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Trump: "Severe Punishment" if Saudis Killed Khashoggi; Hurricane Michael's Wrath; Pope to Canonize Seven New Saints; The Prince Who Would Be King; Freed U.S. Pastor Meets with Trump; Far Right AFD Looks to Challenge CSU in Bavaria; Britain's Eugenie Weds. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired October 14, 2018 - 04:00   ET

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

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: U.S. president Donald Trump vows a severe punishment to Saudi Arabia if they indeed killed missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. I'm Becky Anderson in Istanbul in Turkey.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm Natalie Allen at CNN Center in Atlanta. Also at this hour, in just a few moments, the pope will canonize seven new Roman Catholic saints. The historic ceremony comes as the Catholic Church is mired in a sexual abuse scandal. We will take you there for a portion live.

CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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B. ANDERSON: U.S. president Donald Trump says he soon expects to see the evidence Turkey claims to have about the disappearance of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul here on October 2nd. Here's what President Trump told the CBS News show "60 Minutes" if it turns out Khashoggi was killed.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot at stake and maybe especially so because this man was a reporter, because something -- you'll be surprised to hear me say that -- there's something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were the case.

So we're going to have to see. We're going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

B. ANDERSON: Well, Saudi Arabia insists it had nothing to do with Khashoggi's disappearance. But on Saturday, Turkey's foreign minister accused the Saudis of not cooperating with the investigation and demanded that Turkish investigators be allowed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Let's bring in Jomana Karadsheh, who is outside that Saudi constitutional, and Sam Kiley is in the Saudi capital of Riyadh with reaction from there.

Let's start with you, Jomana. Let's just clear this up. The Turkish authorities it seems insisting they are still not getting cooperation from the Saudis and this investigation cannot take place until such a time as they do, correct?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Becky, this is what Turkish officials have been saying over the past week. They're saying that they're not getting satisfactory answers to start with from Saudi officials about what happened, keeping in mind there are only two things Turkey has officially and publicly said about the ongoing investigation, that Jamal Khashoggi walked into this building and he didn't come out.

And they said that they are looking at persons of interest, a group of 15 Saudis, who were in the country in the consulate and left later on that day during the disappearance. Other than that, they say that Saudi officials are not giving them any explanations, any answers.

The Saudi narrative saying that he was there and he left. We heard this from President Erdogan, saying they haven't provided him with any proof to really back their claims that he left the consulate.

Yesterday we heard from the foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking in London, saying that the Saudis are not cooperating. This is coming days after we heard from the foreign ministry saying that the Saudis gave them the OK to go into the consulate and search. So take a listen to what the foreign minister had to say.

MEVLUT CAVUSOGLU, TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Particularly Saudi Arabia must cooperate for allowing access to our chief prosecutor's office and experts to enter the Saudi consulate.

Where did he disappear?

There in the consulate. Therefore, for the sake of this investigation, in order to bring everything into the open, they must allow access into the consulate. We haven't seen any collaboration yet. We want to see that. Our chief prosecutor and our technical experts must enter the consulate and Saudi Arabia needs to cooperate with us on this matter.

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KARL: And, Becky, the foreign minister saying the investigation is, quote, "getting deeper," and also saying this joint working group of Saudi Arabia is not going to impact the Turkish investigation, that after some have voiced their concerns after the formation of that joint working group, about what really will be made public and how transparent and how reliable this investigation is going to be.

B. ANDERSON: So Sam, that is the charge. What is the explanation from Riyadh?

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the reaction from Riyadh in terms of the Turkish foreign minister's statement has been silence so far. The Saudi position is unequivocal still and it is that Mr. Khashoggi left that consulate safe and sound and that all and any suggestion to the contrary is nothing short of disinformation, intended to besmirch the reputation of Saudi Arabia.

But things are getting increasingly tense. I think the next thing that the Saudis will be needing to react to, and I know from speaking to Saudis privately, there is a degree of turmoil in the Saudi establishment about what to do next and how to react next, is twofold.

