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Donald Trump Says He Will Meet With Mexico's President Ahead of Key Immigration Speech; U.S. Airstrike Targets Suspected Architect of Paris Terror Attacks. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 31, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Surprise announcement after months of bashing Mexico, Donald Trump says he will meet with the country's president ahead of a key immigration speech.
Taken out. A U.S. air strike targets the suspected architect of the Paris terror attacks. An ISIS statement says he was killed.
And back in trouble. Singer Chris Brown is arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after standoff with police. He says he is the victim.
Hello and welcome to our viewers all across the globe. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom.
He has spent the past year slamming Mexico on the campaign trail. Well, now Donald Trump will travel to Mexico City in the coming hours to meet with its President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump's meeting, which he announced just a few hours ago, will come before he delivers a long awaited speech Wednesday to clarify his views on immigration.
CNN's Phil Mattingly has more.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We knew Wednesday was going to be a big moment for Donald Trump's campaign, the highly anticipated, highly touted immigration policy speech that has been cancelled and rescheduled multiple times.
That schedule for Arizona, that is still schedule for Arizona, only that before Donald Trump makes the trip to Arizona to make that speech, he will be stopping in Mexico for a private meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Trump on Twitter just 90 seconds before he walk out on stage here in Everett, Washington confirming he will be making that trip, tweeting out, "I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico. And I look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow."
Now the president's office saying they send invitation to both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It will be a private meeting in Mexico City with Trump on Wednesday.
Again, this was not expected and this happened very, very fast. Inside the Trump campaign, there are really two camps here. One camp that's very worried about the idea of meeting with a foreign leader on such notice. But another one, camp that Donald Trump himself subscribed to was the acceptance that this was a bold move and a move designed to show that he can play at the highest heights of the world stage.
Donald Trump meeting with a foreign leader in that foreign leader's country, a foreign leader whose country Donald Trump's has taken no shortage of shots at over the course of his entire campaign. Not exactly what we expected but certainly something that's going to make tomorrow already a big day because of that immigration speech even bigger.
CHURCH: Well, meantime, Hillary Clinton's campaign is responding by saying, quote, "What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico. And whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions."
And in recent weeks, Donald Trump has been accused of flip-flopping his immigration policy. But on Tuesday, Trump's son told CNN his father's agenda has not changed one bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP JR., DONALD TRUMP'S SON: His policy has been the same for the last, you know, seven to eight months.
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 SHOW HOST: So, he still says deport -- they all got to go?
TRUMP JR: That's been the same. Correct. But again, you have to start with a, b, steps. You have to let ICE do their job. You have to eliminate the sanctuary cities. You have to get rid of the criminals certainly first and foremost, you have to secure the border. These are common sense things, Anderson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Now while Trump's son argues his father's position on immigration has not change. His comments over the past year show that's not exactly the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're illegal immigrants. They got to go to out. You're going to have a deportation force. And you're going to do it humanely.
We're going to be saying you have to go and there are certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people. We want people. We have some great people in this country.
They'll pay back taxes, they have to pay taxes. There's no amnesty as such. There's no amnesty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. TRUMP: I don't think it's a softening. I think it's...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But 11 million people are no longer could be deported.
TRUMP: I think I have people say it's a hardening actually.
COOPER: But 11 million who have not committed any crimes, there's going to be...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: No, no. We'll then going to see.
COOPER: There's going to be a path to legalization, is that right?
TRUMP: You know it's a process. You can't take 11 at one time and just say, boom, you're gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Trump's visit to Mexico maybe too little too late. Journalist and news anchor, Jorge Ramos says Trump will never get support from Latino voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JORGE RAMOS, AUTHOR & JOURNALIST: He already lost the Latino vote. He lost that vote on June 16th, 2015 when he said that Mexican immigrants were criminals and drug traffickers and rapists. When he said that he lost the Latino vote.
[03:04:58] I check the latest Univision poll on that he only have 19 percent who support among Latinos. Romney lost with 27 percent, John McCain lost with 31 percent. With 19 percent he's going to lose Florida, he's going to lose Arizona, he's going to lose Nevada. He can't win the White House without Latinos.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Joining me now to talk more about this is CNN political commentator, Ben Ferguson. Thanks for being with us.
BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.
CHURCH: So, Donald Trump heading to Mexico for this surprise private meeting with the president there Wednesday.
FERGUSON: Yes.
CHURCH: And just before Trump's major immigration speech. What impact could this have do you think on the issue and how risky might it be?
