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President Trump Visits United Kingdom; President Trump to Meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin; Justice Department Releases Indictments of 12 Russian Nationals Related to 2016 Presidential Election Interference; U.S. Official Warns of Continuing Attempts of Russia to Interfere with U.S. Elections; All 12 Members of Soccer Team and Coach Rescued from Cave in Thailand; U.S. Government to Reunite Immigrant Children Separated from Parents. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired July 14, 2018 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: -- the president is weighing in on the latest indictments by blaming former President Obama instead of condemning Russia. The president still calling the probe a witch hunt. But it's important to note Mueller's probe has now brought 191 criminal charges and 35 defendants. CNN's global affairs Elise Labott is standing by in Washington, but we're going to start with CNN's White House correspondent Abby Phillip who is live in Glasgow, Scotland. And I'm wondering, Abby, what are you hearing from the White House there?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Martin. The White House is saying exactly what President Trump is saying, which is that they are emphasizing the idea that there were no Americans specifically implicated in the charges that were handed down on Friday. And they are not saying anything at all about Vladimir Putin. President Trump in his tweet this morning from not too far from here at his golf course in Turnberry, he says that "The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama administration, not the Trump administration. Why didn't they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September before the election?"

President Trump still there not mentioning at all that what these latest indictments indicate is that these were pretty high level Russian intelligence officers who were involved in this attack. They were named. And President Trump is just days away from a meeting with Vladimir Putin in which he is expected to talk about some of this.

The president also didn't mention that there has been a lot of reporting about what the Obama administration tried do in the months leading up to the 2016 election. President Obama himself confronted Putin about it at a summit. His CIA director on John Brennan talked to his counterpart in Russia, warning them to stop the intrusions. And his DHS secretary and other officials warned state level officials in the United States be prepared for potential incursions into the voting systems at the state level.

So there was some activity happening, but of course the president is right in one respect, which is that some Obama administration officials did hope that they could do more and wished that they had done more. But right now, the question is about what happens now. What is President Trump going to do before this -- during this meeting in Helsinki and before the midterm elections here in the United States. A lot of Republicans and outside observers, folks in the intelligence community warning that Russia is likely to do this again and that President Trump needs to confront Putin directly. We know, however, that in the past the president has said that he is not going to continue to harangue Putin about this because Putin keeps denying it, but now the pressure is on, Martin. I think this really changes the dynamic around the summit. But, of course, the White House says it's going to continue as planned.

SAVIDGE: Elise, you were on the plane with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday as he was flying back from Mexico. And I wonder, what was his reaction to all of this?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Marty, he didn't get a chance to speak to President Trump in the wake of the indictments. He was in Mexico with several other cabinet secretaries having meetings there. But he said that after news came out of the indictments, he said he thought that the meeting should take place, saying that the U.S. will be in a better place with Russia after this meeting. He didn't say exactly why he thought that, but there are a lot of questions as to whether the U.S. will be in a better place after this meeting.

President Trump having bashed not only the Mueller investigation but the indictments saying that he doesn't believe Russia is involved kind of puts him going into this meeting with an invitation almost to President Putin not just to meddle in the U.S. election but throughout Europe as he has been accused of and how NATO allies, E.U. allies are looking for President Trump to crack down on him about. So it doesn't look like he is willing to bring up any of that, saying that he believes President Putin.

He also comes from this NATO meeting where the meeting was very tense, not really speaking with a message of unity about the dangers posed by Russia. So in fact he is not going into this meeting not with the strong hand that he could have if he had a stronger NATO summit, more of a unified European message, but goes in pretty much parroting what President Putin said. And I think that is the concern here, that he is not going in with the upper hand but rather on the backfoot, Marty.

SAVIDGE: Abby Phillip and Elise Labott, thank you both very much for those reports.

