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World Headlines; Summit Fallout; Epic Film Flop. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired July 17, 2018 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Welcome to News Stream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Land at home and abroad, President Donald Trump is widely criticized even by Republicans for putting Russia before U.S. intelligence

community. Applauded by Russia, Moscow is happy with the summit outcome as Russian President Putin denies U.S. election meddling. And U.K.'s Vote

Leave campaign fine ahead of a crucial Brexit vote in the Houses of Parliament.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: We begin with the worldwide fallout over the summit shocker in Helsinki, Finland. U.S. President Donald Trump is now facing major

backlash after siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence community.

At the news conference Monday, President Trump accepted Mr. Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election saying he

does not see any reason why they wouldn't. The conference was met with swift condemnation with Republicans calling it flat out wrong, and

shameful.

All of this comes as U.S. intelligence analysts say Russia is continuing to attack the United States even now. Well, from Washington to Helsinki, and

Jerusalem to New York, we are covering the summit reaction around the world with our correspondents, and our analysts.

Let's begin with CNN White House Correspondent Abby Phillip. And, Abby, the widespread condemnation including from within his own party may have

come as a shock to President Trump, but surely many within the White House cannot be surprised?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The president, and -- it does not seem to really understand exactly how big the backlash

has been to this. The White House is in real damage control mode this morning now that here to saying so much condemnation coming, not just from

the usual suspects, but from some folks that they usually can rely on for support.

Meanwhile, the White House has issued some talking points to their supporters urging them to recall the President's past statements about

Russian meddling in which he suggested he believed his intelligence community, but those statements are clearly contradicted by what he said

just yesterday while standing right next to Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why didn't you...

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: President Trump returning home to blistering condemnation after publicly siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over U.S.

intelligence.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was

extremely strong and powerful in his denial. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be.

PHILLIP: The President blaming both countries for eroding U.S.-Russia relations.

TRUMP: I think we've all been foolish. We should had this dialogue a long time ago.

PHILLIP: And refusing to condemn Putin instead pivoting to his election victory, and the Russia investigation.

TRUMP: That was a clean campaign. I beat Hillary Clinton easily. It's ridiculous what's going on with the probe.

PHILLIP: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aghast.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK, U.S. SENATE MINORITY LEADER: The President put what's best for him over what's best for the security, and

well-being of the United States.

BOB CORKER (R), UNITED STATES SENATOR: The President's comments made us look as a nation more like a pushover.

WILL HURD (R), UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: I've seen the Russian intelligence, and, you know, manipulate many people in my career, and I

never would have thought the U.S. President would be -- would be one of them.

PHILLIP: Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats reportedly bypassing the White House to rebut the President, writing, we have been clear in our

assessment of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and their ongoing pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.

Former CIA Director John Brennan calling the news conference nothing short of treasonous, House Speaker Paul Ryan stressing Russia is not our ally.

There is no moral equivalence. Newt Gingrich calling it the most serious mistake of his presidency.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain labeling the press conference one of the most disgraceful performances by an American

president in memory.

[08:05:04] President Trump insisting he has great confidence in his intelligence people, as the White House scrambles to do damage control

sending out talking points, and the Vice President to reassure supporters.

MIKE PENCE, UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT: President Donald Trump will always put the prosperity, and security of America first.

PHILLIP: Meanwhile, Russian officials hailing the summit as a resounding success, and applauding Putin's performance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election, and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through a translator): Yes, I did, because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to

normal.

PHILLIP: Putin later confronted by a Fox News journalist, refusing to examine the Mueller indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers

for their role in the election hacking, and penetrating the America's election system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May I give this to you to look at, sir? Here.

PHILLIP: Putin also down playing the attack.