FERGUSON: Well, I think it's a smart move by him to go there. I also think this is Mexico trying to kind of limit the damage that may have been done by the comments by the President of Mexico about Donald Trump. Even implying that he was somehow like Hitler.
So, you can see that they're trying to say OK, look, let's put all this in the past, let's have a real discussion about immigration reform. Let's have a real discussion about your wall that you keep saying we're going to pay for.
And I think for Donald Trump for him to go down there and have this meeting, it also elevates him a little bit to show that he is a -- that other world leaders are looking at him as a real possibility for the White House. So, he should use this to his advantage and then he's going to give this immigration speech right afterwards in Arizona.
And I think what you'll see that you'll see Donald Trump come out and probably be a little bit more statesman like. Many have been saying he's going to soften his immigration reform. I wouldn't be surprise if you see that a little bit. But I can promise you the campaign and the surrogates around Donald Trump are not going to admit that he's softening on immigration at all.
CHURCH: Yes. And that's exactly what we heard. Because Donald Trump's son told CNN that Donald Trump will not be softening any of his immigration proposals. This, of course, despite Trump saying himself just days ago that he would do that. Why all the mixed messages on immigration just hours before, as you say, this big immigration speech and can he win back Hispanic voters with this?
FERGUSON: Well, I don't know if this is so much about winning back a large number of Hispanic voters. That many of them have made their minds up and either you love Donald Trump or you can't stand him. There's going to be a lot in between here.
What I do think this is, I think this is a little bit of what we call that general election pivot. Most candidates do it on certain issues to try to bring in a larger group of voters. And I think Donald Trump's stance during the primary was one that would not work well in the general election.
They opened him up to a lot of attacks by Hillary Clinton. If he can change or soften or be a little bit more compassionate on this, that it may not be such a liability when he goes into the debates with Hillary Clinton.
And I think this is one of those things about Donald Trump that I told people. I said, hey, he may tell you what you want to hear on the primary, but he will be different in the general election and this is just one of those examples of that.
CHURCH: Yes. And it will certainly be interesting to see what he does soften if he does that. I want to turn...
(CROSSTALK)
FERGUSON: FERGUSON: Well, and it's a...
CHURCH: Yes. FERGUSON: ... it's a calculated -- let me say it real quick. It's
calculated move. I mean, if you're voting for Donald Trump right now and you've been with him since the very beginning, you're not going to leave him and go to Hillary Clinton over this. So, I think it's a very calculated decision by the Trump campaign knowing that hey, some of my core may not be that happy with me but are they going to leave me over this issue? Probably not.
CHURCH: And you mentioned Hillary Clinton her campaign is preparing to deal with the imminent release of the FBI report on her e-mails.
FERGUSON: Yes.
CHURCH: What will be the likely fallout of that do you think this drip, drip, drip.
(CROSSTALK)
FERGUSON: Well, I think if you're Hillary Clinton's campaign you're really hoping that Donald Trump says something outrageous tomorrow so that it will keep you out of the headlines again. What you don't want is the focus of what the FBI is going to say and what these 1,400 plus e-mails and many of these e-mails that actually did deal with some of the issues that she does not want to talk about.
We found out that some of these e-mails are going to deal with the issue of Benghazi that were deleted. So, the more that this continues to drip out, the longer this goes along, it more than it really hurts her on that core issue.
She's had a problem with democratic voters, not republicans since day one of the primaries. That's why Bernie Sanders did so well against her. It was the trust issue. Seventy percent of democrats in exit polls showed their number one concern with Hillary Clinton was honesty and trustworthiness.
And that was in the democratic primary. So, she has to be able to figure out how to make this, make amends and make people feel like OK, maybe we can trust you again. Otherwise, that is her Achilles' heel in this election.
CHURCH: All right. Ben Ferguson, always a pleasure to chat with you. Thanks so much.
FERGUSON: Thank for having me.
CHURCH: All right, happening right now, I want to bring you these live pictures about 700 more migrants arriving in Sicily, Italy after being rescued at sea. Now they are the latest among nearly 7,000 who have been intercepted on the Mediterranean in the last few days.
Authorities say most of the recent migrants are from African nations and they are making an especially dangerous journey from Libya to Italy. Authorities say more than 3,100 have died on that particular route this year.
[03:10:02] We'll continue to monitor that story.
Well, the man known as the public face of ISIS has been killed according to the terror group. It says Abu Muhammad al-Adnani died in Syria on Tuesday and it vows revenge.
