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Second Person Enters Sustained HIV Remission; Donald Trump Embraces American Flag, Literally; Real Madrid Crash out to Ajax in Epic Home Loss; Man UTD Seek Paris Miracle after 2-0 Home Loss. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 06, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Ahead this hour, just days after the failed Hanoi summit, new satellite images showing North Korea may be back in the nuclear business, preparing to resume testing of long-range missiles.

Also Donald Trump calls it a big, fat fishing expedition and Democrats call it congressional oversight and are now moving forward with a slew of investigations.

And until now, only one person is believed to have been cured of HIV and scientists believe soon he may not be the only one.

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VAUSE: It hasn't even been a week since Donald Trump walked away from his Vietnam summit with Kim Jong-un and now there's signs that North Korea may resume testing of long-range missiles.

The North is rebuilding parts of the launch facility that's been dormant since last August, just after the first Trump-Kim summit. The reports come from the Center for Strategic Studies, Beyond Parallel Project as well as the blogsite 38 North. CNN's Paula Hancocks is live this hour in Seoul, South Korea.

Paula, precisely what do these satellite photos show in terms of construction?

Do we know the specific timeframe when it began?

People were asking questions about what would the North Koreans do after the failed summit in Hanoi and maybe this could be the answer to that question.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I think that's the key point here, the timeframe. Now CSIS said they acquired the satellite imagery on March 2nd, which would have been a couple of days after the Hanoi summit.

But what we're hearing from 38 North is that these images are from February 16th to March 2nd so it could have even been a buildup before this summit took place. So I think it's -- it's not wise, really, to assume that this is the response of the North Koreans to the fact that the Hanoi summit did not go as planned.

And clearly that the North Koreans aren't usually this swift in their reaction as well, politically. So what these images do show though is that parts of the test site that have been put down over the past few months, in fact, nothing has been happening there since August of last year. North Korea was pointing out that they were disassembling much of the site itself.

Parts of that have been rebuilt. There's a roof being rebuilt. There's walls on the engine test stand that have been rebuilt. So parts have been reassembled and this is what these groups are focusing on.

VAUSE: The focus now turns to the United States and the Trump administration and how it responds to this.

HANCOCKS: Absolutely. And we are waiting for some kind of response. We did hear though from the national security adviser, John Bolton, once again saying that the president is ready to make a deal.

Also saying on FOX Business Network that the president is willing to meet with the North Korean leader again. But he did sound a warning to the North Koreans that sanctions could be ramped up.

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JOHN BOLTON, TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We are going to see a lot of potential decisions coming out of North Korea. Whether they're serious about the talks or they want to get back into them. Fundamentally whether they're committed to giving up the weapons program and everything associated with it. That's what we think they need to do.

If they're not willing, I think Trump has been clear they won't get the relief from the economic sanctions imposed on them. We'll look up at ramping those up, in fact.

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HANCOCKS: So that's unlikely to go down well in North Korea. The North Koreans do not like John Bolton one little bit. They dealt with him in the George W. Bush years and they had very choice words to describe him in the past.

But it's interesting that we're hearing this from Mr. Bolton. Presumably it has been sanctioned at least by the U.S. president and this is talking about ramping up economic sanctions just a few days after the Hanoi summit when they were discussing whether or not to lift economic sanctions. Now clearly the U.S. decided they were not ready to do that but this is not going to go down well. VAUSE: OK. Paula, thank you. This is at the very least an interesting development. One which we need more information on. We'll get that. Thank you.

Add another investigation into the growing list of inquiries into Trump world. Last week the president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, said the Trump Organization inflated assets to an insurance company. Now New York's Department of Financial Services is looking into that and has sent a subpoena to the organization's insurance broker.

House Democrats are already investigating Donald Trump for alleged --

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VAUSE: -- obstruction of justice and abuse of power but the president continues to play the victim.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I guess we got 81 letters. There was no collusion. That was a hoax. There was no anything. And they want to do that instead of getting legislation passed -- 81 people or organizations got letters. It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace to our country. I'm not surprised that it's happening. The people understand it. When they look at it they just say presidential harassment.

