Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Boris Johnson Faces Diplomatic Challenges with Iran; Two Missing Canadians Now Suspects in Killing of Three People in British Columbia; UK, France Brace for Extreme Heat This Week. Aired at 12-1a ET
Aired July 24, 2019 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everybody, thank you for joining us. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Ahead this hour: Conservatives crown BoJo the clown. Will Boris Johnson be the dude that delivers Brexit or the no deal done?
The last chance for Democrats to present the Mueller report in a new light and disprove the false claims of the president and his attorney general and the conservative media and convince Americans the Russia investigation did not find no collusion and no obstruction.
The Europeans thought it was hot a few weeks ago, you haven't seen nothing yet. It's going to get hot, really hot.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VAUSE: In the coming hours, Boris Johnson will become the 55th person to rise to the highest political office in Great Britain in Northern Ireland. He won the leadership votes on Tuesday and is now in the office of the prime minister. His main Conservative Party rival was the foreign secretary.
He was a long shot even though Johnson has been a controversial and divisive figure of British politics and is a hardline Brexiteer who is willing to leave the E.U. without a deal by the October 31st deadline.
Here's what he said after the win, echoing Churchill by way of the comedy "Bill and Ted."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, INCOMING BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And we know the mantra of the campaign that has just gone by, in case you've forgotten it, you probably have it is deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn. Deliver, unite and defeat, was not the perfect acronym for an election campaign since unfortunately it spells it DUD, but they forgot the final E, my friends. E for energize.
And I say, I say to all the judges, dude, we are going to energize the country, we're going to get the Brexit done on October 31st.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Anna Stewart live for us on Downing Street very early morning and I guess a fair question to you, Anna, he resumes power after winning a vote of the Conservative Party. He won at 92,000 votes but this is a country of millions of voters. He has a slim majority in Parliament.
It's not exactly an overwhelming mandate he has?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A slim majority says it, John. The working majority, given on party member was suspended yesterday, is one of three. With the by-election next week that could be just two.
And he will likely face a rebellion in the Conservative Party from Remainers much like Theresa May did from Brexiteers. You have to question whether much is really changed despite the new leader soon to be living in Number 10.
The sun will soon be rising and it's Theresa May's very last day as prime minister and we do expect it to unfold just like any other outgoing prime ministers, a last Q&A around midday. Followed by a speech back here before she tenders resignation to the queen.
We will be without a prime minister bizarrely for about an hour; that's a quirk of the British system. Boris Johnson will be summoned and will enter the palace as Mr. Johnson and will return from it as the prime minister and I guess the new father to Larry the cat.
VAUSE: Good for Larry. But problems for Boris on the horizon, a revolt among the Remainers many of whom have quit the cabinet. The incoming prime minister Boris Johnson says they will be replaces with a cabinet for modern Britain.
What does he mean by that?
STEWART: That's absolutely right. We expect more resignations today, largely symbolic as they're already outgoing. But we expect resignations from less Brexiteers like Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and I think the new cabinet from what we understand will be a much bigger representation of women, of ethnic minorities. So I think will be different in that sense.
The key roles, the home secretary, the foreign secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, later today and the rest probably tomorrow. All the papers really speculating who could come back into the fold, those who resigned under Theresa May and those who had to leave and those who rebelled, those backbenches.
It could be a very interesting makeup in cabinet. As you keep pointing out, nothing is really changed in terms of Parliament so even with new people at the top, it is going to have a huge job to do in terms of reaching a deal with the E.U. and Parliament which is just under 100 days --
[00:05:00]
STEWART: -- given their own recess for tomorrow, as a holiday if you will. And the E.U. doesn't want to reopen the withdrawal agreement. So it all seems rather impossible but we do expect new prime minister Boris Johnson later today, when he is the prime minister, to give a speech and perhaps we'll get a little bit more clarity on that.
VAUSE: We'll wait and see all of that on CNN if and when it happens. Thank you, Anna.
Boris Johnson has always identified himself as a modern-day Winston Churchill, the much revered prime minister who led Britain to victory in World War II. And after the war, Churchill warned of a new emerging threat, the spread of communism across Europe and around the world.
On March 6, 1946, at Westminster College in Missouri, Churchill delivered his now famous "Iron Curtain" speech. That speech is meant for another turn of phase which has divided to this day. It was the first time the alliance between Great Britain and the United States was described as a "special relationship."
