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Hong Kong Chief Says Extradition Bill Is Dead; Trump Says He's Done with U.K. Ambassador; Justice Department Lawyers Swapped for New Team; "The New York Times" Reports on Disease, Unsanitary Conditions in Migrant Centers. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired July 09, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): An apology from Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's leader calls the whole legislative process a, quote, "complete failure" and she says the controversial extradition bill is dead but stopped short of withdrawing it completely.
Leaked diplomatic cables are causing a rift with a top U.S. ally. President Trump says that he won't work with the U.K. ambassador who called him "inept."
Plus, children constantly crying and diseases spreading all over. We look at the horrifying living conditions for asylum seekers stuck inside U.S. detention centers.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Paula Newton and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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NEWTON: And we start in Hong Kong with the city's chief executive Carrie Lam promising to end the controversial extradition bill. She caved after weeks of massive, sometimes violent demonstrations.
The bill would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to Mainland China. Critics feared dissidents would have been targeted by the government. Lam stopped short of a formal withdrawal and says the government has no plans to restart the amendment process.
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CARRIE LAM, HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE (through translator): Because of all these grievances and confrontations, there is an exercise to amend the fugitive offenders ordinance.
I have almost immediately put a stop to the amendment exercise. But there are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity and worries whether the government will restart the process in the legislative council. So I reiterate here, there is no such plan. The bill is dead. (END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: "The bill is dead." We have CNN's Anna Coren live in Hong Kong.
Matt Rivers, we will begin with you, joining us live from Beijing. No doubt a lot of attention with this new move by Carrie Lam to try and quell these protests. Some have argued that this all represents one of the greatest challenges to Chinese Communist rule since Tiananmen.
Can that really be true, given that China learned from that Umbrella Movement that if you calibrate the response -- and this is what they believe Carrie Lam is now trying to do -- that things will simmer down?
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think there's no question that in the Hong Kong region, in the city of Hong Kong itself, these protests have caused -- have had a massive impact. There's no doubt about that.
I think that, at least for the foreseeable future, it has made Beijing's path slightly more difficult in terms of trying to clamp down on democratic style freedoms that Hong Kong has long enjoyed.
These protesters have stood up and said they are not going to take what Beijing has been doing over the last couple of years in terms of trying to take away those freedoms lying down.
For people to make a suggestion that what's going on in Hong Kong has had any bearing on day-to-day life in Beijing, I just don't think that's true. People are not here talking about what's going on in Hong Kong every day. You don't see protests going on in Beijing or Shanghai or Chungking or Chengdu.
What was going on in 1989, it was not only happening in Tiananmen Square just a few kilometers away from we are now, there was pro- democracy movements happening all across the country at a time when the government was far weaker, far less rich and had a far less powerful military.
So to suggest that what was going on in Hong Kong is going to somehow delegitimize Communist Party rule through the rest of the mainland, which has 1.3 billion people compared to 7 million in Hong Kong, I just don't think that we are there yet. We are not anywhere close to that yet.
But we don't want to take away from what the people of Hong Kong and the protesters in Hong Kong have been able to do, which is to severely alter what the Hong Kong government was planning to do.
Yes, they say they're not done; yes, they say the Hong Kong government hasn't done what they needed to do. They still want to repeal the bill, they want a litany of other demands met overall and we don't want to take away from that.
The question is how long do these protests go on for? What kind of momentum can they generate?
And can they eventually impact the mainland?
We are nowhere near yet.
NEWTON: Good point and the main thing is, this isn't over yet, no matter what Carrie Lam tried to do today. Matt Rivers in Beijing. We now go to Anna Coren who is in Hong Kong.
Anna, as Matt was saying, while Beijing is looking on very closely, the protest movement and the protesters themselves --
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NEWTON: -- are saying that this is just not near enough.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not near enough, too little, too late. If anything, these protesters are feeling emboldened. They stopped short of calling it a victory. It's certainly a win and there's no denying that.
Carrie Lam, the executive, has caved in to one of the demands, that being the killing of the bill. Of course, they want that precise language, withdrawal of the bill. Here to discuss that further is Bonnie Leung from the Civil Human Rights Front.
Bonnie, were you satisfied with what Carrie Lam said today?
BONNIE LEUNG, HONG KONG PROTEST ORGANIZER: Not at all because they didn't withdraw the bill. The governments keep telling us and they want the principles to be met by society.
However, you read our laws, there is no such thing as the bill is dead in our law. So why on Earth that Carrie Lam just say withdrawal of the bill?
Because there's 2 million people's demand. And she refused to say the word, even though she said it's the same thing. But it's totally absurd.
COREN: It's not the same.
LEUNG: Exactly.
COREN: Use the precise language.
LEUNG: Yes.
