Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.K. Voters Head to Polls; Trump Rips Clinton in Latest Speech; House Democrats Hold Sit-In to Demand Vote on Guns; Brazil Politicians' Secret Recordings Revealed; North Korea Propaganda Film Backfires on Regime; India Lightning Strikes Kill At Least 90 People; Japanese App Line Set to go Public;. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired June 23, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:11] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, a historic day for Britain as voters go to the polls to decide if they should remain part of the European Union.

VAUSE: Donald Trump practically challenged to take down Hillary Clinton chapter and verse of almost every criticism ever made of the Clintons.

WALKER: And an intense night in the U.S. capital as Democrats stage a sit-in to demand action on gun laws.

VAUSE: Hello -- everybody. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.

WALKER: And I'm Amara Walker. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

VAUSE: The clock is running. Two hours from now the polls will open and voters will decide whether the U.K. should stay in the European Union.

WALKER: Campaigning on the bitterly divisive referendum went down to the wire. At a rally in Birmingham, Prime Minister David Cameron made a final pitch to remain in the EU.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We are stronger. We are better off. We are safer in a reformed European Union. And that is why we should vote Remain tomorrow morning in the largest possible numbers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The leader of the anti-EU independence party had a nationalist plea for undecided voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIGEL FARAGE, U.K. INDEPENDENCE PARTY: We can vote to get our borders back. We can vote to get our pride and self-respect as a nation and in who we are as a people back. I want us tomorrow to vote for Britain to become independent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Let's bring Sandro Monetti, the managing editor of the "L.A. Business Journal". Sandro -- great to have you with us to talk about this because this is an issue which has kind of split Britain into two countries -- right.

On the one side, let's call them Remainia. And on the other side, let's call it Leaveia. So the Remainias it seems they're ok with immigration. They're ok with change. They worry about the financial impact.

The Leaveias they worry about immigration and British sovereignty. And they're not worried about the economic warnings which seem to be coming from a lot of people. Why aren't they concerned about what a lot of people are saying could be a financial disaster?

MONETTI: Well, those warnings are indeed dire. And there will be a great deal of uncertainty in the markets if Leave has its way. They perhaps think that short-term gain -- short-term pain is worth the long-term gain.

But you mentioned there and also in the package, immigration is such a huge issue. It's the thing that has dominated this campaign.

Immigration has doubled in the U.K. since the year 2000. Last year 333,000 more people came into the U.K. than left it. And so the Leave campaign has been making this the center point of their campaign, whereas Remain has been going very much with the economy. And it's a fascinating race.

We stand on the threshold of history. And it's almost an economics against immigration debate.

WALKER: Yes. You're saying immigration is driving a lot of the Leave campaign people to the polls. What kind of impact will a Brexit have on immigration? I mean it will curb immigration, right?

MONETTI: Yes, but presumably, a U.K. will still have to abide by various freedom of movement in Europe rules that are in place for countries like Switzerland, for example, and Norway that are not part of the EU. So if you make that leap, it's not necessarily going to have a huge impact on control of the borders. But that seems to be the message that is getting through.

VAUSE: A lot of blame for where Britain is right now in terms of this referendum being so close is being put on David Cameron, the prime minister, because he made this promise back in 2013 before they elected to hold this referendum. It seemed like a pretty safe bet then. But now it's turned out to be a real, you know, cliff-hanger. What's actually going to happen?

But on the other side of the equation, if the EU wasn't such a hot mess, you know, so many people in Britain might not want to leave. So there's enough blame to go around, I guess.

MONETTI: This has been a hot button issue in British politics for 40 years. It seems we've been heading toward this moment --

VAUSE: I'd say 43 years.

MONETTI: You would say 43 --

VAUSE: From the moment they got in.

MONETTI: -- from the moment they got in.

VAUSE: They've been complaining about it, yes.

MONETTI: And successive British governments. There's always been -- the referendum's coming. The referendum is coming. Now the moment is here. We stand on the threshold of history. The politicians have been arguing about this for decades. Now the public finally gets to decide and they seem completely indecisive.

VAUSE: Which makes it a fascinating vote.

WALKER: What does the future hold for David Cameron in either scenario?

MONETTI: It is basically a referendum on David Cameron's future. If his Remain is defeated here, it will be very difficult for him to survive as prime minister according to most political experts in the U.K.

WALKER: He's insisting he wouldn't resign.

