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CNN International: 80th Anniversary of D-Day; Major Asylum Restrictions Now in Effect a Southern Border; 100 Plus Daily Heat Records Could be Broken this Week; Sunak Spars with Starmer; Modi Wins Record Third Term but with Smaller Majority. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 05, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are the shores where the men landed, taking the first faltering steps towards the liberation of France and of Europe. The 80th anniversary of D-Day is mainly about those who never left.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The simple truth is there is a worldwide migrant crisis and if the United States doesn't secure our border, there's no limit to the number of people may try to come here.

RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Inflation is back to normal, wages are growing, taxes are now being cut.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY LEADER: We will raise specific taxes and we've been really clear what they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster, it is Wednesday June the 5th, 9 a.m. here in London, 10 a.m. in Paris where U.S. President Joe Biden has just arrived to attend ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion that led to the liberation of France and the defeat of Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Biden will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy twice in the coming days, whilst both leaders are in Normandy. The White House says they will discuss the state of play in Ukraine and how the U.S. can continue to support Kyiv. The two leaders are also expected to meet during the G7 summit in Italy next week.

Let's go live to Paris, CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kayla Tausche. Kayla, take us through what we expect to see over the next couple of days.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Max. President Biden is here for a series of scheduled diplomatic engagements that have been long anticipated but carry much more significance now that war is intensifying inside Ukraine, which of course is the biggest military theater in Europe since World War II. Biden and Zelenskyy will meet later this week in Normandy where other world leaders will also be convening to commemorate D-Day, to commemorate the Allied invasion that eventually led to the liberation of Europe.

And Biden and Zelenskyy will have an opportunity to discuss in detail exactly what is going on, on the ground and in the air in Ukraine where the U.S. has newly authorized Zelenskyy to use American-made weapons to strike Russian positions located over the border inside Russia.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan overnight called that common sense and he pointed out that this week's engagements are all happening against a backdrop where, in his words, dictators are once again attempting to challenge the order, attempting to march in Europe.

That is a message that President Biden is expected to deliver forcefully when he gives a speech on a topic that is fairly familiar with him, on the power of democracy. He's expected to deliver that speech on Friday from Pointe du Hoc, which is the cliffs where Army Rangers scaled to destroy German lookout positions that eventually led to the end of the Battle of Normandy.

Following that, the president is going to see his visit elevated to a state visit, a formal visit with French President Emmanuel Macron, where the two leaders will discuss again in detail what is happening in Ukraine and a very novel plan that G7 leaders are discussing to utilize Russian assets that have been frozen to send some of those proceeds to Ukraine to continue funding the country's defenses. They'll also discuss the situation in the Middle East where Macron has been critical of the U.S.'s position and where the war between Israel and Hamas continues to simmer. They will also discuss relations with China and much more.

Now, this is all happening as President Biden faces a reelection vote in November. Voters have given him fairly low marks on his handling of foreign policy, but one of the hallmarks of his foreign policy has been this deepening of transatlantic ties. So expect him to continue to deepen those ties and to point to that in the coming months -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Kayla we'll be speaking to you a lot in the next couple of days for this very momentous occasion.

80 years ago, then tens of thousands of troops in the U.S., he U.K., Canada and other allied countries stormed the beaches of Normandy. Now, some of those elderly veterans of World War II are returning to France to observe D-Day.

CNN's Melissa Bell reports from Normandy.

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[04:05:00] MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the other side of the Atlantic, they returned to the continent they'd liberated a lifetime ago. Some of the last living American World War Two veterans struggling with the steps, but not with their memories of June 6th, 1944.

ARLESTER BROWN, WORLD WAR 11 VETERAN: I felt that mankind had lost its way.

BELL (voice-over): 80 years on, the veterans arrived to a hero's welcome and with a distinct twinkle in their eye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beautiful day, nice girls like you, so we're satisfied.

BELL : These are the shores where the men landed, taking the first faltering steps towards the liberation of France and of Europe. The very youngest veterans expected here this week are 96, which means they were just 16 at the time and had to lie about their age in order to be allowed to fight.

BELL (voice-over): The first of the more than 100,000 men that landed in Normandy on June 6th came by air, ferrying through the darkness into the unknown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We took off at 2.30 in the morning, completely blacked out takeoff. You remember things like that.

