Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
The Leaders Of North And South Korea Set To Meet In The Middle For Historic Talks, Facebook Earnings Stun Wall Street With $12 Billion, But There Are Signs Of Possible Trouble Ahead, Canadian Businessman With A Noble Investment, Putting Millions Of His Own Money On The Line To Help Syrian Refugees, French President Emmanuel Macron believes He Has Made Some Progress In Changing Donald Trump's Thinking On The Iran Nuclear Agreement; White House Officials Say They're Preparing For The Possible Withdrawal Of Donald Trump's Nominee To Lead The Veteran Affair Department Aired: 12-1a ET
Aired April 26, 2018 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, HOST, NEWSROOM: This is CNN "Newsroom" live from Los Angeles. Ahead this first hour.
ISHA SESAY, HOST, NEWSROOM: Putting on the final touches, the leaders of North and South Korea set to meet in the middle for historic talks.
VAUSE: Amid a global scandal, Facebook earnings stun Wall Street with $12 billion, but there are signs of possible trouble ahead.
SESAY: The power of one. The Canadian businessman with a noble investment, putting millions of his own money on the line to help Syrian refugees.
VAUSE: That is a great story later this hour. We'd like to welcome our viewers all around the world. Good to have you with us, I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I am Isha Sesay. "Newsroom LA" starts right now.
VAUSE: History will soon be made on the border between North and South Korea. In less than 24 hours, Kim Jong-un will walk across the Military Demarcation Line into South Korea. There he will be personally met by President Moon Jae-in. Kim will be the first North Korean leader set foot in the south.
SESAY: Dress rehearsals for this rare leaders summit happening in the border village of Panmunjom. Here is what the main meeting room looks like. It's been redesigned specifically for the summit. The talks will take place in the Peace House on the South Korean side of the DMZ.
VAUSE: After the summit, we're told the leaders will sign an agreement and that will be followed by a major announcement. CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from near the DMZ.
Paula, this is not the first inter-Korea summit, but it is the first hosted by the South. They are pulling out all of the stops. Blue carpet has been laid in the Peace House to symbolize the political streams, endowments; oval table has replaced a rectangular one, the oval shape is made to encourage candid talks is how exactly is a bit of a mystery, but it seems it's still not known at this point if the South Korean military will form an honor guard for Kim Jong-un just like the North Koreans did for previous South Korean Presidents who visited Pyongyang.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, John, we're just getting some more details on exactly how this is going to pan out tomorrow and now, everybody has been telling us this will a made for TV moment, and it looks like it will be.
The fact that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader is going to walk to the MDL, the Miltary Demarcation Line which is the actual border between North and South Korea. President Moon will then meet him there and Kim Jong-un will step across the MDL, the first time that a North Korean leader has ever done that into South Korea.
Now, he will be greeted by South Korean traditional guards. You can imagine the security clearance for that, having the North Korean leader surrounded by South Korean military. And then, they will walk to the welcoming ceremony.
Now, we are also told that the summit will take place around about 10:30 in the morning, that's about 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Eastern Time and they will carry on within the Peace House about 200 meters from the border.
Then after that, they will have a separate lunch. There is a lunch and a rest where they both break and then they will actually plant a tree we're being told. This tree from 1953, the date that the Korean War r ended, and this is really oozing with symbolism, the fact that they will use soil from both a North Korean and a South Korean mountain. They water it from water taken from rivers of South Korea and North Korea.
And then, at the end, there will be a signed agreement. Now, they said there will be some kind of announcement, we don't know if Kim Jong-un will be speaking. The organizers say they have to wait and see how the leaders feel on the day.
VAUSE: And Paula, proof that you cannot please all the people all the time, Tokyo has lodged an official protest over the mango mousse dessert which will be will be served at the official dinner.
HANCOCKS: That's right, yes. You really couldn't make this up. But the dessert is actually in the shape of the Korean peninsula and what the South Koreans have done is they've actually added, Dokdo, which is an island which South Korean considers to be South Korean territory, in Japan it's called Takeshima which Japan considers to be Japanese territory. So, it's disputed territory.
It is also engraved on the back of the chairs that both Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in will be sitting in, and so clearly the Japanese are not happy about this.
VAUSE: Yes, they've also lodged a protest about the chairs, too. The stakes, though, are incredibly high. Many analysts believe the summit could either set the scene to end the Korean War; if it goes badly though, it could create the conditions for a new one.
HANCOCKS: That's right. I was talking to an official close to President Moon just yesterday and he said that at this point, President Moon has the world's pressure on his shoulders. He appreciates just how big this is, how historic this is and how important it is that this actually goes well.
What we are being told is, the issue of denuclearization, for example, there's a lot being made of what does North Korea see that word meaning compared to South Korea and the United States.
Now, they haven't been able to hammer that out in working level talks...
[00:05:16]
HANCOCKS: ... even high level talks, so that is up to the leaders on Friday. So, that's going to be one of the very big issues they have to tackle, what exactly is denuclearization? Is it what the US says, which is the complete irreversible denuclearization which most analysts, in fact, every analyst I have met who knows anything about North Korea does not believe that Kim Jong-un is going to completely give up his nuclear weapons, so what the South Koreans admit that they're not going to solve everything on Friday. That is a key factor to make sure they understand the same meaning of the word denuclearization, John.