First, Donald Trump's suggested that he would be reviewing the alleged evidence that the Turks are reported to have, which may include video and audio evidence from inside the consulate, and, secondly, a remark from the secretary of state, Mr. Pompeo, who suggested that they were still reviewing whether or not they would come to the Davos in the Desert meeting, whether the government of the United States would send officials to the Davos in the Desert meeting which starts Monday week.

This is what Mr. Pompeo said.

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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think we need to continue to evaluate the facts and we'll make that decision. In fact, I talked with Secretary Mnuchin about it last night. We'll be taking a look at it through the rest of the week.

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KILEY: Now, Becky, what they're saying there essentially is they're giving the Saudis breathing space to come up with a credible response to the Turkish allegations, beyond the mere flat denials.

That may be from the Saudi perspective because there is no evidence. But in a sense they have to provide evidence of a lack of evidence of the crime, in other words, that Mr. Khashoggi actually left the consulate. They are giving the Saudis enough space before officially deciding one way or another to come to this very, very important conference on Monday week -- Becky.

B. ANDERSON: Sam Kiley is in Riyadh, Jo is outside the consulate.

President Trump is facing mounting pressure from members of Congress who want him to impose stiff consequences on Saudi Arabia. But the president said there are other things to consider. If Saudi Arabia doesn't spend its billions on U.S. military hardware, the kingdom, he says, will shop somewhere else, like Russia or China, for example.

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TRUMP: There are other things we can do that are very, very powerful, very strong. And we will do that.

Now, as of this moment, nobody knows what happened, as of this moment. We are looking into it very seriously. Turkey is looking into it at a very high level, at the highest level.

And so is Saudi Arabia. They are going to get back, and they have been getting back, and I know Mike has been dealing with them, John has been dealing with them. But in terms of the order of $110 billion, think of that, $110 billion, all they're going to do is give it to other countries. And I think that would be very foolish for our country.

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B. ANDERSON: Well, let's take a closer look at the relationship among these three countries. We're joined by ambassador Matthew Bryza, the former senior U.S. official covering Turkey.

It's a fascinating triangulation that seems to be going on at present with, it seems to me, Turkey in the middle. Turkey does not want to upset the U.S. The Andrew Brunson bounce, for all intents and purposes, and the lira as a result of it vaguely.

It doesn't want to upset, let's call it, its paymaster, Doha, nor does it want to extinguish the sort of dying embers of a relationship with Saudi Arabia.

This is serious stuff for Turkey who haven't, at this point, set any deadline, as far as I can tell, for this investigation to be allowed to actually happen.

What is going on here?

MATTHEW BRYZA, FORMER SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL COVERING TURKEY: I think you really hit the nail on the head in that Turkey finds itself in between all of these large actors that are very important to it, notwithstanding the fact that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have very strained relations.

Still Turkey doesn't want to burn that bridge. Saudi Arabia is still a Sunni majority country, which means a lot to the government of Turkey.

So I think Turkey is playing it sort of by the book. They can't go and accuse Saudi Arabia of a murder without any evidence but they can't get the evidence. So they're in a chicken and egg --

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BRYZA: -- situation. I think foreign minister Cavusoglu got it exactly right, too, let us in. If you don't let us in, you have to explain where is Khashoggi?

Where did he go?

He was either abducted or killed. He's not --

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B. ANDERSON: What do you make from the remarks, the comments we are hearing coming out of Washington, severe punishment from Donald Trump?

Should we have evidence that he was killed?

Pompeo now weighing in, looking at what's going on behind the scenes, possibly getting some sort of deadline to Saudi Arabia. We know Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, is still going to a conference which is incredibly important to the Saudis.

But he says he's still watching.

Are they giving themselves an out at this point?

BRYZA: They're playing for time. They're hoping that either this will somehow quiet down and pass and they can go on with business as usual and -- or waiting to see how high a level of outrage there is in the world and in the Senate to determine how seriously they have to react.