BELL (voice-over): The paratroopers' planes still fly today. The memories of the men who've now passed kept alive on recordings like these.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And everybody was very quiet, no conversation, no jocularity, nothing. I always thought God was with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the green light went on, we went out right then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 18 men are going out that door in 11 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm lucky my mind.

BELL (voice-over): But even for those who survived, the cost has been unimaginable.

NEAL MCCALLUM, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: My mother and father gave you my four elder brothers. We lost one, and he's buried in Lorraine.

BELL: Beyond those few returning here this week, the last living witnesses of what happened here, the 80th anniversary of D-Day is mainly about those who never left.

BELL (voice-over): Their memory honored with sand taken from the beaches where they landed and died. For the freedom of people they'd never met in a country they'd never seen.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Normandy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now sweeping new restrictions at the southern U.S. border are now in effect as President Biden tackles immigration, one of the biggest challenges facing his re-election campaign and the country. His executive action allows the government to bar many of the migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico seeking asylum. The ban would kick in when daily encounters exceed an average of 2,500 per day. Unaccompanied children, though, will be exempt.

So far this year, there have been more than 1.5 million migrant encounters along the 3,200 kilometer border, but the total number of crossings has actually fallen in recent months.

President Biden spoke with his Mexican counterpart about migration on Tuesday and he vowed never to use any of former President Donald Trump's discriminatory language or to break up immigrant families.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will never demonize immigrants. I'll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. And further, I'll never separate children from their families at the border. I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs. I will not use the U.S. military to go into neighborhoods all across the country to pull millions of people out of their homes.

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FOSTER: Well, the border reforms have divided Democrats, some of whom argue the U.S. president is using the same executive authority Trump once used to restrict asylum seekers. But others say not all the responsibility to fix the border falls on President Biden.

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Listen, it's not just on the president, it's also on Congress. And this speaks to Congress's failure in both parties to actually pass immigration reform that expands the path to citizenship.

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FOSTER: Well, the executive action marks a major departure from decades long protocol. CNN's Rosa Flores picks up the story.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Joe Biden announcing his toughest immigration policy, an executive order barring asylum when daily migrant apprehensions at the U.S. southern border hit a seven day average of 2,500, a move that could result in the deportation of some migrants in a matter of days, even hours. BIDEN: If they choose to come without permission and against the law, they'll be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the United States.

FLORES (voice-over): The measure clamps down on unlawful crossings between ports of entry since migrant apprehensions at the U.S. southern border are now about 4,000 per day. Biden appearing to take a page from former President Donald Trump's hardline immigration playbook. Trump tried implementing a similar policy in 2018.

[04:10:03]

The ACLU led the challenge that caused courts to strike it down and says it plans to sue the Biden administration, too.

LEE GELERNT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ACLU IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS PROJECT: We do not believe that any provision, whether it's 212F or any other provision, allows an administration to shut down the asylum system.

FLORES (voice-over): Biden administration officials defended the executive order, saying it includes humanitarian exceptions for unaccompanied migrant children, for some medical emergencies and for victims of severe human trafficking. The timing of the announcement --

FLORES: The number of migrant apprehensions right now is very low.

NORMA PIMENTEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY: Extremely low.

FLORES (voice-over): Raising eyebrows among advocates like Sister Norma Pimentel because migrant apprehensions on the U.S. southern border have plummeted from nearly 250,000 in December to about 120,000 in May, a source familiar with the data told CNN.

FLORES: So why do this, Sister Norma?

PIMENTEL: I would think it's because of the fact that we're having an election very soon, and if he doesn't show a different optic picture, then they're losing.

FLORES (voice-over): The apparent strategy by the Biden administration pointing the finger back at Republicans who failed to support the Senate's bipartisan border bill. Republicans fired right back, saying it's too little, too late.

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): Joe Biden, with a pen, could fix the problems that he created, and he chooses not to. He doesn't want to fix the problem.

FLORES (voice-over): Caught in the middle of this political battle, playing out on the border?

RAFAEL, MIGRANT FROM VENEZUELA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FLORES: He says that during his journey, he saw all cycles of life, from newborns to the elderly to people who died along the way. FLORES (voice-over): Migrants like Rafael from Venezuela, who wants to

go only by his first name for fear it could impact his case.

FLORES: Do you think migrants are going to go back to their country?

