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Secret Communications with the Russians; German Foreign Minister Slams Trump; New Images of Manchester Attacker; Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn Face TV Grilling; Tiger Woods Speaks out on his DUI Arrest. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 30, 2017 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:08] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour --

Secret communications with the Russians -- The Trump administration calling alleged back channel efforts by Jared Kushner normal and acceptable.

VAUSE: Kim Jong-Un oversees his third missile launch in three weeks as the U.S. Defense Secretary warns a conflict with North Korea would be catastrophic.

SESAY: And Tiger Woods responds to his DUI arrest saying it wasn't alcohol that made his eyes look like this.

VAUSE: What about the hair and everything else?

Welcome, everybody -- great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay.

NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

VAUSE: Donald Trump's son-in-law is reportedly unfazed by the recent scrutiny of his contacts with Russia and says he is focused on his role as a senior adviser to the President. A White House official tells CNN Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka understand that their positions come with a certain level of attention.

SESAY: President Trump tells the "New York Times" he thinks Kushner is, quote, "doing a great job for the country," and he has total confidence in him.

CNN's Jim Sciutto has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Tonight the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner is the subject of intense scrutiny after a source tells CNN that he requested back channel communications with the Kremlin. This happened last December when Kushner met with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. during the transition. Now some Democrats are challenging Kushner's role in the White House.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I do think there ought to be a review of his security clearance to find out whether he was truthful, whether he was candid. If not, then there is no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance.

SCIUTTO: According to the "Washington Post", Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak told his superiors that Kushner wanted to use Russian diplomatic facilities for an off the record communication system to evade U.S. intelligence monitoring, a move that even Kislyak thought was risky.

Sources tell CNN that Kushner sought the secure channel for him and now-former national security adviser Michael Flynn to discuss military operations in Syria and other matters with Russian military officials.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller, the man now leading the investigation into whether Trump's campaign associates colluded with Russia, spoke at his granddaughter's commencement today where he urged students never to sacrifice their integrity.

ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: If you are not honest, your reputation will suffer. And once lost, a good reputation can never, ever be regained.

SCIUTTO: His first public speech since his appointment. But other the weekend, others in the intelligence community raised the alarm. Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden called Kushner's back channel unprecedented.

MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA AND NSA DIRECTOR: This is off the map -- Michael. I know of no other experience like this in our history.

SCIUTTO: Former DNI James Clapper raised similar concerns.

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: My dashboard warning light was clearly on. And I think that was the case with all us in the intelligence community.

SCIUTTO: Homeland Security Secretary Retired General John Kelley however, called such clandestine communications perfectly normal.

GEN. JOHN KELLY (RET), HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's both normal in my opinion and acceptable. Any way that you can communicate with people, particularly organizations that are maybe not particularly friendly to us is a good thing.

SCIUTTO: For Jared Kushner, new contacts with Russia keep surfacing. In addition to the December meeting with Kislyak, Reuters reports that Kushner had several previously undisclosed communications with the Russian ambassador, including two phone calls prior to the election last November. In response, Kushner's lawyer tells CNN, quote, "Mr. Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period. He has no recollection of the calls as described."

Jim Sciutto, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining us now for more on this, California talk radio host Ethan Bearman and California Republican National Committee man Shawn Steel.

Shawn -- first to you, if all of this surrounding Kushner, regardless of whether it's true or not, but the controversy if it continues to swirl, it all gets too hot to handle and he is no longer able to maintain his role in the White House; given how much President Trump relies on Jared Kushner for pretty much everything, what are the consequences for the presidency and this administration?

SHAWN STEEL, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think this is just the latest fabrication of the week. It's grossly exaggerated. It's the same usual scenario.

There are no sources that have been identified. There is no documentation. It's just the flavor of the week. A new way to attack --

VAUSE: But they're not denying this report. No one has come out and say it did not happen.