Of course, as you said, they prefer not to cancel participation, even though the World Bank president announced the other day that he's canceling. It seems like a morally unsustainable position to be in if this continues and if President Trump continues to say we're not going to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia, arms that, by the way, are used to kill so many people in Yemen, including those poor schoolchildren on a bus.

I don't see how that could be morally sustainable.

B. ANDERSON: What options at this point -- Saudi Arabia, which means business and politicians won't go whether they want to go or not or do business with them, what sort of choices does Washington have?

Let's just remind ourselves, once again, lest we forget, there's a man's life that we are talking about here and Saudi Arabia categorically denies being involved.

BRYZA: Yes, a man's life at stake here. Also, a murder in a NATO country, in a consulate in a NATO country. I've never heard of anything like that. So Washington should be worked up about this.

What practically can be done?

I think primarily symbolic stuff. There's no way the United States would try to impose economic pain on Saudi Arabia for all the reasons we know of, all the relationships already in place but politically symbolic steps like the Magnitsky Act, sanctions on individuals, on ministers, on even member of the royal family, travel bans, freezing assets, that hurts. Freezing their assets hurts.

B. ANDERSON: Thank you very much, indeed, for coming in. When I say this is important on the story, quite frankly, viewers, we

don't have a lot of facts at present. We are lacking evidence of where Jamal Khashoggi is and we lack any evidence that there will be access allowed by Saudi Arabia into that consulate.

We also lack any evidence, real, hard evidence, that something happened inside that consulate; although Turkey's officials have been leaking to the press locally here to suggest that something shocking has happened to Jamal. We continue to press authorities here and those around the world for more answers.

Now back to you, Natalie.

ALLEN: Thank you, Becky.

Yes. We have a story that, of course, relates to Turkey now. Pastor Andrew Brunson is back on American soil after two years of detention. President Trump is calling his release a tremendous victory for the American people. And he predictions his administration will probably now have a, quote, "terrific relationship" with Istanbul.

The evangelical pastor met with Mr. Trump at the White House on Saturday. He thanked the president for his efforts to free him and prayed aloud for him in the Oval Office.

Brunson was held in prison and under house arrest in Turkey for two years on charges of espionage and having links to terrorist groups. He denied the accusations and U.S. officials say he was wrongfully detained by Turkey.

A trail of death and destruction from the Gulf of Mexico to Virginia. Blame Hurricane Michael. We'll have the latest on the cleanup and recovery -- just ahead here.

Also, live video now from Vatican city. The pope who helped modernize the Roman Catholic Church and the beloved archbishop who was gunned down as he celebrated mass, both are about to become saints in this ceremony, along with five others. We'll take you live to the Vatican for a report. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

The devastation from Hurricane Michael is still coming into focus days after it ravaged parts of the southeastern United States. Authorities are saying now at least 18 people are dead and that number could rise as search and rescue crews continue to comb through rubble for anyone. More than 430,000 customers are still without power in seven states.

Officials say it could take at least two months to be restored in some areas. One of those areas, Lynn Haven, Florida. The mayor there said she almost died during the storm but now she is pushing forward and working to rebuild her town.

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MARGO ANDERSON, LYNN HAVEN MAYOR: And it's very emotional for me. Help is on the way. And I wore my funny shirt today that says, keep calm, I'm the mayor. And I was telling my city manager, you know, we almost died in our building. It blew out from under us, the city hall.

I haven't shed a tear until today and today is about my people. And I want the people here to know they're loved. We are going to build this city back. It's going to be beautiful. And now we have about two months before our power grid is going to be back up, probably a few days before we have water and --

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M. ANDERSON: -- when we have water it's not going to be drinkable water.

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ALLEN: Hang in there, Mayor.

You can certainly see the emotions people are going through so much. Hurricane Michael also devastated Panama City, Florida. People there are spending their days waiting in long lines for basic necessities like food and water. Scott McLean reports on the Panama City recovery effort.

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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have been seeing massive lineups for what little fuel is available in this city, some stretching for hours. We've also seen long lineups for water and food being handed out by the National Guard.