A coalition air strike targeted Adnani but U.S. officials have not confirmed his death. Adnani was a key figure within ISIS.
And as Jim Sciutto explains a huge loss for the militants.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN'S CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani has been one of the most public and threatening leaders of ISIS. Chief spokesman and involve with its unit plotting terror attacks against the west, now reported dead by the terror group.
The ISIS statement appearing online saying Adnani, quote, "Was murdered while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo."
ISIS offering no other proof and western officials have not confirmed his death. Still a senior U.S. defense official says a coalition air strike Tuesday targeted a senior ISIS leader near Aleppo. The U.S. has offered a $5 million reward for his death or capture.
Adnani is widely believed to be involved in inspiring and directing attacks in the west, like those that have terrorized Europe recently. Thought to be a possible successor to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, he also brought in foreign fighters to the battles in Syria and Iraq.
The top U.S. general fighting ISIS says ISIS's leadership may be losing its influence as evidence in a recent battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH VOTEL, UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND COMMANDER: Some of what we saw in the Manbij fight was direction from Baghdadi to his fighters to fight to the death. Obviously they didn't, so they didn't follow his direction which maybe an indication of the state of ISIL and release in some cases here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Adnani's official title was spokesman and he did advertise some of ISIS's most brutal acts of violence. But he was more than that. He was a senior leader. He directed many of its operations, foreign operations, terror attacks in Europe and to replace him effectively will be very difficult for the group.
Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.
CHURCH: And for more on what this could mean in the fight against ISIS, I want to bring in CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank. He is live in London. Paul, thanks so much for joining us. So, what impact will the killing of Adnani likely have on ISIS and how easy will it be for him to be replaced, do you think?
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Rosemary, this is an enormous breakthrough in the war against ISIS. Adnani was one of the top leaders of the organization, a key deputy to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader. He had command responsibility for the organization's external attack plotting, the attacks in the west, in Europe.
He's believed to have authorized, for example, the Paris attacks, the Brussels attacks and also had a role in those attacks at Istanbul airport. So, this is a key figure for them. He'll be very, very difficult to replace. He really was the public voice of ISIS.
And when they declared their caliphate in the summer of 2014, it was he who first made that announcement just a few days before Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared in the mosque in Mosul as the new leader of this so-called caliphate.
He's been somebody that has inspired a wave of ISIS-inspired terrorism around the western world on both sides of the Atlantic including what was calling for attacks on just about anybody, anywhere, anyhow by guns, knives, automobiles.
We saw him put out one of those calls just before the Orlando shootings this summer also believed to have help inspire that Nice attack which, after all, was a truck attack in that city. So, because of his death, people in the western world will be safer in the median to long term but there's real concern that ISIS may retaliate.
They've said that they're going to do that and they may accelerate attack plotting. And after all these ISIS fighters that have been sent back to the west that have spread out internationally, ultimately they answered to him. So, a lot of concern about that this morning.
CHURCH: Yes. Most definitely that. And we'll talk a little more on that. But I do want to ask, of course as we mentioned, the west has not confirmed Adnani's death but it appears ISIS wanted to make that announcement first. How unusual is that and what's the significance of ISIS publicizing his death before the U.S. is able to do it?
[03:14:57] CRUICKSHANK: Well, I think it was unusual how quickly that they announced this really out of the blue yesterday before the United States managed to make any kind of conformation or announcement of their own. This may have been an attempt by ISIS to control the narrative, control the message to depict him as a martyr to take positives from the fact that, according to them, he was going off to paradise.
This is a time when ISIS is under significant pressure in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and so all the more need for them to be able to control this narrative to be able to project a sense that things are under control over there and that the bottom is not falling out of this caliphate.
CHURCH: And, Paul, as you mentioned, ISIS has threatened revenge for the killing of Adnani. How big a concern should that be? You mentioned that his demise should mean the people are safer, but would it mean that?
CRUICKSHANK: I think in the median is a long time at any time you take out the driving force behind ISIS's international attack planning, that that is going to a big positive in terms of all our safety frankly here in the west.
But as I said in the short term, there is concern that some of ISIS's attack plotting may be accelerated. I've been speaking to official here in Europe, they are very, very concerned about the ISIS threat. They say that they are continuously discovering ISIS fighters, operatives back in Europe.
