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Terror Attack in Paris; U.S. Embassy Move; Royal Wedding Countdown; Eurovision 2018. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired May 13, 2018 - 03:00   ET

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

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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A deadly knife attack on the streets of Paris. Investigators are working to learn more about the assailant.

Plus: in just over 24 hours, the U.S. will open its embassy in Jerusalem. We'll be looking at the impact it might have on the Middle East.

And the royal wedding: the bling that Meghan Markle might be wearing when she walks down the aisle.

Live from the CNN Center here in Atlanta, I'm Cyril Vanier. It is great to have you with us.

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VANIER: Unfortunately, we have to start with another terror attack in Paris. ISIS is claiming responsibility for a knife attack Saturday that killed one person, wounded four others.

It claimed online that the attacker was its soldier but didn't provide proof to back that up. Police shot the knifeman dead and authorities have launched a terror investigation. For the latest, here's CNN's Melissa Bell. She joins me now from Central Paris, very near the site of the attack.

Melissa, I understand you've been speaking to a witness of the attack?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Cyril. It's pretty quiet here this morning but this would have been a very busy part of town last night. The incident took place on these two streets, on the corner of which I'm standing.

Olivier Woodhead has a restaurant just behind us and was here last night when it happened.

Tell us what you saw.

What was the first that you heard of it?

What did you see?

OLIVIER WOODHEAD, RESTAURATEUR: My barman heard the cries first. He ran out. I followed him to see what the commotion was. A place car had already passed actually and parked just in front of where we are.

So we came out and it was at that moment that the attacker came around this corner with his hands up, covered in blood, holding a cutter.

BELL: A cutter rather than a knife?

WOODHEAD: A box knife, yes. And the three policemen were standing and got out of the vehicle, the police car, and had him encircled and Tasered him several times to no effect. Then he managed to sort of isolate one of the policemen, get him down, further down the street. And then the policemen fired twice and the attacker fell.

BELL: You saw him being killed?

WOODHEAD: Yes.

What did you see of him?

What could you make out of the man, of the assailant?

WOODHEAD: He was bearded. He was angry. He was very confrontational. He went straight at the policemen.

BELL: The scenes must have been absolutely shocking.

Were there scenes of chaos around?

I can imagine people running around, trying to seek cover?

WOODHEAD: Not really. It was already nighttime. The police -- everyone had -- the events -- the bad stuff happened further up. The street was pretty empty, actually, and the police had him somewhat contained.

And then as soon as he went down, more police arrived and then the pompier (ph) and that's when we really saw the uniforms, a sea of uniforms, which was very reassuring, actually, for -- to me and my customers.

BELL: So it all happened very quickly, both the incident itself and the police intervention?

WOODHEAD: This part of it did, the end. Yes, within 30 seconds, it was over.

BELL: Thank you so much, thank you for speaking to us.

We're learning more, Cyril, also about the man himself, about his identity. We now know he was a Chechen. He was born in 1997 so we're talking about someone who was very young.

We also now know that two people have been taken into custody. They are the man's mother and father, presumably being asked plenty of questions about how their son could have become involved in such a violent incident here in Paris last night-- Cyril.

VANIER: First of all, I'd like you to thank our guest for us, Olivier Woodhead, who works in that street. His account of what happened was very interesting, very telling. And so we thank him for that.

And, secondly, Melissa, how would you characterize the feeling now in France and especially in Paris relative to this terror threat?

Because they have seen so many of those attacks over the last, what, three years now. I just wonder how they feel about and whether they've become inured to them.

BELL: You're right, Cyril, there have been so many. In fact, the latest victim, the person who died last night -- four were injured, one was killed -- becomes the 246th person killed since 2015 in France, in terror-related incidents.

And yet there had been this lull. Really what we've seen over the last couple of years especially are security services, both military personnel and police men and women being attacked while they go about their patrols and their duties.

And then last year, in October of last year, two young women attacked with a knife once again --

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BELL: -- outside Marseille train station. And then in March, the latest incident in Carcassonne and that hostage situation that we, of course, had covered, Cyril.

But we hadn't really seen in a fair while in Paris ordinary citizens going about their business, being attacked as we did last night. So a great deal of shock here in Paris that this should once again have happened -- Cyril.

Melissa Bell, reporting live from the site of the attack in Paris city center, thank you.

Steve Moore is a CNN law enforcement contributor and a retired FBI special agent.

Steve, we hardly know anything about the assailant for the moment.

What is the first step for investigators right now?

What are they likely doing now?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first thing they're going to do, Cyril, is run fingerprints, obviously. They're going to try and identify him, if he's a legal immigrant. They should have some fingerprints on file.

Likely, though, he's probably also been the source of at least some kind of investigation regarding extremist activities because the French are very forward leaning on that.