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VAUSE: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins us now from Los Angeles.

So Ron, you know, the president has dismissed that document request which came from the House Judiciary Committee. This is the investigation into obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Some on that list though have already said they will cooperate, some on the list like the president's son, Eric, not so much. This is what he said.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to get a lawyer? Are you going to produce documents that they requested in two weeks?

ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: Yes, we leave plenty of lawyers. don't worry about -- don't worry about lawyers. And that's -- you know, that's all this is. They're the only people -- the only people who win you know, unfortunately in this whole game are you know, are the lawyers and you know the people who lose are you know, the American people who actually expect their you know, the public servants to be working on their behalf and not playing you know, nonsense games all day. I mean, if you look at how incompetent Congress is overall, it's just -- it's incredible. But yes, we're going to fight the hell out of it.

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VAUSE: OK, I guess the point of it, Ron, is that you know, these investigations are now so broad, so wide, the dragnet is just so big, it's beyond any president's ability to control who says what and to whom.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, well and as you noted I think, there are multiple -- I mean, the multiplicity of investigations is remarkable. Now you know, not only of Congress, the special prosecutor, the special counsel, you have the Southern District of New York. You have the New York Insurance Commissioner. There are many investigations and his ability to turn them all off is obviously not there.

On the other hand, I think you are going to see a clear dichotomy emerge where the administration is going to as aggressively as possible use the claim of executive privilege to try to stymie a request for documents, really anything that touches directly on the White House or Trump. And they may or may not win all of those court cases but they can certainly let -- burn up a lot of time doing so.

People on the private sector I think are going to have a hard time like Eric Trump to avoid and defeat these information requests from the House Democrats.

VAUSE: They're also refusing to provide documentation on the security clearance for Trump's son in law Jared Kushner and also for Trump's daughter Ivanka. You know, I guess the question here though be what is actually in their background that has officials so worried that they would recommend that these two should not actually be given top- level security clearance.

BROWNSTEIN: You know and it's interesting. That is the question I think not only -- you know, obviously the first order issue is the president and Ivanka Trump lying -- apparently lying about the process. But it very quickly you do go to that underlying question. Why did career officials and intelligence officials not want to provide that security clearance especially given that the usual inclination is, of course, to give the necessary clearance for the president to have the people that he wants to have the information that he wants.

And we may or may not learn. I mean, this is certainly something that the White House is going to fight for a very long time. If you go back, John, I mean the classic decision in the U.S. on this question of how far executive privilege extends was the Supreme Court ruling in 1974. A unanimous ruling saying that executive privilege did not shield president -- then President Nixon from having to give up his Watergate tapes.

So we know that executive privilege is not absolute. It is not unlimited. But I suspect we're going to have an awful lot of litigation deciding -- defining exactly where those lines are drawn.

VAUSE: Good time to be a lawyer in Washington. I guess in case anyone has actually missed the Trump branding for the push back against the Democratic investigations, here it is. The president said there are just two words, presidential harassment. We're going to hear that a lot.

Donald Trump's confidence Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN's Manu Raju. He -- as in Trump, just believes they -- as in the Democrats, are out to take a wrecking ball to his life. They'll go nuts." But, you know, one man's presidential harassment is another man's congressional oversight. Here's Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee.

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The president has had two years of a Republican Congress that did no oversight, whatsoever. So he doesn't know what oversight looks like. There are all too many serious allegations of impropriety to administration. And you know, they have multiplied every day.

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VAUSE: If you get the impression that -- you know, they knew divided government was on its way at the White House, the president knew that -- you know, there's every chance the Democrats would take the House and this is would be the end result. But never really reconcile to what the reality would be.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I think that's right. I mean look, I mean -- it is -- it's a little bit like what the famous Mike Tyson quote. You know, "Everybody has a plan --

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BROWNSTEIN: -- until they get punched in the face."

So until you -- until you actually are on the receiving end of these sorts of information requests which will -- you know, very quickly turn into subpoenas. I think it is hard to entirely plan for it.

