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CNN NEWSROOM

North Korea Threat; Russia Investigation; New York Terror Attack; Trump Leaves Soon On First Official Trip To Asia; Kushner Turns Over Documents To Mueller Investigation; Europe-Wide Warrant Sought For Puigdemont; Sick And Traumatized Children Fill Refugee Camps. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 3, 2017 - 02:00   ET

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


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ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): This is CNN NEWSROOM. Live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, a humanitarian nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are suffering as sick and traumatized children fill refugee camps.

And U.S. President Trump leaves Washington in the next few hours with a strong message for Asia's leaders, time is running out to deal with North Korea.

Plus Donald Trump's Twitter account briefly disappears. The story behind the 11-minute shutdown of the president's favorite mode of communication.

Hello and welcome to viewers around the world. I'm Isha Sesay and this is NEWSROOM L.A.

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SESAY: In a few hours, U.S. President Donald Trump flies across the Pacific Ocean on his first official visit to Asia. The stakes could not be higher and overshadowing everything is North Korea. A U.S. officials tells CNN North Korea is working on an advance missile capable of reaching the U.S. and South Korean intelligence says Pyongyang appears to be preparing to conduct more missile and nuclear tests.

On Thursday, U.S. warplanes like these flew training exercises over the Korean Peninsula, accomplished by South Korean and Japanese fighter jets. The White House laid out what Mr. Trump hopes to accomplish next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. H.R. MCMASTER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: President Trump will reiterate the plain fact that North Korea threatens not just our allies, South Korea and Japan, and the United States, North Korea is a threat to the entire world. So all nations of the world must do more to counter that threat. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now, live in Seoul, South Korea.

Paula, H.R McMaster, the U.S. national security advisor talking about the president heading out to Asia with the goal of taking a message of countering the threat posed by North Korea. But it is a threat which could drastically escalate while the president is in the region if that South Korean intelligence report is actually accurate.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Isha, what we've heard from the intelligence agency here is they are seeing increased activity around the missile facility in Pyongyang, so they say that there could be a missile launch in the future.

Of course, that wouldn't surprise anybody. Nobody expects North Korea to stop its nuclear and missile testing and the North Korean leader has made it very clear that he will continue to perfect that capability.

They also said in this report on Thursday that they believe that the tunnels, three at the Punggye-ri site, the mountain side where they do the underground nuclear tests, is ready to go once again. And they say there's more work to do on tunnel four, excavation expected to be under way. But they're expecting this testing to continue.

As I said, that's not a surprise to anybody. It is expected it will happen. But what everybody is looking for is what will happen while U.S. President Trump is in the region.

Will North Korea decide to carry out some kind of launch?

It's been relatively quiet from Pyongyang in recent weeks, when you consider the intense testing since the beginning of 2016 in North Korea's attempts to increase their capabilities. The question is what will they do, if anything, while Donald Trump is here and, of course, what will Trump's reaction be -- Isha.

SESAY: Indeed. Trump heading to Asia, five countries in 12 days; North Korea and trade on the agenda.

How much can he achieve, bearing in mind he leaves the U.S. under the cloud of special counsel investigation and sagging poll numbers and heads a region where a number of those leaders are certainly much stronger than previously, with a huge boost, especially in the case of China's Xi Jinping.

How far could he push them?

HANCOCKS: It's a good question. We've heard from the U.S. president through aides that he is concerned, that it's a distraction from what he's going to try to do here in Asia. As you say, the Chinese president Xi Jinping has never been in a stronger position.

Certainly will be interesting to see the interaction, when you talk about how far can he push these leaders. It can be argued that in China's case, Mr. Trump has been trying for some time to push China to do more on North Korea. And it hasn't necessarily been successful, although China has signed on to the two most recent sets of sanctions, which have gone further than ever before.

You also mentioned trade; that will be front and center. There are trade --

[02:05:00]

HANCOCKS: -- disputes through United States and Japan, South Korea and with China, certainly here in South Korea. The free trade agreement is being renegotiated. Not because Seoul wanted it to, they certainly didn't want that to be the case. But because Donald Trump put pressure on that to be renegotiated.

So there will be some tricky conversations for the U.S. president while he is here in the region and as I say, he has alluded to the fact that he feels those conversations will be more difficult, considering the distractions he will have back in the United States.

SESAY: Paula Hancocks, joining us there from Seoul, South Korea, appreciate it, thank you.

Back in Washington, new developments in the special counsel's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. President Trump's son-in- law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has turned over documents to Robert Mueller's office.

Investigators ask witnesses about Kushner's role in firing of former FBI director James Comey. Kushner came under scrutiny months ago after failing to disclose his contacts with Russians and that includes a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, which some in the Trump campaign attended on the premise of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton from Russians tied to the Kremlin.

New questions are also emerging about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his confirmation hearing. That's when, you may remember, he denied knowledge of any contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign.