VANIER: But you say they probably have fingerprints on file.

What if he's not known to police?

I mean, that happens.

MOORE: Yes. If he's not known to police, it's still not going to be a mystery for very long because people are going to recognize him. People are going to give information on him. And he probably took a cab or left a car in the area.

So people are going to come forward, regarding how he got there. And if they don't, there's probably a vehicle that they'll find. But I'm guess he probably took a cab or an Uber or something like that.

VANIER: Now ISIS has claimed him as one of their own somehow and we don't know whether they may have just inspired him or whether actually directed him. I also have to say, they haven't given any proof for this. Still, investigators are going to need to find out because this a terrorism investigation, whether he acted alone.

How do you do that?

MOORE: Well, Cyril, again it's going to be going back to the people who know him, the neighborhood. You're going to run as many things as possible. The other thing you're going to know from investigations is whether he is known to be part of a cell that they're watching or whether or not they can take his associates and wrap him up into a cell.

As far as ISIS claiming responsibility for it, there's two things we kind of look for. Number one, if they say he is a part of an attachment belonging to ISIS, then he's likely centrally directed by ISIS. But if they use the term "soldier" or "soldier of the caliphate" --

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VANIER: -- they did. They described him as a quote-unquote, "soldier of the caliphate."

MOORE: -- right. That usually means that they believe he was inspired and they may not have any direct information on his involvement, might not even know his identity.

VANIER: So about that, about the idea that ISIS may have inspired this, you know, ISIS has lost most of the land that it once controlled in Iraq and Syria. Yet we see these attacks continuing in France in the name of ISIS.

Have you seen any signs recently that ISIS has a diminishing ability to inspire these attacks because I haven't?

But maybe I'm misreading it. MOORE: Well, the deal is, Cyril, that ISIS -- they inspire through these media outlets through social media, through Internet activity. And those things haven't been curtailed all that very much because they're probably not -- they probably weren't located in Raqqah or even Iraq.

And so they could be operating anywhere through the Middle East, even Europe and those are not going to be severely impacted. And they can relocate whenever they need to. And those are the things that are inspiring these types of people.

And here's the other issue: now when these people feel very inspired to assist ISIS, they can't go to Syria. They can't go to Iraq. There is no place to go.

So they're left with one thing, and that's cause havoc where you are.

VANIER: All right. So the diminishing influence and sway of ISIS in Iraq and Syria doesn't necessarily mechanically mean that there are fewer people who are inspired to carry this out. Interestingly, you point out, it may mean the opposite, at least for a while.

Steve Moore, thank you very much for joining us the show. Always a please to hear your analysis. Thanks.

MOORE: Thanks, Cyril.

VANIER: At least 10 people are dead after bombers attacked three Indonesian Christian churches. This happened in Surabaya on the east coast of Java Sunday morning. Police there in addition to the 10 deaths, 41 people have been injured. Two police officers are reportedly among those hurt in the bombings, which may have been suicide attacks.

Investigators aren't sure who's responsible and police say that they have identified only one of the victims so far.

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VANIER: The U.S. on Monday officially relocates its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This is a highly controversial move that triggered Palestinian protests when it was first announced last year. Israel says it has doubled its security forces in the area as a precaution.

CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now from Jerusalem.

So how is Israel preparing for this?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's worth pointing out, Cyril, that it wasn't just Palestinian protests. It was protests throughout the region. In light of that, U.S. embassy has beefed up security not just here but throughout the region, expecting more protests, more demonstrations against this move.

For Israel, it is a reason to celebrate not just because of the embassy move but because of the timing of the move itself and the entire week and that begins with today. Today is Jerusalem day, where Israelis celebrate what they consider the reunification of Jerusalem.

There is a parade of Israeli Jews through the old city, through the Muslim quarter that in and of itself is very provocative. That leads into tomorrow, the official embassy move, which is expected to be met with widespread protests, especially in Gaza.

But for Israel, this is all a reason to celebrate. Israelis are celebrating Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as well as the official opening of the embassy.

And in an almost caricature of how well the week has been going from Israel's perspective, Israel just won the Eurovision song contest. So that's almost the proverbial cherry on top of the cake for Israel when it looks at this week.

And the embassy move, Cyril, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel.

VANIER: And by the way, that Eurovision song, just weird. But I'm getting off topic.

What's the Palestinian reaction to this?

LIEBERMANN: As is so often the case here, when one side has a reason to celebrate, the other side is doing exactly the opposite. So they have protested, the Palestinians that Is, the embassy move from the very beginning. What they had was a victory at the United Nations General Assembly when most of the world voted to condemn Trump's decision.

And the timing of this, one day before Nakba Day, when Palestinians mark what they consider the catastrophe of the state of Israel, where some 750, 000 Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their home in historic Palestine.

