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White House Downplays Papadopoulos Campaign Role; Battle Between Free Speech And Silicon Valley; Vietnamese Women Balance Culture And Style. Aired at 8-9a ET

Aired October 31, 2017 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] (JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN NEWS STREAM SHOW HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to "News Stream."

The White House is on edge (ph). The president is said to be seething after former Trump campaign officials are indicted at Robert Mueller's probe.

Catalonia's leader flees to Belgium. Spain prepares to bring rebellion charges against the region's leader.

And is Europe in danger? I speak to the NATO secretary general about the global threat posed by North Korea.

And we begin with (INAUDIBLE) developments in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Source tells CNN that U.S. President Donald Trump

watched TV coverage of the indictments of his former campaign associates on Monday, and he was seething. His former foreign policy advisor George

Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to providing a false statement to the FBI about his Russia contacts.

That on top of a dozen other charges levied against to Mr. Trump's other campaign associates. Aides are urgently advising the president not to lash

out against the special counsel. And now, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the White House as officials try to anticipate what or who could be next.

Jessica Schneider reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Special counsel Robert Mueller's office unsealing documents that show former Trump campaign

foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators since his arrest in July.

Papadopoulos pleading guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia including a meeting with a London professor who

told him in April 2016 that the Kremlin had obtained dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of e-mails. Clinton campaign chairman John

Podesta's e-mail was hacked by Russians the month before.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Papadopoulos is direct evidence that someone with the campaign has been contacted by Russians.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Papadopoulos's plea agreement describes his testimony as a road map to the ongoing investigation, noting that there is

a large scale ongoing investigation of which Papadopoulos is a small part.

The document describes Papadopoulos as a pro-active cooperator, suggesting that for the last three months, he may have been providing the FBI with

information about other Trump campaign associates or even wearing a wire.

The plea agreement outlines Papadopoulos's extensive efforts to establish a connection between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, informing then

campaign chairman Paul Manafort in May that the Russians were interested in meeting with candidate Trump.

Manafort forwarded the e-mail to his deputy, Rick Gates, writing, "Let's discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips.

It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal."

In July, Papadopoulos reached out to a foreign contact, saying that a meeting has been approved from our side. Days later, WikiLeaks began

releasing the e-mails hacked from the DNC and Trump made these infamous remarks.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The following month, a Trump campaign supervisor identified by the Washington Post as former Trump campaign national co-

chairman Sam Clovis, told Papadopoulos, "I would encourage you and another foreign policy advisor to make the trip if it is feasible." Clovis's lawyer

telling the Post that he actually opposed to the trip and was just being polite.

KEVIN DOWNING, ATTORNEY FOR PAUL MANAFORT: There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Papadopoulos's interviews with federal investigators likely contributing to the charges brought against both

Manafort and Gates, who pleaded not guilty on 12 counts Monday, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, and

seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: That was CNN's Jessica Schneider reporting. President Trump has been relatively quiet on social media for almost a day now. His last tweets

are now over 21 hours old, when he again try to shift the narrative back to Hillary Clinton, "Sorry but this is years ago before Paul Manafort was part

of the Trump campaign, but aren't crooked Hillary and the Dems the focus? Also, there is no collusion"

We are told that President Trump was closely following Monday's developments. Joe Johns has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump was seething as he watch the news play out on TV about the Mueller

investigation, according to a source close to the White House. The source telling CNN

[08:05:00] that the president expected the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates, but was surprised by the

revelation that another aide, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with authorities.

Mr. Trump spent much of the day hunkered down with his legal team in the White House's private residence, growing increasingly frustrated after

seeing video of Manafort arriving at the FBI field office to turn himself in. Publicly, the administration attempted to downplay the charges.

JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think the reaction of the administration is, let the legal justice system work. Everyone is innocent

-- presumed innocent and we'll see where it goes.

JOHNS (voice-over): The president's lawyer Ty Cobb telling CNN that Mr. Trump has not responded to the Papadopoulos news because he doesn't know

him. But back in 2016, Mr. Trump touted him as part of his foreign policy team in an interview with the Washington Post.

TRUMP (voice-over): George Papadopoulos, he's an oil and energy consultant. Excellent guy.

JOHNS (voice-over): In this photo from March 2016 shows Papadopoulos sitting at the same table as then candidate Trump at a national security

meeting. The White House press secretary attempting to distance the president from his former advisor.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was extremely limited. It was a volunteer position. And again, no activity was ever done

in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign.

JOHNS (voice-over): Sanders falsely claiming that Mueller's charges are unrelated to Mr. Trump.

SANDERS: Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity.