Court documents unsealed this week revealed that campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, proposed the meeting between Putin and then candidate Trump while he and Sessions were both in the room. Sessions said he rejected the idea.

But another campaign adviser who was present at the time said Mr. Trump listened to Papadopoulos and, quote, "heard him out." On top of all of that, CNN has exclusively learned that another former Trump advisor, Carter Page, testified he told Sessions about his trip to Russia during the campaign. Page says that trip was unrelated to his campaign role, although it does make for another troubling omission on the part of Sessions.

As for President Trump, he had some grievances with his role in the American legal system on a radio show on Thursday.

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TRUMP: The saddest thing is that, because I'm the President of the United States, I'm not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I'm not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I'm not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing and I'm very frustrated by it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Now to our panel, Democratic strategist Caroline Heldman; CNN political commentator John Phillips and he's a Trump supporter, I must add that as well. And Seth Abramson, a professor at the University of New Hampshire. All of them join me now.

Welcome to all of you.

Caroline, to you first. You heard what the president said on that radio show with Larry O'Connor (ph), saying basically he is frustrated by not being able to get his hands on the FBI and the Justice Department. One might think he has that special counsel investigation on his mind.

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Indeed. He is essentially bemoaning the fact that he doesn't control the other branches of government and that he doesn't have complete and totalitarian control over in the executive branch.

I would love to have him enroll in my Politics 101 class, to teach him the basics that perhaps he should have learned in high school. But it's not good to have a president on the job, learning about what his proper role is and what the role of the executive branch is, especially when you see him going after what many have called the fourth branch of government, meaning that is he is trying to undercut the ability of the media to be a watchdog. I find all of this kind of dictatorial love of authoritarian leadership to be quite troubling.

SESAY: Seth, I want to go to you. The president said I'm not supposed to be doing the kinds of things I would love to be doing, is what he said in that clip we just played.

What do you make of all of this, the president taking issue with the separate branches of government?

What's he getting at here?

SETH ABRAMSON, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: I think it's incredibly unnerving for him to say that it is the saddest thing, as I understood those words to be, that he doesn't control the DOJ. He does not control the FBI when we know what he would like to do if he had that control.

He already indicated that he wouldn't have brought Jeff Sessions on at attorney general if he knew Sessions would allow Robert Mueller to be a special counsel in the Russia case. What I would say is that the Puerto Rico situation is a sad situation. The situation in Las Vegas, the recent shooting, that is a sad situation. To have the president say that the saddest thing is that he doesn't control the DOJ or the FBI so he could obstruct an investigation into him and his aides is, I think, chilling to hear from a president.

SESAY: John Phillips, is there any other way to read it other than he wishes he could his own way?

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's a conglomerate of things. It's dealing with Congress, dealing with the courts; they're trying to block all of the agenda items that he came into the White House with. And look, a separation of powers is a frustrating thing. Congress is like the HR Department in "House of Cards." It's where all concerns go to die.

And we have essentially all of the --

(CROSSTALK)

SESAY: But he didn't mention Congress in that; he said the DOJ and the --

PHILLIPS: It is all baked into the cake. We're dealing with the health care vote and the tax vote --

[02:10:00]

PHILLIPS: -- it's all on his plate at once. And right now in the American government, we're dealing with a very strange situation because you have the Democratic Party, essentially broke into two, where you have the Bernie Sanders wing and the Hillary Clinton wing.

You have the Republican Party that's essentially broken into two, where you have the Trump people and you have the Bushies, the traditional Republican people. So you have all of the elements of a parliamentary system without any of the mechanisms to make it work.

So he's trying to implement his agenda and feels the Russia thing is just one big conspiracy theory that just stalling him from being able to push through his tax bill and health care bill and all of that stuff. And so what you see when he does interviews and when he starts going on Twitter is you see some of that frustration bubble to the surface.

We see it all the time when outsiders are elected as governor or mayor. It's the first time we've had one as president in a while.

SESAY: Seth, do we see it all the time?

ABRAMSON: Well, we have to remember that when President Trump was a candidate, he complained vehemently about Barack Obama's executive orders. So the idea that the second he gets into office and now he is in power and he's the one writing the orders, somehow the fact that separation of powers exists is a problem, as John puts it, I think that is incredibly hypocritical.

And I would also say separation of powers is not a frustration, I think that's the way John put it. It's the Constitution. And I think that the president, when he swears an oath to uphold the Constitution, should talk about the Constitution in a way consistent with his oath. And the president is not doing that.

SESAY: Caroline, to you, perhaps underpinning the president's frustration is the fact that the special counsel investigation is gathering steam, as we saw the two indictments this week, with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates and we heard about George Papadopoulos taking the plea deal.

Now all of that has Jeff Sessions squarely in the spotlight. We've already run through what has emerged on Thursday, he said he had no knowledge during his confirmation hearing of any contacts with Russia; now we know he was in the room with Papadopoulos floated the idea about contacts with Russia. Now we know Carter Page told him he was going to Russia.

