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North Korea-U.S. Summit on Green Light Again; Giuliani to the Rescue for Trump; New Legislation to Reform Abortion Laws in Ireland; France Witnessed Real Spiderman; ; U.S. Immigration Crackdown; Deadly U.S. Border Shooting; Maryland Flash Floods; The Battle Over Data Privacy; Alexa's Listening; Honoring The Fallen. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 28, 2018 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, HOST, CNN: Preparing for the summit. U.S. and North Korean officials are talking in North Korea to try to get ready for a meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

GEORGE HOWELL, HOST, CNN: Plus, the United States says it can't account for nearly 1500 missing migrant children, and U.S. is saying they're not responsible for the situation.

CHURCH: And fighting Facebook, the lawsuit that could cost the company billions and might affect your privacy.

Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and of course from all around the world. We are live in Atlanta. I'm Rosemary Church.

And I'm George Howell. From CNN's world headquarters, Newsroom starts right now.

And at this hour, a team of U.S. diplomats and officials are in North Korea. Their mission there is to lay the groundwork for the upcoming summit between those two nations.

CHURCH: And that summit still may or may not happen. Earlier in the week U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the meeting over some hostile comments made by North Korean officials.

HOWELL: But here is the thing. On Saturday, he hinted to reporters that after the surprise meeting between North and South Korea, the leaders there, the summit may be back on. And another clue. A U.S. advanced team has also left for Singapore where the June 12th summit is set to take place if it happens.

CHURCH: And let's take a look at all of this. We want to bring in Paula Hancocks who joins us from Seoul, South Korea. So Paula, despite President Trump cancelling the summit meeting Thursday, it now appears to be back on track for June 12, as originally scheduled. And this U.S. delegation is now in North Korea to plan for that summit. What are you learning about all of this? PAULA HANCOCKS, CORRESPONDENT,CNN:: Well, Rosemary we know about the

U.S. delegation that it's headed up by a man called Sung Kim. He is U.S. ambassador to the Philippines at the moment. But he was an ambassador here in South Korea. He was also one of the point people that Washington had when they were negotiating with North Korea in previous years.

So he has experience of talking to the North Koreans. He knows how difficult and challenging it can be to try and strike a deal with Pyongyang. He was very much involved in six-party talks as well.

So from that point of view, they do have people who have experience of this before, who are currently in North Korea negotiating with the North Korean side. Now as we understand it, this is going to be more about the substance of the summit itself, more about what will be on the agenda. Clearly denuclearization is going to be the big issue on the agenda.

But how do they discuss that? What sort of issues does each side have? And is there any chance, I suppose, of these pre-negotiations trying to narrow the gap between the American understanding and the North Korean understanding of what denuclearization means.

Because usually when you have these kinds of summits between large -- big leaders, you will have months and months of preparation. Months of these kinds of pre-negotiations and once you get to the summit, most of it is already agreed upon. But, of course, this is a very different situation and two very different leaders.

CHURCH: Yes, most certainly. And of course, there are two issues that threaten to derail this summit going forward. Trust is one of them. And you mentioned the other one, denuclearization, the problem being of course that the two sides do not share the same definition, as you also mentioned. But this is problematic, isn't it? If the two leaders arrive together there in Singapore on June 12th, and that has not been decided?

HANCOCKS: Well, that's right. And I think this is where these kinds of delegations are coming very useful. That the fact that there is this pre-discussion on what exactly both sides are expecting, because neither side wants to come away from a summit with it having failed of course if the summit even goes ahead.

But another interesting point as well which we learned over the weekend from the North Korean leader and the South Korean leader meeting for the second time in just a month which is unprecedented was the fact that we understood a little bit more about what Kim Jong-un is going to be looking for from this summit.

According to President Moon Jae-in, he spoke to the nation on Sunday, he was talking about the guarantees that Kim Jong-un is looking for. He wants a guarantee for the survival of the regime. So certainly it gives us a bit more of an insight into what he is looking for.

