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North Korea Sanctions; Russia Sanctions; White House Shakeup; McMaster Difficulties; Crisis in Venezuela; British Model Kidnapping; Atlantic Storm and Typhoon Noru; Race Loss by Usain Bolt; Paris St. Germain Win; African Basketball; Upcoming Airing of Princess Diana Interviews. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired August 06, 2017 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the topic front and center at a summit of world leaders taking place in Manila this hour, this after the U.N. slaps heavy sanctions on Pyongyang. Also at that summit the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with his Russian counterpart, an important meeting as relations between these two countries has hit as described a very dangerous low.
And ahead this hour, private tapes of Princess Diana will air in the United Kingdom on Sunday, while their release is facing fierce criticism. Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell. The CNN Newsroom starts right now.
Around the world, good day to you, it is 5 AM on the U.S. East Coast and we begin with tough new sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program and the top U.S. diplomat likely to urge Asian leaders to isolate the nation even more. The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in the Philippines this hour for a security summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN as it's better known. Mr. Tillerson is set to meet this hour with his Russian counterpart.
North Korea has been a major topic of discussion at that conference. Just a day ago, you'll remember the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed sanctions including a ban on several major exports that could cut North Korea's annual export revenue by a third. The U.S. President, Donald Trump, showed his support for the sanctions on Twitter writing this, "The United Nations Security Council just voted 15 to 0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact."
In the meantime the U.S. National Security Advisor was asked if the U.S. is prepared for a military option. We'll have more on that in just a moment. Earlier, CNN asked the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. if preemptive military action is also a possibility, if it's on the table. Here's what Nikki Haley have to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: We're prepared to do whatever it takes to defend ourselves and to defend our allies. And the ball is in North Korea's court. They now have to decide where they want to go from here. We hope that they will go the route of peace and security. We hope that they will go the route of focusing on human rights and feeding their people. We hope that they will go the route of stopping modern slavery that they do in terms of sending laborers overseas and then taking the money from that situation. But again, all this now is in North Korea's court and we'll see how they respond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: North Korea's main ally, China, is urging Pyongyang to stop the nuclear provocations and Beijing is again calling on the U.S. to dismantle the anti-missile system, THAAD, that's being deployed in South Korea. Let's go live to Manila this hour, CNN's senior international correspondent Ivan Watson is tracking developments at this summit. It's good to have you with us, Ivan at this hour.
What has come out of these meetings so far? We know that Mr. Tillerson has already met with several regional leaders.
IVAN WATSON: CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, the State Department said Rex Tillerson was coming here to demonstrate further diplomatic isolation for North Korea. He hasn't entirely succeeded with that, because North Korea's foreign minister is also here in Manila expected to attend tomorrow's gather of the Asian Regional Forum that's hosted by this group ASEAN.
Where the success was for the Trump Administration was at the United Nations Security Council on Saturday where they unanimously passed this U.S.-proposed resolution that slapped these new sanctions on the North Korean regime, a moment of rare unity at the U.N. Security Council, getting China and Russia on board with this American proposal. That has been welcomed not only by the U.S. and some of its allies like Australia and South Korea, but even China has come out with the Chinese foreign minister saying that he put additional pressure in his one-on-one meeting with the North Korean Foreign Minister here in Manila telling basically Pyongyang to stop conducting these ballistic missile tests. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (THROUGH INTERPRETER): We actually had very thorough talks. The Chinese side urged the North Koreans to calmly handle the U.N. Security Council resolutions that they have just made against North Korea and not do anything unbeneficial towards the international community such as launching missiles or conducting nuclear tests.
Of course we also urge other parties, especially U.S. and South Korea, not to increase the tension. The situation on the Korean Peninsula is at a critical point of crisis, at the same time, it is a turning point to make decision to resume talks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: Now, on Saturday, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, they put out their own statement expressing grave concern over North Korea's two intercontinental ballistic missile launches that took place just last month, ASEAN saying that they could be a threat to world peace, but again, the organization stopped short of condemning the missile launches and it also pushed back against U.S. pressure to try to suspend North Korea from this Asian Regional Forum with the 10 Southeast Asian nations saying, no, it's better in fact to have a North Korean official in the tent speaking and talking, that that's a better way to try to diffuse tensions rather than to try to kick them out and freeze them out of dialog entirely. George?
