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Trump's Twitter Tirade; U.S. Health Care; U.S.-South Korea Summit; Hong Kong Handover Anniversary; Battle for Mosul; Trump's Twitter Tirade; U.S. Health Care; Crisis in Venezuela; The Month that Shook London. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 01, 2017 - 04:00   ET

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

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The U.S. president versus "Morning Joe": the Twitter war between Donald Trump and two U.S. television hosts escalates.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Also, a warning for Hong Kong. The Chinese President Xi Jinping warns residents there not to challenge the mainland's authority.

ALLEN (voice-over): And terror attack, political chaos and a raging fire; the month that London wishes it could forget.

HOWELL (voice-over): Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN (voice-over): I'm Natalie Allen. And NEWSROOM starts right now.

HOWELL: It is 4:00 am on the East Coast.

Several big issues that are on the U.S. president's plate: the current push for progress on health care, the upcoming meeting with the president of Russia but overshadowing it all, his Twitter war with two U.S. journalists now taking a twist with a supermarket tabloid.

ALLEN: The MSNBC co-hosts alleged the Trump White House tried to use the threat of a negative article about them to influence their coverage of the president. Here is CNN's Jessica Schneider.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new allegation from the MSNBC hosts engaged in a war with the White House. Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough claimed they were threatened by the White House this spring.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC ANCHOR: We got a call that, hey, the "National Enquirer" is going to run a negative story against you guys. They said, if you call the president up and you apologize for your

coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike the story. Three people at the very top of the administration calling me.

SCHNEIDER: Brzezinski and Scarborough first lobbed the accusation in "The Washington Post" column Friday morning.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC ANCHOR: He appears to have a fragile, impetuous, childlike ego that we've seen over and over again, especially with women. It's like he can't take it.

SCHNEIDER: This was the story the "National Enquirer" ultimately ran in June, accusing the couple of cheating on their spouses. Brzezinski said the tabloid hounded her family to get the story.

BRZEZINSKI: They were calling my children. They were calling close friends.

SCARBOROUGH: You're talking about the "National Enquirer"?

SCHNEIDER: The president has close ties to the "Enquirer," which endorsed him during the 2016 campaign and has relentlessly attacked his political adversaries.

President Trump and a "National Enquirer" publisher, David Pecker, are close friends and allies.

The "National Enquirer's" editor-in-charge, Dylan Howard, issued this statement, "At the beginning of June, we accurately reported a story that recounted the relationship between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the truth of which is not in dispute.

"At no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children in connection with our reporting on the story. We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story and absolutely no involvement in those discussions."

After the explosive accusation from the couple on air, the president responded, tweeting, "Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show."

Scarborough quoted the president's tweets and called him out, "Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months."

NBC confirmed to CNN that Scarborough told NBC News executives about the threats and calls from the White House as they were happening.

But the White House is putting out a different spin. An official says it was Joe Scarborough who called Jared Kushner about the upcoming "National Enquirer" story.

Kushner then told Scarborough to call the president, but the official denies there was any indication that the president would help kill the "Enquirer" story in exchange. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Very interesting allegations there. We'll certainly have to see how this plays out.

ALLEN: And I'll have a guest here and we'll have a guest here in a moment to talk more about that.

HOWELL: Absolutely. Moving forward, the U.S. president and his patience wearing thin over stalled efforts to replace ObamaCare as he promised during the campaign.

ALLEN: On Friday he tweeted, "If Republican senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately repeal and then replace at a later date."

HOWELL: In the past, Mr. Trump has repeatedly said repeal and replace, that it would happen simultaneously. According to the White House, that is still the preferred route.

ALLEN: The Congressional Budget Office estimates 50 million insured people will be without coverage by the year 2026 if ObamaCare were repealed without being replaced.

Joining us now from London is Brian Klaas, who teaches comparative politics at the London School of Economics.

Let's start with health care, Brian.

Why would the president and the Republicans want to repeal ObamaCare without having something right there to replace it?

