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Turks & Kurds Accuse Each Other of Ceasefire Violations; Putin Entices African Leaders with Military Hardware; Remains of Spain's Francisco Franco Moved. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 25, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Studio 7 at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.

[00:00:27]

Ahead this hour, a wave of global unrest. Hundreds of thousands protesting on the streets of Haiti to Chile. Their reasons may vary, but there are common threads stretching to Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The prime minister who boasted he would get Brexit done is not getting Brexit done. Now he's the prime minister who would get Brexit delayed.

Defending Trump in a changing narrative from the president himself about the call with Ukraine's leader has left his supporters struggling and arguing nonsensical talking points sent out by the White House.

Well, 2019 might just be remembered as the year of global rage. Around the world, mass protests are spreading in both number and frequency, and while every demonstration is unique in its own way, slowing economic growth, corruption and inequality seem to be the common threads.

In Bolivia, protestors are marching over alleged fraud in the presidential election. The latest count shows that President Evo Morales won enough votes for a fourth term, but opposition candidates says he will not accept the -- I'm sorry, opposition candidate, rather -- would not accept the loss and has called for more protests.

In Chile, new clashes erupted in the capital. Police fired water cannons to disperse protesters denouncing living costs, as well as inequality. Almost 600 people have been injured, more than 2,000 detained.

And then in Lebanon, demonstrations of unemployment and corruption are now into their second week. Protesters are calling for regime change, but the president insists that won't happen.

CNN's Lynda Kinkade takes a close look at unrest happening across the globe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): It starts with a spark, a specific grievance that unites a group of citizens, hoping to change the status quo.

That spark ignites an anger that has been growing beneath the surface, and soon, the streets are on fire. In recent weeks, we've seen that play out around the world.

In Lebanon, it was the proposal for a daily 20-cent tax on calls made via WhatsApp over the Internet. The government scrapped the idea, but it was the last straw for many dealing with daily power outages, water shortages, and decaying infrastructure.

Last weekend in Chile, violent protests in the capital led the country's president to declare a state of emergency. The protesters' frustration, a planned hike in the price of metro tickets. This ignited a deeper anger over inequality. President Sebastian Pinera announced plans for reforms, but that did little to stop the deadly unrest.

Sometimes, the pent-up grievances are more political than economic. Barcelona, Spain, saw more than half a million pro-independence protesters last week. They're frustrated over the jailing of nine Catalan politicians for their role in the Catalonia independence movement two years ago.

This week, tensions rose in Bolivia. Angered crowds accused election authorities of fraud following the country's presidential election.

Some of the biggest protests of 2019 have been in Hong Kong, now in their 21st week. Frustrated citizens have come out over unfair treatment by the Chinese government. The trigger: a proposed extradition Bill allowing suspects to stand trial in mainland China where, if charged, you have a 99 percent chance of being convicted. The Bill was withdrawn, but the demonstrations continue. They believe China is taking away Hong Kong's autonomy and civil liberties.

It's also happening in Venezuela, Haiti, Iraq, Ethiopia. Each demonstration has different demands and goals, but they share an anger at those in power. Many are fueled by social media and messaging apps.

It's unclear what change they will bring, but right now, protests are bringing cities to a standstill, and in some cases, blood on the streets.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Arturo Valenzuela served as the assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere in the first Obama administration. He is with us now from Washington.

[00:05:09] Arturo, thank you for being with us.

ARTURO VALENZUELA, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: My pleasure

VAUSE: There is a tendency by journalists to clump things of like together, to put them in boxes, to try and find common causes. Is there one single issue which sort of is driving these protests that we're seeing across Latin America? The Arab Spring, for example, it was driven by this demand for democracy, an end to these corrupt dictatorships.

VALENZUELA: No, I don't really think so. I think there's some commonalities, but I think that one needs to make a bigger distinction between the situation in some countries rather than others. There is a common and perhaps denominator in the sense that these are still very unequal societies with very high levels of inequality that affect, you know, the prospects for people.

But that's not necessarily what's driving, for, example the situation in Bolivia, as opposed to the situation in Chile. They're very, very different circumstances. Ecuador, perhaps, there's some similar sorts of things, and that is the frustration of middle sectors and so on and so forth. But even the Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia thing, really do respond to very different phenomena.

