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Third Terror Attack in U.K. in Less than 3 Months; British P.M. on London Attack, "Enough is Enough"; Witnesses Describe London Terror Attack; Four Countries Cut Ties with Qatar for Supporting Terrorism; Trump Tweets on London Attack, Travel Ban; Ariana Grande "One Love" Show for Manchester. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 05, 2017 - 02:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:13] MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Max Foster, in London with the latest on the investigation into the terror attack here just over the weekend.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of Cobra in the coming hours. That's the U.K.'s top emergency security committee.

Police conducting more raids in east London. A number of people are being detained now. 12 people were arrested on Sunday as well although one man was later released.

The media wing of ISIS claiming responsibility for Saturday's attack, but offered no evidence to support its claim, and no evidence from here in London that's the case either.

It all began when a van drove into pedestrians on London Bridge. The attackers then went on a stabbing rampage in the nearby Borough Market. Seven people were killed, 48 others were wounded, many critically. Police arrived eight minutes after they were called and fired 50 shots to kill the three attackers.

Now, in terms of atmosphere in London, I was here yesterday, obviously, a lot of shock. But today, it's about the response. The campaigns back up and running for the general election which is on Thursday. I came over Westminster Bridge by parliament, and there are new barriers in place along the bridge between the road and the pavement as a message to the world really about this is a type of attack we're facing now, vans driving into people. It happened in Westminster just earlier this year, and now it's happened again on London Bridge. And this is the new reality really for people to try to understand, and security now very much dictating the debate in the election campaign.

We're learning more about the victims of the attack, many of them still getting medical care.

Erin McLaughlin is outside King's College Hospital.

And as the police have been able to inform family members, we're learning more about those that died, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Max. We're beginning to learn the names and the stories of those who were killed in that horrific attack.

The family of Chrissy Archibald coming forward to tell her story. She's from Canada. She moved to Europe to be with her fiance. And she was on the London Bridge that tragic night. Her fiance's brother posting on Facebook how the van struck her. The medical services did everything they could to save her life, but she tragically died. He says the family is in shock.

The family releasing this statement -- I'll read you part of it -- saying, "We grieve the loss of our beautiful, loving daughter and sister. She had room in her heart for everyone and believed strongly that every person was to be valued and respected. She lived this belief, working in a shelter for the homeless until she moved to Europe to be with her fiance. She would have had no understanding of the callous cruelty that caused her death."

The statement goes on to ask people to honor her memory by helping their local community, either volunteering or donating to the local homeless shelter.

Really tragic news. Chrissy Archibald, one of seven killed in that terror attack -- Max?

FOSTER: I was listening to the radio, a witness describing how he saw a woman being stabbed repeatedly on the ground. The horrific stories coming through, but there were thankfully many survivors. But many of them still critical, right?

MCLAUGHLIN: That's right, Max. As of yesterday, the update from the National Health Service here, 36 people being treated in hospital. 21 critically injured. 14 at the King's College Hospital where I'm at right now, including 23-year-old Daniel O'Neill. He was stabbed. Two police officers came to his aid and saved his life, according to his mother, who was speaking to the press yesterday outside the hospital. She says he's in shock. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER OF DANIEL O'NEILL: He was in shock. And he said, I don't think work will believe that this has happened. I'm going to have to go in on Monday, but he was in shock. I said to him, it's because you don't believe it's happened, Daniel. You think other people are going to find it hard. And he feels very bad that he's alive while -- while others have died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: We're also hearing the story of Geoff Ho, the business editor from "The Sunday Express." According to the express, he was at a pub in the Borough Market, and he intervened when the attackers tried to stab a bouncer. He was stabbed in the neck. Social media footage in the wake of the attack showed him calmly walking away from the scene, trying to get help, bleeding out of his neck. "The Sunday Express" hailing him as a hero. They say that he's going to be OK -- Max?

[02:05:09] FOSTER: OK. Erin, thank you. Back with you to get more updates on those who are still in hospital.

Meanwhile, the rest of London, this is the sort of scene you're seeing. Armed officers on the streets of the capital and lots of parts of the capital as well seeing various responses in terms of security. This area still cordoned off as you can see.

But much of the investigation is actually focusing on a different area outside the center. Police raiding a housing complex in east London. 11 people were arrested, including several women.

