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Summit Between U.S. and North Korea; Ireland's Abortion Laws; Colombian Candidate Ivan Duque; President George H.W. Bush is in the Hospital Again; Jacinda Ardern is Due to Deliver her First Child. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 28, 2018 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN, ANCHOR: Preparing for the summit, the U.S. and North Korea are in North Korea. Officials say the U.S. was there to get ready for the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN, ANCHOR: After the vote, Ireland's people have this say on abortion. Now Irish politicians are getting ready to act.
HOWELL: Also ahead this hour, how New Zealand is going bonkers over its new Prime Minister's baby (Inaudible).
CHURCH: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Newsroom starts right now. It's easy to get whiplash with this story. First it was on and then it was off, but now U.S. and North Korean officials say the summit appears to be back on again.
CHURCH: Yes and in a tweet on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump stated U.S. negotiated is in fact North Korea preparing for the June 12 talks. He adds, and I'm quoting here, I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial nation one day. Kim Jong-Un agrees with me on this.
It will happen. And this comes just days after Mr. Trump called off the summit over some hostile comments from North Korean officials. We have Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul in South Korea with all the details. And Paula, President Trump canceling the summit Thursday, does now appeared to be back on track for June 12 as originally scheduled.
And then of course, we've learned this U.S. delegation is in North Korea to plan for that summit. What more have you learned about all of this?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, what we know at this point is that the U.S. delegation that said that went into the DMZ into (Inaudible) village. It was headed up a man called Soon-Kim. He is the Ambassador to the Philippines. He was an ambassador here in South Korea. And he is also in the past been the point person for Washington when it comes to negotiating with the North Koreans. He negotiated one of the agreements back in 2005, which when North
Korea did agree to denuclearization. So he has the experience of having been down this path before. He knows how difficult, how challenging it can be to actually negotiate with the North Koreans. And then the Vice Minister, the Vice Foreign Minister on the North Korean side is actually the man who he negotiated (Inaudible) in 2005.
So there seems to be some kind of a continuation of what happened before this point, with this delegation and these discussions, they will be trying to get to some substance of this summit. It is not just talking about the location, and that they -- we're actually be trying to figure out how far apart that positions are when it comes to the U.S. and North Korea.
What sort of things they can put on the agenda, can they have any pre- negotiations that can narrow the gap between the opinions of both countries.
CHURCH: Yeah, because Paula the two issues that have always threatened to derail this summit of trust between the United States and North Korea. And then of course, this definition of denuclearization, because right now they don't share the same definition of that word, is that what they would be working out right now, so that they can at least decide that before this takes place on June 12 if that happens.
HANCOCKS: Potentially, Rosemary that would be one of the issues. I don't think they'd be able to decide on the definition of the terminology of denuclearization within just one visit or within -- for weeks they would have been discussing this presumably in the back channels. The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been to North Korea.
He's spoken to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, presumably this has come up before. But we know that positions are very far apart, that Washington is said they would like or they want unilateral denuclearization. Although, Trump has pulled that back somewhat by saying that he would like it to be all in one go, but he won't exclude other options.
But then you have Kim Jong-Un saying that if Washington wants the unilateral nuclear abandonment, then there is no point talking. So of course, these are public statements, stating the policies from both sides, that will be a lot more negotiations to come.
But this has been a sticking point for decades now, what exactly is denuclearization, what will North Korea agree to, and when it does agree to it, as many experts have said, that they truly believe that Kim Jong-Un is actually going to give up all of his nuclear weapons, Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, our Paula Hancocks, keeping a very close eye on all of this from Seoul in South Korea, where it's just after three o'clock in the afternoon. Many thanks.
[02:04:57] HOWELL: So again, following on this summit that may or may not happen. Let's get some perspective now from Robert Kelly, a Professor of Political Science at Busan National University live via Skype this hour from Busan, South Korea, always a pleasure to have you on the show.
(CROSSTALK)
HOWELL: There are a lot of details surely to be worked out here, but there's also the big picture, the simple idea of creating a reform here. Listen to the Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a talk about those big picture optics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there is value having gone this far. There is value in meeting and greeting, (Inaudible) and grinning and just establishing a rapport. I think yes, I think it would be important to have the summit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: All right. With us, former DNI James Clapper, what are your thoughts about the big picture optics, just as important as coming to terms on these details that are so important.
ROBERT KELLY, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, BUSAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Yeah, I think so. But I think we've already had that now. I mean it's now the end of May, right? So we've had five months of this kind of good optics, as you put it. This is sort (Inaudible) with the Olympics and the rest of it and stuff like that. And you know, we had the inter-Korean summit a month ago, which also was great for symbolism and it looked great.
