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U.S. To Relax Policy On Israel Settlements In West Bank; House Investigating If Trump Lied To Mueller; Nine Officials Including Homes And Sondland To Testify; Lam Does Not Rule Out Calling in Chinese Army; Document Leak Details China's Detention Camps; Nine Key Witnesses to Testify Publicly This Week; China Furious Over NYT Publication of Documents; Nine-Year-Old Boy about to Graduate from College. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired November 19, 2019 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Studio Seven at CNN's World Headquarters in Atlanta. Ahead this hour, the U.S. declares Israeli settlements not illegal under international law. But why now and on what legal basis?

Impeachment T.V. goes into overdrive this week. Blockbuster public hearings the next three days, and President Trump might be feeling left out twitting he's considering testifying. And the moment may be coming when Hong Kong's chief executive turns to Beijing and asked for deployment of troops from the People's Liberation Army to restore calm.

Before decades, the U.S. has considered Jewish settlements built in the West Bank on land claimed by the Palestinians sort of future state were either illegal, illegitimate, or an obstacle to peace. But now, with very little explanation why, there's been a major change in policy.

On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the settlements were no longer considered illegal under international law. Palestinians were left not happy, Israelis were not unhappy, and Pompeo tried to spin the announcement as just to return to business as usual. It is anything but.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE, UNITED STATES: After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees with President Reagan. The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.

(END VIDEO CLIP) Joining us now for more from Washington is CNN Global Affairs Analyst Aaron David Miller. He's a former Middle East negotiator with U.S. State Department and has served in multiple administrations at the State Department. And Aaron, thank you for being with us.

AARON DAVID MILLER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Pleasure, John.

VAUSE: OK, so we just heard from Mike Pompeo to invert international law. So, there must be the international law that the U.S. follows and the international law for everyone else. Because here's a statement from the EU, the European Union's position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged. All settlement activity is illegal under international law and erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for lasting peace.

We also have this reporting from the Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing for this policy change for months. This came out of nowhere. So, what is this -- so why now? Is this just simply about Donald Trump helping his good friend, Benjamin Netanyahu politically?

I mean, I think it's a combination of Trump's politics and Trump's politics, and Trump's come first. And I think it's fairly significant over the last several months when the President of the United States has wondered you have elections in Israel, but nobody gets elected, that there's increasing frustration with the Prime Minister.

I do believe that this has been a strategy of the Trump administration from the beginning to minimize the importance of two-state solution to acquiesce Israel's definition of how to solve the Jerusalem problem to totally dismiss the refugees problem, and now to essentially validate, at least on the Israeli side, that the Palestinians are responsible for their own transgression.

But on the Israeli side, to validate the one instrument, settlement activity, that is essentially made it much more difficult, even though the peace process right now is comatose, to basically reach a two- state solution.

VAUSE: Clearly, for Benjamin Netanyahu, these over displays of (INAUDIBLE) and fawning of Donald Trump can really pay. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): People of Israel, this is a historic day and another great achievement to our policy. After President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, recognize their sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the U.S. administration is now putting an end to the live settlements are illegal. I thank President Trump and I think Secretary of State Pompeo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, it's been what, about a year or so since the U.S. Embassy moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, you know, that same time for the recognition of the annexation of the Golan Heights. But you know, neither one of those moves actually settled a kind of major unrest around the Arab world. So, you know, what's the downside for Israel?

MILLER: Well, I think the downside is obvious. It may not be today, tomorrow, next week, or next month, but the Israelis are grappling with proximity problem. I mean, they're controlling two and a half million Palestinians in the West Bank. You've got essentially a demographic and democratic threat to the long-term character in the state of Israel.

Again, not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but it's a problem that simply isn't going to go away. And the only way the problem is going to be resolved is by engagement with a very constituency that the Trump administration and by implication, the Netanyahu administration in seeking to (INAUDIBLE)

[01:05:08]

VAUSE: Here's a little more from the Secretary State justifying why this change has taken place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POMPEO: Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law hasn't worked. It hasn't advanced the cause of peace. The hard truth is there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict and arguments about who is right and wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace. This is a complex political problem that can only be solved by negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, for starters, Carter declared, you know, the settlements illegal, Reagan watered it down to illegitimate. No one has ever talked about it consistent, but that's beside the point. It seems Pompeo's argument is simply because the Israeli settlements and v1arious Israeli governments have continually and blatantly divided international law then let you just get what they want.