Why does this attorney general have such trouble recalling anything to do with Russia, it would seem?

HELDMAN: Well, it depends upon when you ask him, right. So he didn't remember during his confirmation and in fact went beyond, saying he didn't remember; he actually, I think, lied about it. And then in three subsequent hearings, he said that he didn't know anything about connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.

He failed to disclose it. He's been dishonest from start to finish. I think this is the seventh time that we've found some inconsistency in Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III talking about the Trump connections to Russia.

And he actually did it unprompted during his confirmation, remember. He actually brought up the subject. Nobody asked him about it. And it was a very telling moment, he kind of chuckled and stumbled through his words.

Who knows where this will end, who knows whether or not he will be caught up in Mueller's net as well. But it is really clear that he has an issue with honesty.

SESAY: John, before you answer, I want you to take a listen to what Senator Al Franken had to say because obviously he's paying close attention and he said this on Thursday.

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SEN. AL FRANKEN (D-MINN.), MEMBER, HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE: We've heard from other sources that the attorney general, now attorney general, then Senator Sessions, said, I don't think we should do this. And nobody should talk about this to anybody.

And that seems to be something you would remember. He said something to that effect; I don't have it exactly quoted. But this is why I have a lot of questions. And I've written a letter with a lot of those questions. And I'd like to have him testify before the Judiciary Committee again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Another time for the attorney general on Capitol Hill, another invite because he just can't get that story right -- John.

PHILLIPS: Well, Senator Franken doesn't remember the exact quote but I do have the exact quote, the man who's in charge of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Conway. Here's what he had to say about it.

"I don't make anything sinister out of it." He said, "Sessions did not react or comment one way or the another. If I were Sessions, I wouldn't have recalled it, either. It was just in passing. He was walking out of the room; a guy he had never met before grabs him, hey, I'm on the team. I changed my travel plans to Russia."

Let's go back and let's remember what happened when Claire McCaskill, the Democrat from Missouri, was reacting to Sessions the first time this whole situation bubbled to the surface.

What did she say?

"If l met with the Russians, I would remember it."

How many times did she meet with the Russians prior to putting that tweet out?

Multiple times.

It just happened to be --

SESAY: She wasn't the one testifying under oath.

PHILLIPS: No, but the point is that if something happens that is minor like that, you may not remember. I don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

(CROSSTALK)

HELDMAN: So that's half of it that came out this week.

What about the other half, where he said that he advised that Donald Trump shouldn't meet with the Kremlin?

Do you think maybe that's something --

PHILLIPS: Why did Claire McCaskill lie?

HELDMAN: Who said she lied?

I'm sorry --

[02:15:00]

(CROSSTALK) PHILLIPS: No, I don't think she remembered.

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SESAY: You are saying that it wasn't --

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HELDMAN: You think it's insignificant that he advised candidate Trump not to meet with the Kremlin?

I'm sorry. That would definitely --

PHILLIPS: Totally insignificant.

SESAY: Seth, you're an attorney, you follow this closely and you have been tweeting about this all day.

How do you read this?

Just a casual slipping of a memory or something more?

ABRAMSON: Well, in my experience, in years working as a defense attorney, prosecutors tend not to believe in coincidences. When Sessions was going to testify under oath -- and, again, he testified multiple times under oath -- he prepared for hours. That's what you do when you're to testify on national television under oath in front of Congress.

And he was asked whether he had contact with Russians and he didn't reveal the contact at The Mayflower hotel. He didn't reveal the contact at the RNC in July of 2016. He didn't reveal his contact in the Senate office on September 8th of 2016. He didn't reveal that George Papadopoulos brought up a meeting with the Kremlin at a meeting at the Trump International hotel that he was at.

And he didn't recall Carter Page bringing up Moscow to him. That is five incidents that he repeatedly did not recall under clear questioning, under oath, that he prepared for and there's no prosecutor that is going to accept that as a slip of memory. It's just not going to happen.

SESAY: John Phillips.

PHILLIPS: They meet with people all day long. These senators have schedules that start very early in the morning to very late in the evening. I know that there's a lot of people that have a hard time accepting the fact that Donald Trump won this election and I get that.

But to give you a window into how this campaign operated around this same time during the convention and post-convention. I'd be going on TV after one of the debates or I'd be going on TV after one of days at the convention and I was doing the early morning shows, I was doing "EARLY START" and I was doing "NEW DAY."

And I would email the campaign and say, hey, I'm going on in the morning. I'm going to try to sleep the night before. If anything changes, let me know. They couldn't get their act together enough to send me information in the morning. They couldn't collude with me.

How in the hell could they collude with Russia?

SESAY: You're not a U.S. Senator who has an entire team keeping your calendar nor are you a U.S. senator that was preparing to testify under oath on Capitol Hill. It is hardly equivalent.