PUTIN (through a translator): It wasn't some forged attacks. That's the important thing, but I'm trying to -- I'm going to point, and trying to

make. Was there any false information planted? no, it wasn't.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP: The president has been largely silent this morning, and the White House has no plans to brief reporters today, but the President will be

meeting with Republican lawmakers here at the White House later this afternoon with the topic being taxes, but we may see that as the

opportunity for President Trump to address some of this criticism, and uproar over here over his remarks yesterday.

COREN: Abby Philip joining us from the White House. Many thanks for that. Well, you just heard in Abby Phillip's report there part of the interview,

President Putin did with Fox News, that the Monday after the summit in which he denies attacking U.S. elections.

Well, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked him, there are many theories in the United States about why President Trump is so reluctant to criticize

you. One is that you have something on him, kompromat or blackmail. Well, here's how Mr. Putin responded to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through a translator): We don't have anything on them. And there can't be anything on them. I don't want to insult President Trump when I

say this, and I may come -- come as rude, but before he announced that he would run for presidency, he was of no interest for us.

Yes, he's a rich person, but there are plenty of rich persons in the United States. He was in the construction business. He organized the beauty

pageants, but, no. It would never occur to anyone that he would think of running for president. He never mentioned his political ambitions. It

sounds like an utter nonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: President Putin there speaking with Fox News after the summit. Well, our International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson joins us from

Helsinki, Finland. And, Nic, it is staggering to think that the U.S. President refused to stand up for a country that he was elected to

represent and protect, but rather cozied up defending one of America's greatest geopolitical foes. Please, put this into -- put this into

perspective for us.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, he wasn't just letting down the United States, and the people of the United States. He

was letting down his allies. Remembering that both Germany, the Chancellor, Angela Merkel there, her elections in Germany, were believed to

be hacked by, attacked by -- by Russian agents.

That in Britain the Brexit referendum was deemed to be tainted by Russian agents, the same with the British general election last year, the same

questions clouding that. So what we've had today is essentially the resounding sound of silence from President Trump's European allies where

one would normally expect them, in a situation where there's been a summit like this, there would be a conclusion to the summit.

And the allies would say, thank you very much, Mr. President, you've told President Putin not to meddle in your elections again. The same goes for

ours. We very much appreciate what you're doing. They -- the sound is silence, because they're not able to do that.

And this, of course, comes at the end of a week remembering back when President Trump left Washington last week, he said he was going to have a

tough time in NATO, a tough time in Britain, and he had an easy time with President Putin. I don't think any of us really imagined this is what he

went.

When he went to NATO, he essentially eviscerating German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her connections with Russia, he undermined the British Prime

Minister Theresa May over her handling of Brexit.

So to come here, and let these allies down in this way, it undoubtedly will leave these close transatlantic partners of the United States wondering if

President Trump cannot trust his own intelligence agencies, how can they, the allies of the United States, trust the United States, trust President

Trump to look jointly at their joint national security interests?

[08:10:04] If he cannot trust his own intelligence agency, in essence, how can he trust those of his allies? And that puts -- put the relationship

between these nations in a very, very poor place. Anna.

COREN: It really is extraordinary, Nic. No doubt, the Russians are elated by what took place in Helsinki. What has been the reaction out of Moscow?

ROBERTSON: Well, the reaction came very swiftly here from Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister. Saying, before he even left here that this

meeting had gone better than expected. And that's been broadly -- the response in Moscow that they have had, they feel this has -- has shown that

President Putin was the one sort of leading through this process, through this summit.

That Russia has got what it wanted out of this. We know coming in to this, Russian lawmakers were saying that this showed -- the summit showed it was

Russia and the United States that was setting the agenda, and world, and here they have set the agenda, which flies in the face of NATO.

This is very much something Russia would like to see. President Putin would like to see, divisions within NATO, divisions within transatlantic

relationships, and he's delivered on -- he's delivered on that right here.

The newspapers here in Helsinki, for example, have had various different headlines. One of them one was Trump zero, Putin one, and another

newspaper here this morning had a headline that said world changes. That's the sense from over here, Anna.

