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President Trump With Tougher Stance on Immigration; Erdogan Won in Sunday's Snap Elections; A Timeline Set for North Korea's Pledge; World Headlines; Immigration Crisis; Europe Migrant Crisis; Middle East Peace Plan; Royal Visit; Saudi Women Drivers. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 25, 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: The U.S. president doubles down on his aggressive stance toward immigration saying. He wants illegal immigrants deported without a judge or court case.

GEORGE HOWELL, HOST, CNN: Plus, a high stakes snap election and a swift victory for Turkey's president who will now lead with even greater power.

CHURCH: And later, Prince William tests out his diplomatic skills in the Middle East.

HOWELL: We are live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta with a warm welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: I'm Rosemary Church. Great to have you all with us. This is CNN Newsroom.

And we start with the situation of undocumented parents and children being held at immigration detention centers in the United States. There's still a great deal of confusion about how, when or if they would be reunited even after promises and plans to do so.

HOWELL: Last week the U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order to reunite the separated families but on Sunday, he was back to his tougher rhetoric on illegal immigration. He tweeted "we cannot allow all of these people to invade our country." He added, they should be deported immediately with, quote, "no judges or court cases."

CHURCH: And here's what families are facing now. More than 2,000 children in processing centers like these along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren visited one such center in McAllen, Texas. And she came out visibly shaken and spoke with CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There are children by themselves. I saw a 6-month-old baby. Little girls, little boys. There are mothers with their babies and with small children. Family units are together if it's a very small child, but little girls who are 12 years old are taken away from the rest of their families and held separately or little boys. And they're all on concrete floors, in cages. There's just no other way to describe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And earlier on Sunday, we learned that the children in government custody won't be reunited with their parents until the parent's deportation proceedings are completed.

CHURCH: And that's not sitting well with many of the U.S./Mexico border. They're demanding the families be reunited immediately.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has the details from Texas.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're actually here in Tornillo, Texas. If you look behind me you can see the border checkpoint. Beyond there is Mexico. Just a little bit over this way is this tent city that we're hearing about where they are keeping these children.

I'm going to be touring that tent city in just a matter of hours we're going to get a chance to take a look with our own eyes as we've been able to do in some of these other facilities.

Once again no, cameras. No recording devices or phones. Just pen and pad. But at least get a look at it. Yesterday, there were a lot of people who showed up here to protest the fact that there are still at least 30 children in that facility that were separated from their parents underneath the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy.

There were celebrities, civil rights activists. We even ran into a woman who survived the Nazi occupation of Holland. Her father was killed she said for supporting and sheltering Jewish people during that time. She tells me she came to speak out at this event like so many others because she felt like she had to say something because she was old enough to this time. She wanted to speak out.

This is something at this particular protest we noticed a significant feeling of solidarity. Not as much anger. More looking forward. They were trying to speak directly to the Trump administration asking them to speed up their unifications. Be more transparent with what's going on and to stop denying asylum to individuals who were coming across the border.

Again, a little later today, we're going to tour this facility, try to see what it looks like in there because of that lack of transparency. We'll be bringing that to you throughout the day.

[03:04:57] But again, people continuing to make sure that this stays not just in the headlines but also on the minds of those in the Trump administration.

CHURCH: So let's talk more about this with Charles Kuck. He is an immigration attorney. Thank you so much for being with us. CHARLES KUCK, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Great to be with you tonight.

CHURCH: So while President Trump's executive order has brought an end to family separations for now at least, it doesn't address the problem of reuniting more than 2,300 children that the Trump administration has already separated from their parents. How hard has it been for you and other lawyers to help reunite these families and represent them under this new policy of zero tolerance? What are the major challenges you face?

KUCK: Well, a couple of major challenges are simple. First, they don't know where all the children are. And when they separated them, they didn't keep track of them accurate enough to actually bring the couple families and the children back together.

So they're basically putting an egg back together that they broke out and fried in the pan. It's going to take weeks ultimately for all the children to be reunited with their parents.

The second bigger problem is where they are reuniting them. The administration just announced an inauguration of a family detention center in Port Isabel, Texas. They are limited in the number of people they can have in their detention facilities. They don't have the space. So even reuniting 2,500 families with their kids is going to cause a serious space issue for the administration.