CNN's Melissa Bell spoke to residents who recognized, amongst the three dead attackers, a familiar face.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man I know is -- he was a wonderful guy.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Several neighbors spoke to CNN of a family man who kept to himself and whose behavior had raised no alarm bells.

But one woman did have her doubts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden, we saw this individual speaking to the kids about Islam and showed them how to pray. So it was standing over there. We saw him from the window.

BELL: Erica said she confronted the man and went to the police with her concerns, although she doesn't think anything was done.

Locals say that this is where he prayed. A mosque he attended, they say, after an argument at another mosque.

Authorities here have so far refused to confirm the man's identity, choosing instead to extend their thoughts and prayers to the victims of London Bridge and their families.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Barking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: It's worth noting that one of the first responders to this scene was a British transport police officer who had nothing but a baton, and he actually confronted three attackers with those knives in that frenzied attack. He's now in hospital. He's still suffering.

But this debate about firearms, we've got firearms behind me, but it's not usual here in the U.K. There are only qualified firearms officers who are allowed to carry guns. It's not the norm here. Most police still only carry batons. A big debate in the U.K. should British police be carrying guns. The U.S. president, meanwhile, Donald Trump, being slammed for his

response to the attack, in which he criticized London's mayor and renewed the call for his controversial travel ban. But at a social event in Washington, the president took a softer tone and offered his unwavering support to the U.K.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America sends our thoughts, our prayers, and our deepest sympathies to the victims of this evil slaughter. And we renew our resolve, stronger than ever before, to protect the United States and its allies from a vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life. And it's gone on too long. This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The political response from here, well, saying enough is enough. British Prime Minister Theresa May is calling for stronger resolve in dealing with Islamist extremism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There is, to be frank, far too much tolerance of extremism in our country. So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out across the public sector and across society. That will require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations. But the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, that was British prime minister.

And campaigning begins again after a short lull yesterday for the general election on Thursday. And actually, the opposition leader criticizing Theresa May and her Conservative Party for not putting enough resource into the security service and policing. So expect that to be a growing debate in the coming days.

A local Muslim leader insists Britain is not tolerant, meanwhile, of Islamist extremism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MUSLIM LEADER: She's definitely not right. I -- I do not accept that because I'm the same individual who was born and bred here in U.K., and I'm -- I have sat in the mosques more than Theresa May has sat or any other politician has sat. And I do not think they have the right to say that we are more tolerant towards terrorists. No, we've been -- we've been deradicalizing these individuals from the mosques for the last 35, 40 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Nina dos Santos is at 10 Downing Street, joins us with more. We'll expect a Cobra meeting today, presumably. Another update on the

investigation there. But there's this bigger debate, isn't there, about how Britain responds to this run of terror attacks?

[02:10:11] NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's also some debates that Theresa May has unleashed overnight after giving her famous speech where she said enough is enough. It was a speech that was reminiscent of the message that Tony Blair gave, Max, after 52 people were killed in the 7/7 bombings on the London subway system about 12 years ago.

Let's listen to a snippet of what the prime minister had to say yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY: It is time to say enough is enough. Everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would. Our society should continue to function in accordance with our values. But when it comes to taking on extremism and terrorism, things need to change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: Theresa May is asking for new powers to tackle the terrorism threat across this country. That could include also a back door to allow authorities to monitor WhatsApp messages and various encrypted telephone apps. She said probably also communities have more to do in trying to root out extremists. You just heard there from a member of the Muslim community, the local Muslim community near London Bridge. And across the U.K., there are people who are capitalizing saying on what she's saying here saying she's trying to steal a march on Jeremy Corbyn, this is cheap politics. A number of people have been killed in this attack. This country is still technically in mourning and the flags are at half-mast. This is too quickly to embark on political point scoring. But, Max, considering she used to be home secretary and presided over policing cuts that people are beginning to question deeply, she probably wants to get on the attack on the issue of security.

And security is the second most-important one according to a recent poll, in the forefront of voters' minds here in the U.K. The only thing they say is more important for them is the future of the public National Health Service here. You can bet that security is something she wants to be seen as tough on here after, of course, we've had three attacks during her tenure in 75 days. Three attacks that have now left 34 people dead -- Max?

FOSTER: Nina dos Santos, at Downing Street. Thank you.

Joining us now, Haras Rafiq, the CEO of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter extremism organization.