MONETTI: He's insisting he wouldn't resign.

But for Boris Johnson, the natural successor and heir apparent who was very much the front man at the Leave I think it's more than just a referendum on Britain's future. It's a referendum on who's in 10 Downing Street in six months' time.

[00:05:13] VAUSE: You know, if Britain does decide, you know, it's time to say goodbye to the EU. They want this divorce after 43 years, could they negotiate some kind of sweetheart trade deal along the same lines that Norway has? They get all the benefits, they're not part of the EU.

Or will the EU take the stance well we have to make an example of Britain. We can't cut them this deal just in case other countries want to bolt the EU as well.

MONETTI: Well, there's going to be months of backroom deals and long negotiations -- there'll have to be. Because being part of the EU, Britain at the moment is part of 50 free trade agreements with various countries around the world. And now it will have to throw out that playbook and redesign everything all over again.

If there is a Leave vote, regulations which have been there for years will have to be torn up. And there's going to be so many back stage meetings. There's so much uncertainty here that no one's exactly sure what's going to happen.

And so the politicians on both sides are taking advantage of these things that are out there and saying listen to us. But, you know, there's a lot of trust, and people are voting out of personal experience as well.

I mean, in my case, I am somebody who is half English, half Italian. So I'm half EU, I'm half U.K. I don't know whether to Brexit or not to Brexit.

VAUSE: Well, you can't vote anyway because you've been out of the country.

MONETTI: I have. Those of us who have been out of the country more than 50 years don't get vote. It's just as well because I'm undecided.

WALKER: Exactly.

VAUSE: Sandro -- good to speak with you. Thanks for coming in.

WALKER: Thanks for coming in.

VAUSE: Donald Trump is on the offensive, attacking Hillary Clinton during his latest speech. Despite his tough talk, Trump did not tough on some of his more controversial talking points.

WALKER: And that may be exactly what Republican leaders have been waiting for. Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton, and as you know, she, most people know, she's a world class liar.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With his new team and teleprompters in place Donald Trump stayed on script and unleashed his most focused and unrelenting attack to date on Hillary Clinton. It had even skeptics in his party cheering, not cringing.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States.

ACOSTA: Call it Operation Pivot as the presumptive GOP nominee made his first real attempt at defining the general election for voters.

TRUMP: Her campaign slogan is I'm with her. You know what my response is to that? I'm with you, the American people.

ACOSTA: It's no secret why Trump's assault focused so much on Clinton's character, just look at the numbers. A new CNN/ORC poll finds more people trust Trump than Clinton. Though Americans believe the former secretary of state would make a better commander in chief. So Trump tried to chip away at her foreign policy credentials.

TRUMP: Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.

ACOSTA: But in doing so, Trump made statements that were simply not true, like his claim that he opposed the Iraq war.

TRUMP: I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war, and yes, even before the war ever started.

ACOSTA: Even though it's pointed out repeatedly he's on tape voicing support for the 2003 invasion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you for invading Iraq?

TRUMP: Yes, I guess so. You know, I wish the first half of it was done correctly.

ACOSTA: And Trump also blamed Clinton for the American deaths at Benghazi.

TRUMP: Among the victims, our late ambassador Chris Stevens -- I mean what she did with him was absolutely horrible. He was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed. That's right, when the phone rang, as per the commercial at 3:00 in the morning, Hillary Clinton is sleeping.

ACOSTA: That's also wrong. The siege at Benghazi happened at night in Libya, but back in the U.S. it was still in the afternoon when Clinton was awake.

And there were other whoppers. Trump said he started his real estate business with a small loan. That was $1 million from his father.

And Trump claimed Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment, but fact checkers have noted that's just not true.

Trump accused Clinton of doing some fabricating of her own.

TRUMP: Just look at her pathetic email server sentence or her phony landing in Bosnia where she said she was under attack, and the attack turned out to be young girls handing her flowers.

ACOSTA: Trump drilled down on that theme, accusing the Clintons of profiting off their ties to the rich and powerful.

TRUMP: They totally own her. And that will never, ever change, including if she ever became president, God help us.

[00:10:05] MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP AIDE: I thought Trump's speech today was a sure sign that the changes he made on Monday are moving his campaign in the right direction. He's on message.

ACOSTA: Former Trump aide, Michael Caputo who resigned from the campaign this week after celebrating the firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Twitter says Trump is positioning himself to win.