CHURCH: It's extraordinary when you say so basically the paperwork isn't there for each of these 2,300 children. You've mentioned though, they should be reunited in a matter of weeks. The big problem here is a lot of these kids some were sent to New York. They were sent all over the country. Which is just extraordinary and trying to locate those families at least one of the parents. What is the process there if there isn't the paperwork particularly when you have a situation of a 3-month-old baby. And some of them are as young as that.

KUCK: We are. And I wish there was a simple as paperwork where they could track them down. But there's simply not. In some of the cases there are children that they brought to some of their tender age facilities where they put into foster homes that they're going to lose in the system.

We already have a number of parents that have deported from the United States without their children. And they're desperately searching to find where they are. This is the big problem. When you create a system on the fly, when you have no real experience enacting a policy that has no basis in law, you end up getting a situation where parents are going to lose their children. And that is my great fear. We'll end up having parents whose kids can't be located.

CHURCH: Yes, simply heartbreaking of course. And then President Trump's executive order doesn't guarantee that families won't be separated at some point because 20 days after the detention of the whole family, the children have to be released. Don't they? So what happens after that?

KUCK: Well, the family is going to have to be released, and that's what going to happen. They're not just going to keep the children and send them out 20 days. The extension of the executive order of the Flores agreement was that the entire family be released. And that's really kind of what's happening today. How are they going to house families one for 20 days and second, how are they going to monitor them.

The good news is there's already a system in place. The Obama administration and the Bush administration have an effective monitoring system in place that is wildly less expensive. And insures over 99 percent of the people appear for their court and reporting hearings.

The reason that they began the separation policy is to create a deterrent or punishment for seeking asylum in the United States. It's good to see the American people reacted so negatively to that because of the detriment to these children.

CHURCH: And I wanted to ask you this, because of course, on Twitter on Sunday, President Trump called this country's immigration system a mockery and said people who enter the country illegally should be sent back to their country of origin without court cases without due process. What's your response to that as a lawyer?

KUCK: Well, it's wildly unrealistic. We already have a law that says if you don't meet the standards for seeking asylum, that you can be expeditiously removed without a court hearing. That's a law it already exist and it applies to people entering on the southern border who aren't from contiguous territories like Mexico or Canada.

But when you make a valid claim for asylum, then our international treaty obligations require us to have a due process style hearing for you either be in front of an asylum officer or an immigration judge. So basically what President Trump wants to his tweet is for Congress one to eliminate our international treaty obligations, much easier said than done and to change federal law as it currently exists.

But I would disagree with them. This is not a mockery of our system. In fact, this is a great example of our system, this is the reason people look at America as the shining city on the hill because we do give due process to every person under our Constitution that seeks our protection.

[03:10:09] CHURCH: Charles Kuck, thank you so much for looking at the legal ramifications and indeed, the political ramifications of this story. We appreciate chatting with you.

KUCK: My pleasure.

HOWELL: Now on to Turkey. The president of that nation Reccep Tayyip Erdogan looks to set his grip even tighter now. More power after Sunday's election.

CHURCH: The leader of Turkey's supreme election board has declared Mr. Erdogan the winner. And it appears the president's coalition will hold on to parliament, as well.

CNN's Sam Kiley has more on the controversial vote from Istanbul.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Political ecstasy as the re-election of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In their moment of glory, his supporters rebelling in an outright victory for the man who's led his country for the last 15 years by claiming to have won almost 53 percent of the vote. He announced his victory that avoided a presidential runoff before any official results had been published.

After jailing tens of thousands of his political opponents, forcing through a change to the Constitution which concentrates power in the hands of the presidency, and stifling the free press, this is what victory looks like to President Erdogan.

Erdogan survived a coup two years ago. His followers hope he'll stay in office long enough to lead the next generation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKISH (through translator): Our nation has given me the mandate for the presidency along with the people's alliance. A great responsibility has been placed on our shoulders by our nation by these results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY: Some of the president's voters were almost incoherent with joy. A different scene at the headquarters of the opposition's main candidate, Muharrem Ince. Its leadership initially convinced they had been robbed of a presidential runoff but their own count later confirmed that Erdogan had won. And that was greeted by jubilant crowds in Ankara as well as in Istanbul.