VAUSE: The devil is in the details and there are a lot of details to get through. Paula, thank you. A busy couple of days ahead for you. Thanks for being with us.
SESAY: Well, a day after US President Donald Trump signaled possible progress in talks on the Iran nuclear deal, French President, Emmanuel Macron said he thinks Mr. Trump won't do much to preserve the agreement.
Mr. Macron also took direct aim at Mr. Trump's positions on key issues in a speech before the US Congress. He urged the US to reject nationalism and isolationism. He predicts that the US would return to the Paris Climate Accord because he said there is no Planet B.
He said, the Iran agreement wasn't perfect, but it should stay in place. Later, he spoke to reporters.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: (Through a translator). I have no inside information on what Trump might be deciding for the Iranian nuclear deal, just like you do, I listen to what President Trump is saying and it seems to me, he is not much eager to defend it.
Do I take it personally? No. I believe that it is just a campaign commitment and I do not know what the American decision will be. The comments by Trump as it seems to me won't do much to preserve the JCPOA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, joining us now here in LA, CNN European Affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas. Dominic, good to see you. So, we saw the hugs, the air kisses, the hand holding and lots and lots of compliments during Macron's visits to Washington, so much so people were beginning to call him the Trump Whisperer, but as you hear his comments there at the end saying he expects President Trump to pull out of the Iran deal.
It is reminder that no one can control Donald Trump.
DOMINIC THOMAS, EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, CNN: Right. I think you're absolutely right, Isha that you know, as we sort of look back over this visit and try to sort of ascertain what was really gained out of it, a lot remains absolutely open to question.
Throughout the whole meeting, though, the interesting thing I think is that this constant reference to the historical relationship between France and the United States and President Macron was even careful to thank the invitation of France to this official state visit, not so much Emmanuel Macron that history will take place.
There is a past, there will be a future, that will not involve these two individuals and one has to wonder whether or not this sort of -- a persistent reminder to President Trump of the importance of this historical relationship and that their own chemistry and friendship could serve as a metaphor and one could just only hope that out of this, President Trump gets to think a little bit more about really who his allies are and to whom his loyalties lie in this greater global context.
And if Emmanuel Macron was able to move him along, even a little bit in that direction, that could be positive thing.
SESAY: Yes, it could be. As you know, we're still trying to figure out what he gained. I mean, we're looking for that speech that he gave before Congress, and there was some striking moments.
Take a listen to what he had to say when it came to the Paris Climate Accord, and basically the state of the planet.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
MACRON: We are killing our planet. Let us face it, there is no Planet "B". Let us work together in order to make our planet great again and create new jobs and new opportunities while safeguarding our earth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
You know, people have said, you know, we went from the back slapping of like the first two days, if you will, to what some would say this was a back stabbing actually there on Capitol Hill. I mean, as we try and ascertain what Macron gained, did he certainly
grow in stature, the fact that -- as a diplomat, as a politician, the fact that he would go to Congress and make such pointed jabs, if you will, at President Trump?
THOMAS: Right. I mean, the thing is with Emmanuel Macron whether one likes him or embraces his policies, and essentially he has remained constant, which is not something one can ascribe to President Trump.
He is clearly in favor of liberal democratic values and all the things that he spoke about from his dislike of strong leadership, strong leaders, and all sense of it, it was quite clear. It's also important to look important to look at the sort of the refrain that he had in there when he kept saying you know, "I believe, I believe."
It is not just belief in the sense of...
[00:10:16]
THOMAS: ... it's a conviction here and linking science and climate and so on was absolutely extraordinary. So to that regard, one felt like, when we're listening to a leader that was sort of diametrically opposed to President Trump and to that extent, t the visit is about building a transatlantic relationship at a time when there's some tension there around the UK and so on and so forth, and for Emmanuel Macron is a chance to further consolidate this kind of global position that he has embraced.
And what was extraordinary at this moment is when he's speaking there about climate change and so on, is that both the Cice President and the Speaker of the House are applauding him. And one has so sort of wonder how Donald Trump tomorrow and in the days to come is going to react usually on Twitter, he makes vicious attacks against people that disagree with him.
But as you just mentioned, for the past two days, he's been hugging and kissing the President of France and praising him, so one has to wonder how he will respond to that and where this will take us.
SESAY: Yes, I mean, I am very fascinated to see how he responds. We're almost out of time, but as we talk about diametrically -- being diametrically opposed, Angela Merkel is on her way, the German chancellor to Washington. She will be meeting with President Trump on Friday.
We're not expecting the same kind of hand holding and kissing, are we?
THOMAS: No, we're not and actually, just to be very quick on that, that's also problematic, right, to the extent that you know, we've seen these great relationships between you know, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Blair in the UK.
But this kind of behavior, this sort of hyper masculine behavior between the two Presidents is one could say slightly questionable and problematic because it would be absolutely impossible for Angela Merkel to engage in that. But if there's anything that Angela Merkel can drive home here or
follow up on, after the meeting with Emmanuel Macron, it's on the question of trade and that was something that one could see President Trump sort of being -- talking a bit -- and a bit more sort of flexibility about this question of trades, tariffs and restrictions on the European Union and France and it maybe that's something positive that could come out of that if the American President can back down on some of those threats.