BRIAN KLAAS, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Well, I think they want to create a sort of cliff, where the repeal without replace option is so bad the CBO says --

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KLAAS: -- 32 million more people would be uninsured and premiums would double, that it would put pressure on the Republicans in the House and the Senate to pass a flawed replace bill, which is what's on the table right now.

Repeal and replace simultaneously is the responsible thing to do. You cannot pass legislation and say we'll clean up the mess later. It's something that is a reckless approach. And it's also completely at odds with what Trump has been saying for months.

He pressured Republicans in Congress to do these simultaneously when they previously stated a preference to do repeal and then replace later.

ALLEN: Is this a move just to get ObamaCare out of the way?

Because it seems that over and over again for this president it's been about getting rid of something that has Mr. Obama's legacy. KLAAS: Yes, I think, that's certainly part of it. And I think this is a broader point about health insurance markets in the United States. ObamaCare has become a trade-in term for health insurance in America.

So people are actually pretty happy with most of the planks of the ObamaCare. People want pre-existing conditions to be covered; they want subsidies; they want their children to be on their plans. They want Medicaid to be available to poor and disabled people. Those are the planks of ObamaCare, the main ones.

And yet this has become, ObamaCare has become synonymous with health insurance and people are upset about their health insurance because it's too expensive.

But the solution to that is to actually come together in a bipartisan way and look at technical fixes for the bill. It's not to repeal ObamaCare simply because it says Obama in the title. It's to fix health insurance so it works, so it lowers costs and increases competition and it protects people who are vulnerable.

And that's a bipartisan goal. And yet this bill process has been completely shutting out the Democrats. There has been closed hearings, there has been no Democratic amendments.

And that is why we are at this mess, where Republicans are feeling increasingly skittish about passing something that the CBO, a nonpartisan, independent, objective source, says will kick people off health insurance and cause premiums to rise for many people who are extremely vulnerable.

ALLEN: It's stressful for anyone in this country, especially for those who are on ObamaCare and can't figure out what their future is.

So let's switch to this tweet by President Trump. It is a vulgar tweet. He again has the calls for him to stop but he just can't or he doesn't want to.

Or what is it?

Because it seems like he just can't self-restrain or doesn't want to.

Which is it?

KLAAS: This is who he is. President Trump has behaved like this as candidate Trump, he behaved like this as reality show star Donald Trump and he behaved like this as a businessman. And this is just fundamentally who the person is.

The problem now is that those tweets carry the moniker of the United States president. And that matters.

And so I think, you know, this is so below the office, it's undignified, it's embarrassing, it hurts the United States' image in the world. And he should apologize. I don't think he will, because he never does. But this is not the behavior of a person who is in the Oval Office.

This is something where we should be able to debate health care policy, tax policy, these things that divide America on policy lines, they're OK. You can debate them.

But you can't debate basic decency and this is a fundamentally indecent act that he's doing on basically cyber bullying in a misogynistic way to millions of people. And I think it sets the tone in such a negative direction for American politics that it needs to be rebuked across the aisle.

And that's -- I'm very heartened to see that some Republican senators are speaking out about it.

ALLEN: And it seems that -- it just seems that he doesn't know he's embarrassing himself. It's not just the country and the denigrating of the office but he's kind of shooting himself in the foot every time he does this and shows this character -- or lack thereof.

KLAAS: He is a political master class on shooting from the hip straight into his own foot and he does this repeatedly on Twitter. He's undermining his policy agenda, he's undermining the gravitas and the credibility of the United States and the office he holds.

And, frankly, it's embarrassing. It's undignified. It's embarrassing conduct.

And anyone with who has leverage to stop him, including potentially his wife, who alleges to be leading a campaign against cyber bullying, should maybe weigh in and take away his Twitter feed because it is doing immense damage that is difficult to walk back.

ALLEN: Brian Klaas, thank you for joining us.

KLAAS: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: The U.S. and South Korea seem to be sending mixed messages about North Korea while President Trump is warning that Washington's patience is over. South Korean president Moon Jae-in is urging open dialogue.

