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North Korea Threat; Trump Pick for New FBI Chief May Face Resistance; Fallout over Firing of FBI Chief; Global Ransomware Attack; North Korea Claims Mainland U.S. Within Striking Range; Emmanuel Macron Sworn in as French President. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 15, 2017 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:09] CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea claims it now has the ability to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile. We'll be getting reactions from across the region.

And more than 200,000 computers across the world have already been infected and it's only the beginning. This weekend's global cyber attack may be about to spread as people go back to work on Monday.

Plus, President Donald Trump is undermining U.S. institutions, that warning coming from the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

Thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier, live from Atlanta.

North Korea is claiming a major nuclear success. Pyongyang says its latest missile test proved it's now able to put a large nuclear warhead on a missile something it has been trying to do for a long time. North Korea also claims it's now capable of striking the mainland United States even though there's no independent evidence to support those claims.

Let's talk to Alexandra Field in Seoul, South Korea.

Alexandra -- North Korea making these claims, do we know if they're actually true?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, that's an important question to raise here, Cyril, because it is difficult to know and to fully understand what kind of capacity North Korea has beyond the claims that they do make.

And this is certainly being celebrated as their most successful, recent ballistic missile launches. And you have certainly seen a barrage of these kinds of launches happening. But this is one that is certainly grabbing the world's attention.

They have had a number of failed missile launches. They have had successful missile launches. But this one does seem to represent to the outside world some significant advancement here. Yes, you do have those bold claims coming from North Korea that they have missiles that are capable of hitting the U.S. mainland and Pacific operations, as you point out, Cyril.

You have U.S.-based analysts who are now saying that it appears that with the demonstration of this missile that they might have the capability to reliably strike the base at Guam; that this is a missile that was important to analysts. They're watching it because it seemed to have reached a higher altitude than previous missile attempts.

This is also a missile that landed closer to Russia then Japan which diverges from what we have seen in the most recent rounds of tests. Again they've launched at least 10 different ballistic missiles on seven different days just since the start of the Trump administration.

The apparent victory that North Korea is celebrating with the launch of this missile -- they want the world take notice of it and they are saying clearly that it should be received as a warning by the U.S.

The U.S. is being very clear in saying that the ballistic missile that they tested was not at all consistent with an ICBM. It is the long- stated goal of North Korea that they would like to develop the capability to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the U.S.

South Korean officials always weighing in saying they need to further verify the claims that North Korea is making about the latest test and it was the Japanese officials who were quick to point out that it did in fact fear that this test was significant because they believe that North Korea had in fact successfully tested a new type of missile -- Cyril.

VANIER: And what are we finding out about the new Korean president -- South Korean president where you are, and how he's responding to the North Korean threat?

FIELD: This is the first test for the South Korean president. And Cyril, he was elected under a week ago, took office just days ago. This is a liberal president who had advocated a policy of greater engagement with North Korea, has discussed the possibility of talks with North Korea, he of course, quickly convened a meeting of the national security council after this latest launch. They have condemned the launch as is routine here in South Korea. But he has said that talks with North Korea do remain possible but that the South needs to show the North that it must change its attitude for these kinds of talks to move forward.

Of course, that statement comes just about a day or so after a top North Korean diplomat said that talks could be possible if conditions were right.

And we have heard mixed messages, of course, from Washington on that note. At some point you have heard top Washington diplomats saying that talks could happen if North Korea took certain steps towards denuclearization. At the same time you have the U.S. which has continued to dangle the possibility of a military option if North Korea does not cooperate. All of that adding to the mounting tension that we have seen in recent weeks in the region here -- Cyril.

VANIER: All right. Alexandra Field, reporting live from Seoul, South Korea -- thank you very much.

For more reaction on this latest missile test by North Korea, we're joined by Dave McKenzie in Beijing who's covering this.

David -- the timing of this latest test by North Korea is particularly annoying for Beijing, isn't it?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. And certainly in the middle of the Belt and Road forum where Xi Jinping is officially unveiling this massive infrastructure in trade at hand -- Cyril.

[00:05:04] This is a real slap in the face of the Chinese -- to the Chinese by the North Koreans. Now China generally doesn't speak forcefully on these matters, particularly they don't want to take away the attention from this forum. But they did mention through the ministry of foreign affairs that they oppose any move like this missile test because they say it certainly breaks the U.N. resolutions.