It was wonderful television, very dramatic, but didn't actually get as very much. I mean we're starting to get to the point with North Koreans that we need to start hammering down some details, because one thing we know about North Korea negotiating behaviors, that they like to drag on talks on and on and on and on and on, right?
That process itself becomes a (Inaudible). That's not really our goal here. Our goal here is not take a photograph, it's to actually get North Koreans to actually agree to something, right, and you know we're five months into this now. So I think we need to start getting staff level meetings going that actually work on the specifics and the details, what the North Koreans have and where it is, and we're going to give them in exchange for it.
HOWELL: So basically you know we're past the Instagram moments, you're saying.
(CROSSTALK)
HOWELL: The devil is always in the details. Clearly, North Korea wants security guarantees. The U.S. wants denuclearization. Are both sides so far apart on these issues? Will they be able to make headway in one meeting? KELLY: Probably not. Three weeks is just not enough time. It's less
than three weeks now, I think. The U.S. and North Korea have been back and forth in these issues you know for several decades. I'd be amazed if President Trump and Kim Jong-Un (Inaudible) couple weeks. My guess is this thing, if it happens, it will probably be along the lines of (Inaudible) the two Koreas.
A couple of weeks ago, you have served statement that's great on principle, and then (Inaudible) because it's just not enough time to hammer out all those details. It would be remarkable for North Korea (Inaudible) everything to go to complete verifiable (Inaudible). I don't think anyone believes they would do that.
If they did, that kind of raises the question (Inaudible) these things to begin with. So that means you're probably going to you have to get in to a back and forth, tit for tat negotiation with them (Inaudible) small concessions in exchange for theirs, and be billed for it, (Inaudible).
HOWELL: And when it comes to economic aid to help North Korea, there is some pushback on the idea of outside investment from private companies of the type of private investment that President Trump has suggested before. What would North Korea be looking for there instead?
KELLY: Yeah. You are actually pretty astonished if foreign companies, western companies were to enter North Korea. Chinese companies who have done that (Inaudible) North Korea pretty burned with some rules and sloppy governance and shakedowns, and rackets and things like that. (Inaudible) the South Koreans operated the industrial space with the North Koreans, they tried hard to get (Inaudible) commitment and never did.
I can't imagine the guarantees that foreign companies (Inaudible) Korean, non-Chinese (Inaudible) demand best of North Korea. I sense that the North Koreans probably don't want. That's much they want (Inaudible) direct transfers, aid, for lack of a better word, and sanctions relief, because the sanctions make it very hard for North Koreans to trade, to export stuff (Inaudible).
HOWELL: Robert Kelly there. Thank you so much. We will stay in touch with you.
KELLY: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: We're now (Inaudible) Ireland has overwhelmingly voted to reform its strict abortion laws. They have got a lot of work to do to actually build new legislation. For more on that, let's get to CNN's Atika Shubert. She is live from Dublin, Ireland. So Atika, what is the next step for the Irish government as it tries to get this legislation put in place by the end of the year?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's Monday and the politicians are getting to work on this. In fact, here's the headline today. It's all about budget battles and these are the kinds of nuts and bolts now that politicians will have to be dealing with. Basically, what the Irish Prime Minister has said is that he wants to have this law in place by the end of the year.
That means he's got to submit it to parliament. It's got to be debated of course, you have a summer recess coming up. So all of these things you know have to be put into place before the laws are liberalized on abortion here in Ireland. So it is a huge victory over the weekend.
[02:09:48] But now we really have to get into the nuts and bolts of politics, and that's going to take a little while, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Atika, abortion is legal in the United Kingdom, but not in Northern Ireland. And this is all bringing pressure to bear on Prime Minister Teresa May to actually do something about that. How is she dealing with this very tricky political situation?
SHUBERT: It is a tricky one for her. I mean it's interesting you know when we were at that massive rally in Dublin Castle. There was this huge placard that said the North is next. And that's exactly what campaigners here are doing. They say you know women in Northern Ireland supported them on this vote. Now they want to support women in Northern Ireland to get the laws changed there.
But Prime Minister May is in a tricky position because she is in a coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. And they are staunchly pro-life, anti-abortion. And it's a little different there in the sense that there is no constitutional ban, of course in the U.K. So this becomes really a matter for the local legislature there in Northern Ireland.
So she is in a trickier position, but she's still going to get a lot of pressure, especially because campaigners here really want to capitalize upon the momentum they've developed from this vote, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Yeah. We will watch and see what happens with this pressure builds of course. Atika Shubert joining us there from Dublin in Ireland, where it's just after 10 in the morning, 7 o'clock I should say in the morning. Many thanks.
