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Rudy Giuliani's Comments Contradict the President's Earlier Statements Regarding the Stormy Daniels Case; Trump Campaign Finance Violations; Updates on the Release of U.S. Prisoners Held in North Korea; Human Trafficking and Exploitation In Hong Kong; India Dust Storm Left Death and Destruction in Its Wake; Twitter Passwords Leak. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 04, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN JOURNALIST: I'm Jomana Karadsheh, and this is CNN.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Credibility crisis, Donald Trump's new lawyer drops a bombshell, forcing the U.S. President to change his story. Waiting for words, the families of three Americans detained in North Korea hold out hope that their relatives release could some soon.

And one woman's story of escape and survival, overcoming modern day slavery in one of the world's most sophisticated cities. Hello and welcome to have viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN Newsroom. President Donald Trump apparently has a new legal strategy and a new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, but the chaos that often surrounds the White House seems to be getting worse.

The President just admitted that he himself was the source of hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What a day, what a beautiful day.

JIM ACOSTA, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The skies were clear but the storm clouds never turned for the President who joined Christian conservatives for a national day of prayer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President why are changing your story on Stormy Daniels?

TRUMP: Shame on you.

ACOSTA: Just as the White House was scrambling to explain a bomb shell revelation from Rudy Giuliani that Mr. Trump has repaid his personal attorney Michael Cohen for the hush money he paid the porn star, Stormy Daniels, who claims she and the President once had an affair.

GIULIANI: Sorry, I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know, it's not campaign money, no campaign finance mileage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So they funneled it through the law firm?

GIULIANI: Funneled through a law firm and the President repaid it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I didn't know that he did.

GIULIANI: Yes.

ACOSTA: That completely contradicted what the President told reporters just last month.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?

TRUMP: No, no.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Then why did Michael Cohen make this if there was no truth to her allegations?

TRUMP: Well, you'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask Michael.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?

TRUMP: No, I don't know. No.

ACOSTA: Giuliani's explanation for that, the President didn't know about the reimbursement and until just recently.

GIULIANI: He didn't know the details of this until we knew the details of it, which was a couple weeks ago. Maybe not even a couple, maybe 10 days ago.

ACOSTA: But that differs from this tweet from Mr. Trump that claims Cohen was on a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into through reimbursement.

The President went on to tweet, these agreements are very common amongst celebrities and people of wealth, the agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair. The stunning admission from the President also runs counter to multiple denials from White House officials.

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There was no knowledge of any payments from the President and he's denied all these allegations.

ACOSTA: White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, told reporters she only learned of the reimbursement last night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you lying to us at the time or where you in the dark?

SANDERS: The President has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim and again I've given the best information that I had at the time and I would refer you back to the comment that you yourself just mentioned a few minutes ago about the timeline from Mayor Giuliani.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That statement was in reference to the reimbursement, the payment.

SANDERS: Again I gave you the best information that I had and that...

ACOSTA: And a separate interview on Fox, Giuliani tried to explain away all of the past false statements, including from Cohen who has also stated he was not reimbursed. Giuliani insisted it wasn't an attempt to go around campaign finance laws.

GIULIANI: It wasn't for the campaign, it was to save their marriage as much as their reputation.

ACOSTA: There were other jaw dropping admissions from Giuliani, such as when he admitted he fired former FBI director James Comey over the Russia investigation.

GIULIANI: He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn't a target of the investigation. He's entitled to that.

ACOSTA: And when he described the President's son in law, Jared Kushner, as disposable.

GIULIANI: If they do, do Ivanka, which I doubt they will, the whole country will turn on her. They're going after his daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about his son in law?

GIULIANI: They talked about him, I guess Jared is a fine man, you know that. But men are, you know, disposable. But a fine woman like Ivanka, come on.

ACOSTA: And when we appeared to like in the federal agents who raided Cohen's office and their investigation to Nazi storm troopers.

GIULIANI: The question there was, the only possible violation there would be, was it a campaign financed violation which usually would result in a fine by the way, not this big storm troopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking down his office.