So the fact that Putin is here, Recep Erdogan and Duterte from the Philippines, all hosted by Xi Jinping at the same time that they, in fact, invited a delegation from North Korea to be part of this summit, is very embarrassing for the Chinese and certainly won't help the case of Pyongyang if they want to get any kind of help from the Chinese on any matters -- Cyril.

VANIER: China is believed to be the only country to have any kind of leverage on North Korea and ability to influence North Korea's nuclear missile programs but hasn't really used that leverage so far. Does it have -- does Beijing have a breaking point when it comes to North Korea?

MCKENZIE: Well, I think it's -- let me qualify that slightly that China does have leverage, yes and they have used a little bit or some amount of that leverage by really enforcing the U.N. sanctions when China repeatedly said that they won't go beyond those U.N. sanctions.

But the question, you're right, everyone is asking now including the U.S. administration is how far is China willing to go and when will they eventually say "enough is enough"? Kim Jong-Un hasn't met with the Chinese leader since coming into power. They haven't been the level of close friendship as there was between previous leaders of North Korea and Chinese leaders.

And they keep on provoking China by going ahead with these missile tests and nuclear tests even though the Chinese explicitly tell them not to. So that points that this relationship isn't necessarily as strong as it used to be. I think China has said if there are new provocations like this the next step would be going to the U.N. Security Council to potentially push forward new or harsher sanctions. It's unlikely China will do anything unilaterally.

Plus, China's also playing this difficult game because they don't want the regime in Pyongyang to collapse. But, you know, as they keep on doing this, there may be some point when the Chinese leader says, you know, they've embarrassed us enough we need to do something more drastic. We'll have to wait and see if they take that step.

VANIER: All right. David McKenzie reporting from Beijing -- thank you very much.

The search for the next FBI director could soon be over. U.S. President Donald Trump says he might name James Comey's successor by Friday. However, bear in mind any nominee will probably face resistance from Democrats.

Athena Jones explains why.

ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi there.

The fallout over the President's surprise move to fire the FBI director continues with Democrats ramping up the pressure to name a special prosecutor to conduct a separate Russia investigation, one of those Democrats is minority leader Chuck Schumer who spoke about this on "STATE OF THE UNION". Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: The silence of my Republican colleagues is choosing party over country at a time when we can ill afford it. Foreign manipulation of our elections, no matter who did it, is a very, very serious issue. It damages people's faith in our government.

So our Republicans should be stepping up to the plate and joining us in asking for a special prosecutor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there you heard Senator Schumer calling on Republicans to join Democrats in demanding a special prosecutor.

We've also heard from Senator Mark Warner, who is the Virginia Democrat who is the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. That's one of the congressional committees that are carrying out its own Russia investigation.

He has said that Democrats should try to block any vote on a future FBI director if Republicans don't get on board with this demand for a special prosecutor.

The problem is that they would need some Republicans to do that because the GOP just needs 51 votes to get that FBI director confirmed. I should mention that as of right now the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein has indicated that he doesn't believe a special prosecutor is necessary.

All of this coming as the President prepares to embark on his first foreign trip. He's leaving on Friday. Before that though he will be meeting with Turkish president, Erdogan where he's likely to talk about Middle East peace and Syria specifically of this announcement this past week where the President authorized the limited arming of Syrian Kurds to help in the battle against ISIS. So a lot on the agenda as this fallout over the move to fire Comey continues.

[00:10:04] Back to you.

VANIER: Now Mr. Trump has consistently denied that his campaign had any ties to the Russian government. And to prove his point he has cited the former U.S. Director of National Intelligence.

Here is what the President wrote. "When James Clapper himself and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt says there is no collusion, when does it end?"

But you see Clapper spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper to set the record straight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I deferred to the FBI director -- both Director Mueller and then Director Comey as to whether, when and what to tell me about any counter-intelligence investigations that they might have under way.

So it was kind of standard practice. My statement was premised on first the context of our intelligence community assessment on Russian interference with the election. We did not -- there was no reporting in that intelligence committee assessment about political collusion. I did not have any evidence. I did not know about the investigation.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You didn't even know that the FBI was conducting an investigation?

CLAPPER: I did not. And even more importantly, I did not know the content or the status of that investigation. And there's all kinds of reasons why that's so but this -- these are sensitive. We try to keep them as compartmentalized as possible and importantly, these invariably involve U.S. persons and so we try to be very deferential to that.