RAFAEL: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FLORES: In my years of covering the Biden administration and his immigration policy, President Biden's immigration policy, I can tell you that I've heard from law enforcement, from officials, from voters on the border saying that they wanted the president to do something significant. And that they were waiting for him to do something significant, that they felt abandoned by the federal government. And that they would even say that while they did not agree with everything that Texas Governor Greg Abbott was doing when it when it came to his hardline immigration policies, they would say he's doing something.

Well, now the federal government has actually done something. We're just going to have to wait and see what the actual effect is.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Hidalgo, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: With less than a month before the U.K.'s July 4th general election, the British prime minister took to his Labour Party challenger in their first debate. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer went head to head on who's best equipped to handle some of the biggest issues, including the economy, immigration, health care and the war in the Middle East. And they stuck to party lines, trading blame on the economy and taxes. Take a listen.

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RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We've heard a lot about the cost of living challenges today. So I have made some decisions, bold decisions, that will mean that we can save all of you thousands of pounds, still meet our targets, and we can ensure our country's energy security.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY LEADER: We will raise specific taxes, and we've been really clear what they are. The oil and gas companies should be paying their fair share towards our energy. So we will raise those, but we won't raise the others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: While political rivals are pouring cold water on Nigel Farage's plans to return to politics, someone literally doused the Brexiteer with a milkshake during his campaign launch. Farage says he'll run as a candidate for Parliament, representing the hard-right Reform Party in the July 4th general election. Farage wasn't hurt in the attack. A 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of assault.

Amanda Knox is in an Italian court today in a slander case against her. The 36-year-old American who served four years in jail for the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kircher. This is video of her arriving in the last hour. Her conviction was overturned on appeal. The slander accusation was brought by a bar owner who Knox accused of murdering Kircher. She later tried to recant that claim.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is following developments live for us from Rome. Take us through what we'll see today, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, the proceedings have begun this morning already. Amanda Knox is in the courtroom in Florence with her husband.

Now, this has nothing to do with the murder itself of Meredith Kircher back in 2007. This relates to a charge that held against Amanda Knox, which is that of slander against Patrick Lumumba, who is a -- who was a bar owner in Perugia, where Amanda Knox had a part-time job while she was studying in that northern Italian city.

[04:15:05]

Now, several days after the murder of Meredith Kircher back in 2007, Amanda Knox was held overnight by the Italian police who interrogated her in the absence of a lawyer, without a proper translator, and without actually recording the interrogation. Now, as a result of that interrogation, they came out and said that Amanda Knox accused Patrick Lumumba of the murder of Meredith Kircher.

Now, afterwards, she recanted that accusation. Nonetheless, even though she was twice convicted and twice acquitted for the murder, the slander charge was upheld until a European court recently decided, because of the circumstances of her interrogation, that there had to be a retrial.

So, back in April, this retrial began, and it is expected that she's not going to be doing any jail time, because she already -- even though it was a three-year sentence for slander, she actually spent four years already in Italian jail.

So basically, we're talking about a fine of 18,400 euro, which is just over 20,000 U.S. dollars, to be paid to Patrick Lumumba. Now, she's in Italy to try to clear her name of the slander charges themselves, and we're expecting some sort of final decision, some sort of verdict later today -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, back with you then. Ben, in Rome. Thank you.

Now, a heat dome over the Western U.S. is pushing temperatures to summer-like levels weeks before the season begins. Multiple daily records were shattered on Tuesday, but there's potential for more than 100 records to be broken approaching the weekend. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has the latest forecast.

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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think we're going to find this term, heat dome, part of our vocabulary here for the next couple of months. High pressure just sits over one spot, not a cloud in the sky, sunshine all day, things warm up rapidly, and the air doesn't move very much underneath the high pressure. It doesn't blow around.

More than 100 new record highs are going to be set here across parts of the desert Southwest over the next few days. So the warmest day looks like so far going to be Thursday. Very warm morning, low temperatures. In the afternoon, we're well up 15 degrees Fahrenheit above where we should be this time of year, breaking some record highs.

Now, this was set this week, not a record low temperature set in Vegas since 1999, 25 years since they broke a record low. And think about how many record highs have been shattered since then. Vegas, you're going to be almost in the one teens over the next couple of days, especially you will be in the sunshine or standing on the street.