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
WINSTON CHURCHILL, FORMER U.K. PRIME MINISTER: This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States of America. Ladies and gentlemen, this is no time for generalities.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VAUSE: Churchill went on to explain how the relationship was about more than friendship and a mutual understanding. He went into specific details about military cooperation.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CHURCHILL: ... but the continuance of the intimate relations between our military advisers, leading to common study of potential dangers, the similarity of weapons and manuals of instructions, and to the interchange of officers and cadets at technical colleges.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VAUSE: So an indication of how not special this relationship is now, on Tuesday, "Time" reported in the lead up to last month's aborted U.S. military strike on Iran the Trump administration made the decision to not inform the U.K. counterparts of a decision described as unprecedented.
According to "Time," the U.S. decision to withhold information sent a tremor through an alliance at least superficially dented by Trump's Twitter attacks on outgoing British prime minister Theresa May and by a savaging of the former British ambassador to the U.S. Sir Kim Darroch. So can the next prime minister of Britain, a man with chilly
aspirations and the nickname BoJo the clown repair this relationship which, by most accounts, has hit a post war low.
Michelle Egan is a fellow from Woodrow Wilson Center. She is with us from Washington.
Nice to see you.
MICHELLE EGAN, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: Nice to see you.
VAUSE: In the recent months, Johnson made a point to be on Donald Trump's good side. His rival, Jeremy Hunt called out Trump for his attacks on the British ambassador and the silence from Boris Johnson was deafening and in return, Trump has praised Johnson, which continued to this very day. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have a really good man is going to be the prime minister of the U.K. now, Boris Johnson.
Good man. He's tough but he's smart and they're saying Britain Trump. They call him Britain Trump, and its people saying, that is a good thing, that they like me over there. That's what they wanted. That's what they need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I'm pretty sure Britain Trump is not a compliment but nonetheless if Donald Trump is the main reason for the fraying of the special relationship at the moment, will Boris Johnson's close ties to Donald Trump be much in time to save it?
EGAN: I think it will be a double edged sword. On one hand, the ties with Theresa May, the first to visit Trump in the White House and subsequently was maligned by the president. So this can turn on a dime.
But Boris Johnson also has to contend with the fact that Nigel Farage also has the ear of Trump and he is in some respects, the rival Brexit Party in the U.K. So there are much to be seen.
And can Boris Johnson deliver Brexit?
And if he can, there will be interest in a U.S. and U.K. trade deal. But all of that is speculation at this point. And Boris Johnson has a very difficult hundred days ahead.
VAUSE: There's a lot of speculation but we do know the opinion the U.S. president has of European allies. Here is Donald Trump speaking in Washington on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Other countries have been ripping us off so badly and some of the worst offenders are our so-called allies. They rip us off on trade, European Union is worse to us on trade than China. OK. Nobody would think that. A lot of us come from the European Union. We come from Europe, our grandparents, our great grandparents.
So you think, oh, isn't that nice?
Except but they kill us, the European Union. It was formed in order to beat us economically.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Assuming Johnson has some success --
[00:10:00]
VAUSE: -- in, you know, improving and breathing some life back into the U.K.-U.S. relationship, chances are it won't look much like the special relationship Churchill had talked about more than 70 years ago, right?
EGAN: No, it won't. In two historical points to your Churchill listeners here, one the Marshall Plan was a huge you know, foreign aid scheme to promote European cooperation. And I think that the other issue reflects Britain's ambivalence, its transatlantic but it's also European. And Churchill basically said we are with Europe but not of Europe.
And so the special relationship has always been from the British point of view special but I think they're going to have to work very, very hard to repair some of the damage and some of the ties and also to sort of indicate some of the same strategic interests that perhaps this president has with regard to trade and other issues.
VAUSE: We've also heard from the new leader of the European Union. She extended what seemed to be sort of had a friendship, maybe an olive branch of thought to the incoming British prime minister. This what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: I'm looking forward to have a good working relations with him. There are many different and difficult issues to tackle together. We have challenging times ahead of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We also heard for the E.U. chief Brexit negotiator. He was tweeting about working together. He added, we are ready also to rework the agreed declaration on a new partnership in line with E.U. Commission guidelines. So given Johnson's anti-Europe sense, would he perhaps at least embrace what seems to be an offer for a do-over at least initially and then maybe after Brexit allied more closely with Trump's America?
EGAN: I think the fact that you know, he's talking about possibly a no Brexit and you know, a No Deal and he you know, the EU has by the tweets made it very clear that there'll be some tinkering on the margins, but the agreement that they gave Theresa May is the one that stays.
And of course, you know the British have to decide if they stay aligned with the E.U., if they accept the withdrawal agreement it's going to be 21 months before they can negotiate a trade agreement with other partners. And those other partners that are going to look at Britain -- you know, if Britain is part of a 28 country block, that's a huge market.