JOHNS (voice-over): A source familiar with former chief strategist Steve Bannon's thinking tells CNN he is urging the president to fight back

aggressively against Mueller with a massive public relations campaign by getting congressional Republicans to engage and going to court over

documents being requested.

The president's aide insisting Mr. Trump has no plans to take action against the special counsel.

JAY SEKULOW, ATTORNEY FOR President Donald Trump: The president is not interfering with special counsel Mueller's position. He is not firing the

special counsel. He said that before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was CNN's Joe Johns reporting. The indictment against Paul Manafort and his associate focuses on work they did in Ukraine. For

that and more on Russia's reaction to the indictments, let's go straight to Clarissa Ward. She is standing by for us in Kiev. Clarissa, the link

between Paul Manafort and Kiev go straight to a former Ukrainian president tells you and how.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kristie. Viktor Yanukovych is the name that everybody now needs to know because he is very

much at the center of this indictment, and if you read through essentially what the special prosecutor does, is to delineate the extent of the

dealings and the working relationship between Paul Manafort and the former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych.

The indictment talks about how the pair worked together for nearly a decade, some nine years, it says that Manafort reportedly made "tens of

millions of dollars through his business relationship with Yanukovych." It says also that the two had a close working relationship, that they

communicated regularly both in person and in writing. So why is all of this so significant, Kristie?

Well, simply put, there are very few people in this country who are closer to the Kremlin than Victor Yanukovych. In fact, he now lives in Russia

because after political protests broke out here in 2014, he was forced to flee to Russia. He even said in television interviews that he credits

President Vladimir Putin for saving his life.

So this is somebody who is very well known, who is seen to have ruled here at the patronage of President Vladimir Putin himself. Beyond that, Kristie,

of course, Yanukovych has a real cloud hanging over him. He is accused of rampant corruption of embezzling millions and millions of dollars out of

this country.

He is accused by many here of actually even ordering riot police to fire on pro-western demonstrators when those political protests broke out in 2014.

He is also accused of imprisoning his political opponents. So, he is, Kristie, a controversial character by anyone's measure and a lot of people

will be wanting to know why Paul Manafort was working so closely with someone who is such a controversial character.

And more importantly, why the Trump campaign would get involved with someone like Paul Manafort given the extensive dodgy dealings that this

indictment appears to delineate, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yes, it raises a lot of questions about Trump's judgment. Clarissa Ward there connecting the dots for us from Kiev. Thank you so

much.

We want to return to some news that we are following very closely, the crisis creeping Catalonia. The deposed president of Catalan, he has turned

up in Belgium, where he is now addressing the media.

[08:10:00] Let's listen into his live comments right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLES PUIGDEMONT, PRESIDENT OF CATALONIA (through translator): All in a very difficult position with their families. They need to all be respected

because of the personal efforts that they are making, and I would like to ask you to support them as much as you can.

And finally, I would like to urge you to work so that the people's party, the socialist party, and citizens are not allowed to take over our

institution. Let's work to keep our institution alive and stop Article 155. And that means keeping the legitimate government alive.

And the election on the 21st of December is within that agenda. It is in democracy where we are stronger. Where we have always won. When we have had

democracy on our side, we have always won. We have never won by force. We don't want to win by force. So, wherever there (INAUDIBLE), that's where we

will be. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): One moment. One moment. Please. We'll take five (ph) questions because the president has to leave.

PUIGDEMONT: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I'm (INAUDIBLE). Very simply (INAUDIBLE) political asylum (INAUDIBLE) under what conditions will you return to

Catalonia? And then second question, if I may, what is your message to those Catalans who think you should go in jail?

PUIGDEMONT: To first question, I am not here in order to (INAUDIBLE) political asylum. This is not a Belgian question. I am here in Brussels,

the capital of Europe. This is not a matter of question of Belgian politics. I am here in order to act this freedom and safety and security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Under what condition will you return to Catalonia?

PUIGDEMONT (through translator): OK. Well, sorry. (INAUDIBLE) I will go back. In certain conditions that are not given. Have you seen the suits by

the prosecutor general? Did you see the title of document? They have a desire of justice and a vengeance as well.

So, it will be a very biased process because we have been marked by very violent groups so there will be no objective condition. So, it will act in

a completely freeway to make decisions. We do not want to escape our responsibility from justice.

We want to have those (INAUDIBLE) guarantees within the framework of European Union because we are European citizens that can move freely within

the borders. So, we are going to work as a legitimate government and we have decided that the best way to make the world aware of Catalan situation

is going to the European capital.

[08:15:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).