All the rain is going to be off to the east, a significant amount of rain here in almost every state and absolute sunshine back out to the West.

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FOSTER: The southern German city of Passau has declared a state of emergency following days of flooding that's killed three people and forced thousands to flee. The water level of the Danube River, which runs through the city, has reached 10 meters or almost 33 feet. However, a local water management agency representative says he believes this is the peak.

Still to come, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins a historic third term. But his party falls short of a super majority. What this means for the ruling coalition just ahead.

Plus, on Alexei Navalny's birthday, his supporters reach out to help Russian political prisoners. We'll tell you how.

And later, yet another European country recognizes Palestinian statehood. The latest efforts at peace in Gaza and the two-state solution still ahead.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set for a third consecutive term in office after vote counting in India's general election concluded early today. The final results show that Modi's BJP-led alliance won 292 seats, only 20 more than the 272 needed to win an outright majority. It's a stunning blow for Modi, who had vowed to win the election with a super majority.

Modi thanked his supporters after the results were announced.

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NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Continuously, for the third time, the people's love and blessings boost our morale and give new strength to our resolve. We Indians will walk together toward the development of the country, and in this third term, the country will write a new chapter of big decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The India coalition, which includes the opposition Congress party, won 234 seats. More than 640 million people voted from April 19th to June 1st in the world's largest election.

For more, let's go to CNN's Ivan Watson live in New Delhi. So he certainly won, no one can take that away from him, but is his authority dented in any way?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, I mean, the dust is still settling here from the world's biggest exercise in democracy, that the 642 million votes that were cast. And the headline is, yes, Narendra Modi, the alliance that he led, won this election, but his party lost the majority it has enjoyed in the lower house of parliament for a decade. And so now this politician is headed into uncharted territory.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (voice-over): The world's largest election is now over. And just hours into the massive vote count, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's followers were already partying.

WATSON: Supporters are celebrating here at the headquarters of the BJP. And it does look like Narendra Modi will govern for another term. But it does not seem that he has won the landslide victory he predicted, which suggests he'll govern with a weaker electoral mandate.

WATSON (voice-over): At a rally in the capital, Modi declared victory, even though for the first time in a decade, his party failed to win a majority of seats in parliament. Modi will have to form a coalition government if he is to continue to rule. The opposition say they've hurt the powerful prime minister.

RAHUL GANDHI, INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: The country has unanimously and clearly stated, we do not want Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Amit Shah to be involved in the running of this country. We do not like the way they have run this country. We do not appreciate the way they have attacked the constitution.

WATSON (voice-over): Modi's opponents accused the prime minister of limiting freedom of speech and press with crackdowns on political rivals. Modi and his party have also targeted India's Muslim minority with Islamophobic rhetoric.

MODI (through translator): Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?

WATSON (voice-over): Modi's brand of Hindu nationalism may have reached its limit. His party's candidate lost in Ayodhya, the town where he inaugurated a controversial new Hindu temple on the site of a demolished mosque.

Modi's still seen by many as the business-friendly steward of the world's fifth largest economy. Indian stock markets plunged more than 5 percent on Tuesday upon news of Modi's lackluster election results. Though weakened, Modi is still the most powerful and polarizing politician India has seen in generations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:25:00]

WATSON (on camera): So what's underway now? You have the two main alliances, these two blocks, that are both holding their own meetings today to kind of discuss strategies moving forward.

In the meantime, the procedure, Max, will be that the Indian president, she will at some stage have a meeting with Modi, who as the leader of the largest party with the most seats in the upcoming parliament, he'll be submitting a proposal for forming a government. And both parties have suggested that they would like to try to, both blocks rather, that they would like to try to peel off some members from their rivals' alliances. So we'll have to watch that closely to see whether anybody has any success with this kind of wheeling and dealing in the days ahead -- Max.

FOSTER: Ivan in Delhi, thank you.

Joining me now, Subir Sinha, academic and author specializing in South Asian politics. He's also director of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Thank you so much for joining us.

How do you think Modi comes out of this election?

SUBIR SINHA, DIRECTOR, SOAS SOUTH ASIA INSTITUTE: Just to clarify, I'm the director of the South Asia Institute at SOAS, not of SOAS itself.