HOWELL: Ivan, as you point out here from this summit, the sanctions obviously came by the U.N. unanimously, a unanimous decision, Russia and China are both on board at the same time. Though both of those nations oppose the U.S. THAAD missile system, that's a really sticky topic. I'm curious to know if THAAD might have come up, is it a big topic of discussion there as well at the same time these nations are standing together against North Korea?
WATSON: It's a constant position that both Beijing and Moscow have. They oppose the recent deployment of this THAAD anti-missile defense system that the U.S. recently put into operation in South Korea. They say that that only further exacerbates tensions in the region. If anything, Beijing and Moscow have said that they propose a kind of double suspension, a double freeze plan to de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and that proposal calls for North Korea to stop its banned nuclear weapons tests and ballistic missile tests, and at the same time, the U.S. would stop its large-scale joint military exercises with South Korea.
Washington hasn't seemed to be willing really to accept this so far. So we don't know how far this proposal coming from Moscow and Beijing is really going to go. The interesting point is that all three of these major powers came to an agreement on these new sanctions against North Korea, effectively leaving the Pyongyang regime a bit more isolated than it was just 48 hours ago, and that's despite just a whole list, not just THAAD, but a whole list of differences between Washington and Moscow and Beijing. They basically illustrated that there are some areas that these three governments that are rivals sometimes, there are some areas, like the Korean Peninsula, where they can still work together.
HOWELL: North Korea, one of those topics, but you talk about differences between nations, differences between Russia and the United States, Ivan, I know that we will be looking ahead to this meeting between the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov and the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that will be taking place there in a short time.
Ivan Watson live for us in Manila. Thank you and we'll stay in touch with you as this summit continues.
Now, with regards to the United States possibly preparing for a pre- empted strike, listen to what the U.S. National Security Advisor was asked about that on Sunday on the network MSNBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERBER RAYMOND MCMASTER, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Are we preparing plans for a preventive war, right, a war that would prevent North Korea from threatening the United States with a nuclear weapon? And the president has been very clear about it. His decision is not going to tolerate North Korea being able to threaten the United States. Look at the nature of that regime if they have nuclear weapons going to threat the United States. It's intolerable from the president's perspective. So of course, we have to provide all options to do that and that includes a military option.
HOWELL: John Delury is an Associate Professor at Yonsei University, Graduate School of International Studies. He's live in Seoul, South Korea via Skype this hour. It's good to have you with us. Let's start with what we've just heard from HR McMaster talking about the possibility of military action.
Now here's the question, that's a much stronger stance from the U.S. than we've seen before, but regardless of North Korea's response to it, is it making a difference with regional powers to use their leverage, any leverage they have to try to ratchet down these tensions?
JOHN DELURY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR YONSEI U.N.IVERSITY: Well it could be in the short run. I mean it's arresting to put it mildly to hear the National Security Advisor talk. He actually made the distinction between not a preemptive strike, but a preventive war to deny North Korea a capability that the United States does not like and feel threatened by. I mean that is pretty strong rhetoric to put it mildly.
I think one country to watch which is getting less attention is right here in South Korea, because, you know, if you go talk to South Korean people, the last thing they're interested in is a war with North Korea. And that, if you look at what the National Security Advisor said, he sort of ignored the question of the South Korean public and government in terms of being on board with that plan.
So that's one issue where that kind of rhetoric that United States would consider starting a war with North Korea, which of course South Korea would have to fight could be another piece that puts a strain on the alliance with South Korea.
HOWELL: Korea certainly would feel a great deal of the brunt of any sort of actions taken against North Korea. The nations just side by side there with the defense systems pointed at each other there.
Let's also talk about these U.N. sanctions that are designed to cut very deeply, John, into that nation's economy that will go into the coal, iron, lead industry, the seafood industry there. We have seen that this nation has weathered sanctions before. Will it make a difference this time? How will this be different?
DELURY: Yes, that's right. I mean not only does North Korea had an impressive track record over its whole history going back to the 1940s when it was founded of being able to, as you say, weather virtually any kind of economic pressure and survive. If you look at the 1990s, North Korea was in famine conditions and it weathered that. So this is not the kind of regime that is easy to bring to its knees.