COREN: Nic Robertson, as always, great to see you. Thank you for your contexts. Not all of Trump's allies were shocked by Monday's events in

Helsinki. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu liked what he saw.

But Ian Lee now joins us from Jerusalem. And, Ian, obviously the security of the Israeli border was one of the few issues that we know Trump and

Putin discussed. How is the Israeli Prime Minister feeling about this new friendship?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anna, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was fairly happy with this summit, and he's lobbied

hard, both President Trump and President Putin visiting Moscow a number of times ahead of this summit to push his agenda.

And while most if not all of the U.S. security establishment views Russia as a major threat, here in Israel, they view it quite differently. They

see Russia as a potential partner, especially when it comes to dealing with the conflict in Syria. They view Iran's presence in Syria as a

destabilizing threat.

Now, for Israel, they would love to see Iran leave Syria while that's not likely to happen. They believe that Russia can exert influence inside

Syria to limit their movements. For Israel, it's all about the north.

They want to keep that northern border with Syria, with Lebanon quiet, and believe that Russia after spending so much blood, and treasure inside of

Syria, they're unlikely to want to give up those gains by having another conflict that engulfs Israel and Syria.

And the prime minister here in Israel also commented after that summit saying that he commends the abiding commitment of the U.S., and President

Trump to the security of Israel, and expressed at the meeting.

He also said that the friendship between Israel and the U.S. has never been stronger. And even Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on Trump's

push for a greater security for Israel by saying that Trump paid special attention to Israel's security need. And so for Israel, this summit was a

win for them. So as we heard from Nic, Russia views this as a win. Israel also views it as a win.

COREN: Ian Lee joining us from Jerusalem giving us with the perspective there. Many thanks for that. Well, away from the fury in the west, China

is voicing its pleasure in improving relations between Russia and the United States.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry welcomed improved bilateral relations, and said china hoped the U.S. and

Russia would expand cooperation in the future.

Well, about three hours after Donald Trump's sided with Vladimir Putin, the U.S. Justice Department charge a Russian national with conspiring against

the United States as a foreign agent. Prosecutors say Maria Butina tried to set up a back channel between the Russian federation and the American

government in a lead up to the 2016 election.

According to court filings, Butina and her mentor Kremlin-linked banker Alexander Torshin worked to implement American politics, and advance

Moscow's agenda. Well, Butina's attorney denies that, and says she's just a student of international relations trying to built better relations

between the U.S. and Russia.

[08:15:07] Well, joining me now from New York to talk about what the Trump- Putin summit means not only for U.S.-Russian relations, but the U.S. President's relationship with his own intelligence community, CNN National

Security Analyst and former CIA chief of Russia operations, Steve Hall.

Steve, great to have you with us. President Trump has rejected any suggestion that Russia attacked American democracy by meddling in the 2016

elections turning once again against the U.S. intelligence community, but this time with the Russian President standing right next to him. Now, we

heard from former CIA Director John Brennan. He described this as treasonous. Would you agree?

STEVE HALL, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, CNN: Well, I know John Brennan, and when John makes comments like that, he's normally very a very button-down

kind of guy, and so he clearly feels very strongly about it. You know, the T word, treasonous is a big deal, a lot of legal ramifications to it.

So I think the Mueller investigation will at the end of the day reveal as to whether or not that's true. But I think one thing that is quite clear

from the Helsinki summit which is that for whatever reason, Donald Trump feels it necessary to essentially do a lot of the things that Vladimir

Putin would like him to do.

And I think up until -- up until a day or two ago I was, you know, far from being a dark sider, thinking that, you know, OK. Really is it possible

that the Russians developed compromised information that can be used to perhaps blackmail the president?

And I wasn't sure about it, but when you look at the President's performance, you have to ask yourself, why would he do this? It's not in

his political interests domestically to give the kind of performance that he did at Helsinki to support Vladimir Putin.