MILLER: Well, that's a cosmic lapse of logic, John. I mean, the notion that since the United States has taken a position -- I might add, you know, I've worked for half a dozen administrations, we dodged the issue of legality or the legality of settlements. We believe, at least today wrongly, that the negotiations, in fact, on terms that could meet -- and here's the difference -- on terms that could meet the core needs and requirements of both Israelis and Palestinians was the only way that we're going to sort this problem out.

And what the Trump administration has done is not only to abandon -- to abandon the principles that have underscored the Israeli- Palestinian negotiations, but also walk the way in a way that highly undermines the credibility of the United States from the international sanction and legitimacy. VAUSE: Well, this is obviously a bad day to say the very least for the Palestinians, and the chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat. He had basically put words for that. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAEB EREKAT, CHIEF NEGOTIATOR, PALESTINE: Once superpowers --once the Trump administration decides to undermine international law, once they become an administration that's pro-Israel occupation, pro-Israel war crimes, and this has constitute a major threat to international peace and security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The immediate implications for this is this announcement by the United States you know, the equivalent of the status gun for a West Bank land grab by Israeli settlers, you know, the ones who go out there with a flag and a water cooler or something and they just to claim the land?

MILLER: I mean, I think it's -- principle is one thing, implementing it is quite another. And I think this will validate the enterprise. There's no question about it. If in fact, the next government of Israel happens to be a narrowly based right-wing government, either because in the next 28 days, by some miracle, Lieberman decides to side with Netanyahu, or if no government is possible to start around and you have elections in March, and a narrow right-wing government is reelected, then I suspect you can hang a post for the season sign on any hope for a two-state solution.

Because the Trump administration has essentially trivialized the notion of statehood, wage political war on the Palestinians, declared the refugee problem irrelevant, defunded UNRRA, and adopted a view on Jerusalem that recognizes Israeli requirements, needs, and sensibilities that essentially denied Palestinian attachment and in relationship with these Jerusalem and Jerusalem in general.

So no, I think for the future, assuming the politics in Israel don't change, and the Palestinians can produce leadership that is, in fact, willing and able to settle equitably on terms that both sides can accept, then we're moving away from a diplomatic solution, John toward what I would call a solution delivered by history.

And if history could talk to us, I think it would say the following. Don't kid yourself. There is no political-diplomatic solution to this conflict. It's going to be a conflict in which both sides will be locked in for decades to come. And that, in essence, would be a profound tragedy.

VAUSE: Yes, considering all the territory in the ground that was covered and the progress has been made of the decades, it has been on hold, it's been in the freezer for a while, but there was always the hope that it was moving forward, but this certainly is not moving in that direction. Aaron, as always, thank you for your analysis. We appreciate you being with us.

MILLER: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: Just a few hours, four more key witnesses set to testify publicly in the Trump impeachment hearings. Three of them were on the now-infamous July 25th Ukraine call between Donald Trump and Ukraine's president. Then on Wednesday, it's U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland.

And there's a new investigation into an old scandal. The House General Counsel says President Trump's written answers to questions from the special counsel Robert Mueller are being closely looked at, and had been sufficient that Trump may not have been anything other than honest. What a surprise.

Meanwhile, the President says he's considering House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's offer to testify before Congress, even though he said it was a phony impeachment witch hunt, but he will strongly consider it nonetheless.

Joining me now from Los Angeles, Ron Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at the Atlantic. Ron, good to see you.

[01:10:24]

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.

VAUSE: OK, very quickly, let's get on the topic. On a scale of one to ten, one being absolutely no chance, ten being odds on favor of it, chances that Donald Trump will testify before Congress in this impeachment inquiry.

BROWNSTEIN: Testify in person, below one, written answers, below one. I can't see this happening, especially given the other -- you know, the point you noted which is that they are combing back over his answers to Mueller. I just don't see that -- I don't see any way the lawyers allow him and put himself in the position particularly because the evidence is so damning at the moment.

