Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

Macron, Le Pen Move On To Second Round in French Presidential Election; Slavelike Conditions At Cattle Ranches in Amazon Rainforest; North Korea Detains Another American; Fight Looms Over Funding for U.S. Border Wall. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired April 24, 2017 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:14] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream.

North Korea threatens to strike a U.S. aircraft carrier prompting a crisis call between President Trump, China, and Japan, this as Pyongyang detains

another U.S. citizen.

French voters bid adieu to the political establishment. One-time outsiders are now within reach of the presidency.

And CNN's Freedom Project takes us deep inside the Amazon jungle to expose ranchers who are exploiting Brazilian workers.

We begin with North Korea where an American citizen has been detained. Tony Kim was taken into custody as he tried to fly out of the North Korean

capital on Saturday. It's not clear why.

Now, also happening over the weekend, Pyongyang threatened to take down a U.S. aircraft carrier which is currently performing drills in the western

Pacific. And just hours later, President Donald Trump spoke by phone to the leaders of China and Japan.

Now, CNN is covering this story with our correspondents across the region. Now, Ivan Watson is in Seoul, but let's start with David McKenzie who joins

us from Beijing.

And David, the Chinese President Xi Jinping had that phone call with Donald Trump. What was his message for the U.S. and North Korea.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the message, Kristie was keep calm and play down the rhetoric a notch, because

really the chinese consistently both in the Chinese state media and foreign minister over the weekend say that the tension is too high, the rhetoric is

too aggressive, from the Chinese point of view and everything needs to be turned down more than a few levels.

Xi Jinping had had that phone call with President Trump. In that call, according to state media, he said that no one should take any provocative

action, presumably a message both to North Korea and to the United States.

And Xi Jingping also saying everyone needs to work together to try to solve the crisis in the Korean peninsula. The Chinese have said repeatedly over

the years and certainly in the last few days and weeks that everyone needs to get together to figure this out, pushing some kind of talks. But I have

to say at this stage, it seems very far from that.

He also spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump spoke to him and Shinzo Abe a very different take, as he would imagine, this staunch U.S. ally

saying, well, he's glad that Trump has put all options on the table in this crisis, the Japanese have sent two destroyers to join that carrier strike

group heading right now towards the Korean peninsula - Kristie.

LU STOUT: So a clear message for calm from Beijing. Let's go to CNN's Ivan Watson standing by in Seoul. And Ivan, President Trump also had a

phone call with Japan discussing North Korea. How did that go down?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, publicly it sounded much like past communications between the two leaders. They kind

of reaffirmed their commitment to each other's mutual defense. They talk about working together to try to deal with the threat of North Korea's

nuclear weapons and its ballistic missile tests.

We probably won't know if anything concrete or new was really discussed there. But the fact that there was this call between the U.S. president,

the Chinese leader, U.S. president and the Japanese leader is an indicator of just how much attention the North Korean crisis is sucking from the

Trump administration from its allies and even sometimes rivals like China in the

region, a sign of how serious they are taking the North Korean challenge right now with North Korea continuing to mount its state propaganda

barrages, which are quite typical, really, against the U.S. and its allies with threats to wipe out the U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Winson with a

single blow, with the youth groups threatening to reign 5 million nuclear bombs on the U.S. and its allies here. Some of that is pretty standard,

but clearly it's part of the overall tension on the peninsula with new and young American administration.

And a great deal of concern that North Korea could follow through on threats to carry out sixth

nuclear test or to launch more ballistic missiles, all of which are banned under multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions - Krsitie.

LU STOUT: So, more bluster from North Korea over the weekend as tensions rise in the Korean peninsula.

Now, let's go from Seoul back to Beijing where David McKenzie is again standing by. And David, remind us why is it believed that China is the key

to finding a peaceful solution with North Korea?

Well, Kristie, China would say that everyone is really the key. But certainly Trump and his

administration has said repeatedly that China is the answer to this conundrum. They have said - and it is true, of course, to a certain

extent, that China is economic life line to North Korea, that it really has most of the trade and some of the strongest diplomatic relations.

So, President Trump has repeatedly said that China is helping out by stopping coal imports into

the country, which it appears on some level it is. And he says that China can do more and could solve this problem if it wanted to.