So how deep did these Russian cyberattacks go? CNN crime and justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz has the details on that. And Shimon, these indictments indicate that this was not only well coordinated. It was a very damaging Russian operation. And I'm wondering what have we learned about all of this about the way the Russians work?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: I think what we've learned is that they were very well organized. I think the FBI and the U.S. government here and certainly our intelligence partners have known a lot of this information for a long time. Now that it is all out there, what we see is that this was a very well organized, very well planned out, very well researched operation. They knew what they were looking for.

[14:05:08] And when they got inside the searchers of the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign, they were looking for -- they had keywords, they would do searches for keywords like Benghazi, opposition research, other information. And that just tells you how well organized and how well researched this team was, this hacking squad sort of is what officials have described them as, working for the Russian government, part of the Russian government, part of the Russian military intelligence. Senior level people here that were indicted by the Department of Justice.

And the time that they took to do this, months, and the number of people that they targeted and the persistence with which they operated. And the continuing spear phishing, the way they entered some of these systems, though, are pretty simple, and we've seen other hackers do this certainly in financial matters where you have a lot of Russian hackers who have done there to steal credit card information, banking information, passwords, all very similar stuff. But what made this so different is it was part such high level aspects, part of the Russian government, and just the persistence, Marty, really with how much they just kept trying and trying to get in until someone finally made the mistake of clicking on a link they shouldn't have clicked on and then they got in, and obviously the damage so substantial.

SAVIDGE: No Americans in this latest round of indictments. However, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone was asked about his involvement with these new indictments last night by Chris Cuomo. Here is his response.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROGER STONE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: I have testified under oath to the House Intelligence Committee that I certainly had a 24- word exchange with the persona Guccifer 2.0 over Twitter direct messages. Anyone, any objective person who will read that exchange, which is included in the indictment, will see that based on content -- context and timing, it's benign. It's innocuous.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It's also you, though.

STONE: So in retrospect, I think I probability am th probably am the person referred to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Shimon, is there any word when or even if Stone might be charged?

PROKUPECZ: No, there is no word. But Stone can argue it is benign, but the fact is that we know based on the reporting we've done that people who have appeared before the grand jury, people who have gone to see Mueller, have been asked about this information, they have been asked about Roger Stone. So certainly it would appear based on reporting that we've done that people who have appeared there before Mueller have been asked these questions. So definitely it would seem that Roger Stone is within the crosshairs. As to exactly what or what Mueller and the special counsel could be

looking at, we just don't know. But the fact is, Marty, that his name keeps coming up. It is interesting in the fact that he was not, though, not named in this indictment, his contact with this Guccifer 2.0 which we learned and have known was the Russian intelligence is very interesting and certainly is something that the special counsel and the FBI has been looking into for quite some time now.

SAVIDGE: Hard to overlook that, and not in a benign way. All right, Shimon Prokupecz, thank you very much for that.

And to talk more about all of this is Stephen Collinson, a CNN White House reporter, and Jill Dougherty, a CNN contributor and global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Stephen, is there any precedent, I guess I should say, for canceling a summit? Is it possible even though it has been talked about with high regard that the president could still cancel this? Has it ever happened before?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It's very unlikely I think that President Trump will cancel it. A summit has been canceled by a U.S. president. President Obama canceled the summit in 2013. He was due to travel to Moscow and it was called off in the wake of Moscow granting asylum to the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, and the White House said at the time that there was simply not enough -- apart from that, there was simply not enough momentum in U.S./Russia relations to make the summit worthwhile.

I think it's very unlikely that were the president somebody he also other than Donald Trump that this summit would be taking place. This after all is an attack on U.S. sovereignty and U.S. democracy. And the idea that an American president would give Vladimir Putin that kind of platform on a level sort of stature with the president of the United States when the world has learned the extent and the breadth of this staggering operation seems very unlikely. And I think it is also difficult to believe that another president would not use that summit to publicly berate President Putin. We saw last year in fact the French President Emmanuel Macron publicly confront Putin over the activities of Russian propaganda outlets in the French election.