CAPUTO: I know people are worried about whether or not he can stay on message, whether or not he can stay moving in the right direction after his pivot. And I think Mr. Trump is completely up to the task.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Trump's speech is certainly receiving positive reviews inside the GOP. But one Trump source told me there's no way Trump would have won the nomination with scripted speeches. Translation -- to keep his base fired up for the election, Trump will have to lose the teleprompters from time to time to give his crowds what they want.

Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.

VAUSE: Well, joining us here in Los Angeles, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for the Atlantic; and (inaudible) political writer for the "Los Angeles Times". Great to have you both with us.

SOOMA MOHTA, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Thank you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Glad to be here.

VAUSE: I'll tell you. So this was the attack speech on Hillary Clinton Republicans have been waiting about 20 years to hear. Trump gave them exactly what they wanted. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The other candidate in this race has spent her entire life making money for special interests. And I will tell you, she's made plenty of money for them, and she's been taking plenty of money out for herself. Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We'll put the veracity of a lot of what Donald Trump is saying to one side. But let's do the tactics here. It seems to be, you know, well, the Republican Party may not be 100 percent for Donald Trump. They are 100 percent opposed to Hillary Clinton -- right.

MOHTA: Right. And this is a speech that they have been waiting to hear. I mean he's obviously had such an uneven couple of weeks -- the bad fund raising numbers, his campaign manager getting booted. So I think that this was a speech where they were looking to see, can he make this a referendum about her, not about him because the race so far has been a referendum on him.

WALKER: Let's talk about Trump and his base -- Ron. I want to first look at some of these latest polls. This one is the recent one from Quinnipiac University. I think this was released on Tuesday. And you'll see in Florida Clinton has a pretty large lead over Trump, 47 percent to 39 percent. In Pennsylvania it's a slimmer lead where Trump is ahead by one percentage -- or Clinton, excuse me, is ahead by one percentage point. And then in Ohio, Trump and Clinton pretty much tied there.

But when you look at these numbers, and these are important swing states, especially in Florida where Trump is behind, it's a diverse state, what does this tell you about, you know, how he's doing there?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Those three states really give you a great snapshot of the election. And what they tell you, look at Pennsylvania and Ohio. That is Donald Trump's opportunity, his strength among working class white voters. Democrats depend, particularly in Ohio in doing a little better with working class whites than they do nationally. Working class whites were the cornerstone of his primary coalition, and that is where -- if there is a path to the White House, it runs through Rust Belt, predominantly white, older states like Ohio, like Pennsylvania, like Iowa, like Wisconsin.

The problem he's got is Florida is indicative of the other set of swing states which are the Sun Belt, younger more diverse states like Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida. And the fact that he's behind so much in Florida where Clinton is not running any better among white voters than she is in Ohio is indicative of just how deep a hole he has dug for himself with the diverse America, particularly Hispanics, and that looms large in that second set of swing states in the U.S.

VAUSE: Yes. And if you look at those numbers, especially about the non-college educated whites, which is why Trump began that speech today with his appeal to supporters of Bernie Sanders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The insiders wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power and in the money. That's why we're asking Bernie Sanders' voters to join our movement, so together we can fix the system for all Americans -- so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And then he kept hammering this issue of jobs and also the trade deals with a lot of countries that are very unpopular -- countries like China. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton gave China millions of jobs and our best jobs. And effectively let China completely rebuild itself. In return, Hillary Clinton got rich.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ok. So Sooma, how likely is it though that a Bernie Sanders supporter is going to turn up and vote for Donald Trump?

MOHTA: I mean the one thing I will say is when you talk to the supporters of Bernie Sanders and the supporters of Donald Trump they have tapped into a similar vein of anger and frustration that the system has failed them. That said, I can't imagine most Bernie Sanders supporters voting for Trump because they're so far apart on social issues. A lot of them lean Democratic. The polling is a little mixed but a number of them are going to end up voting for Hillary Clinton, just like a number of Hillary Clinton supporters did vote for Barack Obama in 2008. Bernie Sanders did an interview with C-Span today where he was pretty outraged that his people would end up in Camp Trump.

[00:15:11] BROWNSTEIN: Here's the conundrum that I think Donald Trump faces. There's no question he's going to be a very formidable competitor for blue collar white voters. But because the message that he used to kind of build that appeal, not only the tough on trade but, you know, the very tough on immigration, the nativist arguments, the argument against the judge, you know, he's a Mexican, the temporary ban on Muslim.