It would have been very, very easy for him to simply have said, look, we had some difficult discussions, and we're going to push forward on many of

these difficult issues that we have, and call it a day, but he didn't.

He went much further in saying that he didn't really believe his own intelligence services, and instead believed Vladimir Putin. Why would he

do that? The only thing that I can think of is it's a combination of his own ego, and perhaps information that the Russians have that concerns

Donald Trump, and it's difficult to come to some sort of different conclusion, in my view.

COREN: At somebody who used to work in the intelligence community, in the United States, when your president rejects the findings of what you

believe, what you've come up with, how did that make you feel, when you heard that? When you heard what he was doing to your colleagues -- your

former colleagues?

HALL: For me personally, it's heartbreaking, and the reason is, it's because I spent the vast majority of my career trying to follow, and

understand, and collect intelligence on the Russians plans and intentions.

And I know there's a whole cadre of people not just at the CIA, but also the national security agency, military intelligence, who understand the

threat that Russia poses not just to the United States, but to western democracies because at the end of the day, of course, that's what Putin is

all about.

He's try to weaken western democracies which were a threat to his authoritarian regime. So, when you commit yourself professionally, and

oftentimes very personally to try to collect this information, and go to great risk to do so, to hear your president come out, and say, yes, no. I

get it. You guys are doing, you know, God's work, thank you very much.

But I'm going to go with, you know, the Russian president, it's -- it's just -- it's just heartbreaking, and I can't help, but imagine that some of

my former colleagues back at CIA must be, you know, sort of having a difficult day in rethinking some of the things that, you know -- where they

are.

Why is it they're doing -- what they're doing when the primary consumer of the intelligence, the President, has essentially said, yes. I'm really not

that interested in it. I'd rather talk to Vladimir Putin.

COREN: Incredibly demoralizing. Stave Hall, great to get your analysis. Thank you so much for joining us.

HALL: Sure.

COREN: Coming up, Britain's official Brexit campaign group has been fined for breaking electoral law, and now it's being referred to the police. We

have the latest on that, and what it might mean, next.

And we head to India as 17 men are arrested for raping an 11-year-old girl. Just the latest in a series of assault cases that outraged much of the

nation. A live report coming up.

[08:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Welcome back to News Stream. The official Brexit campaign group Vote Leave has been fine, and referred to police. The U.K. Electoral

Commission claims Vote Leave broke electoral law in the run-up to the 2016 U.K. Brexit referendum. Vote Leave denies any wrongdoing. Nina dos Santos

joining us now from London to explain this all. Nina, what does it mean?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's quite significant, Anna, because as you said in your introduction, this is the official campaign

that advocated leaving the European Union, and there are a number of current government ministers who are actually part of this committee.

In particular, Dominic Raab, who has just been named as the new Brexit secretary in charge of getting the U.K. out of the E.U. So, this, as you

might imagine, has caused some commotion in the House of Commons. Chuka Umunna, a pro-Remain labor MP from the opposition party tabling an urgent

question demanding more information on whether or not there's going to be a public inquiry into this.

And also whether or not this may have swung the Brexit referendum in favor of voting for Leave, which is obviously what the outcome was back in mid-

2016. Significant about this, it that isn't just the official campaign here, Anna, it's the fact that we already have had unofficial campaign as

well, having breached electoral law for overspending as well.

So essentially what we learned today Vote Leave overspent, and has been fined about $90,000 as a fine by the electoral commission, and one its

officials has been reported to the police for this activity, but it also joined up with a youth organization as well, advocating that the U.K. leave

the E.U. called BeLeave, and the head of that organization has also been fined, and reported to police.

The big question here in Westminster is, does this mean that overspending actually helped to swing the vote towards Brexit? If that is the case,

should there be another referendum? I've been speaking to a number of MPs right the course of the morning, and they said that kind of talk in terms

of a second referendum is just a bit too premature for the time being. Anna.