SESAY: Yes, we shall see what happens there. I am certainly a little bit disappointed not to see so much kissing and hugging. We've had enough for the week.
Dominic Thomas, we appreciate it. Thank you.
THOMAS: Thanks.
VAUSE: The nomination of Dr. Ronny Jackson to lead the US Department of Veterans Affairs seems to be on life support, so it could be approaching brain dead.
White Officials say they are preparing for the possibility of Jackson could withdraw his nomination. He faces a growing list of allegations including, handing out prescription drugs to White House staffers like candy, drinking on the job, and most recently that he wrecked a government vehicle while drunk.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
RONNY JACKSON, NOMINEE AS DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: No, I have not wrecked a car. So, I can tell you that. That's easy to deduct. Thanks, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you move forward?
JACKSON: We're moving ahead as planned. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're still moving ahead?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you tell the President that, sir?
JACKSON: Thanks, guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Joining us now, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant, John Thomas.
Okay, so just a few hours before the allegations emerged that Dr. Jackson smashed that government car while intoxicated, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said this about the President's choice to lead the Veteran Affairs Department.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Dr. Jackson's record as a White House physician has been impeccable. He has an incredibly strong background. He is a highly qualified, highly skilled individual and if he didn't he was capable of doing the job, he wouldn't have announced his nomination in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Here's a little more from that "New York Times" report which had the details about the car being smashed reporting that Jackson provided such a large supply of Percocet, prescription opioid to White House military office staff member that he threw his own medical staff into a panic when they couldn't account for the missing drugs.
According to a summary of questionable deeds compiled by the Democratic staff of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee.
John, an impeccable record according to Sarah Sanders.
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I just don't think he's going to have the votes. It looks like they are not there. Republicans are backing off from this guy. He's not going to get confirmed.
So, the President is backing his man. He personally likes him, but if you don't have the votes to get confirmed, you can't get confirmed.
VAUSE: Dave, if this was any other administration, any other nominee who faced this many scandals, he would have gone, you know, when he was heading at the end, being on the plane, you know, we would have reached this point, right?
DAVE JACOBSON, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely. I mean, this is one of the most reckless administrations and Cabinet that we've ever seen. Look at Tom Price who had to resign in disgrace. You've got corrupt Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator.
You've got the Attorney General who had to recuse himself just weeks after being sworn in as AG, and now you have this. You have a doctor who recklessly hands out prescription drugs...
[00:15:16]
JACOBSON: ... who drives drunk and wrecks a car, who the Secret Service has to calm down because he's knocking on doors in the middle of the night potentially waking up the President of the United States, totally unacceptable. The guy is highly unqualified and unfit for this job.
THOMAS: Okay, well that might be the case for this job, but remember folks like David Axelrod and others have come to his defense praising how good of a doctor he was to prior Presidents.
So, he had a good reputation prior to going through this process.
JACOBSON: I don't think this should be a partisan issue. If those issues came forward, President Obama should have kicked him to the curb. Like, he should not be serving in the White House, let alone overseeing one of the most vast and broad Federal bureaucracies in the country. One of which is responsible for providing care for people who risk their lives for this country.
THOMAS: And I would assume Barack Obama didn't know it at the time or he would have fired him and I am sure Donald Trump didn't know it at the time...
VAUSE: There is a big difference though between being the White House doctor which is obviously, a very important job, but also leading the Department of Veterans Affairs. I mean, these are two different skill sets, two different background checks...
THOMAS: And that's why the vetting is so much more in depth, although...
VAUSE: It's so important.
THOMAS: ... handing out pills like candy is a pretty serious accusation, too.
VAUSE: Okay, even after the allegations were made public, the latest ones in the "New York Times," the White House is still backing the candy man.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
RAJ SHAH, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE SECRETARY: This is, as the President said, Dr. Jackson's decision, we stand behind him 100 percent depending on what he decides to do. We think that he'll make a great Secretary of Veterans Affairs but this is a nasty process right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This is not a nasty process. This is the process. If it's a nasty process, it's a nasty process because the White House blew it.
THOMAS: Well, it's also -- the confirmation process...
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: It's brutal for everyone.
THOMAS: For every Trump nominee...
VAUSE: This is exceptionally brutal because the White House blew it?
THOMAS: They didn't thoroughly vet him and they should have and not put him through this scrutiny, but yes, it is a nasty process.
I think the spokesman just left the door open for him to decide to pull himself out and withdraw his nomination.
JACOBSON: I think this just sends us in corner, like Donald Trump playing fast and loose with this kind of stuff. He shot himself in the foot. He didn't listen to any advisers. There was no vetting process. Donald Trump just snapped his fingers and chose the guy.
VAUSE: Okay, continuing on with only the best people employed by the President, his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, will invoke the Fifth Amendment -- his Fifth Amendment rights in the law suit filed against Donald Trump by the adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
Here is the relevant line for anyone who does not know what this is. It is from the US Constitution, "No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."
And we all know what it means when someone takes the Fifth.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Have you seen what's going on in front of Congress? Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment. Horrible. Horrible.
The mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?