Because of that he is facing really big, very high unfavorable numbers among minority voters. And because he's likely to lose ground among minority voters even compared to 2012, he has to improve among whites overall. The problem is the same arguments that drive away minority voters are also causing problems with those college educated white collar white voters particularly women.

And John in those polls in -- in the Quinnipiac polls in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania Clinton had double digit leads in each state among white women with a college education. And Trump's problems among college-educated white women and minorities -- that is a big hedge to get over.

MOHTA: Like the soccer moms that somebody like George W. Bush depended on in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. These are the people who I think are very open to a Republican candidate but perhaps not to Donald Trump.

VAUSE: Very quickly, Clinton responded to Trump's speech. Listen to some of what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance.

In fact, in fact, he doubled down on being the king of debt. So all he can do is try to distract us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Very quickly, I thought what was notable was that she didn't make a pivot to the center. The speech could have been a Bernie Sanders speech.

MOHTA: Absolutely and she talked about how she was a progressive but she would get things done. This is exactly what we are hearing from her in the primary. This is not a general election message. But I think she thinks it will work in a general election. BROWNSTEIN: Trump's strongest ground is I am the outsider. She is the insider. She is bought and paid for by the system. You know, a lot of different personal attributes she leads him. The one where he consistently leads her in polls bring change to Washington and any day he can talk about I'm going to shake up the system and she's just going to perpetuate it -- that's a better day for Donald Trump than accusing the judge of being unfair because he is quote, "a Mexican".

VAUSE: Ok -- Ron and Sooma.

WALKER: We have to leave it there. Good to have you guys. Thanks for having time.

MOHTA: Thank you.

WALKER: We'll pick it up from there. Thanks so much.

VAUSE: Something is happening right now in Washington. It's really unprecedented. Democrats in the House of Representatives say they plan to spend the night in the House chamber unless they get a vote on gun control legislation.

WALKER: The Democrat sit-in started on Wednesday morning. Shortly after it began, the House Speaker declared the chamber in recess. Cameras were turned off. But members of the House used their phones to stream the protest live. Republicans say it is a publicity stunt and they do not plan to give in.

Let's turn now to CNN's Manu Raju who's joining us now on the line from Washington. Really extraordinary scenes playing out there on the floor of the House Chamber -- Manu, what can you tell us the latest is right now?

MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (via telephone): Yes, that's right. What it is, is that Republicans are not giving in to the Democratic demand to have any sort of vote to propel gun laws. What Republicans are doing actually right now is pushing through their regular legislative business, trying to get through basic tasks that they have before them. They have absolutely nothing to do with guns, and they're moving forward.

What has been remarkable is the theatrics and the raucous atmosphere on the floor of the House of Representatives. You know, when Speaker Paul Ryan tried to gavel the house into session at about 10:00 p.m. tonight, after the House Democrats had essentially hijacked the house floor for about 10 hours and shut down legislative business, Ryan came in, tried to gavel the House into session and at that point, Democrats shouted down Ryan, chanting, screaming, yelling, trying to say "shame, shame, shame", chanting "no bill, no break".

A very, very chaotic scene on the floor, and Paul Ryan essentially ignored that. So went around with his business, pushed forward with a vote that he planned to have, and just essentially ignored Democratic demands. Now that just further enraged Democrats.

There was a major shouting match on the Floor of the House afterwards between a Texas congressman, Louie Gohmert, a Republican and a Democratic congressman from Florida, Corinne Brown who really got at it over the issue.

And so what we're a waiting for now is another series of votes that House Republicans are trying to push forward as they try to jam through the rest of their week's business so they don't have to continue this any longer.

[00:19:58] The big question guys is how long will House Democrats keep and stay on the house floor? They're saying they're going to stay through the night. What will they do after the lights turn out? That's the big question around here.

VAUSE: But Manu, very quickly this escalation by the Democrats just didn't come out of nowhere. They have been trying, you know, a number of times over the last week or so to get a vote on, you know, what they call the "no fly/no buy bill".

RAJU: Yes. That's right. I mean this is essentially a bill that would prevent suspected terrorists from getting guns. And in the Senate, there were actually several of those that did happen earlier this week. They all failed.