COREN: Nina, we understand that in the next few hours the trade bill will be voted on. If it doesn't go through, is Theresa May's leadership in

jeopardy?

DOS SANTOS: Yes, well, her leadership has been in jeopardy, you could argue, ever since she made the ill-fated decision to call a general

election a year or so ago, which unfortunately cost her, her majority.

So, she's having to deal with the most divisive issue of our political age, which, of course, is Brexit at the same time as she hasn't been able to

rally the forces inside her own party, and she doesn't have a parliamentary majority to try and push things through, either.

So it seems as though for the moment given what we saw yesterday evening when she managed to scrape through a customs bill by capitulating towards

some of her hard-line Brexiters inside her own party, making some concessions to them, she may well have managed to get this trade bill

through as well.

[08:25:01] But the big concern is that she's having to try, and stand her ground on a softer Brexit stance that she thinks Brussels will go for, only

to have the humiliation at the last minute of having to turn on her hills, and capitulate to some of the more Eurosceptic members of her own party

just to keep the show on the road.

The other thing I want to point out, Anna, is later on today, the government is also trying to put forward a vote to get parliament to go on

its summer recess a little earlier. This is largely to prevent potentially another leadership challenge for Theresa May, and more challenges against

her Brexit plans. That, again, could be difficult to get through not just the trade legislation that they're fating a vote on later today. Anna.

COREN: Tough times in British later. Nina dos Santos, joining us from London. Good to see you, and thank you. Now to India, 17 men there face

charges for raping an 11-year-old girl in a southern city of Chennai.

Investigators say the men worked in the building she lived in. A New Delhi Bureau Chief Nikhil Kumar has the story. And, Nikhil, another horrific

rape story coming out of India, and this one involving an 11-year-old girl. What can you tell us?

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, Anna. Well, as you said, 17 men are under arrest in Chennai, at Tamil Nadu State in the

south of India. The case came to light just over the last few days.

It started, the allegation is, the attack started around the middle of January, which is when this little girl in the building that she lived in

with her family, which is when she was first attacked, and then over the course of the next few months, she was attacked by a number of other men,

17 in total, all of whom are now under arrest.

And the case has really, you know, as you quite rightly said, shed a spotlight once again on this problem, and it comes just days after, we had

another case from eastern India from the state of Bihar, where a 15-year- old girl is alleged to have been attacked by as many as 19 people.

Three adults, and 16 -- excuse me, minors. So, all of this has once again turned the spotlight on this issue, an issue which, you know, in April

brought out thousands of people on the streets of this country demanding action.

And in fact I should point out in response to those protests, the government here -- the government and Prime Minister Modi in Delhi,

introduced an executive order saying that anybody accused of -- found convicted, sorry, of raping a child under 12, could face the death penalty.

And so in the case that we're now talking about, the one from Chennai, since the girl is 11 years old, that penalty would apply if these 17 men

are convicted. Anna.

COREN: And many are asking, Nikhil, what is going on in Indian society? Nikhil Kumar, many thanks for the update. Still ahead, President Trump has

long touted America first, but his comments in Helsinki prove otherwise. We've got reaction from CNN's Fareed Zakaria after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. You are watching "News Stream." These are your world headlines.

Official of Brexit campaign group Vote Leave has been fined and referred to police. The U.K. Electoral Commission claims Vote Leave broke electoral law

in the run-up to the 2016 U.K. Brexit referendum. It says Vote Leave and another group worked together and did not obey legal spending limits. Vote

Leave denies any wrongdoing.

Current and former U.S. officials are launching bruising criticism at President Trump for defending Vladimir Putin's denial that Russia attacked

the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham calls it a missed opportunity to hold Russia accountable. Others including

former CIA Director John Brennan calls it "nothing short of treasonous."