VAUSE: We'll get to that in a moment, but in terms of broad brushstrokes, if you like, the common threads, there does seem to be anger at a corrupt systems and corrupt politicians in these countries. Chile's president actually apologized for just that. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN PINERA, PRESIDENT OF CHILE (through translator): It is true that the various governments were not able and currently aren't able to recognize the magnitude of the situation. The situation of inequality, of abuse, which has led to a genuine and authentic expression from millions of Chileans. I acknowledge this lack of vision, and I asked my compatriots for forgiveness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I guess there's also this impact of years of a dragging economy. Wages seem to have stagnated. And this comes after the commodities boom of the last decade, which, you know, with that boom and the extra income and the money and, you know, the resources, it brought the sense of optimism of a better future, but the future seems to have arrived and it just wasn't as advertised to many of these places.

VALENZUELA: Let's be sure to contextualize properly, and that is that, you know, from the 1930s to the 1980s, 42 percent of all changes of government were through military coups.

From 1960, roughly, until the 1980s, all the countries except for three were under brutal authoritarian regimes. You know, and so the period after the Cold War has actually been a period of significant progress in the region.

But that progress of course, you know, is not necessarily uniform; and it takes a long time to consolidate Democratic institutions where they were weak, as in Central America and places like that. And in a country like Chile with very strong institutions, also, the issue of the rising middle class is in many countries that find that their expectations and their hopes are actually dashed by increasing inequality.

And as you pointed out, with the decline, in a sense, of the commodities booms and the -- and the period of expansion of the Chinese economy, et cetera, et cetera, you find that economic situation has become more difficult, particularly for a vulnerable, you know, rising middle sector.

You know, in the past, the -- look, absolute poverty, you know, the -- in much of Latin America has disappeared completely. And what you have right now, of course, is a growing middle class, but it is vulnerable and that is what we have seen, the expression of a vulnerable middle class.

VAUSE: And you sort of touched on this earlier. These protests are sparked by, you know, something different, and often something small. In Chile, a 3 percent increase in bus fares. In Ecuador, it was the scrapping of fuel subsidies. You know, these are not trivial matters, to be sure, but it's not exactly the burning issues of our time either. Yet, it's been enough to bring out hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.

So clearly, there is something else there that this is, like, the last straw, you know, the final moment. They've had enough.

VALENZUELA: Look, these increases were the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, because there have been lingering problems going on for some time, particularly, again, with the downturn of the economies. It affects countries, also, that depended very heavily on one commodity.

You know, in the case of Chile, 40 percent, 50 percent of the -- of the export earnings of Chile comes through the sale of copper, and the copper prices have collapsed and so on and so forth. So there are a series of indicators that are -- that are important here.

But we can't neglect to think that there's kind of a -- by the way, in many other countries, and not so much in Chile, significant corruption has been a really significant problem, as well, although Chile has not been completely immune from that, but not to the degree that you've seen corruption in Argentina or in Ecuador or some of the other countries in the region, or nothing like the collapse of Venezuela, which of course, is a monumental issue.

[00:10:15]

VAUSE: We'll just finish up on this, because it's not just Latin America that are seeing a lot of protests. All of these issues of income inequality and corruption within the political system. We're seeing it in Iraq. There's ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. I mean, there's the Yellow Jackets in France.

Is there a contagion effect? One protest begets another?

VALENZUELA: I think that these are experiences that are -- a world that is, ironically, much more interrelated. You know, we didn't used to read about these things in the 19th Century. It would take three months to find out that there might have been some issue someplace else in the world.

So the direct impact, I think, that the instantaneous notion, social media, of course, has aggravated this sort of thing. So in some way, people are much more attuned to their -- to the situation. And perhaps, you know, the really, really, really poor people would not be able to and couldn't, actually, go out in protest. There's a famous book on peasant wars of the 20th Century by Eric Wolf that described places like Algeria, Vietnam, Cuba and so on and so forth, and attributed to the -- to the real issue is the -- the discontent and the middle peasant, as he called it, not the poorest of the poor. So this may be one of the paradoxes of, you know, a growing middle class.

VAUSE: We're out of time, Arturo, but thank you so much for your insight. You obviously have a lot of experience with the region, and we appreciate you sharing that experience and the insight with us. Thank you.