And the reason why is, Republicans believe that these terrorists should not get guns. But they disagree with the bill that the Democrats have proposed and they disagree with the way it's structured.

And so, as a result, the two sides are sort of at loggerheads on this. And on the house side they do not want to move forward with this bill -- with the bill that the Democrats is pushing, which is the reason why you're seeing this outburst today -- guys.

WALKER: All right. The showdown pushes on. Manu Raju -- keep us posted. Thanks for that update from Washington.

VAUSE: Ok. You think politics in D.C. is nasty. Well, we go to Brazil next where it's turning nasty as well amid a massive corruption scandal. Secret recordings are now being revealed. You'll hear from a whistle blower who's been called a traitor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's weather time. I'm Pedram Javaheri on CNN Weather Watch right now.

Look at these thunderstorms. It has been a very loud morning across portions of the Great Lakes of the United States. In fact, 125 flights canceled across from Chicago and airports. And look at the line of thunderstorms that are producing lightning strikes. The latest ticker on this has brought more than 9,400 lightning strikes in a two-hour period across this region. So you know severe weather rolling through the area, of course.

Of course, there's a sharp air for some isolated tornados, have seen reports of nearly a dozen of them in an area that's about 100 kilometers across as the storm system pushes off to the East.

So we're watching this region. We're watching for some damaging winds around Indianapolis bound towards Cincinnati if your travel plans take you across this area. Then of course, as the storm migrates off to the east, the severe weather stress by the afternoon hours of Thursday with some day light there could be impacting areas of the mid-Atlantic states.

So here's how it looks like in the temperature department, around 23 in New York City. Winnipeg makes it up to the upper 20s. And not a bad day -- a little dreary at times. Get some showers into Vancouver Beach at 17 degrees there. The heat still baking towards the Chihuahua Desert coming in at 38 degrees there while Havana, Cuba should be in the lower 30s with scattered thunderstorms. And down towards South America we go over El Salvador, you have dry spots there along with La Paz. Temp in La Paz around 16 degrees. And how about some wintry conditions in the southern tip of our planet?

[00:24:56] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER: Welcome back, everyone.

We are less than seven weeks away from the Rio Olympics, and golfer Rory McIlroy says he will not complete in the games because of the Zika virus.

VAUSE: In a statement, the golf champion from Northern Ireland said quote, "Even though the risk of infection from the Zika virus is considered low, it is a risk nonetheless and a risk I'm unwilling to take."

WALKER: And Brazil is in the middle of an enormous political crisis. Suspended president Dilma Rousseff is facing impeachment.

VAUSE: And separately some politicians are fighting for their own political survival amid a massive corruption scandal.

Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As Brazil's house of cards crumbles, listen carefully. The people are listening aghast to their leaders, devouring each other with sleaze allegations.

The world listening too, wondering can this tiny clique really run an Olympic Games"? But above all, it's Brazil's elite who are listening in on each other -- secretly recording sometimes friends and allies, discussing alleged dealings in a bid to get the upper hand.

This is who it began with, former Senator Delcidio do Amaral was the country's former king maker. But he was first to fall because of a secret taping in a fancy hotel, allegedly arranging for someone's silence over corruption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my favorite place. WALSH: This is his brother's bar. And that's Eric Clapton's old

guitar behind him.

DELCIDIO DO AMARAL, FORMER BRAZIL SENATOR (through translator): The taping was a conversation with someone I'd known since childhood, a family friend. When I found out that I had been taped, it was a big shock for me.

WALSH: He took a plea deal to tell all for his freedom. And he says the house, including then President Rousseff came down.

You knew everything. And you still do.

DO AMARAL: Of course, you're right. I could have come forward earlier, I knew and I know a lot. My collaboration, if not the most important factor was close to that in the process of ousting President Dilma. After it, the government lost control of the situation.

WALSH: Indeed, they did. But then education minister secretly recorded discussing alleged payments for silence. The planning minister secretly recorded allegedly plotting to impede an investigation. He resigned.

And adviser to former President Lula secretly recorded calling Amaral part of male genitalia. Where does it stop?

You yourself have been called a traitor, and there's been some very foul language used about you in some of these recordings. But have you yourself been shocked by the kind and the scale of the treachery in Brazil's elite?

DO AMARAL: This Delcidio is the most dangerous in the world, they say, because I knew too much. I'm not the person they're portraying. I really explained who was who and who did what. That's why they swear and they use the filthy language about my.