ACOSTA: Giuliani appeared across an important line in all of this comments to the media, at one point stating, that three America prisoners being held in North Korea are being released. As for whether the President had given Giuliani permission to discuss foreign policy matters, the White House Press Secretary said she didn't know. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [00:05:00]

CHURCH: All right a lot to break down here so let's talk about this with John Phillips, he is a CNN political commentator, talk radio host and Trump supporter. And Caroline Heldman, a democratic strategist and associate professor of politics at Occidental College, they join me now from Las Angeles, good to see you both.

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to see you.

CHURCH: So John Phillips let's start with you. What was Rudy Giuliani thinking when he dropped his bombshell Wednesday night, essentially contradicting everything the President and the White House had been saying up to this point about the Stormy Daniels hush money, the firing of James Comey, the release of the three U.S. detainees in North Korea, blind siding the White House and the President's legal team? Is Giuliani a loose cannon or is he the new voice of Trump delivering a new legal strategy?

PHILLIPS: Well he certainly had a lot to say and I think like a manager, if they think that the calls are going against them in baseball how they go in and get in the umpires face and scream and yell and kick some dirt and they fire up the base. I think that was a large part of what Rudy Giuliani was doing.

The President likes it when his representatives, when his spokesman go out there and get fiery on T.V. and advocate for his perspective, for his point of view, very vociferously. And that's exactly what Rudy Giuliani did today, so I think from that point of view, from the point of view of the audience of one that really matters, the President, I think the President was very happy with what Rudy Giuliani did today.

The main point that I think that Rudy was trying to get out there today is there was no laws broken by this pay out to Stormy Daniels. That Donald Trump was not using his campaign accounts, he was not paying her off in a campaign capacity, this was a celebrity a man of money, a man of means, who does this sort of thing on a regular basis.

I mean he was an NBC personality, he was the star of "The Apprentice" for many years. I bet you if you look here in Hollywood for people in his shoes, many of these payouts have gone out. So, from that perspective I think Rudy was quite effective.

CHURCH: All right Caroline Heldman lets go to you. The question on everyone's mind now is this, what did the President know, and when did he know it? How may Giuliani's bombshell help answer that question, and has Giuliani actually cause more legal problems for Trump than he had previously?

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well I totally disagree with John, I think that Rudy Giuliani is the Donald Trump of attorneys, he actually did something that puts Donald Trump in serious legal trouble. So, either it was a $130,000 that was required to be reported to the FEC or it was personal and you still have federal personal disclosures. It doesn't show up on either one of those, so which law did he break? That's the question, Giuliani also essentially confirmed that Donald Trump fired Comey for reasons that can be very easily interpreted as obstruction of justice and I would also disagree with John that he likes other people getting the press, which is what Giuliani is doing right now. So they're doing damage control on, as you put it, a loss cannon, I don't think this is helping the President at all.

CHURCH: And John why does the White House keep changing its story on this Stormy Daniels and James Comey story issue's in particular. And how concerned are you that the words of Giuliani could very get President Trump into more legal strife than he's all ready in on issues like campaign finance violations?

Because he didn't actually prove there wasn't a problem, a lot of lawyers during the course of the day who have broken this all down, say that there's some real problems here in terms of campaign finance violations, as a result of what Giuliani said.

PHILLIPS: Well in terms of the story, I think that the White House is not speaking with one voice in the traditional sense. And this is the same thing that happened with Bill Clinton when Kenneth Star was launching the White Water investigation, where you have the private attorneys who are representing the President and you have the people who work at the White House who are representing the presidency.

People like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, people who work on the political side, they are there to advance the President's policy agenda and deal with the politics related to that. In terms of any investigations, that's what the Presidents attorneys, that's what people like Rudy Giuliani are supposed to do. And clearly Rudy Giuliani and his group of attorneys didn't meet with Sarah Huckabee Sanders and inform them on every detail of what they were going to go talk about.

I don't think it's really unprecedented, again we saw that during Bill Clinton's investigation's, I think it does kind of muddy the waters and make it look like they don't know what - the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

CHURCH: That's exactly what it looks like isn't it? I mean the mixed messages are extraordinary and it's not one issue, its multiple issues isn't it?