HOWELL: And now to Italy, that country once again in political turmoil, as a populist coalition there has failed to form a government. And now, Italy will likely have new elections. And the President plans to employ a nonpolitical Prime Minister, Barbie Nadeau explains from Rome, why the populace plan did not work out there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Nearly three months after national elections, it looks unlikely that Italy will be able to form a functioning government. This after Sergio Mattarella, the country's President rejected a list of ministers put forth by Giuseppe Conti, the Prime Minister designate, who was working on behalf of two populace parties.
The question at hand dealt with the economic ministry, the name put forward by Mr. Conti was a very Euro-skeptic man who had written books about how Italy would be better off leaving the Euro, who had campaigned for Brexit, and who had worried other European leaders who had spoken out against him. Now President Mattarella has a daunting task ahead.
He will very likely assign what's called a technocrat here in Italy. This is something this country has done many times before. This is someone who is not affiliated with the political parties to try to form a government of apolitical people that will be able to move this country forward to elections. It will likely be held later in the year.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN Rome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The next President of Colombia will either be a critic of the historic (Inaudible) peace deal or a leftist candidate who was once part of an armed rebel group. Far right candidate Ivan Duque took the most votes in Sunday's first round of Presidential elections. He insists doesn't know when to get rid of the peace deal, which ended one of the longest wars in Latin America.
HOWELL: But Duque says he wants to ensure that former (Inaudible) fighters are prosecuted for war crimes. In a runoff in three weeks, Duque will face Gustavo Petro of the first leftist candidates to have a real chance of becoming Colombia's President.
CHURCH: We'll take a short break here. But still to come, the U.S. President attacks on the Russia probe are not letting up, and his attorney says it's all part of the strategy. Their efforts to head after the President's impeachment, that's still to come.
HOWELL: Plus, New Zealand's Prime Minister will soon have more on her plate. The country will be watching to see how she juggles motherhood and privacy, all while running the country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:15:00] CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. With the U.S. President renewed his attack on the Russian investigation in a series of tweets Sunday. And Donald Trump's attorney is defending him.
HOWELL: Attorney Rudy Giuliani says the President's tweets are part of the strategy to avoid the threat of impeachment. Our Boris Sanchez has details from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: The Russian investigation clearly top of the line for President Trump from this weekend. As we saw, in a number of tweets, in which he called the Russian investigation a witch hunt and referred to Russia's role of the 2016 election as so- called meddling of a President. In one curious tweet referring through young and beautiful lives that was destroyed by the Russian investigation. (Inaudible) to ask some White House officials, specifically who he was
talking about, they did not send me a response. Though, the President's attorney Rudy Giuliani was on State of the Union Sunday morning with Dana Bash, and he called the Russia investigation during that interview a legitimate, again, repeating claims that were previously made by the President, suggesting that there is a wide conspiracy theory, a spy that was implanted by the deep state within the Trump campaign to try to benefit Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Some (Inaudible) neither the President nor Giuliani nor lawmakers on Capitol Hill have provided any conclusive evidence for -- Giuliani argued that the reason that they continue propagating these claims is not necessarily a legal strategy to try to defend the President from the Special Counsel's investigation, but rather a public opinion strategy, one meant to sway the public to believe that the investigation is not valid.
And further, one that is designed to protect the President from the threat of impeachment. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're giving us the material. I couldn't do it. They didn't have the material. They're giving us the material to do it. Of course, we have to do it in defending the President. We're defending to a large extent remember, Dana, we're defending here -- it is for public opinion, because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach not impeach.
Members Congress, Democrat and Republican are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. So our jury is the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Dana also pressed Giuliani on the question of whether the President would sit down with Robert Mueller for a one-on-one interview. Something that we've longed speculated about, recently sources have indicated that both sides, the Trump legal team and the Special Counsel have been discussing logistics and the subject matter of that potential interview.
Giuliani made the case that the investigation would be wrapped up were it not for the President's adamant stance that he wants to sit down and be interviewed by Robert Mueller. Boris Sanchez, CNN at the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And Glenn Shive joins us now from Hong Kong. He is with the Hong Kong-America Center at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, welcome. Thanks so much for being with us.
GLENN SHIVE, HONG KONG-AMERICA CENTER: Pleasure to be here.
CHURCH: Well, over the weekend, President Trump from has sent out various tweets, but let's take a closer look at this one regarding the Russia probe. He tweeted this. Who is going to give back the young and beautiful lives and others that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia collusion witch hunt?