COREN: She also asked for the people of Hong Kong to give her another chance and to give her space and to give her government the room to do good governance.
LEUNG: I do believe that there are some mistakes that cannot be forgiven as the leader. As I said, on the 12th of June, the police force had used lethal weapon against its own people as well as journalists. These are the kinds of mistakes that cannot be forgiven as a leader, especially when 2 million people expressly demand that a proper, independent inquiry to be conducted, not only to give Hong Kong people a clear report of what's going on, who gave the command, et cetera but also if the police has as they had claimed, that they did nothing wrong.
It will also give them a chance to say they're not wrong but the government is refusing that and it's totally not acceptable.
COREN: Yes, protesters want an independent investigation into police's use of excessive force. She is saying that a watchdog will be set up, investigation into what happened on the 12th of June, not good enough.
LEUNG: Yes, not good enough. It's totally a PR stunt, as we have explained, the inquiry that Carrie Lam said she is going to set up did not have proper power. Proper power means that at least we have to summon evidence and witnesses to conduct a proper and thorough investigation, not only are we demanding that but also the former chief justice, Honorable Andrew Lee (ph), who wrote an article this morning, saying that he supported this sort of independent inquiry for the society to turn the page, to give what happened on the 12th of June a proper rest, a proper report so the society can move on.
This is a totally honorable and logical suggestion but Carrie Lam refused.
COREN: Very quickly, are these protests going to continue?
LEUNG: Yes, of course, because our demands have not been met.
COREN: Bonnie Leung, as always, lovely to see you.
LEUNG: Thank you.
COREN: Paula, as you just heard, the protest movement feeling emboldened and we will continue to see protests here on the streets of Hong Kong in the weeks and months ahead.
NEWTON: Which will no doubt disappointment both Carrie Lam and the leadership in Beijing as they continue to see the situation escalate. Anna Coren, just after 2:00 pm friends in Hong Kong, continuing to follow the reaction. We appreciate it.
U.S. president Donald Trump says the White House will no longer deal with the British ambassador to United States. In leaked diplomatic cables, Kim Darroch called the Trump administration "inept and clumsy." He said the president radiated insecurity. This is how Mr. Trump responded.
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TRUMP: We're not big fans of that man and he has not served the U.K. well. So I can understand it and I can say things about him but I won't bother.
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NEWTON: Max Foster joins me now from London.
I feel like uttering, now look at the fine mess you've gotten us into. I feel as if it's significant that these cables were leaked at all.
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's caused a big problem for London because you have a situation where the British ambassador to the United States has been made persona non grata at the White House already it's taken effect. He was meant to go for dinner there with the emir of Qatar and President Trump was due to be --
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FOSTER: -- at that dinner as well. But the dinner invitation was withdrawn at the last moment from the White House against a day which was meant to be a meeting with Kim Darroch, at the White House with Ivanka Trump, alongside the British trade secretary.
We're seeing whether or not he's being allowed in. The situation here is that across the board in government, he's got full support, which is effectively just doing his job. These were secret cables, where the British ambassador is asked to express himself about the American administration.
He did that but has caused some upset within the White House as we've seen from Donald Trump. But he can't actually do his job right now. It is a difficult situation. Because the government can't be seen to kowtowing to a foreign power and them deciding effectively who should be their ambassador.
NEWTON: It's quite a situation at a moment in time when Britain is going through its own political turmoil and we will continue to fall that story. There could be a new ambassador in a few weeks. Max Foster from London, we appreciate it.
Want to take a deeper dive on this now. Bobby Ghosh is the editorial board member for Bloomberg.
Bobby, reading the cables, it was not the substance or the colorful language as much as some people may have appreciated that. As I say, the mere fact that these things were leaked deliberately, this is definitely a calculated move.
Why?
BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: There's been a sustained attack from some sectors of British politics, especially pro-Brexit. There's been an attack on the civil service here. There's a sense that the bureaucrats are opposed to Brexit and are secretly working against it.
So this could be the speculation is that this is part of an attack against the bureaucracy, to weaken the bureaucracy, weaken every aspect of the civil service, the foreign service and weaken the resistance to Brexit. That's the only somewhat rational speculation that can be indulged in
at this point about who did this. You also have to allow the possibility that this is one individual who did this.
But it exposed the government to a very awkward intuition. This kind of language and these kinds of cables is perfectly normal. Remember, a few years ago when the WikiLeaks documents were released, much of that involved diplomatic cables from different countries, American cables even, and that was filled with this level of candid discussion.
That's essentially what an ambassador is meant to do and is meant to give his government his candid opinion --
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NEWTON: Bobby, the foreign office came back with a statement, saying that the British public would expect their ambassadors to provide ministers with a honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in the country. Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed the government but we pay them to be candid.
