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Cohen Pleaded Guilty; Anti-Semitism Spreads in Europe; Trump Cancels Meeting with Putin; Former Trump Attorney Admits Lying About Moscow Project; Russian Men Aged 16-60 Can No Longer Enter Ukraine; G20 Summit, Trump Cancels Meeting With Putin; U.K. Lawmakers Propose Reopening Brexit Negotiations; Rain Hits The Migrant Center; Book Tour Takes Michelle Obama To London. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 30, 2018 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: Trump's fix or flip. President Trump's long-time personal attorney pleads guilty to lying about Mr. Trump's business dealings with Russia.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN HOST: Also, this hour, the Putin meeting after is off just one hour saying it was a great time to meet with the president, President Trump cancels the meeting at the G20 summit.
HOWELL: And a Holocaust survivor says she never wants anyone to forget about this horrific piece of history. But ignorance about the Holocaust is rising along with anti-Semitism.
ALLEN: And we'll have a special report this hour.
HOWELL: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to viewers all around the world. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen. CNN Newsroom starts right now.
Our top story. President Trump firing off an angry tweet Thursday night not long after landing in Argentina. His target, the Russia investigation.
HOWELL: The U.S. president saying this. Quote, "This is an illegal hoax that should be ended immediately." End quote. That comes after Mr. Trump's one-time personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty again. This time he admitted that he lied to Congress about plans to build a Trump tower in Moscow.
ALLEN: We get more from our Jessica Schneider.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president's former fixer, Michael Cohen, once again, flipping on the president in federal court, revealing trump while campaigning to become president of United States knew more about a deal to build a Trump tower in Moscow than Cohen has previously acknowledge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Cohen have cooperated. Mr. Cohen will continue
to cooperate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court today admitting to misleading congressional investigators saying he lied to be consistent with the president's political messaging and out of loyalty to the president.
Cohen has already met with investigators seven times since August. The most recent meeting just last week. One source saying the details about Trump Tower Moscow were just one of the many topics involving the president that Cohen divulged in more than 70 hours of questioning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no relationship.
SCHNEIDER: Cohen told the House and Senate intelligence committees last year that all talks around the deal were done by January 2016, but he now had admitted discussions about the Moscow project continued as late as June 2016 after Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and just one month before the convention.
Cohen saying, he told Congress the deal, dubbed the "Moscow project" ended before the Iowa caucus in the very first primary in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations. Cohen's revelations in court show he discuss the status of the Moscow project with Donald Trump on more than three occasions and brief Trump's family members.
Plus, despite previously denying any contact with Moscow related to the project, Cohen now admits he talked directly to someone in Vladimir Putin's press secretary's office for 20 minutes in January 2016.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FELIX SATER, FORMER TRUMP BUSINESS ASSOCIATE: I don't know Putin. I've never met him, but if this deal was going forward, I certainly would've started working the phones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Cohen also worked with Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman and outlined an itinerary to travel to Russia to discuss the deal. Cohen even contemplated that then candidate Trump would also visit Russia, writing "my trip before Cleveland." Donald Trump once he becomes the nominee after the convention.
Sater was in close contact with Cohen during the campaign and boasted about his ties to Vladimir Putin, "Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it," Sater wrote. "I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this. I will manage this process."
The Trump Tower Moscow deal never came to fruition, but the changing story for Michael Cohen has congressional leaders calling for more investigations and more coordination with Mueller.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) CALIFORNIA: This I think only underscores the importance of bringing Mr. Cohen back before our committee but also looking into this issue of whether the Russians possess financial leverage over the President of the United States.
We believe other witnesses were untruthful before our committee. We want to share those transcripts with Mr. Mueller.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: So, while additional congressional probes that Cohen could pop up, it looks like his sentencing actually could come fairly soon. His attorneys have asked to merge this case with the other eight counts he pleaded guilty to and keep that sentencing date of December 12.
Now Michael Cohen himself has not made any additional statements outside of court but the president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, he sent one out almost immediately calling Cohen a proven liar.
Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
ALLEN: So much to digest here and much to put into context.
[03:05:00] HOWELL: A lot to think about here. Our colleague Cyril Vanier has been taking a closer look at the court documents. Here's what he has to show you.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEWS ANCHOR: Here is the court document at the center of all this. United States of America v. Michael Cohen. Nine pages signed by special counsel Robert Mueller, a very interesting read. And here's a cheat sheet.