Communications continue to be a problem here as well. Of course, there is no power and cell phone service is spotty at best. In part, for that reason, firefighters assume that there are still some people who are trapped inside of their homes and just haven't been able to call for help.

They also assume the death toll will continue to rise. The local battalion chief said he would not be surprised if the death toll in this area alone was in the double digits. The damage here is so widespread that even this school, there are others just like, completely destroyed or heavily damaged.

I spoke to a local school board member who said that the majority of the schools in this district were badly damaged. That means that the vast majority of students who attend schools will be displaced.

So given that there are only a handful of schools that were not damaged, how do you ensure that students can get back to class and graduate on time?

Well, the school board is considering actually having -- using those intact schools and doing two sessions of school per day. They'll be meeting on Monday to make a final decision on what to do.

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ALLEN: It's just hard to comprehend how many people have suddenly had their lives disrupted from the storm.

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ALLEN: Live to the Vatican, where an historic ceremony is underway. The pope is canonizing seven new Roman Catholic saints. It is a diverse group, including Pope Paul VI, revered archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and a teenager who dedicated his brief life to helping others.

CNN Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher joins us now from our bureau Rome.

Hello, Team Delia. Tell us more about the people chosen to become saints.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There are seven people as you say, perhaps the two most well known being Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Romero.

Pope Paul was from 1963 to 1978, a time of great change in the Catholic Church, Vatican 2, modernizing the church. He's someone who's close to Pope Francis's heart. The pope has cited him on numerous occasions in documents and speeches.

And Paul VI was also the first pope to start traveling. This tradition of popes leaving Italy and traveling to different countries, Paul VI traveled to the Holy Land and to the United Nations at the height of the Vietnam War to call again for never again war from the United Nations.

That by now we've seen popes travel has become a tradition. Something they expect from popes. Archbishop Romero, he's the archbishop from El Salvador, he was killed in March of 1980 by right wing political forces. He was somebody who spoke out --

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GALLAGHER: -- on behalf of the poor and the oppressed.

And certainly for Pope Francis he is a figure who has been important to him throughout the years. He even said before he was pope in 2007 that if he ever became pope, he would want to make Archbishop Romero a saint. There are 70,000 people estimated to be attending this mass this

morning. There are many dignitaries. Queen Sophia of Spain is there. The presidents of Italy, El Salvador, Chile, Panama. Certainly for Latin American countries and El Salvador, about 5,000 pilgrims from El Salvador have come to appreciate a man, who's already been a saint for many of them in El Salvador.

ALLEN: Delia Gallagher, covering it for us. Thank you, Delia.

Coming up after a short break here, we take a closer look at the Saudi crown prince and how the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi could disrupt the prince's grand plan for the future.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. We'll go back to Becky Anderson in Istanbul but first, our headlines.

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B. ANDERSON: We're back now live from Istanbul for more coverage on that investigation into the disappearance of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. He was once considered a royal insider and became a vocal critic of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Anderson Cooper takes a look now at bin Salman and how much power he wields in the kingdom.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): He's best known simply as MBS, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, only 33 years old and now heir to the throne in Saudi Arabia. Long considered the favorite son of the Saudi king, bin Salman was known for his ambition and for having his eye on the throne.

But his cousin was next in line. So in June of last year, his cousin was reportedly summoned to a palace and told to surrender his position as the crown prince.

Late last year, MBS initiated a widespread crackdown on what he called corruption in his country, rounding up and arresting government officials, wealthy businessmen and even Saudi royals. Some were held against their will at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh while they negotiated billions in payments to the government.

When asked about it on CBS' "60 Minutes," the prince denied it was a power grab.

MOHMMAD BIN SALMAN, CROWN PRINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA (through translator): If I have the power and the king has the power to take action against influential people, then you are already fundamentally strong. These are naive accusations.

COOPER: Many in Saudi Arabia have celebrated bin Salman's rise to power. To them, he's a visionary, looking to transform Saudi Arabia and improve life for his citizens. Women are now allowed to drive and attend sporting events.

SALMAN: (Speaking foreign language).

COOPER: MBS has also focused on the economy. Trying to attract new businesses in order to make Saudi Arabia less dependent on oil.