When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth, so they're not prosecuted, I think it's disgraceful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: John, if you're innocent why do you take the Fifth? Those are ominous words right now.
THOMAS: Yes, but the Fifth seemed like his only way to play this because he's in a conflict. You know, he's being investigated by potentially Mueller and the state of New York, and that he is involved in this civil suit, which in the scheme of things looks like nothing, so why would he comply in the civil suit in LA when he's got much bigger fish to fry.
And by the way, people are talking about how Cohen is going to flip on Trump, it looks like it's harder for Cohen whether he likes it or not to actually flip. That there are ethical boundaries that even prosecutors may not want Cohen to cross.
So, it might be harder than you think to just spill it.
VAUSE: Well, again, that's interesting because we have Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels, he tweeted this. "This is a stunning development, never before in our nation's history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the Fifth Amendment in connection with issues surrounding the President. This is especially stunning seeing that Michael Cohen served as the fixer for Mr. Trump for over 10 years. #basta." Enough in Italian.
Dave, coming at that point about being the President's fixer, this raises a lot of questions about what Cohen knows about -- where all the bodies are buried, not just during the campaign and administration, but for years and years and years of business dealings before that. JACOBSON: Yes, and this adds further credence to a judge approving
the raid, right? I mean, it is a very big deal for the FBI to investigate and to raid an attorney's office with the whole attorney/client privilege dynamic.
And so, I think that's significant and the fact that Michael Cohen took the Fifth is note worthy. And I think this also -- going back to the issue of whether or not he's going to flip, I think the big issue is not whether or not Donald Trump could potentially pardon him at the Federal level, it is, can he be charged at the state level? And can Donald Trump potentially impact that with a pardon because if he can't, I think that's going to increase the likelihood that Michael Cohen could flip.
VAUSE: Yes, they are all our problems with New York State law because they have this situation where they can't...
[00:20:16]
VAUSE: ... double jeopardy, they can't be charged after the Presidential pardon which they are trying to change, but okay, we will finish up here with the former FBI Director, James Comey. He took part in a CNN town hall.
He was asked about the President's accusations that he, Comey, had leaked classified information. This is what he said.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I think he's just making stuff up. The memos are -- there are actually two pieces and the details matter because the facts matter, and should matter even to the President.
I sent one memo, unclassified then, still unclassified and it is recounted in my book, to my friend Dan Richmond and asked him to get the substance of it, but not the memo out to the media.
After I was fired, I put together a legal team with three people, one of whom was Professor Dan Richmond at Columbia University, after I had asked him to give this information to the media. I separately gave my legal team four memos which were unclassified. They included the one that he had gotten to give the substance of it to the "New York Times."
The bottom line is, I see no credible claim by any serious person that that violated the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Details matter, facts matter. Boy, this is a contrast, John. It seems like Comey is going through incredible lengths here to make sure that he did not break the law.
THOMAS: Yes, it seems like he crossed his T's on this one. But my head just hurt in that explanation. All I heard was he leaked information, whether he made sure that he walked right up to that line to make sure that it was legal in how he did it, he still leaked information.
Now, the President will blur the lines, he doesn't -- whether you were leaking government information, whether those were classified, unclassified, I don't think Trump cares.
VAUSE: Dave, very quickly, it's not illegal to leak information, people leak information all the time.
JACOBSON: Yes, I mean...
VAUSE: But it's classified information.
JACOBSON: But he said that he had not leaked information to Congress and that's I think the rub.
THOMAS: I think Jim Comey is an extraordinarily polarizing person. You have got Republicans and Democrats hating on you and you're the FBI Director -- former FBI Director is probably the thing. It probably means that you're a law enforcement officer of integrity, you're not partisan and you're not someone who picks one side over the other and Trump's folks obviously have reason to have animosity with him, as do the Clinton folks, but I think at the end of the day, it's good that these facts are coming out.
VAUSE: This also seems to me that he is being meticulous about everything that he is doing so that he could put it all out there. There's no usurpation in this. There's complete transparency.
I guess, we'll see what happens with Comey. Dave and John, as always, good to see you. Thank you.
SESAY: Well, all right, good break here. Facebook stuns Wall Street. Mark Zuckerberg's company is raking in billions despite the scandal that threatened to bring it all down.
VAUSE: Facebook is raking it in. The social media giant has posted its first quarter earnings, $12 billion in revenue in the first three months of the year.
In other words, Facebook crushed expectations. It appears the...
[00:25:16]
VAUSE: ... data privacy scandal that put the founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg in the hot seat had no negative financial impact.
So much for the "Delete Facebook" campaign, at least for now.
Joining me now, Scott Perry, founder "LA Tech Digest" and author of "SnapChat 101." Okay, good to see you. Thanks for coming in.
Let's start with the good news here for Facebook. There's always good news here. First quarter revenue up 49 percent, it is rising faster than the previous two quarters. Profit margin just over 45 percent. That's a little lower than recent performance, but they've been spending a lot of money. They have a lot of revenue, a lot of expenses going up.
It would seem the company just keeps making money despite the controversies.
SCOTT PERRY, FOUNDER, LA TECH DIGEST: Well, they're killing it. I mean, like I said before, nobody really cares because they just can't grasp the enormity of the situation. And when it comings down to it, Congress can do everything they can to protect us from Facebook, but we as humans can't protect ourselves from Facebook.