HOWELL: There are two very different messages here. Here is Moon Jae-in's statement.

It reads as follows, "President Trump and I will not pursue a hostile policy against North Korea. We have no intention to attack North Korea. We do not wish to see the regime replaced or collapse."

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HOWELL: Very different message there. Our Barbara Starr has this report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's first White House meeting with South Korea's newly elected president Moon came with a message for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

TRUMP: The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed, many years that it's failed. And frankly, that patience is over.

STARR: But now what?

How does the Trump administration intend to stop North Korea's rapidly accelerating effort to build a missile and a nuclear warhead that could hit the United States?

TRUMP: We're working closely with South Korea and Japan as well as partners around the world on a range of diplomatic, security and economic measures to protect our allies and our own citizens from this menace known as North Korea.

STARR: The U.S. military remains on alert, watching for any hint of a missile launch or even another underground nuclear test. Trump initially leaned on China to help stop North Korea's weapons testing.

TRUMP: The relationship developed by President Xi and myself, I think, is outstanding.

STARR: Pressuring Chinese President Xi to use his influence with Kim. But that appears to have changed. The Trump administration issued new sanctions against a Chinese bank for allegedly helping North Korea, then hours later announced a massive U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province. Beijing is furious.

LU KANG, SPOKESMAN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): The U.S. arms sale to Taiwan has seriously violated international law and basic principles of international relations.

STARR: With diplomacy uncertain, U.S. military options for North Korea have recently been updated.

H.R. MCMASTER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The threat is much more immediate now. The president has directed us to prepare a range of options including a military option, which nobody wants to take.

STARR: But a U.S. military strike could trigger catastrophe.

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TOM DONILON: , I think, that if U.S. chose to strike North Korea in any way, we would most likely see an immediate North Korean response.

That could take different forms. It could be a counterattack on South Korea. It could be another cyber-attack. And Kim Jong-un, feeling as emboldened as he does, would likely react in a very strong way.

STARR: And a North Korean counterattack could have a massive human toll, millions of South Koreans and 28,000 U.S. troops and their families at risk -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Barbara, thank you.

Now to Hong Kong. Thousands of pro-democracy protesters there are marching; the annual protest just hours after China's national flag was raised over Hong Kong, marking 20 years since the end of British colonial rule. The Chinese President Xi Jinping visited for the occasion but has now left Hong Kong.

ALLEN: But before he departed, he warned against challenging China's authority, saying it will not be tolerated. Mr. Xi also swore in Hong Kong's first female leader, Carrie Lam. She called for unity.

But there were clashes earlier Saturday as police and pro-China demonstrators scuffled with pro-democracy protesters.

HOWELL: Let's crossover straight to Hong Kong. Our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson is live, there where protesters have gathered.

Ivan, good to have you with us this hour. So very direct words from the Chinese president.

How is that message being perceived there on the ground, where protesters typically do there in Hong Kong?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the people here are showing their opposition to that kind of statement in this uniquely Hong Kong tradition, the annual pro-democracy march every year on the anniversary of the handover from British rule to Chinese central government rule.

You won't see this, George, in any other city in China and it's a diversity of political opinion. For example, labor unionists dressed as zombies, as you can see, complaining about long working hours.

And we'll go back through here. You have somebody showing the arrest and the jailing of the Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, who was partially released from prison after years because he's suffering from cancer but not being allowed to leave the country for cancer treatment.

So, again, this is a unique Hong Kong tradition because, unlike the rest of China, Hong Kong allows opposition political parties and freedom of the press and expression; whereas, China has one party, Communist Party rule. And one of the main themes among these diverse activists, who have come out here --

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WATSON: -- is a concern that 20 years after the handover from Britain to China, that democratic freedoms are eroding here and that China is gradually tightening its grip over this city. Now the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, he made his first visit as leader

of China to Hong Kong. And he said this city is more free and more democratic than ever. But he made clear that there are limits to that freedom.