SALMAN: (Speaking foreign language).

COOPER: In March, he held a highly publicized so-called listening tour in the U.S. where he met with President Trump and also business leaders like Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Apple's Tim Cook.

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COOPER: As crown prince, he lives the good life. While on vacation in the south of France recently, "The New Yorker" reports he bought a yacht from a Russian vodka tycoon for $550 million. Along with that, a chateau outside Paris. And last year, he's said to have paid $450 million for a Leonardo da Vinci portrait of Jesus Christ.

BIN SALMAN: As far as my private expenses, I'm a rich person, I'm not a poor person. I'm not Gandhi or Mandela.

COOPER: While he does appear at times to be power hungry, initiating Saudi Arabia's involvement in the war in Yemen and a standoff with Qatar, he's become an ally to the Trump administration, at one point serving as a go-between for Jared Kushner in the Middle East.

TRUMP: Crown Prince, thank you very much. Thank you for being here.

SALMAN: Thank you, Mr. President.

COOPER: An ally it seems, but questions still remain about how much Mohammad bin Salman can be trusted -- Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.

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B. ANDERSON: So the mysterious disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi could not have come at a worst time for Saudi's crown prince. Just when Mohammed bin Salman is trying to move his kingdom forward and attract foreign investments, Khashoggi's uncertain fate threatens to derail the prince's grand vision for the future.

With me now from London to share his perspective is Bloomberg editor Bobby Ghosh. Thank you for joining us. Let's be clear. The Saudis are yet to

provide any evidence that their citizen left the consulate. The Turkish authorities yet to release the evidence their local press say they have, that something shocking happened to Jamal inside.

Quite frankly, Bobby, that is where we are at, what costs at this point, as we continue to search and --

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B. ANDERSON: -- dig for more evidence on this investigation, just what cost to the crown prince's vision for the future of his country potentially?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, let's look at that vision. What he wants to do is create an economy that's less dependent on oil. What he wants to do is attract private investment, both from within the country and outside of the country, to known oil sectors.

And he wants to change the image of Saudi Arabia in the world from being this harsh and puritanical place into an open, if not democracy then certainly a more open society, which allows for more foreign investment and foreign interaction.

Those are the goals for his Vision 2030. Now with everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks, you have foreign investors openly expressing alarm. Some have pulled out from a major event called the Davos of the desert in Riyadh.

So that's not a good sign when the very foreign investors and foreign ministers that you want coming into your country are not even comfortable coming to an event in your country.

And in terms of creating an impression of Saudi Arabia as a more welcome and opening place, this event has created exactly the opposite.

Around the world, what are we talking about in the context of Saudi Arabia today and what have we been saying over the last several days?

Only in the most negative light has that country been seen around the world. So this is quite the opposite of what the prince wants. In terms of dollars and cents, in the long run, these things add up. When foreign investors, when foreign citizens are reluctant to engage with your country, that has a real dollar and cents value attached.

B. ANDERSON: It's very clear that the crown prince had an opportunity to leverage this relationship between the Saudi and the U.S. through the investments or the purchase of military hardware to help make the U.S. president's make America great again sort of doctrine, as it were.

On the flip side of that was an enormous promise from the U.S. and its business men to invest in a new Saudi economy. Let's look specifically at that U.S.-Saudi relationship. Just what is at stake?

It's clear behind the scenes now that the White House is trying to position or develop a position on all of this. You know, they continue to seek evidence. They continue to push for this investigation.

But what are their options at this point?

GHOSH: Well, when you have the president of the United States, saying on live national -- on national television that the Saudis could have done it, he didn't say they did it, but they could have done it, that's not a good sign and when he's promising stern punishment, that's not a good sign.

There's all the talk about the arms deal and all of the damage that might do. In theory, yes. But it's as simple as the Saudis having the leverage to say we're going to take this order of $110 billion and give it to somebody else.