This is now going to define, isn't it, the rest of the election campaign, it seems? What Jeremy Corbyn's message seems to be is the police and the security services haven't had the resources they've needed to carry out the sort of investigations and prevention work that they need to stop an attack like this. You think there's truth to that?

HARAS RAFIQ, CEO, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: I think, first of all, there's a difference between stopping a terrorist attack and preventing a terrorist attack. What Jeremy Corbyn is talking about is stopping an attack. The issue here is much deeper than that. Long-term, if we want to win this, we actually have to prevent these things from happening in the first place. The problem we've got is other than Theresa May, we have two leaders -- (AUDIO PROBLEM).

That's the problem we've got. The problem isn't just a matter of resources. The problem also is that some of our politicians don't -- (AUDIO PROBLEM).

FOSTER: There's some criticism coming through, isn't there, following the Manchester attack. You know, you're in Manchester. That guy involved was very clearly on the radar of the security services. People aren't criticizing the police response there, but they do question the security services. They were given tip-offs about the guy there, and we may find out similar stories about the attackers in London. Already local media reporting that there were reports made to the security services and the terror hotline about the attackers involved. Just describe the challenges for the security services and whether or not you think they have failed actually.

RAFIQ: Well, one of the things that is becoming clear is that more and more people are reporting people to the anti-terrorism hotline number. The issue is that it's not possible to monitor and investigate every single person. And to monitor one person takes an average 20 to 25 people per day, 365 days a year. Now, when these phone calls come into the hotline, what they'll do is go through a risk process. They'll say there are people here who are of lower risk and people who are higher risk. If these people did miss the threshold, there must have been other people that were categorized as more high risk. Let's not forget we've actually stopped five terrorist attacks since the Westminster attack. And over the last few years -- (AUDIO PROBLEM).

[02:15:17] FOSTER: OK. Thanks for that.

This is going to be a big topic in the coming days. The country needs to have some way of dealing with this. It is worth pointing out that so many attacks have been thwarted as well by British police.

We're hearing from some of the witnesses of the terror attack in London directly. People describing the horror but also calling for unity and bravery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: It was like a big panic kind of thing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: People running?

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: People running. Some screaming. Some people were in tears from what they were seeing and things like that. It was all a bit crazy. So many different emotions and things going on at the same time. I saw a lady. This was like a small family, blocking her kids around some corner. She probably had seen everything I hadn't seen. And they were just -- the looks on their faces, you could tell that they're not going to recover so well from that.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: The people that did this, they want us to be scared. There's obviously a lot of scared and angry people out there. But I plead with people not to be scared, not to be angry, because this is exactly what those people want us to feel. And we have to stand together. Go home. Tell your friends. Tell your family that you love them and carry on. Carry on doing exactly what you're doing. Don't be angered. Channel that anger into something positive. And all the victims and their families, we just need to rally around and show support. So I'm not going to let this affect me in a negative way, and I think everybody needs to understand that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: I think that's very much the message that's coming out from the U.K., that we are going to be strong in the face of all of this threat. But I live outside London, and the reality is many people don't want to come here at the moment. They feel it's too dangerous. So there's going to be some work to be done if London is going to be seen as the safe city that it traditionally has been.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:21:12] FOSTER: Welcome back to London. I'm on the edge of the crime scene. A large part of this borough has been cordoned off, and tributes are being made. You can see flowers. You can see these posters, these messages of defiance. The hashtags being "turn to love," and "for London." Trying to get some positivity really about the horrific events over the weekend. Tributes coming in. People of London standing together against this horrific violence.

Many survivors urging people to unite and remember how strong the city really is.

Here's how some of the witnesses described everything that happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SIRENS)

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: The image that I have in my mind, I saw all the blue lights of the policemen. It was completely unreal. It was just like a movie, but unfortunately it was reality.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: I've been living here for 11 years now, and I feel this is probably one of the safest cities in the world. I would say to people out there that if you're worried about coming to London, don't be. Feel safe.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: I would not say London is the safest city at this moment, at this time. No. Anything can happen. So we don't know who is a terrorist. I can be a terrorist. You can be a terrorist. Anyone that says it's safe, I think there's something wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: With all the community come together, as you have seen in Manchester, the way the community work together. And with London's people, they do so. And London will be the safest city again. People can go back and lead their normal life.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: I always have to be afraid because I don't know what's happened. Today, I'm going to work now, but I'm really lost. My family -- all my family is afraid about it.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: I'm not scared at all. I don't have any fear at all. London is a beautiful place. We're a lot of beautiful people. There's also some not so beautiful people as we saw last night. But, you know, there's always good and bad in everything, in everywhere you go. It shouldn't be a way to keep people away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We're also hearing from a man, would you believe, who was in the restaurant during the knife attack. After fleeing to safety, he later came back to the restaurant to pay his bill.