VALENZUELA: My pleasure.

VAUSE: In the coming hours, E.U. ambassadors are scheduled to discuss yet another day for Brexit, but they could put any decision on hold. Now, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for a December early election.

CNN's Nic Robertson picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, this does seem to indicate that Boris Johnson does now accept that his do-or-die Brexit, leave with a deal or with no deal on the 31st of October, is over. He's giving MPs a little bit more time to study the withdrawal agreement Bill. But he's attaching conditions that they must accept a general election.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The way to get this done, the way to get Brexit done, is I think, to be reasonable with Parliament and say if they genuinely want more time to study this excellent deal, they can have it. But they have to agree to a general election on December the 12th.

ROBERTSON: To have that general election, Boris Johnson does need the support of the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn. The prime minister needs to have a two-thirds majority vote in Parliament to have that general election.

He also wrote a letter to Jeremy Corbyn saying, if you win the election, then you can have it your way; you can negotiate more time at the European Union, negotiate a new deal. And if you want, negotiate a second referendum, a vote on that new deal, as well.

But he said, if I win, then I'll be pushing the deal through on my terms.

The leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, has responded, indicating so far at least, that he's not inclined to support the prime minister as things stand right now.

JEREMY CORBYN, LABOUR PARTY LEADER: Take no deal off the table, and we absolutely support an election. I've been calling for an election ever since the last one, because this country needs one in order to deal with all the social injustice issues. But no deal must be taken off the table.

Tomorrow, the European Union will decide whether it's going to be an extension granted or not. That extension will obviously encompass whether there's a no deal or not. Let's find that out tomorrow.

ROBERTSON: That no deal issue may become a stumbling block, because Corbyn says it's tied up in the legislation that Boris Johnson is trying to get through Parliament.

Another hiccup in all of this is when the E.U., the European Union, decides on what extension it's going to give the British government. It appears that they're not going to announce this on Friday.

Jeremy Corbyn indicated he was waiting to see what the European Union does first. It appears the European Union may be waiting to see which way the vote goes on an election next week.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, for congressional Republicans, it could be a case of be careful what you wish for. You might just get it. They've been demanding transparency in the Trump impeachment inquiry, and sources tell CNN public hearings could be just a few weeks away.

In recent days, the president's defenders have become louder and more aggressive. On Wednesday, a number of Republican lawmakers stormed a closed-door deposition.

And then on Thursday, Senator Lindsey Graham introduced a revolution, condemning the impeachment probe. And their president was pleased, responding on Twitter, saying, "Thank you to House Republicans for being tough, smart and understanding in detail the greatest Witch Hunt in American History. It's been going on since long before I even got Elected (the Insurance Policy!). A total Scam!"

It seems defending Donald Trump has been like nailing JELL-O to a wall because of the ever-changing narrative from the president himself. It always begins, though, with outright denial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The conversation was absolutely perfect, absolutely appropriate. What wasn't appropriate was what Joe Biden said.

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I found that to be wholly appropriate, to try and get another country to stop being corrupt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: But then the White House has released a summary of the call with Ukraine's president, and it corroborated the whistleblower report. The argument became there was no quid pro quo, no suggestion the president would trade military aid for an investigation into the Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: There was never any quid pro quo.

RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER: There's no quid pro quo.

TRUMP: No quid pro quo.

No quid pro quo.

No quid pro quo.

There is no quid pro quo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has turned into a full-brown threat, a full- blown quid pro quo, and I just don't see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, but you're weren't looking in the right place, because details then emerged that there was, in fact, quid pro quo. So the White House pushed back with this talking point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He said we were -- I wasn't pushed. I wasn't pushed, meaning pressured. He wasn't pressured at all.

POMPEO: The most important reaction is from President Zelensky himself, who said, no, I didn't feel pushed. I didn't feel pressured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It turns out weeks before he even took office, President Zelensky and his aides were already talking strategy and how to do with the pressure coming from the White House.

And it was only a matter of time, of course, that there's quid pro quo and politics in foreign policy; it's just how business is done. Listen to the White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I have news for everybody: Get over it. There's going to be political influence in foreign policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And then, besides, you know, what's the crime here? No law has been broken.