Cohen now admits that he lied about the timing of the Trump organization's business dealings with Russia, about the extent of Trump's involvement in those business dealings, about Cohen's own willingness to travel to Moscow to pursue those deals and the response that they got from the Russian government.
Now Cohen's original narrative before he turned on Trump that is, was that this idea never got anywhere. It didn't last long, Trump barely knew about it and it never even got a response from the Russians.
However, Cohen now says that the real story is this one. As the presidential campaign was in full swing in the U.S. the Trump organization was pursuing an ambitious real estate deal in Moscow. One that would require approval of the highest levels of state.
And another key player in this says they even considered giving Vladimir Putin a penthouse in the future building. So, now, consider the new time line. Cohen admits this Moscow project was last discussed in June 2016. What else happened around that time? Well, we know that Trump campaign
officials met with Russians in Trump Tower in Manhattan. The following month, the Republican platform was being drawn up and it was changed in a way that was seen as a concession to Russia.
That same month, just a few days later, in fact, WikiLeaks published the first batch of hacked e-mails, all of them damaging to Mr. Trump political rival Hillary Clinton. Now to be very clear. We do not yet know how all these pieces might fit together or even if they all fit together but they do raise legitimate questions.
Did Donald Trump hide his dealings with Russia during the campaign? If so, did that give Russia leverage over candidate Trump, possibly even over President Trump. Lastly, what else might Michael Cohen know and decide to share special counsel Robert Mueller.
Back to you.
HOWELL: Cyril, thank you.
The U.S. president on his way to the G20 summit canceled his upcoming meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tweeting, "It would be best for all parties."
ALLEN: The president says the decision was due to Russia's refusal to release a group of Ukrainian sailors who clash with Russian forces last weekend.
For more about this story Matthew Chance is in Moscow.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been hard to keep up with all the crises overshadowing the now cancelled Trump-Putin meeting. The latest controversy Trump's former lawyer admitting he lied to Congress by these business dealings in Russia. Prompting the U.S. president before leaving for the G20 in Argentina to vigorously deny any wrongdoing, and suggest that the planned meeting with the Russian president would still go ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's a very good time to have the meeting. I'm getting a full report on the plane as to what happened with respect to that and that will determine what I'm going to be doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE: Thoughts he was barely in the air when all that changed. Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, Trump tweeted, "I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful summit again as soon as this situation is resolved."
This is the naval confrontation of the Crimean coast to which the president referred. A Russian patrol boat ramming a Ukrainian naval tug before it and two other vessels were fired and boarded by Russian special. Twenty-four Ukrainian sailors were captured and are being held for violating Russian waters, calls that already been mounting for Russia to be diplomatically isolated.
But up until Trump's unexpected tweet the Russian leader had been prepping for a two-hour summit with President Trump in Buenos Aires. The Kremlin says it only learned of the cancellation from twitter and then texted its reaction to CNN. "If this is the case, the Kremlin spokesman wrote, we'll have an extra couple of hours for other useful meeting."
There are serious issues the two leaders had plan to discuss at the G20, from Syria, to nuclear weapons. But the latest events at home and abroad appeared to have prompt what would have been a controversial head-to-head.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
HOWELL: Matthew, thank you. Ukraine's president is praising Mr. Trump's decision to skip that meeting with the Russian leader.
Petro Poroshenko tweeted this. "This is how great leaders act." He's been calling on NATO to send ships to the Sea of Azov where that clash with the Russian navy took place.
[03:10:05] ALLEN: And in just the last few minutes, the Ukrainian president has taken further action. He says Russian adults age 16 to 60 years of age will be stopped at the border and cannot enter Ukraine.
Meantime, Ukraine's navy is docked, waiting as tensions threatened to boil over.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports from southern Ukraine.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The day is short but the fears are long now for Ukraine's navy since Russian boats rammed them and arrested 24 sailors near the Kerch Strait. Ukraine's long and ugly war with its neighbor is in the spotlight again.
These naval ships in Mariupol have been confined to port.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAXIM NOSENIKO, SPOKESMAN, UKRAINIAN NAVY: Our superiors stop our movement and patrolling because of the situation. And right now, we are in a little afraid in here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: The fear here is just this is a start that Russia wants to control entry and movement in all the Sea of Azov so it can take more of Ukraine's coast right down to Crimea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NOSENIKO: The Russian coast guard ships take under control the civilian ship going to our ports and take some time to check all documents more than 20 ships are waiting from that site to proceed to our port.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: Ukraine is talking tough and here parading the readiness of their attack helicopters, jets, and anti-aircraft guns despite knowing what they need most is international solidarity.