PUIGDEMONT (through translator): I have decided to come to Belgium, well not Belgium, Brussels, because Brussels is the capital of Europe. I would

like to insist that this is European matter. And we want to act in a free way without the threat that we receive. Since the moment that the Spanish

government decided to act in an illegitimate way and its members of the government including the former minister of interior directed all the acts

against the terrorist attacks in Barcelona, there were no problems.

After the Spanish government took over the Catalan police, took out the protection from the members of the government. So my protection has

decreased. So we are calm right here in this very complicated moment. Because we have decided not to foster (INAUDIBLE) conflict. If we remain

there in (INAUDIBLE) attitude, there could have been a very violent reaction by far-right groups. I do not want another wave of violence.

Right now, if you will allow me, in order not to contribute to this confrontation, we will continue like a government without problem. How

long? It will depend on circumstances. If there was (INAUDIBLE) treatment, if we could all be guaranteed especially me a fair, independent proceeding

completely separated from politics, I will immediately return. But now we must keep working. So, on Friday evening, we decided on the strategy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) what do you say to those people who say you create this chaos in Spain, in Catalonia and then simply fled

with your accomplishes (INAUDIBLE). Are you prepared to go to jail for up to 30 years for what has happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): (INAUDIBLE) the second question now, but will tell you the first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was prepared to go to jail for 30 years. Is a fair trial -- would a fair trial have this as a reasonable outcome? Ask this

question and you will have the answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are convinced to all that we have done. We are convinced of our will of democracy. We know that we acted

for the freedom of our country and we have acted in a very calm way,

[08:20:00] very civic, very democratic. And we are convinced that if one has acted on these values, it is impossible today -- it would be credible

for us if we were sent to jail for that. This rebellion crime is equivalent to a terrorist crime. And we have never acted with violence. Never.

And they are comparing us to terrorists. So that's why the president asked Europe to react. We have a need to be understood because what they are

asking us is a political conflict. And our will is (INAUDIBLE) to sit down and debate the dialogue and find a political solution.

PUIGDEMONT (through translator): Started the first of October with violence (ph) from the Spanish side. To this day, all these (INAUDIBLE) very

peaceful way, very peaceful way. And the violence from Spanish (INAUDIBLE) started the chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): There is no chaos. There is no chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): And when you will return?

PUIGDEMONT (through translator): We are European citizens. We have freedom of movement. So we can move around Europe like (INAUDIBLE) of citizens. We

are legally here. So we are not hiding from anything. We have done what many citizens do. To come here calmly.

We are in constant contact with the government, with members of my team, because it could not be otherwise. It could not be otherwise given the

circumstances. So, what we are going to do will be guided by the criteria that we adopted on Friday from the legitimacy of our act, of what we've

done.

And I would like to remind you that the electoral problem that won the election in 2015, the electoral project that was registered (INAUDIBLE)

opposition that has the highest record in history in Catalonia, that electoral project said that this term would end with declaration of

independence. It did say so. And so now, this Spanish state that allowed me go into an election saying so is (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: All right. Live from Brussels. You heard Carles Puigdemont saying, "I am not here to demand political asylum." A message from

Catalonia's deposed leader in Belgium just now.

Phil Black has more developments from Barcelona. He joins us now. Phil, you were listening into that conversation just in, Puigdemont speaking live in

Brussels. If he is not there to seek asylum, why is he there? What is his intention?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE), Kristie. Right, he said that very clearly, I am not here for asylum. That's what had been rumored here.

More than that, that's what a very high profile political asylum and Brussels says he may in fact be there to do. A lawyer that we spoken to who

says he has met with Puigdemont,

[08:25:00] who says they're considering their options and one of those options is in fact asylum. Speaking there in that press conference, the

dismissed president of Catalonia said that they are there to act freely and safely. To continue to campaign for the Catalan cause in Brussels, not

Belgium, but Brussels because that is the European capital, and he wants to raise awareness within the heart of Europe's institutions.

He did say interestingly that when it comes to new regional election on December 31st, not only will his party contest it which they already said

they would do, but more than that, he insisted the result will be respected by he and his party and those who believe in Catalonia independence.

What he wanted was a very strong assurance from the Spanish government that they will also respect the outcome of that election regardless of the

result. Because of course it is still possible and he pointed to this as well that a pro-independence majority could be the result at the end of

that campaign and election process which could be in less than two months.

In fact, in a very similar situation as we are or has been in recent days, very much the crisis with the pro-independence Catalonia regional

administration. Of course, the Spanish government is not hoping for that. It wants a stronger showing at this election by pro-unity parties and

politicians, but it is possible, and again he's pointing to that, that they could win the election and therefore will continue to push through

independence.