The difficulty here, say foreign policy experts, is that the problem for China is different than the

problem is for the U.S. China needs to really pay attention, to not collapse the regime next door. And so they are playing this very difficult

role of trying to squeeze North Korea, but at the same time trying to bring some kind of diplomatic resolution to this when there's a lot of fiery talk

going on at the moment - Krsitie.

LU STOUT: All right. Dave McKenzie live for us in Beijing. Ivan Watson live in Seoul, a big thank you to you both.

Now, in addition to Tony Kim, there are at least two other U.S. citizens known to be

held in North Korea - Otto Warrmbier, a university student, was taken into custody last year. You may recall his emotional confession on video just

before he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly removing a political sign from a hotel. It is not clear if Warmbier's confession was

coerced.

And then there is Kim Dong-chul, arrested in 2015. Now, CNN was allowed to talk to him last year in the presence of North Korean officials. He said

that he had spied for South Korean conservative elements but CNN couldn't determine if his comments were made under duress.

And there are others who aren't being held behind bars, but still feel tracked inside North Korea. Now Paula Hancocks met in South Korea with the

North's first openly gay defector.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chang Young-jin (ph) didn't know he was gay. For over 30 years, he never once heard the word

homosexual in his native North Korea. It simply didn't exist.

He was trapped in a marriage his parents had arranged.

"From the first day of my marriage," he says, "there was trouble. I kept wondering what love was and felt sorry for my wife. I felt so guilty, like

I ruined her life."

Chang (ph) wrote a book about his experiences, handwritten as he doesn't know how to type or use a computer. He says he saw several doctors in

North Korea to find out what was wrong with him, adding he had to run out of one clinic when the doctor shouted at him for his feelings. He says he

knows he wasn't alone.

"When I was a military," he says, "there was a senior who had the same problem as me after he got married. He used to come and see me. Plus,

there was a man in my hometown who never got married and lived alone all his life. North Korean society treated these people as abnormal."

He says that he knows now he was in love with a childhood friend. He says they often held hands and shared a bed even as adults, not unusual in a

country he says where few know what homosexuality is.

"One day," he tells me, "this friend comes to see me. That night I left my wife's bed and got into his. My heart was beating so fast as he slept and

I couldn't figure out why I felt so hurt by him. I got up, went outside, and saw a wild goose flying over my head. I knew then I had to leave."

After failing to reach South Korea via China, Chang (ph) says he made the unusual and dangerous decision to cross the DMZ, the mine-ridden

demilitarized zone, a route only a handful of defectors have ever managed.

He first read about homosexuality in a root in a magazine in South Korea in 1998. At the age of 37 he finally knew why he felt different. He felt he

had an identity and was free.

But it's still not easy. Chang (ph) has no family here. They are all in the North. He has few friends and says he feels like a double alien, being

a defector and gay.

But he is an optimist telling me life begins at 60, and with his freedom and his writing, he knows he'll survive.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Wow, an extraordinary account there.

Now, to U.S. politics and the U.S. President Donald Trump isn't just facing challenges on the

international stage, he also has a few problems at home. Two new polls show his approval rating is at a record low, an ABC/Washington Post poll

shows only 42 percent of Americans approve of his performance so far, 53 percent disapprove.

Now, a poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal is pretty similar, only 40 percent approve of the job he's doing. And that is the lowest level of

support of any modern U.S. president.

The new polls numbers were released ahead of a key week for the president. And Saturday will mark his 100th day in office, but before he celebrates

the milestone, he is facing a battle with congress over funding for a border wall. Joe Johns has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KELLY, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: The president has been pretty straightforward about his desire and the need for a border wall. He'll do

the right thing for sure, but I would suspect he will be insistent on the funding.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The White House setting up a showdown with Congress just five days before a potential government shutdown, demanding

that a $1.4 billion down payment for President Trump's border wall be included in this week's must pass spending bill.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: The Democrats do not support the wall. The burden to keep it open is on the Republicans. The wall is, in my

view, immoral, expensive, unwise.

JOHNS: Democrats scoffing at the demand as some Hill Republicans speculate whether the fight is worth the political capital.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I think that's a fight worth having and a conversation and a debate worth having for 2018.