Take a listen to an excerpt of his speech today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the basic law of the HKSAR or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now here's another issue here. There's clearly among these diverse political opinions a disaffection between Hong Kongers and the rest of China. A recent Hong Kong University poll showing that some 62 percent of Hong Kongers surveyed, of them, 62 percent are not proud to be Chinese citizens; only 34 percent are proud to be officially part of China.

And when you look at the numbers among the youth who responded, that number soars to 80 percent who are not proud. There is a growing ambivalence and alienation between people who live here in the city or in the commercial center right now and the mainland -- George.

HOWELL: OK, Ivan, so you're surrounded by protesters on the streets but, again, there are many people who've moved to Hong Kong from the mainland. Help our viewers to understand that divide because there are also those who do support the president's message for unity.

WATSON: That's right. And we have also seen rallies and events, cultural events today, celebrating the anniversary of the handover or, as the authorities have described it, the return of Hong Kong to the motherland.

We saw a couple blocks before where we are right now an interesting kind of confrontation, peaceful, thankfully, between pro-Beijing demonstrators, waving the red flag of China, and these pro-democracy demonstrators.

So, of course, there are people who are proud to be part of China, though Hong Kong has a different and unique cultural and -- cultural and linguistic identity.

The influx of Mainland Chinese to Hong Kong is one of the reasons for the tension here. It has helped drive up real estate prices and led to a real housing crisis that, I think, arguably is at the root of much of the disaffection that Hong Kongers feel about 20 years of Chinese central government rule here -- George.

HOWELL: We're seeing Ivan there on the streets, with you giving us this view of what happens there in Hong Kong. It is what makes that city different from other cities in China, a very diverse array of political opinions there.

But again, the Chinese president saying, look, there is a line that cannot be crossed. Our senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, live in Hong Kong. Thank you for the report.

Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, troops on the ground say the battle is nearly over in Mosul but the final days could bring some of the fiercest fighting yet.

ALLEN: And a Chinese graduate student disappears in the American Midwest. How surveillance video may have solved the mystery of what happened to her.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to you.

World leaders are paying their respects to the father of Germany as we know it. A ceremony to honor the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl is taking place in France today. His body will then be brought back to Germany for his funeral.

HOWELL: Of those attending, the French president, Emmanuel Macron; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former U.S. president, Bill Clinton.

Kohl led his country between 1982 and 1998 and pioneered the reunification of East and West Germany. He died earlier this month. He was 87 years old.

Iraqi forces are confident that the fight to retake Mosul is nearly over. They say a victory will come within days rather than weeks. But the last part of that battle will be fierce.

ALLEN: Commanders say the ISIS fighters who remain will look to do as much damage as possible. Our Nick Paton Walsh has been on the front lines. Here is his report.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: It is clear, according to our sources on the ground, that in the overnight period, Iraqi forces have managed to secure the al-Nuri mosque, that great symbolic place for ISIS, where Abu Baker al-Baghdadi gave his one singular public appearance, announcing the beginning of the caliphate. They appear to have moved past it and further deep into the old city of Mosul, hundreds of meters now potentially between them on the river that marks the end of ISIS territory.

But that's no comfort to thousands of civilians still caught in that area that ISIS control. We saw some of them emerging ourselves yesterday, talking of an absence of anything apart from war to being shelled constantly, some injured hobbling simply out of the rubble.

Before the question, though, it is simply a matter of trying days, says the U.S.-backed coalition and the Iraqi government until Mosul falls entirely.

The broader question is how does Iraq deal with the lingering insurgency that ISIS will become in the months and years ahead. They're already seeing parts of it reaching into Baghdad and elsewhere.

There are certain towns like Hawija that ISIS still have a substantial presence in. This isn't really over. Politically, the message may be out that they've defeated ISIS. But politically, too, they have to enter into room to reconciliation here. Remember the got of Baghdad is predominantly Shia; they've had a lot of Shia forces fighting against areas which are predominantly Sunni.

