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NEWS STREAM

North Korea Over U.N. Sanctions; Russia-U.S. Relations; Syria's Civil War; Crisis in Venezuela; Typhoon "Noru" Hits Japan; The Anonymity of the Dark Web; Fake News Plaguing Kenya's Presidential Campaign' Israel Moves to Close Al Jazeera Office; U.S. Democrats Seek Answers on Spread of Fake News; U.S. President Marks 200 Days in Office; Bare-Chested Putin Vacations in Siberia. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 07, 2017 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. Welcome to "News Stream." North Korea slams tough U.S. sanctions, calling them a

frontal attack.

A CNN exclusive, what was once a battlefield in the Syrian civil war transformed after a ceasefire brokered by Russia and the U.S.

And a powerful typhoon strikes southern Japan. The heavy rain is triggering landslide wings (ph).

And we begin with the strong response from North Korea over a new round of major U.N. sanctions. It says its nuclear program is not up for negotiation

as long as it sees the U.S. as a threat. Now, Washington has said it hopes the sanctions will convince Pyongyang to change course.

Pyongyang says it won't, and there is no bigger mistake the United States can make than believing its land is safe across the ocean. But on the

sidelines of the regional security meeting, South Korean media report that the foreign ministers of north and South Korea spoke briefly for the first

time.

Let's take you straight to the Philippines' capital where that meeting is being held. Ivan Watson is standing by. He joins us now. Ivan, there has

been such a flurry of diplomacy there in Manila, but now with North Korea threatening more action, what is the latest on that?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest report here at this Association of Southeast Asian Nations Meeting is that this group

of 10 southeast Asian nations, their host in the Philippines, their foreign minister, actually delivered a statement to the North Korean foreign

minister during a bilateral meeting a statement that all of those 10 countries signed on to, expressing grave concern about North Korea's two

intercontinental ballistic missile launches that took place just last month, calling them essentially a threat to world peace.

This also coming on the back of the United Nations Security Council resolution which was unanimously approved that slapped sanctions, fresh new

sanctions on the North Korean regime. We've gotten a hold of the statement, essentially a response from North Korea to the assembly of

dozens of diplomats from dozens of different countries around the world, and that essentially tries to frame this as a conflict between North Korea

and the U.S. and is completely unapologetic.

Pyongyang arguing that it has ever right to maintain a nuclear arsenal and an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles that it needs that for

defense against the U.S., and again tries to deinternationalize, if I can say that, deinternationalize the pressure that is coming from multiple

different fronts led by the U.S. against Pyongyang. Kristie.

LU STOUT: And it leveled that directly at the U.S. We know that North Korea's top diplomat is there in Manila. He has been having talks with his

counterparts from China, from Russia, from South Korea. What about the U.S.?

WATSON: There has not to the best of our knowledge been any direct meeting between the Americsan and North Korean diplomats. The State Department said

going into this that there was no meeting planned. If anything, they wanted to further diplomatically isolate North Korea.

As for the North Korean foreign minister, he did attend a gala dinner last night and clash storms with dozens of other diplomats. He attended an Asian

regional forum today and then received these kind of stern words from the Philippines' foreign minister. And then I've recited already some of the

response from that North Korean diplomat.

Basically, it sounds like he got lectured a lot, including from the Chinese foreign minister in a bilateral meeting on Sunday, with China's foreign

minister telling his North Korean counterpart, listen, please abide by United Nations Security Council resolutions, stop firing these missiles.

Kristie.

LU STOUT: China, a long time ally of North Korea really showing its impatience with Pyongyang there. Now, we've been reporting that the foreign

ministers of North Korea and South Korea apparently did speak face to face there in Manila. How significant is that? Can that be interpreted as a

diplomatic victory of sorts?

WATSON: I'm not sure about that. I mean, I met briefly with the South Korean foreign minister as she was leaving

[08:05:00] to go to this gala dinner. I asked her, do you plan on meeting the North Korean foreign minister? And she said, I have no plans right now.