VAUSE: Yes, the guy has made 11,000 lives according to The Washington Post, I guess, you know -- anyway, the odds is probably a lot less now that Democrats have released the transcripts from the testimony by David Holmes. He's an embassy staffer in Ukraine. He's one that overheard the cell phone conversation between Trump and the E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

Now, this is what he said under oath. "I've never seen anything like this, someone calling the President from a mobile phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. There's just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it vividly."

Oddly enough, Gordon Sondland, he's the guy that just slipped his mind. But what this staffer remembers is the President asking about the investigations into the Biden's and as Sondland later told, the staffer, Trump doesn't give -- about Ukraine. Does that put an end to this argument from the Republicans that, you know, the President has done nothing wrong, and you know, this is all just hearsay? BROWNSTEIN: Well, certainly -- you know, to me, the whole hearsay argument has always been absurd. We know that from multiple testimony, the Ukrainians were told that the aid and the White House visit were conditioned on launching these investigations.

If we believe the idea that the President was somehow unaware of this, that Sondland, Giuliani, and maybe Kurt Volker cook this up by themselves and somehow leverage the federal government to withhold hundreds of million dollars in congressionally appropriated aid for months, I mean, obviously, that did not occur.

So that was ridiculous to begin with. But this argument, this evidence from Mr. Holmes puts the President and his own words much more directly. I also -- you know, you can't help but think of where all of this started back in 2016 with the Republican Party and Donald Trump complaining about the way Hillary Clinton handled classified information.

To hear this account in addition to everything it says about the Ukraine investigation of the president and a senior diplomat on an unsecured phone in the middle of a restaurant in a country where Russian surveillance has to be very intense talking in this way, you know, you got to think that whatever Sondland says about this taker, a lot of people in Moscow have heard this conversation.

VAUSE: Yes. That's incredible. And you know, just -- let's put Gordon Sondland in some context here. He will give public testimony on Wednesday. He's the guy who essentially bought, you know, his Ambassador posting to the E.U. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER WELCH (D-VT): Well, sketchy. I mean, this is a guy who had no diplomatic experience. He had a lot of money and he did what donors do, he bought his way into an ambassadorship. And by all accounts, what he wanted to do is please the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: He said, I didn't count on buying this amount of trouble though, but you know, he's already admitted in his closed-door testimony once admitting there was quid pro quo. If he's caught again you with another memory lapse, will he be sort of facing contempt of Congress charges? That would seem pretty strong motivation to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, first of all, I mean, he's not the first or the hundredth or the thousandth person who, you know, gained ambassadorship by being a campaign donor. He may be one of the few who have been placed in a situation for which -- for which he was so manifestly unsuited.

And given that level of responsibility for kind of executing this by all evidence shakedown of the Ukrainian government, I just think there's this exquisite, you know, coincidence in history that a couple of days before Mr. Sondland goes to testify before Congress, Roger Stone is convicted, one of the, you know, the President's oldest political advisors is convicted of lying to Congress and is now awaiting sentencing on exactly that.

Gordon Sondland has already revised his testimony once. There is now compelling evidence, not only for Mr. Holmes, but apparently from corroborating witnesses, that he has left out additional significant details. I mean, really, to the -- to the heart of the matter. And so he faces a very difficult decision.

You've got to think that he, you know, is he going for -- is he going to go adjust his testimony again, is he going to try to talk it out and deny what multiple witnesses are going to testify to on their own, or is he going to plead the fifth?

I mean, there are a lot of things that can happen between now and Wednesday. It'll certainly be one of the highest-profile moments of this -- of this public hearing part of the investigation.

VAUSE: He may want his money back.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

[01:15:04]

VAUSE: You know, current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is not emerging from this, in a -- in a good light, not exactly a profile in courage. On Monday, he was asked why he's not doing more to defend, you know, his workers at the State Department, from the President. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you explain why you haven't chosen to make comments in their support?

POMPEO: I'm happy to talk about Ukraine policy, I'm not going to get into the issue surrounding the Democrat impeachment inquiry, just not going to do it today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Ambassador Yovanovitch was on the Hill on Friday, the President made a tweet right when she was appearing saying that everything, everywhere that she went turned bad. Is it an assessment you agree with, you've known her?