STEEL: Well, actually there is a pushback that just came out just in the last couple of hours saying it was the Russians that actually suggested a back channel. That's been widely dispersed. They'll probably have it on the air in a couple of hours here. And so this goes back and forth. We're looking forward to seeing some real progress taking place.

[00:05:00] But we have a situation where the Harvard study from the Shorenstein Media Center points out that 93 percent of all the news since Trump has become president has been negative across the board. And that basically there is a problem with the media. So any time there seems to be a little tiny problem it turns out to be a huge mushroom of issues.

VAUSE: Two things that story about the Russians suggesting Kushner use their communication came from Fox News. We looked at it. We're not reporting it just yet because it doesn't match --

STEEL: I wasn't going to mention that but --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: And then the fact that it's been 93 percent negative news could also indicate that it's been 93 percent of negative issues coming out of the White House.

STEEL: Unlikely.

VAUSE: Ok. SESAY: Ethan, you hear what Shawn has to say. He is discounting this. He is saying it's gross exaggeration -- blah, blah, blah. Do you think Democrats are right to ask for Kushner's security clearance to be reviewed?

ETHAN BEARMAN, RADIO HOST: I think there is no question at this point because we have a series of security clearance forms that were filled out incorrectly with facts missing, certain omissions that are very important for clearances.

I think Kushner needs to be reviewed at this point. Going to the Russians and saying hey, let's use your facilities to have secret communications. That's almost as bad as the President himself bringing the Russians right into the Oval Office and leaving out the American media.

VAUSE: And Shawn, you know, when we do look at what's going on here, the meetings with the Russians and the security clearance forms and the meetings that have been omitted with the Russian ambassador, Jeff Sessions the Attorney General, Michael Flynn the fired national security adviser, Jared Kushner -- all involving, you know, the Russian ambassador leaving these meetings off the security clearance forms. It does at least have the appearance that there is something not quite right.

STEEL: Again, we should get into the weeds and I will. The documentation that Ethan was talking about happens to be 129 pages. It's microscopic information that requires lots and lots of hours going through that and, you know, mistakes can be made.

But that's not even the big issue. The fundamental issue is this -- that information is coming out on a regular basis almost every day at 5:30 there is what we call an information dump with various leaks that we just saw in Manchester. So the leaks are coming out, but we're discovering that many of the leaks are themselves with fraudulent information.

This Jared thing is inconsequential and that's according to General Kelly, director of Homeland Security -- that's as good a source as you're going to get. Now, if you're going to laugh at General Kelly, then nothing is sacred.

BEARMAN: I do laugh at General Kelly because he is the one who's saying we need to be more worried about the southern boarder than anything else in the United States right now. And I absolutely disagree with him on that.

So yes, I can laugh when you say General Kelly said this about the Kushner meeting. No, there is absolutely information that needs to be investigated here. We need to get to the bottom of this. This is a series of stories that aren't ending.

SESAY: But let me -- to Shawn's point, you know, let's lay it out. What about the leaks? What about the way this information is coming out? Does that trouble you in any way? BEARMAN: It does a little bit. But let's talk about the difference

between a leak and a whistleblower. And I think that's what the Republicans are losing in all of this is the difference between a leak and a whistleblower. If there is something wrong going on, there has been lies being told, some laws being violated, rules being broken, that's called whistleblowing, not leaking.

So to blame everything on leakers and to say that that's what the problem is I think is the wrong approach.

VAUSE: Ok. I guess it depends on which party you're with.

Let's just move on because on Monday, the new French President Emmanuel Macron, he actually met with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Take a look at some of Melissa Bell's reporting.

(CROSSTALK)

STEEL: Any secrets?

VAUSE: Well, I don't think he did; in fact, quite the opposite. Listen to CNN's Melissa Bell reporting from Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was quite impressive to see him stand there by Vladimir Putin and so firmly take on a number of different issues. For instance, on the question of allegations of Russian interference in France's elections; Vladimir Putin batted them away.