And then we learned from South Korean media that there was some kind of encounter at this gala dinner that was attended by more than 20 other

foreign ministers.

You see all of them lined up on stage, clasping arms. The north and South Korean diplomats not side by side, so we don't know the content or the

length of that meeting. We do know that a year ago at a previous ASEAN conference that there was a similar encounter between the previous South

Korean foreign minister and his North Korean counterpart.

Notable though that Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of state, he was not at that gala dinner last night. U.S. diplomats say that he had to stay in

and prepare for a whole round of meetings today. It is also notable that he did not attend the ASEAN regional forum which was also attended by the

North Korean foreign minister.

We hear from the U.S. State Department that his schedule was running late, and then that he then had to go to meet the Philippines' president, Rodrigo

Duterte, who himself was running late and kept Mr. Tillersono waiting for an hour and a half for their meeting.

So, there seemed to have been a number of missed possible encounters at this diplomatic gathering here in the Philippines' capital. Kristie.

LU STOUT: Appreciating all the key thread you're sharing with us and reporting all day. Ivan Watson reporting live for us from the site of ASEAN

summit in manila. Ivan, thank you. Take care.

Also at the forum, the U.S. is in the middle of balancing act with Russia. The U.S. secretary of state is criticizing Moscow while trying to keep

dialogue open. Rex Tillerson did sit down with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in Manila on Sunday and he had this update on what

was said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Russian meddling in the elections was certainly a serious incident. We talked about it in the discussion we

had with Minister Lavrov yesterday. And trying to help them understand just how serious this incident had been and how seriously it had damaged the

relationship between the U.S., the American people and the Russian people, that this had created serious mistrust between our two countries and that

we simply have to find some way to deal with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: But even so Lavrov said after the meeting he feels the U.S. is ready to continue dialogue despite these tensions. Moscow continues to deny

interfering in the election. Now, let's go straight to Oren Liebermann. He joins us live from the Russian capital. Oren, Rex Tillerson says election

meddling damaged the U.S.-Russia relationship. There I mistrust because of that. How does Moscow see it?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Moscow has repeatedly denied any allegations of election meddling and that's not going to change any time

soon. They view the entire Russia investigation going in the U.S. as quote, absurd and groundless. That comes straight from the Kremlin.

And yet both of these representatives, that is to say Secretary of State Tillerson and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from the Russians, even with

the tense meeting there, you see the need to work along and get along and work together. And you saw that in the statements there.

It doesn't mean it's any easier, especially on top of Tillerson's criticism, that's now a fairly united front from the Trump administration

that yes, there was election meddling on the part of the Russians, despite that, Tillerson trying to do what he can he to ease tension with Moscow.

LU STOUT: Oren, it wasn't that long time when Donald Trump was the preferred candidate of Russia. Now seven months into the Trump presidency

and after that fresh round of sanctions, what do Russians now think of President Donald Trump?

LIEBERMANN: His popularity here is certainly sliding from when he was elected, when he was essentially riding a high of popularity here to what

is essentially a low right now, especially on top of signing the sanctions bill.

It is notable that even if the Trump administration presents a united front in criticizing Russia here, President Trump himself has not really

criticized Russia, taking more of a conciliatory tone towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

That's sort of interesting and that sort of contradiction which the Russians have commented on watching the contradiction in statements here.

In fact, it's been President Trump that is who has directed most of his anger towards congress which Russia accuses of Russophobic hysteria.

Kristie.

LU STOUT: Oren Liebermann reporting live for us in Moscow. Thank you. Now, to Syria. A ceasefire is holding in a southwestern town at least for now.

It was brokered by the U.S. and Russia. And in this exclusive report, Fred Pleitgen has looked at how life has changed in Quneitra and who the locals

credit for the break in the fighting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was one of the most violent battlefields in Syria. Syrian army video shows

fighting between government forces and rebels in Quneitra,

[08:10:00] right on Israel's doorstep. But now there's a ceasefire, tanks are parked, soldiers relaxed.