POMPEO: I don't have anything to sell. I defer to the White House about a particular statement and the like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And he retell the testimony, apparently, it's now emerged that he did actually call Sean Hannity at FOX News, about the smear against the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. But it's all behind closed doors. And, you know, this loyalty to Trump, apparently is now paying -- Trump blaming Pompeo for, you know, employing honest people who then speak the truth at these hearings. BROWNSTEIN: So, you know, it's really interesting, among everything else that the Ukraine investigation has laid bare, it has made more clear than ever that we are functionally living in a medieval court at this point, right?

Whether -- there are no institutional authorities, or institutional independence, there's only the whim of the king, and everyone circling around him is constantly playing to an audience of one, often at the price of the mission -- the state admission of their own departments and agencies, and find themselves in the position of having to tolerate.

And, of course, it's not only Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence has done the same thing with the President attacking another woman on Twitter, who works for him, who was scheduled to testify this week. And one of the things that's interesting to me is that, you know, you have a president who denigrates expertise, who delights in, kind of, disparaging those with experience.

And look, there's no question there's a part of his base that response to that, this idea that there are, kind of, contemptuous elites looking down on them. But I can't help but think that his disdain for expertise is part of the reason he is struggling more than any Republican president, ever, among college-educated voters, including college-educated white voters.

We just saw, again, in Louisiana, a deep red state, white collar suburbs that had been the absolute beach head, cornerstone, of the Republican advances in those states, moving sharply away from the Republican candidate in 2019, as they did in 2018 across the country, and in 2017, in Virginia.

So, there is a posture that the President takes, that all of these officials are abetting, and it does speak to a portion of the country, but there's also a portion of the country that is clearly recoiling from it.

VAUSE: The GOP held Mississippi, though, this year. I think that's been the big issue.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

VAUSE: Ron, good to see you. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: Still to come here, growing concern about bloodshed in Hong Kong, anti-government protesters remain holdup inside the university. Hong Kong's leader warning Chinese troops from PLA, may be called in to end this. Plus, dramatic video coming from Iran, as protesters protest of a higher fuel prices continue to rock the country.

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PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with you for CNN "WEATHER WATCH." And the trend across the United States in North America remains rather quiet, but notice there is a system locked in across portions of the Baja region, that is reminisce to the tropical system to bring in rainfall across the region, more on that in a minute.

And on the opposite end of the spectrum, on the opposite corner of the United States, there's another system skirting off towards the Canadian Maritimes that will bring in some wintry weather into, at least, the northern tier of, say, New England. But here we go, across the south west of the United States, in some areas, weeks to months' worth of rainfall in store over the next couple of days.

[01:20:10]

Much of the southern half of the state of Arizona, certainly portions of Southern California, as well, in line for a flood alert that is in place. You noticed a system here, spin up and there's quite a bit of rainfall from Phoenix, eventually into areas even of Western Texas.

But the amount of rainfall, pretty impressive, 150 millimeters in spots in San Diego, several weeks' worth of rainfall in some of these areas. As much as 100 millimeters possible, you know, parts of Southern California. But notice, the trend, at least, for the large area of the Gulf Coast states going to be a warmer one over the next several days.

So, we're going to get a break here, in the weather pattern, and into the northern states as well. St. Louis climbs up to almost 20 degrees before the bottom drops out come Friday, and in Chicago, the middle teens possible by midweek, and notice New York City, up and down we go, as cool as six degrees, as warm as 13, over the next week.

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VAUSE: Hong Kong's chief executive has warned if the violent unrest across the city continues to escalate, local security forces are unable to restore calm. She may turn to Beijing and the People's Liberation Army. The financial hub is being rocked by months of pro- democracy demonstrations.

But, in recent weeks, the protests have turned deadly, police and activists have clashed with increasing brutality and bloodshed. Right now, dozens of protesters, hundreds, in fact, remain barricaded inside the university, they've been surrounded by police for almost a week.