MATTHEW WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: What evidence of a crime do you have? I mean, the Constitution -- you know, sort of abuse of power is not a crime. That's what it boils down to. The Constitution is very clear that this has to be some pretty egregious behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Someone needs to tell that man, who was Trump's acting attorney general for a very brief time, right there, Article IV, Bill Clinton impeachment. Yes, abuse of power.

As for Richard Nixon, who resigned before he was impeached, the Cornell Law School notes three articles approved by the Judiciary Committee were all premised on abuse of power.

Finally, we have the defense offered up now by "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board, arguing it may turn out that "while Mr. Trump wanted a quid-pro-quo policy ultimatum toward Ukraine, he was too inept to execute it. Impeachment for incompetence would disqualify most of the government and most presidents at some point or another in office." There you go.

Joining us now from Washington, CNN political analyst and White House reporter for "The Washington Post," Toluse Olorunnipa. And it is good to see you for the first time on our show. Thanks. Thanks for coming in.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Great to be here. Thank you.

VAUSE: OK. It seems the moment the president and his supporters come up with some kind of defense, details quickly emerge to shoot it down. Sometimes those details come, though, from within the White House itself, sometimes by testimony, you know, to Congress. A lot of the times, though, through leaks. And these seem to be leaks who -- the leakers know what they're talking about. They seem to be high people in high places, I guess, or low people in high places. That's not a good sign for Trump.

OLORUNNIPA: It's definitely not a good sign for the president, a number of the people that have testified so far in this impeachment hearing are members of the Trump administration, people who were hired by the president, hired by his administration to help carry out foreign policy, who saw what were going on and was alarmed by the fact that the president was pushing for a foreign government -- in this instance Ukraine -- to investigate political rivals, try to help him with his 2020 campaign, focusing on the former vice president, Joe Biden, and making that a key part of the U.S. foreign policy, even holding back military that was supposed to go to Ukraine until those investigations started.

So we're hearing not from the president's opponents but even people within the White House, within the Trump administration, who are saying that what was happening was not on the level, that there was this quid pro quo that was not appropriate that the president was pushing for, and they're bringing a lot of this scandal directly into the White House, directly into the Oval Office, and directly to the president himself, who was right at the center of this -- of this Ukraine scandal.

VAUSE: The president still has his supporters and his defenders. We saw the Republican lawmakers. You know, they're focused in on the process now, particularly the closed-door hearings that Democrats have held as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Here's what the chief legal analyst over at the Trump-friendly FOX News network had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: -- read the House rules.

BRIAN KILMEADE, CO-HOST, FOX NEWS CHANNEL'S "FOX & FRIENDS": Yes.

NAPOLITANO: And as frustrating as it may be to have these hearings going on behind closed doors, the hearings for which Congressman Schiff is presiding, they are consistent with the rules.

When were the rules written last? In January of 2015. And who signed them? John Boehner. And who enacted them? A Republican majority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:10]

VAUSE: Add to that a quarter of Republican congressional lawmakers actually sit on, you know, one of those three investigating committees. So this very dramatic storming of the secure room in the Capitol on Wednesday, rather, seems to be all based on fallacy.

OLORUNNIPA: Yes. There's not much that Republicans can do to argue on the actual substance of the allegations, but because it seems like all of the information that has come out, all of the evidence points the president being guilty of what he's denied, which is that he was trying to push for investigations from Ukraine against his political opponents in exchange for U.S. taxpayer dollars that had already been approved by Congress.

So instead, you're seeing Republican lawmakers argue about process, saying that the president isn't being treated fairly, saying that everything is happening behind closed doors, making arguments that don't really hold up, if you look at the rules, if you look at the fact that Republicans themselves have held several closed-door hearings in the past. They've even touted these closed-door s this as being more effective than the open, public hearings.

Some Republican lawmakers have said the public hearings are actually more of a circus, and you get more information when you do things behind closed doors.

Secondly, Democrats have also said that they are planning to hold public hearings eventually, but they had to do the investigative state first, they had to get the information allow the witnesses to coordinate their testimony. They're going through this as a normal investigation would, and that eventually, the charges and the testimony will be made public.

So once that happens, Republicans will have to face the facts that they have to defend the president on the merits at this case, on the substance, and they've really struggled to do that so far.