There's real concern, for example, here in the U.K. that ISIS is trying to infiltrate operatives into the country. So far they've not been successful in launching any kind of plot. But there's been intelligence this summer of ISIS attempting to do this. ISIS trying to hit other countries in Europe after its successful launch attacks in Paris and in Brussels.
CHURCH: All right. Terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank joining us there live from London, where it is just after 8.15 in the morning. Many thanks to you for your analysis.
We'll take a very short break here. But still to come, South Korea says a bad attitude got a member of Kim Jong-un's government killed. The details just ahead in a live report.
Apple bites back after European lawmakers demand the tech giant hand over $14 billion in unpaid taxes. We will bring you the latest on the fallout. Back in a moment.
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[03:20:00] (TECHNICAL PROBLEM)
KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Mustafi last played at Valencia and will fill the center back role.
Manchester City did a lot of their business in advance of transfer and deadline date but the upcoming Manchester derby may not feature one of city's most prolific strikers who could be facing a three-match ban.
Sergio Aguero has been fined by the FA with violent conduct after elbowing West Ham's Winston Reid on Sunday. And FA panel decided that it was a deliberate attempt to hurt his opponent. And the forward has until late on Wednesday to reply to the charge.
And England's cricket team set a new bar for inning scored in a one- day international facing Pakistan, England racked up a remarkable 444 runs, that's one more than the record set by Sri Lanka a decade ago.
And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.
CHURCH: North Korea has executed its top education official by firing squad. A South Korean government official tell CNN the man was branded a counterrevolutionary member for having a bad attitude during a government assembly in June.
Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul, South Korea with more on this. And, Paula, very disturbing. What more are you learning about this execution of the top education official? What could he possibly have done to constitute such bad attitude to end like this?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, he's called Kim Yong Jin, he was the top education official. According to a South Korean government official, as you say he showed a bad attitude, a poor posture was the exact words during that key meeting, the supreme people's assembly in June.
He was then investigated, according to the South Korean official by the state security bureau and that is when they decided that he was anti-party and he was counterrevolutionary, so that in July, just last month he was executed by firing squad.
Also this same government official here in Seoul says that two other high ranking officials were reprimanded for their behavior. There was one man who is the head of the department that deals an inter-Korean relation, Kim Yong Chow, he was accused of abusive power being overbearing and also trying to strengthen his own authority.
He was apparently sent to a farm for re-education between mid-July and mid-August. Another man as well who was in the propaganda department sent away for re-education. So, clearly, the crimes or the perceived crimes by those two men not as serious as the first.
Now I should caution, North Korea has not confirmed any of this. They have not mentioned any of this. Very rarely do they confirm executions themselves and South Korean officials have been wrong in the past but this is the information that we have here.
CHURCH: All right. Our Paula Hancocks joining us there live from Seoul in South Korea. Many thanks to you.
Let's turn to the weather now. And an unusual one-two punch of hurricanes aimed directly at the Hawaiian Islands this hour.
Our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now to talk about this. We thought when we spoke yesterday they might miss the land. It's still possible that they will.
(CROSSTALK)
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's still possible. Absolutely. You know, it's incredible because I just run the numbers. The Pacific Ocean is the largest body of water in our planet. The Hawaiian Islands in relation to the Pacific Ocean are about 10,000 times smaller than that ocean. So, there's a lot of water very little land there to be struck. At least it's very unusual for Hawaii to be struck.
And I want to show you this, Rosemary, because since 1959, five and a half or so decades of recordkeeping for storms in Hawaii, only 14 named storms have even come within 100 kilometers of the island. Only four named storms have actually impacted the Hawaiian Islands. You notice a couple of tropical storms in recent years. And only two
hurricanes have impacted the Hawaiian Islands. Iniki the most recently in 1992. And the reason for all of this as you take a look, we have very warm waters where the storms originate from and where they're heading towards the islands that actually is cooler waters.
Upstairs there is storm winds here cutting away at the top of the storms and across the northern portion of the storm, there's dry air coming. All of them are essentially a hurricane graveyard. Now if you take a look at what's happening here the tropical activity in Madeline that is a category 3 hurricane, in Lester, a category 4 hurricanes.
[03:24:59] Again, the general direction but want to take very close to the islands. In fact, the National Hurricane Center already issuing hurricane warnings for the Big Island and the Island of Maui sitting in place with a tropical storm watch at this hours a well.
So, here's the initial indication on what we think will happen with Madeline, the first storm. At this point we think it will drop to a category one sometime Wednesday night to say Thursday morning. And it could actually skirt as a category one to southern tier of the Big Island.