Russians on the other hand are hailing the summit with Donald Trump as a resounding win for President Putin. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the

talks were magnificent, better than super. Mr. Putin in his more measured tone is quoted by state media saying the summit was really very informative

and useful.

For more on the intense backlash facing President Trump, let's bring in CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "Fareed Zakaria GPS," live in New York.

Fareed, great to have you with us. We know that President Trump enjoys defying the norms of presidential behavior but this

is unprecedented. This is not how a U.S. president representing his country should conduct himself abroad at the leader of one of America's greatest

political foes. What happened?

FAREED ZAKARIA, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR, CNN HOST: Well, as you say, he is unprecedented in every sense, he is unscripted, and he is determined not to

be socialized by the norms constraints history of the office. And so he has always felt that he was too caged in on Russia because people doubted his -

- his motives, they thought about collusion.

One would have thought this would have made him more cautious in the way he would approach Russia. It would have been the easy thing to do. Be somewhat

tough. That way you dispel any doubts about your -- your relationship with Vladimir Putin. In fact, he has done the opposite.

Vladimir Putin is really the only foreign leader that I can think of that Donald Trump has never criticized. He always uses words that he did it

again in the last two days, that Putin is strong, you know, he is impressive. When he talks about Angela Merkel, he talks about how weak she

is, what a disaster she's been for Germany.

He says the same about people like Justin Trudeau. So when he talks about his allies, he is disparaging and demeaning. When he talks about Putin, he

is always laudatory. And this pattern continued.

The real question -- I don't think we know the answer yet. The real question is, will this matter to his supporters? He still has the highest

approval rating among Republicans of any Republican president in history. That includes George W. Bush the day after 9/11. Donald trump is more

popular than that among Republicans. Will this change it?

Historically, the Republican Party has been hawkish on foreign policy, anti-Russian, zealous in defense of American security. Donald Trump has

turned it on its head. He has done a kind of political jujitsu here. We don't know whether it will work.

COREN: Well, Fareed, you say that his supporters will stand by him, but will the Republican Party stand by him? We've heard this, this backlash,

this condemnation coming from within his own party, that this is just unacceptable, how he has behaved in Helsinki. Will they maintain the rage?

ZAKARIA: That's a very good question and it gets to this larger question that I think we face really everywhere in the world, which is what is a

political party?

What Donald Trump has discovered, and this my be his political skill, is that the Republican Party is -- you know, as the phrase goes in America,

lots of chiefs but no Indians, meaning there are lots of people who think of themselves as the bosses, the leaders, but that's not where the rank and

file are.

So, yes, he has been denounced by the party by which we mean a few senior senators, you know, one or two former Republican stalwart officials. But

are you hearing any elective Republicans at the congressional level, the county level, and we don't know what the rank and file think in terms of

opinion polls.

We do know so far they have stuck by him through thick and thin. And I think Trump understands that the party was ripe for this revolution because

in a sense, the American political landscape is different.

[08:35:02] The Republican Party used to be pro-free trade, pro-immigrant under Ronald Reagan certainly, pro-law enforcement, the agencies of

national security, the CIA, the FBI, and hawkish on foreign policy and anti-Russian.

If you think about all of those issues, Trump has reversed course on all of them and his followers continue to support. The broader public, you know,

may be beginning to see a break in the fever and that gets to the question of the independents, the people in the middle, neither hardcore Trump

supporters nor hardcore opponents, but the base so far seems with him and not with the Republican Party.

COREN: Fareed, very quickly, the sycophantic behavior. How does this affect America's standing in the world?

ZAKARIA: Well, it's difficult to see how anything good comes of it especially on the heels of what happened in Europe. Look, a lot of

international relations is credibility and trust. Right? People are looking around the world. Can I trust the United States?

As a former British finance minister, George Osborne said to me, when we were in office, we always knew the Americans had our back. We didn't have

to worry about that. He said today, everybody in Europe worries about that.