Remember the Sunni-Shia split in Iraq, the Sunnis were in control on the Sudan. Now the Shia are dominating control. The question is how do you get that Sunni part of the population, the extremists, of whom felt --

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WALSH: -- more affinity, frankly, with ISIS than anybody else here.

How do you get them to come together and for Iraq to heal?

Well, the pace in which declarations of victory have been made suggest maybe reconciliation isn't on the top of people's agenda. We'll have to see in the months ahead because, without a broader healing here, we may see something like ISIS rear its head again.

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ALLEN: Nick Paton Walsh will join us live next hour for the latest.

In the U.S. state of Illinois, a man is now under arrest in the disappearance of a Chinese graduate student. The 26-year-old Yingying Zhang was last seen June 9th. Authorities have charged Brendt Christensen with kidnapping her. The FBI fears she is no longer alive.

HOWELL: Surveillance video shows Zhang getting into Christensen's car the day that she disappeared. According to a criminal complaint, the suspect was overheard saying he had abducted her. The complaint also said that he visited online forums that described how to carry out kidnappings. ALLEN: Pretty sick.

A doctor opened fire Friday in a New York hospital where he used to work, killing a woman and then turning the gun on himself. The shooter was described as a disgruntled employee who resigned two years ago.

Official say at the time of the attack, he was wearing a white lab coat and carrying identification.

HOWELL: At least six people were wounded there and five are said to be in serious condition. Authorities haven't offered a motive at this point but the FBI says the shooting does not appear to be an act of terrorism.

ALLEN: It was terrorizing for the people there, that's for sure.

HOWELL: Absolutely.

ALLEN: Coming up here, water, food, medicine; Venezuela is running out of most of it. We will see the journey as many cross the border looking for help.

HOWELL: Plus, a month like no other. London comes to terms with a painful and unprecedented few weeks. A special CNN report ahead. We're live from Atlanta, Georgia, here in the United States and around the world this hour. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN. It is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our headlines right now.

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HOWELL: Fair to say the U.S. president has a thing for personal attacks. Punching back, as his aides say, is one of the things that he likes to do that makes him unlike others. But it's not just the content of his latest attacks that are raising questions here.

ALLEN: The target of his anger, television hosts, points to another unique quality in Mr. Trump, his now storied TV habits. Here is our Randi Kaye with a closer look.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You could say President Donald Trump is always plugged in with flat screen TVs throughout the White House. TV comes first in the morning, notably "FOX and Friends." and it is one of the last things he does before bed. TRUMP: I watched this morning a couple of the networks. I have to say "FOX and Friends" in the morning, they're very honorable people.

KAYE: Trump loves seeing himself on TV, too. He has been known to shush others so he could hear taped interviews he did and what's being said about him on TV. It is a television obsession like no other president before him.

TRUMP: You are all better than that.

KAYE: Nurtured by his own experience in television as a reality TV star on the apprentice.

TRUMP: We have never had a team lose so badly. You are all fired. All four of you are fired.

KAYE: It's a useful tool for him, too. Early on during the campaign, he turned to TV to brush up on the military.

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Who do you talk to for military advice right now?

TRUMP: Well, I watch the shows. I mean, I really see a lot of great -- you know, when you watch your show and all of the other shows and you have the generals.

KAYE: According to "The Washington Post," the president is known to hate watch, tuning in to networks and shows that are anything but complimentary of him.

TRUMP: Every network you see hits me on every topic, made up stories like Russia.

KAYE: The president watches so much TV, reportedly hours a day, that some members of Congress have started using it to get his attention.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: I know you're watching.

KAYE: Representative Elijah Cummings appealed directly to the President on "Morning Joe." A day or so later, "The Washington Post" reports Trump called Cummings to talk about prescription drugs.

As his advisor, Kellyanne Conway, put it, Donald Trump comes to the White House with a sophisticated understanding of how the power of television and the power of imagery, the power of message all work together -- Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

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HOWELL: Randi, thank you.

Republican efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare might be putting rural Americans at risk.