Close to 60 million Turks were registered to vote. Erdogan said turnout was nearly 90 percent and that his coalition had also won control of the 600-seat parliament. He now has complete executive control of Turkey, the right to rule by decree, and to pick his own cabinet.

"Turkey did not only choose one president and 600 M.P.'s. It changed the whole system of government. We will get this working fast and perfectly."

For his opponents this is a moment of political agony that holds little protest that Erdogan can heal a nation that remains bitterly divided.

Sam Kiley, CNN, Istanbul.

CHURCH: We'll take a short break. Still to come, the push on Pyongyang to follow through. How Washington is planning to make sure the promises made at the summit with North Korea are kept.

HOWELL: Plus, no one wants to be eliminated at the World Cup but Panama's exit was especially harsh. Their brutal match with England ahead. [03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. The United States is taking a step toward ensuring that North Korea follows through on its pledge of complete denuclearization.

CHURCH: Pyongyang made the commitment at the Singapore summit earlier this month. A senior defense official says the U.S. will give the North a timeline for it to surrender its nuclear weapons. The official says it will soon become clear whether Pyongyang is acting in good faith.

HOWELL: Let's get the details now with CNN's Paula Hancocks following the story live in Seoul, South Korea. Paula, look, there were a lot of good feelings for sure on display at that summit in Singapore. But now with the U.S. outlining a timeline of specific requests, it seems now the test of good faith is coming into play.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, George. We're hearing from senior defense official that what they'll be doing soon, they don't give us a timeline, but shortly they will be giving what they call specific asks of the North Koreans. They will be giving a specific timeline. And that the concept of how they see this actually working, the fact that they will be calling for denuclearization. But what exactly will that entail? How will this work?

So we heard from that official that they believe that fairly soon they'll know if Pyongyang was actually serious when they said that they were willing to denuclearize. They also said that they'll have some data points soon pretty soon.

Now we assume by this, this official means that they have specific things they want to see from the North Koreans. For example, this missile engine test site that the U.S. President Donald Trump had said that North Korea was going to destroy, had said that the North Korean Kim Jong-un had guaranteed to him would be destroyed.

We haven't really heard much about that since. Whether there's a clarification they need transferring remains of soldiers from the North Korea -- from the Korean War back in the 1950s could potentially be something else that they're looking at.

But we don't have many specifics about what they will be asking for. But we have heard from this official that they believe very soon they'll be ever to know if North Korea is serious about this.

HOWELL: Paula, also the joint U.S./South Korean war games. With those canceled how is that gesture being received throughout the peninsula?

HANCOCKS: Well, it was certainly one that took many by people surprise when it happened. It was the U.S. President Donald Trump who announced it. It wasn't in the written statement between Kim Jong-un and Mr. Trump. It took the U.S. forces in Korea by surprise. They haven't heard anything about it until after it was announced.

We do have the Secretary of Defense James Mattis heading to the region at this point going to China first. Then here to South Korea and then on to Japan.

[03:20:02] It is clearly going to be something that will be talked about while he's here in Seoul. He'll be meeting with the South Korean defense minister. Now they have postponed or suspended, I should say, some military drills that were supposed to be coming up in August the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian. It's a very large and significant annual drill. And certainly that will be asked about by many people.

But we did hear from officials here in Seoul straight after that announcement by the U.S. president that they needed to learn more clearly showing that they weren't given a heads-up about this. Since then we've heard from the foreign minister, for example, of South Korea saying that it's something that they were potentially thinking about, as well. But it did take people by surprise. George?

HOWELL: CNN correspondent Paula Hancocks, live for us in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you for the report.

CHURCH: A lot of excitement around the World Cup. Sunday saw a huge win for England as they pushed into the knockout stage. And of course we're joined now with our Kate Riley. Is that a smile on your face about England?

KATE RILEY, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: It might be, yes.

CHURCH: The little ones.

RILEY: The resident England fan over here. So, yes. Look, give me my moment of glory. It doesn't happen very often if you support England. So very much dining out on this. That's for sure.