The relationship, first of all, you can't really do that with military hardware. The Saudis have generations and generations of American military technology. You can't simply switch to -- I'm going to simplify it a little bit. But if your entire system of computers is based on Apple, you can't just say I'm going to go in and buy some non-Apple technology and plug it into my Apple. It doesn't work like that.

But quite apart from that, the relationship is not merely one of selling oil and weapons. The United States essentially is the military guarantor of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and the Saudis depend on that.

It's not like the Chinese and the Russians are going to fulfill that role. And I don't think the Saudis would be comfortable even if the Russians would offer that because they've seen what happens to countries that are within the Russian protectorate, if you'd like.

The United States is a far more benign provider of that service, of protecting the Saudi kingdom, than any other country would likely be. So I would push back at this idea that, well, because the Saudis buy so many weapons from the United States, they enjoy a lot of leverage.

It doesn't quite work that way. Just because they buy a lot of weapons, they are actually much more dependent on American goodwill than we are being led to believe.

B. ANDERSON: Let me ask you this. You've covered the Vision 2030 now for as long as I have. This is a story that's been out there 3-3.5 years. I was there at the press conference when Mohammed bin Salman, when they launched this vision three years ago. And at the time there was a --

[04:40:00]

B. ANDERSON: -- real perception that continues to be so, that there is no plan B. This is the way that Saudi Arabia can develop into what is a modern, competitive society for the benefit of not just so many of its citizens, who are under the age of 30 -- let's remember, 60 percent of the population there under the age of 30.

There's no reason they shouldn't want a modern, competitive society. The crown prince speaking specifically to those Saudi citizens when he drew up this plan to take them into a post-oil dependent world.

If there isn't any plan B, there is an argument, I guess, that says it is incumbent upon those who have said they will support the Saudi vision to continue to support it to a certain extent. The alternative could be quite shocking and the rest of the Gulf and its region knows that.

GHOSH: Yes, look. It is a very, very dramatic and very ambitious vision that the crown prince has set for himself. He's set the bar very, very high for himself and he got buy-in from his immediate neighborhood and from around the world.

A little bit earlier he was showing clips from that listening tour he did of the United States, when he went and presented himself as a reforming figure, listened to people and was seen to be listening to people, which is just as important.

All of this is very important. And the whole world has a stake in that vision being successful. But now what's happening because of the Khashoggi incident, because people are questioning the sincerity of that vision at all.

If you are saying you want your country to be open and welcoming, then the way you respond when a citizen is murdered, possibly in your own consulate, is very important.

And how you respond to the global alarm that that causes is also very important, simply saying nothing happened here, nothing to see here, move on, that does not cut it. That is not an open, modern state. That is very much an old-fashioned -- it's a very retro way to conduct international diplomacy.

There have been other things that people have pointed out. Yes, he's allowed women to drive. At the same time, a number of women activists who have been behind the program to get (INAUDIBLE) have been arrested.

He's talking about more private sector. What does he do, one of his first thing?

He rounds up some of the biggest names in the Saudi private sector, puts them essentially in house arrest.

So there's always a sort of yin and yang with (INAUDIBLE). And that's a cause for concern. And what we are seeing now with international investors is a sign that people are not fully bought in, even those who were previously enthusiastic about his Vision 2030 document, are beginning to say, wait a minute. We're not sure that he is being sincere or that he has the stamina and the determination to follow through on that vision, for where it logically leads.

B. ANDERSON: Yes. Bobby Ghosh joining us.

The scope and scale, Natalie, of that vision was always incredibly ambitious. The royal court accepted there would be fillips, as it were, hurdles, challenges on the way. And just to the point that Bobby brought up about rounding up the businessmen just after the Davos in the desert event last year, if you talk to the royal court, as we did at the time because we were reporting on that story, there was certainly a perception of, you know, many of these people, they're accused of stealing from the country.

They called it an economic cancer. From the royal court, they were just cording in the dead. Take that as you will. But those certainly were the positions being taken by the royal court a year ago.

We still have no evidence as to where Jamal Khashoggi is, nor have we seen any evidence that the Turkish press has been alluding to of a shocking incident happening inside the Saudi consulate here in Istanbul. So we continue to dig. Back to you.