Meanwhile, there's questions about in terms of this new resolution, is it really going to be the kind of game changer that it's being described as. Of course we heard a lot of it, it's not too long ago with the last resolution 2270. We were told that was going to be the one that was going to be a punch to the gut to North Korea.
So on either side, you know, on the one hand you ask is this really going to hit the North Korean economy as hard as we're being told, that's one question. The second question is, let's say it does and let's say the best case it really saps a billion dollars of their exports, is that going to change their calculus in terms of their nuclear and missile program? Probably not, because one thing they're good at is taking pain.
HOWELL: John, also the sanctions came together with unanimous support. That's a big deal on the U.N. Security Council, Russia and China standing with the United States on this issue. Do you think that type of united front will make any sort of difference in the mind of North Korea?
DELURY: Well, I mean it does show how this unrelenting pace of their missile testing is alienating the whole world. And, you know, there are countries out there if you talk to diplomats for example from other third-party countries, here in South Korea and around the region, you know, there are countries that would take a little bit more of a middle position, but those countries right now, at least those represented on the Security Council are all saying we do need a very strong clear message to the North Koreans that something has to stop, that something has to give.
But that's quite different from the carte blanche to the kinds of hawkish rhetoric that we are hearing from the National Security Advisor. Nonetheless is does send a strong message, and that's necessary to Pyongyang, that they're alienating the international community even further.
HOWELL: John Delury with his context and perspective live from Seoul, South Korea, thanks for being with us today.
DELURY: You bet.
HOWELL: The U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, as we mentioned, is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart in less than half an hours' time, a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov follows new U.N. sanctions against Moscow, a response in part to Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
The questions about that investigation of Russian activity have made headlines in Russia. That nation's former Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, speaking about his side of the story, Kislyak downplayed his conversations with the former U.S. National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. He also said that they didn't discuss sanctions. Let's get to the very latest live from Russia. CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Moscow this hour.
Oren, Mr. Tillerson and Lavrov set to meet soon, the two nations agreed on sanctions against North Korea. That's a big deal, but surely, the U.S. sanctions against Russia will be a sore spot of discussion.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and both U.S. and Russian officials have both said that because of those sanctions, U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest point in years, if not decades. In fact it was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who made that exact point and now he's about to meet with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.
It will be interesting to see what comes out of this meeting, because these two have a good working relationship that stands above the relations between the U.S. and Russia that, as they pointed out, are going so poorly right now and are on a downward trend. So we'll certainly watch on what statements come out of here. They had a call late last week. The number one issue on that call was North Korea, so we just saw them cooperate on sanctions and on sanctions against North Korea with unanimous 15 to nothing U.N. Security Council Resolution implementing more sanctions against North Korea. And that was held as diplomatic cooperation between both sides here. In fact, President Trump himself held it on Twitter when he sent this tweet or put out this tweet, "The United Nations Security Council just voted 15 to nothing to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact." And he is right to hail that as at least a partial diplomatic victory for the U.S., that all of these countries are on the same page on North Korea.
But no surprise here, they're not on the same page when it comes to just about everything else, especially U.S.'s charges against Russia's election meddling, and even after the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, hailed the vote on North Korea, she took a swipe at Russia. Here's what Nikki Haley had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HALEY: We should always be hard on any country that tries to meddle in our elections whether it's Russia or anyone else. And I think that what you saw is those sanctions were a response to the meddling and we'll now see how Russia responds with that. I will tell you that we negotiated with Russia this week on this Security Council resolution and we were able to find common ground in terms of making sure that we had a strong voice for North Korea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIEBERMANN: So Nikki Haley taking a crack there at Russia. Now it all lies around Tillerson as he meets with Lavrov to see what he can do to try to repair the relations here. George, the expectation frankly at this point is that he won't be able to do much.
HOWELL: All right, at the same time, Oren, these investigations here in the United States, they continue, there are several of them, we also know now that the Former Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, is making headlines in Russia talking about some of these things, basically saying hey, there are no secrets here, no secret conversations were had, the conversations were straightforward. But this plays very differently in public perception there in Russia as it does here.