TAPPER: This week with the President firing the FBI director while this investigation is going on and then saying that he was thinking about the Russia probe when he was making the decision. Have we crossed the line here?

CLAPPER: Well, I will just say that the developments of the past week are very bothersome, very disturbing to me. I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault both externally -- and that's the big news here is Russian interference in our election system. I think as well, our institutions are under assault internally.

TAPPER: Internally from the President?

CLAPPER: Exactly.

TAPPER: Because he's firing the checks and balances?

CLAPPER: I think, you know, the founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built- in system of checks and balances. And I feel as though that's under assault and is eroding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: With me now to discuss this further is CNN political analyst Josh Rogin. He's also a columnist for the "Washington Post". Josh -- do you agree with James Clapper that Donald Trump is eroding the institutions of the U.S.?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I agree with DNI Clapper that there is an attack on those institutions coming from the Trump administration and this is the biggest test of those institutions that we've seen in modern history. It remains to be seen whether or not they'll survive.

I mean a lot of what keeps the U.S. government in check is the agreement of those involved to abide by basic norms. And President Trump has decided to ignore several of those norms and has attacked over the last few months on the judiciary, on norms of transparency, on various oversight mechanisms, conflict of interest rules, ethics rules.

VANIER: Look Josh -- isn't he just using robustly admittedly, the powers that are available to him? As I see it, the checks and balances are working, at least in part. I mean the travel ban, for instance, was blocked by the courts. The healthcare reform initially was blocked by the House of Representatives and by Donald Trump's own political party no less. So couldn't you just say Donald Trump is doing within his power but no more?

ROGIN: Well, I think there's two things. I think a lot of what the checks and balances are based on are not things that are illegal, or are just things that presidents over the years have agreed not to do.

And secondly, you know, I think that argument was a lot easier to make before last week's events because when you have a president that is firing an FBI director who's in charge of an investigation into him and then admitting publicly that he did it while thinking about that investigation, that is something wholly different and I think that's what DNI Clapper is getting at.

That, you know, that takes you into the realm of an actual challenge to the laws and rules that govern this separation of powers. Now, whether or not --

VANIER: but case in point, he is allowed to do it.

ROGIN: Well, I don't necessarily agree with that. I mean in other words, does he have the legal power to fire the FBI director? Yes. Does he have the legal ability to obstruct justice in an investigation? No.

VANIER: Right.

Rogin: Now, whether or not he's crossed that line, and again it's an issue probably first for congressional Republicans to determine. Secondly if there's a challenge brought in the courts, that will be for the courts to decide.

[00:14:59] So, I'm not here to tell you that President Trump has committed a crime. I'm telling you that, you know, his pattern of actions is getting closer and closer to that line and eventually we're going to get to that line and then we're going to have what is known as a constitutional crisis.

I don't think DNI Clapper or I would say that we're there yet. But all you have to do is look at what's going on. You can see that this is unprecedented, that these institutions are being tested. In some cases they have stood up to the tests but I think the more serious tests are yet to come.

VANIER: All right. So politically now, is there a point where you think it starts hurting Donald Trump? Because I don't believe it has for the moment. His base of support is pretty stable. His popularity rating is low compared to other presidents early on in their term but his base of support hasn't really eroded that much, if at all.

ROGIN: Well, if you just look at the polls then yes, his hard core supporters are still with him. If you look at his ability, his agenda I think has been poor at best. All right.

He did get the healthcare bill pass the House on the second try. Not clear what's going to happen to it in the Senate. But the worse his numbers get the more room that gives vulnerable Republicans and moderate Republicans reason to put distance between themselves and the administration. There's going to be a lot of --

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: You have been saying that for quite a while. And in fact, there haven't been many Republicans who have broken away from him. We always cite John McCain and Lindsey Graham but since the very beginning of his term, they have been critical of him. Others are pretty much, for the moment toeing the line.

ROGIN: Well, you had Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Burr say that he was very troubled by the timing of the Comey announcement. Again, this is sort of a game changing decision when he crossed that line into firing the FBI director who was investigating him.

That did bring several other Republicans into the realm of criticizing him. Senator Ben Sasse -- many others are now taking a hard look in this.

The leadership is not there, right. We haven't reached the point where Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan has decided to really break from the President in any substantial way.

How long does that take? It's only been 120 days or so. That's not that much time, right. If he continues on this path the Republicans eventually will reach a breaking point.