PHILLIPS: Well clearly they need to reach out and touch someone and keep each other in the loop as to what everyone is up to. And I expect to see more of that in the future.

CHURCH: And Caroline what impact might the words of Giuliani,

[00:10:00]

it's not one issue, it's multiple issues isn't it?

PHILLIPS: Well clearly they need they need to reach out and touch someone. And keep each other in the loop as to what everyone is up to. And I expect to see to see more of that in the future. CHURCH: And Caroline what impact might the words of Giuliani have on the way the special council pursues its investigation going forward do you think?

HELDMAN: Well I think that they will now have additional evidence of perhaps of obstruction of justice. It obviously doesn't affect the Russia investigation. But perhaps there will be a new investigation and perhaps it will happen, you know in the state of California which is the shell company that - that the location of the shell company that Michael Cohen funneled this money through.

So the President might have an additional state claim which he is not constitutionally protected against. It is unlikely that the special prosecutor will go after Trump directly. The congress could but it - he is not protected when it comes to state violations and so there's a possibility that that will come up now. But at the end of the day, you know his supporters don't - his 20 percent of American's who are diehard Trump supporters don't seem to care that he's told over 3,000 lies.

That he tells an average of seven lies a day that we now know that he did about the Stormy Daniels payout. It doesn't seem to affect that core, rather small, but core base who continues to support this man, even though he proverbially shoots someone on Fifth Avenue.

CHURCH: Yes and John you mentioned the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. I mean she really struggled Thursday didn't she to keep up? With the shifting narratives, saying she had given the press the best information she had at the time.

She admitted that the first time she heard of this reimbursing by Trump at the $130 thousand in hush money to Trumps attorney Michael Cohen. Was when she watched Giuliani on "FOX" television on Wednesday night, just extraordinary. An interesting way to run an administration, so what is the truth here?

What are we all to believe? What are the American public supposed to believe about the Stormy Daniels payment? The firing of James Comey, and of course the release of these three U.S. detainees in North Korea, apparently an eminent release we heard from Giuliani was going to happen Thursday? It didn't happen Thursday.

PHILLIPS: Well at least in terms of the Stormy Daniels pad. We now know the time line. We now know that she was paid by Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen operated as a bit of a fixer. My guess is that Donald Trump didn't know the details of exactly what was paid or how it was paid. And my guess is that he didn't want to know the details on purpose. And that's probably how their relationship was prior to this incident. It's not an uncommon thing in the world of celebrity, and the world of billionaires, in the world certainly of politics. And the fact that he isn't keyed in on every twist and turn of the story and that his staff isn't keyed in on every twist and turn of the story isn't something that strikes me as being uncommon or surprising?

CHURCH: Caroline you get last word on this. Not surprising that it's all mixed messages and contradictions. HELDMAN: Well I think it's not surprising that Sarah Huckabee Sanders

and Donald Trump are getting their news from the same source. That's how their finding out what's happening in the world of policy in the White House. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is often left in the dark. And I think that this is purposeful and I really wish that the White House would give her more respect.

CHURCH: Alright. Caroline Heldman, John Phillips thank you to both of you for joining us on this political panel. Appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well the stages of those three American's detained in North Korea remains unclear. We've been talking about that of course. And anticipation is building over their possible release. Rudy Giuliani a member of President Trumps legal team said the three would freed Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP LEGAL TEAM: We can't a - Kim Jung-un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And official with knowledge of the negotiations told "CNN" their release was imminent. But the White House say's their still no official word of when they will be freed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We can't confirm the validity of any of the reports currently out about their release. But we certainly would see this as a sign of good will if North - North Korea were to release the three Americans ahead of discussions between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.

(END VIDEO CLIIP)

CHURCH: North Korea say's (Kim Sang-duk)ph and Tony Kim were imprisoned for committing hostile acts. And Kim Dong Chul is serving a 10 year sentence for espionage. Now Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul. Good to see you Paula. So we are getting all these very conflicting information stories regarding the possible release of these three U.S. detainees in North Korea. What are you hearing?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Rosemary what we know at this point is that an official with knowledge of these ongoing negotiations says that the release is imminent. Now there's no specific time line on when it might happen. The word is imminent. And they say that this has been in works for months.