Emmanuel Macron didn't really allow that, pointing out that he had already said what he had to say to Vladimir Putin on the matter when Vladimir Putin had congratulated him on his win. And that once he said something once, he didn't say it again.

Also, talking very clearly about the fact that he believes that certain Russian media outlets were not acting as ordinary press during his election campaign but as machines of propaganda. This was a man who did not mince his words in front of the --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So Shawn -- what are the chances that Donald Trump will take the same stance when he meets face-to-face with Vladimir Putin?

STEEL: You know, when that day happens, I don't think Putin is going to be talking to somebody he can roll over. Trump tells it like it is. His extremely successful tour in Europe, telling NATO something an American president hasn't told them in a long time that they're not paying their fair share. Talking to more Sunni --

SESAY: Actually, every American president in recent times has said that. STEEL: Well, not on that level. And talking to in Saudi Arabia for

one of the greatest defense deals ever made in American history that is going to give three generations of work for Americans.

[00:10:01] But not only that, talking about the truth that Obama could not possibly do -- that the Sunnis have to clean up their own house. And that includes the Wahhabi religion coming out of Saudi Arabia.

Look, we have two conversations here. Half the country doesn't believe anything that I say. And the other half of the country doesn't believe a smidgen of what Ethan says. Our job here is to try to communicate to the other side maybe a semblance of a little bit of information that might open the mind somewhat.

SESAY: You just talked about the President not being rolled over by Vladimir Putin. Ethan -- to you, that we are not clear still what this administration's policy is on Russia.

BEARMAN: We don't. And the worst part is we still don't have answers in terms of business deals, financial ties with Russia. We don't have any answers on any of this other than there is nothing to see here. Those are the answers we're getting from the White House.

And the concern I have is unlike Macron, who actually directly confronted Vladimir Putin, President Trump I assume will go up, give him a hug, you know, give him kisses on the cheek. They'll drink a little vodka together instead of actually getting to the point where an American should be concerned about the Russians meddling.

STEEL: Trump doesn't drink.

VAUSE: I just want to --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: -- because you mentioned this very successful overseas trip that President Trump had. We're now hearing from the German foreign minister a day after we heard from the German chancellor.

This is what he said about Trump. "Anyone who accelerates climate change by weakening environmental protection, who sells more weapons in conflict zones, and who does not want to politically resolve religious conflicts is putting peace in Europe at risk. The shortsighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union. The west has become smaller. At least it has become weaker."

So, you know, Ethan -- this is the view of Donald Trump's visit over --

STEEL: By one person.

VAUSE: And also by Angela Merkel and by many others in Europe as well.

BEARMAN: And let's include the French President Macron, right? I mean same thing there. So this president in a matter of months has done everything he can to roll us back to before the Marshall Plan when it comes to Europe. This is dangerous territory. It's bad news for all of us. And I really hope that somebody can speak something to the President.

VAUSE: Ten seconds, final thoughts -- Shawn.

STEEL: The Marshall Plan actually was a pretty good era. Before the Marshall Plan was awfully good because America had total domination over Europe.

VAUSE: Ok. And with that --

SESAY: You had ten seconds.

VAUSE: Yes, ten seconds.

Shawn and Ethan -- Thanks very much.

SESAY: Appreciate it, gentlemen.

VAUSE: Thank you.

One week after the Manchester terror attack, crowds gathered for vigil in the city's center Monday night honoring the 22 people killed. Dozens more were wounded when Salman Abedi blew himself up after a concert by pop star Ariana Grande.

VAUSE: Investigators are trying to track down Abedi's network and answer a key question. Did he build the bomb himself? There are also new photos of Abedi from before the attack.

CNN's Atika Shubert has the late details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Manchester police have released a new photo of Salman Abedi. If you take a look at it, he's standing curbside. It is city center location, and there is a very distinctive blue suitcase next to him.