Becky Anderson spoke to Richard Angel earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ANGEL, WITNESS: We were in a restaurant with some friends of mine. People from different bits of London, and we were sitting at the table nearest the door. Suddenly, it became apparent that the security for Borough Market was saying, "Bolt the door and duck and hide." And we knew there was an incident happening, and this guy wedged his foot in the door and kept it closed while they found the key to lock it. People panicked, not unreasonably, turned over tabled. Food was going everywhere, chairs. Just trying to get some refuge from what was about to happen, fearing the worst about to unfold in front of people.

I then saw a guy opposite throw a table at someone, and I was unclear what that meant. It turned out it was this heroic guy who saw what these guys were doing and threw glasses at them, he threw tables at them to try and stop them from hurting this poor young woman who they were stabbing. He was remarkable. He was one of the heroes of the day.

Then I looked out, and there was a guy leaving the restaurant just next to where we were, and he was covered in blood, holding his chest or his neck in some way. And he was clearly injured. And I really hope that he got the paramedic help that he clearly and desperately need. I haven't heard about his story, but I hope that he's OK today.

And then we also tried to get people to safety, get them upstairs, tried to do people doing rash things, opening the fire escape and going out into what could have been even worse or unknown danger.

[02:25:08] There was a pregnant lady with us. We needed to get her a stool, a glass of water, and just a calm space to be in.

And then we were in lockdown for about 25, 30 minutes, I think. And the police swept through, brilliantly, professionally. Did it in eight minutes it turns out. We heard one lot of gunfire, saw them sweep again and again, and then heard a second lot. It felt like an age between those two lots, but apparently it was just eight minutes and they did their job absolutely remarkably. And then after some time, the restaurant opposite where we were was evacuated, and people were able to leave. Then we were next.

The pregnant lady we got to the front so she could get out first. We wanted her to be safest first.

And you go out, and there was people's shoes that they'd taken off, clothes, blood, victims, food, debris of all kinds around.

And three things struck me about the emergency services. Not only did they do their job brilliantly, secondly, they were our eyes and ears when we were just meandering through. They were keeping our backs.

And thirdly, the paramedics, and maybe I knew this already, but I'd not thought this before. They run at the danger. Then they turn their back to the danger to treat whoever is in front of them, and they try and put together the life in front of them while we're running for our lives. And how brave and marvelous they are. Just really struck with me. And I might never meet the people who made decisions that saved potentially my life and other people, but we're proud they do it in this city. And their family who must sit at home every day wondering about whether they come home, we are so thankful for what they do.

These people cannot, should not, will not win. We cannot have a situation where they seek to divide our city. Our brilliant mayor, Sadiq Khan, spoke for all of us today when he talks about what unites this city, what brings people together. And we're going to carry on loving each other, living with each other, the melting pot that is London.

I'm going to go back to that restaurant. I hope other people do, too. Because if us drinking gin and tonics and flirting with handsome men and being friends with brilliant and powerful women offends these people so much that they do those barbaric, vile, and cowardly acts, I'm going to go back and I'm going to do it more, not less.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: There are always heroes, of course, out of these events, and that's what many people want to focus on today, not the attackers who did what they did.

We'll look, though, at the timeline on how the terror attack here in London unfolded and how the country is trying to recover after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:31:18] FOSTER: Welcome back to you.

The latest on Saturday's terror attacks here in London. Prime minister Theresa May chairing an emergency security meeting in the coming hours, we're told.

Also police say they're speaking with people detained in two new raids early this morning. 12 people have previously been arrested. That was on Sunday. One of them was later released.

This is the third terror attack in the U.K. in less than three months, would you believe. At least seven people were killed over the weekend, another 48 wounded.

Isa Soares has more on the rampage and how it unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SIRENS)

ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A night of violence and fear.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god!

SOARES: Terror in the heart of London.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Just keep moving!