The commander of Ukraine's forces tells us there's one thing he like to hear from President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEI NAEV, COMMANDER, UKRAINIAN JOINT FORCES OPERATION: I think the American leader, he says, must say to our enemy to stop this aggression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: The port of Mariupol is itself pretty dead. Fewer and fewer ships came here before of the Kerch clash because of the wall. Eerily quiet, isn't it? And that's because Mariupol economy has been in the doldrums for years now. This city almost constantly living with a threat of a Russian invasion.
A tough industrial town made tougher when war shuts away the industry.
These park gardeners have a short lunch break and a grace for a tiny cafe, some familiar with Russia, some--
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
"If we have a normal president, she says, would women work like this in this kind of job?"
"I have relatives in Russia," that's another (Inaudible) I don't understand this conflict." (Inaudible) "I have many Russian friends who worry for us like we worry for them."
"For Trump, I don't know why he supports Poroshenko," she says.
Alid's (Pd) mother she adds, "Good presidents."
Putin, a name that brought the odd smile among them. Strange given how Moscow's pressure has killed thousands here and torn this once prosperous town down. Yet, it's a sign the walls agony is in some places decaying the fabric of Ukraine, rather than renewing its unity.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Mariupol, Southern Ukraine.
HOWELL: Nick, thank you.
An aging population of Holocaust survivors they now fear that the world is forgetting what happened to them in Nazi Germany. Still ahead, we take you inside that famous death camp, Auschwitz. And meet a woman who live through a nightmare there as a young girl.
ALLEN: Plus, CNN's exclusive interview with the president of Israel. He warns the rise of anti-Semitism is a malignancy that plagues all of mankind not just Jews.
Please stay with us.
[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOWELL: More than 70 years after one of the darkest chapters in human history, a growing number of people seem to have no idea that the Holocaust ever happened.
ALLEN: This is unfathomable. A CNN poll found a total of 34 percent of Europeans know just a little or have never heard of the Holocaust, perhaps even more disturbing, 31 percent of Europeans believe commemorating the Holocaust distracts from other atrocities and injustices today.
HOWELL: And it should come as no surprise that the growing ignorance about the Holocaust matches the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.
ALLEN: For survivors of places like Auschwitz it's unthinkable the world's memory of those horrors is fading as they grow old and die.
For more about it here CNN's Clarissa Ward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDITH EGER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: It was hell. It was heel, and yet, I'm here. I'm here hopefully to tell young people that I count on them.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Edith Eger was just 16 years old when she arrived in Auschwitz from her native Hungary with her family in May 1944.
Nazi physician Josef Mengele was standing at the end of the train platform, known as the Angel of Death. He performed cruel and often deadly medical experiments on his prisoners.
EGER: He appointed my mom to go to the left and I followed her. He came after me and grab me. I never forget those eyes. He said your mother is just going to take a shower. You'll see her soon.
WARD: Eden never saw her again. Both her parents were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, along with more than one million Jews. Hundreds of thousands of others were worked or starve to death.
Eden did see Dr. Mengele again.
EGER: He came to the barracks and he wanted to be entertained so they volunteered me and I ended up dancing and closing my eyes and pretending that the music was Tchaikovsky and I was dancing the Romeo and Juliet in the Budapest Opera House.
WARD: It was that powerful spirit and imagination that helped Eden to survive the unsurvivable. It will be eight months before Soviet troops would liberate the death camp, discovering horrors that remain etched on humanities conscience 73 years later.
In many ways, it's the experiences and testimonies of those who survived that have kept the horrors of the Holocaust alive. And the fear now is that as fewer and fewer of them remain the memory will start to fade.
[03:19:59] According to a CNN poll it already is more than a third of Europeans have either never heard of or know just a little about the Holocaust. The statistics for the younger generation are even more alarming. Twenty percent of young French adults have never even heard of the Holocaust.
Michael Schudrich is the chief rabbi of Poland.
When you hear that younger people say they know very little or next to nothing about the Holocaust in Europe, which is where the Holocaust was perpetrated. How does that make you feel as a Jew?