That back on March Ri Yong Ho the North Korean Foreign Minister traveled to Sweden to propose the release of the these prisoners. Sweden represents

[00:15:00]

the United States in North Korea, because they don't have diplomatic ties. And the U.S. Officials we understand that that point said that they didn't want this linked to denuclearization. They didn't want it to loosen the call for denuclearization in any way.

Now that official was unable to confirm or deny reports that these three individuals had actually been moved from a labor correctional facility and moved closer to Pyongyang. We simply don't know if that is accurate at this point. The White House, the State Department both say that they are unable to confirm these reports.

They were unable to give a timeline as well. It was really only Mayor Giuliani who have given that timeline of Thursday, which of course in the United States is now past. Here in Korea it is Friday Morning as well. So it's difficult to see exactly where this information was coming from as the families themselves say that they haven't had any indication how close the release maybe, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes I wanted to ask you about that, because our thoughts go to the families particularly at this time. So they hadn't received any information at all from either the U.S. Government or from North Korea?

HANCOCKS: Not recently, not today knowing that there was a suggestion that they could be released within the day. They had been quite optimistic because they had heard that there was this possibility of the detainees being released either ahead of the summit between President's Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un or during the summit. So certainly there is a lot more optimism then there has been.

There's also questions being asked here in South Korea. There's still six South Koreans that are detained in North Korea. At the unification ministry briefing just now, that the journalists were quizzing. Why where some of these - all of these detainees not released before the North/South Korean summit? Before President Moon Jae-in met with Kim Jong-un, but they say that they are still working on that at this point. And they have no information about the U.S. detainees.

CHURCH: Alright we'll be watching this story of course very closely, our Paula Hancocks. Joining us live from Seoul in South Korea where it's just after 1:15 in the afternoon. Many thanks as always.

Well mean time the parents of a former American detainee held in North Korea are speaking out against Kim Jong-un's government. Last year Otto Warmbier was sent back to the United States in a coma and died soon after. His parents recently filed a wrong death lawsuit in a U.S. Court claiming North Korea tortured and killed their son. They told a U.N. symposium that Pyongyang needs to be held accountable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRED WARMBIER, FATHER OF OTTO WARMBIER: We are trying to build a pathway that leads directly to Kim and his regime to force them to be answerable for their actions. CINDY WARMBIER, MOTHER OF OTTO WARMBIER: How can anybody be quite

when this is going on? The only thing we can do is rub their noses in this. It embarrasses them. They don't like the world to think that they aren't trying to be a member of the world. And they like to act like a victim, like they've been treated poorly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And their comments come as the U.S. State Department issued a statement. Calling North Korea one of the most repressive and abusive governments in the world, just as an historic meeting of the American and North Korean leaders is being planned. We'll take a very short break here.

But still to come Iran say's there will be consequences if the U.S. leaves the nuclear deal. What its top diplomats says about any new agreement. That's ahead. Plus China's military buildup in the South China Sea again provokes U.S. complaints, this time over reports of missiles that could disrupt international shipping. We'll explain when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well Iran is signaling that if the United States pulls out of the nuclear deal, it will too. Its officials say Tehran won't accept any changes to the current agreement. Iran's foreign minister drove that point home in remarks that seemed to take direct aim at U.S. President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF: In real estate terms when you buy a house and move your family in or demolish it to build a skyscraper you cannot come back two years later and try to renegotiate the price.

(END VIDEO)

CHURCH: Iran's top diplomat also accuses the U.S. of consistently violating the agreement especially by bullying others from doing business with Iran. The U.S. president is a huge critic of the deal calling it one of the worst ever. He has repeatedly threatened to pull out and now faces a May 12th deadline to decide whether to recertify it, something done every few months. But the U.N. secretary general is urging him to stay in. Antonio Guterres told the BBC that countries shouldn't scrap the deal without a good alternative.