SOARES: It began on London Bridge, a van plowing down pedestrians, barreling towards them, witnesses saw people go flying into the air. One jumped into the River Thames to get out of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a big panic kind of thing. I never saw anything like it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: People running?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People running, some of them screaming. Some people were in tears from what they were seeing.

SOARES: The attackers in this rental van sped across the bridge, crashed, and then continued on foot toward nearby Borough Market. Charging inside, the attackers started stabbing people. Open late Saturday night, the area packed with customers.

Authorities say the attackers were shot and killed by police. Laying on the ground, their fake explosive belts exposed.

(SHOUTING)

SOARES: The scene they left behind, chaotic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were fearing for our lives. We heard a noise which we thought were gunshots. And we thought he came towards us. (SHOUTING)

SOARES: In the wake of the attack, heightened police presence. Security tightened. And British Prime Minister Theresa May convened an emergency security meeting.

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It is time to say enough is enough. Everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would. Our society should continue to function in accordance with our values. But when it comes to taking on extremism and terrorism, things need to change.

SOARES: And with the election days away, the parties suspended campaigning.

JEREMY CORBYN, LABOUR PARTY LEADER: We won't be campaigning nationally during today, but we're resuming later on, because I think it's important to give a message that democracy must prevail. If we allow these attacks to disrupt our democratic process, then we all lose.

SOARES (on camera): This is a city on high alert with thousands of police on the street. But we've also seen a strength of character here in London as so many people open their doors to those who couldn't go back into their properties or, indeed, to the hotels. A strength of character that really says that Londoners will not be cowed by terrorism.

Isa Soares, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Andrew MacLeod is with me, a visiting professor at King's College London.

We've got a few days left in this election. We're going to be talking about security. We've got the opposition saying more resources need to be going into the security operators. But we've got the prime minister saying it's a culture issue we need to deal with here. Who's right?

ANDREW MACLEOD, VISITING PROFESSOR, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: They're both right. In a military sense, you need to look at layers of defense. Our last layer of defense is a strong security service, which we need. But security service only comes into play in terms of the police and guns after someone has decided to attack. So we do need more police and security service. But we also need to work on the causes of why people are attacking and reduce the number of people that want to attack in the first place. So there are lots of cultural issues we need to take on board as well.

[02:35:08] FOSTER: Is there a problem in the reporting of the story, you think?

MACLEOD: I do. I personally believe the media should have a voluntary code of conduct to not name perpetrators after the event because part of the incentivization of people taking these attacks is they want to join a club after they die. I yell "Allah Akbar" when I stab someone and then I know my name will go around the media worldwide. It's a huge incentive.

FOSTER: The insanity is they're not often hooked up with these organizations before. They use it as an excuse in the last moment.

MACLEOD: That's true, but this is one of the great powers of Islamic State. Out of all the community organizations, businesses, politicians around the world, the organization that has understood the power of the social media the most is Islamic State. The difference between al Qaeda and Islamic State is, to join al Qaeda, you used to have to go to Pakistan and learn how to throw a hand grenade. To join Islamic State, all you have to do is grab a knife out of your kitchen drawer and stab someone yelling "Allah Akbar." So the Islamic State has been very clever in the way it uses social media to inspire people at the last minute to join the club merely from a statement, and we need to crack down on that.

FOSTER: I know that one of your concerns is there's too much focus on the immediate response in these events.

MACLEOD: Yes, sir.

FOSTER: In this case, there doesn't seem to be anything to criticize. From eight minutes from the first call out to three attackers dead. Incredible response. But there is a question being raised again today about the security services and the fact that the guy in Manchester and potentially the ones in London were on the security radar, they were warned about them, and they still got away with it. Those warnings weren't followed up on.

MACLEOD: In many ways now you need to look at this type of terrorism like an epidemic of a health disease, like Ebola. What are the circumstances that allow it to spread? Who are the people who are vulnerable to it being spread? And how do you deal with people when they've got this disease and sickness of terrorism? What are the circumstances on the ground that increase the vulnerability of community and people to be recruited?

FOSTER: What are they?

MACLEOD: It's dispossession. It's feeling a loneliness. It's not part of a community. If you take the killer in Sydney, the Nice killer, the Orlando killer, the things they had in common, they had beaten their wives or girlfriends, they had been left by their wives or girlfriends. They had drug and alcohol abuse. They rarely went to mosques, but they had no hope. They decided to find one way to go out in glory by yelling "Allah Akbar" and killing people. It's this mental disease they have.

