of this are going to have a problem.

VAUSE: One of the arguments i heard the other day was, in the past, the Republicans have had elections with a candidate not supported by the base. This could be the first election they have where, you know, the candidate isn't supported by the establishment.

LORD: Yes. Very interesting, isn't it. I mean, this kind of thing has semi happened before where the establishment went over the nomination of Barry Goldwater. Romney's father, George Romney, was the governor of Michigan, vowed to fight Goldwater at the convention. He did, he lost. He said he would never vote for him. When Goldwater showed up to campaign in Michigan, he wouldn't stand on the platform with him as a courteous tradition. This sort of thing runs in the Romney family and with a lot of these establishment folks. Curiously, when the shoe was on the other foot and they get nominated, they demand party allegiance here or they get pretty upset. It's very curious.

VAUSE: A lot more curious days to come, no doubt.

Jeffrey, good to speak with you. Thank you.

LORD: Thanks, John.

VAUSE: Less than six months.

SESAY: It's going to be very busy.

VAUSE: To say the least.

SESAY: Coming up on newsroom, L.A., Mexican drug lord, el Chapo, is transported to a prison near the U.S. border, a move which may bring him one step closer to extradition to the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[01:42:05] VAUSE: Drug lord, Joaquin Guzman, better known as el Chapo, has been moved to a Mexican prison just over the border from the United States.

SESAY: And the move could make it easier to extradite el Chapo to the U.S.

CNN's Boris Sanchez has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the most notorious criminals in the world on the move this weekend. Authorties transferring Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman, going from a prison in central Mexico to a maximum security lockup in juarez, just a few miles from the United States. The exact reason for the move is still unclear. But officials on both sides of the border have been laying the groundwork to extradite el Chapo to the United States for months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only way that the government of Mexico is going to ensure absolutely that they don't go through another embarrassing situation, another embarrassing escape is to extradite him to the United States.

SANCHEZ: The drug kingpin had been kept at a prison, the same one he fled last july. His brazen escape allegedly made through a well- designed series of tunnels, led to a massive manhunt and drew international attention. After months on the run, el Chapo was finally caught in january, returning to the prison after his recapture.

The transfer to juarez comes just one month after guzman's defense team said he wanted to be transferred to the United States as soon as possible. El Chapo's attorneys say the conditions he was facing at the prison in Mexico were unbeArable, making him seriously ill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): At 9:00 at night, they at the jail began the nightly role call. The next step is at 1:00 in the morning. But between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., he said if you could only know all the movement there, all the noise out there. It's impossible to sleep. Then for start e during the day, i cannot sleep because there is a roll call every hour.

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SESAY: Fascinating.

VAUSE: Yeah. Amazing, isn't it?

SESAY: Now, family reunions years in the making. Officials open the gates between the U.S. and Mexico for one day each year bringing together those separated by the border.

VAUSE: But only a few are chosen for these reunions which last just a few minutes.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shows entering. He's an example you'll see here. The patches that are made on the fence every night.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Every night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every night. We get it every slack time. As we get west here, you're going to see more.

YURKEVICH: People trying to cut their way through?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cut their way through, yes.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This is the U.S./Mexico border. Some call it a fence, some call it a wall. For 46 miles along san diego and tijuana, this barrier divides the two countries.

But one day a year, for 20 minutes, this door opens to both sides.

(CROSSTALK)

(APPLAUSE)

[01:45:10] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 1986, there was 620,000 apprehensions in this area. It was very much like the Wild West.

YURKEVICH: Back then there were no barriers here. In 1994, this fence was built. Four years later, an 18-foot-tall barrier was put up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Modestly, the fence doesn't stop all of the immigration problem. It tends to be a little bit of a political issue. But for us, it allows us to do our job more effectively.

ENRIQUE MORALES, FOUNDER, BORDER ANGELS: When the wall was built, nobody expected all these deaths. They thought people would stop coming in 1994, but they didn't. They started crossing in more dangerous areas. Instead of one or two people dying a month, it was one or two people dying a day.

YURKEVICH: That's when Enrique founded Border Angels. It's children's day at Friendship Park.

MORALES: Friendship Park is the heart and soul of this immigration issue. We have a universal right to be with our families. You don't practice human rights by putting up a wall.

YURKEVICH: For the third time, Customs and Border Protection has agreed to open this door. This year, six families were selected to reunite with no barriers between them for three minutes each.