But yes, I mean, Modi comes out of this election with a fair bit of, you know, restraint on his almost absolute powers. And I think clipped his wings, I think, would be an accurate description.

If you watch the celebrations at the BJP's headquarters yesterday, they were very muted. He appeared as if he had been through a period of sadness and reflection. And he has basically come out again as a polarizing figure, where people who are hardcore supporters of him see the verdict in which he has lost 62 seats in parliament as yet another victory.

There has been no talk about anyone taking responsibility. And as you as the previous report said, it is not an easy task to form a coalition to take from -- to go from 241 to 272, which is the magic number, the halfway number to achieve a parliamentary majority, which his coalition at the moment does have.

But then you do have three or four regional leaders who are kingmakers in this. And they might make demands on Mr. Modi and his party that may not be entirely palatable to the party leadership.

FOSTER: Which way do you think he's going to lean in order to woo those kingmakers? How might his policies need to change to get the right people on his side?

SINHA: Well, I mean, if you look at Chandrababu Naidu, who's bringing in the Telugu Desam Party from Andhra Pradesh into the coalition, he is a man of considerable experience and he's also a development technocrat. But also he has secular credentials because among his support base are also people who are Muslims and who have voted for him in substantial numbers.

The same can be said for the Janata Dal United leader Nitish Kumar from Bihar, who has had a good reputation among Muslim voters in the state of Bihar and also nationally.

And both of them have ambitions to achieve high office and, in fact, have been part of national governments before. So between the two of them, there were a lot of insults that were headed their way during the campaign from the top campaigners of the BJP. And the third person, the head of the Biju Janata Dal from Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, was also kind of disparaged by several remarks made by Modi and by other campaigners of the BJP.

So, yes, they are part of the coalition at the moment. These are the kinds of parties about which there's speculation regarding which way they would go or what demands they would make and whether or not Mr. Modi, Mr. Amit Shah and the BJP will be able to accommodate those demands.

For example, if they wanted to, you know, bargain for ministries, which are already held by party stalwarts, how much give is there? And of course, these are parties which have a sort of a kingmaker role.

There's a string of independent candidates or people coming from very small parties with one or two members of parliament. There's speculation regarding, you know, what will change their mind to move one way or another.

FOSTER: Obviously, a very important country in the world also has lots of cross alliances, hasn't it? U.S. and China. It does have a key role going ahead in terms of this new global world order.

SINHA: Yes.

FOSTER: You know, we now have Modi, you know, he's up there with Nehru, isn't he, in terms of his solidity at the top office. How do you think he is moving China, moving India in this new world against, you know, with China on one side and the U.S.?

[04:30:00]

Do you think we can learn anything from this election about some of the debates that he had?

SINHA: I think there's a massive discrepancy between Indian perception of Mr. Modi's stature on the world stage and what he's actually achieved at the world stage.

So, for example, with relation to China, I'm not too sure that India can make the claim that relations with China have improved under Mr. Modi. And in fact, if you look at the decline on the Indian side in the balance of trade, or if you look at, you know, widespread reports about loss of territory to China, these would not necessarily, you know, show a great deal of success.

China also remains massively engaged within the Indian economy, though for hyper-nationalistic reasons, every once in a while, the government has come up with strong anti-China propaganda and rhetoric.

As far as the U.S. is concerned, India historically, you talked about Mr. Nehru. I think the relations at that point between Nehru and the American leadership was of a completely different order. But then, of course, the world order was a very different world order at that point in time.

I think for the Americans, India's counterweight to China has allowed a lot of leeway to the Indian government in terms of things on which the Americans otherwise would have made a bit of noise, human rights, environment, and so forth. And that has basically been muted from the Biden administration.

And in fact, American presidents from Obama, sorry, to Trump, to Biden, they've all made exaggerated shows of personal friendships with Mr. Modi, which is, I think, part of the style of Mr. Modi's functioning, which is to reduce international relations to personal relations with leaderships of different countries, which also goes down very well with his base.

So for all of these reasons, I think that if, you know, Mr. Modi has obviously done a good job, I won't say he has not. But to say that this is somehow an exceptional period of Indian leadership sitting on the top table of the world, one only needs to go back to the previous prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who also was respected massively within international institutions and also among the global leadership.

FOSTER: OK, Subir Sinha, thank you so much for joining us from SOAS.

[04:30:00]