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Brexit Still Faces Challenges; European Parliament Elections; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Accuses Trump of Cover-Up; Ballots Being Counted in India's National Election; Aid Workers Fear 'Massive' Cholera Epidemic in Yemen; Anti-U.S. Song Going Viral on Chinese Social Media. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 23, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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


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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Anna Coren live in Hong Kong, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Ahead this hour, the news keeps getting worse for Theresa May. The British prime minister facing new calls to quit as the backlash grows against her latest Brexit plan.

Plus, 28 countries and more than 700 seats up for grabs. The European Parliament elections kick off a little more than an hour from now, one of the largest in the world.

Also ahead, Donald Trump's temper tantrum: why the U.S. president stormed out of a White House meeting with top Democrats.

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COREN: British prime minister Theresa May is even under greater pressure to resign now that the latest attempt to push a Brexit deal through Parliament has backfired. She did not back down during hours of questions in Parliament, insisting that it must pass.

But as Phil Black reports, there is a little support for it and she was hit with another cabinet resignation.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The prime minister's latest attempt to seek compromise over Brexit has been met with derision, fury; at the softer end of the spectrum, profound disappointment. All of that is just from within her own party.

It has triggered intense speculation about her ability to stay on as prime minister, even for a limited period of time. Such has been the sense of wrath and betrayal over the prime minister's efforts to reach across to other parties and build a consensus for a majority on a Brexit deal in Parliament, that Conservative MPs have been openly calling for her resignation, some openly agitating to change party rules in the hope she can be forced out, depose quickly in a party room vote.

Late Wednesday evening it appears the party rules will not change but the prime minister has suffered another major blow from another direction, a resignation of a senior cabinet member.

Andrea Leadsom, leader of the house, a known Brexiteer, a potential leadership contender herself, sent a letter to the prime minister announcing that she could, with regret, no longer serve in the government because she profoundly disagrees with the prime minister's current course of action on Brexit -- Phil Black, CNN, London.

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COREN: For more on all of this, CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas joins us from Los Angeles.

Dominic, great to see you again. Theresa May's leadership, it seems like it's on its life support. There are growing calls for her to resign amid the ferocious backlash among conservative lawmakers.

Why is she holding on?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, yes. And it's absolutely remarkable. And of, course this is all happening on the very eve of the European elections that are about to kick off.

I think, at this moment, Theresa May came into the week thinking that the discussion was going to be about the withdrawal agreement that she had once again come up with some kind of solution.

But as always and as we have seen all the way along, Theresa May so profoundly believes in the value of this particular bill but, unfortunately, is not listening to what people around her are telling her.

And the situation that we find in ourselves -- ourselves in now, is essentially the Conservative Party is absolutely concerned about how they're going to shape the period after Theresa May after she steps away from this position.

And of course, with increasing anxiety as to what a general election would look like for the Conservative Party and whether or not they can actually shape the process to have an internal leadership changed to avoid having to go to the polls.

COREN: Speaking of that internal leadership change, we know that Tory backbenchers met on Wednesday night. They decided not to change the rules which would have allowed an immediate vote of confidence in her.

Why did they choose not to take action?

THOMAS: Yes, what's interesting there is, of course, these rules and regulations were changed in 2011 precisely to stop prime ministers constantly going to the polls, particularly if they feel like they have a lead so that they have a fixed term that they're in office.

And let's not forget that, just in December 2018, this group used their once a year opportunity to try to oust her. She then survived a vote of no confidence in Parliament because, of course, they then teamed up against the opposition's particular bill.

So it's interesting to see why they went about doing this. I would argue that what they would hope that she would do is very much what David Cameron did, is announce that he was going to step down, once the leadership change and the leadership race has taken place --

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THOMAS: -- within the particular party. That's the easiest way for them to go about doing it without risking a general election with all the indications right now, that the public is really turning against the Conservative Party. So I think that that sort of the ideal mechanism for them.