LIEBERMANN: Russian's answer to it and Russian's perception of the Russia investigation from the U.S. has always been that there's nothing there. In fact, it was the Kremlin who just a couple of days ago called it "absurd and groundless," the ongoing investigation. Right now it's Michael Flynn, the retired National Security Advisor who is at the center of the investigations with the special investigator or the Special Council in the U.S. looking into Flynn's connections to the Turks as well as looking at his associate's connections to Russia.
We know that Flynn had meetings and has known Sergey Kislyak, the Former Russian Ambassador of the U.S., for years going back to 2013, that they had contacts during the Trump transition. That's what's at stake here, that's what they're looking at and it was Kislyak who simply said there is nothing there and the Russians have nothing to hide.
HOWELL: Oren Liebermann live for us. Oren, thank you so much. We appreciate the reporting today.
Still ahead here on Newsroom, police say that a British model kidnapped in Milan was sold to the highest bidder. Very chilling details of her abduction ahead. Plus in just one day, Venezuela's new legislative body fired its attorney general and then hired a new one. We'll tell you the reason behind that quick dismissal. And later this hour, the U.S. president embraces the long-time tradition of a working vacation. We'll take a closer look at the history of presidential getaways as Newsroom continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOWELL: The crisis in Venezuela, the leader of the opposition there, Leopoldo Lopez, has been released from jail. He was taken by police earlier this week for allegedly violating the terms of his house arrest. That comes as another critic of the President Nicolas Maduro has been fired.
Our Leyla Santiago breaks it all down for us in Caracas.
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chaos, aggression as the National Guard blocked Luisa Ortega Diaz from entering the Attorney General's Office, the now ex-attorney general rushed off just hours before this.
A unanimous vote on day one of President Maduro's controversial new assembly stripped Ortega Diaz of her position, once an ally of the President, she's now a defiant opponent. She says she wants liberty and human rights restored. The government says legal action against her awaits.
She was quickly replaced with Tarek William Saab, a Marudo loyalist who drew tears after being sworn into office. The government calls this a victory. All day long they have stood outside the attorney general's office on guard. They say it's about justice, but the opposition calls it intimidation and vows to continue the fight, a fight that has played out on the streets of Caracas for months, a fight that could take the country in a new direction with a new assembly now in power. Leyla Santiago, CNN, Caracas.
HOWELL: Leyla, thank you for the reporting. Now to Italy where police saying that a British model kidnapped in the nation was going to be abducted, auctioned off the dark web. The police arrested this 30-year old Polish national after he told the woman -- he took the woman to the British Consulate in Milan. Authorities say the 20-year old woman was kidnapped when she went to a photo shoot last month, then drugged, handcuffed and stuffed into a travel bag.
CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau is following this story live for us in Rome this hour. Barbie, what's the latest on this case?
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well more and more details are emerging. This woman, 20 years old, was kept for about a week in this remote location outside of the town of Turin, close to the French border while this man negotiated selling her on the internet in the dark net. That's a part of the web that's not indexed, not accessible by regular search engines or browsers, but you need a special sort of a browser to get there. And he was going to auction her off for a starting price of $300,000 worth of Bitcoin. One can only imagine how terrified she was for that one week of time she was held in captivity. He kept her drugged. He took pictures of her.
Eventually he led her go, took her to the British Consulate in Milan, drove her back. That's about a three-hour drive where he again put her in the trunk of the car, took her back. That's when he was taken by police who were looking at that point for the woman. All of this has been very disturbing for a lot of people, especially aspiring models who might be answering photo calls and things like that. It really, really underscores the point about how vulnerable people are. This whole thing was set up through the model's agency, so it had some legitimacy to it at least at some point, George.
HOWELL: Barbie, a case like this, just the details of it, it really does set off a warning to other people.
NADEAU: That's absolutely right. You know, the dark net, this part of the web, is a sinister place and sex trafficking, human trafficking all sorts of pedophilia, all these things go on there and it's really hard for authorities even if they know about these websites to understand where the people are being held captive or where these sites are located. And one of the things the Italian authorities are very concerned with right now is whether this is part of a larger network and whether or not there are other people, other young models, unsuspecting people who came to Italy or other places, are being sold like this on the internet, George.