ALLEN: Many small towns have lost hospitals due to shrinking budgets and cuts to Medicaid could make the problem worse. Nick Valencia reports from Georgia.

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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here in Richland, Georgia, just two hours south of Atlanta, it's a different world from the big city. Access to basic services, including a hospital, is not a guarantee.

ALLURI RAJU, PHYSICIAN: (INAUDIBLE).

VALENCIA: Dr. Alluri Raju has been the only doctor in town since the nearest hospital, Stewart Webster Hospital, shut down in 2013. Nearly 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. And now hundreds more are at risk. To add insult to injury, the facility was shuttered with little warning.

RAJU: Gave us notice on Monday and we closed the hospital by Friday.

VALENCIA (on camera): What was that like?

RAJU: Oh, it was very devastating and --

[04:35:00]

RAJU: -- very sad.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Dr. Raju, who was the chief of staff at the hospital, is now in high demand.

RAJU: I see about 22, 25 patients a day.

VALENCIA (on camera): And you're the only doctor here?

RAJU: I work full time, Monday through Friday.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Raju says most of his patients are elderly. And that 95 percent of his patients are now on Medicare or Medicaid.

Under the new health care Senate bill, these subsidies would shrivel, putting the only doctor in town at risk of closing, too.

RAJU: If there is Medicaid cuts, it's going to impact.

VALENCIA (on camera): How bad?

RAJU: Very bad.

VALENCIA (voice-over): With the nearest hospital at least a 45-minute drive away, residents of Richland live in a medical desert.

It makes the jobs of Ed Lynch and his small crew of EMTs even harder. His two ambulances service an area larger than Los Angeles. They receive an average of 1,200 calls per year.

ED LYNCH, EMT: They can be hung up at a hospital three, four hours before they get a bed. And then, if we get a call, we can go hours without coverage.

VALENCIA: Since the hospital shut down, they've become mobile emergency rooms.

LYNCH: Rural Georgia is dying. There used to be hospitals littering the whole state.

VALENCIA: It's more than just an inconvenience for Richland resident, Anna Lord Barrett. With no hospital close by and Dr. Raju unavailable, she had to call an ambulance when she caught the flu.

ANNA LORD BARRETT, RICHLAND, GEORGIA, RESIDENT: It would have been simpler to get fluids right here and come home, which is what I needed. But it took all night long.

VALENCIA: But without a hospital, others, who have suffered from something more serious, haven't been so lucky.

LYNCH: I can remember when having to ventilate somebody. I've seen people I know all my life die. We can't save everybody. But it's nice to save the ones we can.

VALENCIA (on camera): Rural residents are in a public health crisis. Small-town hospitals, like this one, are closing all across America. But especially in the southeast. Here in Georgia, the state has identified up to 50 other small-town hospitals in danger of closing doors -- Nick Valencia, CNN, Richland, Georgia.

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HOWELL: Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, as the political crisis grows deadlier, many Venezuelans are running out of the basic things that they need to survive. We'll explain. Stay with us.

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ALLEN: The crisis gripping Venezuela is growing more violent with each passing day. New clashes erupted between police and protesters in Caracas on Friday.

HOWELL: The country's supreme court has slapped a travel ban on attorney general Luise Ortega, who is a top critic of the president, Nicolas Maduro. Officials say at least 83 people have died since the demonstrations started in the last few months.

ALLEN: Venezuelans desperate for food and medicine have been traveling to the Colombian border for basic necessities.

HOWELL: Our Leyla Santiago spoke to some Venezuelans regularly making that journey. Here is her report from the border. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the border between Colombia and Venezuela. We are in Cucuta, Colombia, and this is where tens of thousands of people come from Venezuela to cross into Colombia to find some sort of relief from the economic instability, the political unrest, to get very basic goods to feed their families and for health care.

You can see this woman is coming through -- (speaking Spanish) -- looks like she has bread and she has some potatoes as well.

(Speaking Spanish).