Now police are looking for anyone that may have seen Abedi with the suitcase at various locations across the city. It's part of an effort to try an o retrace his movements in the days before the attack.

Now in addition to that photo, there is also now closed circuit television footage that has surfaced from a nearby convenience store, also in the city center. Now in that video, there is a man that appears to be Salman Abedi walking through, picking up food items, and he also appears to be avoiding the camera. You can see his hood up, his hat. He puts on glasses as well.

Now that footage was aired on BBC. Police say they are looking into the footage. They're also trying to find any other clues as to what he was doing in the days preceding the attack. They know for example that he arrived back in the U.K. on May 18th, and that on the day of the attack, he was also at a short-term rental apartment in the city center just about a mile and a half away from the arena. And that apartment police believe was the staging ground for the attack.

Atika Shubert, CNN -- Manchester.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Well, polls are getting tighter as party leaders return to the front lines of the U.K. election campaign. With just over week to go until voters head to the ballot box, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn appeared on British television Monday night.

VAUSE: They were questioned separately on people, first by studio audience and then by journalist Jeremy Paxman. The event broadcast live by Sky News as well as Channel 4.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY PAXMAN, JOURNALIST: Immigration was your main task -- to get it down to what you promised in the manifesto, which was 100,000 or less non E.U. immigrants per year net. You didn't do that, did you?

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Net migration, no. We didn't achieve that. We did --

(CROSSTALK)

[00:15:02] PAXMAN: Can you just tell us what it is now?

MAY: Yes, it was 248,000 in the last set of figures.

PAXMAN: Non E.U. migrants?

MAY: Sorry?

PAXMAN: Non E.U. migrants?

MAY: We're at about 170,000 -- 175,000.

PAXMAN: It's 175,000 according to the latest figures, yes.

MAY: What we saw in immigration figures was it started to come down, and then it did go up and now they're starting to come down again. What we will have when we leave the E.U. --

PAXMAN: That was your job.

MAY: Yes. Jeremy, I'm not sitting here saying it wasn't. I'm accepting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn was also asked to weigh in on immigration. It was a major issue in last summer's Brexit vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY CORBYN, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY LEADER: If people hadn't migrated to this country, we would have a much worse health service, education system and transport system than we have. The contribution that's made to your living standards and mine by people who have come here is huge.

But I tell you what will change. We will not allow companies to bring in whole groups of very low paid workers in order to undercut often fairly low paid workers in this country, thus destroying their working conditions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, in the battle for 10 Downing Street, a recent poll shows the Conservatives at 43 percent to Labour's 36 percent; and security, like immigration, is dominating the election.

VAUSE: Yes. This is supposed to be an easy win for Theresa May when she called this early election. It is not shaping up that way; still obviously favored by the polls. But all of this is now happening in the wake of last week's horrific attack in Manchester.

Richard Quest has been out talking to voters in the Welsh capital, Cardiff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A bank holiday weekend at Mermaid Quay on Cardiff Bay and the bars and the restaurants as far as the eye can see are full which is perhaps surprising, bearing in mind the terrorist threat remains severe.

What I'd been hearing is it will take more than a terrorist threat to keep the people of Wales at home. The local police are here, armed and watching, with a security presence that was by no means intrusive.

It allowed Jill and Ian Thomas to enjoy their Sunday drink and consider the British Prime Minister Theresa May and how she has handled the crisis.

JILL THOMAS, BRITISH VOTER: I think she is a very strong person. I think, you know, she is capable of doing what she says. And I do believe that she's a person that, you know, has got capabilities. And I think people are a bit raw with what just happened and they feel that that we need strong leadership.

QUEST: The police have said to people to enjoy the weekend, but be vigilant. Next weekend in Cardiff will be more significant. The city is hosting the European Champions League final, a massive football event that will make the capital of Wales the center of the football world.

CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS, BRITISH VOTER: Millions of people coming to Cardiff in the next week or so for the Champions League. We just need more protection I think on our border, control it, allowing the right number of refugees into the country.

These poor people are going through terrible, terrible atrocities in their homeland. But we need to ensure that our borders are safe.

QUEST: Safe borders is something everyone agrees upon. It's who will best provide them that has husband and wife, Lee and Derek Parks disagree on.

DEREK PARKS, BRITISH VOTER: After 40 years, we don't agree on anything.

QUEST: But do you agree that security has become an -- a greater issue in this election now as a result of Manchester?

PARKS: Yes. Security has become a great issue irrespective of the election. Security will always be the prime importance of our political leaders. And I think they've lost -- they've taken their eye off the ball a little bit in the past but has brought it back very quickly.

QUEST: Whatever the response, the reality of Manchester lingers on.

WILLIAMS: I can't explain it at the moment because it's such -- still shocked. And I mean to target children is -- you can't explain it when it comes to children.

QUEST: Practical solutions for real problems. Now the politicians have to convince voters their party has the answers.

Richard Quest, CNN -- Cardiff, Wales.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Short break now.

And when we come back, what golf legend Tiger Woods is saying (inaudible) his arrest for allegedly driving under the influence.

[00:19:42] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, Tiger Woods is blaming prescribed medications for his arrest for driving under the influence in Florida. He was stopped by police early Monday, booked into jail, and later released.

SESAY: Woods is a 14-time major champion in pro golf. But he has been recovering from back surgery and hasn't played competitively since February.

VAUSE: Carlos Scott joins us now from Atlanta. He works in sports marketing as well as crisis management for sports people in these kinds of predicaments. Actually you have met Tiger a few times -- Carlos.

So, let's get to the statement that was released by Tiger Woods a few hours ago --

CARLOS SCOTT, N-VISION MARKETING: Sure.

VAUSE: -- apologizing for what he did. He says he takes full responsibility. But then he adds this. "I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn't realize the mix of medicines had affected me so strongly."

Ok. We'll get to the back surgery in a moment. But just from a PR point of view, it would seem that Woods and his management team, they're going to need to do a lot more than just put out, you know, a couple of paragraphs on Twitter to put this behind them.

SCOTT: Yes, I definitely agree. I think that first and foremost, I think that was the improper way to address it. First and foremost, he should have had a public press conference taking full responsibility and not placing blame on any adverse situation like prescriptions and so forth or whatever because at the end of the day, he has a lot of resources, i.e. money available to him. So he should have had -- a limo driver. I mean you can even use Lyft or Uber. I mean everybody has been kind of joking about if he felt that he was having some sort of ill effect.

VAUSE: Yes. Why didn't he take Uber is the sort of one of the big questions right now.

SCOTT: Right.

VAUSE: As far as the medication is concerned, last week Woods wrote on his Web site "It's been just over a month since I underwent fusion surgery on my back, and it's hard to express how much better I feel. It was instant nerve relief. I haven't felt this good in years."

Clearly there has been, you know, this ongoing issue with his back, there has been some problems. It's been a long, long road to get him back into the game.

But let's go back to the incident over the last 24 hours. In Florida, it doesn't matter if you get caught with booze or illegal drugs or prescription medicine. The penalty and the crime is all the same.

So putting a statement out there that I was on medication, I didn't understand what was going on. It's not for a legal reason, it's more to do with image and trying to keep his sponsors?

SCOTT: I think you hit the nail on the head. I think that's probably what they were thinking. But from a responsibility and as a media crisis management expert and a veteran publicist, I can tell you that is not anything that I would have advised our clients to do.

Only because it only makes people vilify him that much more because they look at him -- truth be told, him and a lot of star athletes -- as, you know, spoiled brats.

[00:24:51] And so for him to come out and via Twitter or Facebook or his Web site, I forget the method it was, but it wasn't a public forum, to issue a statement like that. Again, that's not anything that any veteran PR expert would have done.