HOWELL: Barbie Nadeau, thank you very much for the report. Obviously we'll stay in touch with you. Thank you.
Still ahead here on Newsroom, a highly anticipated meeting between tough Russian and U.S. diplomats will be live in Manila. When that happens, we are monitoring the event. Plus Princess Diana is once again at the center of a fight for privacy, two decades after her death, details on the controversial tapes that are set to air in the United Kingdom still ahead.
CNN is live from Atlanta, Georgia this hour on our networks both in the United States and around the world. Newsroom right back after the break, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOWELL: 11:29 AM in the French capital, 5:29 AM here in Atlanta, Georgia and to all points in between, you're watching CNN Newsroom worldwide this hour. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you.
The U.S. says that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is on notice over his nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed new tough sanctions which include a ban on several major exports. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. tells CNN it's up to North Korea whether the U.S. considers a military option. The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also has North Korea on his agenda this weekend. Tillerson is in the Philippines for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He met earlier with South Korea's Foreign Minister and another meeting with tough Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov is only a few minutes away, we continue to monitor.
Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani has been sworn in for a second term as leader there and he's accusing the United States of undermining the 2015 nuclear deal. The U.S. announced new sanctions targeting Tehran last month right after confirming Iran was honoring the deal.
In the U.S. State of Minnesota, authorities say a homemade explosive device caused a blast at a mosque. It happened around the time of mourning prayer at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center on Saturday. No one was injured there, authorities haven't said if they are investigating this as a hate crime.
We are monitoring the situation in the capital of the Philippines this hour. The U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to meet momentarily with Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. They're holding talks at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN as it's better known, taking place in Manila. North Korea maybe on the agenda there of course, we're also waiting to see if they address Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
In the meantime, Russia's Former Foreign Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak is pulling out his version of conversations with the fired U.S. National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. In an interview with Russian state media, Kislyak downplayed those meetings as innocent and insignificant, despite reports of the contrary, findings by U.S., by agencies, Kislyak says that he and Flynn did not talk about U.S. sanctions. Listen.
SERGEY KISLYAK, FORMER FOREIGN RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR (THROUGH INTERPRETER): There are a few topics that are important to U.S.- Russia cooperation. First of all, it's terrorism. This is one of the topics we discussed. This conversation was proper, calm and absolutely transparent. There were no secrets at least on our side.
HOWELL: Earlier I spoke about Kislyak's denial with Scott Lucas. Scott teaches international politics at the University of Birmingham in England. Here's what he had to say.
SCOTT LUCAS, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND: The fact is he's there to maintain a line that there's absolutely nothing improper in any relations between the Russians and the Trump campaign and then later the Trump Administration. The problem is, of course, is that the evidence which is being gone through right now by the special council, Robert Mueller, will include whether or not Michael Flynn who is the first subject I think of the probe and ambassador Kislyak did discuss sanctions in five conversations on the day in December of 2016 when President Obama announced new restrictions on Russia over its election interference.
We also know that the investigation will be considering Kislyak's other meetings, some of which may have been monitored by U.S. intelligence with other Trump associates. And we do know that going beyond Kislyak, that the first thing that Donald Trump said when he met the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and in fact Mr. Kislyak in May of this year was to brag about the fact that he had fired FBI Director James Comey who he called crazy and a nut job over the Trump- Russia investigation.
So as much as the Ambassador Kislyak wants to declare that there's no smoke here, there's still a fire which I think deserves to be considered.
HOWELL: And now as far as the White House and its ability to have a cohesive media strategy on this topic and various others, you will remember there's been quite a shakeup there. Anthony Scaramucci, The Mooch as he was called, was hired and fired and lasted 10 days on the job. Before that Sean Spicer resigned and now we're seeing Mr. Trump's senior policy advisor Stephen Miller onstage. He held a press briefing on proposed changes to U.S. immigration policy and many of the exchanges with the press, they were testy, they were combative, the type of style that it seems the Trump Administration prefers with regards to the press. Let's listen to one of those exchanges with our own Jim Acosta as Mr. Miller mixed it up with him.
STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR: I am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English. It actually -- it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree that in your mind -- no, this is an amazing moment -- this is an amazing moment. I just want to say.