What is interesting is he hasn't give any sense of just how long he is going to stay there but is clearly an effort to internationalize this very

regional dispute. What he is looking for is support from European countries, European institutions. So far, they haven't received anything

because not only it will lead with declaration of independence on Friday, all of the major European countries and European institutions said, we

recognize Spain and only Spain, we do not recognize an independent Catalonia. Kristie?

LU STOUT: Good point to make there. Puigdemont will continue to do what he did just then, to campaign for Catalan independence, but how long is he

going to be doing that outside of Spain especially given those very serious charges he is facing. Phil Black reporting live for us from Barcelona.

Thank you so much and take care.

The White House is trying to distance itself from George Papadopoulos after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Up next, we got a breakdown of

interactions with Trump campaign officials and Russia, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00] LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. These are your world headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: After nearly a day of silence on social media, U.S. President Donald Trump just tweeted about former campaign associates being indicted

in the Russia probe. He writes this quote, the fake news is working overtime.

As Paul Manafort lawyer said, there was no collusion and events mentioned took place long before he came to the campaign. Few people knew the young,

low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS, unquote.

Catalan leader push among says that he is not in Brussels to seek political asylum, Carles Puigdemont calls Spain's charges of rebellion as addition

groundless.

And in the Parent-U-Turn, he had called for the independence drive to slow down. There's been a grim discovery in an apartment and this house in

Japan, parts of as many as nine bodies including human head of 27-year-old man has been arrested. He's reportedly admitted to killing and

dismembering one person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: As you just heard, President Trump and White House officials are trying to downplay the campaign's association with George Papadopoulos

casting him as nothing more than a campaign volunteer.

But the complaint against Papadopoulos describes interactions with campaign officials. Jim Sciutto takes a closer look at what exactly those

interactions inhaled.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is clearance evidence yet of Russian efforts to connect with the Trump campaign and campaign officials interest

in responding.

Former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos pled guilty on October 5th to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians

tied to the Kremlin, including one claiming to have quote, dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The Special Counsel's office said that it's January 2017 interview of Papadopoulos was part of events still open investigation into quote,

whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts to interfere in the election.

Papadopoulos who joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 was an repeated email contact with Russians to set up a meeting first between Russian

President Vladimir Putin and Trump, and later between Trump campaign officials and other Russians.

According to court documents, one foreign contact told Papadopoulos in April 2016 that he quote, learn that the Russians had obtained dirt on then

candidate Clinton.

In May, Papadopoulos emailed a high rating Trump campaign official who CNN has learned his former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort that quote,

Russia had been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss.

Manafort then forwarded that email to another campaign official who CNN has learned as Rick Gates stating quote, we need someone to communicate that DT

is not doing these trips. It should be someone low-level in the campaign so as not to send any signal to. Today, the White House said that

Papadopoulos never acted in an official capacity.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, PRESS SECRETARY, WHITE HOUSE: He reached out and nothing happened beyond that which I think shows, one his level of

importance in the campaign and two, shows what little role he had was in coordinating anything officially for the campaign.

SCIUTTO: But emails included in the court filing indicate that he did at times have campaign backing, including one in which campaign supervisor

told Papadopoulos quote, I would encourage you to make the trip if it is feasible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: All right, and that was, Jim Sciutto, breaking it all down for us there in that report. Now, Facebook says that Russian made content may

have reached as many as 126 million Americans during the U.S. election season.

That is more than half the U.S. voting population. The company tells U.S. Senate investigators that content was generated by the so-called Internet

Research Agency, that's a name of a Russian government linked troll farm.

And meanwhile, Twitter says it found nearly 3,000 accounts linked to that very same agency and more than 36,000 accounts associated with Russia over

all. These accounts opposite automated election related content.

These revelations come as lawyers for Facebook, Twitter and Google prepare for their public Senate hearings this week, and they will be facing

questions about how their platforms were used by Russians to meddle in U.S. politics. The scrutiny is once again raising questions over the role tech

giants play in controlling what people can see online.

Now in our new series that is called, Divided We Code, CNN's Laurie Segall explores how Silicon Valley tries to walk the line between free-speech and

censorship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW MCLAUGHLIN, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, UNITED STATES: For the internet, we built this incredible common space, platforms like

Facebook and Twitter were created blogging platforms where anybody could show up and speak.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A virtual town square.

MCLAUGHLIN: Economist for 100 years have had this principle which is called the tragedy of the comments that says if you have a common space, a

park.

[08:35:00] And anybody can go and use it without controls, the tragedy will be that that space gets trashed.