And for them to go to change the rules and regulations and to go about doing that, of course, the whole way in which that would look would be a potential problem. So at this stage, it's pressuring the prime minister in individual conversations all through resignations to try to get her to do what David Cameron did so that they can control the transition of leadership within their party.

COREN: But as we have seen, she is very determined. At the moment, she seems to be digging in her heels. Cabinet member and leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom has resigned. Explain to us how significant that is.

THOMAS: Well, it is. This is the leader of the House of Commons. This is somebody with whom Theresa May has obviously significant history. Within their party regulations, there is a set of candidates that present themselves for the leadership; the MPs bring them down to two particular candidates.

And Andrea Leadsom was there against Theresa May and ended up backing out of that race. So she already saw herself as a significant player in the race. What we have when we start thinking about the leadership transition in the party -- and this is why Andrea Leadsom is an important figure -- is essentially you do have figures but you have camps within the party -- and this is part of the problem -- and Leadsom is one of the Brexiteers, all along with Gove and Boris Johnson; whereas on the other hand, you have someone like Jeremy hunt.

So you can see people now starting to position themselves and to withdraw from the cabinet, at this particular juncture, I think, many of these resignations have happened along the way.

But at this particular moment this is all about strategizing and positioning for the post-Theresa May era, which is about to happen. And one can anticipate Andrea Leadsom figuring as one of the lead candidates to try to take over.

And she doesn't want to be associated with Theresa May any longer, particularly when the results of the elections come through tomorrow and we see the Conservative Party essentially being humiliated at the polls, yet again.

COREN: Dominic, please stand by because I want to talk to a bit later about those E.U. elections. As you say, the E.U. has also been dealing with Brexit. But right now it's looking ahead at its own future. Over the next four days, hundreds of millions of people within the 28-member union have the chance to vote for a new Parliament. CNN's Bianca Nobilo breaks down what's at stake in these elections.

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BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are 28 countries, more than 500 million citizens, welcome to one of the biggest elections on Earth. Over four days, voters from across Europe will decide who will represent them for the next five years in the European Parliament.

Each country gets a certain number of seats depending on its size, so Germany will have 96, as they have the biggest population. The smallest countries, such as Luxembourg or Estonia, get six seats each.

They're all trying to get into here: the 751-seat European Parliament. E.U. MPs don't just sit with their own parties, they form political groups with those of a similar ideology.

This is what it looked like after the 2014 election. You had eight big political groups. The biggest, the center right European People's Party, that's supported by Angela Merkel. But some of the smaller groups certainly do get their voices heard.

Freedom and Direct Democracy is led by one of the biggest proponents of Brexit, Nigel Farage. More on him later. And also, they have members of the Five Star Movement, a populist party that is part of Italy's government coalition.

And that leads me to some of the big stories we are going to be looking at for this election.

First, will we see a populist wave?

Populist parties have gained ground in lots of countries across the continent. The majority are Eurosceptic, railing against the European Union and its bureaucracy. Two well-known faces are traveling around Europe and drumming up support, Italy's Matteo Salvini and France's Marine Le Pen. She is sounding confident about the election.

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MARINE LE PEN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FRONT (through translator): Our group does not stop growing, day after day. Every day, a new political movement from a new country announces they're going to join the supergroup that we are going to form.

Our political adversaries, who are, of course, not inclined to be optimistic for us, are already saying that we would move from eighth place in terms of group size, at a minimum, to the third place.

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NOBILO: A big showing and a united front between these parties could see a big change to the --

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NOBILO: -- makeup of the Parliament and push the E.U. in a different direction.

Another big issue is Britain. They voted to leave the E.U. in 2016. They were supposed to have left by the end of March. They were never meant to take part in these elections. But because of the chaos surrounding Brexit, they are.

And rarely has there been as much buzz, with many seeing it as a defective referendum on the E.U., amid all the Brexit confusion. It's also brought this man back to the fore. Nigel Farage's Brexit Party only formed a few weeks ago and it's riding high in the polls and hoping to win big -- Bianca Nobilo, CNN, London.