The fighting has significantly decreased since the ceasefire, this officer tells me. You totally notice that. We don't hear shelling anymore, but

sometimes groups like the Nusra Front break the truce. Nusra is not part of the agreement. If they start shooting, we have to retaliate.

This is the front line, right in the heart of town. While both the U.S. and Russia brokered this truce, the Syrian government troops feel it's Russia

that has the upper hand.

Russia has helped a lot, he says. They laid the ground work for the ceasefire. They have the most power.

Quneitra is one of three areas in Syria where the U.S. and Russia negotiated truces between government and opposition forces.

PLEITGEN: The people here say of course they appreciate the calm since the ceasefire has been put in place, but they also say it's had almost an

immediate impact on life here, with more people venturing out and many businesses opening their doors once again.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A lull on the battlefield means more commotion at the barbershop where Hadi al Assad (ph) works, and many soldiers and

townspeople now come to get a trim.

We want this to be solved for good, he says. We just want our lives to be the way they were before.

Farming is also ramping again. Nasir al Sayyed (ph) spends hours in the blazing sun threshing wheat. While he commends both Russia and America for

brokering the truce, he's grateful only to Moscow.

If America would have wanted to solve this, they could have done it a long time ago, he says. Russia is working hard. They are strong allies.

From posts on the Golan Heights, Israel is observing things with growing unease. The Israelis fear the ceasefire could allow its arch enemies, Iran

and Hezbollah, supporters of the Assad government, to move forces into this area.

But at the moment, the people in this town aren't worried about bigger Middle Eastern security concerns. They are just enjoying the calm while it

lasts.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Quneitra, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Venezuela is a powder keg after the government says it put down paramilitary attack and the country's attorney general says that she still

holds office despite being removed. Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, had called for a maximum sentence for those who launched an anti-government

attack at a military base.

Two people were killed, soon after police and protesters faced off. Tensions are on the rise as the new assembly gets to work and Attorney

General Luisa Ortega barring her from ever seeking public office again.

CNN's Leyla Santiago is in Caracas. She joins us now. Leyla, my goodness, military base attack, unrest protests. The situation there just continues

to deteriorate.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. It seems like there's a new development almost by the hour, the development today, it will be the first

day in office for Tarek William Saab. That is the person who the government has put in place to replace Luisa Ortega, now the ex, the former attorney

general.

She has been a very vocal critic, someone who says the government actions are illegitimate, are illegal, and someone who actually claims that because

those actions are not legitimate, according to her, she believes she is still the attorney general. Now, the opposition has said that they want a

full investigation, not only of the election of this new assembly, the constituents, but also what happened yesterday at that military base.

They want more details of what have actually occurred in the early hours of the morning. Of course, we saw the social media that there was a video of

some uniformed men who said that they wanted to restore order of the constitution. It has been criticized that -- the constituent assembly has

been criticized because it is expected to rewrite the constitution.

It could give President Maduro more power. And in the international community, many believe that this could be the road to dictatorship. Now,

the government says this is the road to peace. They believe this is what Venezuela needs to improve the economy and get rid of that political

unrest.

It is also planning to establish what they call a truth commission to get to the the bottom of all of this. And they believe this is what the target,

what they call terrorists, what the opposition calls Venezuelans and protesters. So, today we will continue to see the constituent assembly at

work. We will see a new

[08:15:00] attorney general go into the offle and we will wait and see what the consequence, what comes out of all of this in Venezuela.

LU STOUT: Leyla Santiago, many thanks to you for joining us live from Caracas. Thank you and take care.

A strong typhoon is lashing Japan with torrential rain. Up next, a live update from our World Weather Center.

Also ahead, a fake news campaign in Kenya. What Facebook is doing to warn voters ahead of this week's presidential election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong. Welcome back. You're watching "News Stream."