SEGALL: Fast forward to the internet today, social networks promise to democratize information but in the last year, Russians bought ads on

Facebook to target voters, and in between election. An army of bots are spreading propaganda through Twitter and hate speech in going viral turning

off-line.

The virtual town square is getting overrun. As a result, these platforms are falling into an uncomfortable role as the gate keepers of content.

Matthew Prince is the founder of CloudFlare, a company that helps protect websites from attacks. Either, I woke up in a bad mood and decided,

someone should be allowed on the internet, no one should have that power, what a strong statement.

MATTHEW PRINCE, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, CLOUDFLARE: We kicked them off at some level because they were jerks and I think we have the right to pick and

choose who do business with.

SEGALL: The customer he's talking about, a neo-Nazis site, The Daily Stormer.

PRINCE: But I do think it's important for us to have a conversation about what the responsibilities of commerce on the internet.

SEGALL: The decision was a trigger and the request started pouring in.

PRINCE: Since that time have been calls for over 3,500 different CloudFlare customers to be terminated. I worry that having made this one

decision is going to be harder for us to push back against those others.

SEGALL: Being the referee of free speech is complicated. Just ask Twitter co-founder and Medium CEO, Ev Williams.

EV WILLIAMS, CEO, MEDIUM: Some people are calling to needs to the editorial guidelines and you get into an area where most tech companies

feels like, it's not something that really fits in our modeler that we would even be good at.

SEGALL: Increasingly, you guys, whether or not you like it, you have to make some decisions on our kind of editorial. What do you say?

WILLIAMS: There are adjustments being made all the way down the line. There are judgments about how the algorithm works, what the system values,

what the feedback loops are.

SEGALL: While tech companies have the right to make these decisions, there is the question of transparency.

WILLIAMS: And we could have done it differently. We could have just said, they violated Section 13 of our terms of service and...

(CROSSTALK)

MCLAUGHLIN: And that's kind of BS, right?

WILLIAMS: By the way, it will be BS if we did it and its BS when any other technology does that and that's the point which is important. There are

arbitrary decisions that get made in this and there are editorials decision that gets made at us, we should own those editorial decisions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Laurie Segall reporting there. Now, Laurie, is in CNN Money, they have a new mostly human series, this is called, Divided We Code,

Trump's sexual-harassment scandals to the weaponization of social media.

Silicon Valley is reaching a breaking point. Laura, takes a closer look at politics, power, harassment in one of the most influential communities on

earth.

You can go right now to Money.cnn.com. You can find the link to in the middle of the page, Divided We Code, a fascinating look at culture in the

tech world.

Well, the style of the women of Vietnam, now coming up for you on News Stream, take a look at fashion in today's the segment in our series that's

called Hanoi POV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. We are taking a week long look at Vietnam's capital through the eyes of people who live there. We called the series,

Hanoi POV.

[08:40:00] And today, when meet Donna Bramhall who live to Hanoi as a lecturer for the London College for Design and Fashion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA BRAMHALL, LECTURER, LONDON COLLEGE FOR DESIGN AND FASHION: My name is Donna Bramhall and I'm the founder of Haute Culture Fashion blog and

also textile tour. I've been living in Vietnam for the past four years.

Hoan Kiem Lake is important for culture in (Inaudible), that's what makes Hanoi a really nice place to living actually because you get the space from

lakes, although it's very densely packed, I mean, like very intense at times because you are always never too far away from the lakes. Kind of

take a seat and have a little walk around and just hang this, and breathe in the space.

I came to Vietnamese (Inaudible) for the first time, probably within like the first three with me getting to Hanoi, I think of being here maybe about

seven or eight times, at least, maybe more.

It's all about women in Vietnam and how women are really held up in society is like being the backbone of Vietnamese culture. We have got an outfit

here by the Laos people. They do the design from the back of the clock.

So they read the design without being able to actually see it. So this is really amazing technique, a very complicated, very sophisticated technique.

This is a traditional Vietnamese (Inaudible).

Vietnamese women still war this a lot, you'll complete with clothes, something very elegant about it, like classically beautiful about wearing

an (Inaudible), it's really -- yes, you feel really feminine and look lady when you wear one.

I think Hanoi is very special everyday, it still retains a lot of its authenticity even though it balances out with like kind of contemporary and

modern development as well. Vietnamese people are very true to themselves and the culture is still very strong. And so I think, Hanoi is really

special place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Unfortunately, we weren't able to show you my interview with NATO secretary general but we will bring that interview to you on

tomorrow's News Stream. That's all for us today. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. We've got World Sport with Alex Thomas, next.

END