ALLEN: Yes, as we should. Thank you so much, Becky, and to your crew.

We are going to turn to Germany next. Oktoberfest is over in Munich but voting has just begun. How the Bavarian state elections could be a test for German chancellor Angela Merkel. That's ahead here.

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ALLEN: Voting is underway in the German state of Bavaria for regional elections. This could be a major test for German chancellor Angela Merkel. Her ally, the Christian Social Union, has dominated state politics for decades. But now it's facing a serious challenge from the far right Alternative for Germany Party.

Bavaria is Germany's largest state by area. And CNN's Atika Shubert is there.

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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beers and bratwurst, lederhosen and dirndls, Oktoberfest is a hyperbolic wonderland of all things stereotypically Bavarian. This where Germany's conservative CSU, Christian Socialist Union, has ruled since 1949, seeing itself as the steward of heimat (ph), a German word for home but also nostalgia or tradition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Bavaria. SHUBERT (voice-over): But this was also Bavaria in 2015, when more than a million asylum seekers came to Germany, many by crossing Bavarian borders. That event changed a political landscape. And this week's regional elections could shape the CSU's once unbreakable grip on power and, with it, the fragile coalition government of Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel.

CSU lawmaker Robert Brennecamp (ph) is confident his party will retain the lead, even if it loses some voters to what he describes as the counter trend of populism.

"Bavaria is a safe and rich state with the lowest unemployment in the country. We ought to get 60 percent," he says, "but there is a counter trend in Europe. Italy, France, Holland and considering this, we hope to get 40 percent."

So where are the votes going?

Well, you can find the answer in the Bavarian town of Deggendorf, where Katrin Ebner-Steiner is campaigning for the anti-immigration party, AFD or Alternative for Germany.

"I came from a CSU family. My father was a CSU member, so was my husband for 30 years," she tells us.

"The CSU has moved with Merkel to the left here in Bavaria. She has simply lost touch with the Bavarian citizens, who are very conservative at heart."

[04:50:00]

SHUBERT: Deggendorf was on the front lines of the refugee crisis, at one point housing thousands of asylum seekers. Today, the tents are gone but there are still about 600 housed here, says the federal office of migration, in what has become a transitory anchor center to quickly process asylum seekers who cross the border with relocation or deportation.

It's one of the CSU promises to bring immigration under control. But Ebner-Steiner has successfully campaigned off the fear of out of control migration. In a national election last year, the AFD won 19 percent of the vote in Deggendorf, one of the highest results in the country.

"People still have these images in mind," she tells us. "It's the loss of security. That's what people feel. That's why they want an alternative, a policy that opposes unbridled mass immigration and that's why they choose the AFD."

The AFD doesn't want a stop to all migration, it also wants to ban Islam in Germany. And its leaders have been criticized for supporting right-wing nationalist extremists. That seems to worry voters just as much as their concerns about immigration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to understand their view of point or their organization. I would definitely not vote for them. "The AFD could do well this time. I'm not 100 percent for them but I have no choice," this woman told us.

"If there was any other party, I would not vote for them but there is none."

But this pensioner was adamant that AFD was not the answer. He told us, "We already had one Hitler. We do not want this a second time."

Not just the postcard image of heimat tradition, Bavaria is the heartland of Germany's conservative movement. Without its support, Chancellor Angela Merkel leads the country on borrowed time -- Atika Shubert, CNN, Bavaria, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We are getting our first look at the official wedding photos of Princess Eugenie and her husband. We'll show you when we come back.

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[04:55:00]

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ALLEN: OK. The official wedding photos are in of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, the newly married couple released four photos from their wedding Friday. The queen's granddaughter and her new husband, a Tequila brand ambassador, were married in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, the same spot where Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in May.

One photo shows the couple before the private evening reception. Zac Posen designed her blush gown. It is said to be inspired by the beauty of Windsor and the White Rose of York.

So we'll end the hour on that one, why not?

We'll have our top stories just ahead here. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM right after this.