If it's a single block negotiating a trade treaty, it's in a much more vulnerable position --
VAUSE: OK, let's --
EGAN: -- even with the United States.
VAUSE: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. But let's finish up with the man of the moment Boris Johnson and his commitment to Brexit, getting Brexit done by the deadline. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: We're going to get Brexit done on October 31st. We're going to take advantage of all the opportunities that will bring in a new spirit of can-do. And we are once again going to believe in ourselves and what we can achieve. And like some slumbering giant, we are going to rise and ping off the guy ropes of self-doubt and negativity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, roll up the sleeves. We are British jolly hockey sticks, all that kind of stuff it's great, but when it comes to an actual plan post Brexit, how it will all work, Boris seems to be all tip and no iceberg.
EGAN: And we have to remember that he has a two-seat majority to get any deal through and he's got a lot of opposition from his own party about 17 members at least who basically want to stop a no Brexit, you know a cliff edge. And so he's got to deal with the dynamics in his own party.
So he's got 100 days, we've got a summer recess, we would come back in September 3rd and that doesn't leave a lot of time to can do. So even if there is a hard Brexit, I think people need to look at the fact it will be accompanied by huge tax cuts, a burgeoning deficit and the pound slumping.
So it's going to be you know, what are the implications, what are the risks. There are political risks and they're economic risks and he seems to be much more determined to move closer to that Brexit cliff edge.
VAUSE: Yes. Interesting days ahead to say the least. Michelle, thanks so much. Good to see you. EGAN: Nice to see you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, for many in Washington, it's either must-see TV or putting lipstick on a corpse. Robert Mueller's highly anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill. The Democrats, the hope is the sounds of the word from the special counsel will resonate enough with the American public, given that most have not read his 400-page report and Russian election interference and the narrative has been controlled by the president and his attorney general, who have claimed that Mueller's findings found that the president did not obstruct his investigation.
While sources say the president is more irritated than anxious ahead of Mueller's testimony, he still managed to repeat his false claims on Tuesday to a group of young conservatives.
[00:15:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This whole witch hunt that is going on today, want to talk about it for a second?
The Russian witch hunt. First of all, it's very bad for our country. It goes on for years and years, no collusion, no obstruction. They interviewed 500 people. Listen to this, 2,500 subpoenas. They did everything. The collusion?
No collusion. They have no collusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With us now from Los Angeles Ron Brownstein, CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic."
So Ron, we just heard from U.S. president. The same message he's had for months now, in fact, four months and two days since Mueller delivered the report to the Justice Department.
And here's how the House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler with a typical Democrat response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): The president and the attorney general have systematically lied to the American people about what was in that report. I know -- they've said no obstruction, no collusion, he was totally exonerated, although those three statements are not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Now, listen to a Trump supporter after she was told by the Republican Congressman Justin Amash all the details in the Mueller report. He's what Cathy Garnaat, a Trump supporter, told NBC News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CATHY GARNAAT, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I was surprised to hear there was anything negative in the Mueller report at all about President Trump. I haven't heard that before and I mainly listen to conservative news and I haven't heard anything negative about that report and President Trump had been exonerated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That is the gap between the perception most Trump supporters have of the Mueller report shaped by the president and the Attorney General and conservative media and the reality of the report.
The goal of Democrats were to try and bring reality into the world of many Trump supporters but is it too late?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I think -- I think in many ways it is true. You know, Robert Mueller did an exemplary job of investigating this whole huge question that was dropped on him.
But in almost every way since the report was completed he has seemed like a man at a time and playing by the wrong rules, assuming a level of decency and kind of fair play in the Justice Department to begin with not understanding that in this modern media era to the public to understand exactly what he concluded, it was not enough to turn in a 440-page report written you know, often in double negatives and very careful legal language.
He, I think, in some extent has failed to give the American public a full sense of the magnitude of what he concluded and it is going to be very difficult I think to revive it now.
VAUSE: Well, back in May, Mueller did make a public statement. He did try to correct the record in a way and push back against some of the more blatant lies coming from the administration. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What was interesting, that was enough to convince some Democrats who are running for president to support impeachment. So will three hours of Mueller testimony be enough to convince a majority congressional Democrats it's time to move forward with impeachment.
BROWNSTEIN: I doubt it. I really do. I think -- I think that's the wrong goal, John. The thing that we don't know from public opinion but I think I have a sense of, you know, the idea is that people don't want to impeach President Trump because they don't think he did something impeachable. I'm not sure that's the reason they don't want to impeach him.
I mean, I think that the opposition to impeachment in the polls may be rooted less in a view of what he did do that any practical -- series of practical concerns. It's very late in his term. You know, we're going to have an election in 15, 16 months and there's virtually no chance of the Senate convicting.