They journey down Washington D.C. with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. They went back home in tatters. So which young and beautiful lives do you think he's referring to in that tweet?
SHIVE: Well, that's the thing. Trump doesn't make specific references. His tweets attitudes -- ideas but he doesn't want to leave a trace of specific names of you know that you could follow-up and say which lives. How is this -- what he calls the phony witch hunt, destroying the lives of young Americans that want to come to Washington, I mean this is a big theme about young people, idealistic come to Washington and they you know discover the realities of governance.
[02:19:55] And you know that's part of growing up. He seems to be referring partly to say that this special counsel investigation is destroying lives. And of course, it's upsetting for people who were investigated, but these are not young Americans coming to Washington for the first time.
So like a lot of things, Trump throws it out, and you go racing around and try to find what he's talking about. But you know 5, 10, 20 minutes later is on the next thing. And so we never know. When he sent out a theme that this is a pernicious process, obviously he's feeling the heat.
You know he doesn't like it. And he is obsessed with it. But he has thought a lot about firing (Inaudible) but I think he's come to conclusion that would be worse (Inaudible). But now he is just focusing on undermining the credibility of the investigation.
CHURCH: Yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
SHIVE: Then he could say it was a phony thing. It was -- I didn't get a fair trial.
CHURCH: Yeah. And then on that point, President Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani revealed over the weekend that he believes the Russia probe is illegitimate. But the administration is using a public opinion strategy to discredit the Russian investigation, actually admitted that. Have they succeeded in doing that, do you think?
SHIVE: Well, I mean he's part of that public opinion strategy. And yes, they are succeeding to some point. They're raising doubts. And it's a kind of conspiracy mentality coming into play, the so-called deep state, this sending spies into other you know camps. And I mean this was an FBI informant who was following up this Carter Page.
It was a person that surfaced in there listening to Russia, that so say, well, this guy could be legally -- we got a trail them. But that was not inter-party political adversarial, saying it was the FBI doing its normal job. But he's blowing it out of proportion, I believe, to say that you know you're pointing the finger at us of what we may have done wrong in our campaign.
But let's point the finger back and say what did the other guys do. And also to implicate that the FBI was compromised by the Obama administration's using their tools to get intelligence on the Trump campaign, which has never been proven, never a shred of evidence.
So you know but this doesn't matter, and it's not proven. What matters is that is out there in the public opinion. You know Kim (Inaudible) to smear the special counsel so that at a time at which he might come out with saying look, this guy broke them all.
What are you going to do about it? Is this an impeachable offense? This is a very serious matter. But he feels that if he can spend you know, six, nine months constantly tweeting about this you know illegitimate witch hunt. The people here it often enough and they start to believe it.
CHURCH: And the polls seem to indicate that that is the case indeed. Glenn Shive, thank you so much for your analysis. We appreciate it.
HOWELL: The former U.S. President George H.W. Bush is in the hospital again. His chief of staff says Mr. Bush was admitted after experiencing low blood pressure and fatigue. And then he's awake, alert, and not in any discomfort.
CHURCH: The 93-year-old became ill one day after attending a veteran's pancake breakfast. Mr. Bush was last hospitalized in April for an infection just one day of the funeral of his wife, Barbara. He will stay in the hospital for a few days for observation.
And Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will remain in a hospital, despite earlier reports he had been released Sunday. This video shows him a week ago when the 83-year-old was hospitalized after ear surgery.
HOWELL: He's being treated for pneumonia. A hospital official says the President's health is continuously improving. Mr. Abbas has been President since Yasser Arafat's death in 2004. Now, New Zealand, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to deliver her first child in a few weeks.
CHURCH: Yeah. And she will be the country's first sitting Prime Minister to give birth. And she is getting a lot of attention, as you would imagine. TV New Zealand's Nicole Bremner reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLE BREMNER, NEW ZEALAND, REPORTER: From the shows of (Inaudible) to (Inaudible) audience of the queen, the country's most high profile baby bumps attracting attention, that showing no signs of abasing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We understand that there will be interest. I'm very mindful of our (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to continue to see unprecedented levels of interest in this story, and the first on so many levels. [02:24:57] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About his optimism, about his heart,
and I think that is the general (Inaudible) the country.
BREMNER: The Prime Minister and her partner, Clarke Gayford, a media (Inaudible), announcing the pregnancy to the world on Instagram. But the 37-year-old ceased the year to work out how they'll handle attention on the new family life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm the one that's put myself into politics. And so I'm the one that should be -- (Inaudible) facing role. I try to minimize from my wider family.