Now, a slow moving but powerful typhoon is hitting central Japan. Typhoon Noru made landfall near the city of Osaka earlier Monday. All Nippon

Airways and Japan Airlines say that they have canceled more than 200 flights. Authorities are warning residents about possible landslides as

well as heavy flooding.

Let's get more now from Chad Myers at the World Weather Center. Chad, we know that this typhoon is weakening but it is still pounding parts of Japan

with rain. What is the latest?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST AND SCIENCE REPORTER: Certainly. And still we had the 160 kilometer per hour wind gust. This wasn't just a rainmaker.

This was a damage maker as well. Let's go back to some of that video because I think later in the real here, we actually see more in the way of

damage where trees are down, large trees, because there was just so much water on the ground.

The roots were basically soaked. The dirt turd to mud. And the winds toppled those trees. And this is what's happened here all across the

southern part of Japan, the southern half really was lashed. The big story about this storm is how long it has been Noru, how long the storm has

actually been alive, if you will.

Right now it's 120-kilometer-per-hour storm, some gusts a little bit higher than that. But this storm has been in the ocean for a very, very long time,

putting down almost 200 millimeters of rain is some spots and other spots that are higher in the mountains of Japan, obviously had more rain than

that, but there is just no rain collection sites there.

You put this rain up on the top of the mountain. It's going to come downhill. And eventually, we're going to see some of that flash flooding I

think even along the coasts. The storm is dying now. We are still going to see a couple 100-millimeters of rainfall in some spots.

But the wind is dying because the storm is no longer over waters, it's over land. When the storm gets over land, it loses its energy. The energy

source is the water itself, is the ocean itself. When it gets over land, it gets torn up.

Here is the story I was talking about. How long Noru has existed. Fourteen days, this storm has been a typhoon, even did a little loop over here in

the

[08:20:00] West Bank for a while. Eighteen days since it was formed, 14 days as a typhoon. That is the second longest typhoon ever on record time

now, the second longest typhoon ever in the water here across parts of the West Bank.

That is a long time to be in the water and then finally hit something so devastatingly there. We're still a little but under where we should be this

year for typhoons, but still a long season to go. Kristie.

LU STOUT: Well, as you put it, Noru is a damage maker with a very long lifespan.

MYERS: Yes.

LU STOUT: It has also been called a slow-moving typhoon which may not sounds threatening, but what does that mean in terms of the real danger it

poses?

MYERS: That means still at this hour. Even though it's over land, it is not moving away from land and so we are still going to see the potential for

the heavy rain to pile up, especially on these eastern slopes, from Tokyo and all the way up towards Sendai, where the disaster here was with the

tsunami. Right here. All of that water.

Do you remember the pictures when we were showing you in the tsunami area, to the west of where the tsunami hit, it was very mountainous. It goes up

very, very quickly into probably a couple thousand meters. All of a sudden, that water has to come back down and it continues to rain.

The slower it goes, the more rain can pile up. The quicker it gets out of here, the more the rain would obviously stop very quickly, but this is not

moving very quick.

LU STOUT: All right. Chad Myers reporting. As always, thank you. Take care.

MYERS: You're welcome.

LU STOUT: Investigations are underway in Italy, Poland, and the U.K. after police say a British model was abducted in Milan amid nearly escaping

auctioned off on the dark web by her kidnappers. Police say that the 20- year-old model was held in the bedroom of this cabin in the Italian alps for a week.

A Polish man has been arrested. Let's get details on this case from CNN's contributor Barbie Nadeau. She joins us live from Rome. Barbie, this is

just such a horrific crime. Italian police are investigating how this happened. What have you learned?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, right now the Italian investigators are really focused on whether or not the testimony or the interrogation

with this suspect is true or not. He's claiming all sorts of things that he made 15 million Euro selling women just like this young model who was

abducted on the dark web.

He's made claims that this is how he makes his living, and what the prosecutors and the detectives working on the case right now want to know

if that's the truth or if that was just something he made up. He did have accomplices, we know that, and they're searching for other people. There

was more than one person who initially abducted this woman, who drugged her, who took her to the cabin.