VAUSE: Yes. And looking at the mug shot of Tiger Woods, it really is striking. He looks disheveled and his eyes are glazed over. It's certainly not the Tiger Woods that we know, you know, from the early 2000s, this champion on the course who was the world's number one.

In some ways, it seems -- I mean to me -- I'd like to get your take on this -- it seems to sort of sum up everything about his decline from being one of the greats of golf to where he is today.

SCOTT: Ironically, yes. I agree. I mean that is the lasting image unfortunately for some time that we will have of Tiger as opposed to the Tiger in the green jackets.

And for him to have that type of celebrity accomplishment and everything, every kind of other success on and off the court -- on and off the field, rather -- and to now his mug shot that now people are already making memes on social media about is really a travesty.

VAUSE: Very, very quickly -- how would you go about ensuring that that mug shot is not the last enduring image that the public have of Tiger Woods?

SCOTT: We need to have a public press conference, unrehearsed -- well, I won't say unrehearsed. But there is no written statement. He would give it from the heart, apologize to the people locally. Apologize to his family, sponsors as well as even fans.

And then I'd also have him to thank the local authorities and the arresting officers for arresting him. Because at the end of the day a lot of times, let's be honest, a lot of times celebrities are given a free pass in this situation.

And for him to be arrested, that could very well be something to kind of wake him up. And maybe even seek some help of some sort because all the surgeries that he has had over the last I think about 18 months, he is obviously on some sort of medication. And we think back to Michael Jackson had an issue with prescribed medications. And it was later on found out that Prince had an addiction to, you know, some sort of opiates. So you just never know what's going on.

But I think he would -- it would behoove him and his team to seek possibly some sort of help to make sure that he is not having any kind of substance abuse issues. And then to go from there.

VAUSE: Ok, Carlos -- we'll leave it there. Carlos Scott -- we should mention, you're vice president of marketing and corporate partnerships. Thanks for being with us -- Carlos.

SCOTT: No problem. Thank you for having me.

SESAY: Quick break here.

Up next, after supervising his country's latest missile launch, Kim Jong-Un has another message for the U.S.

[00:27:46] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for staying with us, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm John Vause.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour.

A White House official says President Trump's son-in-law is unfazed by recent scrutiny and focused on his work. Jared Kushner reportedly wanted to set up back channel negotiations with the Russians shortly after the election. Democrats say his security clearance should be reviewed.

VAUSE: French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed his Russian counterpart at the palace in Versailles. Mr. Macron described the meeting with Vladimir Putin as a frank exchange on issues including Syria and Ukraine. He denounced Russian media for meddling in the French election. Mr. Putin denied the charge.

SESAY: ISIS is claiming responsibility for a deadly car bombing in central Baghdad. At least ten people were killed and 40 wounded in the blast in the busy square. It happen early Tuesday local time. ISIS has carried out several attacks in the Iraqi capital in recent months.

Well, Kim Jong-un is not backing down on his promise to carry out more missile launches. In fact, state media say the North Korean leader wants to develop more ballistic rockets to show the power of his country's self-defense industry.

VAUSE: Kim reportedly supervised the launch of a short-range missile on Monday. It fell into the ocean in commercial waters off Japan's coast. This was North Korea's third missile test in the last three weeks.

SESAY: Well, CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul, South Korea.

And, Paula, as we're saying, North Korea firing off another ballistic missile. And if Kim Jong-un is to be believed, they have no intention of changing course despite all the opposition from the international community.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Isha. We've heard this consistently from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un saying that he will continue to perfect his nuclear and missile capability.

This is the ninth test that we have seen this year alone since the U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated. And it's the third we've seen since the South Korean President Moon Jae-in was sworn in to power just a few weeks ago. He has had to contend with a North Korean missile launch every single week since he took power.