This Delcidio is a son of a --

WALSH: Brazil's elite sliding down the poll of public opinion together --

DO AMARAL: In Brazil, we have an expression, the stick that beats Chico also beats Francisco. It means if the conversation in which it was taped led me to prison and the loss of my political term, what about the others?

WALSH: Saint, sinners, kingmakers -- all live on -- even halos here are made of gold.

DO AMARAL: Politics is the only art in life in which you can resurrect more than once. You die, you're resurrected. You die, you're resurrected.

WALSH: Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Sao Paolo, Brazil.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALKER: Time to take a short break. When we return North Korea's attempt to manage its image and being in a propaganda blunder -- just ahead. What a film maker captured when the regime thought cameras were not rolling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:30] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm John Vause.

WALKER: And I'm Amara Walker. The headlines this hour.

Polls in the U.K. will open in about 90 minutes as voters decide whether the country should stay in the European Union. Campaigners on both sides of the Brexit referendum rallied for votes until the very last minute. An opinion poll suggests that the race is just too close to predict.

VAUSE: In Washington, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives are in the midst of a dramatic standoff. Democrats say they'll spend the night in the U.S. House chamber unless they get a vote on gun control legislation. The Republican House leader says the next round of votes will happen in the coming hour, though, he didn't say the gun control bill would be among those measures to be voted on.

WALKER: North Korea says it has conducted a successful test of a missile that travels 400 kilometers before it fell into the Sea of Japan. The state-run news agency did not specify when that missile was fired. But South Korean and U.S. officials reported that Pyongyang fired two intermediate-ranged missiles on Wednesday.

VAUSE: Meantime, North Korea, normally a master of propaganda, has suffered a bit of a setback.

WALKER: A documentary intended to positively promote the country has turned into a behind-the-scenes look at how North Korea manipulate appearances.

CNN's Brian Todd has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Kim Jong-Un's regime, it's seemed the ideal film project. It's called "Under the Sun", a profile of an 8-year-old girl named Jin-Mi, as she prepared to join the Korean Children's Union.

The North Koreans commissioned Russian film maker Vitali Mansky for the project, which they hoped would depict a worker's paradise. But tonight fallout. The project backfired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everybody stand up and loudly say, congratulations!

Can you say that? I won't say it again. TODD: A North Korean minder is felt, angrily coaching workers how to act during a scene filmed at a clothing factory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Why was your applause so weak?

TODD: The minder seemingly thought they weren't being recorded, but the director kept his camera rolling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Jin-Mi is sitting with straight legs.

Why are you sitting so funny? Like that. Sit like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They would come to the scene and would tell the people what they have to do, where they have to sit, how they have to sit, how they have to smile.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Try to say more. Let's do it. Don't forget to smile.

Smile! Everyone smile while your comrade is speaking.

TODD: And Jin-Mi's mother and others at a milk factory appear to do just that. At a dance class, Jin-Mi is driven to exhaustion and tears.

[00:35:10] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): More, Jin-Mi! Do you understand comrade Jin-Mi? Do you understand or not? So what should we do, Jin-Mi, if you can't even learn these steps?

TODD: In scene after scene, minders are shown prodding, scolding film subjects to be more zealous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When the teacher speaks, repeat after her. Yes, recover soon and stop eating.

Still too gloomy. Do it with more joy. You can do it more joyfully.

TODD: The producer says there was constant argument between the Director Mansky and his minders. The North Koreans eventually scuttled the project, kicked the director out of the country, but the North Korean government made one mistake. They didn't keep full control of his footage.

ROBERT BOYNTON, AUTHOR, "THE INVITATION-ONLY ZONE": I think the biggest fallout would be probably for certainly the people who negotiated and allowed Mansky to enter the country, and secondly to the minders who guided his crew. They might be in trouble.

TODD: At the end, Jin-Mi is asked what it means to join the Children's Union?

JIN-MI (through translator): Now you feel responsible for your mistakes, and you wonder what else you should do for the respected leader. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Stop her crying.

TODD (on-camera): We tried to get North Korean officials at the U.N. to respond to this documentary. We never heard back from them. But Jin Mi's mother has expressed her outrage in a North Korean government-run Web site saying, quote, "Is Mansky a human being? We thought he was making a documentary for the purpose of a friendly, cultural exchange. I had no idea that he would make my daughter the main character of his anti-North Korea movie."