We certainly had a record breaking World Cup Sunday, didn't we, for England. Captain Harry Kane, in particular, a thumping 6-1 victory over panama which ensures the three lions of a play in the last 16 in the tournament with one group stage match to stay. It was Harry Kane's day.

But defender John Stones who can't believe his luck how he helped himself to not one but two goals himself. And from there Panama was been clean never in it. Skipper Kane added a second from the penalty spot before Manchester United's Jesse Lingard scored.

And we saw some wild celebrations from him. Now 25 yards out, the ball culled to perfection. Panama crumbled at this point and the avalanche of goals we expected duly arrives. There's the dance moves.

While back to the Tottenham star Kane, remember he scored a brace in his country's opening game and he converted his second penalty of the match and at this point, he must have had the word hat trick on his lips. And sure enough, it comes. Although we're not sure how much he knew about it, he had his back to Rupen Loftus-Cheek's shorts.

And the ball flies into the back of the net. Two penalties and a deflection. He'll take it though. He is now the third England player to score a hat trick at a World Cup. Following the footsteps of Geoff's Hurst's back in the '66 final at Wembley. England won that year. And Gary Lineker at Mexico '86 6-1 to England.

Meanwhile, Colombia and Poland knew that they had to win to reignite their campaigns after opening losses. The South Americans reaped the quarterfinals four years ago in Brasilia for initially being frustrated. They finally got the break through just five minutes before the half.

Well, at the Barcelona defender Yerry Mina was the header. And on the 18 minute mark it was Radamel Falcao. He must have been dreaming of this goal for a very long time. That was his first World Cup goal.

A classy finish effectively putting the match to bed and from there, well, it was Juan Cuadrado capping it all off. Columbia 3-nil winners and right back on track. Unfortunately, Poland had been eliminated but it is still all to play for. Japan and Senegal have four points from two games. Colombia have three points and play Senegal on Thursday knowing victory could well seal that top spot.

CHURCH: What a spectacular World Cup it has been so far. So looking ahead, what are the matches we should be looking out for?

RILEY: Yes. We've got four matches on the slate for you on Monday. The Portuguese in fact, facing Iran in group B which also sees Spain and Morocco in action, as well. Meantime, in group A host Russia and Uruguay battle to finish top. While Egypt and Saudi Arabia also meet.

Ronaldo has already scored his dazzling hat trick in his opener against Spain, in fact, he's now scored the country's last five goals at the World Cup.

A little extra spice for you as Iran is coached by his countrymen and one-time father figure Carlos Queiroz with whom CR-7 had a reportedly strange relationship over times while the pair work together at both Manchester United and the Portuguese national team. Now though, Queiroz remains fully focus on preparing his current team.

So here's a check for you of those Monday fixtures in group B. Bottom line if both the Spanish and Portuguese avoid defeat, they'll be through. Remember Portugal on the reigning European champions. And what CR-7 would give at the World Cup to his already glittering trophy cabinet. And as we've mentioned before, Cristiano also likely to be eyeing up this tournament's golden boot, as well.

CHURCH: Wow. We'll see what happens. Kate Riley, thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWELL: Thank you, Kate.

RILEY: All right. Thank you.

CHURCH: Thank you so much.

[03:25:01] Well, a dozen members of a youth football team and their coach are missing more than 48 hours after they entered a cave in northern Thailand that is popular with tourists. HOWELL: Investigators believe the teenage boys and their coach

crawled into the cave on Saturday and they never came out. An official thinks rising water from a heavy storm trapped them inside.

CHURCH: Search and rescue crews are on the scene trying to locate the boys and their coach. They do believe there's a good chance the group is still alive since the large network of caves would give them a place to stay dry.

HOWELL: In the United States, the president here doubles down on his tough immigration stance. The question, will it help his party in the upcoming November midterms or will it backfire? We examine possible outcomes.

CHURCH: Plus E.U. leaders meet to discuss the migrant crisis but it only adds to tensions among the member countries. We have a live report for you just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A very warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and of course, all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. This is CNN Newsroom with your headlines this hour.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won re-election in Sunday's snap vote, this according to the head of that nation's supreme election board. With almost all votes counted state media report that Mr. Erdogan coalition is also still in control of parliament. The opposition though is disputing the results.

CHURCH: The U.S. will present a timeline to North Korea for it to surrender its nuclear arsenal. A senior defense official says it will soon become clear whether Pyongyang is acting in good faith on its promise of complete denuclearization. A pledge made during the Singapore summit earlier this month.

[03:30:10] HOWELL: The U.S. president, Donald Trump, digging in on his tough immigration stance. He tweeted Sunday that those caught illegally trying to enter the country should be deported, he said, without judicial involvement. No courts, no attorneys, no judge. Mr. Trump also said the U.S. "cannot allow all these people to invade our country."

CHURCH: Meanwhile, the U.S. government has to deal with the more than 2,000 immigrant children in detention centers.

HOWELL: Their job right now, the question of how. How to reunite the families that have been separated in April and May by the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration?

CHURCH: And we are joined by political science researcher Amy Greene. She is a professor at Sciences PO in Paris, and the author of the book "America After Obama." Good to have you with us.

AMY GREENE, PROFESSOR, SCIENCES PO: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, Amy, let's start with that tweet President Trump fired off on Sunday where he essentially said these immigrants crossing illegally into the U.S. should not receive due process. How will Democrats respond to this and what about the global community?

GREENE: Well, globally speaking, I mean, this is a disastrous policy. I mean, here in France, you know, the act of separating children from parents has been compared to a human rights abuse, a crime against humanity, and that's in some of the more conservative circles.

So, you know, globally speaking, this is a disaster including for American soft power. The ability of the United States to influence others through its values to co-opt others through, you know, embodying its ideals. This is certainly something that is diminishing that capacity of the United States throughout the world.

Of course, Democrats are outraged necessarily because the question of due process is codified in the United States constitution. But of course, this reaction of the president isn't that surprising, given his propensity to attack the justice system throughout the, you know, throughout the campaign of 2016 and then since he's become president.

HOWELL: You mentioned the reaction globally. But, you know, talking about what's happening right here, the reaction here in the United States, we've heard the audio. People have seen these images in detention centers. Despite all of that, the president has indicated in Nevada over the weekend that he sees the whole thing as a winning play going into the November midterms. Amy, let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: On immigration, we have to be very strong. I like the issue for election, too. Our issue is strong borders, no crime. Their issue is open borders, let MS-13 all over our country. That's what's going to happen if you listen to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Breaking it down there, Amy, to quite a binary argument, but the question here, a lot of Trump voters support what he's doing, this aggressive approach toward immigration. Are Democrats underestimating his appeal on this issue or is this enough to rally that base?

GREENE: What really comes down to play in the month of November is which party is more successful at mobilizing its base to come out and vote. Recent polls have indicated that the Democrats have a less strong enthusiasm factor than Republicans. So while both Republicans and Democrats are historically or I should say are motivated at historic level to vote in November, Republicans are more enthusiastic to do so than Democrats.

So, essentially, the Democrats need to turn out big. Donald Trump is choosing to run a midterm campaign. In many cases, this is what looks like it's announcing itself based on fear. Immigration is a key issue for the president in that respect. Free trade is perhaps another one with this constant portrayal of the United States under attack as being the victim of being, you know, in a vulnerable position, thanks to outside or because of outside forces.

So clearly the president believes that this is a way to rally his voters, to rally his base, people who appreciate the president because they say at least, you know, he sticks to a position on an issue, he is able to explain things in a simple and palatable way for them. But again, they know where the president stands and it becomes difficult for the Democrats potentially, you know, to gain Republican support because his support remains so high amongst his Republican base.

CHURCH: Amy, the problem here of course, if both parties believe that they can exploit this issue, the problem here is neither side have -- is there the political will on either side to actually do something about this if they can exploit it for the November midterms or think they can?

GREENE: Right. The Democrats have clearly put themselves in the position of wanting to participate in legislation.

[03:34:55] They have said, you know, I say minimum, in a very serious way, they've set a minimum level of decency to respect, you know, migrants who are not necessarily coming illegally, many of whom are coming and requesting asylum which is perfectly legal and, you know, crossing the border once illegally is a misdemeanor, it is not a felony.

So, you know, the Democrats are proposing to be a part of legislation. The Republican Party seems to be using this as a hostage taking situation to pull the debate further to the right, to get money for the wall, to force the Democrats to accept an immigration policy that's much further to the right than they're willing to accept.

For some of the house proposals that are currently on the table, the Democrats haven't been associated with those talks, so they haven't been participants in getting that legislation and getting the contents of it in discussion.

So really you have a Republican Party in any case it seems which is advancing on its very right conservative hard line agenda, and the Democrats on the other side with very few legal mechanisms to interfere and to inject their voices but for calling attention to the separation of children from their parents and using the public pulpit in order to gain supporters for their cause.

CHURCH: Amy Greene, thank you so much for your analysis. We appreciate it.

GREENE: Thank you very much.

HOWELL: Now, on to Europe. Nations there also dealing with an immigration crisis. The E.U. leaders held informal talks in Brussels. They are trying to come up with solutions for the influx of migrants to the continent. But the 28 member countries haven't been able to come to an agreement at this point. CHURCH: All this is happening as nearly 350 migrants are stranded on two boats in the Mediterranean with nowhere to go. And joining me now is Melissa Bell from Paris. So, Melissa, this informal migration summit hasn't been able to come up with any solutions and it has opened some pretty bitter resentment between some member nations. What exactly transpired?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the idea of this really, Rosemary, was the head of the big leader summit later this week which will be dominated by the migrant crisis to try and find some solutions, frankly to hold the European Union together at this stage and to keep its passport-free zone to be a sort of viable option for the future.

This comes of course, as you say, as these migrants are now now trapped in the Mediterranean once again with Italy having adopted this much more hard line position. But the irony is that this has become a real political crisis for the European Union even as new arrivals to the E.U. have dropped.

They are 50 percent down at this stage on what they were a year ago because of deals that the Italian government has made with the Libyans and so on because of the hardening of those borders. And yet it is as if through political impact of the migrant crisis which is now nearly three years old had sort of come a little bit late.

And what has it led to? It has led in Germany to a fragile coalition with Angela Merkel who is trying to hold together a more right wing party than hers on questions of migration even while sticking to some of the values to which she's wanted to stick firm to all these years.

In Italy, you have a populist government elected largely on the back of immigration concerns and has adopted itself a much more hard line position. This reconciling, all these different positions to getting some countries to carry their fair share, that is really proving so intractable for Europeans. Let's have a listen now, Rosemary, to what Angela Merkel had to say after this summit yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): We all agree that we want to reduce illegal migration, that we want to protect our borders, and that we are all responsible for all topics. It cannot be the case that some only deal with primary migration and others only with secondary migration. Everybody is responsible for everything. Wherever possible, we want European solutions. Where this is not possible, we want to bring those who are willing together and find a common framework for action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: So no firm conclusions came out of the summit, Rosemarie, but there was a sense from a number of European leaders who spoke afterwards that some progress had been made. The hope is that by end of this week when they all meet once again for the final summit, for the big summit they are all looking towards, that some kind of solution to this political crisis will be found.

CHURCH: Let's just hope that is the case on Thursday. Melissa Bell, thank you so much. We appreciate it. And still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," Prince William flexes his diplomatic muscle in the Middle East. We will tell you why his trip is so historic, just ahead.

HOWELL: Plus, the U.S. president's son-in-law and senior adviser is also in the Middle East. We'll discuss Jared Kushner's attempt to foster peace there. Stay with us.

[03:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Both the U.S. and U.K. are putting a big diplomatic focus on the Middle East right now. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, has been touring the region. He says the U.S. will soon reveal its Middle East peace plan. But he sparked criticism when he said the Trump administration would do it with or without Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

HOWELL: In the meantime, Prince William is in Jordan, testing out his own diplomatic skill. He will soon head to Israel where he will be the first British royal to make an official visit to the country.

CHURCH: Our Max Foster is traveling with Prince William. He joins us now from Jerash in Jordan. We understand, Max, that Prince William is about to arrive at where you are, spectacular backdrop there. Talk to us about the significance of him being there and what he is hoping to achieve.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting. You probably hear some kids calling out in the background. Prince Hussein is hosting him here. Prince William will come here to the site. There's lots of young people here. Some of these children are refugees from war zones around the country. More than 600,000 have actually end up up in Jordan.