Interesting here in terms of Theresa May, her cabinet, the foreign office standing by this man and yet do you think it will have a significant impact on relations going forward?
The Theresa May government is really only days away and only has days to survive here.
GHOSH: A great deal depends on what Trump does now. It's one thing to declare the ambassador persona non grata at the White House. That is difficult and complicated enough. But in one of his tweets he uses the word "we."
"We will stop working with this person."
If that means that every department of the United States government, including some very, very important security arms of the government, if they all declare the British ambassador persona non grata, it's hard to imagine him surviving. It would be pointless to have him there.
The British government then has a very embarrassing situation, where they might have to withdraw the ambassador at the risk of seeming to be surrendering to a foreign power, to the United States.
This is not going to be a problem for Theresa May, as you point out, she is only a couple weeks ago from her last day as prime minister. Her replacement, most likely Boris Johnson, is going to have to deal with this embarrassment. At a time where he desperately needs President Trump on his side as he works to pull Britain away from Brexit.
He's going to need all the goodwill he can get from this administration. He might very well calculate that means that it is embarrassing for his foreign service or even annoying his civil service, that is a decision he no choice but to make. NEWTON: You brought up the interesting point that we've seen things like this in the WikiLeaks release. And yet, I keep having to remind everyone. That was a different part of diplomacy at the time for --
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NEWTON: -- that time and era. Donald Trump is a completely different president.
Do you think in terms of the U.K. relations going forward, that he will remember this, how it happened and why it happened and will continue to look at the next British ambassador of the United States and think, I wonder what this person is writing back to London?
GHOSH: Not only that, he's probably thinking about all the ambassadors with whom he has to interact and what they are saying about. Ironically, with his tweets and with his decision to shut off the British ambassador from the White House, he is living up exactly to the description in the ambassador's cable. He's showing himself to be radiating insecurity. That was an expression used.
He is showing himself to be very thin skinned, which the ambassador pointed out. But that as you say is Donald Trump. He's a man who carries grudges, who almost seems to enjoy carrying a grudge.
Whether that grudge goes away if and when Sir Kim Darroch leaves the U.S. and it is transferred to the next British ambassador, next prime minister, we can only wait and see. But he is not somebody who is going to let this go until I think the ambassador does.
NEWTON: It will be interesting to see how these relationships are repaired and how soon we have a change in the diplomacy there in Washington. Bobby Ghosh, thank you so much, we appreciate it.
GHOSH: Anytime.
NEWTON: A report of horrific conditions inside a U.S. detention center. Ahead, what it took to get the story of overcrowding, disease, and unsanitary conditions for hundreds of migrants.
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NEWTON: President Trump is expected to decide this week how he'll get around a Supreme Court ruling that blocked a controversial question on the 2020 census. It's a fight that appeared settled last week until the president tweeted that he wasn't giving up. Pamela Brown has our report.
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PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sources tell CNN the administration is scrambling to figure out if they can use a presidential memorandum or an executive order to add the controversial citizenship question to the census, options that were put on the table only in recent days after the president said he wanted to fight the issue.
TRUMP: We're thinking about doing that. It's one of the ways. We have four or five ways we can do it.
BROWN: This as the Justice Department replaces the legal team --
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BROWN (voice-over): -- overseeing the census case. A Justice official says the administration didn't want the same lawyers who made one argument to the court on the census contradict themselves with a new argument. And sources say the White House did not intervene on the matter.
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I have been in constant discussions with the president ever since the Supreme Court decision came down. And I think over the next day or two you will see what approach we're taking.
BROWN: Speaker Pelosi weighing in on Trump not backing down.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is about keeping -- you know, make America -- you know, his hat? Make America white again. They want to make sure that people, certain people, are counted.
BROWN: Also tonight, British officials doing damage control and reaching out to U.S. counterparts after it was revealed the U.K. ambassador sent cables back to London describing Trump as inept, insecure and incompetent.
Trump fired back with a tweet just a short while ago, saying: "I do not know the ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the U.S."
And he now says he will no longer deal with the ambassador. What will happen to him moving forward remains unclear.
TRUMP: The ambassador has not served the U.K. well. I can tell you that. We're not big fans of that man. And he has not served the U.K. well.
BROWN: President Trump also directing his ire at "The New York Times" after it reported on squalid conditions at a Texas border facility. Trump on one hand calling the report phony, while also placing the blame once again on Democrats for the overcrowding.
Now he's claiming the media will be invited to see the facilities for themselves.
TRUMP: We're going to have some of the press go in and see it, because they're crowded. And we're the ones that were complaining about they're crowded. BROWN: But Democrats claim the administration is hiding from the truth.
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): It is now because of the massive embarrassment, because of the outright declaration of incompetence by the Department of Homeland Security's own inspector general. We now have an official cover-up by the Department of Homeland Security.