I think it is probably more plausible for the Democrats to try to come out of tomorrow increasing the share of Americans who think that the president broke the law or did something wrong which has always been much higher than impeachment.
You know, support for impeachment has been less than the share of Americans are saying there's something wrong. I think if they have a good day with Robert Mueller tomorrow, that number, the share who thinks he broke the law or did something wrong will go up. I'm not sure the share who supports impeachment will radically change.
VAUSE: Well, it seems the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Democrat Adam Schiff believes there is probably nothing which Mueller can say at this point which would have an impact on Trump supporters. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Serious people are pretty dug in on not just Trump and Russia but they're just dug in on this president. If that appalling display of racism over the last two weeks wasn't enough to move people, is there anything that Bob Mueller can say that will?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Big picture he may be correct but you know, as far as the Russia investigation goes, if Mueller's testimony does not move the needle, is the Russia reports also dead politically?
Is it no longer of use to the Democrats when it comes to just trying to defeat Donald Trump?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, again, I have a different needle right. My needle is share that he did something wrong rather than share of --
[00:20:00]
BROWNSTEIN: -- support of impeachment because I think that's the resistance that has other concerns. But no, I mean, I don't agree with that.
You know, the thing that I haven't focusing on quite a bit and we saw it again in the NPR, PBS poll that came out yesterday is that there is an unprecedented share of Americans who say either that the economy is working for them and or that they approve of Trump's handling of the economy, but yet they still disagree with his performance overall and or intend to vote Democratic in 2020. That Delta, that -- it's roughly 16 to 20 percent of the people who say they approve the economy so say they disapprove him, that is rooted in everything that Adam Schiff is talking about. I mean, that is rooted in Russia, it is rooted in divisiveness, it is rooted in open racism.
He has lost a number -- you know a degree of support from swing voters who are doing well in the economy that is really unlike anything we've ever seen under Barack Obama or George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. All of that is baked in is real.
Is it enough to beat him when unemployment under four percent and the Dow is over 27,000? We'll see, but there's no question he is in a much more precarious and tenuous position because of all of this in almost any other president would be in this economy.
VAUSE: You know, I guess the big question Wednesday is can Democrats stick to this game plan they've been working on? Can they pull together and try and get some kind of you know, memorable moment, some breakthrough or revelation from Mueller. You know, will they give in to the temptation of the spotlight and will they be -- will they grandstand?
BROWNSTEIN: What do you think? Look, these Congressional hearings are very hard on the best of circumstances. Five minutes back and forth, you can't establish any inflow because the Republicans are simply going to use the time to defend President Trump or attack the FBI. And you have you know, fundamentally a witness who only wants to be so cooperative.
I think the moment that Democrats won, he is very -- all signs say he's determined not to give to them. I mean, you know, he will go through many contortions to avoid providing the sound bite that says yes, I would have prosecuted him if he was anybody else or yes this was clearly meant to encourage you to impeach him.
You know, if he says that, that is going to be a very big deal, paraphrase Joe Biden, but I would be very surprised as I think most people be if in fact he does it.
VAUSE: You know, Mueller's testimony, it does seem to be on the president's mind. On Tuesday night he tweeted, just got back only to hear of a last-minute change allowing a never Trumper attorney to help Robert Mueller with his testimony before Congress tomorrow. What a disgrace to our system. I never heard of this before, very unfair. It should not be allowed. I read witch-hunt.
Here's reporting from the New York Times of why it happened. It's not uncommon for a government witnesses to bring aides along to congressional hearings for that purpose. It has, in other words, to help Mueller remember the key details. Though it always all cases the aides sit behind rather than next to the witness.
Mr. Mueller is being asked to account for two years' worth of investigative details uncovered by a large team of investigators and to do so while avoiding the disclosure of nonpublic information. Again, the difference between the presidential perception and there's no proof that this aide is a never Trumper and the actual reality.
BROWNSTEIN: Well and again, as you noted before with the -- with the woman at the Justin Amash rally, these are not really arguments designed to persuade. These are designed to mobilize and harden.
I mean this is not really designed to persuade people who entered this hearing with an open mind, if such a person actually exists, it's really designed to provide talking points for the conservative media infrastructure to then use to kind of solidify his base against it.
You know, there was -- this report has a lot of very damaging information in it against the president. It is pretty clear that the report envisions that the Justice Department legal guidance did not exist that you cannot indict a sitting president, that they may well have indicted the president.