And they haven't so far been able to find those accomplices. But they are just trying to see if his story rings true or not because if it does, that

means there could be other women in vulnerable positions either being held in captivity or who have been pinpointed for this sort of sex slave auction

that is apparently going on in the deep web. Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yes. This is what this case is exposing, isn't it, that even though we have this young British woman who thankfully released, there

could be many others, other young women being held in captivity or already sold.

NADEAU: That's absolutely right and that is the priority number one. Thankfully as you said this young woman has been released. She's home in

the U.K. She is safe. But, are there others out there? And the fact that this market exists for sex slave, it is disturbing and that is not

something being contended necessarily.

A lot of the investigators know about this. It's just it's so difficult any of these sites that are in that (INAUDIBLE) part of the worldwide web are

difficult to trace. It's hard to know where those servers are, hard to know where the upload material is coming from. And because of that, they're not

able to just go to a location and find the people. Kristie.

LU STOUT: Barbie Nadeau live in Rome for us. We thank you for that update.

The dark web is essentially a part of the web that is not accessible to regular users using normal software. It's made of websites that hide where

their servers are located. And to access these sites, you need special software like Tor. Tor hides web traffic by encrypting it and then bouncing

around many different, randomly chosen computers that are also running Tor.

This makes it impossible to track the origin or destination of any information sent over the dark web. That means that dark web users can also

hide their identity as well as their physical location. That sense of anonymity is extremely attractive to privacy seekers, whistle blowers, and

also criminals. While some sites on the dark web are password protected, many are not, so people can browse them if they have the right software and

know where to look.

Voters in the east African nation of Kenya will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect their next president, but this time, their choice may be tougher

than in the past. They are being bombarded by fake news. New stories started to look like legitimate news reports. CNN's Farai Sevenzo shows us

how the technique is being used in Kenya including fake reports

[08:25:00] made to look like CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Look at this slickly produced news bulletin. At first glance, it appears to be a CNN

report, but it's not. It is fake. The bogus report cuts from legitimate CNN Philippines broadcast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): News just in from Kenya.

SEVENZO (voice-over): To a fake voice server segment that falsely claims that one candidate is leading over the other in a recent poll.

SEVENZO: And as elections get closer, fake news is increasingly being used as a campaign tool, targeting news organizations and NGOs. It's a sinister

and, frankly, desperate attempt to sway to voters.

SEVENZO (voice-over): The BBC's "Focus on Africa" program was also manipulated last week, edited to include the same false poll as the one in

the CNN fake report. The problem is so bad, that Facebook has put out ads in national newspapers and on its site with tips on how to spot false news.

Both CNN and the BBC called out the reports as fake, warning viewers to be careful. But it's a worrying trend.

ALPHONCE SHIUNDU, KENYA EDITOR, AFRICA CHECK: This is a video that has come to you on your mobile phone WhatsApp or on Telegram. So you have no option

but to watch it. So you cannot go back to CNN to try and verify that video. So you will have to depend on fact-checkers or depend on CNN to put out a

statement or the BBC to say, no, that's not us.

SEVENZO (voice-over): And it's not just news organizations being targeted. This doctored "Transparent International" report appeared on social media,

accusing an opposition politician of corruption. The Duth ambassador to Kenya called them out as fake. And "Transparency Kenya" issues this

statement, denouncing the use of their name and logo to, quote, spread propaganda for seemingly political mileage. It's sometimes not easy to spot

fakes, especially when they're distributed on social media groups that aren't easily traceable. Alphonce tells us voters must be vigilant.

SHIUNDU: Always try to verify and look. If you see anything online, if you see anything as a text message on your Facebook account, even a leaflet or

a picture, try to verify, is this thing real?

SEVENZO (voice-over): And if you're trying to spot bogus CNN news reports, remember, if it's not on our official channels, web site or social

platforms, it may well be fake. Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Fake news of course also played last year's U.S. presidential campaign. Coming up, we'll take a look at the investigation to how it

spread and who was behind it.