So for them, this is a week of mourning. It also coincides with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. That in and of itself brings a time of increased tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

So even if Israel is celebrating this week, it will be an incredibly volatile week. And depending on how the protests go, how violent they become in terms of the reaction and the interaction between Israelis and Palestinians, it could turn on Israelis very quickly. And we'll be following all the developments here very closely.

VANIER: And look, the passion that this has unleashed on both sides of the embassy debate, really is not correlated to what is actually going on concretely. You were telling us last hour, this is essentially changing the plaque on the building.

LIEBERMANN: Logistically moving of the embassy requires a very simple move. It was in Tel Aviv. There was a consulate in Jerusalem and essentially all you have to do is switch the sign and have the ambassador, instead of working out of the Tel Aviv office, working out of the Jerusalem office.

In fact, the consulate, which will become the embassy tomorrow, isn't even going through many changes. It's essentially just a little office reworking. So it's a very simple logistical move.

And yet its symbolism is so powerful here that it did spark the protests here. It did involved a condemnation at the United Nations. So a largely symbolic move and yet symbols, especially here in Jerusalem, mean so much to so many different people here.

VANIER: The big thing about this, Oren, is, as soon as the U.S. announced that it was going to recognize Jerusalem as the embassy of Israel, the Palestinians said, you can't hope to negotiate peace between the two of us now.

LIEBERMANN: And let's look at a bit of history here. It was almost exactly a year ago that Trump met with Netanyahu here, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas at the time said, with you, we have hope. There really was a sense that maybe Trump could make progress on a peace process and that has completely changed. Since then, the Palestinians have said the U.S. is no longer a mediator in a peace process, can no longer act as an arbiter, even as Trump is working on his peace plan.

The administration, from what we know, intends to introduce it sometime in the next few weeks or months and hopes they can get the Palestinians back on the same page. Cyril, it seems there's a very low chance of that actually happening.

VANIER: Oren Liebermann, reporting from Jerusalem. Thank you very much. We'll keep you busy throughout the weekend and, of course, on Monday, when this actually happens. Thank you.

We're now learning when North Korea plans to make good on its promise to dismantle its nuclear test site. We're also getting new details; North Korean state media says the dismantling will happen between May 23rd and May 25th, depending on the weather.

Tunnels will be blown up and observation and research facilities will be removed. And journalists will be on hand to observe this. Reporters from the U.S., the U.K., China, Russia, South Korea will be given access to --

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VANIER: -- cover this. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, thank you to Pyongyang and added it is a, quote, "very smart and gracious gesture" ahead of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

The volcano in Hawaii is showing no signs of stopping. We've been covering that over the last week. A new fissure has now popped open but help is on the way. We'll have details for you on that.

Plus what is a wedding without some of this, some bling?

We'll look at how Meghan Markle might accessorize her dress on the big day, including the style of tiara she could wear. I'm not an expert but we know people who are. Stay with us.

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VANIER: Welcome back. Here's another story we need to keep following. In Sudan, a 19-year-old woman, sentenced to die for killing her husband, has less than two weeks to appeal. Noura Hussein says she stabbed the man she was forced to marry after his relatives held her down as he raped her.

One of her lawyers tells CNN Hussein is still in complete shock following her sentencing and this is the only picture we have of her and her husband. Her case has shone a spotlight on forced marriage and marital rape in Sudan. The legal age to marry there is just 10 years old and marital rape is allowed under the law.

Movie stars Cate Blanchett, Salma Hayek, Marion Cotillard joined in a symbolic show of solidarity at the Cannes Film Festival. In all, 82 famous actresses and filmmakers marched arm in arm up the red carpet to demand equality for women in the movie industry. That number 82 is symbolic. It represents the number of films directed by women to be featured at Cannes while 20 times more films directed by men have had the same honor.

There's a new threat of eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. A new fissure has just opened up, the 17th, spewing steam, spewing lava. This is video of the 16th fissure, which is starting to calm down now. Hawaiian officials caution more eruptions could be on the way as red- hot lava in Kilauea's Summit Lake drains toward underground water, creating a potentially explosive mix.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has declared a major disaster there after days of the volcano spewing hazardous gas and lava high into the air. Kilauea on Hawaii's big island began erupting on May 3rd.

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VANIER: That's something. I haven't seen that one. That would be my cue to bring you the latest on the royal wedding in Britain. Prince Harry, Meghan Markle tying the knot less than a week from now. That's next Saturday.

Buckingham Palace has released images of Queen Elizabeth's formal consent. Here it is. In the U.K., the first six people in line to the throne must get the queen's approval to tie the knot. Now the queen actually gave her consent for this marriage back in March, so this is not totally new but we're just getting our first look at the document.