PHILLIPS: Claire McCaskill is U.S. senator and couldn't recall multiple meetings with the Russians. I don't think there's anything sinister. I don't think the woman's a pathological liar. I do think that she didn't remember insignificant things.

SESAY: But people are pointing to a pattern, back to what Seth said, it is a pattern -- Seth gave five examples.

PHILLIPS: A pattern of insignificant meetings.

(CROSSTALK)

HELDMAN: -- that there are so many members of the Trump campaign that had various meetings with the Russians and then lied about it, in forums, in public settings, in Senate confirmation hearings So it's not analogous to Claire McCaskill. She wasn't running for the presidency. She didn't have a team of people who were talking about meeting with the Russians and she didn't prepare many, many hours, as Seth pointed out, for a Senate confirmation hearing.

It is apples and oranges. If that's your defense, then you're saying basically, yes, you know, there's something here.

One of the quote-unquote meetings was a speech that Jeff Sessions was giving in Cleveland during the Republican Convention, where a Russian official happened to be in the audience.

SESAY: OK, let me keep this moving because there's so much. And I know we will come back to this line of defense. Let's talk about Jared Kushner, as we've already shared with our viewers, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, handing over documents to Robert Mueller on Thursday. We hear now that there are more people being questioned about Mueller's (sic) role in the firing of James Comey.

Seth, to you, this investigation is creeping ever closer to the president's inner circle.

What does this development mean to you?

ABRAMSON: Here's what's really telling to me. Gabriel Sherman of "Vanity Fair" published an article just recently, in which he spoke to six current White House staffers and they all said that impeachment was now a topic of discussion, the possibility of impeachment, in the White House.

In that same story, we found out that the president is actually turning on his own son-in-law and blaming him for the advice he received regarding the firing of James Comey. I think when you have a president, who the moment there are any indictments in the investigation into his campaign's contacts with Russia, turns on his own family members within 48 hours, that says a lot to me as a long- time defense attorney about whether Mr. Trump, number one, has consciousness of guilt and then, number two, how desperate he feels regarding the course of this investigation.

SESAY: John, should -- bearing in mind what we know, the documents being handed over and the questions, is the president about to throw folks under the bus?

Should he be panicking?

PHILLIPS: I don't think that's the reason why Jared is out. I've been and vocally on this program against the hire of Jared Kushner since the very beginning.

[02:20:00]

PHILLIPS: Nepotism never works. If he weren't married to Ivanka, he would working some job that would require him to wear his name to be embroidered on his shirt. This guy has given bad advice from the moment he walked into the White House. He's the one who told him to fire Comey and told him to do other bad things that have resulted in bad PR. And I think were huge mistakes. What has me sleeping very well at night is knowing that when Jared Kushner is out soon, Roger Stone is back in the saddle.

SESAY: Caroline --

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: Caroline, you take that one.

HELDMAN: Well, OK.

SESAY: Out with Kushner, in with Stone.

PHILLIPS: I talked to Roger today, he's back in.

SESAY: Roger's back in. So if that's the case, Roger is back in because we hear, according to reporting, that Roger Stone and Steve Bannon are telling the president that he should take a more combative tone against Robert Mueller and the special investigation, there's talk about him pushing for them to cut funding and all the rest of it, at their advice , what's does this mean, Kushner out, according to -- possibly, according to John, and Stone in?

HELDMAN: I think we would be losing -- I would agree -- an incompetent staff member. Incompetence is not a defense, though, against obstruction of justice. That doesn't get him out of hot water and it appears that if Mueller is going after an obstruction of justice charge, that Kushner will get caught up in that.

And you're replacing incompetence with someone who actually believes in conspiracy theories and is patently unfit to be anywhere near the White House.

PHILLIPS: Roger Stone is one of the smartest, shrewdest political advisers in the country and I think this a huge step in the right direction.

SESAY: Thank you to you all. We're going to hit pause here. There's a lot more to discuss in the coming hours.

But John, Caroline, Seth, we appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, President Trump's daughter, Ivanka, is in Japan to promote women in the workplace. She spoke Thursday at the World Assembly of Women Conference in Tokyo about women in science and technology.

President Trump's tax reform proposals and paid family leave are also on the agenda and she also said women in developed countries have to keep pushing for progress for themselves and for others.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVANKA TRUMP, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: We must empower women who live in countries that prevent them from leading. Across the world, there are still laws that stop women from fully participating in their nation's economy.

In some countries, women are not allowed to own property, travel freely or work outside of the home without the consent of their husbands. Countries like the United States and Japan can't be complacent. We must continue championing reforms in of own countries while also empowering women in restricted economies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Ivanka's trip coming three days before President Trump and Ms. Trump will arrive in Japan. And while they're in Tokyo, both women will be protected by an all-female squad of police officers.

Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, ISIS makes a new claim about the New York terror attack. We'll explain.