Paula Hancocks live again for us, this hour, in Hong Kong. Paula, last hour, you were able to walk us through, tell us, sort of, give us a sense of what's going on at that university with this siege, which has been going on, what? For about a week, almost a week now.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, over the last couple of days, the police have just locked down this campus, John, but yes, there have been protests who have been holed up in here for over a week. Now, this is inside the Polytechnic University, you can see, I mean, an awful lot of it has been trashed.

There are boxes, crates, shopping trollies full of petrol bombs, you got explosive materials littered around the place, casually lying on the floor, you've got, sort of, ethanol, methanol, all the sorts of chemicals that you will find in the laboratories here. We understand, from officials, they had been broken into and protesters had been helping themselves to those.

Now, we do have some new information. We've just heard from a police source telling CNN, that 900 protesters have been arrested on Monday, that is just within one day, and that is what -- from this particular campus.

So, certainly, that just shows you the scale of the people that were in here, to start with. Now, we have seen ourselves, at least dozens, potentially hundreds of protesters walking out of their own accord, just this morning, and throughout the day, and giving themselves up to police.

Those over the age of 18 know that they will be arrested immediately, we've seen a couple in tears, as they accepted defeat and gave themselves in to police. Those under the age of 18, as we understand it from a lawyer who's voluntarily come here, to try and talk to some of these youngsters about what their rights are, they will not be arrested immediately, they should be OK.

But it's interesting, John, because there are some who are determined to still stay here. We have seen dozens. One of the so-called front- liners told us, 80 to 90 people are still here, and there are those who are still willing to fight, there were those that were saying that they're not going to leave, they are going to fight until the bitter end with the police.

We saw one youngster who was 16 years old, he said, he hasn't been to school since this protest movement began, he has been part of this fight and he is determined to keep fighting, John?

VAUSE: Paula, we heard from Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, a few hours ago, but -- she was asked about when she would invoke Article 14 of the basic law, which is Hong Kong's, sort of, meaning constitution, that allows, you know, for the legislature there to request assistance from Beijing, and basically, to deploy the garrison of PLA soldiers based there in Hong Kong, I think there's about 5,000 of them.

[01:25:10]

They can be used in cases of natural disaster and to restore law and order. She did -- there was a lot of conditions on this. She said if local security forces could not restore calm, if the violence continues, essentially, if it got out of hand and beyond their control, she would do it.

This is already going down. She hasn't really gone down this road before. That seems to be a bit of a warning that she's saying to these protesters, this could get serious, in a big way, fairly soon.

HANCOCKS: Well, it's interesting, because we were just in the canteen of this campus, and you had some of these more hard-core elements of the protest movement, and they were sitting there, watching this Carrie Lam press conference, as she was saying all of this.

Now, the protesters here are well aware that Carrie Lam is leaving that option, open. We've known for some time she has not been pigeonholed into saying that she will not call on the Chinese military or the PLA to intervene, if the Hong Kong police feel that they are unable to contain this situation.

But she has also said, as have the police, that they are able to contain this, and there's definitely a sense, this Tuesday, it is a very different vibe to what it was on Monday, that things are starting to calm down somewhat. Now, I say -- I say that with some reticence because, obviously, these things can flare up again, very quickly.

But certainly, there is a more somber atmosphere on this campus. There are many that are leaving, and that do admit defeat in this particular battle, but there are those that'll keep fighting. John?

VAUSE: Yes. We're out of time, but there does seem to be, sort of, upward spike in graph of violence. It sort of ebbs and it flows, and then goes up and comes down. I guess, the question is, when does it come down for good? And that seems up for a long time yet, but Paula, thank you. Appreciate you being with us.

After a weekend of unrest, protesters are not backing down in Iran. Nationwide protests were sparked on Friday, after a government plan was announced to raise gas prices. Security forces have clashed with crowds and officials say several protesters have died. State television reporting the Revolutionary Guard Corps is warning of decisive action, if the unrest does not end.

Still to come here, a real leak of hundreds of Chinese government documents, putting renewed scrutiny on Beijing's controversial detention centers for ethnic minorities. More on that in a moment.

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[01:30:49]

VAUSE: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Welcome back everybody.

I'm John Vause.

The headlines this hour.

The Trump administration has upended a four decades' old policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. On Monday the Secretary of State announced the U.S. now considers the settlement are not necessarily inconsistent with international law.