BREMNER: Media watchers say the new mom and dad could adopt an approach pioneered by the young royals, releasing their own family photographs to keep media at bay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kate and William have really set a new benchmark. They've managed to do it in a way where media and the public still feel satisfied, but they've also managed to maintain the privacies.
BREMNER: We've spoken to several lawyers who think the baby is entitled to privacy, but exactly what constitutes a breach of a child's privacy in a public place like a playground or a cafe. It's unclear and open to interpretation. (Inaudible) expect local media will be respectful, and say there is a general sense of goodwill towards the new family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a unique situation, again outside of politics. As (Inaudible) fairy dust (Inaudible) progressive role with them, and the progressive birth of the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They will be moving around as a family a lot to get up. But we will manage it and probably the people (Inaudible) manage it too.
BREMNER: Until the end of (Inaudible) plans to keep working right up to the birth in mid June, Nicole Bremner, ONE News.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Also now, some amazing video that we will show you out of Paris. A rescue that happened there, an immigrant from Mali is being called real life Spiderman. He rescued a child dangling from a balcony, just look at this. (Inaudible) scaling four floors, pulling himself up from balcony to balcony until he makes it to the four-year- old, and then pulls him to safety in mid air. And watch this.
CHURCH: It is remarkable.
HOWELL: Look at that.
CHURCH: Wow, incredibly strong to be able to pull himself all the way up there. So an CNN affiliate BFMTV reports French President Emmanuel Macron has invited him to the (Inaudible) palace on Monday to thank him personally. (Inaudible) explains what he did. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) to watch football match at a restaurant. I saw a lot of people yelling, cars were honking. I got out and I saw the child who was about to fall from the balcony. I like children so I will hate to see him get hurt in front of me. I ran and I thought of ways to save him, and thank God I scaled the front of the building to that balcony.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you climb? It seemed easy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got on top of the door and I managed to pull myself from balcony to balcony. And thank God, I saved him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: What an incredible hero. And Paris (Inaudible) and Idelle Nicole wrote on Twitter that she spoke of the 22-year-old and that "he explained to me that he had arrived from Mali a few months ago, dreaming of building his life here." I told him that his heroic act is an example to all citizens that the city of Paris will obviously be very keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France, real life hero.
HOWELL: Still ahead this hour, a disaster with no end in sight, as the earth continues to crack apart in Hawaii, the very latest on the erupting Kilauea volcano just ahead.
CHURCH: Plus, mother nature now wreaking havoc on France's wine region. What is left of the vineyards after powerful storms over the weekend? We'll take a close look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:31:17] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A very warm welcome back to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you. This hour, a U.S. delegation is in North Korea to prepare for the possible summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un. It was scheduled for June 12th in Singapore, but President Trump backed out on Thursday citing hostile comments by the North Korean officials. However, Mr. Trump hinted on Saturday, the summit was still on maybe.
CHURCH: Italy's game-facing political uncertainty after the designated Prime Minister failed to form a government. The Italian president fear the populist nominee for Economic Minister might alarm investors by threatening to leave the Eurozone. Now, President Sergio Mattarella is expected to appoint a technocratic or nonpolitical government until new elections are held.
HOWELL: In Colombia, the far-right candidate who wants to alter a historic peace deal is leading the first presidential election round. Ivan Duque wants to impose tougher punishment on former FARC fighters. In a runoff on June 17th, he will face Gustavo Petro, the first leftist candidate to had a real chance of becoming Colombia's president.
CHURCH: More evacuations are underway near Hawaii's Kilauea volcano because of lava flow. The volcano erupted more than three weeks ago and has not slowed down since.
HOWELL: And from giant cracks in the Earth to flaming rivers of lava. Just take a look at that in its residence in that area. They're wondering if will this is their new normal. Our Miguel Marquez has more.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There is no end in sight in one geologist who works on the mountain here said that they think they're only seeing a tiny percentage of the amount of lava in the system so far. I want to show exactly where we are. A couple of concerns right now, the geothermal plants that is near here, the lava is encroaching onto that land. It has slowed over at night. The concern there that if it hits only about a half mile away from where we are right now, if it hits those wells in that geothermal plant, it would create a hydrogen sulfide gas which could be deadly to people. Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens are just about less than a mile from where we are just down this way in front of us is that famous picture that CNN has had up for several days now that live camera. That pile that what has now formed a new cone of lava is -- it's built up so much that you can no longer see it fountaining in that area but it is fountaining in several areas in Lani -- Leilani Estates.