If that happens at the first time in recorded history a hurricane makes landfall across the Big Island of Hawaii. And then you notice what's happening with this other storms, that's being Lester, a category four also goes through the same weakening process we expect because of those elements we just touched on.
In this particular storm takes more of a northerly track and that would put places like the northern tip of the Big Island also say, Maui onto Oahu and Hawaii in the threat zone as well. That would be Saturday afternoon into Saturday night. That again would be a category 1 potential. And this would be impressive.
And you take a look at the model depiction, high concentration of models wanting to take it just north of the islands, a couple of them I think very close to Honolulu and a couple of them bring it farther south.
So, again, there is some discrepancy at this point with how far out the storm system is but it's rather unusual to see them come so close and wave heights could be very impressive with the storm system around the northern portion of the islands. Up to 30 feet high above waters, just a 100 miles or so off shore. So, it could be a very dangerous storm considering it's a busy time of year across that area right now.
CHURCH: Good to have the heads up there. Thank you so much, Pedram. I appreciate it.
Well, still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, Washington and Brussels lock horns after European officials demand billions of dollars in unpaid tax from the world's most valuable public company.
Plus, Cuba is preparing for even more visitors as the U.S. is about to restore flight service to and from the island nation. We'll explain. Stay with us.
[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: And a warm welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you now on the stories we've been following this hour.
Donald Trump has spent months slamming Mexico, saying its sending criminals across the border into the U.S. Now he will be meeting with the country's president in Mexico. It's set to happen before Trump delivers a speech on his immigration policy Wednesday.
President Enrique Pena Nieto also invited Hillary Clinton to a meeting but it's not clear if that will happen.
ISIS says its spokesman and key leader, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was killed Tuesday in Syria but has not said how. The terror group vows revenge. Adnani had called for attacks on countries launching air strikes against ISIS. The U.S. admits targeted -- targeting him in a strike but has not confirmed his death.
You are looking at live pictures of about 700 migrants arriving in Sicily, Italy, after being rescued on the Mediterranean Sea. In the past few days, an unprecedented number of migrants, as many as 10,000 have been rescued. They had been making the dangerous journey from Libya to Italy.
As Apple prepares to launch its highly anticipated iPhone 7, there's much more at stake for the company than the success or failure of its latest product. The European Commission has demanded that the tech giant hand over billions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
CNN Money Samuel Burke explains.
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Imagine getting slapped with a bill for $14.6 billion in back taxes? That's exactly what happened to Apple today. But don't feel too bad for them. We found out they've only been paying 0.005 percent on their effective corporate tax rate.
Here's how this all happen. Apple is an American company but they've had offices in Ireland for quite some time and that's where they have to pay taxes on much of their international profit. Now, most companies in Ireland are supposed to pay what's called a signature tax of about 12.5 percent.
But today, the European Commission revealed that Apple has been paying way less. Some people thought they were paying just about 2 percent. It turns out in years like 2003, Apple was paying just 1 percent. And in 2014, just 0.005 percent.
Now, all along, Apple has said this is what Ireland told us we had to pay. And Ireland has always agreed. They've said this is how the tax structure is set up in our country. Today, the European Union said sorry, our laws supersede Ireland's laws and not only does Apple owe $14.6 billion in back taxes, they're also going to have to pay interest on that.
Ireland doesn't want to collect that money because they don't want to lose Apple's investment and the thousands of people that Apple employ in that country and they don't want to lose money from the other corporations that have flocked there for the low corporate taxes.
Other countries in the E.U. like Netherlands and Luxembourg also have similar deals and they don't want to lose out on the tax money they're collecting. The United States also doesn't want to see Apple hand over all that money to the Irish government. That's because the United States have a policy of giving companies a tax credit any time they have to pay a foreign government a big tax like this.
So, this could create a huge dent in the American federal budget. And you're probably not surprised that Apple doesn't want to pay that either, even though they have plenty of cash on hand to cover it.
Apple came out with a statement today saying, "The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple's history in Europe, ignore Ireland's tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process."
"The Commission's case is not about how much Apple pays n taxes. It is about which government collects the money. It will have a profound and harmful effect on investment and job creation in Europe."
The commissioner for competition in the E.U. summed up their view pretty simply. "Member states cannot give tax breaks to selected companies. This is illegal under E.U. state aid rules."