[14:10:07] But it doesn't seem from the president's comments and the press conference in the U.K. yesterday or his tweets in the last few hours that that is going to be his intention, that he will really publicly push Putin on this.

SAVIDGE: Jill, who will win in this kind of scenario? I mean, it seems that Putin has the upper hand as he comes into this and maybe more so now given the quandary that the president seems to be in when it comes to confronting him. What do you think.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think it's going to be very easy to say who wins because at least for Vladimir Putin, I think he wants both men to win in different ways. I think Putin comes into this -- I'll play the role here of what Putin thinks. I think he comes into it knowing that Donald Trump is in a very difficult situation. These indictments have just come out. There is more proof than there has ever been of the interference by Russia in the election. So Donald Trump is in a difficult position.

So Putin can kind of come and make life a little bit easier. He can use, let's say manipulate that situation and say, he could say it didn't happen, or he could say, you know what, some of that might have happened, but that is the way the world works. That's the way we all kind of do spy versus spy. We all interfere.

And I wouldn't put it past President Putin to even come out with some information about how the United States interferes in Russia. He talks about that a lot. And it might be a very interesting kind of emotional moment, a pivot where he could psychologically put Donald Trump a little bit on the defense.

I also think that who wins, I think he wants this -- Putin wants this meeting to look as if he is back on the world stage with the leader of the United States, he is no longer cast aside by the world, and that he is a major player. I think he will also look at a way of using Donald Trump to further the interests of Russia. In other words, one major thing would be noninterference in the neighborhood of Russia. It is very important to him, and I think that he could make that point to Donald Trump, who doesn't know a lot of the details of the history of that region, to say, you know what, would you like somebody interfering in your neighborhood? Come on, Donald. We don't either. So let's work together on making it a lot easier for both of us.

SAVIDGE: One of the things we just learned about this is that after the meeting of these two heads of state, of course there is going to be a press availability, not quite maybe a news conference. And I'm wondering, Jill, you've covered things like this before. What should we expect? Is Vladimir Putin going to take questions from the American press, and will we see dramatic answers, or how have you seen these handled in the past?

DOUGHERTY: Technically it will depend on how the White House and the Kremlin work it out, how many questions will they take. You know, it could be maybe two questions from either side, and that is a news conference. It could be more elaborate. We'll have to see.

But I do think that that will fascinating because there is no predict of what Donald Trump will do. I think Vladimir Putin will go in there extremely well prepared. Look, he has been the president of Russia for more than 18 years. He knows the issues. He will be prepared.

SAVIDGE: And Stephen, do you expect, or is it possible the president could ask for extradition of those Russian agents?

COLLINSON: I think it is rather unlikely. And even if he did, it's almost impossible to think that they would ever be in a position where they would put themselves within reach of the international police or U.S. justice authorities. So in that sense this indictment is not necessarily a precursor to a court case taking place, a big trial in Washington, but it is sending a message from the Justice Department, from the U.S. intelligence agencies who had to declassify a lot of this information in the indictment to the Russian government and the Russian/U.S. intelligence agency, that they know exactly what was going on. I think it is more likely that the president will raise this in his

press conference with Theresa May, the British prime minister yesterday, he sort of gave the impression that he was almost going to raise election meddling almost as a favor to the journalists who keep on asking him about it. But he said look, I don't think there is going to be some big Perry Mason moment, he's not going to suddenly confess. So it doesn't seem that this is really something that the president is that interested in dragging out.

But he of course is a very difficult position. This one-on-one meeting that he is planning to have with President Putin, that is going to be very, very closely scrutinized just because of this whole issue about the odd relationship between the president and Vladimir Putin and the election meddling.

[14:15:05] Just imagine if the president asked Putin during that press availability, put him right on the spot. That would be something. Stephen Collinson and Jill Dougherty, thank you both very much for your insights.

Up next, a closer look behind Mueller's latest indictments. The Russians accused of hacking U.S. election websites, how in the world did they pull it off? And what does this mean of course for future elections in this country?