But the fact is that one of the reasons Republicans lost the Congress, I think, very clearly in 2018 is if voters perceived that they were unwilling to perform even the most rudimentary oversight to have a policy like the child -- let's leave aside for a question, all for a moment -- all the questions about President Trump's behavior before he became president.

They have a policy in office like the child separation at the border that was so chaotic, such a departure from what American -- America has done before. And -- you know, raised such terrifically polarizing questions. And have no oversight of that at all. No hearings of any -- of any -- of any significance. Really, I think underscores.

And it's worth noting that amid all of these document requests, that's the kind of thing that the House is got to be doing tomorrow. I mean, they're going to have the DHS secretary up and they're going to be looking at that and they are going to be looking at things that the EPA did. And they are going to be looking at the way they have executed power in the executive branch, which the Republicans simply refuse to do with the interest of maintaining common cause around their shared agenda.

VAUSE: That's why I'm sorry because this is the White House that doesn't do the easy stuff particularly well, like laying a wreath at -- you know, the tomb of fallen U.S. soldiers in France because it's raining. This is the low-hanging fruit which they tend to screw up.

This is the big stuff -- you know, if one thing which I think is going to be interesting to watch is how they actually deal with -- you know, these never-ending investigations. And this is high-stakes.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, look, I think that -- you know, the president will succeed in convincing a portion of the electorate. His hardcore base that this is presidential harassment. And this is Democrats just -- you know being sore losers because Hillary Clinton lost this 2016 election.

But as we talked about before, there's something around 20 percent of his voters in 2016 who voted for him with deep uncertainty and ambivalence. Who said that either that he didn't have the temperament or the experience to succeed as president. And many of those voters were hoping that they would get a different Donald Trump in office than they saw on the campaign trail.

So I'm going to was kind of more presidential. They have not seen that. And you know, you saw that speech Saturday at CPAC, where he became the first president in my memory to deliberately use profanity as part of the -- of the speech. And this kind of rambling two-hour diatribe.

And the risk to him in these hearings is not only the questions about his kind of pedigree and what he has done in the private sector. But just the actual administration of government. And whether he is up to the job of running the government, which I think is still a relevant issue for the -- for the voters who really put him over the top that kind of added to that hardcore base that like this insular nationalist message.

There was another portion that were willing to take a chance just because they want to change. Now as we saw in 2018, some of them are reassessing whether the change is more volatile than they're willing to accept.

VAUSE: Very quickly, I was talking a very quickly into the weeds. With the House Intelligence Committee and a new prosecutor to lead the investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

VAUSE: Daniel Goldman, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, has a history of prosecuting securities fraud, racketeering -- this is the interesting part, international organized crime.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

VAUSE: That news especially -- you know, with your testimony we heard from the president's personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, he suggested -- you know, the Trump Organization was run like a mob.

You know, that's set off a lot of reporting about -- you know, Donald Trump being investigated and the Trump Organization being investigated as a possible criminal organization.

And -- you know, in many ways, it does sound like the mob, the way the president talks.

BROWNSTEIN: He certainly talks in language -- you know, describing people who cooperate with the government as rats. Is -- you know, escort says he could have written that out of "Goodfellas" or "Casino."

And it is -- it is that kind of -- it is that kind of language. Look, there has been I think a belief among Democrats for quite a while. Many Democrats that the key to the Trump-Russia relationship is as call Bernstein and Bob Woodward said a generation ago, follow the money that the financial ties might be the most important connections.

We don't know an awful lot about that makes up at the Trump Tower negotiations went on a lot longer than the president told us in 2016. And I suspect that as something that's me right at the top of the to- do list for Adam Schiff and the new Democratic majority in the House.

Untangle as much of that as they can, especially, after they learned what Mueller did or did not learn.

VAUSE: And they have less than two years. Ron, thank you, good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, John.

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VAUSE: We have this just in to CNN. Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has paid almost $9 million in bail, about 1 billion yen. He's set to go free for the first time in more than three months.