Well the U.S. and China are in another standoff over the South China Sea just at a time when U.S. officials are in China hoping to avoid a trade war. There in the middle of a dispute over the Spratly Islands where U.S. intelligence says China likely deployed anti-ship and antiaircraft missiles. Our Matt Rivers is covering this story for us. He joins us now live from Beijing. Good to see you Matt. So let's start with the South China Sea and this dispute over the Spratly Islands. What are you learning about U.S. intelligence claims that China

deployed missiles there and how's China reacting?

MATT RIVERS: Yes what U.S. intelligence officials are saying is that these missiles were likely deployed during a series of military drills that took place in the South China Sea around April 12th and 13th or so. It's not clear whether these missiles remain on these disputed islands. But the fact is that U.S. intelligence officials believe there's a high probability that those missiles were deployed and that is a big deal for a number of different reasons.

What we've seen China do over the past several years is build up these artificial islands in several different locations around the South China sea in territorial waters that it will claim are its own. Now other claim it's in the area dispute those territorial claims but China has forged ahead with this militarization and the deploying of these missiles is the first time that we've seen that happen in the Spratly Islands. We've seen it happen in the Paracel Islands in 2016 but this is just a further step and something the United States isn't happy about.

The administration says they'll be consequences, let's hear a little bit of what a White House spokes person had to say on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO:

SARAH SANDERS: We're well aware of Chinas militarization of the South China Sea. We've raised concerns directly with the Chinese about this and there will be near term and long term consequences.

(END VIDEO)

RIVERS: So what do those consequences look like? Are there targeted sanctions that could be coming down on companies

[00:25:00]

involved with these island building? Is it further freedom of navigation operations that we've the U.S. conduct for years now in which they sail very close to these islands to dispute the fact that the United States were to show that the United States doesn't by that those islands are Chinese territory. Those are all options but what experts would tell you Rosemary is that there's really no good options to force China to move - remove those missiles if they are in fact there.

Now we should point out China is saying that these are defensive weapons, that they are not intended to be pointed at anyone and that they have no intention of doing so. However weapons experts will tell you look, this increases China's ability to project it's powers far from its shores.

CHURCH: Yes and of course while that's going on there's also an effort to avoid a trade war between the United States and China. A U.S. delegation via in Beijing trying to do that, they're finishing up, it's their final day. What if anything has been achieved? RIVERS: Yes, we haven't really gotten any details yet. Reporters did manage to see the treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin who's heading the U.S. delegation here, leaving his hotel. He wouldn't bite on any questions that were thrown his way. Negotiations happened yesterday here in Beijing, they're going to wrap up today. The U.S. side is expected to leave China by the end of the day today.

Neither side is really playing up any expectation that there will be some sort of grand bargain struck in the matter of hours really that this team has been on the ground. But will there be some sort of smaller deal that maybe allows both sides to back away from the billions of dollars in tariff threats that both sides have levied against one another in recent months. That remains to be seen and we are looking maybe Rosemary, there could be press availability with the U.S. side before they take off in China but that has not been confirmed, we're not sure if that's going to happen or not.

CHURCH: Right, I know you'll keep a close eye on that and get back to us if there's anything that we need to know. And Matt Rivers bringing us up to date with a live report from Beijing. We're coming up to 12:30 in the afternoon, many thanks. All right let's take another break but still come a global problem with a human face. A CNN freedom project report on the personal cost of modern day slavery in one of the world's busiest cities. We'll explain when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A warm welcome back to our viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church. Time to update you now on the main stories we've been following this hour. The White House in clean up mode after bomb shell statements from one of President Trumps new attorneys. Rudy Giuliani told Fox News the President

[00:30:00]

repaid a long-time attorney Michael Cohen the hush money paid to a porn star. And, he gave yet another reason the president fired the former FBI director and said that presidential advisor Jared Kushner is quote, "disposable".

The White House says it cannot confirm the three Americans held in North Korea will soon be released. One of those reports came from the U.S. President's lawyer Rudy Giuliani who says the prisoners would be freed Thursday. An official with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN their release was imminent.