BROWN: Vice President Pence says he will visit a detention facility later this week and bring bipartisan members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Pence today went after Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for saying the U.S. is running concentration camps on the border.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To compare the humane work of the dedicated men and women of Customs and Border Protection with the horrors of the Holocaust is an outrage.
BROWN (voice-over): Pamela Brown, CNN, the White House.
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NEWTON: We want to get more on this with CNN contributor Caitlin Dickerson, who's also an national immigration reporter for "The New York Times." She worked on "The Times" story that reported on those appalling conditions inside the migrant detention center in Clint, Texas.
Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us. We're trying to figure out what was going on.
How difficult was it?
Why do you think there is no transparency for what is clearly a Border Patrol that is under stress?
CAITLIN DICKERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was incredibly difficult to get information about what was happening inside Clint. That is not atypical as someone who covered immigration in the previous administration as well, because these are Homeland Security matters. These facilities tend to be tightly shut. It's hard for journalists to get access to. But we're seeing it become more difficult at a time when there's so much focus and public interest as you can imagine on finding out what the facilities look like on the inside.
Starting from the very beginning, I heard from a group of lawyers who I typically work with on stories who told me they were going to Clint to interview some kids and this was weeks ago before anyone knew about this facility. They were headed there to interview children who have been held there.
I said, OK, I, want to hear about what you see when you get back and they said, no, these interviews have to be confidential and we won't be able to talk about what the facility looks like on the inside.
It turns out they were so struck and so disturbed by what they saw that they broke the confidentiality and told journalists about it. But even after, it was still a very slow process for us to get information.
About a week later, we were given a tour of the facility when my colleagues toured the facility. But by then, hundreds of children had been transferred out and the facility had been cleaned up very significantly.
So we spent a lot of time with a lot of reporters to find as many people as we could who had their own eyes on the facility, Border Patrol agents, who weren't supposed to talk to us but agreed to because they were so upset with what they saw, that they decide to share it.
NEWTON: In fact, the first-hand accounts you got are startling.
You write, "Outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chicken pox were spreading among the hundreds of children and adults who were being held in cramped cells."
That's what agents said to you. The stench of the children's dirty clothing was so strong it spread to "the agents' own clothing -- people in the town would scrunch their noses when they left work."
I have to tell you, Caitlin, a lot of questions being asked about the next reporting from your piece and your colleagues.
"The children cried constantly. One girl seemed likely enough to try to kill herself that the agents made her sleep on a cot in front of them so they could watch her as they were processing new arrivals."
Caitlin, I have to ask you in, terms of you actually speaking to people and authorities who were responsible for the people that were there, what were they saying to you about the fact that they knew that --
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NEWTON: -- this wasn't the way they should be keeping detainees or migrants that are supposed to be treated humanely not just by U.S. law but by international law as well.
DICKERSON: They were upset, they were disturbed and didn't want to be in the situation. I think what that anecdote says to me more than anything else is that these are law enforcement officers who aren't trained in child welfare and shouldn't be. They have an entirely separate job.
And so, we've heard from people who really felt like they were doing their best who were uncomfortable and very unhappy in what they were seeing at work every day but who weren't being put in a position to be able to succeed, first and foremost because they're not trained to care for children who have an extreme psychological issues like the one that you were describing.
And these agents also said that they raised the alarm with supervisors. They said we have too many people here, we can't fit anyone else and we need to figure out a way to transport children out of this facility and then said the opposite happened. More continued to come.
When you talk about the sanitation issues you have to envision that these are children who'd crossed the border weeks prior. And yet, they were still wearing the exact same clothes that they cross the border and many of them. Many had no showers over weeks, some even up to a month. Many were not able to brush their teeth at all, maybe one or two times if they were lucky.
And so, people had clothing. The lawyers who visited the facility described the children they interviewed who had food and who had, you know, mucus because they were sick just crushed on to their clothes.
And so, you know, when you have hundreds of kids who are in that situation, of course there's a stench and of course it's significant enough that it goes on to the clothes of the people who were working the facility and even after when they go home and try to take a shower, you know, it was just that dirty.
NEWTON: Caitlin, the administration has given a lot of pushback here. I want you to hear from Chief Aaron Hull who is, of course, in charge of that sector in El Paso where Clint is. Take a listen.
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AARON HULL, CHIEF U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENT, EL PASO SECTOR: Every two days, these children are getting offered a shower facility. Now we cannot make them shower. We can take them to the shower and we can put them there but we can't physically make them shower.
It's the same thing with brushing their teeth. We encounter children who have never brush their teeth. We had a lot of agents had to teach them basic hygiene.
No, these are not denied. This is no secret, that all of these aspects of food, water, hygiene, showers, laundry, were monitored in all of this. These things are documented.