FOSTER: Are we framing it wrongly then?

MACLEOD: I think, in part, we are. I think part of the way we need to look at it, it's about being inclusive in our communities, recognizing moderate Islam, normal Muslims, real Muslims, as I call them, are our greatest ally. They're the ones we need to give confidence to say when you see something wrong, when you hear something wrong, when someone is saying something wrong in a mosque, report it up the system. But then you need to have a system that will accept these reports and respond to them.

FOSTER: Follow them up.

MACLEOD: And follow them up.

FOSTER: And have the resources they need obviously to do that.

MACLEOD: Correct. So you need a response to all of those. Preparation, resources to follow up in advance, and a strong security response if someone decides they do want to attack us.

FOSTER: Andrew MacLeod, thank you very much for joining us with your analysis.

MACLEOD: Thank you.

FOSTER: We'll continue to follow developments on the London terror attack.

But another breaking story this hour. Four Middle Eastern countries have cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar over what they say is the country's support for terrorism.

CNN's Mohammad Lila joins us from Abu Dhabi to bring us an update on that -- Mohammad?

MOHAMMAD LILA, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, this is actually a very big deal here in the Middle East, and I can't understate how important this is. You have four countries that basically overnight are severing all relations with Qatar. Those countries are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Effectively, almost overnight, they are shutting down their airspace to all Qatari aircraft. They have told all Qatari residents to leave their countries. In some cases, they've been given 14 days to leave. Diplomats have been give 48 hours to leave. From those four countries, they are also recalling their diplomats from Qatar.

So this is a major rift that's developing between these countries in the GCC, in a region that, quite frankly, many people believe can't stand any more instability. But instability is likely what we're about to see, certainly over the coming hours and the coming days as this rift continues to play out.

[02:39:20] FOSTER: Mohammad, thank you. We'll follow that very closely in, indeed.

Meanwhile here in the U.K., expect social media companies to be coming under increasing pressure as we head towards the election on Thursday because, again, the British prime minister has called for closer Internet regulation after the London terror attack. What tech companies can do, if anything, to stop extremists online, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The British Prime Minister Theresa May is calling for closer regulation of the Internet in the wake of Saturday's terror rampage here in London.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY: We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning. And we need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Tech companies are under increasing pressure to police hate speech and threats on the Internet. Social media giant Facebook releasing a statement on Sunday saying they work aggressively to remove terrorist content and that Facebook wants to be a hostile environment for terrorists.

Rod Beckstrom is joining me from Santa Cruz in California. He's the former CEO of ICANN and the former director of the National Cybersecurity Center.

And I've spoken to police involved in anti-terrorism here in London, and they're hugely frustrated that a lot of the radicalization, a lot of the debates and conversations about terror happen online. And the social media companies just won't let the securities have access to them. How do you think they can justify that?

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

FOSTER: OK. We've lost that signal.

We're going to try to go back to him because this is turning into a really big part of the debate as it always is after these terror attacks.

Now, still ahead, we're going to be hearing from Donald Trump as well through the course of the day. He took to Twitter to criticize comments made by London's mayor, but that was just one of many tweets sent by the U.S. president in the hours after the attack.

Brian Stelter has the details on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:44:40] BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: The U.S. president using social media to weigh in first by re-tweeting, by sharing a message from the right-wing "Drudge Report." That's a tabloid website here in the United States that has lots of headlines, lots of news. The president right away re-tweeted Drudge, saying there were fears of a new terror attack in London. That was before British officials confirmed that, indeed, terrorists had struck at the London Bridge. Later in the evening, on Saturday, President Trump continued to weigh

in, saying, "We need to be smart, vigilant, and tough. Then invoking his proposed travel ban, which has been struck down by the courts in the United States." The White House now wants this to go to the Supreme Court.

What's notable is that the White House has previously said it's not a travel ban, trying to avoid the words "travel ban," but the president himself used those words on Twitter.

There were other posts from the president as well. He did say, "We are with you in the U.K. God bless."

But then on Sunday morning, presumably after he woke up, he posted a number of political messages. One of them said, "We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don't get smart, it will only get worse."