And that worry, that uncertainty about America's hand is sure to lead to bad things because it means other countries will feel they have to take

matters into their own hands, whether that means conducting their own independent foreign policy, cutting their own deals with China, maybe

creating their own independent nuclear deterrent in the case of a country like Japan.

So the whole thing is a slow unraveling of the security order built by the United States after 1945, which rested on American power but also on

American credibility.

COREN: Yeah, an incredible time. Fareed Zakaria, as always, great to get your insight and perspective. Fareed Zakaria joining us there from New

York.

Well, audiences in China who missed the opening weekend of the epic fantasy film "Asura" won't get to see it. Producers have pulled it from theaters,

and we'll tell you why. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Chinese producers took a big money gamble on an epic fantasy film and may have taken an epic loss. Producers have pulled the film "Asura"

from China cinemas. The movie is based on Buddhist mythology. It took years to make and it was promoted as one of China's most expensive films ever

made. It was backed by Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures. "Asura" budget was well over $100 million but it earned just under $7.5 million on opening weekend.

Perhaps the flop is a warning to other producers seeking to compete with Hollywood blockbusters. Joining me now is Kevin Ma. He is the entertainment

editor at Discovery magazine and the former greater China correspondent for Film Business Asia. Kevin, this is an unprecedented move, pulling a picture

from the cinemas. Why did producers take such a big risk on something that was untested?

KEVIN MA, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, DISCOVERY MAGAZINE: I don't actually know myself. This is a very unprecedented move, as you say.

[08:40:00] Usually when films don't do well in China cinemas, the cinemas are very eager to cut shows. So, it would have just gone its own route out

of the cinemas, but the producers somehow decided to take a very interesting step to pull it from cinemas before its time was up.

COREN: Have you seen the film? Is it bad?

MA: No, I haven't. But there's a website in China called "Douban," which is sort of like the IMDB of China. I think the average score at the moment

is 3.7 out of 10. So, it doesn't bode well for the film.

COREN: And why the reviews so bad?

MA: I suppose because it's a bad film. There's actually a controversy. The producers, I think they're blaming one of the websites for allowing

anonymous users to go in and give a bad score. I think it's "Douban" because on another website called "mia kao" (ph), actually the score right

now is around eight.

So, they are wondering, why the discrepancy? Is someone rigging the scores? But, of course, there's no way of proving whether that is true or not.

COREN: Kevin, I understand the movie was trying to replicate Hollywood epics like "Lord of the Rings." It was planning to set up a franchise. Did

the filmmakers miss the mark by assuming that there is an audience in China for these sorts of films?

MA: The thing is the period fantasy genre hasn't ever been very big in China. "Lord of the Rings" I think came out before the Chinese cinema

industry became so big. And actually we look at the top 20 grossing films in China at the moment. There are very, very few period films.

Chinese audiences tend to prefer contemporary films. For example, it's highest grossing film is "Wolf Warrior 2," the second one is "Operation Red

Sea." Both are modern films with warfare in it. So, it's very odd that they decided to spent this much money on a genre that is not very well proven in

the box office.

COREN: Kevin, this isn't the first time that a big budget film had failed to live up to expectations in China. Do you believe that these are just

growing pains for producers in the Chinese movie industry?

MA: Well, making a film is always a high risk in any country in the world. In Hollywood, even. You get a share of flops in Hollywood as well. So it's

always a high-risk thing. It's just whether -- this question of why did they spend so much money on a formula that wasn't proven successful. I

think -- I'm still a bit confused about that, actually.

Yes, so, there's a formula that works. There are films that are hits in China. It is weird why they decided to spend this much money on a film that

wasn't proven to be working.

COREN: Yeah. Very -- very intriguing. Kevin Ma, great to have you here with us here in Hong Kong.

That is "News Stream." I'm Anna Coren, but do not go anywhere, "World Sport" with Christina Macfarlane is coming up next.

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[08:45:00] (WORLD SPORT)

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