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SESAY: ISIS claims the New York terror attacker is a soldier of the caliphate. The claim was just posted online by the group's weekly newspaper. ISIS did not provide any credible evidence it had knowledge of the attack before it happened or that it was involved in the planning process.

The terror group also didn't claim direct responsibility for the attack or specifically name Sayfullo Saipov. He has been charged in the crime.

Meantime, we've received chilling new video made moments after the terror suspect's truck slammed into a school bus in New York City. CNN's Jason Carroll reports now from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the scene just moments after a school bus was rammed by the terrorist's pickup truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god. OK. I need an ambulance right here.

CARROLL (voice-over): All four people inside survived. One student recovering from surgery, another even returning to Stuyvesant High School the next day.

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK: I consider the suspect an enemy of New York City, what is exceptional here is the fact that New Yorkers were undeterred.

CARROLL (voice-over): Speaking at the school's campus just feet from Tuesday's terror attack, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio minced no words about the suspect.

DE BLASIO: I believe this is an individual who should rot in prison for the rest of his life.

CARROLL (voice-over): Authorities say Sayfullo Saipov, who was shot by police at the scene, had been planning for a year. He now faces federal terrorism charges. New sketches show him entering court in a wheelchair on Wednesday, where he declined to enter a plea. The 29- year old appears to have little remorse, killing eight people and injuring 13 in Tuesday's violent vehicular rampage. Court documents show he requested to display an ISIS flag in his hospital room and stated that he felt good about what he did. In fact, he planned it meticulously. Police say he paid to rent the Home Depot Truck for just 75 minutes with no intention of returning it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been renting the same truck, the same model truck, for the past three weeks.

CARROLL (voice-over): Neighbor Carlos Batista (ph) took this photo, showing the some kind of truck parked in his neighborhood 10 days before the attack, just when investigators say Saipov used it to practice making turns. Batista (ph) says Saipov didn't always drive alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would drive past with the same two guys. (INAUDIBLE). (INAUDIBLE) the ones he is always with, they must know something.

CARROLL (voice-over): Initially the FBI asked for help finding a second man in connection to the terror attack late Wednesday. But in this urgent questions about potential accomplices said this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have found him. We'll leave it at that. CARROLL (voice-over): Saipov was the only one in the truck on Tuesday. He told police he intended to continue his deadly drive beyond the West Side Highway and on to the heavily trafficked Brooklyn Bridge; instead, he crashed here, where police found a trove of evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've developed evidence establishing that Saipov committed this attack in support of ISIS.

CARROLL (voice-over): Two cell phone recovered from the scene, investigators found approximately 90 videos and nearly 3,800 images related to ISIS. For now investigators say it appears the suspect acted alone but they also caution it is still very early on in their investigation. Tonight, a candlelight vigil will be held for all of the victims -- Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: When we come back, the endless victims of the Rohingya humanitarian crisis, refugee children traumatized, malnourished and living with toxic stress.

And later, U.S. President Donald Trump's Twitter account shuts down. We will tell you what happened.

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[02:30:00] ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm Isha Sesay. The headlines this hour, U.S. President Donald Trump leaves for Asia in coming hours identifying the solution to the threat posed by North Korea. South Korea spy agency says Pyongyang appears ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time and is preparing another missile test. U.S. official says the regime is working on an advanced missile capable of reaching the United States.

Jared Kushner has handed over documents to Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election. Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Senior Adviser has been under scrutiny since he fails to disclose his Russian contact. Mueller's team is also asking witnesses about Kushner's role in the decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey.

Spanish prosecutors are seeking the Europe-wide warrant to ousted Catalan Leader Carles Puigdemont. He failed to show up in a Madrid Court Thursday and he appeared in Brussels earlier this week. The court has ordered eight members of the (INAUDIBLE) Catalan government detained without bail over the regime -- region rather independence bid.

Going to the refugee camp in Bangladesh the victims of this horrific violence are just trying to survive but they are suffering, especially the children. Rik Goverde is with Save the Children and he joins us now from Bangladesh. Rik, thank you for being with us. I know that Save the Children and a number of NGOs recently did an assessment of the children in these refugee camps. And the condition is even worse than you thought. Tell us about it.

RIK GOVERDE, SPOKESPERSON, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Yes, well, of course, I've been in the camp over the past two weeks, on several occasions almost on a daily basis. And what you around you is unhygienic circumstances but also malnutrition, and it's everywhere. You look at -- as you said we've been in this task together with other organizations and it was presented. The preliminary numbers were presented yesterday and we found that one in four of the children are actually malnourish. And that is a staggering high number. Usually, in an emergency, we speak of an emergency when it's 15 percent, and here it's 25 percent. So you can imagine the hardship they are going through right now. And it's really a potential disaster for outbreaks of disease a well. And you know, children who are malnourished and not treat, they may very well die.

SESAY: Yes. I understand that it is rare to see this level of malnutrition in children even in a time of crisis. What makes this situation so appallingly bad for children?