And I think just the sheer magnitude of what Mueller found, repeated tomorrow is going to have some impact. But the fact that this is happening so far down the road, that Mueller allowed I think to passivity this initial cloud of dust be torn up by the administration, that he hasn't moved more aggressively to help the American public understand what he did and what he wrote, in careful, you know, guarded legal language, all of which I think is kind of -- from the inside out, corroded the potential of this to truly be a turning point in the Trump presidency.
VAUSE: Ron, we're out time but thank you so much. Good to see you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The plot thickens off the coast of South Korea, how China and Japan now figure a military showdown between Russia and South Korea. Also, London and Paris gearing up for record setting temperatures.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:25:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VAUSE: South Korea says the Russians have apologized for admitting their confrontation. Russian and Chinese aircraft were on a joint deployment over the sea separating South Korea and Japan. Seoul and Tokyo say their airspace was violated and then sent jets to respond. According to the South Korean Blue House, Russia's military attache blaming mechanical malfunction. Our man in Moscow with more details is CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A fairly major string of incidents happen in the airspace above the Asia Pacific region as the Republic of South Korea says they had to scramble jets when a Russian military plane entered it airspace.
Now the South Koreans say their jets were forced to fire warning shots on several occasions at the Russian plane. They say in total 360 rounds were discharged by their plane to try to get the Russian jet to leave their airspace.
The Russians do things differently; they do acknowledge that one of their command and control aircraft was in that area, however, they claim that they were flying in international airspace and deny that any warning shots were fired at the aircraft.
They say if that had been the case it would have been a very firm and fast response from the Russian Federation. Russia also accusing the South Koreans of acting unprofessionally.
Of course, the U.S. has a very different take on this. The Defense Department saying that the United States strongly supports our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies and their responses to airspace incursions by Chinese and Russian aircraft.
The Department of Defense is in close coordination with the Republic of Korea and Japanese allies about these events and will continue to monitor activities as they follow up with their Russian and Chinese counterparts through diplomatic channels.
It appears as though this alleged incursion was a part of a larger maneuver taking place with the Russians and Chinese. The South Koreans are saying that Russia and Chinese bombers also flew into their air defense identification zone. They also scrambled jets because of that and the Russians are saying that their planes were in that vicinity; they say they were flying in international airspace conducting maneuvers with the Chinese and they also say that there were encounters with foreign aircraft, mainly with the Japanese and with the South Koreans as well.
This is a show of a tightening military alliance between the Russians and the Chinese. The Russians are saying this is the first time there were joint patrols in the region involving Russian and Chinese aircraft -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: As if Brexit wasn't enough of a problem for the incoming British prime minister, he also has to navigate the diplomatic crisis with Iran. More on that on CNN NEWSROOM shortly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:32:28] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for staying with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
The House Judiciary chairman is weighing in on expectations just hours before Robert Mueller is said to testify on Capitol Hill about his Russia investigation. Jerry Nadler managing expectations, he says he does not know the hearing will change the course on impeachment. He says he's realistic about how much the impact of the former special counsel's testimony will actually have.
(Inaudible) Boris Johnson, hours away remains sworn in as the next British prime minister. The newly elected Conservative Party leader will inherit the mess of Brexit and the hardliner has long insisted. He will leave the E.U. deal or no deal by the deadline, October 31st, Halloween.
Iran has said its congratulations to the incoming British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The gesture seems odd and even out of place given the increase tensions in the Gulf. And CNN's Matthew Chance reports just and already has a check in history when it comes to dealing with Tehran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the treacherous diplomatic waters to which Britain's new prime minister is set to plunge the escalating crisis with Iran and its seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker hoist to be one of Boris Johnson's most urgent challenges. Already, there's been a Twitter congratulations and a direct message from the Iranian foreign minister.
MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I think it is very important for Boris Johnson as he enters 10 Downing Street to understand that Iran does not seek confrontation. Iran wants to have normal relations based on mutual respect.
CHANCE: But sometimes clannish (ph) Boris Johnson has a checkered history of dealing with the Islamic Republic. In a gaffe-prone stingers British foreign secretary he made damaging remarks about a British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe sentenced to five years in an Iranian jail for spying. She was trying to return home to London with a young daughter after visiting her family on holiday when she was arrested at Tehran Airport back in 2016. Foreign Minister Johnson mistakenly said she was in the Iran teaching people journalism.
BORIS JOHNSON, THEN BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: My mistake. That was my mistake.
CHANCE: He was then forced to apologize amid concerns he could have caused her a jail sentence to be prolonged.
JOHNSON: It was my mistake, I should have been clearer. I apologize for the distress and anguish that has been caused to Mrs. Zaghari- Ratcliffe and her family.