A big week ahead in the Trump impeachment hearings. On Tuesday four key witnesses will testify, including three who were on the July 25th Trump-Ukraine call. Two of them said they did not feel it was appropriate for the U.S. President Donald Trump to ask Ukraine's president to investigate the Bidens.

CNN's Erica Hill now takes a look at why this week's hearings are actually worth watching.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This has been an intense period for the House Intelligence Committee and this coming week could be its final act.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And an increasing focus on one man -- Gordon Sondland.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He's the one who seemed to have an awful lot of access to the President.

HILL: Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a million-dollar Trump donor is scheduled to testify on Wednesday amid new questions about his role.

WILLIAM TAYLOR, ACTING U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: In the presence of my staff at a restaurant, Ambassador Sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in Kiev.

HILL: On that call, just one day after the now infamous July 25th exchange that led to the whistleblower's complaint --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I made a perfect. Not a good call, perfect call.

HILL: Ambassador Sondland told President Trump Ukrainian President Zelensky would do anything Trump asked including launch an investigation into the Bidens.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Manu -- I understand, you have new information.

HILL: A bombshell confirmed late Friday in closed-door testimony by a staffer who overheard it.

RAJU: The Gordon Sondland testimony is going to be highly significant because he has already admitted his testimony to now say that he told a top Ukrainian official that security assistance from the United States, roughly $400 million dollars was likely tied to the ask for investigation.

According to multiple witnesses, the reason why he knows that is because of a conversation he had with President Trump.

HILL: Tim Morrison -- a former National Security Council official set to testify on Tuesday told lawmakers last month Sondland was acting at Trump's direction when he encouraged Ukraine to announce the investigation and described the E.U. ambassador as a problem according to newly released transcript.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: New details are piling up quickly in the impeachment inquiry.

HILL: Morrison listened in on the July 25th call, as did Jennifer Williams, an adviser to Vice President Pence who will also appear Tuesday and said the call shook (ph) her as unusual.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman immediately raised concerns after listening to the July 25th call. He, too, is slated to appear on Tuesday.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There is no one star witness that this whole case will rise or fall on. Not that we know of right now. But I think Vindman is sort of another brick in the wall that House Democrats are trying to build.

HILL: Former special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker defended the President's actions in closed door testimony telling lawmakers there was quote, "no leverage" implied.

KURT VOLLKER, FORMER SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO UKRAINE: There was no linkage. And I think further testimony and depositions will confirm that multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got text messages from Volker and Sondland.

HILL: Volker's private text message the morning of the July 25th call revealed Ukrainian officials pushing for a White House meeting. Volker, writing to an aid for Zelensky, "Assuming President Z convinces Trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down a date for the visit to Washington. Good luck."

On August 9th, Sondland messages Volker. "I think POTUS really wants the deliverable." Going on to suggest Volker should ask for the Ukrainian president aide in crafting a quote, "draft statement so that we can see exactly what they propose to cover."

Volker will also appear on Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kurt Volker, let's remember, is a former career foreign service officer. Kurt Volker knew what normal foreign policy looks like.

[01:34:53]

HILL: The week's final witness, Fiona Hill, is expected to subscribe to what she saw as a nightmare scenario -- private interests driving U.S. policy.

Where do you think everybody needs to be at the end of next week?

HONIG: I think Democrats need to be in a position where they can say we are confident in this case and I think the Republicans just need to be at a place of either there's doubt about this case or doubt about whether it's true, or maybe it happened but it's not serious enough to merit impeachment.

HILL: High stakes heading into a potentially explosive week of testimony.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: We're adjourned.

HILL: Erica Hill, CNN -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: China's government has hit back at a "New York Times" report which links President Xi Jinping directly to detention policies targeting ethnic minorities in Xinjian calling the story a smear filled with distortions.

More than 400 pages of Communist Party documents were leaked detailing mass incarceration of mostly Muslim Uighurs as well as other ethnic minorities.

David Culver joins us now, live from Beijing. So David -- just outline, what exactly are these links between Xi and these detention policies and the detention centers which are basically housing thousands and thousands of Uighurs?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- John. Yes.