Ghosn has been awaiting trial in Tokyo, accused of underreporting his income at Nissan, also abusing his authority there in that role. Under the terms of his bail, he will not be able to leave the country and he has to agree to surveillance. Kaori Enjoji live in Tokyo.

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VAUSE: He also has to agree not to destroy evidence and all of this sounds like it's pretty standard, basic stuff for someone out on bail accused of the crimes he's accused of. KAORI ENJOJI, JOURNALIST: It does. But you have to remember this is a peculiar judicial system, based in Japan and it's very unusual even for people to post bail in circumstances like this.

Just a recap. He has posted bail. The courts have approved that bail. This is 1 billion yen, nearly $9 million U.S., which means at any moment now he could walk out of the gates that you see behind me at Tokyo detention center.

There's been an overnight vigil here, waiting to see this fallen titan of industry, the former head of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, come out, because it was November 19th last year that he was whisked out of his private jet. And he has been detained in solitary confinement behind me here as you see.

There's lots of conditions on this bail. His legal team has asked for it three times and this time they got what they wanted. I think one of the biggest differences, they have agreed to monitoring and they have agreed to limit the scope of his contact with the outside world. And he has a new defense team. This is critical because this week has been a sea change in the defense line that we're getting.

That's because of the circumstances; he hasn't been free to speak but his new legal team has been very vocal, much more aggressive, much more out there and I personally feel much more in sync with the kind of charismatic character Ghosn was known for when he was the head of industry.

He has also issued a statement last night, out of his lawyers in Paris, in anticipation of this release which we are expecting imminently. Take a look at what he said.

First of all, he is thanking his family, his wife and his family and also noting that he's also thanking some of the human rights groups and other activists working around the world for human rights. This is the narrative they're trying to push. His human rights conditions have been atrocious over the last 100-plus days here.

So we're awaiting possibly even that he may speak in this own words once he is released.

VAUSE: OK, Kaori Enjoji, thank you for the update. We appreciate the detail. As soon as we find out that he is out, we'll be back. Thank you.

Counterterrorism police launched an investigation after several bombs were found near three major transit hubs in the London area. The packages were discovered near buildings in the Wobbly train station and Heathrow and London sea airports. One of the packages burst in blames when it was opened. No one was hurt.

The Irish police are assisting with the investigation.

Venezuela's interim president Juan Guaido is still being rebuked by the country's military leadership. They continue to support the sitting president, Nicolas Maduro. So now Guaido's turning to the labor unions, hoping to win their support and Guaido is also continuing to call for nationwide strikes to force Maduro from power.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann has more now from Caracas.

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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On his first full day back in Venezuela, Juan Guaido, the self-declared interim president of this country extremely acted like a head of state holding meetings with labor unions. And this is a sector that does not traditionally back the opposition. But it's all part of Guaido's plan to pull away support from the socialist government and show that he is not backing down.

It was another bold move just a day after Guaido arrived here in Caracas on a commercial flight essentially daring the government to arrest him. That did not happen. And he has continued to call on the government of Nicolas Maduro -- Nicolas Maduro to step down.

And these men are just bound to clash as Guaido continues to say that Maduro is usurping the power here that he's not actually president. And that he continues to try to get the military and other institutions in this country to turn on Maduro.

Guaido first called for protests to take place on Saturday. And Maduro quickly followed up saying that he will hold his own pro- government protest on Saturday. So, while there's a relative calm in Caracas right now that is not going to hold as both of these men supporters take to the streets this weekend -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Caracas.

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VAUSE: Next up on CNN NEWSROOM, anti-Semitism has flared again in political parties in both the United States as well as the U.K. It's the problem that just won't go away.

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VAUSE: Forty members of Britain's Conservative Party have been suspended after posting anti-Islamic comments on a Facebook page which supports a pro-Brexit lawmaker. The page is not officially affiliated with the Conservatives or that lawmaker, who went on to tweet, "Islamophobes have no place in the Tory Party and it's encouraging that we have acted swiftly, unlike the Socialists."