In the last 24 hours, we have seen lava fountaining as high as a hundred feet in that area and that is the concern for homeowners. More than 80 homes have now been lost. There are about 2000 people that live in those two neighborhoods. It is a slow moving and terrifying situation for them. And I want to show you what's happening here right now. Just in front of us, this is fisher -- I believe it's (INAUDIBLE) and we're starting to see -- I don't know if you could tell but there's a lighter gray lava in that area. That is new lava that has formed overnight and at certain point, you can see cracks of that molten red lava starting to pop out. And if you go all the way down to the ocean, you can see that's where lava is feeding all the way down into the ocean there creating that laze which is basically tiny microscopic pieces of glass and hydro -- and sulfuric acid which is incredibly deadly if you come in contact with it, incredible to see the degree of damage to this area.
[02:35:04] Also, keep in in mind, we're about 25 miles away from the summit of Kilauea. This thing is far over say scientist. Kilauea itself the summit has sunk about five feet since all this began.
HOWELL: All right. Miguel Marquez on that story from the flowing lava to rushing water. Now, flashfloods turned this Maryland city street into a river on Sunday.
CHURCH: Unbelievable. Murky water rushed through Ellicott City near Baltimore. This situation is especially difficult for residents who of course who just finished rebuilding from the last flood about two years ago. (INAUDIBLE) Allison Chinchar has more on the flooding in Maryland.
HOWELL: And Allison also tracking the first name storm of the year as it turns toward the Gulf of Mexico, Allison.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And unfortunately for this particular area, they may have getting hit by both system. So first, we start with the one that's already impacted the area, the torrential rainfall that fell in the last 12 hours here. So just for a reference plate where my hand is this is a city of Baltimore. You can see the heaviest rain was just to the immediate west of Baltimore proper. Again, widespread announced in that region. You're talking 150 to about 250 millimeters total or for, you know, American viewers were talking anywhere from six to ten inches for a lot of these locations. Now, these are the last 12 hours. But for some of these areas, they picked up all of that rain in just one or two hours, so a lot of rain in a very short period of time. Here are a few examples. Again, 10.3 inches, 8.4 inches, 4 and a half inches, even downtown Baltimore picking up three inches which again may not be as impressive as the other amount. Just keep in mind, this -- they got this in a very short amount of time. So obviously, you're going to have a lot of roadways that are underwater. We saw cars flowing down some of the streets. But you also have to understand, where does that water go after it leaves the roadways? It goes into rivers, creeks, streams. So those will in turn become swollen.
Take for example that the taps go river, again, around the Baltimore area. They jumped about five and a half meters give or take over seventeen feet in just two hours. It actually exceeded the previous record high crest that this river has seen at that location. Now, here's the thing. That main area of showers that brought that heavy rain has now dissipated. We are going to get a brief reprieved from the rain in that area. That's great news. But notice all these moisture coming up from the south. That moisture search is coming from Subtropical Storm Alberto. Right now, the biggest impacts from this storm are actually around Florida bringing very heavy rain with it. We expect it to make landfall around lunchtime or shortly thereafter local time Monday. Then, it begins its trek up to the north. It will continue to bring heavy rain, so it's like national as well as Chicago eventually as we go to the rest of the week. But again, the other thing to know, George and Rosemary, is it's also going to bring rain to areas of Maryland which at this point really don't need it. Even though it won't really bring the heavy rain there until Wednesday, that's likely not enough time to allow those rivers, creeks, and streams to get back down to normal levels.
HOWELL: And from what we saw, obviously, it's a bad situation now. So we'll stay in touch with you. Allison Chinchar, thank you.
CHURCH: Thanks, Allison.
HOWELL: Well, it's a pretty intense hailstorms have taken a toll on France's legendary wine crop. They struck Bordeaux and other grape growing regions on Saturday. Wow.
CHURCH: Yes. And some residents said they were the worst storms in 30 years. One winemaker says, his entire harvest was destroyed in just 10 to 15 minutes. French government is assessing the losses to winemakers and will offer aid once the extent of the damage is known. Incredible.
HOWELL: All right. Also in France, in Paris, a SeaBubbles has landed in the city to help with the traffic jams there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an eco-friendly transport system that we have designed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Up next, we take you along ascend to sea, what could be the future of taxi service?
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[02:41:17] HOWELL: Major cities around the world have at least two things in common, a river and a lot of traffic.
CHURCH: Yes. A now startup in Paris is hoping to become the Uber of water taxis. Melissa Bell tells us more from the Seine River.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a SeaBubbles and it just landed in Paris. Its designers hoping this will be the taxi of the future, not only in its French homeland, but in as many as 250 cities worldwide. But my (INAUDIBLE) their waterways as a new eco-friendly urban pathway.