JIM ACOSTA: CNN CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like you are trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.
MILLER: That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said.
HOWELL: He's putting on quite a show there on stage, but again, the topic really, issue is not about Jim Acosta but more about the American people. The question here Mr. Miller's performance on stage, it seemed that it was a job interview in many ways, would he add value to the Trump media strategy?
LUCAS: Well, look at this in a wider context, George, what some in the White House wants as Donald Trump is on a 17-day vacation is just to have a reset, just to calm everything down both on the domestic front after the failure to get healthcare and on the foreign policy front. But there're two problems.
The first is you've got a faction which includes Stephen Miller and more importantly, the chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who don't want calm. They want to push forward where they want to be aggressive. The whole Bannon strategy is on keeping everyone on the back foot with the new initiative, in this case for example, immigration. The second problem I think is even more serious believe it or not, and that is there is a campaign being waged by allies of Bannon and Miller against National Security Advisor HR McMaster, extremely nasty material on social media websites with anti-Semitic material trying to declare that McMaster is part of a plot, a deep-stake plot to get rid of Trump. Now, while the White House of course does not endorse this campaign, Donald Trump said in a brief statement to this weekend that he has faith in McMaster, there are allies of Bannon and of Trump, like Roger Stone who are basically declaring that McMaster is a neocon traitor, those exact words. And if that continues over the next few weeks, President Trump may be on the golf course, but the chaos will continue within his own administration.
HOWELL: Let's talk just a bit about Mr. President, the President rather, as you pointed out, taking a break. He is at his golf resort in New Jersey. He did take to Twitter though, Scott because he wanted to dispel the notion that he was simply relaxing, he tweeted this. Now you will remember he constantly criticized his predecessor about taking vacations and is now facing the same scrutiny.
LUCAS: Well, he certainly did and if I was being cynical which of course I'm not, I'd say he's taking meetings on the 18th tee. First, let's give credit to the earlier story that you've been covering and that was it, that was a big achievement for those in the Trump Administration in the security and foreign policy establishments to get the united show of strength against North Korea in the U.N. with the sanctions agreed with Russia and China, and that should not be belittled at all.
The problem is, is that Trump shows absolutely no grasp of the domestic and foreign policy issues and that where he now stands, today will be his 46th day on the golf course since taking office, the idea is that you have a disconnected president. Now can he turn that around with some kind of depth? We have had interviews in the past week before he took leave including one with Politico which in fact just turned into a train wreck because he doesn't have the basic grasp of an issue from healthcare, to the economy, to the North Korean crisis. And that means if we're going to get stability, the best solution may be that he stays on that golf course while there are others that take control of the playground in the White House provided we don't have a split led by say Mr. Bannon and Mr. Miller. HOWELL: Scott Lucas there with an interview that we had earlier. As presidential vacations go, Mr. Trump's latest seems typical in some ways, but unusual in others as our Ryan Nobles reports, looking back at previous presidential vacation habits.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Before becoming president, Donald Trump predicted that vacations would not be a big part of his presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I promise you I will not be taking very long vacations if I take them at all. There's no time for vacation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: But now that he's in office, this president, like many before him, has embarked on an extended time away from Washington, but not necessarily away from the job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You never escape the presidency. It travels with you everywhere you go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: Presidential summer vacations are nothing new. Teddy Roosevelt would often escape the nation's capital to hunt out west. Ronald Reagan would ride horseback in his retreat in California. George HW Bush would always spend time in Kennebunkport, Maine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: Have you talked with the White House situation room this morning?
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: I talk to them every morning at 5:30 and I'm not going to make any more comments out here though.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: As for Bill Clinton, he'd sometimes travel the country with his family. And while presidents received criticism for decades for their time outside the Oval Office, the scrutiny really stepped up during the George W Bush administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH: I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive. August is a dry month in Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP) NOBLES: According to CBS White House correspondent Mark Nolan who tracks presidential vacations, Bush made 77 trips to his Crawford ranch over the course of his eight years in office. Bush, like many other presidents, argue that getting out of the White House bubble was a good thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH: Life is a series of contrasts and I like it here a lot, I really do and when I am in here it's just -- we really like it. But I also like -- I wouldn't have run for president if I didn't like the challenge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: President Obama faced similar criticism as he embarked on annual trips to Martha's Vineyard or Hawaii.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE U.NITED STATES: And now I'm going to go on vacation. Mele Kalikimaka everybody. Mahalo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: And now as President Trump heads out on his first summer vacation, he'll likely be on the receiving end of those same critiques he made before taking office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I love working, I'm not a vacation guy, right? Like Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: And despite his promise to not vacation all that much, President Trump is pretty much on the same track as the president that came before him.