By Socialists, he means Labour, led by Jeremy Corbyn, who's been plagued by accusations of anti-Semitism. Some party members say they're facing violent threats just for being Jewish. CNN's Hala Gorani has the story.

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HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The British Labour Party is engulfed in an anti-Semitism crisis that refuses to go away. The MP Margaret Hodge is among those accusing the party leader Jeremy Corbyn of willfully turning a blind eye to racism against Jews by party members.

MARGARET HODGE, MEMBER, U.K. PARLIAMENT: It's worrying that what has always been present at the extremes of the party on the fringes of the party, which is anti-Semitism on the hard left it has now moved into the mainstream.

GORANI: Spend a few minutes looking at replies on Hodge's Twitter feed and you get a sense of the problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You filthy Zionist. You don't deserve to have a voice in society. The time will come when you are shut up permanently. An exceptionally rich Yiddish, she's a very worst kind of scum.

GORANI: Look closely and you find many of the accounts associated with these tweets claim they're supporters of Corbyn.

HODGE: I think the leadership of the party has given permission for those used to express -- again, as I said, they were always there.

GORANI: Do you believe Jeremy Corbyn is anti-Semitic?

HODGE: I confronted him and talked to him in the summer myself and I did feel that his refusal to understand the nature of anti-Semitism meant that he himself was guilty. And if you're an anti-Semite, you're a racist.

GORANI: Corbyn ally Barry Gardiner denies Corbyn is racist but accepts the party should have acted earlier to root out anti-Semites.

GARDINER: They are causing huge damage in our party and they're causing huge distress to the Jewish community. And for that, we as a party have apologized and we are determined to get on top of this problem and to get those people out of the party.

GORANI: You don't accept the charge that it's Jeremy Corbyn's leadership that is allowing voices that may have been there the whole time to come out to the surface?

You don't accept that charge on any level?

GARDINER: No. Look, can I be clear?

The way in which we deal with any form of racism but in particular the way in which we deal with anti- Semitism in the party is not a matter for the leader of the party. In fact --

[00:25:00] GARDINER: -- it's not the matter for the leader of any of the political parties in the U.K. It's a matter for the party administration.

So it's the general secretary who does this. And the general secretary since she came in last year --

GORANI: Yes.

GARDINER: -- has actually put in place a number of new processes and also doubled resource, the human resource going into the investigation of those complaints to make sure that it's done in a much faster fashion.

GORANI: But some within the party remain unconvinced, including nine M.P.'s who quit the Labour Party two weeks ago, all of them citing anti-Semitism among other reasons.

Other party members have also quit, including Adam Langleben of the Jewish Labour Movement. His group is voting Wednesday on whether to break ties completely with the party after nearly 100 years of affiliation.

ADAM LANGLEBEN, MEMBER, JEWISH LABOUR MOVEMENT: I think this may well end up destroying the right party. Because if the Labour Party can't stand true to its values of anti-racism then what is the point in the Labour Party existing.

GORANI: The effect extends beyond politics as well. Many people we spoke to in the Jewish communities of north London say trust in the party has gone. Some saying they believe the country if Corbyn came to power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think maybe many of the Jewish people will probably immigrate to Israel or other countries, you know, is, though, we feel we're not wanted here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we have now is an extremist party which is anti-Semitic like all extremists are.

GORANI: Fear runs deep on some of the streets as the anti-Semitism controversy reaches far beyond the walls of Westminster -- Hala Gorani, CNN, London.

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VAUSE: The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism as well as biased against Muslims. It comes after a newly elected Democratic said a pro-Israel group was pushing allegiance to a foreign country.

Many saw that as coded dog whistles of anti-Semitism. She's the first Muslim woman in Congress and just last month apologized for suggesting Republicans' support of Israel is fueled by donations from a prominent pro-Israel group. Still to come, there may now be a second person cured of HIV. What

this unusual treatment could mean for 37 million people dealing with the virus worldwide. That's next on CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

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Until now, only one person is believed to have been cured of HIV. He's known as the Berlin patient. But now comes news of what could be a second case. The London patient.