[00:35:04] CHANCE: There are people at risk in the latest British crisis with Iran too namely the 23 crew members on board the Stena Impero detained under Iranian guard, their faith, not just the tankers, may also be decided by how the Prime Minister Johnson deals with Iran when he takes office.
Matthew Chance, CNN in Khor Fakkan on the Gulf of Gulf of Oman.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Next up here on CNN NEWSROOM. Europe already struggling to cope with scorching heat, now the forecast says get ready it's going to get even hotter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Two teenagers once believed missing and now suspects in the shooting death of three people in British Columbia. Police say the pair were last seen about days drive east to where the victims bodies were found. The victims an American woman and her Australian boyfriend were on a road trip traveling through Canada to Alaska. Another man's body was found along the highway.
(Inaudible) has now on the investigation from CNN's Paula Newton reporting in from Ottawa.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An absolutely shocking turn of events here and mystifying for the families involved, for police now trying to locate the two lead suspects, just teenagers themselves in the murder of that young couple, the very violent murder of that young couple, but also the death of a so far unidentified man. I want you to listen to Canadian police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEANT JANELLE SHOINHET, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: Investigators have also been able to confirm that Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky have left British Columbia and have been spotted in Northern Saskatchewan. We believe that they're likely continuing to travel.
Given these latest developments, Kam and Bryer are no longer considered missing. The RCMP are now considering Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky as suspects in the Dease Lake suspicious death and the double homicide of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Police now saying they're enlisting help right across Canada that they were spotted in Northern Saskatchewan. You're talking about a huge track of wilderness here. Also about a 24-hour drive from where these crimes had happened. If these two men are in hiding you're talking about hiding in the size of tracks of land that in a size of small countries, this could be in fact very difficult.
And in the meantime, you know, families completely heartbroken. CNN spoke to the mother of Chynna Deese, Sheila Deese says she was looking at surveillance video of this couple at the gas station. The last moments that her daughter spent with her boyfriend, heartbreaking she said. She said she kept watching the video over and over and over again.
Police still refusing to talk this soon about anything to do with motive or any of the evidence that would led them to believe that these were suspects in at least two murders but also possibly the death of so far unidentified man.
[00:40:04] Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
VAUSE: Well, for our viewers in Europe forecast is hot, really hot. In fact, for the UK setting (ph) possibly record-setting hot. Temperatures are expected to peak Thursday with the mercury hits the mid to high thirties.
Nowhere in UK will be hotter than London and the southeast of England. France is also in for record-setting heat. Temperatures in Paris could drop 40 degrees Wednesday and Thursday essentially breaking records which was set last month. (Inaudible) Pedram Javaheri with us from more on this it's going to be hot.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's going to be very hot. Yeah, I know, this is unprecedented heat in some of these areas, John. And when you look at the significance of this particular heat wave of course records across some of these areas go back to the early 1800s. You've never see anything quite like this when it comes to the scope of this particular ridge in place across western and Central Europe and of course where is going to end up over the next couple of days.
And look at this, since the year 1500, the hottest summers on record across Europe, five of them the top five have come in since the year 2000. So if you think we've talked about heat quite a bit in recent years, that's absolutely been the cases across portions of Europe, 2018 coming in among the warmest and 2019 certainly slated to compete with that as well over the next several months.
But here are the areas we're watching for heat advisories, wide spread area of coverage and nowhere except areas around say Belgium right now having the heat advisory at its highest point of course, that area high temperature is generally in Brussels only about 20 to 21 degrees this time of the year but will climb up to nearly 40 degrees come Thursday afternoon, 37 by Friday. So a multi-day set up here certainly going to be dangerous for a lot of areas where we don't have air conditioning readily available to people, so that's a concerns of course of the elderly and folks that are most at risk here, children as well.
And we know everybody has a fantastic job cooling itself efficiently, some 22% of your body heat release comes from sweating. So you got to drink at least two liters of water per day in the sort of environments. You want to avoid high protein food and certainly protecting your skin because one of the quickest ways for your body to overheat and lose its ability to cool itself off is when you get a sunburn, so putting some sunblock on always a good idea with temps being so hot over the next several days.
But look at this, presunrise temperatures in London 20 degrees. In Glasgow, the average highest high temperature in any time of the year is in July and that is around 20 degrees. At this hour before the sun comes up, it's already two degrees warmer than whatever should be at any point in the year, climatology speaking. So again, it really speaks to the significance of this for rich year and it expands farther to the north the next couple of days. So the heat will climbs up towards area of Scandinavia comes say, Friday and Saturday as well.