VAUSE: You know, the testimony from Ambassador Taylor seems to be the most devastating so far. He's the former ambassador to Ukraine. And he's dragged the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, right into this, who -- he was sort of on the peripheries. Taylor said that he sent a personal cable to Pompeo back in August, talking about the folly of withholding military aid. And the question is what did Pompeo do with that cable? Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you do with that cable?

POMPEO: I'm not going to talk about the inquiry this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So did you relay his concerns to the president?

POMPEO: Look, I came here to talk about workforce development. I came here today to talk about the great things that are going on here in Kansas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. Firstly, what is America's most senior diplomat doing, talking about a workforce conference in Kansas? And the bigger picture, though, here is that the more you dig, the more dirt they seem to get. When do Democrats say enough and actually decide it's time to go after the president and ignore the others?

OLORUNNIPA: Well, we've heard that the Democrats are planning to have these public hearings as early as next month, and that soon after that, once everything is out in the public, they can move forward with articles of impeachment.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has not wanted to answer very key questions about his role in this scandal. He's been saying that he wants to talk about other issues. He's obfuscated.

He was asked several weeks ago about the phone call that eventually became public, and he was on the call, but he told reporters that he didn't know anything about it.

So it's clear that they're looking like they're hiding something. They're looking as if they do not have answers for very key questions, especially in the wake of the testimony by Ambassador Taylor, which basically puts the onus on the Trump administration to explain what they were doing and why this well-known, well-regarded, highly- regarded ambassador was so concerned that there was this quid for quo and all of this inappropriate conduct taking place, and no one within the Trump administration has been able to answer any of these questions.

Democrats who are running this process are likely to move forward, put out the information that they have, that they've been able to get so far. And for the people who haven't testified or who have been obstructing, it's likely that the Democrats will just assume the worst of those people and put it into their report instead of waiting for them to come along and testify or to answer subpoenas or to go through the court system so it looks like the Trump administration is under a bit of a bind here, because the people who aren't testifying are not being able to defend themselves, and the people who are testifying are testifying with very damaging information about the entire administration.

VAUSE: It's interesting. We're out of time, Toluse, but at one point they went after Taylor's character, the ambassador's character and trying to say he was a "Never Trumper. And that got quickly dismissed and shut down, as well. Good to see you. Thanks for coming on.

OLORUNNIPA: You've got it. Thank you.

VAUSE: The ever-growing mystery surrounding 39 dead bodies found in the back of a truck outside London. After the break, find out why China is now demanding a full investigation by Belgium.

Plus, Turkish-backed militia fighting the Kurds in Syria accused of war crimes. We'll hear from Ankara when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:27:19]

VAUSE: Details are slowly emerging about the 39 bodies found inside a container truck on a road outside London. There were 31 men and eight women, all Chinese nationals. Some of the bodies have been taken away for autopsies, but there's still no indication of where they were traveling to or where their journey began. But the investigation has now expanded across Europe and into Asia.

David Culver reports now from Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Officials here in China say they are still working to confirm details on this new revelation by police in the U.K. that the 39 victims found dead in a container are believed to be Chinese nationals. Chinese embassy officials in the U.K. are headed to the scene and say

that they received the news with heavy hearts.

Meantime, Chinese embassy officials in Belgium, where the container was shipped from, are demanding, in a statement, that Belgian police fully investigate the case.

This investigation brings up memories of a similar incident in 2000. Fifty-eight Chinese nationals found dead in a cargo container in Dover, U.K. Seven people were later convicted for their deaths.

For China, it is not only a tragedy, but this most recent case also raises questions as to why people might leave. The country just celebrated 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic and, along with it, the prosperity that has come to many Chinese people.

The Chinese government often touting that some 850 million people have come out of poverty, but that still leaves millions more who might flee for economic reasons, or ethnic minorities who have faced increased oppression in recent years.

It's not clear if the victims were among those groups, but that is certainly a question that will be asked.

And it's a topic that's trending on social media here in China, some posting in disbelief that, in today's China, people would leave for economic reasons. Others circulating conspiracy theories, many demanding answers from the U.K.

It seems Chinese officials here do not want this to circulate too widely. As we've been reporting on this topic, they have been censoring our coverage, suggesting their concern as to how this might be received by Chinese residents.