This is a program to integrate them into Jordanian society. We got two young princes. They are both destined to be king. They are working together, working with younger generations. They will rule over those generations one day in the future. It's about establishing that relationship.

It's also interesting to see Prince William also highlighting the issue of refugees within Jordan throughout the region. We're going to see him going on as well to Israel and the Palestinian territories as well to highlight the tensions that are still there as well.

So whilst this is royalty staying above politics getting involved on the ground with projects here in this spectacular setting of course, there's always the undertones in this area of course about the religion and the political tensions, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yeah, let's talk more about his next stop in Israel because it's the first time that a royal has visited there officially. That is very significant in itself as well. But of course, it's a difficult part of the world. What can he achieve there? FOSTER: Well, it's interesting. We've asked a lot about the timing of this visit. All we've been told is that Prince William and the British government wanted to have a visit like this to the region for a very long time and the timing just all worked out.

[03:45:00] But inevitably, what it does is bring a lot of focus to the tensions between Israel and the Palestinian areas which are heightened again at the moment right now. And I think there is probably a reminder in there somewhere that this is an ongoing tension. While there is a lot going in the Middle East, we shouldn't lose attention on what's going on there either.

But this has been very intricate in terms of organization, very careful set of engagement has been set up both in the Palestinian areas and the Israeli areas. It's got to be very carefully balanced. It's a big test for Prince William, who is becoming more and more statesman-like as he gets older. But this is probably the biggest test of his diplomatic skills, very seemed to date, so a big test on the next leg of his Middle Eastern trip.

CHURCH: Yeah. He certainly seems very relaxed in the midst of all of that. Our Max Foster keeping an eye on that visit by Prince William in an extraordinary backdrop there in Jerash, Jordan. Many thanks to you.

HOWELL: And now, let's go live to Jerusalem. Our Oren Liebermann following the story there of Jared Kushner's push for peace. Oren, tell us more about Kushner selling his plan there in the region while at the same time taking a swipe at Palestinian leadership.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, gave an interview to Al-Quds Newspaper, Palestinian daily newspaper. That in and of itself is quite surprising. First, Kushner doesn't interview very often. And second, how he chose to do so or to whom he chose to interview with. Clearly a message to the Palestinian people because they cannot get an audience or have not met in recent months with Palestinian leadership who froze relations with the Trump administration.

And Kushner essentially laid out the framework or at least the basis of the peace plan that the Trump administration is working on. He didn't reveal any details but he tried to reach directly out to Palestinian people. He said they should consider even if the Palestinian leadership won't, they should consider the Trump administration's peace proposal.

He said both sides will benefit even if both sides have to make concessions. He says both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, will be better off in the long run for doing so. He does point out that this isn't a final plan. It is a basis for negotiations between the two sides.

But as I have mentioned, Palestinians froze contacts with the Trump administration back in December after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. So now, this is the administration trying to sell not only their peace plan to the Palestinian people but also to other Arab leaders. Before coming here and meeting with the Israelis, the team from the White House have met not only with the Egyptians but also with others in the region as well to try to build regional support for the plan even if the Palestinians aren't answering the door to the Trump administration right now. George?

HOWELL: All right. Oren, Palestinian leadership obviously pushed back as well, yes?

LIEBERMANN: They took a very strong shot at Jared Kushner's team. And the peace proposal being worked on by the Trump administration saying first their goal was to topple the Palestinian authority, and second saying, look, our rights are not for sale here, especially for economic benefits.

A large part of what Jared Kushner talked about in this interview was economic benefits for Palestinians, infrastructure investment from the rest of the world. And the Palestinians said, no, we're not interested. The leadership is saying no, we're not interested, we're not trading our rights as Palestinians for whatever economic benefits you have to offer.

So, the Palestinian leadership making it very clear they still have no interest in looking at whatever it is the Americans are expected to put forward sometime soon.

HOWELL: Oren Liebermann live for us in Jerusalem, thank you for the reporting.

CHURCH: History is made in Saudi Arabia as women are legally allowed to drive for the first time. How has the deeply conservative kingdom reacted? We will get a live report from Jeddah after the short break.