This is unprecedented. I mean you had to point out that this is, as you mentioned 400-plus documents, pages that the "New York Times" says that they got a hold of they say from somebody who is a member of Chinese political establishment. They didn't go into detail beyond that.

But they say that person's intention was to reveal what exactly was going on in Xinjian, the far western region where these ethnic minorities, predominantly Muslims, are being detained. And this person also wanted to disclose that this went all the way to the top.

And some of these documents and these papers seem to have speeches from President Xi Jinping himself that seems to encourage some of the local officials within that Xinjiang region to move ahead with these detentions.

Now, CNN has reported extensively on what's going on there, these Uighurs, as they're known, these predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities have been involved in this crackdown in that region, many of them detained, according to the State Department two million have been attained.

And initially, Chinese authorities pushed back saying it wasn't the case. They've now labeled these as vocational and education centers. And they say it's part of their anti-terrorism efforts.

Now, we should point out, and the "New York Times" article does go into detail on this as well, that region was experiencing a great deal of terrorist activity and unrest dating back to 1990. And as Chinese authorities have said repeatedly over the past three years it seems the crackdown is effective.

The question is, at what cost? Are human rights being violated as many western countries have suggested? The United States included. Now when the "New York Times" came out with this reporting, John --

they suggested that local officials there were even given details as to how they were to address young people, students coming home back to that region who may say where my parents? Where are my relatives?

And they were told to explain to them in so many words that they are ok. The Communist Party will take care of them and that they're going through this re-education process and will re-assimilate back into society without issue.

And as you point out, Chinese authorities are pushing back hard. Just yesterday the foreign ministry suggested that this was "New York Times" reporting, ignorant of the facts of what's really going on there and the local government pushing back even harder in Xinjiang.

We're just reading this from late last night -- this came across. And they call it entirely fabricated by domestic and foreign hostile forces. They go on to say it's totally nonsense, full of lies and evil intended -- John.

VAUSE: They can just call it fake news. We're used to that by now, I guess.

David -- thank you. Appreciate the update.

Well, still to come here, his parents say he's just a regular kid -- a regular kid who went to high school at age six, about to graduate college before his tenth birthday. Yes, right, regular

[01:38:45]

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VAUSE: Ok. So this kid is not (INAUDIBLE). He prefers the online video game Fortnite like lots of boys his age but unlike boys his own age there's one nine-year-old out there who is a genius and soon a college graduate and maybe a bit of an overachiever.

CNN's Isa Soares has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At first glance nine-year-old Laurent Simons seems like any other child his age. He says he enjoys playing with his phone and with his dog Sammy at their home in Amsterdam.

But unlike most nine-year-olds, he's about to earn an undergraduate degree, one of the youngest people ever to graduate from university.

LAURENT SIMONS, GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE: I like to study. It's like --

ALEXANDER SIMONS, FATHER OF LAURENT SIMONS: Like the big park?

L. SIMONS: Yes.

A. SIMONS: Playgrounds. a

SOARES: Born in Belgium, Laurent was four when he started primary school and six when he began secondary school which he reportedly finished in two years.

Now about to turn ten, he's set to graduate from Eindhoven University of Technology in December with a degree in electrical engineering.

ALEXANDER SIMONS, LAURENT SIMONS' FATHER: We didn't do anything special, specially in the beginning he went to school and then the teachers said he's really bright, really clever. They gave him extra (INAUDIBLE), extra tests and the ball started to roll from there on.

SOARES: Born into a family of doctors, Laurent also wants to study medicine. After he graduates he plans to earn a medical degree at the same time as he works towards a PhD in electrical engineering. Eventually he says he wants to develop artificial organs, an ambition inspired by his grandparents who he says both have heart conditions. But before then Laurent's parents nope their child genius can simply enjoy his childhood.

A. SIMONS: What he achieves is enough (ph) that he wants that. It's just who he is. And beside studying he likes traveling, gaming so he's just a regular child enjoining life.

SOARES: Isa Soares, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And if you've been feeling like you're an underachiever and a bit inadequate these days, we apologize.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

"WORLD SPORT" starts after the break.

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("WORLD SPORTS")

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