And an inside look at that just incredible cave rescue that captivated all of us. New video from the rescue of the young Thai soccer team and emotional reaction from the families and friends. Plus new video messages from the young boys while in hospital. Hear what they have to say. It's all coming up, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: As 12 Russian agents face charges in connection with cyberattacks ahead of the 2016 election, the U.S. intelligence chief is warning that there could be more trouble ahead.

[14:20:06] Michael Borohovski is a former intrusion engineer serving the U.S. intelligence community and he's also CEO of Tinfoil Security, and he joins me now to talk about this. Michael, do you agree that the warning signs, the red flashing lights as some have pointed out, are going off and things are really that bad?

MICHAEL BOROHOVSKI, CEO OF TINFOIL SECURITY: Thanks for having me on, Martin. They could be, right. So the question is whether or not the president and his administration are going to draw a line in the sand. Certainly we need to take this aggression seriously. And the fact that they have interfered or allegedly interfered in our democratic process is a big deal. If we don't draw a line in the sand and react in some manner or form, I certainly do think that it leaves it open season for the future.

SAVIDGE: We know there are of course a lot of ways that a cyber threat or even a cyberattack can be carried out against the United States. So whether it is trying to interfere with something as basic as voting in this country or nuclear power plants, what do you think is the biggest cyber threat right now facing the U.S.?

BOROHOVSKI: Oh, boy, that is a loaded question if I ever heard one. There are a lot of ways in which you can attack a country in general, the U.S. being one of them certainly. The OPM breach by China was a big, big deal. Our energy grid is still not fully up-to-date and fully protected. Even if you take this particular breach, right, they didn't -- even in the indictment, as Mueller has pointed out, they didn't affect the voting numbers directly perhaps, but even that in and of itself is a little misleading. They ran a very sophisticated cy-ops campaign retrieving data from these servers and about people in order to effect the outcome of the election regardless.

SAVIDGE: What you don't know is -- they didn't change votes, but they might have changed minds, and that can change votes.

BOROHOVSKI: Exactly.

SAVIDGE: Let me ask you -- we're going to run out of time real quick, and I want to get to these other countries besides Russia -- China, Iran, North Korea. They are also considered really bad offenders on all of this. Who do you think is the worst of them?

(LAUGHTER)

BOROHOVSKI: The problem is that they are all very sophisticated. That's almost an impossible to answer. They're all one-upping each other as well. We're in the game as well. We have offensive security capabilities. We use them quite often. It's a rat race, right, and we're just consistently trying to one up one another. But, yes, that list of countries that you mentioned are definitely top of mind when it comes to whom to be worried about.

SAVIDGE: And when it comes to our own defenses, how good are we?

BOROHOVSKI: We're pretty good, but we could always be better. Again, there is a lot of room for improvement. I do think that we don't take enough focus to teach offensive security in this country. China in particular has done a very good job of incentivizing their citizens to learn about and to take action in hacking and security. We don't do enough of that. We are still a little bit scared of that in the U.S.

SAVIDGE: So instead of just relying on the government to be the big shield, that individuals have a responsibility here as well?

BOROHOVSKI: I do think individuals have a responsibility to educate themselves certainly. I'm a big believer in the best defense is a good offense. And I think in a people should be capable of and understand how to breach not only themselves but anyone around so that we can build better and bigger defenses.

SAVIDGE: Know the threat. Michael Borohovski, thank you very much.