MICHAEL SCHUDRICH, CHIEF RABBI, POLAND: How does it make me feel, it makes me feel like I have more work to do. It makes me feel that I need to -- that we need to be more proactive. It makes me feel that we need to work far more intensively with ministries of education.
WARD: The stakes are high as Europe grapples with a resurgence of anti-Semitism, but there are signs of hope. More than 40 percent of the respondents believe anti-Semitism is a growing problem in Europe. Half agree that commemorating the Holocaust helps to combat anti- Semitism. And nearly two-thirds say it can help ensure such atrocities never happen again today.
Today, the ghosts of Auschwitz still linger serving as a vital reminder to the more than two million tourist who visit every year.
SCHUDRICH: Visiting Auschwitz fundamentally transcends the intellectual. It confronts you face-to-face. You're not looking at a book, you're not looking at a film. You're looking at a place that was built to kill human beings. You're looking at a place that's a factory of death. Four huge gas chambers with crematorium it's the only purpose to eliminate Jews from Europe.
When you stand there, don't try to understand it. Just have your eyes open, the heart open, absorb the moment somehow if go there and you stand there and you experience it, maybe that will help every human being that visits to be one step, 20 steps away from ever doing something like that again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Anti-Semitism is up sharply in the United States as well, believe it or not. Reported incidents of triple over the past year.
ALLEN: Adding to that--
(CROSSTALK)
HOWELL: Five years.
ALLEN: Adding to that sad statistic anti-Semitic vandalism at Columbia University in New York targeting office of a 77-year-old Jewish teacher.
HOWELL: On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo directed the state's hate crimes unit to assist in that investigation and promised full prosecution of those responsible for to handle that.
ALLEN: It's an Ivy League school.
HOWELL: The sharp rise of anti-Semitic hatred you see it everywhere. Now it's around the world, but it is not surprising to Israelis. They know that it must be confronted where ever it is seen.
ALLEN: CNN's Oren Liebermann sat down for an exclusive interview with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin who says anti-Semitism is not just a problem for Jews. He warns left unchecked, it has a corrosive effect on all people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Reuven Rivlin, thank you for sitting down with us.
REUVEN RIVLIN, PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL: It's a pleasure.
LIEBERMANN: I don't think it would surprise you that there is anti- Semitism in Europe but does the depth of the anti-Semitism surprise and worry you?
RIVLIN (through translator): Anti-Semitism worries us all the time. Also, the denial of Israel's right to exist which is an extension of anti-Semitism. That's also worrying. But we, as a country have learned how to deal with it. How to deal with the memories of anti-Semitism, how to teach the dangers of anti-Semitism and how to relate to it in the wider world as well, and talk about the phenomenon.
We are diligent and we have to be even more diligent to explain in all those places where anti-Semitism is spreading or returning that we are not ready to accept it.
LIEBERMANN: The Holocaust is one of the most important events in modern history, and yet, less than 100 years after the end of the Holocaust there are Europeans who either don't know what it is or don't know its meaning. How do you fix that, is that a matter of education, museums, or is it something bigger?
[00:04:52] RIVLIN (through translator): As you say it is education and it's also commemoration. It's impossible to do without commemoration. It's impossible to do without showing the facts, the historical facts. But anti-Semitism did not begin with the Holocaust and it did not
start with Hitler. It began many years before that, hundreds of years, maybe thousands of
years. And in order to deal with it we've established an investigative center where the facts are clear and whether its evidence from those places where terrible acts were carried out.
LIEBERMANN: Are the attacks in Pittsburgh and the neo-Nazi parade in Charlottesville signs of growth of anti-Semitism in the United States?
RIVLIN (through translator): I, as a Jew, and as president of the state of Israel, don't believe that anti-Semitism is found only in certain places. It exists in every place. It's evil. And evil can be found anywhere. It can be found on the right, it can be found on the left. It can be nationalistic, it can be religious.
Anti-Semitism is evil. And when you speak of evil you know that you must educate your children. Anti-Semitism is not just a problem of the Jews. Anti-Semitism is an international problem among all nations and peoples in which it spreads.
Today, there are neo-fascist movements that have a great influence once again in the hearts of people around the whole world. There are countries where it's returning and it's very dangerous.
And the same neo-fascist movement are movements that very much admire, according to what they say, the state of Israel. I meet with leaders from around the worlds. I meet with prime ministers, I meet with presidential executive and power. And some are telling me that in order to stay in power we need to have a coalition and we need these neo-fascist groups.