We are on there 24 hours a day, constantly checking in, showing off to our friends what is going on, see what our friends are doing and along the way, Facebook has been able to leverage that traffic to make more money sell ads against us, so, it's yes...
VAUSE: Okay, so Facebook keeps making money. What was interesting though, Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, there was a conference call with analysts and he was actually forced to defend the business model here.
You know, the way this country keeps generating billions of dollars, that seems odd, any other company making this much money, no one would be asking that question.
PERRY: No, but because it is our personal data people do take it personally, but it is pretty funny because when one of the analysts asked him, what's one of his biggest regrets, and his reply was, "Well, I didn't get in the game earlier so I could build an operating system or a device like android."
So, he wants to own the entire internet and all the data that comes with it, so...
VAUSE: He wants to rule the world...
(CROSSTALK)
PERRY: It's not a bad thing I mean, he has done very well from a company that just was built out of his dorm room and has grown into this, you know half a trillion dollar global behemoth.
But there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that, and they are addressing those issues. There are still a lot of loopholes to fill in, and the growth is continuing, but the real tell is going to be after May 25th, one month from now, when Europe enacts the GDPR -- the Global Data Protection Regulation.
VAUSE: Okay, there is potentially bad news here, or at least the canary in the coal mine. The number of daily users is up almost 13 percent, so it's still growing. This is from the first quarter of 2018 compared to a year ago.
The number of people logging on each day, it's still growing, but the growth rate for the third consecutive quarter has hit an all-time low.
Is it possible to say that might be the sign of the fallout from the scandal or is it just an ongoing sign of a company which is a maturing business?
PERRY: I mean, how much bigger can you grow when you have 2.2 billion users out of the entire world. That leaves people that are too young, too old or they don't have access to the internet to begin with.
So, yes the growth rate may slow down, but at the same time, the real tell is going to be how much time the average user is spending, which wasn't revealed during this call.
VAUSE: Listen, don't we have in the past?
PERRY: Right, right.
VAUSE: Why didn't they put it out there this time?
PERRY: I don't know. I don't know.
VAUSE: You put out good news, you hide bad, right?
PERRY: Exactly, but I mean, I think the thing with GDPR is going to have a real effect on traffic because not only is having to follow a 99-pagedocument to the letter, but also the press and PR around is going to make people think twice about what they share and who they share it with.
But like I said before...
VAUSE: I don't know if that will -- that's the thing. I am with you. I think people are too lazy, they don't care, short memories, move on kind of stuff.
PERRY: Oh, yes.
VAUSE: Okay, in the middle of the scandal, Facebook released a YouTube ad, I think this came out on Wednesday acknowledging past mistakes with a promise to do better.
PERRY: They're trying.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From now on, Facebook will do more to keep you safe and protect your privacy so we can all get back to what made Facebook good in the first place -- friends. Because when this place does what it was built for, then we all get a little closer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I think when you watch the entire ad, it seems we have reached the target viewers, but being on Facebook is just kind of crappy these days.
PERRY: Well, it is a great place for people to share like their most valued times with other friends. What's even crazier is how much information we share with strangers, unprompted with these Facebook communities. VAUSE: But really, does that kind of stuff work? Those ads? The
campaign?
PERRY: You know, I think we see -- I think we all see through it. I mean, it's all nice and shiny and warm and fuzzy and everything, but when it comes down to it, there's still this underlying like, what are they really doing with our data?
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: (Inaudible).
PERRY: Oh, yes, totally.
VAUSE: Scott, good to see you.
PERRY: Yes, good to see you, John, thank you.
SESAY: All right, when we come back here on "Newsroom LA" weapons experts in Syria gather more evidence of a possible chemical attack in the rebel enclave of Douma.
VAUSE: Also, we'll speak with a businessman who has made it his mission to help Syrian refugees to start new lives in Canada.
[00:30:00]
SESAY: You're watching CNN "Newsroom" live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: Thanks for staying with us, I'm John Vause. We'll check the headlines this hour.
Less than 24 hours from now Kim Jong-un will walk across the Military Demarcation Line in to South Korea and there, he'll be met by President Moon Jae-in for an unprecedented summit.
Kim will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in the south.
SESAY: French President Emmanuel Macron believes he has made some progress in changing Donald Trump's thinking on the Iran nuclear agreement, but he still doesn't think the US President will do much to preserve the deal.
A key goal of Mr. Macron's visit to Washington was to convince Mr. Trump to stay in the pact.
VAUSE: White House officials say they're preparing for the possible withdrawal of Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Veteran Affair Department.
Dr. Ronny Jackson faces allegations of drinking on the job and crashing a government vehicle while he was drunk.
Jackson denies that last claim. SESAY: While chemical experts have gathered samples from a second
location at the site of a suspected chemical attack in Douma, Syria. UK officials say some 75 people were killed in the attack on the rebel stronghold and US officials say they believe chlorine and sarin gas were used.
But both Syria and its most powerful ally, Russia, deny involvement and claim an attack was staged.
Meanwhile, the UN reports international donors in Brussels have promised almost $4 billion to help victims of the fighting, but sometimes much smaller numbers can make a huge difference.