BOROHOVSKI: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Coming up, we're learning more about what happened inside the Thai cave where 12 boys and their coach were trapped for weeks. The boys speaking out for the very first time since their rescue. Their messages are coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:26] SAVIDGE: Total darkness and cold rushing waters, that is the way the divers describe the conditions inside that Thai cave. The new images are startling. Each of the trapped boys being carried out on a stretcher by groups of rescuers. We're getting new details about how the whole heroic rescue was carried out. CNN's Nick Glass has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Has there even been a cave rescue quite like this one? The Thai military allied with an international team of volunteers searching until the lost boys were found and daringly rescued in the remote mountains in northern Thailand. We're still piecing the story together and all its inspiring, heroic detail. So much of the drama happened in the dark out of sight. But it begins with a haunting image in silhouette, the kids' bikes chained up in a row at the cave entrance, football boots, shin pads left behind with no sign of their owners. The date, Saturday June 23rd. And this was the missing party, what we can now refer to as the miraculously lucky 13, the Wild Boars football team plus their young coach. They went missing after match practice. They had explored this particular cave before but were apparently trapped by a sudden monsoon flood, water and more water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most challenging thing we have to fight is nature, rain and any obstacles in the cave. We've never done anything like this before.

[14:30:13] In came the piping and the pumps, and Thai Navy SEALs. As the water continued to raise, the equipment for a serious diving operation was transferred by hand and by hoist deep into the cave.

Where were the boys? Could they be reached in time? The place is known as the Big Cave for a reason. Almost seven miles limestone tunnels and recesses, nooks and crannies. Anxious, distressed relatives could only wait and offer prayers.

NARONGSAK OSATANAKORN: I cannot expect how long, but every minute is important.

GLASS: The cave was mapped by French divers in the 1980s. It is among the longest in Thailand. But it is the first few miles of the cave that concerns us here. The most recent survey was carried out by this man, Vern Unsworth, a British caver who has a home in the area. He immediately advice was call in British experts.

VERY UNSWORTH, BRITISH CAVER: We got the Thai authorities to understand that they needed expert divers out here, because cave diving is specialist. Pretty much like diving with -- you can't see three inches in front of your face. And they needed world class divers, and that's what we got.

GLASS: Rick Stanton on the left, a retired fireman from Coventry, and his diving partner, John Volanthen, an I.T. consultant from Bristol. In cave diving, they are pretty much as good as it gets. At the request of the Thai command center, they were flown out from Britain. On the ground, they almost passed unnoticed, just two guys in dark shorts, t-shirts, and Wellington boots. The British divers made their first exploratory dive on Wednesday, June 27th, four days after the boys went missing. The challenge was immediately obvious, water the color of cold coffee, almost no visibility, swimming against a torrent of water, the engorged stream that runs through the cave.

The divers were able to lay down a crucial guide rope. And on the seventh day of diving, on Monday, July 2nd, they found the boys perched on a rocky ledge and are were met by an unforgettable chorus of little voices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many of you? Thirteen? Brilliant.

GLASS: What day is it, the boys asked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Monday. Monday. You have been here 10 days, 10 days. You are very strong.

The Thai Navy, Navy SEALs will come tomorrow with a doctor and everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am very happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are happy too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: England, the U.K.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

GLASS: Oh, indeed, a nice surprise, England, home to Manchester United and Arsenal, some of their favorite teams.

The euphoria among relatives outside was immediate. The British team, some eight British divers in all, were warmly embraced, hugs all around. They brought hope out of the darkness.

The boys were joined on their ledge by Navy SEALs, given food and emergency foil blankets and medicine. They sent messages to their parents, wrote letters that were carried out. Their coach had helped keep their spirits up during their ordeal in their tiny refugee less than half the size of a tennis court. Coach Ake, as they call him, sat at the back. He had been a Buddhist monk in his youth and he taught them to meditate to pass the time.

On Friday, July the 6th, tragedy struck. One of the Thai divers, Saman Kunan, lost consciousness as he was replacing oxygen tanks and died. He was 38. A retired Thai Navy SEAL, he had volunteered to join the rescue effort just five days earlier. His death changed the mood in the cave. Now there was a growing urgency about a rescue.

We know it happened over three successive days, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday July 8th, 9th, and 10th. Thai Navy SEALs have released footage of it. The boys carried out on so-called military stretchers, wrapped in foil for the last mile or so.

[14:35:08] We glimpsed a face here and there. Each boy regularly checked on the way out by doctors. But the most daring part of the rescue happened off camera in the submerged part of the cave system.