Plus, President Donald Trump is marking a milestone. Now, he is spending 200th day in office.

[08:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, you're watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

North Korea says its nuclear program is not up for negotiation for as long as it sees the U.S. as a threat. This comes after the U.N. approved new

sanctions targeting North Korea's primary exports.

Pyongyang calls them a violation of its sovereignty. Also at the ASEAN forum, the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is trying to balance

taking a hard line on Russia and keeping dialogue open.

He sat down with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, telling him Russia's in the 2016 U.S. election has created serious mistrust.

Moscow denies interfering in the election. Authorities in Venezuela say they put down an attack by an armed group at a military base. That was

followed by protests. They say, at least two of the attackers who they describes as a most civilian were killed.

A powerful typhoon is pounding Central Japan, after making landfall near the city of Osaka. (Inaudible) airways and Japan Airlines says they have

canceled more than 200 flights. Authorities are warning residents about possible landslide and heavy flooding.

Al Jazeera has denounced Israel's decision to shut the network out of the country, as Israel's communications minister announced plans to pull Al

Jazeera broadcast from local cable and satellite providers, after accusing it of inciting violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYOOB KARA, ISRAEL'S COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER (through a translator): I am going to ask the government press office to demand that the press

credentials of Al Jazeera TV journalist working in Israel be revoked.

The security of our citizens and their well-being precedes freedom of speech in times of terror, period. The freedom of speech is not freedom of

incitement, democracy has boundaries as well when it comes down to the question, what precedes what, I have no doubt. I prefer citizen and

soldiers alive in Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Al Jazeera denies the accusation, saying it finds the justifications made by the minister of communications as odd and biased as

they are in unison with the actions carried out by a number of Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan that have closed

the network's bureaus shut down its cable and satellite transmissions and blocked its websites and applications, unquote.

Now, when we told you earlier about the fake news campaign in Kenya, you may remember last year, the U.S. dealt with the similar problem during the

U.S. presidential campaign.

Well, CNN has learned that the FBI monitored social media sites on Election Day to find out who was behind the bogus reports. Drew Griffin has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is no question according to the FBI that Russia used fake news to try to influence the 2016 election.

BILL PRIESTAP, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI COUNTERINTELLIGENCE: They also push fake news and propaganda then they use online amplifiers to spread the

information to as many people as possible.

GRIFFIN: What Democratic congressional investigators want to know is whether Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to spread false information

about Hillary Clinton through Facebook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I commend them because...

GRIFFIN: Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has traveled the Facebook headquarters in California while he

won't discuss specifics of the meeting.

He tells CNN he wants to know whether the Trump campaign helped Russians to target fake news to specific Facebook users.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: I'd like to look into the activities of the Trump digital campaign.

I will point out this Facebook which basically denied any responsibility around our elections by the time the French elections took place this

spring. They actually took down 30,000 fake sites.

GRIFFIN: Fake sites spreading fake news, mostly negative about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic theory, somehow the Trump campaign and Russians

colluded to do it.

So Gwen(ph), tell me what were seeing right here. This is why it matters. Look at this program that tracks social media, you can clearly see the

explosion of completely fabricated stories, fake news in the months just before November's election.

In the fall, it just became so much of a problem five to, Chavez, Gabriele Boland, a content strategist with news web, a social media analytics firm

says fake new spike astronomically in the months before the election, mostly fabricated stories about Hillary Clinton or Democrats with headlines

like Donald Trump protester speaks out.

I was paid $3500 to protest Trump's rally. The story is from a fake news site that is made to appear like the real ABC News.

It was created by Paul Warner who told CNN he writes fake news to make money but that didn't stop his completely fake story from spreading through

conservative media.

[08:35:00] And there is the story, FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder suicide. This story was 100 percent

made up released on a made-up news site called The Denver Guardian. Nothing about it was true.

The author admits that to CNN. Yet it had nearly 570,000 shares, likes or comments on Facebook and was published just four days before the election.