Look at this Paris slated to reach somewhere around 42 to 43 degrees on Thursday afternoon, John. The hottest ever observed in the city was 40.4 in July of 1947. They could shutter that come this Thursday afternoon. And of course, air quality becomes a concern in the city like Paris as well when you have stagnant hot air on place for a couple of days, John.
VAUSE: Worst of it. This is not the end of shattering the records for this summer. It's going to go on for a while.
JAVAHERI: Yeah, 2019 is another one and probably 2020 as well, yeah.
VAUSE: Yeah. OK, Pedram, thank you. And thank you for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause World Sport starts after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:02] DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, it's time for world sport. I'm Don Riddell at CNN Center. Let's begin with the World Swimming Championships in Korea where there is no shortage of drama. But much of it is outside of the pool. While the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang is having a very successful time, it doesn't seem to be successful at making new friends.
His 200 meter freestyle triumph on Tuesday came when the winner, Lithuanians Danas Rapsys was disqualified for a false start. So it became Sun's 2nd gold medal of the meet. But for the 2nd consecutive night of his drama at the podium with suspicion about the integrity of the performance continues to overshadow his results.
The Australian swimmer Mack Horton is one of his biggest rivals. He's labeled Sun a drug cheat and on Monday, you may recall, he refused to stand with him on the podium. Such a protest provoked fury from the Chinese camp and a warning from the sports governing body, FINA. This was a scene 24 hours later after the co-bronze medalist Duncan Scott refused to shake his hand or pose for pictures with him.
Video of the aftermath shows Sun shouting at shouting at the British swimmer. He's apparently saying, I win, you lose. Sun Yang is a big deal in China. The first male Chinese swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal and all he's won, 11 world titles, second only to Michael Phelps. But in 2014, he served the 3 months suspension for doping and in 2016 Mack Horton called him a drug cheat.
And then last year, it was reported by the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, that Sun had smashed files of blood with a hammer in front of anti-doping authorities. Now, that's a report that Sun vigorously denies. FINA has cleared him of wrongdoing but the World Anti-Doping Agency is not satisfied and they refer the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That case will be held this September and it could mark the end of his career.
Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky's time in South Korea seems to be going from bad to worse. The American superstar was forced to withdraw from the 200 meter and 1500 meter freestyle due to illness. It's uncertain at this point if she will be well enough to defend her 800 meter crown this weekend.
A five time Olympic champion was hoping to win four individual gold medals in South Korea but it's not going at all to plan. A six year winning streak in the 400 meter freestyle came to an end on Sunday. She was hoping to win it for the 4th time instead she was stunned by Australia's Ariarne Titmus.
The new Premier League season is now just over 2 weeks away and Chelsea's new manager Frank Lampard will be pretty happy with the blues latest warm-up game. A 2-1 win against Barcelona in Tokyo. This was Barcelona's first pre-season game and perhaps had shared a really careless goal there from Sergio Busquets gifting Chelsea an opening goal, Tammy Abraham making the most of it in the first half. Chelsea then doubled their advantage in the last 10 minutes.
A dizzy shot Ross Barkley beating the goalie from 18 yards. A job done for Chelsea but Barca didn't leave empty-handed. A consolation strike from Ivan Rakitic there an injury time, brilliant effort. Sadly for him though it didn't count for anything, 2-1, final score.
What on earth is going on with Gareth Bale? One of the most successful players in Europe, a four-time Champions League winner at Real Madrid now finds himself persona non grata in the Spanish capital, unwanted and unloved.
Back in 2013, he was the most expensive player in the world and he's been toward phenomenal success. But the dream seems to be over. He's been booed by the fans and it's clear that his manager, Zinedine Zidane is done with him.
Bale has never really fit in the Bernabeu Stadium and for many years he had to coexist with the egotistical Cristiano Ronaldo. It's not yet clear where his future lies but in the last few days it's all become rather unseemly.
Now, I'm afraid that we have tragic news to report from the world of boxing. The Russian fighter Maxim Dadashev has died from brain injuries sustained in the ring on Friday night. The Junior Welterweight was fighting Subriel Matias in Maryland but he was visibly struggling until his trainer throw in the towel after the 11th round. He had to be helped out of the ring, he collapsed before making it back to the dressing room and he underwent emergency brain surgery to alleviate bleeding on the brain. He was placed into a medically induced coma but sadly he succumbed to his injuries at the age of just 28.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:51:35] RIDDELL: Welcome back. It has been 35 long years since a French cyclist won the Tour de France and they are more than ready for that long wait to be over.