UNSWORTH: These divers, they went in on three consecutive days. That is tough. Four, five, six hours each time in not so nice conditions. But superhuman.

GLASS: We know the boys were sedated in some way. An Australian cave diver Dr. Richard Harris was part of the team. He's an anesthetist.

UNSWORTH: You have to understand some of these kids couldn't swim. And they are being put into cold water and with wet suits on, full face mask. Alien to them. So it was the only way.

GLASS: The most important thing was to have a full facemask which were acquired on site with positive pressure to enable them to breathe and to relax them enough to not feel any anxiety during the process.

It seems then that the boys were somehow escorted out by payers of pairs of drivers before being put into stretchers. The U.K., Australia, Denmark. The divers' list inside the cave indicated that they came from all over the world. But there is still a general reticence about talking about what each of them did. Another pair of British divers, Chris Jewell on the left and Jason Mallinson, were certainly involved in escorting the boys out, but weren't prepared to reveal much more.

CHRIS JEWELL, BRITISH CAVE DIVER: Myself and Jason Mallison came out after Rick and John. And our role was to help transport the boys underwater through the cave to bring them out.

GLASS: And not forgetting the anonymous quartet of Thai Navy SEALs who had kept the boys company on the ledge for seven day, they were the last out after the boys.

UNSWORTH: Just to get any of them out alive would have been a miracle. But to get 13 out of 13, won't happen again. It's the biggest miracle ever.

GLASS: After the rescue, a sense of overwhelming relief and gratitude on the streets. You could see it in their faces. Something wonderful had happened. A Salute for an ambulance taking one of the boys to hospital. This woman didn't have to say anything to let us know how she felt. Her nephew had been saved.

SARISA PROMJAK, AUNT: We don't know how we can ever repay you. If it was possible, I would go down on my knees and bow to each and every one of you. Thank you, thank you, thanks to all. GLASS: From his hospital bed and still in quarantine, the youngest and apparently last of the kids to be rescued paid his respects to his parents. All relatives were kept tearfully behind glass until medical checks are complete. The boy is 11 years old but has the longest name in the team. Here he is glimpsed in the cave. His nickname is Tun. In his letter to his parents he urged them not to worry and to get ready his favorite fried chicken. His father was simply drained by the ordeal, but eternally grateful his son survived.

WIBOONRUNGRUENG, FATHER: I was so happy at the moment. All I wanted was to hug him. I couldn't because of the glass. Everybody started to cry. I was happy to see his face because I hadn't seen it for 17 days.

UNSWORTH: Thirteen will not be an unlucky number anymore.

(LAUGHTER)

GLASS: Nick Glass, CNN, with the extraordinary story of how the Wild Boars and their coach were lost and found and safely rescued.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: What a great report. And we are hearing from those boys for the first time since that unbelievable rescue. Each boy was sitting upright in their hospital bed. They sent individual messages of thanks to rescuers and the international efforts that saved their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. No I am very fine. I very thank you so health, thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Hi, my health condition is good. Thank you for helping us.

[14:40:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, my nickname is Mark. I'm healthy. I am ready now. I want to eat steak. I would like to thank you all Thai people for supporting me. I will be strong and keep fighting for my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, my nickname isI. Now I'm starting to get normal. I'm healthy as usual. I can eat as normal. The good I want to eat most is cow fat with pork. I would like to thank all sisters and brothers. Thank you to all ministries that always help. Thank you prime minister and all SEALs. Thank you very much doctors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And as you heard, the boys all do sound like they are in good spirits and they are all excited about eating their favorite foods.

Up next, the government says it now has a plan to reunite more than 2,000 immigrant children separated from their families at the southern border, but can the Trump administration meet the court ordered deadline now less than two weeks away? We'll have a live report from the border when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:23] The Trump administration now says it has a plan to reunite migrant children separated from their parents on the southern border. Currently there are more than 2,500 kids that are being held at various centers around the country. Over the next two weeks those families eligible to be brought together will reunite at a half-dozen government facilities. Health and Human Service officials say that streamlined vetting process should speed up the reunions so they can meet the court imposed deadline of July 26th.