The question is Democrats want answered our how did fake stories from fake websites become so popular so quickly and did someone pay to boost the fake

news?

Facebook was a massive part of the Trump campaigns online advertising effort, 95 percent of Trumps fundraising ads were placed on the platform,

according to campaign officials.

GRIFFIN: But the Trump campaign has flatly denied any Russian collusion whatsoever, and though not appearing on camera, the Trump campaign official

who oversaw all of the Trump campaigns digital advertising is going on record at CNN to say it simply didn't.

GARY COBY, FORMER DIRECTOR, ADVERTISING: Trumps followers got an amazing kind of engagement.

GRIFFIN: Gary Coby, the former director of advertising for the Republican National Committee and the Trump for president campaign told CNN by phone.

We never put money behind someone else's Facebook page or source and added, we did not beg anyone Hillary stories, had nothing to do with fake Hillary

stories or any Hillary stories that weren't our own.

BRAD PARSCALE, LEAD CONTRACTOR, TRUMP'S DIGITAL CAMPAIGN: We would produce concentrated...

GRIFFIN: Brad Parscale who was a lead contractor on Trumps digital campaign has also denied any involvement with Russia. Parscale has been

called to testify before the House Intelligence Committee to swear to death under oath.

Facebook has done its own internal review and has reported, it did find malicious actors with fake accounts spreading misinformation during the

campaign.

But says in a statement to CNN, we have been in touch with a number of government officials including Senator Warner who are looking into the 2016

U.S. presidential election.

We will continue to cooperate with officials as their investigations continue. As we have said, we have seen no evidence that Russian actors

bought ads on Facebook in connection with the election. Drew Griffin, CNN New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You are watching News Stream. Still ahead, President Donald Trump is marking his day 200th day in office. What he has to say about his

assignment at the White House so far.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back, we are now 200 days into the Trump presidency. He mark the milestone with a series of tweets over the last hour, he says that

his face is stronger than ever despite polls showing low approval numbers. He also launch fresh attacks on the media. Joe Johns has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump waking up on his 200th day in office at his golf club in New Jersey where he will be spending the next

two weeks on a quote, working vacation as the White House undergoes renovations.

The president is addressing on Twitter that he will still be taking meetings and calls while spending time at his resort.

[08:40:00] While touting the successes of this for six months in office. This is Vice President Mike Prince pushes back against the New York Times

reports that some Republicans have begun building 2020 shadow campaigns with Pence advisors allegedly signaling the party donors that he would plan

to run if Trump did not.

Pence contesting the story as a strongly worded statement calling the report, quote, disgraceful and offensive and dismissing as laughable and

absurd, though suggestion that he isn't working solely for Trump's agenda and reelection.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S COUNSELOR: It is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2012 for reelection as vice

president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a real concern he said he wants a shadowed campaign.

CONWAY: And he is also getting ready for 2018, zero concerns.

JOHNS: The report also cites a number of other Republicans allegedly weighing a 2020 bid as the president continues to grapple with record low

numbers and an intensifying Russia investigation.

ROD ROSENSTEIN, U.S. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the firm of justice and we all

engage in fishing expeditions.

JOHNS: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein asserting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller can investigate any crimes within the scope of

investigation during an interview on Fox News.

ROSENSTEIN: If it's something outside that scope, he needs to come to the acting Attorney General at this time of need for permission to status

investigation.

The New York Times reporting that Mueller's investigators have asked the White House for documents related to fired National Security Adviser

Michael Flynn and possible payments from the Turkish government.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was CNN's Joe Johns reporting and before we go, the Kremlin is coming up close and personal look at President Vladimir Putin's

vacation in southern Siberia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Shirts apparently were optional. He spent the week fishing, hiking, kayaking, here he is spear fishing in a camouflage dive suit.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen him bare chested or in what suit? That him just lingered. That is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout,

but don't go anywhere, World Sport, Alex Thomas is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END