Apple and Ireland are both state that they are appealing this decision. And even though Ireland may end up with a lot more cash on the books than they had expected, long-term, many people think that this could hurt Europe. Corporations could go to other countries in places like the Caribbean, Middle East and Far East where they pay even less corporate taxes.
[03:35:01] CHURCH: Samuel Burke with that report.
Well the U.S. government is firing back at the E.U.'s ruling. The Obama administration says it will fight for American taxpayers and businesses overseas when they're being treated unfairly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are concerned about a unilateral approach in state aid negotiations that threatened to undermine progress that we have made collaboratively with the Europeans to make the international taxation system fair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And British politician, Nigel Farage says the E.U. has over stepped its legal authority and that could affect future business deals in the Euro zone. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIGEL FARAGE, BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I suspect there will be a court case here that will go on for many, many years but the real kicker is this. That this is all retrospective and that sends a message to business that if invest within the European Union, if you're tax domicile within the European Union, the fact you've shaken hands with the government actually means nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: So, all of this has become something of a Trans-Atlantic battle and a hot political topic at a time when euro skeptic sentiment was already on the rise.
Joining me from London to talk about the fallout is Ludwig Siegele, technology editor at the Economist. Thank you so much for talking with us, sir. So, more than $14 billion to be paid in taxes. That is a lot of money. And the White House as we heard there saying the E.U. is treating U.S. companies unfairly. How is this likely to be resolved, do you think?
LUDWIG SIEGELE, THE ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY EDITOR: I mean, the big question of course is this the opening shot of Brussels going after a lot of American companies, big American companies and I think that is not the case. I mean, they picked Apple because Apple has been very, very creative in kind of -- I wouldn't say dodging taxes but optimizing its tax bill.
And Brussels says, OK, we'll go after that company. It has two other companies on its list, Starbucks and Amazon but these are smaller cases. So, I don't think this is kind of the opening shot for big tax bar.
The other question is how will the American government react? And will it retaliate? And there I'm also not sure whether it will really go after the E.U., the commission. And will kind of do what the Senate Finance Committee has said and double tax, for example, European companies.
CHURCH: OK. So, you mentioned there are some other companies, Starbucks included, that could actually they may go after them as well. But let's just go back to Apple for a moment, because when you're talking about $14.6 billion, a lot of money, you think that they will go after that full amount or is that sort of like a warning shot to say hey, this is really what you owe but we can perhaps resolve this with a smaller amount?
SIEGELE: I think this -- this is a warning shot. I mean, this is kind of the E.U. Commission's opening offer. It will be in appeal, it will take years to resolve it. So, I don't think Apple will pay $14.6 billion back to Europe or to the Irish government.
The other question of course, will the Irish government actually collect that money and we'll see about that. I mean, it has said it doesn't want that money, it's afraid that it won't get as much as foreign direct investment.
If it does, I mean, a technicality is that Apple I think has to put that money into Escrow, even before appeal. So, we'll see about it. I mean, but bottom line is I do not think that Apple will pay 14.6 billion in back taxes.
CHURCH: All right. Another point of course, Apple provides what, one and a half million jobs across Europe. How might these jobs be under threat if these back taxes need to be paid, they're in full or maybe even a small portion of 14.6 billion? It's going to be a lot of money, isn't it?
SIEGELE: I think in short-term, it's not going to have much impact. I mean, Apple wants to sell its stuff in Europe. They need people here. But in the long-term, of course, that may mean that Apple is e not going to invest as much in Europe or in Ireland and other American companies or the big multinational companies will not invest as much.
But I won't overestimate the impact. I think this is -- this is big negotiation over who's going to get this big stash of cash, which is floating around in the financial ether the cash or the profits earned by American, big American companies, mostly tech companies, $2 trillion.
And the question is who is going to get that money? Is it Europe partially leased or is it the American treasury? That's the big negotiation here and we'll see how that's going to play out.
CHURCH: Indeed. We will watch this very closely. Ludwig Siegele talking to us there from London. It is 8.40 in the morning. Thank you very much for joining us.
SIEGELE: Thanks.
CHURCH: I appreciate it.
Well, commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba are cleared for takeoff for the first time in more than 50 years but the island nation is already struggling with a boom of visitors. That story next on CNN Newsroom.
[03:40:00] Plus, Chris Brown is back in police custody. What the singer is accused of this time. Still to come.
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CHURCH: The impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is entering its final stage. The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to remove her from office. Ms. Rousseff is accused of doctoring the budget to hide a shortfall. She testified Monday saying she never committed any crime.