The power of one. A Canadian businessman has brought 61 families, more than 200 people from war-ravaged Syria to Ontario. Jim Estill is helping them start over. He has spent more than $1 million of his own money to resettle them in and around the town of Guelph, which is about 100 kilometers from Toronto.
He sees that they learn English, find work and so much more. Jim joins me now from Phoenix, Arizona. Jim, it is so great to have you with us.
JIM ESTILL, CANADIAN BUSINESSMAN: Well, thanks for having me.
SESAY: You have seen a lot of global conflicts play out in your lifetime, so what was it about the situation in Syria that made you compelled to take action.
ESTILL: Well, I actually believe Syria is probably the greatest humanitarian crisis in my lifetime in the world, or at least I hope it is, and I was just trying to do my small part and there's nothing special about Syria, it just happened to be a place where there is humanitarian crisis happening and I thought I could contribute something.
SESAY: You had the idea of contributing something of trying to help. It's one thing to have an idea, it's another thing to take the steps to make it a reality. Talk to me about the level of difficulty involved in terms of the process to bring all of these families out of Syria.
ESTILL: So, I approached it like a business. So, I have a Director of Housing, a Director of Food, a Director of Jobs, a Director of Managership -- every family is assigned an Arabic mentor family and English speaking mentor family.
The mentors have checklists of, you know, set up a bank account, get a health card, get a doctor go to the library card, get a library card, get a bus pass, ride the bus and we're score carding.
So, we approached it like a business and although everyone gives me the credit for it, I have 800 volunteers. So, it's more like running a business, like what I do with Danby Appliance. I don't actually do anything, I have people that do everything. SESAY: Not quite true, but I take your general point that it is a
team effort. I know that you just had three more families arrive in April, I think April 16th. Talk to me about what that first experience of meeting them is like. What goes through your mind? How do they respond when they finally land there in Canada?
ESTILL: Well, of course, it's a grueling experience to get here. So that particular family had been waiting for over a year...
[00:35:16]
ESTILL: ... to get through all of the government's red tape and the background checks and the health checks, and then -- they were traveling for more than 24 hours straight by the time they took their lay over, so they arrived extremely tired. We were waiting at the airport for over four hours before they got processed by the Customs and Immigration so that we could take them back to Guelph.
We had four cars because it was -- you know, you have got seven people with luggage and we arranged to have some of the volunteers set up their home, their temporary home and arrange a dinner for them so when they got there, they had something to eat with lots of leftovers so their fridge was full, and then we let them get their sleep that night.
SESAY: Wow, it's just so amazing. How do you decide, though, Jim, who gets to leave Syria and start that new life?
ESTILL: Oh, that is the worst part, because I've been approached by more than a thousand, probably close to 10,000 people that want to be brought to Canada, and people think I can wave a magic wand and do it and it's not that simple.
So, generally speaking, I have supported families that I thought had a chance of being self-supporting, and that means working and supporting themselves. Many of them had some family in Canada, so I am supporting people, bringing in people who had some connection to Canada already, and I think that gives us a higher chance of them doing well in Canada.
SESAY: Yes, I mean, I know that, you know, here in the United States there have been some communities in the past that expressed some resistance or opposition to having Syrian refugees relocated to those areas. I mean, talk to me about Guelph, a city of about 120,000 people, how welcome are they made to feel these people who have come from such a long way away and have been through so much.
ESTILL: Well, Guelph is extremely multi-cultural to start with. It's a university town and if you walk through the town, it's already very multicultural, so Guelph has been very, very supporting.
I will say to answer that comment that every wave of immigrants and refugees tend not to be welcome. So, Canada and the United States did not welcome the Italians. We didn't welcome the Irish. We didn't want the Catholics. We didn't want the Jews. We didn't want -- and then within a decade or two, that wave of refugees is accepted. In Guelph, the largest company was started by a Hungarian refugee, and
it has over 10,000 employees, and he was a refugee and when he first arrived here, he had lived in the train station for a couple of weeks while he got his -- and interestingly enough, he actually worked at my company, Danby Appliances. So, it's a small world in that regard.
SESAY: No, it certainly is. I mean, you know, Jim, people are going to watch this conversation and they would be saying to themselves, "Wow, that's amazing. He did that. He took the idea, he made it a reality, but I could never do that. I could never make a difference like that.
What do you say to those people who sit on the edge of wanting to get involved?
ESTILL: Well, I think that you contribute what you can according to your means, according to your time and that could be everything from simply being accepting and open through to donating money, through to being on a volunteer team through to helping, and that is very helpful if people simply are open and helping.
And I believe a few decades from now, the refugees will be -- you'll see the success that they bring and everyone in North America, except for the indigenous people are -- you know, they are immigrants. And it's only very recently in our history that any people like me have been here.
SESAY: Yes, no doubt. Last question to you. You talk about the future and you know your expectation that these families will do well, all of these immigrants being accepted from Syria.
What about you? I mean, talk to me about you and the impact this has had on you and how it has changed you for the future.
ESTILL: So, I was always very philanthropic and Danby Appliances' tag line is "Do the right thing," and this one just happened to get more press than some of the other initiatives that we have.