I say to them we're not getting involved in your internal democracy. But when you send leaders of these groups to us and they say to us we are representatives of neo-fascist movements but we admire Israel. I say to them, gentlemen, this is impossible, it's impossible to say we admire the state of Israel. We want ties with the state of Israel but we are neo-fascists.
Someone who is neo-fascist is truly a person who is totally against the spirit the principles and the values of the state of Israel.
When you talk about Pittsburgh, when you talk about these phenomena. These phenomena go up and down, they come and go but we cannot, under any circumstances, cannot for one second close our eyes.
In particular, when the state of Israel has such significance which is central to this region and the whole of Europe in the free world. We have to say to the world two things must guide future generations. One is the memory of the past and the second is education.
LIEBERMANN: On a personal level, as a human being as one Jew talking to another, how does that you feel the anti-Semitism in the world today?
RIVLIN (through translator): For us, it's clear as daylight. Anti- Semitism is a presence in society that corrupts society itself. We try to explain to the whole world if you don't fight against anti-Semitism it will hit your society. Because there are stereotypes present in your societies that create a lack of understanding.
The treatment of minorities which is not humane or normal. These corrupt your societies. Anti-Semitism is an evil illness. It's evil, it's evil, and evil does not exist in one place. Evil can sprout in every society that fails to examine itself, that fails to remember the past and it fails to educate.
LIEBERMANN: President Reuven Rivlin, thank you for your time.
RIVLIN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: And our coverage of anti-Semitism in Europe culminates with a special half-hour report from Clarissa Ward on Friday, that is at 7.30 in the evening in London, 2.30 in the afternoon on the U.S. East Coast here on CNN.
ALLEN: And ahead, here, President Trump abruptly canceled his meeting with the Russian president at the G20 summit. We'll tell you what that's about when we come back here.
[03:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Welcome back you are watching CNN Newsroom live from Atlanta, I'm Natalie Allen.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: I'm George Howell with the headlines we are following for you this hour. The U.S. President, former personal attorney pleaded guilty on Thursday to live Congress. Michael Cohen admitted the talks about the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow lasted well into the 2016 Presidential campaign. Cohen said, he lied to protect Mr. Trump's political interests.
ALLEN: President Trump abruptly canceled hi get together with Russia's President at the G-20 Summit. Mr. Trump says he did it, because Russia refuses to release Ukrainian navy ship in favor seized during a maritime confrontation on Sunday. Here's the kremlin response, now we have extra time for other useful meetings during the summit.
HOWELL: That shade of course by the U.S. president prompted a response from this man, Ukraine's president praising Mr. Trump's decision tweeting that this is how great leaders act. Petro Poroshenko has also imposed restrictions on Russian (inaudible) Ukraine, he tweeted that Russian med 16 to 60 will now be stop at the border to prevent them from performing private armies in the Ukraine.
And the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. Join now we have Steven Erlanger. Steven is a chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe. The New York Times live in Brussels, Steven a pleasure to have you.
STEVEN ERLANGER, NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, George.
HOWELL: So, President Trump clearly change course on flight -- the President, not now meeting with his Russian counterpart at the G 20. He says it is because of Ukraine, but there is that other curious cloud for Michael Cohen, who admitted that he lied to Congress about a Trump tower project in Russia out of loyalty to the President. Let us focus in on that first. What's the biggest danger here to President Trump and the people around him?
ERLANGER: Well, the biggest danger is to reinforce what people have been suspecting for some time which is that there was collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian state to win election and further than that people wonder why President Trump is so fund of President Putin and he will not criticize, criticize anybody else. His other members of his administration will criticize Russian behavior. Mr. Trump are reluctant to do that he really wants to meet Putin. There is this Bromance and people wonder, you know is there something in the past was Russia have some hold on Donald Trump or on his business or on, you know, his or even on his finances.
This is part of what Mueller is looking into. So in that sense, know that Cohen plea is getting closer to the heart of the real Mueller investigation, which is link to whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign, or even the President or -- or his family and Russia to storks the American collection.
[03:35:08] ALLEN: Yes. And Steven, we know that as soon as the President Trump landed there at Buenos Aires, he started tweeting about it. We very much know that the Mueller investigation is top of mind and does drive him kind a crazy.
ERLANGER: It does drive him crazy.