The U.S. has warned China there will be consequences for its military buildup in the South China Sea. U.S. intelligence says there is a high probability that Chinese military deployed antiship and antiaircraft missiles on the disputed Spratly Islands during military exercises. A U.S. official said it's not known whether the missiles remain.

Later this summer, lawmakers in Hong Kong are expected to discuss a proposed bill to criminalize human trafficking. Advocates hope it's the first solid step to tackle a problem that's thriving in Hong Kong's darkest corners. As part of CNN's Freedom Project shining a light on human slavery, CNN's Anna Coren has the story of one woman who lived that nightmare in one of the world's wealthiest cities.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Through a nondescript gauge (ph) off a busy Hong Kong street is a place called Bethune House. It's basic, cramped and exposed to the elements but it's the only sanctuary thousands of domestic helpers have ever known, who've suffered abuse and exploitation at the hands of their employers.

Twenty-eight year old Atik (ph) who wants to hide her identity for safety reasons arrived from Indonesia in 2012 with a promise of a good paying job by an employment agency.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language)

COREN: "They told me Hong Kong is a place to earn more money and achieve your dreams", she said. "So I came here hoping to save enough money to one day build a home and support my son's education."

Instead, Atik (ph) says her female employer deceived her. She claims the woman took her passport, made her work 7 days a week, 20 hours a day, physically and psychologically abused her, threatened to have her deported if she didn't resign her contract and to top it off refused to pay her salary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language)

COREN: "My employer said if I completed my five year contract she would give me a bonus pay. That's why I put up with the mistreatment but it was all a lie." After almost five years, Atik (ph) claims her employer paid her a total of $1,500. Five percent of what Atik (ph) says she was contractually owed.

And it wasn't until a particularly harsh beating where she was punched in the face and kicked when Atik (ph) says she finally gathered the courage to escape.

ENI LESTARI, INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS ALLIANCE CHAIRPERSON: The experience of Atik (ph) is actually also an expense (ph) of money that was (inaudible) in the city. The fact is that this continues (ph) to happen again and again is quite alarming.

COREN: Atik (ph) is one of the 350,000 foreign domestic workers living in Hong Kong and it's estimated that one in six is a victim of labor exploitation according to a 2016 NGO report. And while Hong Kong prides itself as one of the wealthiest and most sophisticated cities in the world one activist speaking to CNN called its track record on human trafficking appalling.

The U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report last year placed Hong Kong on the Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year, on par with countries like Iraq, Bangladesh and Rwanda and unless it makes some drastic changes it at risk of dropping even further down the list joining the likes of North Korea, Sudan, and the Kongo as the worst offenders of human trafficking.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DENNIS KWOK, HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL MEMBER: We don't want to be placed on the same level as African - some African states or North Korea who doesn't even come to - close to acknowledging human trafficking as an issue. We don't want to be associated with that. So, that's why I think the Hong Kong government and the Legislative Council in Hong Kong needs to positively make the change.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COREN: Hong Kong Legislative Councilor Dennis Dennis Kwok has proposed a bill based on the U.K. and Australian model to create a law that would combat all forms of human trafficking. And while Hong Kong claims it is fighting the problem, Mr. Kwok believes the government which drafted a National Action Plan to combat trafficking five years ago is still dragging its feet.

[00:35:00]

DENNIS KWOK, HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL MEMBER: This is not just about Hong Kong. If we don't have laws that are here to tackle international human trafficking, we're actually affecting the rest of the region or the rest of the world.

COREN: As for Atik (ph), her fight for justice lies with the courts. Her employer has been charged with assault and is yet to enter a plea. But as long as this court case drags on Atik (ph) must legally stay in Hong Kong, when all she wants is to return home and wrap her arms around her son who she hasn't seen in more than five years.

Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And you can see more stories like these on our Freedom Project website, including a report on child labor in the cobalt trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's at cnn.com/freedomproject.