Meanwhile, homeless workers in Sao Paulo held a day of protest against the impeachment trial. If Ms. Rousseff is ousted, acting President Michel Temer would finish out her term. Well, in just a few hours, a JetBlue flight from Florida will touch
down in Cuba. It will be the first commercial flight between the U.S. and Cuba in more than 50 years.
As Patrick Oppmann reports, the island nation is already seeing a surge in American visitors.
PATRICK OPPMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Havana's colonial old town is full of music. And increasingly visitors from the United States.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an official newspaper of the Cuban communist party.
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OPPMANN: Just two years ago, Americans visiting Cuba without special permission from the U.S. government faced the prospect of hefty fines and even prosecution.
But U.S.-Cuban relations and loosening of restrictions on travel to the communist-run island has led to a surge in U.S. visitors. Up 93 percent from last year, according to Cuban government figures.
Many American say they want to see Cuba while the island remains stuck in a Cold War time warp.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our friends had been here, and so, they said, let's go, why don't you go to Cuba before it becomes too westernized.
OPPMANN: Too westernized?
[03:45:01] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Before you see McDonald's and Wal-Mart and all of the other U.S. companies here in Cuba.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPMANN: Cuba's largely state-run tourism industry is already buckling amid increased demand.
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TOM PEPPER, INSIGHT CUBA PRESIDENT: The hotels are full. The infrastructure wasn't ready for the avalanche of the interest, whether it's American travelers, Chinese travelers, Canadian travellers.
Cuba is building their infrastructure up. They have plans over the next four or five years to add many additional hotels. So, we just advice people to plan ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPMANN: Tourism will likely continue to boom. Soon it will be much easier for Americans to fly to the island. Up until now the only way that Americans could come to Cuba was via third countries or on expensive, inefficiently run charter services.
But that's all changing now that direct flight service is being restored between the U.S. and Cuba after more than 50 years. The first direct flight will land here in Santa Clara, Cuba where revolutionary icon Che Guevara is buried.
Even though he was tracked down and killed with help from the CIA, Cuban officials say Guevara would have agreed with the opening to the U.S.
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JOSEFINA VIDAL, CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: So I would say that he was not different from us. Thinking that even with the kind of differences that we have, it's beneficial for Cuba and the United States to have normal relations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPMANN: Benefits that can be seen on Havana streets already packed with U.S. visitors.
As Cuba's economy continues to struggle, the boom in U.S. visitors is a rare bright spot that is only expected to grow.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana, Cuba.
CHURCH: And Patrick also has handy travel tips if you're thinking of visiting Cuba in the near future, just check out the video at cnn.com.
Well, he is arguably as famous for his bad behavior as he is for his music. And singer Chris Brown has been arrested once again. We will explain why. That's next on CNN Newsroom.
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JAVAHERI: The active tropics still the big story around parts of the Atlantic and also the Gulf of Mexico still looking at tropical depressions 8 and 9. And Gaston remaining a fish storm as it's over the open water.
And notice we have hurricane watches now posted anywhere from say Panama City where it's a tropical storm watch to them becoming a hurricane watch towards Cedar Key just north of Tampa, Florida. All of this because of Tropical Depression Nine still just on the cusp here of becoming what would be Tropical Storm Hermine. Winds up to get to about 66 kilometers per hour, sitting about 6 kilometer shy of that at this hour.
Expect it to strengthen and move in sometime Thursday afternoon and Thursday night. And rainfall is going to be the primary threat with this. And some areas could easily pick up about a quarter of a meter of rainfall out of this over the next couple days. How about Tropical Depression Eight, this could become in and watching
this very carefully because this also sits there shy of tropical storm status. But notice it will eventually want to parallel the eastern seaboard and puts out the Canadian Maritimes and move out over the open waters. So, just a brief impact when it does make an impact.
Now, what could have a potentially larger impact are going to be hurricanes Madeleine and also Lester. I'm more concerned about Lester and we'll talk about why. Because Madeline will actually skirt the southern tier of the Big Island Wednesday night. And Lester could come in as a category 2, the latest indications it will be pretty close to areas around Maui and also the Big Island by Saturday.
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CHURCH: Chris Brown is embroiled in controversy once again. The R&B singer has been arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. LAPD officers first responded to a complaint from a female caller at 3 a.m. and waited several hours to obtain a warrant. During that time, Brown made his side of the story known to the world on social media.