And she is saying this will last her about five days. But she crosses into Colombia because she can't find this stuff over there. She said it's cheap on the other side. And she says, on the other side, there isn't any food, that -- she says that they are dying from starvation.

And that is just one face to what many here are calling a humanitarian crisis. We went onto the other side of Colombia; we talked to a store owner there. They told us, oftentimes in Colombia, the shelves are certainly full but because of the weak currency from Venezuela and the low wages -- minimum wage is about $45 U.S. a month -- many can't afford to buy things on the other side if they find it.

And they say soap, at this point, is a luxury -- Leyla Santiago, Cucuta, Colombia, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Still ahead here, a city shaken but standing together, London comes to terms with a month that tested it in brutal and unexpected ways.

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HOWELL: For those of you who follow the news here the last several months, you know this, terror attacks, a devastating fire, continued political uncertainty. London has been through what has been arguably one of its worst months in recent times.

ALLEN: Now in a special film for CNN, Nick Glass takes a look back at the month that put Britain under pressure.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Summer in the city. You wouldn't know it from above but a wounded scarred city, multinational, multifaith, multicultural London. The mood on the ground seems superficially the same, lazy, playful, sweltering Hyde Park. This was one of the hottest Junes on record.

There was still a detectable anxiety, perhaps, you can feel if you're a tourist in Trafalgar Square, a space for a girl from Dubai to blow bubbles and for the boys from South Korea to dance their selfie stick dance.

It wasn't just the heat wave. June was searing in so many other ways.

A month of political shocks. Theresa May only just managing to cling to power and disinclined to risk mixing with the general public.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep moving. Stay calm as you can.

GLASS (voice-over): For others, June was simply the cruelest of months. Terrorist savagery. And terrible human tragedy. Much of it recorded on mobile phones.

In June, London has gathered instead in silence, time and again, more often perhaps than they ever have in a single month.

SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: These have been a terrible two weeks for London, unprecedented in recent times.

CRESSIDA DICK, COMMISSIONER, METROPOLITAN POLICE SERVICE: This is a very resilient city. And this is a very, very resilient set of communities.

And we, in the Met, are as shocked as anybody in this local community or across the country at what has happened.

GLASS (voice-over): We revisited the site of the London Bridge attack, drove south across the river just as the terrorists had. There's now a concrete barrier along the pavement to protect pedestrians from being deliberately driven into.

Evil visited London Bridge on Saturday, June 3rd, just after 10 o'clock, the atrocity lasted eight long minutes. The abandoned terrorist van on the bridge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't look back. Just keep moving.

GLASS (voice-over): People hiding, cowering under tables in restaurants.

Nearby Borough Market attracts many tourists. Three women, five men, were murdered that night, victims of five nationalities -- Australia, France, Spain, Canada and Britain.

Police shot the three terrorists dead in the middle of the market, a policeman standing over one of them. The British foreign secretary referred to them as "scumbags."

A policeman decided to fight back on his own. The terrorist had long knives; he had a police baton. He suffered multiple injuries.

WAYNE MARQUES, POLICE OFFICER WHO FOUGHT LONDON BRIDGE ATTACKER WITH A BATON: There are members of the family and the girlfriend that think, no, that is enough. You've done your time. That's more than enough.

I wonder whether I have to answer that question at a later stage. I can't be a --

[04:50:00]

MARQUES: -- police officer without my left hand and without my left leg.

GLASS (voice-over): Staff at the Barrow Boy & Banker Pub, where two of the victims have been having a drink, are now receiving counseling. There's evidently deep trauma here. No one would talk to us.

And it was the same down in Borough Market. On a rainy evening, trade was good again. People were trying to move on. But staff working on that terrible night were keeping their own counsel.

There was a sense of a family still freshly in mourning. A few people haven't returned to work.

But inevitably, business life has resumed. Every day, they hurry past this shrine in the middle of London Bridge.

This is basically a memorial to a city banker, a Spaniard called Ignacio Echeverria. He died using his skateboard, defending a woman against a knife attack, hence the recurring skateboard motif.