REP. PETE KING (R), NEW YORK: Once the government is up and running and stays up and running, then we have to fight this out over the next year.

JOHNS: President Trump insisting that American taxpayers need to foot the bill for the wall now, but eventually at a later date, Mexico will be

paying, a very different message than his campaign bluster.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people will not pay for the wall.

Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent.

JOHNS: Vice President Mike Pence ending his overseas trip a day early to help out on Capitol Hill. Despite the president's attempt to downplay the

importance of the 100-day mark, Trump's jam-packed schedule proving the administration thinks the milestone is significant. Officials telling CNN

the president is expected to sign a flurry of executive orders this week culminating with a major rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday to mark his

100th day in office.

REINCE PRIEBUS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: He is fulfilling his promises and doing it at breakneck speed.

JOHNS: White House officials are trying to prove the president is taking action, given the lack of legislative accomplishments.

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: We're talking about historic accomplishments by this administration in the first 100 days, but all

anybody wants to talk about is health care.

JOHNS: Despite the touted efforts to revive the battle to repeal Obamacare, officials now say there is no expectation of a vote before Friday.

PRIEBUS: It's a marathon, not a sprint. So we're hopeful for this week, but again, it's not something that has to happen in order to define our

success.

JOHNS: Trump's budget director also downplaying expectations for Wednesday's big announcement on tax reform.

MULVANEY: What you're going to see on Wednesday for the first time is here's what our principles are, here are some of the ideas we like, some of

the ideas we don't like.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was CNN's Joe Johns reporting there.

Now, the U.S. secretary of defense has arrived in Afghanistan. James Mattis is scheduled to

meet with President Ashraf Ghani and visit the NATO-led operation now training Afghan forces. This visit comes just days after that Taliban

attack on an Afghan army camp that sources say killed as many as 140 people.

France is bracing for its biggest political change in decades as a centrist upstart goes head-to-head with far right populist in the battle for the

French presidency. We'll take you live to Paris.

Plus, we join one of Brazil's anti-trafficking units that now go on patrol to root out slavery in the Amazon rainforest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:11] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, welcome back. You're watching News Stream. Now, the head-to-head battle for the French

presidency has just begun. And for the first time in modern history, voters firmly rejected the two main political parties and put outsiders in

the runoff for the Elysees Palace.

On May 8, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen will face centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron, a man who has never run for political office before. Now,

several new polls suggest that Macron will easily beat Le Pen. And three of the surveys give him the lead of more than 20 points.

Now, CNN's Jim Bittermann watched the election unfold from Marine Le Pen's home constituency. He is now back in Paris and joins us live. And Jim,

for Marine Le Pen, the real battle now begins. We know she has a populist base of support. She also has the dark legacy of her father in her party.

In terms of this race, can she pull it off?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an uphill battle for her. But she was up early this morning and immediately went to a market

and started campaigning in a market up in northern France where we are. and now she's back in Paris having some - making some battle plans with the

rest of her executive committee as is Emmanuel Macron today.

Both candidates were out campaigning.

One of the things - there was an awful lot of navel gazing going on this morning, as you can imagine here in France about what exactly happened.

Never before have the extreme parties here, extreme left and extreme right done as well as they have -- as they did yesterday. And never before have

the mainstream parties, right and left, done as poorly as they did yesterday. So it's a real eye-opener for French politicians. And it shows

how divided the country is. Here is what some of the voters were saying this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm actually quite happy, because I voted Emmanuel Macron yesterday. And I think this is a big, great message for Europe,

this is a great message for around the world that populist are not winning.

UNIDENITIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm a bit disappointed. I would have preferred Melenchon to get through. He's stronger than Macron. And

Le Pen, she's not my thing.

UNIDENTIIFED FEMALE (through translator): My reaction is I think France is seriously

divided. And this is having a major impact. People don't know where they stand anymore and they voted for a big question mark.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: And that's exactly what I think a lot of the commentators are saying this morning. The big divisions within France, and the divisions

along all sorts of different lines. It's a division around city versus country, it's a division of east versus west. Macron did better in the

west part of the country than Le Pen did. Le Pen did better in the east, and

especially in the northeast.

And it's a division between people who have a bright optimistic view, being Macron about the

future of France, and those who have a pessimistic view about the direction the country is headed and that would be Madame Le Pen - Krsitie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, this was indeed an election against the establishment. All eyes on Macron. He is at the moment the front-runner. We know that

Francois Fillon and other defeated candidates have urged their supporters to throw their weight and to vote for him. But is that going to work,

especially given this era of populism? I mean, could that backlash? Could that actually work against Macron?

BITTERMANN: Well, it could. And one of the things that has happened, Fillon has told his supporters to back Macron. The executive committee of

the Republican Party, which is Fillon's party is going to be meeting in a couple hours. And there are some strong voices within that committee who

are saying we should not recommend to voters how to vote after we've led this vicious campaign against Macron and against Le Pen.

We should just say that they should vote whatever direction they want. If we do, we lose credibility.

So, there are going to be people who argue against the Republican Party making a blanket

recommendation. And the Republican Party, according to some political polls here, is very divided itself. There are some people within the party

who would vote for Le Pen if that was - well, it is the choice, on May 7.

So, in fact there are some Republicans who would defect from Fillon's commandments to vote for Macron.

It's going to be a very interesting two weeks, because both sides are going to fight a very bitter and exhausting campaign over the next two weeks,

even though Macron at this stage of the game is far ahead - Kristie.

LU STOUT: Absolutely. The decisive contest to take place May 7. Jim Bittermann reporting live for us. Thank you.

Now, deep in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, a dark practice lurks among the cattle ranchers: vulnerable people suffering in slave like conditions as

they are exploited for labor. As for CNN's Freedom Project, Shasta Darlington went to see how Brazil is cracking down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Barreling down on their target, an eight car convoy speeds along the back roads of Brazil's cattle

country, only recently carved out of the vast Amazon rainforest.

This, one of just four mobile units cracking down on labor exploitation across the country.

We've got 25 kilometers ahead of a pretty rough road. We're looking for this ranch after they got tips.

On this day, they get sent in different directions, but the info is old. Workers have moved on and they come up empty handed. Andre Wagner in charge

of this latest operation in northern Tokantins states says exploitation is entrained in Brazil's lawless agriculture frontier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You'll see someone working in the grading conditions with an exhausting work schedule eating one meal a day,

while they don't receive any form of salary or very small salary because their food and tools are discounted.

DARLINGTON: Days like this make it all worthwhile.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Today we are leading to inspect a complaint we received 15 days ago. It's very recent, so there's a very high

chance that we'll still find the conditions described in the complaint.

DARLINGTON: In fact, the task force finds something that shocks even veteran inspectors, a family of seven workers who say they haven't received

any money for two years. Living literally like animals. Maria Dalva (Ph) shows us the hammocks slung in the coral where workers sleep. And the

outdoor spigot where they bathe.

"This is the bathroom where we wash clothes," she tells me, "and the bushes is where we relieve ourselves." Maria Dalva (Ph) does the cooking and

cleaning for workers on the ranch sharing a shack with her husband and toddler son.

"Nobody deserves this. This mud, only rats can sleep in a place like this. I can't sleep with all the noise the rats make."

Marcelo Gonsalvez Campos (Ph) one of the labor ministry inspectors on the team, interviews workers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is one of the worst cases I've seen. I've been an inspector for almost 20 years and this is really one of

the worst.

DARLINGTON: Luis Cardoza da Silva or say Luis is the patriarch of the family. He says they had to buy their own tools, and instead of paying

salary, he says the ranch owner paid them in food and accused them of owing him money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We always have hope that it will get better, we'll have a better life, but it just gets worse and then a

point comes that you can't leave because you owe money for the food he's given you, you have debt.

DARLINGTON: He tells me, he was afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He could do anything to us. He's a mean guy.

DARLINGTON: The ranch owner is nowhere to be found and doesn't answer his phone. That makes it hard for the task force to negotiate an immediate pay

out.

For them, the work is just beginning. They log hours of interviews and investigate assets. Evidence used to pressure for financial compensation,

which they say often ends up at about $2,000, but when the case is strong, it can be ten times that.

More than 50,000 workers have been rescued from what Brazil defines as slave like conditions since the mobile units were created in 1995.