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NEWTON: Caitlin, your reaction to that considering the fact the, you know, you spoke to dozens of people here.
DICKERSON: I think what agent Hull is describing is a goal and it's in fact a standard that may be maintained in many other border patrol facilities but certainly not in this one.
And remember, we're not just going based on the accounts of lawyers who visited the facility and of lawmakers who visited the facility. We're also going based on the accounts of course of the border patrol agents who work there of inspector general reports from the Department of Homeland Security.
All of the allegations that have been made about the circumstances inside Clint when we talk about over all things like hygiene, things like children not having enough food to eat. Things like children not having anywhere to sleep, having to sleep on a concrete floor.
We've gotten now four, five or six different versions of the same account including from the agency's own inspector general. So, I think we need to reach a point where we acknowledge the circumstances in Clint and we acknowledge that they weren't ideal.
It's not what the border patrol is hoping to achieve but it's clear at this point that there are just many ways in which that facility was lacking.
NEWTON: Caitlin, despite the president saying that he thinks this was in his words a hoax, his own administration is saying that these are some of the conditions in these detention centers. We appreciate you and your colleagues and will continue to follow that.
DICKERSON: Thank you.
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NEWTON: The Trump administration is defending the handling of the border crisis and conditions at this detention center. The acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper.
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KEN CUCCINELLI, ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES: I would say in these facilities there has been overcrowding, which has been warned of since 2018 at the severe level by DHS Secretary Nielsen back when she was the secretary, spoke about it in 2018 and it took all the way until June to get some help, particularly focused on the children with the recent small appropriations bill.
That helped clear out a lot of the children taken down from about 2,500 in these facilities down to about 350 with only a very small number there, more than 72 hours. So once we got in the case of the children, the facilities that were appropriate for the numbers we were seeing, the problem was alleviated.
Before that, there was overcrowding and with it all of the accompanying challenges both security and care for the individuals because that's eating up a lot of manpower on the border.
[02:30:00] The reality is, there are people in this population who are legitimately seeking asylum in this country. And that pipeline is being swamped by fraudulent claims by people who have no chance of getting asylum but we give massive due process that takes time, effort, manpower and facilities to accomplish. And it's very hard to manage that the design levels that we have right now.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: OK, and more on this story, you may remember a few days ago when we reported that young migrant children held in detention facilities drew those pictures you see there the conditions they experienced. Now the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History wants those drawings, it says the museum has a long commitment to telling the complex and complicated history of the United States and to documenting that history as it unfolds. And we will have more news right after the break.
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NEWTON: And welcome back. I'm Paula Newton. We'll update you now on our top stories this hour. An American multimillionaire with powerful political connections is pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors say Jeffrey Epstein had a vast trove of nude photos of young looking women and girls in his New York home. Now, he avoided similar charges more than a decade ago by striking a plea deal in Florida.
A Congolese warlord known as the Terminator has been convicted by the International Criminal Court. Bosco Ntaganda was found guilty of 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity. It include murder, rape and enlisting children soldiers -- child soldiers, pardon me, between 2002 and 2003. He was both a Congolese general and a rebel leader.
Hong Kong's chief executive says the controversial extradition bill is dead. And there are no plans to bring it back. Carrie Lam stop short to formally withdrawing the bill, something protestors are demanding. The bill would have allowed suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial, it led to weeks of massive, sometimes violent protests right across the city.
And joining me now on our top story on the line is Hong Kong Legislative Council member Michael Tien. We've been following the developments here, and Carrie Lam remember came out and basically said, that it was dead, the bill was dead. But why didn't she withdraw it? Why didn't she say it is completely withdrawn?
MICHAEL TIEN, MEMBER, HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL (via telephone): That's a good question, Paula. I think she's early principally centered, she is very stubborn.
[02:35:05] She basically just don't want to use those words about retraction or withdraw. So she's using her own way to announce that the bill is dead. Yes, but these aren't just words -- these aren't just words, right? But these aren't just words, right? I mean, as far as the protestors are concerned, if she doesn't formally withdraw, it means they do not believe that this bill will go away?
TIEN: Well, you are right. It's a matter of semantics. She refused to use those words. But you --- she is using other way to proclaim that basically everything has failed, she admit complete failure. All the workers come to a spark that bill is dead. As far as I'm concerned, I think it's now getting to a point where it's the war on words and I think she and the public broadcasters are fighting over something that to me is not consequential. What actually is consequential is that she refused to set up objection
at independent inquiry on the June 12th riot. That to me is more of a substantive move. She basically wanted --
NEWTON: You've been call -- you've been calling for that for some time and I understand that's what the protestors want as well. But at this point in time, do you see any kind of compromise dialogue going forward, despite what Carrie Lam said? Because we've been heard from the protestors this morning and the protests groups and the pro- democracy legislators. And everybody says that this really doesn't mean anything to them in terms of moving this forward.