VANIER: All right. Josh Rogin -- great to speak to you. Great to get your insights. Thank you very much. ROGIN: Thank you.

Coming up after the break, the global cyber attack launched on Friday evening is starting to spread again. We'll tell you how to protect yourself against this.

Stay with us.

[00:17:16] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: The international cyber attack that was temporarily contained over the weekend could start to spread again as people come in to work this Monday morning and turn on their computers.

The malicious software encrypts your data and demands a ransom to give it back. We still don't know who's behind this hack.

Here's Clare Sebastian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A live threat -- that is how the European Union law enforcement agency Europol described the state of the global ransomware attack Sunday. The infection rate had slowed on Friday and Saturday after a researcher in the U.K. accidentally discovered a way to stop it from spreading. But according to Europol that was only a temporary fix.

ROB WAINWRIGHT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EUROPOL: The cyber criminals have already responded answered that and issued a variant of the threat that gets beyond that so numbers are rising again.

SEBASTIAN: It's clear we still don't know the extent of this. Britain's cyber security authority has also warned that more damage could come to light Monday morning as people return to work and that new cases of ransomware may be reported in the coming days.

Meanwhile Microsoft, whose Windows operating system was breached says "Governments of the world should treat this as a wake-up call".

In a blog post, the company's president said that the fact that this attack used a cyber tool believed to have been stolen from the U.S. National Security Agency shows that the rules governing cyberspace need to change.

He writes, "We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits. This is one reason we called in February for a new digital Geneva Convention to govern these issues, including a new requirement for governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors rather than stockpile and sell or exploit them."

Meanwhile the message to consumers -- update your systems and back up your data.

Clare Sebastian, CNN -- New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: To talk about this with me now is Rob Lee, digital forensics and incidence response director of the Sans Institute and he works typically on this kind of thing. I think it's safe to say there are people within the Sans Institute who are working on this malware attack.

Rob -- first of all the most surprising thing to me, I guess, is given the size of this attack, I would assume it would leave a trail of bread crumbs that would make it relatively easy to find out who's behind this. But apparently that's not the case?

ROB LEE, SANS INSTITUTION: At this point, most organizations are really worried about the potential infections (inaudible) malwares are posing towards them especially this Monday morning coming up for most of the world at this point.

They are trying to understand if they should be paying the ransom. They're trying to understand what they could do to protect themselves right now. There are, of course, always bread crumbs in the actual malware themselves and the domains that are being registered and in the way that they're being asked to respond to the ransomware.

At this point, it's been determined that it actually requires one of the individuals that's behind it to activate the decryption in order to be able to receive the payment. So there's a lot of malware researchers out there right now that are actually recommending most organizations not to pay the ransom if they're even considering it at this point because the malware authors of this have created a situation that has overwhelmed them with the amount of requests that they're being thrown at them to basically fix the issue.

VANIER: You mentioned Monday morning. And of course, it is Monday morning in quite a large part of the world. And I'm thinking in an Asia, for instance, a lot of people will have already turned on their computer to start their work week. So a lot of people finding out right now that their computer is infected?

[00:24:57] LEE: Yes. It's definitely what potentially is going on with the situations out there. People wake up. They potentially are bringing in their laptops to the work. And that's actually the biggest concern is that they're at home; their computers get infected over the weekend. They bring them into the workplace that was probably firewalled off and fairly secured.

But once they bring it into the workplace and then plug it in, then that one computer that they bring in the workplace could affect the rest of the environment. So there's a lot of research --

VANIER: So what do they need to do? For anybody who has just turned on their computer and maybe who has a concern, or for anybody to whom that has happened?

LEE: Yes. If that has happened, if their computer is infected, the best thing to do is definitely not plug it into any network. Do not bring it in to work and plug it in to any other system inside that environment.

The best thing to do is to leave it powered off at this point if there is a concern or to immediately power it off so it's not a source of infection for the rest of the organization.

VANIER: What's your advice for companies? You usually work for companies that call you once they've been the victims of a cyber- attack. What's your advice in this situation?

LEE: Right now, we're advising a lot of companies to make sure they're blocking any inbound, it's essentially a p to p port 445 traffic is what the exploit is currently using to propagate itself. And if they have a strong firewall then they're going to be fairly secure.