President Moon also mentioned there would be economic benefits for Mr. Kim. But he said to the North Korean leader, you should sit down with the U.S. president so he can tell you this himself face-to-face.

We've already heard from Mr. Trump that he has guaranteed Kim Jong- un's safety, which raised some eyebrows here, guaranteeing the safety of a dictator. But saying that he will be safe, he will be happy. His country will be rich. So getting more and more insights into what exactly both sides want.

[03:05:08] CHURCH: Yes. And of course guarantees like that are difficult to give when we think about 10 years into the future and a whole lot of other variables. But talking there with our Paula Hancocks, joins us from Seoul in South Korea where it's just after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Many thanks, as always.

HOWELL: And now let's get some perspective on all of this and the possible outcome that is if it happens. We're joined by Tai Wei Lim. He is a research fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. It's a pleasure to have you on the show at this hour.

The devil always in the details with these types of things. We know that North Korea wants security guarantees. We know that the United States wants denuclearization. The question, will these two sides be able to work out those details with this type of a meeting, keeping in mind time is of the essence right now?

TAI WEI LIM, RESEARCH FELLOW, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE: I think there is a lot of statement in this meeting, as you have mentioned. And as you've mentioned the two sides have very different definition of what denuclearization is.

So it remains to be seen whether they can bring together or close the gap between two definitions of denuclearization.

Now, there is a lot of speculation of what denuclearization mean. Some people say face withdrawals. Others say kind of a security umbrella before they will give up their weapons. And others would say that an end to the exercises. This is all pure speculation. So I suspect that the talks will be very important in kind of shaping the agenda of what exactly defines a denuclearization.

I think today we received news that President Moon from South Korea might be joining the talks in Singapore, and that might clarify or at least he could become mediator in bridging this gap.

HOWELL: Also, when it comes to economic aid for North Korea, now there is some pushback we're hearing to the idea of outside investment from private companies, keeping in mind that's something that President Trump has suggested all along. What would North Korea be looking for when it comes to aid?

LIM: I think so far we have heard three individuals talk about aid. President Trump himself, Mr. Mike Pompeo and also Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. And President Xi from China has also at times mentioned about economic help or aid or grants for North Korea if the talks turn out to be successful. So, international leaders stand by ready to give economic assistance

to North Korea. But the big question is whether the talks will be successful. And it all hinges on the two parties concerned, U.S. and North Korea to hammer out the details of what -- of how they define denuclearization.

HOWELL: I'd like to get your thoughts on how these allies of the United States, South Korea, Japan, how they have all worked together in this. Because again, just a few days ago, several days ago we saw the U.S. president cancel this summit, to the surprise of South Korea.

Then we saw South Korea, President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting with North Korea, seemingly, to the surprise of the United States. Is there a sense that these allies are working together? Is there a sense that it is almost every man for themselves to make this summit happen?

LIM: Indeed. The two allies of the Washington, Tokyo and Seoul are working very closely together and coordinating the efforts, as well as actions with the Washington, D.C. One good example is when President Moon met North Korean leader Kim in the very first summit in the demilitarized zone.

President Moon conveys Japanese concerns about the abductees that North Korea has kidnapped from Japan. Two, North Korean leader Kim, and also reported shared information back or privacy (Inaudible) through South Korea's intelligence achieves.

So I think this whole episode, as well as the nuclear testing in the past has achieved a much closer relationship in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.

HOWELL: We certainly appreciate your type and perspective. There are a lot of question at play. We'll stay in touch with you as this either happens or does not happen. Thank you for your time.

LIM: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, the U.S. president renewed his attack on the Russia investigation in a series of tweets Sunday. And Donald Trump's attorney is defending him.

HOWELL: Rudy Giuliani said the president's tweets are part of a strategy to avoid the threat of impeachment.

Our Boris Sanchez has details now from the White House.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CORRESPONDENT,CNN: The Russia investigation clearly top of mind for President Trump this weekend, as we saw in a number of tweets in which he called the Russia investigation a witch-hunt and referred to Russia's role in the 2016 election as so-called meddling.

[03:09:55] The president in one curious tweet referring to young and beautiful lives that were destroyed by the Russia investigation. I got a chance 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 Uunion Sunday morning with Dana Bash, and he called the Russia investigation during that interview illegitimate, 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.

Something that neither the president nor Giuliani nor lawmakers on Capitol Hill 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)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: They're giving us the material. I couldn't do it if I 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 of Congress, Democrat and Republican are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. So our jury is the American -- as it should be, 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 long 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 assistance that he wants to sit down and be interviewed by Robert Mueller.

Boris Sanchez, CNN, at the White House.

And for more on this we go to Scott Lucas in England. He is professional of international politics at the University of Birmingham. Scott, good to have you with us.

SCOTT LUCAS, POLITICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Good morning. CHURCH: So let's start with one of President Trump's tweets from over

the weekend that had a few of us scratching our heads, it has to be said. This is what he said regarding the Russia probe. "Who is going to give back the young and beautiful lives that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia collusion witch-hunt? They journey down to Washington, D.C. with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. They went back home in tatters."

So, Scott, which young and beautiful lives do you think he is referring to in this tweet?

LUCAS: Well, Rosemary, first I need to be direct with you, and I need to say this, even at the risk of cutting the interview short. Donald Trump lies. Over the weekend he lied about the North Korean summit, denying the existence of a White House official. He lied about the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, and he put out a series of lies about the Trump Russia investigation.

He lies when he says that the FBI had a spy inside his campaign in 2016. He lied again when he said all members of Robert Mueller's investigating team are Democrats. And then he topped it off with a tweet to which you referred, and that is that the people who have been indicted or convicted in this investigation are, for example, his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, his former senior adviser and national security adviser Michael Flynn, his foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, and others.

And I won't comment on whether or not they're beautiful, but they're not young, they were not innocent. They were involved in this investigation of whether or not he is linked to Russians in the 2016 campaign.

And let us be clear about why he is lying. Aided and abetted by Rudy Giuliani who gave the reason away. They need to discredit the Mueller investigation. They need to tear it down. They need to tear it down before the facts are presented to the point of whether or not there is impeachment, the possibility of political or criminal charges against the president and his advisers. And so this campaign is now all-out.

CHURCH: And still on the topic of the Russia probe, let's just listen for a moment to what Republican Senator Jeff Flake revealed about his concern regarding the investigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF FLAKE, (R) UNITED STATES SENATOR: I can tell you behind the scenes there is a lot of alarm there is concern that the president is laying the groundwork to move on Bob Mueller or Rosenstein. And if that were to happen, obviously that would cause a constitutional crisis.

There is concern behind the scenes. I've been concerned that we haven't spoken up loudly enough and told the president you simply can't go there. And he is obviously probing the edges as much as he can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

[03:15:00] FLAKE: To see how far Congress will go. And we've got to push back harder than we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So, Scott, he has threatened this before, hasn't he? But how likely is it that Mr. Trump would get rid of Mueller or Rosenstein, given the great risk involved in triggering a constitutional crisis and perhaps impeachment proceedings?

LUCAS: Well, Donald Trump, ever since Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017, has really wanted to get rid of him. But of course to do that, he has to get rid of the deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is the only person who can dismiss Mueller. The problem is that each time Trump tries to do this, his advisers pull him back and say there will be this crisis.

So what we have now is a plan b. If you can discredit Mueller, if you can discredit Rosenstein, if you can say that nothing that they do in the words of Rudy Giuliani yesterday is legitimate, you don't have to fire them.

So I think while this campaign is going on, this campaign of deceptions and decide you have a deep state coup against Trump, he won't have to resort to firing him. But if the campaign doesn't work, if they feel that it's feel failing, then Trump is again back at the precipice.

CHURCH: And Scott, you mentioned that President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani revealed over the weekend that he believed the Russia probe was illegitimate, and that the administration was using this public opinion strategy to discredit the Russia investigation. He admitted that. It appears that they are having some success in discrediting the probe when you look at some of the recent polls.

LUCAS: I agree that what you do is that you throw smoke in everybody's eyes, and we get so confused as to whether up is down, whether black is white, even as the president is saying, trust me, black is white here.

I've seen this tactic before. I saw Russia use it even as they interfered in the 2016 election. They've got a very organized state strategy of propaganda and disinformation. Whether or not Trump officials worked with the Russians during that campaign, they've learned a bit from that strategy.

And Donald Trump himself as a gut instinct politician is going to go all-out and hope and hope that Robert Mueller, who is exactly the opposite, who is not saying a word, who is not on Twitter, that when Robert Mueller comes forward in his lawyer fashion, somehow Trump can say nothing to see here, folks. No collusion, witch-hunt.

CHURCH: Scott Lucas, thanks for joining us from Birmingham in England, where it is just after 8.15 in the morning. We appreciate it. And we'll take a very short break here. But many voters in Ireland are

celebrating their referendum victory. But now that they've agreed to change the country's strict abortion law, it is time for lawmakers to roll up their sleeves. We'll have more on that next.

HOWELL: And there is a serious question to be asked here in the United States. How do you lose track of 1500 children in the care of the federal government, and if authorities say they're not responsible, which they're saying, well, who is? That story ahead.

[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, now that Ireland has overwhelmingly voted to reform its strict abortion laws, they have 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 in Dublin, Ireland. So Atika, what is the next step for the Irish government as they try to get this legislation put in place by the end of the year?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, I mean, there already is a bill they've drawn up, but you know, they have to tweak it. They have to submit it to parliament, and then it's got to be debated. And there is a summer recess in all of this coming up. So it's not likely to be debated probably until the autumn.

But there is enormous pressure now to get this done. And of course the momentum is there. This is something that was initiated, the referendum was pushed by the current government with the Irish prime minister and his health minister, Simon Harris in particular saying this has to -- this has to get done.

So I think they really do want to try and get the legislation as quickly as possible. But the reality is it's probably not going to be done until the end of this year, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And, of course, Atika, abortion is legal in the United Kingdom, but not in Northern Ireland. And this abortion vote has brought pressure to bear now on Prime Minister Theresa May to do something about that. How is she dealing with this very tricky political situation?

SHUBERT: Yes, I mean, you know, campaigners here really want to capitalize on the momentum that they've got from this vote. And it's interesting. When I was at Dublin Castle for that big rally, you know, there was a big sign that said the north is next.

And we've already seen Amnesty International, for example, put out a petition and appeal. And they've got tens of thousands of signatures already, you know, putting more pressure on Northern Ireland to legalize abortion.

But as you point out, it's a bit different there Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, of course, finds herself in a very delicate political position because she is in coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party. And this is a party that is pro-life, anti-abortion, staunchly so, and so -- and also, the laws are different there. There is no constitutional ban in the U.K. So it really is a local legislation issue.

So it's going to be a bit different for the issue of abortion rights in Northern Ireland. But absolutely there will be more pressure to bear, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And we will watch that, and I know you will there from Dublin, Ireland where it is nearly 8.30 in the morn. Atika Shubert, as always, great to have you with us. Thank you.

HOWELL: And we have some amazing video to show you of a rescue that took place in Paris. An immigrant from Mali is being called a real life hero, a spider-man, because look at this video. Let's just look at this. Going from floor to floor.

You can see Mamoudou Gassama scaling these four different levels. He goes from balcony to balcony. Watch him get right up here to this 4- year-old child, and then pulling him to safety right there in midair. Amazing.

CHURCH: It is incredible. And French President Emmanuel Macron invited him to the Elysee Palace and will thank him personally any moment now. In fact, listen to how Gassama explains what he did there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:25:02] MAMOUDOU GASSAM (through translator): We came here to watch the 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 (through translator): How did you climb? It seemed easy.

GASSAM (through translator): I got on top of a door and managed to pull myself up from balcony to balcony, and thank God I saved him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: What an incredible young man. And Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter that she spoke with the 22-year-old, and she said this. "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 and that the city of Paris will obviously be very keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France." And let's hope that happens.

HOWELL: Migrant who moves to a new country, and save the child and is looking to start a new life. CHURCH: It is incredible.

HOWELL: It is incredible, isn't it?

Still ahead here on Newsroom, hundreds of children unaccounted for and blanket denials that the government should know where they are. What U.S. officials have to say about a bureaucratic crisis that is actually quite human.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook could face a penalty topping $1.6 billion each time it runs afoul of the new law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Facebook is already facing accusations it's not complying with brand-new European data laws. We'll take a look at that. Back in just a moment.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to viewers here in the United States and around the world, you're watching CNN Newsroom.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching "CNN Newsroom." I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. Let's check the headlines for you this hour. A U.S. delegation is in North Korea to do the advance work ahead of a possible summit between the leaders of the two nations. President Trump canceled it a few days ago, but all indications are it's back on. An advance team has also left for Singapore, where the summit is scheduled to be held.

HOWELL: The former president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, is in the hospital. This after suffering a loss of blood pressure and fatigue. Mr. Bush's chief of staff says the 93-year-old is awake, that he is alert and not in any discomfort. He was last hospitalized in April after the death of his wife, Barbara.

CHURCH: Britain's prime minister is facing hate from lawmakers for refusing to push for abortion reform in Northern Ireland. Theresa May's spokeswoman said abortion law should only be changed by a government in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, more than 100 U.K. parliament members will reportedly back a bill allowing abortion in the province.

HOWELL: Disturbing story to share with you here in the United States. The government says it is not responsible for nearly 1,500 undocumented minors who have essentially gone missing. These are children, children who crossed the border into the United States and landed into the custody of the office of refugee resettlement. Last year, the office admitted it had lost track, lost track of nearly 20 percent of the children in its care.

CHURCH: But the federal government in 50 agencies' hands are clean because it released the children over to sponsors who then take responsibility. CNN's Tal Kopan explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: If someone comes to the border without an adult, a child comes to the border by themselves or if for some reason they are separated from their parents through or the adults they were with through the course of action, they're turned over to a different government agency who then works to place them with a sponsor.

Sometimes that's a family member. Sometimes that's an individual who seems responsible and can care for this child. Now, this government agency has testified that it is their position that once they make that handoff, they are not legally responsible for what happens to those children. They are expected to show up for court dates and that type of thing.

But they typically have not been followed up and figured out what happens to these children. So in the last three months of 2017, they followed up on about 7,500 of these children. And as you mentioned, about 20 percent of them, about 1,500, they could not account for what had happened to them after their placement. Now, it is unknown what happened to them.

It is possible that those children made an independent decision to go into the shadows and live undocumented in the U.S. They could very well have ended up in the hands of traffickers. But this is now, you know, a potentially even bigger problem as the U.S. is pursuing policy options that could result in even more children being separated from their families.

And the U.S. government is grappling with these questions, what happened to these children and what can they do in the future to prevent it from happening again?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: All this as the Department of Homeland Security is defending a controversial policy of separating families that cross the U.S. border illegally.

And investigators are looking into a shooting at the southern U.S. border that left a young woman dead.

HOWELL: She and two other migrants have been traveling for more than two weeks when they encountered a border patrol agent in Texas. As our Martin Savidge reports, the story of what happened next, well, that keeps shifting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have learned new information first and foremost, the identity of the young victim who was killed on Wednesday, a 20-year-old female from Guatemala. We have also learned a bit more about the border patrol agent that fired the fatal shot. He is a 15-year veteran of the force. Otherwise, though, the questions continue to grow.

Searching for answers, even as investigators, including the FBI, showed up to process the scene of Wednesday's fatal shooting. Customs and border protection officials began walking back critical details of the reported attack on one of their border agents.

The revised statement released Friday now says the border patrol agent was allegedly assaulted. In the original press release, the word "allegedly" never appears. Instead, it states "initial reports described an agent under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects."

The revised statement simply states now the group of suspected undocumented immigrants rushed him. Wednesday, CBP (ph) said the agent fired his weapon, fatally wounding one of the assailants.

[03:34:59] The revised statement now says the agent discharged one round, striking one member of the group, no longer characterizing the shooting victim as an assailant. Marta Martinez was a witness to what happened. What she says she heard and saw was nothing like either account officials have given.

So when was the first indication there was a problem here?

MARTA MARTINEZ, EYEWITNESS: When I heard the gunshot.

SAVIDGE: Martinez says when she rushed out of her home, she didn't see a border patrol agent being attacked by a group.

MARTINEZ: So I came out and got my phone and started recording. I didn't thought there was somebody dead.

SAVIDGE: Marta live streamed the aftermath which has since been viewed thousands of times.

Marta Martinez had a front row seat to this tragedy because it happened literally right next door. She found the body of the young woman lying on the ground right there. There is still traces of blood. And if you come down here and look across her fence into this lot, there are other indications that something happened, a struggle or an altercation. Just look at the way the grass is all matted down.

Juan Gonzalez, the Rio Bravo fire chief was among the first responders to treat the woman who was shot. He says when he got there, she looked very young, very fatigued, and barely alive. When she stopped breathing, he says, rescuers carried on with CPR.

Did she say anything? Did she move in any way? Did she seem conscious?

JUAN GONZALEZ, FIRST RESPONDER: No. She was not conscious, but she was breathing.

SAVIDGE: Customs and border protection were to hold a news conference on Friday, but it was suddenly canceled, and then they reissued that revised statement. Experts say it's not uncommon in the course of an investigation to change when you begin to learn new insights.

One part that does trouble those same experts though is that when they removed the allegation that blunt force objects were used, in other words, kind of weapons that people picked up by this group that allegedly attacked the border patrol agent, when that was removed from the scenario, that is very troubling about the depiction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Martin Savidge there reporting.

CHURCH Well, in the U.S. state of Maryland, flash floods turned this city street into a river Sunday.

HOWELL: Murky water rushed through Ellicott City near the city of Baltimore. This situation is especially hard on residents there who just finished rebuilding from last year's floods about two years ago.

CHURCH: And our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, joins us now with the very latest on the devastating rain. Just incredible images there, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. And the unfortunate part for that town of Ellicott City is the topography that comes into play there because it sits at a low point, so all of the rain from the surrounding area ends up kind of flowing into that same spot.

So, not only do they get the rain that actually fell on Ellicott City, which is right here where my hand is, but a lot of the other areas where it begins to flow back down. They also pick up lot of that rain as it's making its way down towards some of the other rivers.

So in turn, they end up getting a lot more rain on their roadways and such than they would just based off of the rain coming down above them. But let's take a look at the overall amounts where my hand is located. This is where Baltimore is.

So notice the heaviest rain was just out to the west of that. Widespread amounts, about 150 to 250 millimeters of rain or about 6 to 10 inches total, which is incredibly high if that was, say, your entire day's worth of rain.

But for those locations, a lot of them picked it up in less than three hours. We talked about some of the rivers, creeks, and streams. This is a map of the Patapsco River, OK, showing kind of the gauge here. The blue line remaining steady and then within two hours making a huge jump of about 17 feet. Again, in just two hours.

They ended up breaking their all-time record crest at this river because of that heavy rain. Now, the good news is this particular region is getting a brief reprieve from the rain that will allow some of that water to recede. However, notice a lot of that moisture being pushed up from the south. That moisture is coming from subtropical storm Alberto.

Now, the heaviest rain associated with this is still really mainly impacting southeastern states like Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and such. But this system is going to continue to make its way off to the north.

We expect landfall to be within the next 12 hours. The winds will quickly start to die back down as it makes its way further inland but it's going impact other cities, Birmingham, Nashville, even into Chicago as we get later on into the week.

And with it, it's going to take some of that heavy rain. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Key West dealing with incredible heavy rain. And a lot of those areas, by the way, are already dealing with an above average month of May for precipitation. And now, George and Rosemary, we're going to add an additional four to six inches on top of what they've already had.