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: We go to India now. Monsoon lightning strikes have killed at least 90 people across four different states.

One government official tells CNN, there has been more strikes than usual so far this season. Farmers usually look forward to those monsoon rains, especially now after two years of drought.

WALKER: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joining us now with more on this.

Hello, Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good to see you, Amara and John.

Yes, you know, when you think about this and what's happened, of course, in India in the last 24 or so hours, a lot has been researched about it, lightning strikes, especially an increased number of lightning strikes as you heard.

An Indian official touch on that. But estimations put it that with every one degree Celsius increase in temperatures, you have a 12 percent increase in lightning activity. You extrapolate that over towards the 2100. That would give you a 50 percent increase there in lightning activity just because of the heating of the atmosphere, more water vapor in the atmosphere.

Of course, if you take a look at this region of India, well-known for lightning frequency especially this time of year as we approach the heart of the monsoon season. And then you consider the population and what they do here for their livelihood.

A lot of deforestation are already in place. A lot of farmers on the order of 300 million are believed to be farmers across the Indian subcontinent. So if you're in the open area, you're the tallest object, you're the target for a strike point, and that's why it's such a deadly scenario across this region of India.

And you compare it to the United States. The United States on average, about 33 people per year lose their lives due to lightning strikes. In India, that number somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 people per year. Again, keep in mind, the population in the U.S., a little over 300 million, the farming population of India, 300 million.

So it kind of shows you when your livelihood puts you outdoor is you're in high risk there for lightning strikes, of course.

And you take a look. This is actually a radar perspective in the last couple of hours across the United States. I counted over 9400 lightning strikes across the Great Lakes region of the United States.

And one of the things that we certainly do not take for granted in the U.S. or any sort of western nation where you have a lot of information regarding lightning strikes, you know to get out of the water, you know to stay away from tall objects like trees that are isolated. That perhaps is something that, of course, people do not take into consideration in developing nations, places such as India.

Guys?

WALKER: All right. Pedram, appreciate that.

VAUSE: Pedram, thank you.

Still breaking, when we come back, a popular messaging app in Japan about to go public. What makes it different from its rivals? That's coming up next on NEWSROOM L.A.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:21] VAUSE: Well, Japan's popular messaging app, "Line," is on track for its IPO. The move could be the biggest tech offering of the year.

WALKER: "CNN Money" business correspondent Samuel Burke explains how it works.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN MONEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): There's nothing unusual about seeing a business journalist outside the New York Stock Exchange. But it is highly unusual to see one like this.

This is all part of "Line," a new generation of messaging apps, taking selfies to a whole other level.

It's a crowded space: Snapchat, WhatsApp and WeChat are also fighting it out to be the instant messaging king.

Line has a major advantage. It makes tons of money as the most popular messaging app in Japan with more than 200 million active monthly users.

MAX WOLFF, MANHATTAN VENTURE PARTNERS: The best way to start to explain it is it's a souped up version of what Snapchat is to teens in the U.S. but for a much wider age demographic in the Japanese speaking world. BURKE (voice-over): It's the games, phone and video calls and increasingly stickers that keep them coming back.

(on-camera): Line which will have dual listings, both in Tokyo and here at the New York Stock Exchange, is the first stand-alone messaging app to go public.

(voice-over): It will use that cash to expand its service way beyond traditional messaging.

WOLFF: People are used to sending money to these messaging apps. And there's artificial intelligence you can ask and get customer support to questions. There's E-commerce on these apps, so we actually think the messaging app for the platform of the future.

BURKE (on-camera): Critics are messaging concerns.

Line is way smaller than WhatApp's more than 1 billion user base. Line is banned in China and key market for messaging. And user growth outside of Line's main market is falling.

WOLFF: They've been stuck a little over 200 million monthly active users for quite some time and there's a question about how successful this and several other Japanese technology platforms that are outside Japan.

BURKE (voice-over): Those concerns will surely weigh on Wall Street as it tries to rebound from one of the slowest ever year for tech ideas.

A successful listing for Line, though, could make it into a tech super hero and entice other companies to go public as well.

Samuel Burke, CNN Money, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Pretty cool.

VAUSE: I thought it was terrifying, actually.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

WALKER: And I'm Amara Walker.

John and I will be back at the top of the hour with a look at today's top stories.

But first, "World Sports" starts right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(CNN WORLD SPORTS)