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Eight Conservatives Compete For British Prime Minister Seat; European Union Elections Reactions; Trump, Abe Hold Wide-Ranging Discussions In Tokyo Summit; Strong Peru Earthquake; Devastating Oklahoma Tornado; Tornadoes In The Last 11 Days; Shark Attack In Maui; El Chapo Complains About Prison Conditions; Albino Panda Filmed. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 27, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00] PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- on the next deadline, October 31st, doing it regardless of whether it a deal or not is in place, and doing so somewhat enthusiastically, you could put Boris Johnson, and Dominic Rob, both former cabinet members perhaps into that camp and then on the other hand those who promoting their experience and ability as deal makers to come up with a strong, but more nuanced result, and there you would be looking at the current foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the environmental secretary, Michael Gove.

But it does all set the stage certainly for the next Prime Minister, the next leader of the Conservative Party to be a strong Brexiteer, and quite simply there are those in the Party who believe unless you get that sort of figure into office and then delivers on the initial referendum, then you are looking as I say, an existential threat that could involve the Conservative Party being wiped out on the domestic level at a future general election, Bianca.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN PRODUCER: Phil Black at outside Downing Street, thank you. You're watching "CNN Newsroom," still to come on the program, we will have more for you on out top story, the swings, the surprises and the setbacks of the European election. Stay with us.

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NOBILO: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You're watching "CNN Newsroom." Here are the world headlines for you this hour. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump say they discussed North Korea and economic relations among other topics during their bilateral summit.

A short time ago, they also announced that two countries will cooperate on human space travel and work to bring home Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.

[04:35:00] Iran's foreign minister says Iran has proposed signing a nonaggression attack with its neighboring Gulf countries, that's according to Iran state run news agencies, the comments follow a meeting with its counterpart in Baghdad and come after a week of rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. Three French citizens have been sentenced to death in Iraq, accused of

being members of ISIS. The French press agency reports they were captured in Syria by U.S. backed forces. Iraq's president said in February that 13 French ISIS members were still in Iraqi custody.

The votes are in, the biggest multi-country election in the world. More than 100 million people from 28 European countries have chosen representatives to the European parliament. And centrist parties have lost ground. That is on the left and the right. Nationalists and populists made strong gains in some countries, but overall, Europe's populous surge was halted as millions of voters backed pro E.U. parties like the Greens who came second in Germany.

In Latvia, vice president for foreign policy at the German Marshal Fund joins me now from Brussels. Ian, thank you very much for being with us. Will euro files be relieved or concerned by the results we have seen?

IAN LESSER, VICE PRESIDENT, FOREIGN POLICY, THE GERMAN MARSHAL FUND: Well, I think they're going to be somewhat relieved. You know, for two reasons. I mean, first of all, the sort of anti-E.U. block in the European parliament while probably a little larger will be very fragmented and the moderate parties, the Europeanists didn't really do that badly, so in that sense it will come as a relief.

The other thing that I think is quite important is that there was a lot of attention. There's a lot of focus on Europe, there's a lot of focus on the European project and I think that is something to note as well.

NOBILO: If Europe did reconcile these competing trends it wasn't as good of a night for the nationalists as was feared initially by some in the E.U., but they still did have a fairly strong showing as did pro-European parties, so what now as the E.U. goes forward. It's hard enough trying to manage the interests of 27 -- 28 member states, but when they have to deal with these competing trends of Euro's skepticism and wanting deeper integration, how are they going to address that?

LESSER: There are going to be some very hard decisions to be made. I mean, first up, there are going to be choices about the key positions across the European institutions. You know, it's going to be harder and harder to make those kinds of decisions in a sense of a backroom without reference to the wider European public.

After all, there were very high levels of turnout historically for these European elections. So, a lot of people will be focused on it. The public opinion piece of it is very strong. It's going to be harder to do these sort of quiet deals. So, there's going to be a much more open debate about those positions.

And the other point to consider, I think, is not just the sheer numbers in parliament on one side or the other. It's a question of fragmentation versus solidity, and I think here you will see a kind of pulling together of parties, the Greens, the liberals, centrists on the conservative side and socialists as well, who basically have an idea of moving Europe forward and I think it will be harder for the nationalist and populists as well as they did to move their own agenda. We'll have to see.

NOBILO: Speaking of tensions, but on a slightly smaller scale, the results from the United Kingdom are equally confusing in that the Brexit Party has soared to around 30 percent of the volte, but there was an incredibly strong showing for the liberal Democrats, a party that has an unambiguous decision on wanting a second referendum and to remain in the European Union. How concerned or focused are other European countries and people still on Brexit, because it's obviously dominating discussion here in the U.K. where I am?