HOWELL: Looks like it's going to be a soaker.

[03:39:59] CHURCH: Yeah, it is. It most certainly is. A lot to cover there. Allison, thank you so much for bringing us up to date.

HOWELL: Thank you, Allison. Still ahead here on "Newsroom," Facebook's CEO insisted the company would follow the rules. But experts say the social media giant is already violating strict new European regulations. Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt invaded, like total privacy invasion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: This woman claims her Amazon Alexa snooped on her conversation. How a series of unlikely events may have caused the error. You might want to rethink of all of this. We're back in a moment to explain.

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CHURCH Welcome back, everyone. Well, Europe's sweeping data protection regulation came into effect on Friday, and CNN has learned separate lawsuits have already been filed against Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and Instagram, alleging that the companies are failing to comply.

HOWELL: That's right. Testifying in front of E.U. leaders on Tuesday, Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, insisted that his company would follow the rules. But as our Samuel Burke reports, legal experts believe that Facebook is already violating the new law.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Austrian lawyer Max Schrems has been fighting Facebook in court over data privacy for nearly a decade. And today he wasted little time. His NGO suing Facebook for allegedly violating the E.U.'s new data protection law called GDPR the day it came into force.

MAX SCHREMS, LAWYER: We're looking for big companies that really willfully violate the law, that kind of try to ignore it and try to get away with it.

BURKE: Schrems who helped write the regulation says he is taking legal action because big tech isn't complying with the law.

SCHREMS: They're saying we don't want this. We think it's stupid so we don't want to comply with it. And then there is obvious business interests. There is certain things you simply can't do with data anymore that give a profit.

[03:44:58] BURKE: The new law was supposed to stop companies from hoovering up your sensitive data like political opinions, religious beliefs, ethnicity and sexuality for advertising purposes without your consent. According to legal experts CNN spoke with, Facebook is skirting this requirement.

MICHAEL VEALE, TECHNOLOGY POLICY EXPERT, UCI: On your Facebook profile, you can put in things like sexuality, religion or political beliefs. And if you put that on, you don't have any choice but for Facebook to use it to personalize contents to deliver advertising and so on.

BURKE: There is only an "I accept" button.

VEALE: Exactly.

BURKE: There is not an "I don't accept" button.

VEALE: Exactly. You got it.

BURKE: Veale says even if you completely remove sensitive traits from your profile, Facebook can still glean information such as your sexual orientation by analyzing your behavior on the platform and on other websites too.

VEALE: Facebook can infer things from the great amount of data it has about you across the web and also across your mobile devices and apps that also send data to Facebook.

BURKE: As you understand the law, does it prevent Facebook from making these inferences that they make about us?

VEALE: Yes. That law forbids Facebook from making these inferences without explicit consent.

BURKE: Failure to comply could be costly. For a big company like Facebook, European data regulators can impose a fine of up to four percent of its global annual revenue. Based on 2017 figures, that means Facebook could face a penalty topping $1.6 billion each time it runs afoul of the new law.

In a statement to CNN, Facebook's chief privacy officer said the company has, quote, introduced better tools for people to access, download, and delete their information. The company also says it's building a new tool that will allow users to stop Facebook from storing information about them it collects from other websites and apps.

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: We do expect to be fully compliant on May 25th.

BURKE: Lawyer Max Schrems believes the new rules are tough enough to prevent the kind of data scraping that companies like Cambridge Analytica have engaged in.

SCHREMS: If we enforced them properly, we can actually get a balance in this digitalize stage. In the end, you as a customer have the possibility to use let's say Facebook without worrying 24/7 about your data.

BURKE: However, the courts come down on the tech giants. Europe's new data regulations are already redrawing the line between profit and privacy.

Samuel Burke, CNN, London.

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CHURCH: OK. So Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, can do many things.