(LAUGHTER)
ALLEN: It does, he is over it, but it continue to develop back home, but let us talk about who he is meeting with at the G 20 summit. He is meeting with the Chinese President of course this amid the serious trade issues. What are the expectations there?
ERLANGER: This is I think, you know, a much more important meeting to be honest than any meeting with the Russian president. I mean Russia has a GDP of the size of Sweden. China is a completely different questions and were in the middle of a trade war with China and that the Chinese are uncomfortable about it. But Mr. Trump has become uncomfortable about it too. He had been yelling at General Motors, he has been yelling at other companies that have responded to tariffs and today's new tariffs and to the potential of the real trade war with China by reducing their staff by removing their factories and it's beginning to have an impact on the American economy and on parts of the American economy that in states that have supported Donald Trump.
So you know, he is a little vulnerable about it to, but the general Trump strategy has been to put intense pressure on than get into talks come up with some kind of deal and call it the best deal that ever happened in the entire universe. ALLEN: Yes, it certainly does.
ERLANGER: You know, that is how he does it. And it works, by the way it works very well and I suspect this is a very important meeting on the waves of that kind of ending on the day they won't make a deal themselves the details are quite complicated. And of course, within the Trump administration, there are strain between people who want to get China harder and people who think it's time to do a deal, but there is no question that China feels vulnerable about it too. The rhetoric on both sides is of course, just speaking, but that is kind of a given. So I think that meeting really, really matters a lot.
ALLEN: It is one we will be watching and we hopefully talk with you again as more of this summit plays out. Steven Erlanger as always, thank you for your insights.
ERLANGER: Thanks Natalie.
HOWELL: While on her way to the G 20 summit. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Cologne. Yes, reporter on board said they were told there had been electronic systems failure and the aircraft needed a replacement part, because of the delay Chancellor had to reschedule some of her meetings.
British Prime Minister Theresa May returns from the G 20 summit, shall barely have 10 days, well, what kind of Christmas is she going to have to get ready for Parliament's historic Brexit vote December 11 and the way things had been shaping at, it does not look as if that vote is going to go away.
HOWELL: So, some senior MP's are now trying to avoid a possible no vote in the chaos that would follow that they want to introduce an amendment that would block the current deal and ensure a no deal Brexit is also off the table. That allows Parliament to decide what happens next.
ALLEN: But the Prime Minister is having none of it. She warned lawmakers trying to restart negotiations now in the U.K. end up with an agreement that is worse.
HOWELL: Police in Frankfurt Germany raided the offices of Deutsche Bank on Thursday in a money laundering probe.
ALLEN: The investigation was tied to the Panama papers leak two years ago that exposed money-laundering networks and shell companies. CNN's Atika Shubert has more from Berlin.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 170 police officer, prosecutors and tax inspectors swoop into the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt and five other office locations in and around the city. Here is what we know about the investigation. They are looking at two main suspects, Deutsche Bank employees believed to have help in laundering money from offshore account link to the Panama papers leaks. Now they're looking specifically for evidence of transactions between
2013 and 2018 and prosecutors told us that he gets a sense of scale that in 2016 alone about 900 Deutsche Bank clients may have laundered money through these offshore accounts as much as more than $350 million.
So there are two main things that prosecutors are looking for here. Whether or not Deutsche Bank actually helped to set up these accounts so that clients could launder money through offshore accounts or invasively failed to report suspicious transactions.
[03:40:08] Now, Deutsche Bank has released a statement saying that it is fully cooperating with police and prosecutors and that they believed they had given all of the information regarding accounts link to the Panama papers, but clearly prosecutors believe there is still more evidence that Deutsche Bank may have. That is why they took away a computer hard drives and documents as evidence. Atika Shubert, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEO)
ALLEN: Well, this is a heartbreaking story family. A family fled violence and uncertainty in war-torn Syria and now two young refugees in the U.K.-based more violence in their new home.
HOWELL: Which is so unfortunate that, you know, if they leave one place run the same type of awfulness somewhere else. CNN's Samuel Burke looks at the school attacks that have sparked widespread condemnation.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I will drown you. those are the words a young man shouts in the face of a 15-year-old Syrian boy at his school in northern England as he smothers his face in water holding his hands around the boy's throat after head-butting him and pinning him to the ground. Now more than a month after the attack occurred a video of the incident has gone viral.