In a study published in the journal "Nature," the London patient has experienced a lengthy sustained remission. Eighteen months, the longest ever. This comes nearly 12 years after the Berlin patient was cured.

In both cases, HIV-resistant stem cells were used as part of the treatment. The study's lead author says, if nothing else, this discovery shows the first patient's outcome was not an anomaly.

Dr. Timothy Henrich joins us now from San Francisco. He's associate professor of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco and part of the peer review group which actually looked at this study.

So it is good to have you with us, Doctor. Thank you very much.

DR. TIMOTHY HENRICH, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN SAN FRANCISCO: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: OK. There seems to be two separate discussions under way here right now. The first being, is this actually a cure? The other being, if this is a cure, is it viable? Is it a safe treatment? So on that first question, I want you to listen to Ravindra Gupta, lead author of the study. This is what he says.

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RAVINDRA GUPTA, LEAD AUTHOR, HIV PATIENT STUDY: It's a little bit early to use the term cure for this individual, because he's only been off antiretroviral therapy for about 18 months. And that is a great feat in itself, because it far exceeds any previous periods of remission from other cases.

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VAUSE: So as someone who was part of the peer review, where do you see all of this heading? What's your opinion of it? Whether it's a cure or it's just a long remission?

HENRICH: Well, absolutely. I certainly hope this will turn out to be like the Berlin patient, who was cured or in permanent HIV remission.

I think the evidence that Dr. Gupta had presented is very convincing that this person may actually be very similar to the Berlin patient and be able to live lifelong without taking antiretroviral therapy and essentially being free of HIV in any clinically meaningful sense.

I think we're optimistic, but I also agree that there is a small chance over the next year or two that HIV could rebound. It could recrudesce and be detectable in the blood.

But I think that we're all in agreement that this is unlikely, and that we are not only hopeful but also optimistic that what we'll see is a second case very much like the Berlin patient.

VAUSE: Yes, because in both cases, stem cells were used; and these donor stem cells had this rare mutation. They're essentially HIV- resistant. They could block the HIV infection. I'd like you to listen to our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, talking about, you know, how this worked and, you know, the viability of it.

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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Stem cell transplants are very, very risky. They can actually kill you. So you wouldn't want to give a stem-cell transplant to an HIV patient who doesn't have cancer. I mean, if you have cancer, you need a stem cell transplant, in many cases. It's going to save your life.

But if you don't have cancer, you don't want a stem cell transplant. It can kill you, and you can just control your HIV with anti-HIV drugs. They're safe, and they're effective.

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VAUSE: OK. So if we look at both patients, London and Berlin patients, both had another, you know, life-threatening illness, which is why they required the stem-cell transplant in the first place. Obviously, it's not a viable treatment, you know, on a mass approach, I guess.

Does it at least, at the very least, offer new ways of approaching a search for a cure? New ways of using this HIV-resistant mutation?

HENRICH: Absolutely. And I want to agree that stem-cell transplantation is really not something that is safe for people that don't need stem-cell transplantation. For example, for diseases like lymphoma or leukemia, that the Berlin patient and now this London patient experienced.

So it is fraught with danger, but we certainly have learned several interesting facts about how to potentially go ahead and cure HIV. So for example, we've learned about gene modification therapies. We have been able to pursue new strategies, in order to replicate these types of outcomes but without having to do a full stem-cell transplantation.

Now, we are not there yet. It is going to be a long -- a long road ahead to do this. It's going to be difficult. And it's going to take time and much effort. But I think that these cases really highlight that, first of all, it is possible to achieve this permanent or long- term HIV remission but also provides insights on how we can go about and approach curing HIV but with less toxicity and something that's more scalable for the general population.

VAUSE: Regarding the current HIV treatment, yes, they're very effective. They control the virus, but they don't eliminate it, which means there's always the prospect, I guess, because there are these reservoirs of HIV virus still within, you know, the patient, that eventually, a drug-resistant strain could evolve at some point. Which is why, you know, there is still this need, this sort of almost -- not necessarily urgent need but still, you know, this need for a cure that will see an end to this virus, once and for all.