ANDERS BRINGDAL, CEO, SEABUBBLES: Well, it's both. But it's a eco- friendly transport system that we have designed. It's to try to help limit the situation that everybody is in traffic jam in the cities and polluted city and try to get rid all of that. You leave no ways. There's no sound and there's no pollution.
BELL: They call it a flying car and the idea is only two and a half years old. It was dream top by the team behind Catamaran that has been breaking sailing records thanks to its elevation out of the water.
BRINGDAL: We're coming from dream into reality. We're a startup company, so when you start a startup company and then, hey, I had a great idea like this is how it's going to work and everybody goes, cool, how? And then once you actually show it to them then this is the next step right now where we have to take this into how can we now deliver thousands of these boats around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BELL: As you can see, the SeaBubbles gives a fairly smooth ride and there's still so many obstacles for the people trying to get these out on to the rivers of the world things like the regulations that exist on the main waterways inside big cities, things like finding operators to make them available commercially to a gulf number of sea boat. But as you believe that it can done and that this will soon provide you with a smooth ride from the Eiffel Tower that we've just left taking you east down the Seine in a matter of minutes plus avoiding the deadlocks of Paris' streets in favor of the fluidity of its river. Melissa Bell, CNN Paris.
HOWELL: That is a cool innovative idea.
CHURCH: I think it is wonderful. I think that may very well catch on across the globe. Thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
HOWELL: "WORLD SPORT" with Kate Riley is up next. We'll be back at the top of the hour with more news around the world next.
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[02:45:22] KATE RILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Hello, welcome along to WORLD SPORT. I'm Kate Riley at CNN Center. We're going to start with the dramatic NBA action on Sunday right here in America. And what arguably can be called the greatest achievement of the brilliant career of Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James, advancing to his 8th NBA Final series. The 33-year-old put on a master class when it counted the most.
And despite his Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston Celtics, he and his team had lost to bubbly three times in Boston and lost the scene of quick last Eastern Conference series lost. The semi-final dispute back in 2010.
LeBron got the job done in the big wave playing all 48 minute, scoring 35 points and adding 14 rebounds and nine assists in 87 points. This can be ninth victory, the very first loss in 11 playoff home game or the Celtics. And more impressive when you consider (INAUDIBLE) team has been this season.
They were forced to massively over full their line up in the trading deadline, bringing younger players in favor of high priced veterans. They also battle injury and inconsistency all the way up to an in cleaving Sunday night.
The most second best player, Kevin Love with a fine line with the concussion. Where Love replaces, Jeff Green had a big night as well with 18 points. It was really LeBron, carrying his team on those real crucial this of his, and for kind them to a place many doors they would never get to in 2018.
That place is an eight straight NBA Finals to LeBron, and fifth play in NBA history to accomplish that just seat. After dropping his first two career Game Seven, LeBron has now won six in a row. And he's averaging just on the 35 points in those winner take all games. Proving once again, he rises to the occasion when it matters the most.
Up toward James got the chance to reflect on the accomplishments and getting to the Finals when everyone counted him and his team out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEBRON JAMES, FORWARD, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: It's been a roller coaster and down, it's been good, it's been bad, it's been -- you know, it's been roses, There's been thorns in the roses. There's been everything that you can ask for and I've said this has been one of the most challenging seasons I've had.
And I'm -- but like I told you guys, you guys are around us every day, you know, right before the break, right before the trade deadline, I kind of reset. Didn't know if we were going to make trades or not. Didn't know what we were going to do with our team, but I kind of just reset my mindset and said, OK, this is the season and let's try to make the most of it, and that's what's gotten me to this point, gotten our team to this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RILEY: So, there it is, the familiar site of the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James on top of the Eastern conference and heading to the NBA Finals. They will meet the winner of a West Game Seven in Houston on Monday night. That's between the Rockets and the defending lead champion Golden State Warriors.
That's the big question mark on whether or not Chris Paul will play against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, though, the club say it will be a game-time decision after the guard recovers on a right hamstring injury. And, of course, we will back this time tomorrow with all the reaction from that game as well.
Now, to seem so jubilation for the serial Champions League winners, Real Madrid. Well, spline calls now 13-time winners in three in a row. When it comes to parading their title through their home city. They've got it down to the Finals, how and may Real skippers Sergio Ramos and the Brazilian star Marcelo, showing off that famous trophy in Madrid City Hall.
Ronaldo escorting a new hairstyle, as well, he told fans from the balcony that the team has made history and thanked them or their constant support.