TIEN: Well, I beg to disagree. As far as I'm concerned, well they should proclaim that bill is dead -- it's dead -- that it's dead. I am more concerned about the more far Beijing demand which is to have an independent committee looking into the June 12th violence. She only wants the independent to this complete council whose 27 members are all appointed by government and pretty much by the (INAUDIBLE) directly to look into that matter. That has far reaching the fact because whatever result this counsel produce, probably will not be looked at objectively by the people. And in the future, the law and order will trust in police force in Hong Kong will always be a point of contention.
NEWTON: Listen, Ms. Lam has become certainly a lightning rod in all of this. Would -- do you believe it's time for her to step down?
TIEN: There are three officials totally involved with this, she is one of the three. I am absolutely certain that before her term is over, some heads will roll. Exactly whether it's one or two or three, I cannot say at this point. I think the decision is lasting up on a list of names up in Beijing.
NEWTON: Very interesting comments there. And we will wait to see what happens as I said Michael that the protestor say that indeed they will continue to protest. And we'll continue to check in with you as well, appreciate your time.
Now, the E.U. is scrambling to defuse a nuclear standoff with Iran. France is sending a top diplomat to the country after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran is enriching Uranium beyond the limits said in that crucial 2015 nuclear deal. Now, the country is still a long way off from weapon's grade uranium but Tehran warns it could drastically increase enrichment even further in the next 60 days. And for more on this, we're joined by Fred Pleitgen on Iran's nuclear strategy and how that international community is now responded.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a fairly significant step by the Iranians. They are not just producing more low enriched uranium. They're also producing higher grade low enriched uranium.
Now, to put that in perspective, the Iranians have now said that they've reached the limit which was 3.67 percent and are now producing uranium at an enrichment grade of about 4.5 percent. Now, in order to build a nuclear weapon, they would need an enrichment grade of about 90 percent. So they're still pretty far away from achieving that. And they have also said that they don't actually want to build a nuclear weapon in the first place.
Now, the reason why they're doing this, the Iranians are being pretty open about it. They say they want to put pressure especially on the European signatories of the nuclear agreement to finally give them some economic relief. The Iranians are saying they signed up to the nuclear agreement, they negotiated the nuclear agreement, they put severe restrictions on their nuclear program and they're not only not getting the benefits of those restrictions but they're even getting additional sanctions from the United States and the Iranians are saying, if that is going to be the case in the future, then they're just not going to have those restrictions on a nuclear program anymore.
[02:40:00] Now, the Iranians have said that they're giving the Europeans another 60 days, and after those 60 days, they could take the next step. And they say that could mean enriching uranium up to 20 percent and that's certainly would be a big step forward. Something that would be very concerning for the international community.
The Europeans are saying that they're working on a mechanism to try and give Iran some economic relief. So far that mechanism seems to be in the early stages of functioning. But the Iranians are saying for them, so far that's not enough.
And if the Iranians were concerned about the U.S. warning about its upgraded enrichment level, they certainly aren't showing it. In fact, the foreign minister of the country Javad Zarif tweeted at Donald Trump and saying that the only way out of this impasse between the U.S. and Iran would be for President Trump to stop listening to what they call the B team. Which is elsewhere close to President Trump including of course John Bolton, the national security adviser. Fred Pleitgen, CNN Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Now, the U.K. is caught on its own standoff with Iran after British forces seized an Iranian oil tank for Thursday. The ship was boarded by British Royal Marines off the coast of Gibraltar near Spain. Iran's foreign minister calls it piracy, another official suggested Iran should see the British tanker in response.
Now, Gibraltar says the ship appears to be packed with crude oil, the U.K. accuses it of heading for Syria in violation of those E.U. sanctions. Iran denies that, and says the U.K. was acting on behalf of U.S. officials.
The U.S. women's football team may have won the World Cup but their fight for equal pay, yes, that's just beginning. We'll explain.
Plus, a tragic turn of events for the man who would have been the first ever black African in space. That's next on NEWSROOM.
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NEWTON: A couple from New York is suing a fertility clinic after the mother gave birth to two babies from two other couples. According to the Federal lawsuit, the Los Angeles Fertility Clinic collected sperm and eggs from the husband and wife resulting in five embryos through in vitro fertilization. Now, the wife became pregnant with twins after two embryos were implanted. However, after they were born, DNA testing found the babies were not even related to the couple or to each other. The couple was required to give up custody of the babies to their genetic parents.
[02:45:00] Now, I mean, it's an ethical dilemma right? And there are no easy answers here. Earlier CNN spoke with fertility expert about all the ramifications.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMARA WALKER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I don't want to forget the emotional aspect of this because when the couple turns to IVF, I mean, this is after they've tried for years and nothing's been working. It's a huge financial burden for a lot of couples, obviously.