LESSER: Well, Brexit is part of the agenda to be sure, but I do think there has been a certain Brexit fatigue over recent months, simply because of the impasse that has been reach. I think there's a lot of frustration here in Brussels and it's broadly felt across the political spectrum, and I think this sort of rather intense focus on what comes next after the European elections here in Brussels is going to make it harder in a way for Europe to produce anything new on the Brexit side. So, I think in a sense, the ball is as it was, but even more profoundly back in Britain's court.

NOBILO: In just a sentence or two, if you can, how are the results that we're seeing this morning going to change Europe over the next year or two?

LESSER: Well, the first point I think is that they're simply going to be a lot more focused on what Europe should be doing. Again, you know, in the past, these European elections were something of a second order issue. They were not big news.

[04:40:04] They are big news now and they are big news because people all over Europe, people are thinking much more -- in a much more focused way about what they want Europe to be and for some, of course, they want the European Union in a sense to go away. That is not going to be the result of course, but so, I think that is number one. There's going to be a lot of public focus and these sort of sharp issues about sovereignty versus Brussels, about nationalism versus multi-lateralism, all of these things, which we also see on the other side of the Atlantic will going to be really at the (inaudible), and important for the debate, but the key thing next will be, who will be chosen for these key positions of European leadership here in Brussels.

NOBILO: Yes, we'll be keeping an eye on that, Ian Lesser, vice president for Foreign Policy at The German Marshall Fund. Thanks very much for your time.

Coming up later today on CNN on "CNN Talk" we want to know what you think about all of this, who are the winners and the losers in the European elections. To do that, log on to Facebook.com/CNN international on how you'll say at CNN Talk starting at 12:00 p.m. here in London, 7:00 p.m. in Hong Kong.

No respite for the U.S. State of Oklahoma as it deals with more extreme weather. Details coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: A powerful earthquake that rattled the nation of Peru, Sunday morning has left behind a trail of destruction. As you can see, the magnitude 8.0 earthquake damaged several roads, houses and other buildings. At least one person died and eleven others were injured across the country. And in neighboring Ecuador another seven people were hurt. Officials are still evaluating the damage.

More deadly weather has struck the already ravaged U.S. State of Oklahoma. Six people were killed late Saturday as a twister tore through the heart of the state. CNN's Omar Jimenez is there.

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[04:45:09] OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Many people here in this Oklahoma community still dealing with the aftermath of a deadly tornado that ripped through in a matter of minutes. There are two places in particular that were really destroyed, one, a mobile home park, literally the tornado was so strong it lifted up entire trailers and slammed them back on the ground. At least two people killed there, and the other set of images we have seen that are just harrowing come from a hotel, and really there's no other word to describe it other than decimated and as you see those images, believe it or not, there are people that survived that were inside that hotel when the tornado came through.

We spoke to one of them who told us that he went to bed like any other, the night before and then a little bit later in the evening, he woke up when his windows were rattling. They later shattered, so he dove under the bed and just a few moments later, the entire roof came crashing down. He said if it weren't for the bed next to him providing support, he would have been completely crushed. He was able to crawl out of that rubble. Nothing on except for shorts, no shirt, no shoes and into the pitch black darkness until emergency responders arrived.

Now we got more details about this tornado over the course of Sunday. The National Weather Service saying this was classified as an EF-3 tornado, 5 being the most severe. It was on the ground for just a matter of four minutes, and you see how much destruction it actually brought through.

And let's remember, this didn't just happen in a vacuum. It comes on the tail end of a week where we have seen deadly tornadoes. A week where we have seen high flood waters and a week where we have seen plenty of high water rescues, including here in the El Reno area. The mayor telling us they conducted about 46 high water rescues just days ago, and here we are days later on the scene of a deadly tornado. Omar Jimenez, CNN, El Reno, Oklahoma.

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NOBILO: Our thanks to Omar for that report. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is tracking the U.S. weather forecast. Karen, are we expecting Oklahoma and the neighboring states to have some respite? KAREN MAGINNIS, METEOROLOGIST, CNN WEATHER CENTER: It looks like a

lot of this severe weather is going to transition more towards the north into the Ohio River valley, the lower Great Lakes, also into a portion of Nebraska, but it looks like another round moves in by Tuesday. This has been such a broad, a very dynamic weather event that we have seen here over the last few days, with the bulk of the tornadic activity over the last 24 hours right smack across tornado alley.