HENRICH: Well, that's right. And when someone who is on stable antiretroviral therapy -- and sometimes it can be one pill a day with few side effects. So the treatments have become easier for those who have access to the care.

However, as soon as someone stops antiretroviral therapy, within two to four weeks, a virus will rebound and rebound fairly rapidly after they stop antiretroviral therapy.

So the hope is that we can attain a state where individuals can stop taking antiretroviral therapy and not worry about having to experience viral rebound, and also not worry about being infectious to others, for example, or experiencing the viral illness again once they stop therapy. And that's the ultimate goal.

VAUSE: Very quickly. We're almost out of time. I want you to listen to Timothy Ray Brown, the only person ever cured of HIV, known as the Berlin patient. Listen to this.

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TIMOTHY RAY BROWN, CURED OF HIV: I don't like being the only -- I didn't like being the only person in the world cured of HIV, because it's a lonely club.

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VAUSE: You mentioned before that this now shows that there is a very real possibility of a cure, that it is possible. How long? I mean, is there a time frame on this?

HENRICH: I think we're going to have to wait about a year or two before we're more certain that this is going to be like Timothy Ray Brown. But again, I think where we are optimistic that at least the data that we've seen and the research that's been done has -- it points in that direction. So I think that -- I'm hoping that Timothy Ray Brown will not be alone very much longer. VAUSE: Yes. And hopefully, obviously, a cure on a wide scale. Dr.

Timothy Henrich, thank you so much. And wish you the best of luck. Thank you.

HENRICH: Thank you very much.

VAUSE: CNN is partnering with young people around the world for a student-led day of action against modern-day slavery. It happens March 14.

So in advance of My Freedom Day, we asked Princess Eugenie of York, "What makes you feel free?"

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PRINCESS EUGENIE OF YORK: What makes me feel free is advocating on behalf of all the people who aren't free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Tell the world what makes you feel free. Share your story, using the hashtag #MyFreedomDay.

We'll take a short break. Back in a moment.

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[00:40:03] VAUSE: Well, there are selfies, and then there are really cool selfies. Put in the latter category, Israel's unmanned Beresheet spacecraft. This posting of a selfie had Earth in the background and a plaque reading, "Small country, big dreams."

With this mission, Israel is looking to become the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon. The first ever to do so privately funded.

Well, there's no rocket's red glare, no bombs bursting in air at the U.S. Capitol over the weekend, but Donald Trump is locked in a perilous fight with Democrats; and he turned to the broad stripes and the bright -- the broad stripes and the bright stars -- couldn't say that -- of the American flag for comfort.

Here's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever since the flag hugger in chief did this the other day, the president holding and murmuring sweet nothings to the stars and stripes has led to strife.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": Who does that?

MOOS: "If that flag could tweet, it'd say #MeToo."

But one man's grope is another's patriotic caress of Old Glory, which the White House glorified by tweeting a photo captioned, "America." And Donald Trump Jr. Instagramed, "Oh, hell, yes."

Supporters posted, "Aww, I love when he hugs the flag. Makes me teary. We hug our precious flag that stands for so much. The other side burns it."

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS'S "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": I believe that is the first time a flag has ever volunteered to be burned.

MOOS: Colbert conducted a soft-core commercial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you physically attracted to flags? Just can't keep your hands off? Then call today.

MOOS: Kimmel also flogged the flag.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now you can own a piece of history: a flag embraced by the president of the United States. Gaze proudly upon the orange stain left by the president's vert bronzed face.

MOOS: In real life, you actually can buy vinyl stickers of the presidential flag embrace, as well as posters.

But some would rather unsee it. And someone else turned it into a sail that's capsizing a boat.

Critics pointed out that President Trump isn't the only flag-fondling leader. That's Venezuela's former president, Hugo Chavez, planting a smooch on his flag.

(on camera): Snuggling with the stars and stripes is nothing new. President Trump is a serial flag hugger.

(voice-over): He's done it around half a dozen times, but at least he's monogamous. He only locks his arms around the American flag.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.

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