The victim's family is originally from home Syria. According to their lawyer and fled the beleaguered city to Lebanon after members of their family had been abducted and tortured by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, one family member was killed. In 2016, a U.N. program settled the family in the town of Huddersfield (inaudible) and within two months the family's lawyer says the children started to be bullied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is shocking because the background as well. The fact that for a father is managed using every resource at his potential in the house to take his family away from danger through two countries to keep them safe and in finding the in the first world country that has offered them sanctuary, that sanctuary has been non- existent.
BURKE: After the video of the incident went viral on social media this week. The boy's sister was assaulted at the same school. According to local authorities also captured on video and shared online, you see the girls push and chased. The family lawyer says her headscarf was also torn-off. Police say they are working with the family and asking witnesses to come forward. The principle of the school where the incidents took place said the situation is being taken extremely seriously. And quote, we must allow the legal process to take its course, but I want to be absolutely clear that we do not tolerate unacceptable behavior of any sort in our school.
A crowdfunding pages has been set up online to raise money for the family. The campaign has raised more than $175,000. GoFundMe says it's the fastest growing fundraiser on the site in the U.K. for all of 2018 with donations pouring in from 50 countries around the world.
The family says that given the circumstances. Any money would be used to move away from this town, Samuel Burke, CNN, Huddersfield, England.
(END VIDEO)
ALLEN: And still had hear from migrants waiting at the border in Mexico. The situation is getting worse due to rain.
[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Welcome back. The U.S. says it will not file criminal charges against the 42 migrants arrested when clashes broke out along the border near Tijuana Mexico. Tensions flared when people from Central America rush the U.S. border and tear gas was fired on them. Thousands are now waiting in Tijuana and for those seeking asylum in the U.S. it could be months before they can make their case to officials across the border.
HOWELL: And until then they have nowhere else to go, but you see there. There stuck in an overcrowded shelter. Authorities had opened up a second one that has better accommodations, but it's a 45 minute drive from the border and some migrants are refusing to go, because of the distance in no conditions of the first shelter are deteriorating. Our Leyla Santiago has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The rain is coming down and you can see how people are reacting here in the shelter that is housing more than for more than 6000 people, including children, women, men, families who are now trying to take cover and do whatever they can just keep dry, just to keep warm. Many not having enough to provide for their own family and stay warm, and comfort them and protect even their own children. This entire area is flooded and you can see what has already been left in the water. Children's book, blankets that are now soaked. Clothing that is now left behind with shoes. Many have been trying to find whatever is left that is dry to make use of, but there is not much of it.
More than 6,000 are here. Migrants from Central America who had come from the caravan trying to get over here. Trying to get beyond this fence to the United States of America under some beyond tough conditions. In Tijuana, Leyla Santiago, CNN. (END VIDEO)
HOWELL: We get a sense of what Leyla is dealing with there. So many people in these drenching conditions there in Tijuana.
ALLEN: It is misery.
HOWELL: It is bringing misery there and also the possibility of mudslides in areas that had been recently burned by wildfires in California.
ALLEN: Derek Van Dam joins us with that, just misery upon misery then.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is all part of the same storm, I mean, the cold front that is bringing the rain but Tijuana is also bringing rain to Southern California, all the way to the Northern California. Where we know the status has been ravaged by wildfires recently so I'll get to the details. First, we I want to show again the very difficult and challenging conditions that the 6,000 plus migrant caravan is dealing with in Tijuana at the moment.
Heavy rain just adding to the misery. As George has mentioned and are making conditions are very, very challenging. So let's investigate what's happening and what the forecast is going forward to the graph you will see storm system that is producing the rainfall across California all the way into Northwestern Mexico were obviously Tijuana is located.
Now National Weather Service is radar out of San Diego actually picks up on the rainfall into portions of Mexico and there's Tijuana just off San Diego, you can see precipitation very isolated the nature, but we have a the ability to go back in time over the past 24 hours to see the observed rainfall that has occurred across this area.
We picked up about 25 millimeter of precipitation so far in Tijuana with an additional 15 to 20 millimeters of rain possible through the rest of today being Friday. The early parts of the weekends. So the rain is not done just yet, but is becoming more isolated in nature will get a break and then another chance of rain fall as we head the second half of the weekend.
[03:50:03] Here's the forecast for Tijuana, Saturday and Sunday there it is starting to dry out, but early next week. That is when another system moves in and we opened up the storm door for more what weather to continue. I want to talk about the other threat with this rainfall moving and is the potential for debris and mudslides. This is coming out of Riverside County in Southern California, while very difficult conditions here for anyone living downstream from recent wildfires, we call them burn scars and this the result from heavy rainfall.