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CHRIS BROWN, R&B SINGER: I don't care. You all going to stop playing with me like I'm the villain out here like I'm going crazy. I'm not. Go look, when you get the warrant, whatever you need then you go to walk right up in here and you're going to see nothing, you idiots. I'm tired of dealing (muted) with you all. The worst gang in the world, the police.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: OK. So, a standoff with officers followed this outburst and you can probably make out some animated exchanges in these pictures and you may recall that Brown has been in trouble with the law before. He was convicted of assaulting former girlfriend, Rihanna and served jail time for violating his probation.
Police confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the singer could face yet more serious charges.
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CHRIS RAMIREZ, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT OFFICER: Mr. Chris Brown will be transported by our detectives to robbery homicide division where he is going to be booked for a DWI assault with a deadly weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Joining me now to talk more about this is entertainment journalist, Holland Reid. Thank you so much for talking with us here in the studio.
HOLLAND REID, ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So, what is going on with Chris Brown? So, we learned that he's been arrested...
REID: Yes.
CHURCH: ... for assault with a deadly weapon?
REID: Yes.
CHURCH: He says he didn't do anything. He's being cast as a villain by the police and the media.
REID: Right.
CHURCH: What is happening here?
REID: This we know that Chris Brown is no stranger to allegations such as this unfortunately. So, now we have a situation where a young lady in his home was allegedly asked to leave. She then I guess began to leave at some point touched his jewelry. Asked to leave his jewelry alone.
Chris Brown got upset, waved a gun in her face and then she then, I guess, called police called TMZ, and now all of this has come to light. So, I guess with the assault charges because he did have a gun and waved it in her face, even though I don't know if there was an attempt to actually do bodily harm, that's where the police showed up, got the warrant, search his home, did find weapons.
I guess at this point they're also reporting that there was drugs, there were drugs there as well. So, he is going to be in quite a bit of a pickle here...
CHURCH: Right.
REID: ... moving forward if all these allegations do come out to be true.
CHURCH: And just after this incident and before he was arrested, he posted three videos on his social media account.
REID: Yes.
CHURCH: And in one of them he railed against the police and he said, you know, I call the police when there's a stalker and nobody comes where they do it the next day, but, you know, when someone makes allegations like this against me, they're there on mass.
REID: Right.
CHURCH: Does that, is that argument for him got a hold any water these days?
REID: You know, at this point, if there was a gun and there were drugs found in his home in a situation like this, I think that only hurt his case at this point. He not only is completely being disrespectful to law enforcement who are there, you know, are going to be the ones at the end who probably testify in front of a judge where he's no stranger to having these issues with police and saying these things against police and having assault charges him being found guilty of in the past.
CHURCH: Yes.
REID: So, going on social media at this point after a situation like this was probably the absolute worst thing he could have done.
CHURCH: His attack on then girlfriend...
REID: Yes.
CHURCH: ... Rihanna back in 2009.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Lots of control of his temper.
CHURCH: Exactly. Going to jail for three months in 2014.
(CROSSTALK)
REID: Yes. Going to jail, yes.
CHURCH: And this is the thing. The timing of this is interesting because of course, Rihanna is at the top of her career right now. We saw at the MTV Video Music Awards.
REID: Right.
CHURCH: At the same time, where is he with his career?
[03:55:01] REID: Well, I mean, he, and to go back just one step he just came off of probation two years ago. So, he, we thought he was coming back. I actually saw him perform. He was fantastic. Let's not say he's an undeniably a fantastic singer and a wonderful performer.
His personal issues a whole other story. Rihanna, yes, just won the Avant-Garte Music Award and Drake comes out professes his love for her. So, you know, let's say the conspiracy theory would be maybe he's feeling some type of way, we don't know.
We know he's a very emotional person, he's a very emotional artist and he wears it on his sleeve. Twitter is ablaze. Definitely invoking that saying that maybe he was still upset because of what happened, you know, on Sunday night at the awards.
CHURCH: All right. We'll be watching the story very close. Holland Reid, it was great to chat with you.
REID: Yes. Thank you. Wish it was on better terms.
CHURCH: Totally. All right. I want to check back now as about 700 more migrants are arriving in Italy after being rescued at sea. They are the latest among more than 9,000 who have been intercepted on the Mediterranean in the last few days. Authorities say most of the recent migrants are from African nations
and they are making an especially dangerous journey from Libya to Italy.
Keeping a close eye on that story. And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on twitter @rosemarycnn. And there is more news after the break with our Max Foster in London.
Have a great day.
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