DR. DANIEL SHAPIRO, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY ASSOCIATES: Right.
WALKER: And you get to this point. You finally get pregnant, you finally -- because even when you're pregnant, you can have a miscarriage. And then, you finally give birth, and they're not your children, nor are the two boys related. And then, you have to relinquish custody.
SHAPIRO: Right.
WALKER: I mean, talk about the emotional aspect to this.
SHAPIRO: Well, it's already a roller coaster to go through fertility care. It's awful frankly for our patients. And no amount of humor or compassion sometimes can alleviate their pain and their discomfort.
In a situation like this though, you know, that the injury is a double whammy because she did have embryos and nobody knows where they are.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
SHAPIRO: Right. That's the other part of the story.
WALKER: Yes, how are they going to find those (INAUDIBLE)?
SHAPIRO: I -- well, nobody knows yet. It's going to take maybe a little bit of Investigation. But it's probably knowable. But, you know, in a situation like this. Obviously, she has to relinquish. But, one cannot imagine the injury that this person is suffering, and --
HOLMES: She basically become a surrogate for somebody else. Well, do off the table.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAPIRO: Right, well, she's (INAUDIBLE).
WALKER: Yes, yes. (INAUDIBLE).
SHAPIRO: And the other part of this is that there is no roadmap for how to make restitution for this. Have -- here's -- this hasn't really happened exactly like this before, not to my knowledge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: All right, now, according to the couple's lawsuit, they have suffered physical and emotional harm. The defendants are accused of medical malpractice, negligence, and 14 other counts.
Now, the U.S. Women's National team brought their World Cup trophy back to America Monday. But the football champs have another photo fight. This one's about money, they want what the men get. CNN's Dianne Gallagher, explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The back-to-back World Cup champions returning home as heroes. But as they celebrate a record fourth Cup win, the U.S. Women's National Team is focused on a bigger opponent. Getting paid the same as male athletes. Echoing through the sold-out stadium Sunday, chants of USA switched to equal pay.
AMERICAN CROWD: Equal pay. Equal pay. Equal pay.
MEGAN RAPINOE, CO-CAPTAIN, UNITED STATES WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM: Definitely, I heard that is we were kind of lining up. I think we have a case no matter what. Obviously, we've brought the lawsuit. But, this just -- you know, sort of blows it otherwise. It's like -- isn't even about that anymore, isn't just kind of about doing the right thing.
GALLAGHER: Mediation expected to start soon in a lawsuit filed in March by members of the 2015 World Cup winning team, claiming gender discrimination by the U.S. Soccer Federation. Complaints go far beyond pay equity. Ranging from quality of training, travel, and promotion provided versus what the U.S. National Men's Team receives.
President Trump who has publicly sparred with Co-captain Megan Rapinoe after she said in June that if they won, she would not be going, "to the bleeping White House," did congratulate the team on Twitter. But isn't ready to support their fight for fair pay.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You also have to look at numbers because when you look at World Cup soccer that's one thing. And you also have to look at soccer, professional soccer. You have to see who's taking in what. So, I don't know what those numbers are. GALLAGHER: In terms of revenue between 2016 and 2018, the U.S. Women's Team generated more than the men according to The Wall Street Journal. And that's all before this financially record-setting World Cup win.
And despite having previously said, the team would be invited to the White House. Whether they won or not, the president now says he's mulling it over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you invite the women's team to the White House? The soccer team?
TRUMP: We haven't really thought about it. We will look at that, certainly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: And that was Dianne Gallagher, reporting there. Now, layoffs are underway at Deutsche Bank, as the struggling institution rolls out a dramatic overhaul. Now, it's set to cut 18,000 jobs by 2022, bringing its headcount down to roughly 74,000 employees.
The bank didn't say where all the cuts would be but many are expected to hit the United States. Deutsche Bank has been struggling to find direction since the global financial crisis. It says it will pull out of equities trading altogether, and shrink other parts of its investment bank.
Now, he would have been the first ever black African in space. But the family of Mandla Maseko, says he died Saturday in a very tragic motorcycle crash in South Africa. Now, he beat 1 million people to win a trip to space. Our Farai Sevenzo has more.
[02:49:57] FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Back in 2013, Mandla Maseko was only 23, turning 24. And on the occasion of Nelson Mandela's death, his great hero, he decided to answer an advert to become one of 23 hopefuls to go up into outer space and do to what astronauts call, outer orbit, 62 bars up into the air would have been the prize for those 23 hopefuls.