A group of Spanish volunteers have been tending the shrine every day. Neither of these women knew Ignacio. They just admired him for his valor.

The Queen somehow seemed more visible during the month. At 91, she did what she always does in June, attending Trooping of the Colour and the races at Royal Ascot.

But she also had to read an unusually abbreviated Queen's Speech at the state opening of parliament, did so without all her usual regalia and with her eldest son for company. Prince Philip was ill on the day.

The Queen also visited the site of the terrible fire in West London that claimed at least 80 lives.

Driving out of town and you simply can't miss it, a blackened monolith among the tower blocks, a desolate burnt out shell, a stump, an accusing finger.

Tragedy struck Grenfell Tower in West London on Wednesday, June 14th, just before 1:00 in the morning. A local resident, Joe Delaney, was filming on his mobile.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Mum! Mum!

JOE DELANEY, EYEWITNESS TO THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE: I honestly don't --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help! Help!

DELANEY: It looks to me like it's only the outside.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help!

DELANEY: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help!

DELANEY: Oh, Jesus! That's where the stairs are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!

DELANEY: All you could that night was people screaming. That was it. There were people at windows up there who were just screaming the whole time, above, you know, for people to help them.

GLASS (voice-over): Revisiting the streets around the tower a week after the fire and the grief was still palpable. In the first few hours and days, relatives pin photos of their missing loved ones wherever they could and they were still going up, with long hope long faded.

This man named Jafari was remembering his father.

"Miss you, Dad," he had scrolled on the photo.

One woman was coming to terms with apparently losing six relatives, including her mother, her sister and three nieces.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you want your family to be remembered?

SAWSAN CHOUCAIR, RELATIVE OF MISSING PERSON: Love, memory, pictures and everything.

DELANEY: It's been horrible. I mean, it's like -- it is just really starting to hit me now. It's like, up to now, I've run on anger to get things done.

And I'm running out of anger to run on and there's nothing left to run on. And I don't know what -- I don't know what's going to be there when there's nothing left.

GLASS (voice-over): Utterly and emotionally drained, Joe Delaney simply broke down at the end of our interview, disappeared off into a corner and sat facing a blank wall, anguish personified.

Just a day before the Grenfell fire, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition opened in London, an annual ritual for art lovers. But even here, there was art that resonated -- a howl, a scream for our times: a fiberglass sculpture by Anish Kapoor, bloody and white, called "Unborn"; and a neon piece from Tracey Emin, "Never Again."

Finsbury Park, North London, Monday, June 19th, shortly after a midnight. And a man is pinned to the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to kill? You want to kill me?

GLASS (voice-over): This was the driver of a van. He had just veered off the road and driven into a group of Muslim worshippers. One man died, 10 others were injured. Most of the victims and eyewitnesses were Somali.

MARYAN ALI, WITNESS OF FINSBURY PARK ATTACK: I was shocked.

[04:55:00]

ALI: Shocked! I never see something be like that. Even in my country was war, I never see people as like this. Never.

GLASS (voice-over): Abdul Muridi is 29. He runs the cafe just a few yards away. The victims were his customers, his friends. He's still in shock.

ABDUL MURIDI, WITNESS OF FINSBURY PARK ATTACK: This is -- it's unbelievable.

As human being, would you like to go around the city you're living in and looking behind your back?

GLASS (on camera): And that's what you feel now?

MURIDI: Yes.

Will you feel -- will you like that?

A land you -- the country you're living in. Every time you come out from your house, if you're driving, if you're walking, you have to look behind your back because you never know who is there.

GLASS (voice-over): Londoners are hoping that July will also be warm, but in that very English way, not quite as hot as June. They'd also like it to be uneventful. Some communities in Central West and North London are still healing -- Nick Glass, CNN, in the great and recovering city of London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: A city loved by the world. We wish for them an uneventful July.

HOWELL: And a great city, indeed.

ALLEN: Thank you for watching this hour. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. The news continues here on CNN, right after the break.

ALLEN: We'll be right back.