Well northwestern India tries to recover from a deadly dust storm and more severe weather could be on the way. We will have the latest forecast when we come back. Plus, a security bug leaves some Twitter passwords exposed. Now the company is urging all its users to change their passwords. We'll have the details for you on our return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Well, sunscreen protects you from the dangerous rays of the sun but could be harming, even killing, coral reefs. Now, Hawaii is set to become the first U.S. State to take action. Lawmakers there passed a bill banning crams and sprays that contain the chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate; they can seep into young coral and contribute to coral bleaching. Sunscreen makers and the Hawaii Medical Association oppose the legislation, saying the chemicals help prevent skin cancer. If approved by the governor, the rules would go into effect in 2021. Well, parts of India are still reeling from a deadly dust storm. At least 110 people have died, the wild (ph) system brought powerful winds and lightning strikes that started fires, downed electric polls and caused roofs to collapse on families as they slept. We now go to our Ivan Cabrera, who's our meteorologist here at CNN. So what is happening here?

IVAN CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Horrific scene -- scenes coming out of the region there. Obviously, when you talk about a death toll like that, to me, it says something happened, and it happened very quickly in a short amount of time and folks did not have enough warning. Let's talk about what happened with this storm, Rosemary.

Basically, several thunderstorms got together. I'll talk about the dynamics here and how it got set up, but this was the result, right? Fifty-nine kilometer per hour winds, 132 kilometer per hour winds.

[00:40:00]

Keep in mind a typhoon has 120 kilometer per hour winds, and, in fact, in typhoons we very often do not see the kind of death total that we're talking about here. So this was a sudden event, no question about it. Oh, and this, 41,000 strikes, lightning strikes that - with that one storm that occurred.

We're going to follow it here. This is not current satellite, but this is on Wednesday from Lahore. Watch this cell as it continues to kind of blossom and push through Udelhi (ph) and then Agra, hardest hit area, and then it continued to head off to the south and east. I'm going to zoom in a little bit closer and tighten up the shot here and show you what happens with these thunderstorms.

The worst of the weather sometimes occurs out ahead of the system. Why? Well, because the winds coming out of the thunderstorms are out ahead of the actual storm that will bring the frequent lightning and the rain dance. Watch the cell (ph) as it approaches Agra. They are the strongest winds. This is actually the worst of the event occurring right there before the thunderstorm even rolled through, and look at that giant conflicts of storms, all of them getting together, and again, this storm had the potential, and it did so, to provide winds in excess of 100 kilometers per hour and it moved by very quickly which is why we have such a high death total.

It was just not enough time to warn folks that this situation was developing. With a typhoon, we have days, sometimes over a week to tell people to get out of harm's way.

As far as what happened, there's the thunderstorm that occurs in any place on Earth, but when you have upper level winds that are very strong, and they were, and the storm taps into some dry air at the bottom here - and that's why, by the way, we had that dust storm because as the wind began to blow, the dust got picked up even before it started raining and then, of course, everything collapsed on top of Agra with the rain, with the thunderstorm activity as far as the lighting. Now, everyone's been asking, "are we out of the woods yet? Are we done here?" Well, the next couple days, we're going to still watch the potential for some of these storms to get going. I don't think - and this computer model forecast agrees with me - that we're not going to get that blow up of a storm that we saw over the last couple of days.

So I think we're in much better shape through the next few days as folks try to get back to normal daily life here. It's just incredible to see the death toll continuing to climb as a result of just basically trees collapsing homes that would happen with those kind of winds.

CHURCH: It's horrendous and terrifying.

CABRERA: Yes.

CHURCH: Absolutely terrifying for those people. Thanks so much.

CABRERA: Welcome:

CHRUCH: We'll talk things down (ph). OK, appreciate it. Well, Twitter is warning it's 336 million users to change their passwords as a precaution. The social networking site said it found some passwords were stored unprotected in an internal log. But it says the problem has been fixed and there's no evidence any passwords were leaked. Twitter apologized, but didn't say how many passwords were effected and for how long.

Thanks so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter. Stay tuned now for world sport, and then I'll be back at the top of the hour with another hour of CNN Newsroom. Stick around. You're watching CNN.

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