A million people applied out of 75 countries. And Mandla Maseko became one of those winners. He became an inspirational speaker to many South Africans. His dream of defying gravity. And it was weird (INAUDIBLE) how he won that competition. He jumped off a wall and got afraid to take a picture of him midair as if he was defying gravity.
And, of course, even though that flight into space didn't happen, in the intervening years between then and his untimely death at only the age of 30, he became a pilot. He joined the South African Defense Force, he became an officer in the South African Air Forces. And then, of course -- and an inspirational speaker to so many young people. And, of course, as so many young people were so driven like Mandla Maseko was, he also liked and loved his Yamaha bike. And that tragically took his life on Saturday night.
It remains to be seen now whether his work at such a tender age will inspire more Africans to become involved in the space race. In the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, people like Mandla Maseko will have inspired thousands of African kids to fall in love with space. Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Nairobi.
NEWTON: OK. Coming up, two weeks of non-stop rain have destroyed entire neighborhoods like this one in Southern China. We'll have a live weather report on what they can expect there next.
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NEWTON: Parts of southern China have been inundated with rain for two straight weeks. 61 people are reported dead, more than a dozen are still missing. According to Chinese state media, there have been landslides and many power outages, and people have been trapped by that raging water.
Our meteorologist Ivan Cabrera joins us now with more. And you look at those pictures and you think really Ivan, there's going to be more rain?
IVAN CABRERA, CNN INTERNATIONAL WEATHER ANCHOR: Yes. What a calamity there. My goodness. So many folks losing their lives over this stuff flooding of a -- Paula, good to see you.
By the way, that video we showed you is the Nanping, which is in Fujian Province here. And that -- it was not even the worst of it, as far as I could see, as far as the heaviest of the rainfall. That this explosion across some of the southeastern provinces here. This happening over the last several days. This is nothing unusual. This happens actually every year. Right? We get this frontal boundary that just sets up here and that results in the types of rain we've seen over the last several days.
Anywhere from 300 plus millimeters. And it's still raining over at the same areas that I'm showing these totals about. So, this is going to be an ongoing event here. Our East Asia rainy season, otherwise known as the plum rains or the mei-yu baiu front, it sets up here. And you get these disturbances, those big explosions of red, and they drop incredible amounts of rain over the same area, right?
Kind of like train tracks here, and you can follow that across the East China Sea, and then, heading up to Japan. We've been covering the flooding in Japan all from the same frontal boundary that will continue to provide us to some heavy rain.
So, additional amounts. Look at this, and this is in the next 48 hours. A potential for another 100 to 150 millimeters of rainfall. And notice you work your way a little further to the north and no rain. And it's this area here right along that front that will continue to see.
Now, the worst of it here as far as the heavy rain the next step few days. So, we'll keep you posted but once those rivers and streams -- things start getting going as far as the volume, it is going to be a while before things begin to recede and we're dumping more rain on it. [02:55:14] NEWTON: Yes, OK. Thanks for that, Ivan. Appreciate it. Now, Twitter has taken down a retweet by Donald Trump that he claims predicted his path to the White House. The picture is real, the quote that came with it, not so much. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump retweeted it with a four-letter comment, "cute". But a better word would be, false. What the president linked to was a photo of President Reagan meeting Donald Trump back in 1987. With this prophetic Reagan quote superimposed credited to Reagan. "For the life of me, and I'll never know how to explain it. When I met that young man, I felt like I was the one shaking hands with a president." Critics shook their heads, "For someone who is constantly shouting fake news."
TRUMP: The fake news.
MOOS: "You sure do like to retweet it." PolitiFact, they did a pants on fire. Quoting the administrative head of the Reagan Foundation is saying, "He did not ever say that about Donald Trump."
To mark the fake Reagan quote, critics on Twitter responded President Trump with a real Reagan quote.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There you go again.
MOOS: Reagan's quip to Carter during a debate. Trump and Reagan did share the same slogan.
TRUMP: We are going to make America great again.
REAGAN: Make America great again.
MOOS: But great isn't what Reagan's daughter says her dad would think of the Trump presidency.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he would be horrified.
MOOS: If Reagan didn't actually predict Trump's presidency, maybe George did. "Donald J. Trump is going to be the best, most handsome president, ever. George Washington after liberating the airport at Fort McHenry." That's a dig at President Trump's Fourth of July blooper, touting the Continental Army success.
TRUMP: Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts. It took over the airports.
MOOS: Airports in 1776? The president blamed a rain-soaked teleprompter.
TRUMP: Right in the middle of that sentence, it went out.
MOOS: Inspiring Sidney Blumenthal to compose, "President Trump's Revolutionary War quiz" with questions like did George Washington's shuttle airline go bankrupt before or after he captured LaGuardia? Cute. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
NEWTON: And thanks for joining us. I'm Paula Newton. I will be back with more news in just a moment. Stay with us.
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