David Culver, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, that shaky ceasefire in northern Syria, as well as Syria's oil, might just see American tanks sent to the country for the very first time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

[00:32:05]

In Chile, new clashes have erupted between authorities and protesters. Police in the capital fired water cannons to disperse demonstrators, who are denouncing living costs and inequality. Almost 600 people have been injured, more than 2,000 detained since these protests began.

In Lebanon, demonstrations over unemployment and corruption have entered their second week. Protesters flooded the streets of Beirut Thursday, calling for the downfall of the government, but the president says the unrest on the streets will not lead to regime change.

The U.K. government is planning to put forward a motion on Monday for a general election December 12. Some lawmakers are hoping by then the European Union will renounce it if they will extend the Brexit deadline or not, the U.N. ambassadors are meeting in the coming hours to discuss that issue.

CNN has learned the U.S. military is drawing up plans to deploy tanks to Syria for the first time. President Trump tweeted that some U.S. forces would remain in country to secure the region's oil facilities. And two U.S. defense officials say the Pentagon thinks they may need bigger guns.

Meantime, a senior official tells CNN they will investigate allegations of war crimes by the Turkish-backed militia fighting the Syrian Kurds. As for the ceasefire brokered last week, both sides accusing the other of violations.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH: Well, President Trump, when he congratulated himself over the last two weeks, frankly, chaotic events inside of Syria in terms of U.S. policy, he said people would say to him, "Wow, congratulations."

He also said that he'd been assured of a permanent status of ceasefire in that particular conflict, but it does look this day as though elements of that have slightly unraveled.

Turkey saying five of its soldiers are wounded, and also, the Syrian Kurds claiming that pro-Turkish forces are, in fact, advancing or attacking certain parts of the area where they are not currently supposed to be active.

It's a mixed picture inside, and certainly, one in which Russia is playing an enhanced role. Russia saying its forces are the only ones that legitimately can be, as of this day, inside of Syria, because they're invited by the Syrian regime.

But increasingly, we are hearing criticism, condemnation, frankly, of the Syrian rebels that are fighting on behalf of Turkey. Senior U.S. officials, the main envoy to the Syria conflict, James Jeffrey, saying that he believes they are guilty of war crimes.

And the U.S. secretary of defense going further and saying that, in fact, if that is the case, then it may be that Turkey should be held accountable, because it is Turkey that is backing these rebel groups.

Turkey has said that claims of civilian casualties are disinformation. It has always said that the Syrian rebels it backs are moderates. Although in one case, it is fair that the leadership of one rebel group in Syria accused of atrocities says it has arrested and will punish those behind it.

But this is yet another complication for invents inside of Syria, where the U.S. role is increasingly fraught, a Pentagon team announcing that they've heard that parts of the U.S. military -- its army, its tanks -- will be moving in the days or weeks ahead, potentially, to positions where it can support the several hundred U.S. troops that will remain inside of Syria.

[00:35:08]

Remember, Donald Trump has been clear he views strategic value in securing the oil inside of Syria, and also allowing those same troops to continue to fight against ISIS.

But be in no mind here, any doubt that there is little strategic value in the small amounts of all inside of Syria. There are some suggesting perhaps there may have been a simpler way to explain to President Trump why they'd still need to be U.S. forces who, in fact, can focus on a separate mission, that of containing ISIS.

But more broadly, that mission is deeply complicated by the fact that hundreds of them now have to be pursue it in Iraq, potentially launching missions into Syria, Iraq having said it views those troops as simply passing through are not welcome for the long run.

President Trump himself, he tweeted that perhaps the Syrian Kurds, whose leader, Mazloun Abdi, he spoke to on the phone, he said he seemed very happy that perhaps the Kurds should think about moving towards the oil. Possibly, in his mind, finding the perfect solution where oil is looked after, the Kurds benefit from it, and the Americans can protect the Kurds. But sadly, neglecting the fact that the areas where the oil are, are in fact, more populated by Syrian Sunni Arabs and not the Kurds, essentially suggesting another mass migration.