Now bear in mind this is a president who said he is pro-engagement, pro-dialogue with North Korea. And yet these missile launches are continuing. So even with a suggestion of talks, even with international sanctions, international condemnation, Kim Jong-un is doing what he has consistently said he would do, and that is to continue these missile launches.

Now we also heard condemnation from North Korea this Tuesday morning through the state-run media, KCNA, slamming the fact that the U.S. military sent B-1B bomber, a strategic bomber over the Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean military confirming that that was in fact the case on Monday. It was part of a military drill between the U.S. and South Korea. And then you also have an aircraft carrier, "USS Carl Vinson," another one potentially on its way, again angering North Korea.

Isha?

SESAY: Paula Hancocks joining us from Seoul, South Korea.

Paula, appreciate it. Thank you.

VAUSE: So we're not even halfway through the year, and North Korea has fired off a dozen missiles already.

CNN's Brian Todd has more on how Kim Jong-un is challenging the U.S. with his increasingly ambitious rocket program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kim Jong-un pushes aggressively ahead in his effort to threaten his enemies with nuclear- tipped missiles. North Korea has just launched its third missile test in three weeks.

A short-range ballistic missile was fired from an area near Wonsan. It traveled approximately 248 miles, splashing down within Japan's exclusive economic zone, an area where commercial ships are known to operate.

One analyst believes the test was designed to simulate a strike on an American base.

PATRICK CRONIN, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY: It was apparently preparation for an attack on Iwakuni, which is a U.S. Marine base in Southwest Honshu Island of Japan. This is becoming a routine accelerated launch schedule.

TODD: Kim is testing missiles at a breathtaking pace. 12 missiles fired in nine tests so far this year. Experts warn the test of a short range missile like the one Kim just launched while seemingly less menacing than some of his other weapons allows the regime to tweak its missile technology and get closer to perfecting a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile which could someday carry a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.

U.S. officials also concerned about North Korea's development of a new arsenal of missiles which use solid fuel rather than liquid fuel.

THOMAS KARAKO, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: The solid are capable of being fired much more quickly. They don't necessarily have to be fueled or have sort of support apparatus. There is no launch pad or anything like that. And so they can be put on trucks, made mobile and then therefore fired in principle from anywhere.

[00:35:00] TODD: This puts more pressure on the U.S. to upgrade its ability to shoot down North Korean missiles. The Pentagon preparing for an interceptor test on Tuesday.

President Trump tweeting about the North Korean threat, quote, "North Korea has shown great disrespect for their neighbor, China, by shooting off yet another ballistic missile. But China is trying hard.

Japan's prime minister, furious with the North Korean missile landing so close to his shores, vows to respond.

SHINZO ABE, JAPAN'S PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In order to deter North Korea, we will take concrete action together with the United States.

TODD (on-camera): What options for so-called concrete action to Japan the U.S. have here?

CRONIN: Cyber or missile action. The missile action could shoot down a missile test from North Korea should another occur. A cyber action or the launching of aircraft to harass and to inspect North Korean bases could also put the North Koreans on alert.

TODD: Current and former U.S. military officials have said the U.S. has a program to disrupt North Korean missile launches with cyberattacks. It's a program that "The New York Times" reports President Obama ordered to be accelerated about three years ago. It's not clear which, if any, North Korean missile launches may have been disrupted by hacking. But Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered investigations into possible sabotage, looking for spice inside his regime.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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SESAY: Time for a quick break here. And for plenty of travelers, it's a necessity. But soon you might not be able to take your laptop with you on board.

VAUSE: Because traveling is not nearly miserable enough already.

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SESAY: British Airways expects to run a full flight schedule at London's two biggest airports Tuesday. A computer meltdown halted BA's operations at Heathrow and Gatwick stranding thousands of passengers on a busy holiday weekend. Oh, dear.

VAUSE: Oh, yes.

The airline blames a power surge for the failure, which affected at least 75,000 passengers all around the world. It could end up costing the airline more than $100 million.

SESAY: Once again, oh dear.

VAUSE: Oh, dear.

SESAY: Well, the U.S. is considering a dramatic expansion of a ban on laptops and other electronic devices on board airplanes.

VAUSE: Right now the carry-on ban affects flights into the U.S. from ten airports in the Middle East and Africa.

Rene Marsh has details on what is behind the possible change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sophisticated threat towards commercial aviation is fueling new proposed restrictions on what electronics passengers can take into the cabin of aircraft.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says terror groups are obsessed with blowing up commercial passenger planes, preferably a U.S. carrier bound for the United States.

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Are you going to ban laptops from the cabin on all international flights both into and out of the U.S.?

JOHN KELLY, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I might.

MARSH: Kelly first told CNN on Friday why he thinks expanding the laptop ban is necessary.

(On-camera): Some of the stakeholders who you've met would say that you have hinted that this ban could even happen right here on U.S. soil. Is that true? Or did they misread you.

KELLY: No, they didn't misread me. I would tell you that the threats against passenger aviation worldwide are constant.

MARSH: A U.S.-based ban would restrict electronics larger than a cell phone in the cabin. Those include iPads, E-readers and laptops. It would be the most extreme step taken to protect aviation from a terror attack since September 11th.

This weekend, Kelly said chilling intelligence is pushing him to expand the ban.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a real threat. There is numerous threats against aviation. That's really the thing that they're obsessed with.

MARSH: The laptop ban is currently in place at ten airports in eight Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa. All electronics larger than a cell phone have to be in checked luggage on those flights.

In the meantime, another new security measure is now in place at ten U.S. airports. Electronics larger than a cell phone must be taken out of carry-on luggage to be screened separately. Kelly says that, too, will likely expand nationwide.

KELLY: The TSA people that are looking at those bags can't see exactly what's in the bags so now because they're stuffed so full.

MARSH: While Kelly makes clear more new restrictions and new screening measures are on the way, he is less clear on when those would happen.

(on-camera): Well, despite the dire warnings from Secretary Kelly, deliberations on the expansion of the ban has spanned several weeks. One U.S. official tells me that the lengthy deliberation is partly due to Kelly's desire to consider the full impact of the ban.

The airline industry says it helps drive some $1.5 trillion in economic activity in the United States. So how could this ban impact that? Another source says that DHS is taking a close look at the science surrounding lithium-ion batteries in the cargo hold.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: To something totally different now. An Australian fisherman didn't realize he was going to need a bigger boat, and he is still trying to figure out how he survived after this great white shark jumped on to his tiny vessel.

73-year-old Terry Selwood said it happened Saturday as he was quietly fishing off Australia's east coast. Rescuer says they found him covered in blood with lots of cuts on his right arm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY SELWOOD, AUSTRALIAN FISHERMAN: No, I don't think it's a big deal. The bloody thing just jumped to my boat. As he was coming down, he hit me on the arm and ever sorry knocked me off balance, of course. And I just fell down on my hands and knees and I looked over to the side, and there is this bloody shark. This thing was beside me.

And I looked over and said, oh, a bloody shark. So I just climbed back. He was doing a mad dance around me. He was thrashing everywhere. So I got up as quick as I could. I grabbed the rocket launcher up the top and climb up and I looked down and said all be buggered, there is a shark in my boat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: The shark did not survive. It was given to authorities for autopsy.

VAUSE: Terry, quote of the day, "Well, I'll be buggered, there is a bloody shark in my boat."

All right, seriously, wonderful. At least he is honest. He could have lied, I caught a big one. He is an honest man, Terry.

SESAY: Go, people.

VAUSE: Bloody honest mate.

SESAY: All right, thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Kate Ripley has a lot more on the arrest of Tiger Woods as well as the rest of the day's sports news. That's coming up on "World Sport." You're watching CNN.

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