According to Mark Noland who tracks all this information, Donald Trump has spent about 41 days of his presidency on vacation compared to President Obama who at this point in his presidency had been on vacation 21 days and George W. Bush who'd spent 67 days on vacation.
Ryan Nobles, CNN Washington.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: All right. The U.S. president on vacation, I guess working vacation as he calls it but not to be outdone. The Russian President Vladimir Putin, well, he's showing the world how R&R should be done there. No golf on the agenda in Siberia. The Russian leader was shown here shirtless as he fished and swam.
Now the Kremlin also released video of Mr. Putin wearing a camouflage dive suit, spear fishing in a murky lake. And as you can see, he caught a pretty big fish there. Still ahead here on Newsroom, a career swan song for the fastest man in history, a shocking upset. Coming up, how Usain Bolt fared in his last individual race.
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HOWELL: Welcome back to Newsroom, I'm George Howell. Forecasters are closely watching the tropical Atlantic for possible storm development there. Our meteorologist Karen Maginnis is tracking it all in the World Weather Center, Karen.
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: George, yes, a couple of interesting things have taken place. Our -- the last time we looked at this, this tropical wave and we watched these waves come off the West Coast of Africa, here we go.
And this one is looking a little more impressive than it currently looks and forecasters at least with the National Hurricane Center are saying not so much of a chance over the next five days. But given this particular wave over the next five days, the potential for tropical storm development. So interest all the way from Jamaica to Belize, to the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Honduras, you're looking at about an 80 percent likelihood.
This could be a named storm within the next five days. So what computer models are showing as far as rainfall precipitation is concerned and indeed they're kind of picking up a little bit in the way of rotation here, so maybe a tropical wave develops into possibly a tropical storm. Could produce some pretty heavy downpours, lots of people go here for the beautiful diving and the resorts, but there could be some pretty substantial rainfall as well as a fairly heavy surf associated with it.
All right. Speaking of that, Typhoon Noru, we have to mention this, because this has lasted since July 20th. Now impacting Honshu but has raked across the Ryukyu Island for the past several days with staggering amounts of rainfall, power outages, mudslides, landslides, all a part of the forecast there. George --
HOWELL: Karen Maginnis, thank you so much. All right. A stunning upset for Usain Bolt in the final individual race of his career.
American Justin Gatlin beat the world's fastest man in the 100 meters at the World Track and Field Championships on Saturday. Gatlin finished in a 9.92 second, wow. Fellow American Christian Coleman came in second and Bolt, the world record holder, took third.
After the race, Bolt admitted it's time to hang up his running shoes, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
USAIN BOLT, TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE: I keep telling myself I need to get that start and I knew I had to get it to get into the race or I'll be in trouble. And what happened, I think I might have panicked. I wouldn't say I did but it didn't work out that well. You know what I mean my body is telling me it's time. My legs are hurting now, it's the first time I've ever done running and my legs are hurting, so it's time to go.
JUSTIN GATLIN, TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE: I was a little crazy and jumping in the stands and everything like that, but it was still a moment of respect to him because he meant to me and what he's meant to my career and the first thing I did was I paid homage to him, I got down on one knee and I respected him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Bolt is retiring after one final relay race set for next weekend.
Still ahead here, despite protests from friends and family, private tapes of Princess Diana will be aired in Britain on Sunday. We speak to a royal biographer about the controversial new documentary, next.
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PATRICK SNELL, CNN HOST: Hi there, I am Patrick Snell with your World Sport headlines.