In the meantime, now, you do really have to feel for Liverpool's Egyptian star Mo Salah. He's now facing a race to be fit in time for the World Cup in Russia. That's start in just two weeks and he's suffering from a painful injury to his shoulder that happens in the Final.
Well, the hopes of a nation now urging him to recover in time to play for Egypt in Russia. And the Egyptian officials feel confident that he will indeed be available. Well, earlier on Sunday, Salah, tweeting words of encouragement, "It was a very tough night, but I'm a fighter. Despite the odds, I'm confident that I'll be in Russia to make you all proud. Your love and support will give me the strength I need."
Coming up on the show, why it was the great day to be in Australian motorsport driver. (INAUDIBLE) have a super Sunday when it came to famous races on both sides of the Atlantic.
[02:50:02] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RILEY: Welcome back, the Formula One now, and it was all light on Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, the circuits ultimate glamour stuff for all the glimpse and glamour you would expect from a major sporting spectacle taking place to Monte Carlo. And a day to remember for the popular Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, was the Red Bull man who took pole position into the race at this incredible venue was the Master Club.
Responding all this despite the fact he had to overcome power loss for making the race. Ricciardo, kept his challenges as they holding on last year's winner Sebastian Vettel, where Lewis Hamilton having to resettle but third in Mercedes. This is how Ricciardo's officially celebrate his win. His seventh victory you can say was always assurance or maybe not.
Well, so, Ricciardo go from fifth to third it really with the win and the driver standing, Vettel, second place that which means that the German cut three points into Lewis, constantly. The top of standing from 17 to 14.
All right, then, here in the States on Sunday, the focus was on Danica Patrick, her loss at the race, and for a woman who really did transcend more to sport world. That she'll say, she pray would have picked a different way to script the way this all panned out. The famous Indianapolis 500 on Sunday have first IndyCar races 2011.
The now 36 year old was enjoying a 2008 IndyCar triumph in Japan, eight years ago. But admitted to be never to have at this one where the racially chosen to end her career as it turned out, it all ended in lap 68. A really disappointing conclusion for her and for her work career. Finish in 8th Indy 500 start.
Patrick was the first finishing woman in this race, coming in third back in 2009. So, who did win the 102nd running of this big race? It would be an Australian, Will Power. He started in third place on Sunday, the Aussie took the lead on lot number 197 after the lead of Stefan Wilson and Jack Harvey, had hinted for fuel. Will just powered his way to the win? A victory that gives owner Roger Penske, his 17th Indianapolis 500 title. And I spoke to Will, a short time ago about the emotions he felt when he cross the finish line as an Indy 500 champion.
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WILL POWER, MOTORSPORT DRIVER, INDYCAR SERIES: That was so emotional because I've won so many races and pole positions and laps led, and I've won a championship, and I had those feelings like maybe I'll never win a 500 and I feel like my career would not be complete if I had -- if I didn't win.
[02:55:02] And it's just OK now like it was the final box I needed to tick as an IndyCar driver. And personally, that was the goals that I set years ago. I had the picture as a Cup which has a championship and a picture of Borg-Warner Trophy mixing my beds, and now at the (INAUDIBLE). So that's where all of that emotion came from. RILEY: And great to be part of the tradition at the Brickyard, drinking that milk at the end. What does that taste like? And are you a tea to set man or do you prefer skim these days?
POWER: Yes, actually I had to drink much milk all like kind of ideology. But I did drink that, and I will say it's the sweetest milk I ever tasted. You know, it's just -- yes, to finally get in victory line at Indianapolis and get that milk -- yes, that's nothing else, unbelievable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RILEY: Yes, many congratulations to Will, there. Thank you so much for joining us, it really was one very busy sporting weekend that includes a European goals flagship at then, the BMW PGA Championship. We will leave you with our latest "ROLEX MINUTE". UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The final round of the BMW PGA Championship looked
like it would be a shootout between co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari, who share the four sharp lead over the rest of the fields at 13 on the clock. The world number 22, however, had other ideas. Stamping his authority early on the front eight holes with birdies on the third, fourth, and eight.
On the pressure from his rival, the former grand slam champion was unable to find the form that saw him for a second round 65 as the steely-eyed Italian maintain his three short advantage leading up to the 18th.
A dramatic final hole through Molinari, narrowly avoid the water on his approach to the green. The Northern Irishman intern had the chance for an eagle that would have narrow the gap to one shot.
Molinari would not make the same mistake on his pop up, taking a first Rolex series victory at Wentworth and the fifth European Tour title of his career.
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