That was a tweet. But regardless of these missives we get from the White House, we are seeing an increasingly complex situation unfolding on the ground, where it's not clear the cease-fire is finally holding and, yet, Russia and the regime have yet to fully establish their control over the areas they suggested in that Sochi deal.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Irbil, northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Forty heads of state from Africa have traveled to Russia for the inaugural Russia-African summit. It sounds kind of impressive, but in reality, it's a chance for Vladimir Putin to flaunt a ton of his most advanced weapons. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is there in the city of Sochi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right after inking a deal to take over much of northern Syria, Vladimir Putin is already on his next diplomatic blitz, courting African leaders at the first ever Russia-Africa Forum in Sochi.

Putin's top selling items? Weapons.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia has signed a military technical cooperation agreement with more than 30 countries, where we supply a large array of weaponry and hardware. Part of these supplies are done on a free-of-charge basis.

PLEITGEN: Russian companies around announced billions of dollars' worth of arms deals on the forum's first today, where Russian gear is on prominent display.

(on camera): The Russians certainly aren't shy about what they think the main selling points for their weapons are. They say their systems are effective, and at the same time, they're cheaper and, politically, a lot easier to get than weapons systems from the west.

(voice-over): Russia has been eyeing Africa for a while. A recent CNN investigation found firms with alleged ties to the Kremlin involved in diamond exploitation and military training in the Central African Republic.

Responding to CNN, the Central African Republic's defense minister confirmed close ties with Moscow.

MARIE-NOELLE KOYARA, DEFENSE MINISTER, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (through translator): Russia has accepted to equip the army of the Central African Republic with weapons. As I always say, an army without weapons cannot accomplish its mission.

PLEITGEN: But there's also a propaganda element. The panel the minister was on hosted by Alexander Malkevich, under U.S. treasury sanctions for cooperating with the troll factory that meddled in the 2016 U.S. election. Now, with a new message: Africa should ditch the west and look to Russia.

ALEXANDER MALKEVICH, FOUNDATION FOR NATIONAL VALUES PROTECTION (through translator): Traditional values are very important in the development of countries without anyone trying to impose alien norms, he said. That's something our country, Russia, is fighting, as well, fighting against those western values that go against our mentality.

PLEITGEN: After being handed a major diplomatic victory in Syria by President Trump, Vladimir Putin shows no signs of slowing down, putting on a full-court press to get African nations on his side.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Sochi, Russia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, it's a controversy beyond the grave. Forty-four years after Spain's Francisco Franco died, the controversy over his burial is ongoing. The government now pushing hard to get the dictator's body relocated.

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VAUSE: Since his death in 1875, the body of Spain's former leader, the fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, has lain in a pompous national monument. Now the Generalissimo's remains have been exhumed and moved to a cemetery near his wife.

As Milena Veselinovic reports, many Spaniards, but not all, say it's about time.

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MILENA VESELINOVIC, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For nearly 40 years, he ruled Spain with an iron fist, his regime responsible for thousands of deaths, but now remains of former dictator General Francisco Franco have been moved from a national mausoleum, built in part by forced labor of his political prisoners.

PEDRO SANCHEZ, ACTING PRIME MINISTER OF SPAIN (through translator): We're now closing a dark chapter in our history, and will start to move Franco's remains from where they've lain immorally for far too long, because no enemy of democracy deserves to lay in a place of worship or institutional respect.

VESELINOVIC: Franco's family tried unsuccessfully to block the move through courts. On Thursday, they carried his coffin to its new resting place, a state cemetery outside Madrid where his wife is buried.

Franco was the last surviving fascist dictator after World War II. His legacy still lives on for some.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's important to be here, to pay tribute to a Spanish general who saved Spain from the communist herds. Thanks to him, we live in the country that we have.

VESELINOVIC: Franco's tomb had become a draw for far-right sympathizers. Survivors of his brutal regime say he should have been moved from there long ago.

NICOLAS SANCHEZ-ALBORNOZ, FORMER POLITICAL PRISONER (through translator): We've waited many decades for Franco to disappear from this monument, which in and of itself, was the shame of Spain. All the dictators of Franco's ilk have vanished from Europe -- Hitler, Mussolini -- and were not honored with such tombs.

VESELINOVIC: Decades after Franco's death, Spain is still trying to deal with this painful chapter in its history.

Milena Veselinovic, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.

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VAUSE: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause.