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Protesters Demand Families Be Reunited; Mexico Elections; Thailand Cave Search; 2018 World Cup; UNESCO Announces New World Heritage Sites. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired July 01, 2018 - 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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LAURA DERN, ACTOR AND ACTIVIST: We're here to say families belong together. We're begging, demanding a policy change so that families are not only reunited but this ends immediately. We ask for other countries, our allies to support us.

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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The voice there of actress Laura Dern there, joining with thousands of others, taking part in nationwide protests around the United States against the government's immigration policy.

Also in Mexico, voters head to the polls in the coming hours, electing a new president for that nation.

Plus rescuers in Thailand close in on a target where a missing teen football team may be. We'll have a live report ahead.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: Around the world, good day to you.

We begin in the United States where thousands of protesters raised their voices at massive rallies on Saturday. They came together, demanding that the Trump administration stop its zero tolerance policy on immigration.

The controversial policy led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents after the families crossed into the United States illegally. Mr. Trump ordered a halt to the family separations last week but demonstrators say there's so much more work to be done to ensure humane treatment for migrants.

Kim Hutcherson has this report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM HUTCHERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Stop separating migrant families." That was the unified message at hundreds of rallies across the country.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is about children held in cages. This is about babies scattered all across this country. This is ugly. This is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, we're going to defend those who can't speak for themselves.

HUTCHERSON (voice-over): From coast to coast, demonstrators, including actors and singers, demanding an end to president Donald Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy and calling for the immediate reunion of children with their parents.

ALICIA KEYS, SINGER: This is all of our fight because, if it can happen to any child, it can happen to my child and your child and all of our children.

HUTCHERSON (voice-over): Trump signed an executive order recently, reversing his administration's practice of separating families. But more than 2,000 children are still waiting to be reunited with their parents. Some lawmakers are calling on the government to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILL., DEMOCRATIC WHIP: It's time to put an end to this cruel and incompetent policy. Look at ICE. What a group of incompetents. At this point, they're focused more on toddlers than terrorists.

HUTCHERSON (voice-over): Trump came to ICE's defense Saturday, tweeting his support, quote, "To the great and brave men and women of ICE", writing they're, quote, "doing a fantastic job."

Meanwhile, even the youngest who showed up to rally near the White House say the stories and images from the detention centers have touched and inspired them to action.

LEAH, DAUGHTER OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS: This is evil. It needs to stop.

HUTCHERSON (voice-over): I'm Kim Hutcherson reporting.

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HOWELL: There's been no official White House response to the immigration rallies that we've seen across the United States. But President Trump spent part of the day tweeting from his golf course in New Jersey.

He offered support for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and later Mr. Trump tweeted this proclamation. Quote, "When people come into our Country illegally, we must

IMMEDIATELY escort them back out without going through years of legal maneuvering. Our laws are the dumbest anywhere in the world. Republicans want Strong Borders and no Crime. Dems want Open Borders and are weak on Crime!"

The words there of the U.S. president.

Now to Mexico. Sunday is Election Day there and, on the ballot for president, here are the names. The former mayor of Mexico City, Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador. And also on the ballot, Ricardo Anaya from the National Action Party.

Jose Antonio Meade is from the ruling PRI party. And the independent Jaime Rodriguez also vying for president.

Mexico has presidential elections every six years and the winner serves just one term. But there are also 3,400 state and local seats up for grabs, including 128 senators and 500 members of the Chamber of Duties.

One of the top issues in the election: Mexico's economy. That country has a projected GDP growth of 2.8 percent unemployment there at 3.4 percent inflation, just over 4.5 percent. The average yearly wage is just over $15,000 in Mexico.

Now on to Thailand. Officials there are hoping to find 12 boys and their football coach alive.

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HOWELL: They say that divers are closing in on a spot where they think the missing teens took shelter. It's believed they became trapped in a flooded cave system more than a week ago. The team's plight has gripped the nation and certainly the world, prompting an international rescue effort.

Following this story, CNN's Nikhil Kumar is live in New Delhi.

Nikhil, the break in the rain has been helpful. The water levels have been dropping. Tell us more about the optimism that these crews have now in getting closer to where this team might be.

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: George, there is a glimmer of hope. The team, as you said, 12 boys, aged 11 to 16, their football coach, who is 25, have been missing for over a week. They went missing the previous Saturday.

Since then, rescuers have been trying to penetrate this cave network in Northern Thailand. It's in Chiang Rai and sits below a dense forest. And they've been trying to get in.

What's hampered the rescue efforts all these days is that the area has been hammered by heavy rain. That rain has blocked the regular entrances to the cave network. So they've been trying a variety of things. On Friday, a team managed to abseil 40 feet down a shaft to try and

get to where the missing team might be, the children and their coach. That was unsuccessful. Yesterday, however, as the rains sort of cleared away, a team of divers managed to approach an area inside the network, an elevated area known as Pattaya Beach.

I should clarify that this is different from the tourist area. This is just an area inside the network named so by the cavers. So they're trying to get to this elevated area and they think that the children and the football coach might be in there.

As you said, the entire country has been gripped by this. It's been all over the news bulletins in Thailand, on the front pages so much so, George, that Thailand's public health authorities issued an advisory late last week, warning people not to spend too much time watching coverage of this because people might become, quote, "overly obsessed."

That just gives you some sense of the attention and the rescue effort itself. There's now more than 1,000 rescuers, teams from Thailand, U.S. military and British cave experts. Everyone is trying to find out where these children, where their football coach are and to get them out as soon as possible -- George.

HOWELL: You talk about the coverage there. Certainly in that nation, people paying attention but around the world, a great deal of concern, the hope that these rescuers will be able to find them alive. Nikhil Kumar, live for us in New Delhi, thank you for the reporting today.

Moving on now to the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was on the verge of running out of water for more than a year. But conservation measures and rainfall have averted that for at least a year.

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HOWELL: Moving on now to the World Cup, it is moving on in Russia without two of its biggest stars. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were both eliminated Saturday in the knockout stage. Now for a look at those matches and what it means for the tournament, our Patrick Snell picks it up from here.

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PATRICK SNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was an absolutely enthralling Saturday at the World Cup in Russia, where both France and Uruguay have become the first two nations to book their places in the tournament's quarterfinals.

And ponder on this for just a moment or two: Saturday, June the 30th, will now go down as the day both --

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SNELL: -- Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo went out of the World Cup on the very same day, with neither still having ever scored in any of the tournament's knockout games. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL (voice-over): Ronaldo and Portugal were facing Uruguay and the Uruguayans got off to a great start when Luis Suarez finds Cavani with the cross, obliging with the perfect finish, possibly a combination of shoulder and face, too.

After Portugal had leveled, Edinson Cavani, again, providing the sublime moment of the game, a breathtaking curl finish, superb skills, just past the hour mark: 2-1, Uruguay. Heartbreak for Portugal and their star talisman as well, Cristiano Ronaldo -- look at this -- visibly moved by the outcome.

And it's a wonder at 33, has he now possibly played for the last time at the World Cup?

We shall see. All right. Earlier in the day, we witnessed pure theater. A 7-goal thriller of a game between two-time world champions Argentina and France. Much had been made about Argentine disunity and whether the squad lost faith in the manager, Jorge Sampaoli. Argentina's stunning equalizer though appeared to indicate otherwise.

At that point and especially when Lionel Messi's shot is deflected in by teammate Gabriel Mercado for 2-1 La Albiceleste. It looked like Argentina could be in for the big win but the Blue dug deep to turn this match on its head. The young Stuttgart defender Benjamin Pavard with a brilliant goal for the French. What a moment he'll never forget.

Then it really was the Kylian Mbappe show. He wouldn't turn 20 until December, showing composure way beyond his years, becoming the first team to score two goals at a World Cup since the great Pele six decades ago.

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SNELL: All right. Here is a look at the draw then. France and Uruguay, the first teams through. They'll play for a place in the semis on Friday. Sunday will see two more teams punching their ticket to the next round, when Spain face the host nation, Russia. Croatia kicking off against Denmark.

And that is your FIFA World Cup update. I'm Patrick Snell.

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HOWELL: Patrick, thank you.

HOWELL: UNESCO has selected six new World Heritage sites, each with a cultural, historic or scientific significance for humanity.

Some of those sites include the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles of Mumbai, India, which were part of an urban planning project in the 19th century.

The Sassanid archaeological landscape in Fars, Iran, this is a combination of eight sites that date back more than 1,500 years.

In Nagasaki, Japan, there is the hidden Christian sites, 10 villages, Hara Castle and a cathedral built between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Then there is the Sansa Buddhist mountain monasteries in South Korea, which includes seven temples built between the 7th and the 9th centuries.

In the Arctic Circle, there is the Inuit hunting ground, which contains 4,000 years of human history.

And finally the archeological border complex of the Hedeby and the Danevirke in Germany. It holds the remains of a trading town dating back to the 1st and 2nd millennia.

Amazing.

Thank you for being with us here for CNN NEWSROOM I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" right ahead.