That is new. It's designed with symbols of the United Kingdom and Markle's home state of California.

As we await the big day, everyone wondering what the wedding dress will look like.

But what about the bling?

That's what I want to know. CNN's Lynda Kinkade looks at the possible choices Meghan Markle has for her wedding jewelry.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When you're marrying a prince, you can expect to wear a diamond tiara on the big day. To discuss what Meghan Markle might wear, I have Kristen Maxwell Cooper from The Knot.

Now Meghan Markle is just a commoner like the rest of us. But she will likely follow British tradition, right?

KRISTEN MAXWELL COOPER, THE KNOT (voice-over): Yes. So this is one tradition that I believe Meghan will stick to. We have some tiaras here from Fine Fellow (ph), which I think are reminiscent of what she might choose.

So here we have -- this one is adorned in pearls and this is significant because Princess Diana actually wore a pearl tiara on her wedding day. So she may choose pearls to honor the late Princess Diana.

This one is a little more fashion forward. It's got pearls, it's got diamonds, it's got metal. So she sticks to something a little bit simpler for her dress, this would be a great attention grabber for sure.

Then this last one, this is the most regal of the set. This is reminiscent of one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite crowns. So this could be an option for her as well.

KINKADE: So is it likely that she will choose something from the royal collection or perhaps wear Princess Diana's tiara from her wedding day, or could --

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KINKADE: -- one be commissioned?

COOPER: I belie that Queen Elizabeth will most likely give something to her. KINKADE: Lovely present.

COOPER: Yes, exactly, or put something on loan for her for the day.

KINKADE: Excellent. Looking forward to see those.

These are the earrings. We obviously know that she's very understated and elegant in her selection. We also know that Kate and both Princess Diana wore earrings given to them by their parents.

Is that a tradition we'll see?

COOPER: Here's some examples of what might be given to her. So we have two pairs from Forever Mark (ph). We have something that's a little bit simpler, a little bit more understated. We also have these ear crawlers. These feel a little more fashion forward. These might be perfect for her second or third look.

Then we have two pairs that I believe a bit more regal feeling. These are from Tacori (ph). These are definitely royal wedding worthy. They are valued around $200,000.

KINKADE: A princess price tag.

COOPER: Yes. And then we have the blue sapphire, which has really been popularized by the royal family. So she may wear these as sort of a nod.

KINKADE: And of course we know the princess will wear shoes and she'll be on her feet all day. She'll want something comfortable but something elegant.

COOPER: Yes. I think we're all really focused on the dress but the shoes are important, too. These are from Tamara Mellon (ph). And she's worn a pair of her shoes before. So we already know she's a fan.

What I love about these are they're a classic pump but with a twist. They've got the sexy Dior say (ph). They've got the mixed materials. I think these are perfect for the ceremony.

KINKADE: Yes, perhaps something with a little more bling for one of the receptions.

COOPER: Yes, one of the many. So these feel very celebratory. They're metallic. They've got the fun bling around the ankle strap. So these are great for maybe her second or third look.

KINKADE: And are they expecting presents at the end of this big day?

COOPER: Sure. So what they've actually opted to do is have a charity wedding registry. So they've asked their guests instead of giving us a gift, please make a donation to one of these charities that is near and dear to us. And this is a big trend.

So if you've started a traditional registry on The Knot, you can actually attach a charity to it. So every time a guest buys a gift, we actually make a donation on your behalf.

KINKADE: That is a wonderful idea and of course they do no need another dinner set --

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COOPER: Probably not.

KINKADE: That's excellent. Great idea. Thank you very much.

COOPER: Thank you.

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VANIER (voice-over): Our thanks to Lynda Kinkade for that. Don't miss CNN's special report on the wedding, "A Royal Match: Harry and Meghan." That's what it's called. It next airs at 6:00 pm in Hong Kong, 11:00 am in London.

One more thing for you this hour. Remember earlier when I was speaking to Oren Liebermann, our reporter in Jerusalem, he mentioned in passing that Israel had won the Eurovision song contest. Look at this.

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VANIER (voice-over): So that's what he was talking abort. Netta Barzilai's song, "Toy," which includes the chicken dance and noises. That's why I said it was weird. No offense to the Israelis. Her victory had ecstatic fans back home dancing with joy.

But the quirky tune's message is serious. It actually warns, "I'm not your toy." Those are the lyrics and that was a nod to the #MeToo anti-harassment movement. The often bizarre finale of the songfest had even more drama because a protester grabbed the microphone while U.K. contestant SuRie was singing. And security dragged him away.

SuRie sang on and that was that.

Thank you for watching CNN. I'm Cyril Vanier. I've got the headlines for you. Back in just a moment.