GOVERDE: Yes, well, many have traveled long -- a long time for days or even weeks to get where they are right now, running from violence and maybe hunger that was already in Myanmar. So they came to the camps exhausted. Now they're in the camps and there's a shortage -- there was a shortage of food. NGOs and other organizations are really trying to get enough food to the people. But the influx is just so high. As you said, 600,000 in two months, which is, you know, it's a city that is been erected in a hilly area where there used to be only trees and brushes. Now it's a village of bamboo and tarpaulin with a hygienic circumstances, with the lack of food. And the influx, everybody is working very hard to face that challenge but the influx is just so high that you know, the international community really needs to step up especially in the part of malnourishment, otherwise, we'll see children die very shortly.

SESAY: And Rik, it's not just their bodies that are being racked by the situation, it's also their mind. Talk to me about their mental state.

GOVERDE: Yes, again, we have specialists on mental health of children and they went into the field the past week and what they saw was you know, signs of toxic stress. And toxic stress is very dangerous for children, it can -- it can affect the brain in a lasting way and you know, having a long-term effect which makes it hard for children to develop themselves, to control emotions, to touch you know their imaginations. What we do, we have child-friendly space where children can come and sing, and play, and draw, and you know, you should see it as kind of a scale. They have seen very bad things when the scale went down. And what we're trying to do in our child-friendly space is get that scale back together by giving them normality on the other side. And that is really important. If they don't -- we have to challenge them -- their cognitive skills, their learning skills, their imagination. If we don't do that, this generation might be lost a long time to come.

[02:35:54] SESAY: Rik, what is the greatest need right now for these children in these camps? GOVERDE: Well, I would -- it would be very hard to prioritize because the needs are so high, all levels, hygiene, health, the treatment of malnutrition, but also their mental health. And as you probably know, there was -- there was a pledging conference for the Rohingya crisis in Geneva just two weeks ago. And it was assessed that we need about for the first six months of response about 435 million to 440 million in that -- to that extent. And there were pledges for 335 million which is 100 million short, and that's just for the first six months. So yes, the international community really needs to step up their game and their funding so we can help children with their mental health, with malnutrition.

If we don't act on the malnutrition, which is very large -- the assessment we did, it was in a camp where newly arrived lived and people who are already living there for a longer time. We're going to do a second assessment and a third only in the area where newly arrived have just you know, started their new lives. And we fear that the numbers there as they have you know, as they just arrived coming from hunger, might even be very much higher and we need to address that problem otherwise the children will die.

SESAY: Yes, I think that's the message the world needs to understand, that there are children who will die if people do not step in and provide support, the funding, and the resources. Rik Goverde, thank you for joining us there from Bangladesh. Thank you for the work you're doing with Save the Children and we'll continue to check in with you. Thank you so much.

GOVERDE: Thank you very much.

SESAY: Well, still to come on CNN NEWSROOM. Know there are no undiscovered mummies in Egypt pyramid but scientists are now wondering what exactly is that strange space inside.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Well, depending how you feel about animated poop emojis and enhanced selfies and probably pretty strongly, you may be excited to hear that Apple's newest, shiniest, most expensive iPhone, the iPhone X is in stores worldwide. In Australia, hundreds of eager customers, they packed out the streets and picked up the thousand dollar phone on the launch day. People who preordered online should start seeing their phones arriving in their mailboxes. But if you want here in the United States, Apple site has already sold out of preorders that shipped Friday. So if you order now, you may have to wait weeks to get your hands on the iPhone X. Not sure you'll get it before Christmas if that's what you were hoping for.

On to other news, the Great Pyramids of Giza is nothing if not an endless source of mystery. Now scientists have discovered a strange void in its very heart. Researchers are not alive -- they're not allowed rather to drill into the ancient structure so they use technology that employs cosmic rays to visualize the interior. The void is as big as a passenger plane and was unknown for 4,500 year. It's one of four cavities in the pyramid along with the king's and the queen's chambers, and the grand gallery. Scientist doubt the void contains a barrel chamber because it has no entrance.

Well, for little (INAUDIBLE) Thursday, it was almost like the social media world just suddenly stopped. That's because U.S. President Donald Trump's Twitter account was down for eleven whole minutes. Twitter users got this when they went to the President's page @realdonaldtrump, sorry this page doesn't exist. Well, it was a blame human error by a Twitter employee on the stop of his last day at the company. Alas, we can breathe now. It is back up. Yes, that's right, Donald Trump's Twitter page is back up and yes it's being used. Mr. Trump use of Twitter shows how skilled he is for good or ill at creating brutally short messages. So when it came to the title for new U.S. tax proposal, he brought it down to one repeated word, Jeanne Moos reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump the master brander dreamed up a name for the tax bill that cut to the chase.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: The cut, cut, cut act.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, THE LATE SHOW: The cut, cut, cut act.