With less than a week left to go in this year's tour, two French cyclists could end up winning it but the fans are going to be holding their breath, I suspect right down to the wire. Tuesday's action saw the Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan taking the stage. A special moment for him personally as his wife and newborn daughter were there to see it. Five stages remain, 3 of which will be on the Alps, Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe still has the yellow jersey. He's a minute and 35 seconds ahead of the defending champion Geraint Thomas. Another Frenchman Thibaut Pinot is just under 2 minutes back but it's all very tight.
Early Christina Macfarlane spoke with a veterans cycling expert, John Woodhouse. He says the fundamental stages will weed out the champion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN WOODHOUSE, CYCLING JOURNALIST: The Alpine stages this year is just beyond comprehension almost. We got three days basically in the sky with ridiculous altitude. All of them take the ride of about 2000 meters which is a well-known cutoff point for performance. That point performance start deteriorating, it becomes much more, who's got the strength to battle it, who's got the mental strength. And who can really just draw something from all those thousands of kilometers and still have something to get over to light.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: So who is going to, you know, who is this going to favor as we head into these mountain stage? We actually have these two Frenchmen in the race really, but who stands out?
WOODHOUSE: For me, Thibaut Pinot is the one to watch. He lost in time and 11 it's whole which was a kind unfortunate tactical error on windswept stage we should be very upset about because he should really be right there with Thomas at the moment. And I think he's got the form going in into the mountains. He's got previous form as a performer on really hard, grueling stages and also I don't think Thomas has quite got it this year. I think his perhaps separating a maybe 95% and not over four, 5000 kilometers is going to show in the ends and that was disruptive preparation had shown really. And if I think if see many also going all out for anything, it will come from Egan Bernal.
MACFARLANE: Well sports insider is a literally frothing at the mouth this week, are they?
WOODHOUSE: Yeah.
MACFARLANE: With what we've got in store. Just explain why it is so competitive this year? I mean, is it simply a case of Froome being out to the mix?
WOODHOUSE: I think that was a big factor, undoubtedly because I think this course he would have been absolutely licking lips and he prepared all year for it. Unlike last year which he was left a bit short because he'd done the GU (ph) tally this year, everything was going for that. He was a big favorite. He's gone Geraint Thomas not quite on the money.
But also I think what's happened to Julian Alaphilippe in the early stages where he's just gone for it. He says -- he threw out all the rules out the window, really. I'm just going to ride. I'm just going to go for it. And I think that stirred something up amongst the other riders that actually these machinelike teams have been dominating the tour that need to be the way. Now the reason or the way to approach this and we have some big names missing. I think people have the spur to go for it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIDDELL: OK, for sports fans around the world, there is nothing quite like the Summer Olympics, a 17-day festival of competition featuring more than 11,000 athletes. In Tokyo next year there will be 33 different sports and if they're including one of the Japanese fans are particularly excited about and (inaudible) and Coy Wire is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[00:55:04] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: For the first time since 2008, baseball returning to the Olympics and it couldn't be happening in a better place. Baseball is huge in Tokyo. Two Japan's most iconic teams have higher average attendance than all but 3 major league baseball teams, the Dodgers, the Yankees and the Cardinals.
I'm here in Tokyo at a pro baseball game. The Yakult Swallows, first in cross time rivals Yomiuri Giants. Here's some of what these baseball in Tokyo is so unique. First, passion, fans singing, chanting, blowing horns. They even have cheerleaders at the games.
Another highlight, the food and the drink. First of all, there's BYOB, so if you want to bring your own beverage, you can. Or you could a beer from one of the attendant, the so called ghost buster girls, walking around with tanks on their backs. And from bento boxes to burgers and yes even sushi, there is no shortage of food.
Baseball here in Japan is so big that there's even a professional Women's Baseball League. So if the return of softball to the Olympics as well, athletes and fans from around the world are likely going to experiencing games like they never have before at Tokyo 2020. Coy Wire, CNN Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIDDELL: Thank you, Coy. Now you may have noticed over the weekend that there was a lot of nostalgia for the 50th anniversary of the iconic moonwalk when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the lunar surface. Their mission was Apollo 11, Houston was their home.
On Monday night, the Houston Astros baseball team honor the anniversary and Armstrong's son Rick was there to throw out the first pitch. He was even a special cap to mark the occasion all of which was planned but nobody could have predicted though was the poetic way that the game played out. The Astros beat the Oakland A's by 11 runs to 1. What are the chances and every where you look, the number 11 was prominent. The Astros sent 11 batters to the plate in the 3rd inning. They scored 11 runs in the game, the last coming on their 11th hit. Starting pitcher Gerrit Cole got his 11th win of the season striking out 11 batters. Houston, we have a coincidence. That is such a cool story.
That's it for World Sport today. Thanks for your company. I'm Don Riddell, see you later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:00]