(on camera): When was the last time that you saw your mom and your sister face to face?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About nine years ago.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This woman came to the U.S. undocumented when she was eight years old. Today, she lives in California legally, thanks to a temporary work permit issued under DOCA. But her status doesn't allow her to leave the country. Her mother and sister only have Mexican citizenship and they've been waiting to enter the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was 16. Now i'm a mom. I have my family. We're ready. As i was walking there, it felt like forever.

YURKEVICH (on camera): Did they look different to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just my mom. I had a picture of her. As i see her now, i see her a different way. It's not the same picture. But it's the same connection that we have. My heart just broke apart because i left them again.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): In the time it took you to watch this story, that's the same amount of time Gabby had to see her family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Very painful.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, the race for the White House has been full of excitement. But it's been no "Game of Thrones." Even so, we'll break down the race for the Iron Throne when we come back.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: See what's about to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: What do we do?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: We fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:52:16] VAUSE: And we make a lot of money. "Captain America" battles to the top of the box office charts. Marvel's latest super hero film has raked in $678 million globally since opening last weekend. That includes China, the world's second-biggest movie market.

SESAY: I'll be giving them some of my money.

VAUSE: There will be 14-year-old boys out there wanting to go see that movie.

SESAY: I'm not going to divulge my age, but i'll be going to see it.

Radiohead released their new album Sunday. He's a track from "A Moon- Shaped Pool."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I spent a week ago on Twitter when they put it out. It's amazing, because it's from the first after a four-year hiatus. The band has been long famous for their sound. And the latest offering is getting good reviews already. It's really kind of freaky. But it's good. Good freaky.

SESAY: Good freaky, OK.

No matter how you feel about how things are shaping up, you would be hard pressed to say this U.S. presidential race has lacked for excitement.

SESAY: But it's nothing compared to "Game of Thrones."

Here's Jake Tapper and John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: Hi, I'm jake Tapper from CNN. We've been focusing a lot on places such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and most recently Indiana in recent days and months. But there is one incredibly competitive campaign going on that is not getting much attention here at CNN. And that's the battle for control the seven kingdoms of Westeros on HBO's "Game of Thrones."

Here to break it down on his magic wall is our own John king.

Welcome, John.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake.

TAPPER: Lots of wild politics in Westeros. Many wild cards. There are dragons.

(ROARING)

TAPPER: There are wild lynx.

(ROARING)

TAPPER: Specifically, three intense campaigns going on right now in Westeros. Let's start with the Iron Islands.

KING: That's a fair question, Jake, given the history, why anyone would want to rule the Iron Isles. But that doesn't stop people from trying. As you know, the king easily defeated recently by his estranged brother.

TAPPER: He threw him over the bridge.

KING: That's defeated. But it opens up the Island of Pike for new leadership.

TAPPER: That's right. What we have here is a two-person race between Baylon's daughter, Yara, who is ruthless, and his estranged brother, Yuron, who is murderous. The Iron Islands haven't had a female leader before. It's unclear whether or not they would be embrace him. But on the other hand, Yuron is something of a carpet bagger they haven't seen in years.

KING: We'll see how that plays out. There's more drama, Jake, if you come down here into the south. We're going to zoom in here on Dorn. Come all the way in, all the way to the Water Gardens. The political landscape is changing dramatically. As you know, Prince Duran recently defeated again in what you would probably consider a tough contest.

TAPPER: Tough contest. He was stabbed to death by a very, very strong female candidate. She accused him of having low energy.

[01:55:21] KING: A line we've heard used effectively before.

TAPPER: What's going on in the all-important north?

KING: That's up here, Jake, if you take a look at the map. A very chaotic situation right there. Once a major family stronghold, I'm sure you remember. But now controlled by ramsey Bolten, who is someone you might say does not adhere to traditional tactics.

TAPPER: You might say that about a guy willing to feed his step- mother and baby brother to the dogs.

KING: A controversial candidate is the way I would put it. There's questions about whether he can unite the north.

TAPPER: I don't think he could murder everyone in the north. He'll have to put on some sort of charm offensive.

KING: And then Jake, let's not forget this. Way up here, way up here in Castle Black, right? You ready for this? Unconfirmed reports, but John Snow possibly rising from the dead.

TAPPER: Unconfirmed reports. But if he has been resurrected, that could really change the landscape of the politics of Westeros.

KING: Look out, John, there's a direwolf (ph) coming.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, guys, what the hell are you talking about?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(LAUGHTER)

VAUSE: We're in total shock. OK.

SESAY: Brilliant. Brilliant.

I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

Rosemary Church is up next. Stay with us.

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[02:00:06] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: The power of nature could be the key to extinguishing Canada's ferocious wildfire.