MOOS: Cut it out with the laughter. This was a serious name proposed by the President to convey.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A giant tax cut, a tremendous tax cut, a massive tax cut.

MOOS: But somehow cut, cut, cut didn't sound serious.

COLBERT: That name truly, sucks, sucks, sucks.

FALLON: Because that beats the name for his immigration bill the bye, bye, bye act.

MOOS: Instead of the knives coming out the scissors did. Gifs ranging from the Big Lebowski to Edward Scissorhands were posted, not to mention a scissor-wielding crustaceans that cuts, cut, cut activated memories. And you thought nine, nine, nine was bad.

HERMAN CAIN, CEO, GODFATHER'S PIZZA: I have put my 999 plan on the table.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your 999 plan.

CAIN: My nine, 999 is a bold solution.

MOOS: A little too bold. Pizza Chain CEO Herman Cain in his tax plan never made it through the Republican primaries.

CAIN: 999 will pass and it's not the price of a pizza.

MOOS: In the end, President Trump didn't get the name he originally wanted, it was cut, cut, cut down the size. Only one cut survived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tax cut and jobs act.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: The Tax Cut and Jobs Act.

MOOS: Republicans wanted to emphasize that their plan did more than just cut, cut, cut. Simplifying the code means many taxpayers could file on a form the size of a large postcard which the President kissed. But he also had to kiss goodbye his preferred name and leave it for kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cut, cut, cut, carrot. Cut, cut, cut, cut.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That hurts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay, "WORLD SPORT" is up next. You're watching CNN.

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[02:45:51] VINCE CELLINI, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to WORLD SPORT at CNN Center, I'm Vince Cellini. The day after an incredible 2017 Baseball World Series, we celebrate winning as the residue of hard work. One of baseball's biggest redemption stories came true, the Houston Astros. Just five years ago, they won only 51 games at 162, making them the worse team in baseball for a third year running. But a steady rise began in 2014 culminating an American League Wildcard berth in 2015. And after barely missing the playoffs last year, they pushed their win total to 101 this year and earned a second World Series berth ever.

And then, on Wednesday night, it happened, dispatching the Los Angeles in Dodgers in seven games, earning their first ever world championship, Houston strong indeed. CNN's Andy Scholes, full disclosure, he's a big Astros fan, was there as the championship washed over him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: The champagne and beer never tasted so good for the Houston Astros, after an amazing World Series, the Houston Astros beating the Dodgers in game seven, and for the first time in their 55-year history, they are World Series Champions. And it couldn't come at a better time after what the City of Houston went through after Hurricane Harvey.

JUSTIN VERLANDER, PITCHER, HOUSTON ASTROS: It was huge. You know, I think that was something that we all embraced. We didn't shy away from the fact a lot of people are going through a hard time in that city and to be able to lift their spirits in some way or some form, to give them a reprieve if things are going hard, so it was something to get away from and just cheer and have a good time with their hometown team going to a World Series and then winning a World Series. I mean, what a -- what a special bond that creates between a city and its team.

ALEX BREGMAN, INFIELDER, HOUSTON ASTROS: Are you kidding me? That's all you dream about as a kid. We're so fired up. We did it for the City of Houston. So proud to call Houston home. It's unbelievable.

JOSH REDDICK, RIGHT FIELDER, HOUSTON ASTROS: We wanted to pick up our city going through all this tragedy and really trying to pick a city up. To bring a championship was goal from day one, and if we could do it after a tragedy, even better.

GEORGE SPRINGER, OUTFIELDER, HOUSTON ASTROS: This means the world, it's incredible. I'm lost for words.

CARLOS CORREA, SHORTSTOP, HOUSTON ASTROS: Daniella Rodriguez, you made me the happiest man in the world. Will you marry me? Will you marry me?

DANIELLA RODRIGUEZ, FORMER MISS TEXAS: Oh, my God!

SCHOLES: What did you think of Carlos proposing right after you all won?

LANCE MCCULLERS, PITCHER, HOUSTON ASTROS: No, we knew he was going to do it. I told us yesterday, hey, papi, if I win today, I'm going to propose.

SPRINGER: I knew it was coming. He got a ring, she gets a ring. Everyone's happy.

SCHOLES: You knew it was coming, huh?

VERLANDER: Oh, yes, we knew. We knew we were going to win today, and we knew he was going to propose. It's going to be a great day.

DALLAS KEUCHEL, PITCHER, HOUSTON ASTROS: The dang rock was almost as big as this clubhouse. But it's great. I mean, they're great together, and I'm happy for both of them.

SCHOLES: And 2014's Sports Illustrated predicted that the Astros would win the World Series this year. And on that cover was George Springer, and he had an amazing World Series, tying a World Series record with five home runs, he was your World Series MVP. That prediction, going to go down as one of the best in sports history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CELLINI: Here's Andy, he's so happy. Football is on tap here next on WORLD SPORT. And things not going according to script for Everton in Europa League competition. Again, they come up empty.