The other advice that we're telling organizations right now is to please tell your employees to probably leave their computer systems at home until they're assured that they're not currently infected. The biggest risk is someone bringing in the firewall an infected PC and at that point, it's going to rip through that organization like a wildfire.

VANIER: Wow. All right. Rob Lee -- thank you so much for your expertise. We'll have to talk to you again. Thanks a lot for coming on the show.

LEE: Thank you.

VANIER: North Korea is claiming major progress on its nuclear program. We'll look at the possible implications of the latest missile test by Pyongyang right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:30] VANIER: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier to remind you of your headlines this hour.

The Trump administration seems to be moving quickly to replace fired FBI Director James Comey. Several candidates were interviewed over the weekend. President Trump told reporters that he might announce his nominee before he leaves a foreign trip that's on Friday.

Security experts are trying to fight the latest versions of the ransom ware that's hit more than 150 countries since Friday. A militia software takes control of computers and demands a ransom to unlock the files. A researcher in the U.K. had been able to contain the first version of the hack late on Friday, but the hack is now expected to spread again as people go back to work and turn on their computers.

North Korea is claiming it has made major strides in its nuclear program. Pyongyang says Sunday's missile test proves it can now put a large nuclear warhead on a missile. The regime also claimed it's now capable of striking the U.S. mainland. However, there's no independent evidence to support those claims.

Let's get more on this. Adam Mount joins us from Washington. He's a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress.

Adam, so has North Korea achieved something major with this latest missile test?

ADAM MOUNT, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: It has. This was not a routine test. For three reasons, it looks like it's a serious concern. First, it's the range of the missile.

It was fired more for height than it was for distance. But if it had been fired for distance, it looks like it could have traveled about 4500 kilometers. That's longer than any previous missile that it has tested.

Secondly, in the last couple of hours, we've learned more about this missile test as North Korean state television has released more information. They have said that part of what they were trying to do with the test was to test for a re-entry vehicle. This is a device that separates from the missile in the final stages of flight to guide a warhead to its target accurately. It's one of the last major hurdles that North Korea needs to cross before it can threaten the continent of United States.

And then, third, they said that they're interested in putting a large warhead on a missile. Now North Korea hasn't tested a warhead larger than 30 kilotons. But if you can put more missile material into a warhead, you can increase the yield. This might be a sign that they're looking to test a pretty large device in the near future, which would further destabilize the region.

VANIER: So who can they hit? Because you mentioned the range is 4500 -- potentially 4500 kilometers. You said who would they hit with that?

MOUNT: Well, North Korea has an increasingly complex arsenal of missiles. They had short-range scud missiles that are mostly useful in the Peninsula. They have medium-range missiles that can hit Japan. With 4500 kilometers, it would put U.S. territory in Guam in range. They would need about 8,000 kilometers to hit the continental United States so it would need a different missile system to do that with intercontinental range, but this is clearly a stride in that direction.

VANIER: That's still a game changer, isn't it, if they can directly threaten U.S. military interests in Guam?

MOUNT: Yes, it is. And it would raise new dynamics in a crisis. The possibility that they could try to stop flow of U.S. forces not only through Japan, but also through Guam could be -- it could be consequential in a contingency so that is something that the U.S. military is going to have to plan for.

VANIER: All right, Adam Mount, thank you very much for walking us through it as we try to wrap our heads around the repercussions of this latest missile test by North Korea. Thanks a lot. MOUNT: Sure.

VANIER: And for France's new president, the pomp and ceremony is over and the hard work begins as he starts his first full day on the job.

Emmanuel Macron was inaugurated on Sunday. He has little political experience but that didn't stop him from promising an extraordinary rebirth for the country.

France correspondent Melissa Bell had the details on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Emmanuel Macron's visit to the Parisian Town Hall to meet with the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has been an extremely long and busy day for France's new president.

The normal protocol, the pomp and ceremony that surround such occasions when a tremendous amount of power as the case of the French presidency is handed over from one man to the other, but this time perhaps even more a sense of momentous handover since Emmanuel Macron represents such profound change with all that's gone before, having pushed aside the political elites that have dominated French politics for decades, he now has the uphill challenge of having to get some seats within France's parliament at least next month in the parliamentary elections in order to have some hope of governing and even reforming France as he's promised he wants to do.

Today as he spoke for the first time as president he explained that what he hoped, first of all, was to give France a new sense of confidence in itself, confidence that he believes has been dented by decades of political and economic stagnation. But more than that, Emmanuel Macron who has today become France's youngest ever elected leader said he hoped to provide a sort of sense of hope to the rest of the world.