CNN's Rosa Flores is covering this for us in McAllen, Texas. Rosa, when will this reunification plan really get going?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, we know from attorneys that have been working with some of the families that these reunifications are going on as we speak. A lot of the very passionate attorneys have been going to detention centers trying to get more information from these individuals, and also passing some of that information along to us. And that is how the public is learning more about in.

So we know that some of the reunifications are happening. But as you mentioned, when we talk about more than 2,500 children, we're expecting for at some point massive reunions to happen especially because we are about two weeks away from that deadline.

Now, here is what the government agreed to. They agreed to choose six to eight facilities where these reunifications will happen. This is going to be an expedited process. So once an individual is deemed to be eligible to be reunited with their child, they're going to be transferred to one of these facilities. Officials are going to have an interview with this individual where they're going to make sure that the individual is actually the parent of the child. And they are also going to ask them if they are willing to reunite with their child. At that point the child is then transferred into ICE custody, and that is when the reunion is going to happen.

Now, the government saying they will follow this order because it is a court order. However, the government advises that they do not like this process because it is too quick, it is too expedited. They are going to be streamlining this process, so they are not going to be doing a few things that they did in the past, which includes DHS -- excuse me, doing a background -- they will be doing background checks, but they won't be doing background checks on the individuals, all of the adults that will be living with the child. And this of course has raised concerns in the past because when the government reunited the toddlers, which we knew that there were 103 toddlers who were separated, but less than 60 were actually reunited with their families, the government, Martin, said that it was because of the background checks and the information that came from the background checks, that some of the individuals had criminal backgrounds or they weren't the parent of the child. SAVIDGE: There were problems without question with that process. And

now with more than 2,500, as you say, it seems like there could be even more. Rosa Flores, thanks very much. Keep on it for us.

Still ahead, the hunt is on for a paragliding Trump protester who breached security during the president's visit to Scotland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:53:03] SAVIDGE: President Trump is facing protests of all sorts on his trip to the United Kingdom and elsewhere. There have been thousands of marchers in the streets, balloons, including the baby blimp mocking the president. And now police in Scotland as well as the U.S. Secret Service are looking out for this person, a paragliding Greenpeace protester, they say, who breached a no-fly zone as the president enjoyed a stroll on his own golf course. The protester was holding a banner that read Trump well below par, #resist. He managed to get amazingly close to the president before sailing off in his powered parachute.

First lady Melania Trump joined her husband yesterday for tea with the queen. And now we are getting some images of that meeting. The Trumps spent 48 minutes with the 92-year-old monarch. The first lady later tweeted it was an honor to meet and have tea with her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. The president and I enjoyed the visit and her company very much. Wonder who poured.

After enduring years in an abusive relationship, one woman found a way to fight through her past by stepping into the boxing ring. Her story is in this week's Turning Points.

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CASEY LYNN, MUAY THAI BOXER: I'm Casey Lynn, a Muay Thai boxer. Muay Thai boxing is Thai kickboxing. You are allowed to use knees and elbows and clinch. When I got into Muay Thai, it was never about self-defense. What I wanted to do is build my trust in men again.

I'm a domestic violence survivor. I dated this guy. It started deteriorated and he threatened to kill my family and he started hitting me. And then he pulled out a revolver and threatened me. He stalked me for like a year and a half. I got out of it because he robbed a place and went to jail.

[14:55:00] Coming out of a domestic violence past walking into a gym where men hitting other people and very women, it was a big hurdle. When I first started sparring, all of the abuse flooded back to me. But in that moment if you hit back, that just makes you a fighter.

I'm an amateur level fighter. I fought in the U.S. and south Thailand and also in Bangkok. It helped me overcome the things I've been through in the past.

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SAVIDGE: That does it for me. I'm Martin Savidge. Newsroom with Ana Cabrera continues right after a quick break.

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