Theo Luis now among them. But today, Wagner isn't completely satisfied.

[08:25:41] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's possible Mr. Luis won't return to his working conditions but it's also possible he will,

given his age and his limited professional qualifications, he will continue to be a potential victim of slave labor.

DARLINGTON: Theo Luis and his family pack up the few valuable items they can claim after two years of grinding work on the ranch and head to an

uncertain freedom back in the town they started in.

Shasta Darlington, CNN Anapoema (ph), Brazil.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And the story continues on Tuesday. Find out how the family is adjusting to that uncertain freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When I left there, my heart opened up. It was a pleasure to get back to my house with my family. So many

things have changed.

DARLINGTON: A house that Theo Luis (ph), nearly 70, rents in town for his youngest children, paid for with his government pension.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And we will have their story and more on the pursuit of traffickers in the Amazon

Tuesday in the CNN Freedom Project. Now, coming up right here on News Stream, French voters abandon established parties for the first time in

modern history. We'll have the latest on stunning victories for mmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[08:31:01] LU STOUT: For more on the French election, let's bring in Regis Le Sommier. He is the deputy editor of Paris Match Magazine. He joins us

now live from Paris. And, sir, thank you so much for joining us here on the program. As we've been reporting all day, France's long been dominated

by establishment politics, but this time the outsiders won.

I first want to get your thoughts on the significance of this moment in French politics.

REGIS Le Sommier, DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PARIS MATCH: Well, it's a huge earthquake, because, you know, as your viewers have to realize, the

constitution of the Fifth Republic was made. And, you know, ever since, you know, for 70 years we've had the right and left.

So, whether it was the Socialist Party with Mitterand or the right wing party with Chirac or

other presidents, it was always between two parties. There was never any outsider who gained enough steam in order to make it to the second round or

to win the election this.

Time around, you have a second round with two people that are neither to the left nor to the

right. Take National Front, for instance. It's often pointed out that National Front is extreme right

but, in fact, it's compound of two very different segments of the population. In the North, the National Front has taken a lot of former

workers and disenfranchised area in industrial area. And in the south, it's more right wing people against migration, because it was affecting

their area that moved to the National Front.

When you take Emmanuel Macron, Emmanuel Macron has been able to gather around his personal and his charisma a number of people from all the

spectrum of politics in France, including former communist all the way to liberal free trade, everybody.

So Macron is betting on a dynamic of change. He thinks a little bit like Obama when he ran for election in the U.S. He tries to say, I am change.

I'm going to change the way politics are made in France. And Marine Le Pen on the contrary, she says I'm going to restore France pretty much the same

way Donald Trump said when he was running he wants to make America first.

So you have two very different correctors, but they don't embody a right or a left. That's very new.

LU STOUT: Yeah, two very different candidates in a very, very different French presidential election. Let's talk more about Emmanuel Macron. You

made the comparison there between him and Barack Obama. We know that Macron has no experience in electoral politics. Going into the race, he

had not party backing. He is the front-runner. And then after his performance on Sunday, he has gained backing of establishment parties.

What does he need to do to win this race?

LE SOMMIER: Well, on paper he will win this race. However, you never know. I've just mentioned the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., can

talk about Brexit as well in England. Nobody, I mean, virtually zero people were betting on either one or the other.

This time, you know, Marine Le Pen is definitely the outsider.

What - you know, you must realize that her father, actually, made it to the second round in 2002 against Jacques Chirac. Jacques Chirac won with an

overwhelming margin, 18 to 20. Now the poll say that Macron should win 60 to 40. That's not the same thing, meaning that Marine Le Pen could be able

to actually actually make it even closer.

And she has a dynamic, let's put it that way, because she's never been tested before. She - I mean, National Front has been around the French

politics for over 20 years. So, a lot of people think we've tested all the parties, but we've never tested National Front, so they might be tempted to

vote for her.

On paper, Macron is the winner. However, you know, elections these days, especially the polls, won't go as far as saying in the next two weeks he

will be the French president.

LU STOUT: Yeah, absolutely. Marine Le Pen may on paper be a win for her may be a distant

outcome, but it is a conceivable one. So, what does Marine Le Pen and her campaign need to do to rally up more support behind her?