He spoke about the fact that geography had shrunk and time had accelerated and that to meet those challenges, populism was not necessarily the answer. Rather, there could be an answer of openness instead.

Here's what he had to say just after being sworn in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The world and Europe need France more than ever. They need a strong France, sure of its destiny. A France which holds high the voice of freedom and solidarity. They need a France which knows how to invent its future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: Emmanuel Macron there in his first words as French president. He now goes on to face almost the hardest part of the week, which would involve the announcement of his prime minister on Monday but also then of the rest of his cabinet by Wednesday when their first meeting will take place.

Melissa Bell, CNN, in Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, Spicy is back.

Melissa McCarthy takes on the White House press secretary once again on "Saturday Night Live." Nothing is off limits. That's all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: All right. We're joined now by Pedram Javaheri from the CNN international weather center.

Pedram, good to have you with us. And you're going to tell us about parts of India and Pakistan which are suffering from really very hot weather at the moment.

Yes. This is the time of year and the government in Pakistan and also India are urging folks to stay indoors this week. In 2015, we saw 1500 people lose their lives in one week with almost identical temperatures, and you know, in this particular region, of course, electricity is not necessarily rampant and kids actually face a disproportionate effect. Excessive heat, their body creates more heat energy and sweats less efficiently than an adult's body. So it's something that's very serious for a lot of people.

VANIER: Kids and the elderly, right?

JAVAHERI: Absolutely. Absolutely.

So that's what we're looking at carefully. You look at the Robbie River. This is in Lahore, Pakistan. Temperatures even into the early morning hours, my friend, approaching 45, some area nearing 50 degrees. We're talking 115 to 120 Fahrenheit if you're in tune with that scale.

But this is what it looks like across parts of town there as folks begin to try to at least find one way to cool themselves off across the region.

[00:40:00] And, Michael, if you can put the maps in motion for me here, we will show you exactly what we're dealing with when it comes to the conditions because in the early morning of 10:00, 11:00, noon, where we seem to have supposed 50 degrees, we expect the afternoon hours these temps could actually exceed 50 degrees in a few spots.

And, again, this could be a multi-day event. And your body actually deteriorates if you have multiple days, where cooling is not in place over the overnight hours across the region.

It looks like we're having difficulties with the maps here tonight. But certainly one of those areas for over the next several days, we are seeing these sort of conditions. Actually, about 300 million people don't have access to electricity when you are talking about a place such as India.

So that sort of perspective is one of those regions where, you know, people across India, across parts of the world actually, Cyril, that have realized this, have very clever ways of cooling off their bodies efficiently, putting water on your sheets, making it damp that reduces your heat and your -- on your body at least by 10 to 20 percent.

We know being outside, under a tree, actually has the same effects as being in a room with 10 portable air-conditioning units running for about 20 consecutive hours. The cooling from just being under a tree is that effective. So people have found the --

VANIER: And that was better for the environment.

JAVAHERI: Absolutely.

VANIER: Certainly very good point. So, you know, this is sort of a pattern that we have seen take lives. Number one in the world when it comes to fatalities for any weather pattern is heat. And we know it increases aggression, increases violent crime, reduces productivity.

All of this are well-known facts so it is something very serious developing across this region in the next several days.

VANIER: All right. An extreme heat in Pakistan and India.

Pedram Javaheri from the CNN International Weather Center.

Thank you so much.

JAVAHERI: Thanks for having me.

VANIER: In the latest installment of "Saturday Night Live," actress Melissa McCarthy reprised her role as the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Of course, she poked fun at a few of the issues that made headlines this week in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now I'm filling in for Sean today. As you know, Sean is fulfilling his duty as an officer in the Naval reserve and that is why he cannot be here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm pretty sure I can see him hiding in those bushes.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe that the Naval exercise, he's trying to blend in with his surroundings. Are there any more questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I have a question. Can you just do this full time instead of him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he's your friend, why is everyone saying he's about to fire you and replace you with Sarah? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, bless your heart. This is the first time I'm hearing of that.

MELISSA MCCARTHY, ACTRESS/COMEDIENNE: Get out. I've got to find Trump. I'm going to New York. The press interview is over!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: OK. We're done for now. Stay tuned. "World Sports" is up next. And I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news from around the world.

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