Now, it may or may not be a coincidence the president posted this right after the "FOX & Friends" morning show on the conservative FOX News channel repeatedly brought up the plague of political correctness that the guests said is a problem in the U.S. And the U.K. and elsewhere. We know Trump watches "FOX & Friends" frequently, so he may have been watching and getting that idea and then sharing it on Twitter.

He also went on to say -- we'll put this one on screen. He said, "Do you notice we're not having a gun debate right now? That's because they used knives and a truck."

So this is kind of a curious tweet. Some people were confused by it. It's a popular conservative talking point in the U.S. to say, we don't need gun control, guns aren't the problem. It's the people using the weapons that are a problem. If they don't have guns, they'll use knives or weapons or vehicles or something else. So the president sort of invoking a conservative talking point there with that tweet.

As you know, he was also critical of the British mayor on Twitter. The mayor responding that he doesn't have time to engage with President Trump. He's too busy trying to respond to the aftermath of this attack.

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FOSTER: Brian Stelter there.

One of the big questions is what role social media played in this attack. Not social media companies themselves, but the conversations amongst potential terrorists, the terrorists involved over the weekend.

So we're going to speak now to Rod Beckstrom. We were trying to get a hold of him earlier on. He's in California for us.

It's the inevitable conversation that happens after these terror attacks. A lot of conversations took place on social media, and the social media companies need to be giving more access to the security services.

ROD BECKSTROM, FORMER CEO, ICANN & FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY CENTER: Yeah, it's quite a dilemma for them. You know, their operations are worldwide, literally touching 194 different countries. And every country would like access to that data. And some for very different reasons. We might say that the U.K. has some very good reasons to want information on terrorist instigators, but a number of issues and problems that make this difficult. First, just the human scale, there's billions of users of social media. How are you going to monitor all that? Are you going to do it with humans, with software and artificial intelligence? It's very difficult to make the judgments of what is free political speech, and what's inappropriate terrorist organizing. So it's really a conundrum for the technology companies, and there's no silver bullet. So I can understand why the prime minister would like to see more cooperation with the companies, but it's quite a difficult thing to actually accomplish and achieve within the legal and privacy frameworks.

FOSTER: You say that, but what police officers tell me is the social media companies have been very proactive when it comes to pedophilia online and they have successfully closed down those conversations, but they're refusing to do so when it comes to terrorism. What's the difference there?

BECKSTROM: The pedophilia, I think, is easier to define and easier to judge. You know, the experts can see if there's children in photos and inappropriate activities that's not of their choice. I think the lines are easier to draw there. And to be candid, there's been better international collaboration on defining what's acceptable and not. In terms of political discourse and terrorism, I think it's much more subtle. I don't think it's nearly as easy, Max.

[02:49:09] FOSTER: OK. Rod Beckstrom, it's going to be a big debate here this week in the U.K. and around the world, I'm sure.

Thanks very much, indeed, for joining us.

We'll have more on how the attacks unfolded here in London and the political repercussions as we head into the election on Thursday after this short break.

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FOSTER: Now, the Manchester benefit concert went on as scheduled despite the London terror rampage. Pop star, Ariana Grande, headlined the One Love show honoring the victims and survivors of last month's deadly attack at her concert in Manchester. Sunday's event brought together 50,000 fans and some of the biggest names in music all in the name of strength and unity.

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(SINGING)

ARIANA GRANDE, SINGER: I had the pleasure sure of meeting Olivia's mommy a few days ago, and as soon as I met her, I started crying, and I gave her a big hug. And she said that -- she stopped crying because Olivia wouldn't have wanted me to cry.

(APPLAUSE)

GRANDE: And she told me that Olivia would have wanted to hear the hit.

(APPLAUSE)

GRANDE: Thank you so much for coming together and being so loving and strong and unified.

(CHEERING)

(SINGING)

GRANDE: It's not easy to always choose love, is it?

(CHEERING)

GRANDE: Tell them I love you. Look in their eye. Say, I love you.

(SINGING)

[02:55:13] UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: I just want to take this moment to honor the people that were lost or that were taken.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: We love you so much. To the families, we love you so much.

(SINGING)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Quite an incredible moment last night in Manchester. Having a real effect on the nation obviously in light of what happened here in London as well.

I'm Max Foster, in London. Thank you for watching CNN.

I'm back for another hour of news and the latest developments on the Manchester attack and the tributes to Manchester after the break.

To viewers in the U.S., "Early Start" is next.

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