LE SOMMIER: i think she was very divisive on the first round. She came - you know, she really attacked Francois Hollande's government. And problem

- the main problem is going to be what will the French remember of Francois Hollande? And Francois Hollande,

you must realize is very, very low in the polls. So, it's kind of a - Macron is going to try

to disassociate himself from what Hollande did, however a lot of people know he's been the economy minister

of Hollande for two years.

And of course Marine Le Pen is going to say he's been with Hollande. He's a sort of Hollande look alike. He sugarcoat for Hollande and it's going to

be five more years of the same policy.

So if she wants to win, she will have to - the problem with her is she will have to attract a number of people from the right, which she will probably,

even if Fillon said he was urging his supporters to vote for Macron. I think she will gather a number of them.

The other unknown factor is how many people from Melenchon, who is the clear left candidate who made almost 20 percent, this is a huge win for

Melenchon, even if he didn't make into the second round, he win 20 percent. And Melenchon is a mixture of former communist. With, you know, he has a

lot of charisma. He didn't say yesterday who to vote. So that's a big unknown. And a number of people that are on each side we know are from

disenfranchised area or people had been left out for many years, some of them formerly with Le Pen and they decided to go back to the left, who is

their traditional family. Will they go with Le Pen or will they go to Macron or will they simply not vote, which is these are two unknowns.

And if Marine Le Pen is able to actually strike on both sides, she might be able to bring steam

to the number of people needed to be elected president.

LU SOTUT: Absolutely. So many open questions here, the rules of French politics already

rewritten. We'll see what happens on May 7. Regis Le Sommier of Paris Match magazine, thank you so much for joining us here on the program.

Now, a siren brought the nation of Israel to a standstill in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the holocaust.

That siren was heard across the country for two minutes. Now, the solemn ritual takes place every year, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Oren

Liebermann joins us now from Jerusalem. And Oren, on this Remembrance Day, a solemn occasion, how has Israel been watching comments from President

Trump and his administration?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And that has always been a big story line here, especially since President Trump is considered to be

a very pro-Israel president. And yet his administration has had quite a few missteps when it comes to the Holocaust. And the first was actually on

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which occurs right after Trump was inaugurated, where the holocaust statement, or the statement that came from

the White House didn't mention Jews or anti-semitism.

The White House, and President Trump in particular, caught a lot of flak from Jews across the spectrum both here and in the U.S. And then there was

the recent misstep from Press Secretary Sean Spicer when he said that Hitler didn't use chemical weapons and compared Syrian President Bashar al-

Assad to Hitler. Those comparisons simply never go over well here. Yes, of course, he did apologize but it adds to some of the missteps that we've

seen from the Trump administration.

So, what are Israelis looking for, they want a clear straightforward statement condemning anti-Semitism and also remembering 6 million Jews

murdered in the holocaust.

Part of that has come already in a statement released from Trump in honor of Holocaust

Remembrance Day. Trump will also be the keynote speaker at the Holocaust Remembrance Memorial Museum in D.C. tomorrow. So, there will be another

chance there to try to sort of correct and set the record straight on the White House and Trump's approach to Holocaust Remembrance - Kristie.

LU STOUT: Absolutely. Oren Liebermann reporting live for us. Thank you, Oren.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come, scientists are calling for a return to real

facts, not alternative ones. Coming up, why the scientific community took to the streets on Earth Day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:40] LU STOUT: Welcome back now.

Now, Saturday was Earth Day. And thousands of scientists around the world use it to march in

support of science and the environment. Now, some held up signs like these reading, quote, there is

no planet B. How many messages were aimed at the U.S. President Donald Trump who has called climate change a hoax

And while there were demonstrations around the world, the protest was sparked by Mr. Trump's threats to cut funding for science and the

environment.

Now, I want you to meet a remarkable woman. This is astronaut Peggy Whitson. And she is about to make history at the International Space

Station. Today she will set the U.S. record for the longest stay in space by breaking the old record of 534 days set by Astronaut Jeff Williams.

Now, U.S. President Donald Trump will be calling Whitson with congratulations. This is just one more pioneering moment for Whitson. And

she also holds the record for most space walks by a female astronaut. Incredible stuff.

And that News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. World Sport with Alex Thomas is next.

END