[03:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: June 25th, 2018 means Christmas is just six months away. And take a look at this. How about this, some scattered isolated storms across portions of the mid-western and certainly out towards the upper mid-western U.S. over the next 24 or so hours.

About 2.5 million people impacted by this in particular around Des Moines, Iowa points just to the south into areas of northern Missouri there for some stronger storms, including some large hail and damaging winds, really the predominant threat. You see the storms brew as we head in towards each and every single afternoon.

Chicago will shoot for 25 degrees. Dallas about 11 better up to 36. Warm, very nice across portions of San Francisco. Vancouver B.C., thanks for tuning in, about 18 degrees. But notice what happens here. The big-time heat that has been in place begins really building in towards areas around the great lakes, in the middle 20s, rather comfortable here in the latter portion of June, give way to essentially what becomes a very warm start to July as we go into the next week or so with temps expected in the 30s across places such as Chicago. Down to the tropics, we go watching a couple areas of disturbed weather. What do we have here? We have a low probability of formation over the next week. But one of the storms we're watching carefully is tropical storm Daniel.

Fortunately just a fish storm beginning to push off towards the west, not a significant threat to anyone besides mariners across thet region. As you work your way towards Mexico City, expect some isolated storms around 22. Chihuahua up to 37. Leaving you with South America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

HOWELL (voice over): For the first time, women are legally allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and they are understandably excited about it.

CHURCH (voice over): Yeah. The Saudi government lifted a longstanding ban Sunday after years of campaigning by activists. More than 120,000 women have already applied for driver's licenses.

HOWELL (voice over): The Saudi traffic police got into the spirit as well, welcoming the new women drivers with flowers and notes of good wishes, saying, have a safe trip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Let's bring in our own Jomana Karadsheh who has been in many, many vehicles I'm sure in the past several hours, covering what is certainly history there. Tell us what has been the feeling, the mood about these new licensed drivers on the road?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, George, it's been such an incredible couple of days for women here, such an emotional one for so many of the women that we got to meet over the past couple of days. They're really ecstatic. We got to ride along with some of these women. They're really over the moon that finally they can actually drive without the fear of being arrested.

Just this disbelief that this is actually finally happening. But there's some women, George, who are really in no rush to get on the road just yet. They want to wait and see what kind of reaction the first wave of women drivers are going to get from this ultraconservative society. And this is a big step forward for women's rights in this country.

But there definitely is still a long road ahead when it comes to equality and some of the women that we've met will tell you the biggest issue that needs to be tackled next, they say, is that really repressive guardianship law where women can't take some basic decisions like the ability to travel, go to university without the consent of a male guardian. There is hope that that could change soon, George.

HOWELL: Jomana, of course, we're seeing a great deal of excitement on the roads here during the shift. What about those who paved the way for this change that we're seeing? Many of those people remain in jail.

[03:55:02] KARADSHEH: You know, George, eight human rights activists remain detained. Some of them are some of these women prominent figures who spent their life, years, campaigning for the women's right to drive in this country. They were detained recently. According to human rights organizations, they were part of this ongoing crackdown on human rights activists in the country.

The government says this has nothing to do with their activism or human rights. They accuse them of communicating with a foreign state. But you know, this is the new Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, you've got this reform, these changes that were unthinkable at one point.

And then you're actually seeing this crackdown that is continuing. Some feel that this is a message that, you know, change in this country can only come from the top down. And no one else other than the leadership can get credit for the changes that we're seeing, George.

HOWELL: Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much for the reporting. We'll stay in touch with you.

CHURCH: Great progress there. A Saudi female race car driver marked the occasion by getting behind the wheel of a Formula One car at the French Grand Prix.

HOWELL: Aseel Al Hamad drove a Lotus Renault E20 ahead of Sunday's race. The first female member of the Saudi Arabian Motorsport Federation is also now the first Saudi Woman to ever drive a Formula One car on the historic track. She says the experience fulfills a long-time dream.

Thank you so much for being with us for "CNN Newsroom." I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. For our viewers in the U.S., "Early Start" is next. For everyone else, "CNN Newsroom" continues with Hannah Vaughan Jones in London. Have a great day.

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