Get back to my graphics. We talk about what happens here burn scars from recent wildfires, what it does is exactly called hydrophobic, meaning, it detracts rainfall so the water never gets see the opportunity to sink or move into the soil. So it just runs off, it picks up the recent debris that has been burned by trees, even rocks and eventually gravity wins and takes that soils down and that downstream and that can travel upwards speed of 50 to 55 kilometers per hour.
This is important and dangerous to the fact that the USGS has actually put out the high probabilities across the Ventura Riverside and Los Angeles County were between 80 to 100 percent chance of downstream mud flow potentials exists, thanks to the rain that continues to fall across the region. Again there's a break in the rainfall, but there is more precipitation in the forecast over the next several days. So the threats on going to say the least from Tijuana all the way to Southern and Northern California.
HOWELL: All right.
ALLEN: Got to go for this folks stuck there, in those tent. All right. Derek, thanks.
HOWELL: Thank you, Derek.
VAN DAM: Thanks.
HOWELL: The former first lady Michelle Obama is headed to London and she is expecting a warm welcome on her tour there. A book tour, why Michelle Obama is so popular across the park. Still ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: A Washington D.C neighborhood group is so outraged at President Trump's response to journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder. It wants to rename the streets in front of the Saudi embassy as Jamal Khashoggi way.
HOWELL: The neighborhood commissioner says, a residence are upset that Mr. Trump has downplayed the role of the Saudi Crown Prince even after sources concluded that the CIA concluded that Mohammed Bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's killing.
ALLEN: It is not clear if this week will be renamed U.S. Congress has authority over the district, it can make the final decision.
HOWELL: The former first lady of the U.S. Michelle Obama has a star power that reaches far beyond the U.S. that is obvious in London where she is headed this weekend to make an appearance on her book tour there.
ALLEN: Tickets for waiting their sold-out in minutes. Here is CNN's Anna Stewart in London.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
ANNA STEWART, CNN PRODUCER: A surprise guest, former president Barack Obama showing love for his wife Michelle at her book launch for becoming. And more love across the (inaudible). (Inaudible) now going international with a visits to London.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The former American first lady. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Black students made up less than 9 percent of my
freshman class. Happy seeds and a bowl of rice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michelle Obama read from her new memoir.
STEWART: A contest with love letters to Michelle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One mother to another. It had made every little girl believe that they can do the impossible.
STEWART: An inspiration for young girls like 10 year old Charlie the winner.
[03:55:00] The runaway success of becoming now the number one bestseller in the U.S. with a 10 U.S. city book tour. Michelle Obama drawing crowds with a star power of Beyonce, but without the stadiums. Tickets for her only appears here selling out in minutes. Her fans are not amused.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did you go?
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE U.S.: We are here. We are at another house.
STEWART: But even leaving the other house, the White House. She is still one of the most admired women in the world and the same things she cannot say before. With revelation seeking marriage counseling, and using IVF to conceive making her even more popular.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just when I thought I could not love you anymore. He found another way to connect with my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It resonates with me and I'm a white and with a little curse, all the women.
STEWART: Michelle Obama was already coming when she came here twice as first lady.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am beyond thrilled that you are working so hard to complete your education.
STEWART: Seeing herself and students like Mr. Hassan, now studying to become a lawyer, devoted to women's rights.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's something you can't give up.
STEWART: And seeing herself in these students, inviting them to the White House, telling them to aim high and to look beyond being different.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And even when she did come here, she told us that people should be encouraged to look beyond head scarf.
STEWART: Michelle Obama in a cast of her own, by ignoring class, inviting a prince to a high school in Chicago rubbing shoulders with the Queen literally a royal taboo, a much to do about nothing in the end.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I dare say that the Queen was OK with the two because when I touched her. She only pulled closer, resting a gloved hand lightly on the small of my back.
STEWART: Her natural warm making all very special.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A power for my mom. Michelle Obama, was the first black woman to make me realized that I can do anything.
STEWART: Do you think she has changed when you are older?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
STEWART: In what way?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She makes me want to go far.
STEWART: Little girls all types believing they can go far and now becoming. Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO)
HOWELL: Thank you for being with us at CNN Newsroom. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. Yes, thanks for watching the news continues with Max Foster in London next. We will see you tomorrow.
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