Moreover, I did discover the secret of happiness through this venture and I believe the secret to happiness is being grateful for what you have, not ungrateful for what you've lost or ungrateful for what other people have, and I see the people who have come and have lost everything and the ones that are happy are the ones that are grateful, and the ones who are bitter are the ones who are ungrateful for what they've lost or ungrateful for what other people have. And I think that applies to all of us.
SESAY: I think those are very, very wise words to end this conversation on that we should all...
[00:40:15]
SESAY: ... contemplate. Jim Estill, thank you for all that you do in the world and thank you for making the time to speak to us.
ESTILL: Thanks, Isha. VAUSE: He is so true. Comparison is the killer of all joy.
SESAY: It really is. Just stay in your space and be grateful.
VAUSE: Absolutely. I'll stay here.
SESAY: You sit right...
VAUSE: Still to come, it's mine. Meghan Markle has tied the knot to some guy called Mike. It was her last appearance on her TV series, and maybe, was it a test run before the real thing.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK J. ADAMS, AMERICAN ACTOR: The second I met you...
MEGHAN MARKLE, AMERICAN ACTRESS: You are the husband I have always wanted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Still waiting -- still waiting to find out the name of Britain's new royal baby. Katherine the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to the little guy on Monday, maybe Octavius Cyril Percy.
SESAY: Well, book makers, they favor traditional royal names such as Arthur, Albert, and James, Alexander and Phillip are popular next to...
VAUSE: Boring.
SESAY: One thing is certain.
VAUSE: Octavius.
SESAY: The chosen name will likely top the list of popular British baby names as it did with the infant sibling's George and Charlotte. My money is still on Lenny.
VAUSE: Prince Octavius. Okay, Meghan Markle just appeared for the last time on her TV Series, "Suits." Wednesday's season finale marked the end of her acting career.
SESAY: She announced her departure after her engagement to Prince Harry. In her final show, Markle's character Rachel finally ties the knot with her love interest, Mike.
VAUSE: Mike.
SESAY: Her real-life wedding to Prince Harry is less than a month away at Windsor Castle in England. She's stepping it up in real life.
VAUSE: I wondered if it would be anything like this. Probably not.
SESAY: Something (inaudible)...
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: There won't be a voice over, certainly.
VAUSE: Yes.
SESAY: Yes.
VAUSE: They should think about that.
SESAY: You think so? Thank you for watching CNN "Newsroom" live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Stay tuned now for "World Sports." Oh, Octavius Sports. You're watching CNN.
[00:45:00]
KATE RILEY, HOST, WORLD SPORT: Welcome, everyone to "CNN World Sport," I'm Kate Riley.
We are starting with the Champions League. Earlier, the second semifinal first leg took place, two giants of the game in this one. Bayern Munich and the current holders Real Madrid took to the pitch.
Let's run you through stats before we get to the action.
This is the 25th time the clubs have met in European competition and both have 11 wins with two draws.
[00:45:16]
RILEY: Real have scored 37 goals to Bayern's 36 and this is the seventh time the clubs have met in the semifinals. The Germans lead 4-2 in the series.
And to Germany we would go where the home side got onto the blocks first. Joshua Kimmich broke the deadlock in this one. Right before the break, the Spanish visitors had other ideas and come the second half, Real Madrid really showed us why they're hungry to pulling away this season, it would be Marco Asensio driving it home, 2-1. It's ends to the La Liga Club in Munich on Wednesday night.
So, it's Real taking the advantage into the second leg, Tuesday. Madrid a week from today. Liverpool will take a 5-2 edge into the Italian capital against Roma, but as we saw on Tuesday, the Italians got the final two goals, so maybe momentum is on their side to complete another massive comeback.
All right now, we're staying with the Champions League for a moment and earlier, Vince Cellini caught up with the football journalist, Eduardo Abascal. He's covered European and Spanish football for almost a decade now, to discuss the first leg of the Champions League semifinals. Here's more.
(START VIDEO TAPE) VINCE CELLINI, TURNER SPORTS: Given the team's history and how
tightly they have played, was this match about what you expected today?
EDUARDO FERNANDEZ-ABASCAL, FOOTBALL JOURNALIST: To be honest, I felt that Roma, we were going to be better, they were going to play better football, that they were going to win and they haven't played really good, but still they have won and that's Real Madrid. They are certainly winners. That's why they have won the last two champions leagues, and that's why they are the favorites again to win this one.
CELLINI: Eduardo what is it about Real in this competition that seems to bring out the very best in them as a club?
ABASCAL: Yes, it's unbelievable because they are fourth in La Liga. They have been very poor in the domestic competitions. They lost (inaudible), but then in the Champions League, they are a completely different team.
There are players like Marcello for example, that today scored a goal, although he made a big mistake in the first goal, but there are different players, the ones playing La Liga. I think they have different motivations.
Probably when you have won everything like this Real Madrid side, and last season that they already won La Liga, they didn't have the motivation to do it again, but Champions League is different, everybody want to do it, and that's why they did it again tonight and they got a fantastic result.
Not just -- winning at the home of one of the best teams around Europe, so it has been amazing and even without playing good football, because they didn't have the possession, Bayern Munich had more chances. I think Ronaldo barely touched the ball during the whole game, but still, they got 2-1. So, it's an amazing result.