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[02:51:13] CELLINI: Welcome back. European football's governing body UEFA is likely to rule on Friday, what action may be taken against French footballer Patrice Evra who was set off before the Europa League match between his team Marseille and Portugal's Vitoria Guimaraes had even started. It follows an incident in which the former Manchester United defender appeared to aim an acrobatic kick at a Marseille supporter during the pregame warm up. It's being reporter the confrontation with his own fans have been triggered by the fact they've been (INAUDIBLE) the defender for about a half hour prior to the altercation.

Footage seems to show the 36-year-old defender aiming a kick at a fan at the side of the pitch during a warm up. It seems reminiscent a fellow Frenchman and Manchester United forward Eric Cantona and his karate-style kick against a Crystal Palace fan back in 1995.

Well, these are some uneasy times for Everton, a team that changed coaches, now trying to change their luck and their direction. Both remain askew in Europa League group play, nary a goal against Lyon. Goalless almost 70 minutes in, and that's when the French team took control. Bertrand Traore drawing first blood, and that's when the floodgates open. Eight minutes later Houssem Aouar doubled the team's advantage. The team sub finds its way past (INAUDIBLE) Everton were down to 10 men when Morgan Schneiderlin was sent off and they were put out of their missery. Former Manchester United striker Memphis Depay powered home the header, 3-0. Lyon is the winner.

Everton has now lost five in a row in all competitions and now among the first to be eliminated in group stage. They now have a huge fixture on Sunday when they host Watford at Goodison Park. Atalanta and Lyon are level at eight apiece.

If Everton have their problems, then so too do the Spanish giants, Real Madrid. It seems strange to say this given the fact manager Zinedine Zidane has won back-to-back Champion's League titles but the cold, harsh reality is both he and Los Blancos are under huge pressure right now following Wednesday's 3-1 group stage defeat against Tottenham. Real are also currently eight points behind their bitter rivals, Barcelona, in La Liga, and they now lost two straight games in just a few days under the French headcoach. They lacked passion and pride it seemed out there in the heat of battle against Spurs. And to make matters worse, star striker Ronaldo has scored just once in league play this season. So, just how does Zizou try to turn it around?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZINEDINE ZIDANE, COACH, REAL MADRID (through translator): This is life. You have to accept sometimes that things aren't going to go your way. Right now, I can't say that things are great in the dressing room, it's not a good moment for us. What's important is that we know how to change this and we have to stay faithful to what we are doing and have the rest of the season to put things right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CELLINI: Well, four teams have booked their place in the European Champion's League round of 16. PSG, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, and Tottenham, and had they beaten Monaco Wednesday night, instead of drawing, we added Turkish Champions Besiktas to that list, the back- to-back super league winners are producing the kind of form to finally make it out of the group stages, something they've not done since the competition was rebranded in the early 1990s. Table-topping Besiktas who reached the Europa League quarter finals last season, need one more point from their last two group games to advance.

Next up, Porto at home. One man who has significantly helped that effort is former Liverpool forward Ryan Babel. The Dutchman singed with the club earlier this year, and he has since enjoyed something of a career resurgence. He told us why the Turkish club has been so competitive this season.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[02:55:00] RYAN BABEL, FORWARD, BESIKTAS: It's clear that we have a lot of good players in the team. A mix of good experience and local players who understand also, you know, the international level. We have a experienced coach who can -- yes, coordinate everybody well. And yes, you know, and we as players are collaborating good together. And I think that's maybe the key behind the success so far.

I also remember at the very early stage when I actually came to Liverpool to play my very first game against Besiktas in the old stadium. That was also a memory that I never forgot because, you know, the fans were very loud. And, you know, so it has a slight impact on, of course, you know, the away team. And yes, nowadays, we are pretty aware of that, so, you know, we try to take advantage of that. And yes, until now it's worked pretty good for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CELLINI: And finally, this NBA superstar LeBron James doesn't take too kindly to losing, especially when statistically speaking at least, it involves the worst streak of his professional career. On Wednesday night, his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost again, this time going down at home to the Indiana Pacers. A fourth straight defeat by a combined 63 points, which surpasses the four-game losing streak by a combined 61 points back in '04 when LeBron was a rookie. The team supposedly had a clear the air meeting on Tuesday while LeBron James hosted a Halloween Party the night before. Team bonding aside, LeBron was a study in frustration afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, SMALL FORWARD, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: Did you find anything to feel good about something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the thing they feel is most frustrating about tonight?

JAMES: We can't sustain effort for 48 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you solve that?

JAMES: I don't know. (INAUDIBLE) be in better shape. Be more mindful of what's going on. A lot of things you could do.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CELLINI: LeBron and the Cavaliers trying to get right Friday at the

Washington Wizards. And that is our time on WORLD SPORT for all of us, I'm Vince Cellini. More news is on the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump heads to Asia for the first time as U.S. President --