HOWELL: And apparently it can even snoop on your private conversations. Our Anna Stewart explains this one.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a cautionary tale of technology telling too much. A woman in Oregon says Amazon's Alexa recorded and then e-mailed a random person with a private conversation that took place in her house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt invaded, like total privacy invasion. Like immediately I'm like I'm never plugging that device in again. I can't trust it.

STEWART: Amazon's Echo owner, Danielle, said she was chatting with her husband about hardwood floors when the device sent an audio file to a man who works for her husband. She only found out about the recording when she received an alarming phone call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The person on the other line said unplug your Alexa devices right now. We go around and unplug them all. He proceed to tell us that he had received audio files, recordings from what was going on in our house.

STEWART: Amazon told CNN affiliate Kiro-7, the device misinterpreted commands like send message and the contact's name as part of the background conversation, and called it an extremely rare occurrence.

It's unknown if the couple didn't hear Alexa's voice replies or see the speaker light up when it was activated, or if the device responded at all. Either way, it's a case of mixed signals that has a lot of consumers thinking twice about just who or what they bring into the house.

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CHURCH Very unnerving. I have one of those at home. You don't.

HOWELL: Kind of old school. I don't know if I want it, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes. I'm not sure I still want mine now.

(LAUGHTER)

HOWELL: What all it's listening to?

CHURCH Well, I mean, it listens to everything. But I mean it -- it wakes up when you say "Alexa." But, you know, obviously they didn't realize they had said "Alexa." Luckily, they were only talking about wooden floors, right?

(LAUGHTER)

CHURCH: All right. We'll take a very short break. We'll be back in a moment.

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HOWELL: It is Memorial Day here in the United States, a day set aside to honor the men and women of the armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice defending this country.

CHURCH: This weekend, the oldest living Pearl Harbor veteran made his mark in Washington. He paid tribute to fallen comrades and was honored himself as well. CNN's Dianne Gallagher has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A day that still plays out in the mind of Ray Chavez.

RAY CHAVEZ, OLDEST SURVIVING PEARL HARBOR VETERAN: Every day.

GALLAGHER: Seventy-six years later --

CHAVEZ: I saw all the ships on fire and a terrible smoke screen all through the harbor and covering the ships.

GALLAGHER: At 106 years old, Chavez is the oldest surviving Pearl Harbor veteran.

CHAVEZ: It never goes away, what you see. That's the way I am. I remember and then I forget and remember again.

GALLAGHER: Remembering, it's what brings Chavez to Washington, D.C. this weekend. Although he did meet President Donald Trump at the White House --

CHAVEZ: I looked forward to it because I didn't vote for him, and I enjoy meeting him. Pleasant enough to have me right next to him when we were seated.

GALLAGHER: Chavez traveled across-country from San Diego to D.C., stopping in Kansas to refuel and meet with fellow veterans to attend the 150th Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

[03:55:04] He and his family are the guests of Defense Secretary James Mattis. But the navy veteran says more than all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding his visit, his focus is on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It's the act of remembering that is most important this holiday weekend.

CHAVEZ: National remembrance day, because it's very important that the younger generation know and learn at the beginning of war.

GALLAGHER: Vice President Mike Pence spent part of his Friday at the TAPS Good Grief Camp with a younger generation that knows the consequences of war all too well. All of these children have lost a loved one who served in the armed forces.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A room full of heroes.

(APPLAUSE)

GALLAGHER: And many will spend part of their Memorial Day here, in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, remembering their fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, veterans of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and post-9/11 conflicts.

CHAVEZ: I would do it again if I was called to active duty, but chances are never.

(LAUGHTER)

GALLAGHER: But the secretary and deputy secretary of defense surprised Chavez Friday night with a reenlistment and promotion. Still, the 106-year-old says the purpose of this weekend is to honor the memory of those he served with.

CHAVEZ: I never will forget that, because I met some real fine young men.

GALLAGHER: And the sacrifice of the men and women who came after as well.

Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Atlanta.l (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: A day to reflect and to remember. The world's headlines for you straight ahead.

CHURCH: "CNN Newsroom" continues after this very short break. Back in a moment.

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