CELLINI: They got it done and that is six consecutive wins over Bayern Munich. So, if you're Bayern Munich, Eduardo, how do you see this? Is this a trend? Or do they say to themselves, we are overdue for a win against Real?
ABASCAL: To be honest, last season the score was the same. In the quarterfinals Roma won against Munich also 2-1. And then the second time was alive almost until the very end, because there was even -- we had to play extra time because Bayern beat in the 90 minutes Real Madrid.
So, probably without that (inaudible) to Arturo Vidal, was by (inaudible) and one goal of Ronaldo that was offside, maybe Bayern Munich would have gone through last season. So, still, they are going to have chances, probably because looked what happened with Juventus in the quarter finals.
We thought that the tie was over because Real Madrid won 3-0 in Italy, and then only in the very last minute, thanks to that penalty converted by Ronaldo, Real Madrid went through, so in this Champions League, I think that Bayern Munich has still -- have to have the dream, the desire to go through, because today they have played good football, but still, some players like Lewandowski and Muller have also been missing and the only one that has performed at his real (inaudible), the 35-year-old is unbelievable in the game he has gone.
Although it is true that after they won nil, he missed a chance that could have killed it again.
CELLINIL: Two teams that continue to entertain us. Eduardo, thank you so much for your insights. I am sure we'll talk again.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RILEY: With the first legs over, the action in the Champions League will resume next week with the second leg of the semifinals.
Nervy stuff ahead that's for sure with the final at the end of May in...
[00:50:15]
RILEY: ... Kiev. "World Sport" will be right back.
Welcome back. LeBron James and the Cavs had a crucial game five at home on Wednesday against the Pacers. James has never lost a first round series or faced elimination in the opening round. It's tied at 2-2 with Cleveland needing more LeBron heroic. So, to Cleveland we go.
This one would be a tight one. And Indiana has a chance to win it, but LeBron James puts in a shift with a season saving block, some would say. This was massive and then, yes, some amazing stuff there.
Now, with three seconds left on the clock, LeBron James drains a game- winning three pointer at the buzzer. The score in the end 98-95, so the Cavaliers, they don't call them King for nothing. The Cavs take a 3-2 lead in the series. Game six is on Friday and if needed, game seven will be on Sunday back in Cleveland.
All right now, to news in England that no fan wants to hear ahead of the World Cup. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is to miss the tournament this summer after getting injured in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Liverpool midfielder was stretching off the pitch and fell during their match against Roma. A scan on Wednesday showed he had knee ligament injury. His club released a statement earlier saying their player will be out for the rest of the Premiere League season, as well as this summer's World Cup.
Well, also on Wednesday and less than a week after announcing his departure as Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger confirmed what many of us suspected, that he may be nudged out the door with a year remaining on his contract, nearly 22 years with the club, head of the Europa League semifinal against Atletico Madrid, the Frenchman shared with reporters his new revelation. Well, a report by the "Independent Review Panel" has found that tennis
is rampant with match fixing and suspected illegal betting, the two- year review shows a large number of professional tennis players said they had first-hand knowledge of such breaches.
The report says, "A tsunami of match fixing is plaguing lower level tennis events." It showed some issues at higher levels such as grand slams and tour events, but the evidence does not reveal "a widespread problem" in elite professional tennis.
It also believes 80 percent of suspicious matches occurred in the men's game.
All right, every athlete train (inaudible) every athlete is seeking the that extra edge, so too, is the Swedish judo team which is putting its hopes on old school training combined with a new high tech approach. It puts a finer point on performance on all levels. Neil Curry now reports.
(START VIDEO TAPE)
NEIL CURRY, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Sweden's judokas are having a moment.
[00:55:16]
CURRY: Rising star, Tommy Mecias is now sixth in the world in this under 73 kilogram category after winning gold at the recent Antalya Grand Prix.
Another gold from a teammate, Anna Bernholm, a first after 28 attempts means this smaller judo nation is well represented.
ROBERT ERIKSSON, HEAD COASH, SWEDISH JUDOKA TEAM Sweden has been doing great the last years, not a large number of training partners and really with financial support. We have a good support of course from the Olympic Committee and from the state, but it's not like big nations. Therefore is it important for us and for me to find small keystones on the side that will make our performance grow.
CURRY: For the last three years, the Swedish team has been using Athlete Analyzer, a training software developed by Nicklas Bjorklund, it enables judo coaches to easily analyze performance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can keep track of everything that happens during competitions and everything about their training. We can also combine those data, so nothing is left to chance. The coach will always have all the information he will ever need about each athlete.
And up here, we have the attack type we can see that 90 percent of his attacks are direct attacks. Down here, we can see the scoring, the points, the opponent is 42 percent, that's good (inaudible)...
CURRY: Swedish national coach, Robert Ericsson says all of the time, training may still follow traditional structure, this new tech has improved communications between coach and athlete.
ERICSSON: It made a big difference, I would say, of course in performance, but also in the daily work.
CURRY: Nothing can replace hard work in the dojo, but this new tool could be one of the driving forces behind Swedish judos competitive edge.
RILEY: Okay, great stuff. That's it from us. Thanks so much for watching. Stay with CNN. The news is next.
[01:00:00]