History in the making at the World Athletics Championship in England on Saturday, Jamaican legend Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history, facing his last ever race in the 100 meter. While Bolt appeared a good start in this one, it was soon clear though the 30-year-old wasn't quite having being his old way because instead, it's the American sprinter, Justin Gatlin who picked Bolt at the post and made high drama, it's Christian Coleman finishing in second. Bolt has to settle for third, the stadium there in London in complete shock.
To France where Paris Saint-Germain have played their first game at the start of the new champion campaign since Neymar's huge $263 million move to the French capital. With Neymar looking on, his new teammates taking care of business against newly promoted Amiens who beat (INAUDIBLE) International and Cavani who opened the scoring but the three points weren't secured until 10 minutes from time, Cavani turning provider for Javier Pastore to seal the two nil victory.
So basketball in Johannesburg and the NBA Africa Game 2017 is featuring a World Team against the NBA players with ancestry to Africa. It was the World Team who would come out on top. Latvian Kristaps Porzingis send Boston Celtics Jaylen Brown. Jaylen Brown also had a big game for the World side, they went out winners, 108-97.
That's it for your World Sport headlines, I'm Patrick Snell.
HOWELL: Private tapes of Princess Diana will air in the United Kingdom on Sunday despite protests by her friends and family. The documentary, Diana in her Own Words, focuses on video diaries made with the Princess of Wales voice coach in which she speaks freely about her love life, Prince Charles and her relationship with the Queen. Royal Biographer Hugo Vickers is here to discuss it live with us in London this hour, it's good to have you with us. It is important to point out, Hugo that these exerts, the tapes, they've aired before in the United States several years ago but have never been shown before on British television.
HUGO VICKERS, ROYAL BIOGRAPHER: Yes, that's true. We haven't seen them and I don't really remember us being aware over here that they had been shown in the United States beforehand. I personally think it's a great pity that they're being aired because I'm not sure that the Princess of Wales 25 years on nearly would wish this to come out at this point. I mean they were privately made, it's rather a difficult issue.
HOWELL: Twenty years on, here we are with this documentary set to air in the U.K., the excerpts display very candid, very frank comments made by Princess Diana on a range of different personal topics. But it also may leave many asking if there are some things that are just left better unsaid.
VICKERS: Yes. But that's very much the view I take. I think it's one thing for a girl to be talking to her voice coach and he obviously encouraged her to chat away and she did so. But that's a great difference, isn't it, from wishing these things to be aired a great many years later and very much at the detriment of Prince Charles. The point is being widely made over here that the princess would have grown older and presumably wiser.
And I think even at the time when she died, the relationship with Prince Charles was fairly sort of civilized and I don't think that she would have wished to cause him any more grief, frankly, let alone her sons of course.
HOWELL: Well this at a time obviously where her sons are opening up more about the relationship that they had with their mother. Now, this documentary set to air, what has been the pushback from the Royal Family about the doc?
VICKERS: Well the Royal Family actually make a point of not commenting about these things at all. But you're quite right. Of course Prince William and Prince Harry made a really rather charming documentary about their mother which was aired over here about two weeks ago and gave a sort of personal view of what she meant to them and various things like that.
And that was -- didn't tell the whole story either, of course, but it was a very nice thing to do and something that they felt was important to do 20 years on, and something which they've also made clear they're not going to do again.
HOWELL: As far as viewership, I mean what is the expectation? What are you hearing from people about the buzz around this? Will a lot of people be tuning in, do you suspect?
VICKERS: Well a lot of people will tune in and it's quite a long documentary. And as far as I know, the taped interviews are only just a part of it. There's quite a big section in the middle I believe in which other commentators will be talking about her. So obviously perhaps that's more constructive and maybe the advance publicity of the tapes is to get people viewing in and I'm sure they will watch it.
Somebody like me, I will also watch it, but I will not be swayed by it because I've already come to my own conclusions about what went on in those years and I don't think it will tell me anything that fundamentally alters my opinion.
HOWELL: Hugo Vickers, we appreciate your insight today. We'll, of course, stay in touch with you as many people will be watching this documentary.
And we thank you for being with us this hour for CNN Newsroom. I'm George Howell at the "CNN" Center in Atlanta.
For our viewers in the United States, New Day is next. For viewers around the world, Erin Burnett Out Front is ahead. We thank you for watching CNN, the world's newsroom.
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