Here are the number of tornadoes reported. Just in the past 11 days, over 260 tornadic reports in areas in Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma, including the deadly one that you just heard about in El Reno. That was an EF-3. Only 5 percent of all the tornadoes that we see annually across the U.S., which is about 1200 are EF-3 tornadoes.

All right. Still a very dynamic system. We'll start to see some of that severe weather move into the lower Great Lakes, including Chicago by tomorrow afternoon and evening. Also across a good portion of western Nebraska. Areas of low pressure will eject out of the Rockies and into the plains again. So, another round of severe weather is expected as we go into Tuesday.

And still a very strong ridge of high pressure is baking temperatures across the southeast. A number of areas with record setting temperatures including Savannah, Georgia. It soared to 102 degrees. The temperature this afternoon or Sunday afternoon in Tucson was only 83 degrees. So a real stark contrast in temperatures. We've got that cool air filtering in across the northern sections of the Rockies.

All right, here's where that severe weather is going to be in, in an area across northern Illinois, Indiana, also a portion of Ohio, from much of western sections of Nebraska, and then going into Tuesday, here we go. We see a little bit of a shift from Des Moines down to Oklahoma City, but if you were headed to New York City, the temperatures there should be about 65 coming up by Tuesday. Back to you Bianca.

NOBILO: Thank you, Karen. Karen Maginnis back for us at the CNN Weather Center.

In the U.S. State of Hawaii, a shark attack killed a 65-year-old man while he was swimming by the coast of Maui on Saturday morning. Authorities say it's the third shark attack in the state this year. Witnesses say the man was swimming about 55 meters from shore when the shark bit him. Here's how one witness described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON KELLER, WITNESS: He looked unconscious when they transferred him to the other gurney and we could see that they were trying to do CPR on him. But as we got closer, I saw some blood on his stomach and then I got looking a little bit more, and his wrist, it looked like the skin on his wrist was just torn off and I got looking closer and his entire left leg from his knee down was just missing.

[04:50:04] It looked like there was no blood or anything. As we were watching the man get pulled out, we could hear her screaming, she was saying that is my husband, that is my husband.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Convicted drug Kingpin El Chapo wants a federal judge to intervene over whether or not he says, he's in cruel and unusual prison conditions. We'll have the details of those conditions and what's going on ahead.

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NOBILO: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. Noise for the convicted drug lord known as El Chapo say their client isn't getting enough sunlight or fresh air or time outside. Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is sitting in a prison cell in Manhattan right now. He was found guilty of this year, leading one of the biggest and most violent drug cartels in the world. And CNN's Polo Sandoval reports, authorities fear, his latest request is really just a ploy to escape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Federal prosecutors argue the latest prison plea from Joaquin El Chapo Guzman could be his latest plot to escape.

[04:55:02] This month, he's defense team wrote to a federal judge claiming the convicted drug lord has been denied access to fresh air and natural light for the last 2.5 years. A court previously order Guzman remain in solitary confinement. A defense attorney has asked the judge to allow Chapo out of his 10 by eight foot window cell two hours a week for outdoor exercise, a request prosecutors want denied for several reasons. The only outdoor recreation area at the New York City's facility holding Guzman is a rooftop with a wire mesh.

Prosecutors argue that crafty cartel kingpin could potentially communicate with individuals in nearby buildings. Then there's a threat of a Hollywood like air lift to freedom. It almost happened in 1981 at the same facility, according to court documents. An inmate's cohorts high-jack the sight-seeing helicopter and flew it over the rooftop to help him escape. That plan was foiled, but prosecutors wouldn't put it past a man who has managed to slip out of two Mexican prisons, that's including a sophisticated tunnel that was used in his last escape in 2015.

As the Feds writes, an escape via rooftop would be elementary by comparison. In the letter Chapo's defense team also complains a former head of the lower Cartel can't sleep to the prison noise and is force to stuff his ears with toilet paper. In addition to the outdoor time, they want ear plugs, too. Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: A fully Albino panda has been filmed in an abandoned forest in China, which by being told is unprecedented. The footage was taken in April, but only released now. A researcher with Beijing's Peking University told CNN, that no fully albino giant panda has ever been recorded in the wild before. Well a cute and furry note to leave things on. Thank you for joining

us. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. For U.S. viewers, "Early start" is coming up next, and for international viewers stay tuned for Fareed Zakaria, GPS. Good bye.

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