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COREN: Let's return to our CNN European affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas.

Dominic, we have heard from the European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker. He has lashed out at the "stupid nationalists."

Tell us, are they expected to make big gains and how will that alter the political landscape?

THOMAS: Right. In these elections, if we just go back to 2014, the UKIP Party run by Nigel Farage at the time and the Front National, run by Le Pen, won the largest number of seats from their respective countries.

And if we look at these elections, three of the big E.U. countries going into it, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, each of those country's far right parties, if you could put Brexit in that category, the Italian Liga and Marine Le Pen's new party are currently leading in the polls.

So it's quite clear that they are going to score well. The British context is interesting, though because, if you do see that the Brexit Party is actually leading in the polls, when you add up their votes or their potential votes along with, say, the Conservative Party and then you juxtapose that with the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and other small parties, you do, paradoxically, end up with roughly a kind of projected 50-50 divide.

So it's not as if the outcome of that is absolutely going to be convincing. But I do think that going into the election, when it's going to be so interesting, is, just in the last five years, if we go back to 2014, which seems like such a long time ago now, Brexit had not happened. The E.U. migrant crisis had not yet happened and Donald Trump had not been elected.

And also, during that five-year period, you have seen a proliferation of smaller political parties throughout the European Union and the collapse, in many cases, of mainstream parties. A lot of those smaller parties that have made inroads entering the German Parliament and that have shaped elections in Italy and in Austria are precisely the ones that are sending, paradoxically enough, motivated candidates to the E.U.; in many cases, Eurosceptics.

And they are using the E.U. as a forum for their voices to be heard. What we are most likely going to see is that the two major political groups, the EPP, the Democrats and the Socialists, are going to see their numbers drop and those particular groups are going to gain could be some of the LibDem proliferations but also these far-right groups.

And they can prove to be incredibly disruptive once they arrive in Brussels and in Strasbourg after these elections.

COREN: Well, do they pose a threat to European solidarity, in your opinion?

THOMAS: Well, yes they do. And their numbers are going to go up. Their opportunities to disrupt the process are going to go up. But they will not be a majority by any way. They will have very little say in the appointment of the new head of the commission and so on and so forth.

What's interesting, though, is that traditionally in most E.U. countries, the turnout for these elections is usually very low. In the U.K., it has never gone above 40 percent and yet people are mobilized because they're being given an opportunity to weigh in not just on the Brexit situation, but in all of these other E.U. countries to also weigh in on elections, where, in many cases, during the general elections, they felt like their voices have not been heard.

And it's something also paradoxical about the level of proportional representation in these E.U. races, is that it does allow for these particular parties to get a very significant representation in a democratic forum that they are often denied, as we saw, for example, in the French election where Marine Le Pen came second. But that did not translate into any seats in the French Parliament.

COREN: Dominic Thomas, we always appreciate the context that you give us to what is a very complicated story and your analysis. We will see you next hour, many thanks.

THOMAS: Thank you, Anna.

COREN: Time for a short break. When we come back, high drama at the White House. What's prompting President Trump to say he won't work with the Democrats.

Plus, India begins counting ballots after six weeks of voting. We will take you live to New Delhi for the latest results.

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COREN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

Donald Trump is refusing to work with Democrats in the U.S. Congress until they stop, what he calls, their phony investigations of him. The president's temper was on full display after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused him of engaging in a cover-up.

The president insisting on Twitter, he did not have a temper tantrum but was polite and calm and it can all be proven. For more, CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president's anger was obvious the minute he marched into the Rose Garden.

TRUMP: I walk in to look at people that had just said that I was doing a cover-up. I don't do cover-ups.

COLLINS: He had just blown up scheduled talk on infrastructure with Democrats after hours earlier the House speaker accused him of hiding something.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: We believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.

COLLINS: Sources tell CNN Trump erupted when he heard Pelosi's claim, but told his aides not to cancel their meeting.

TRUMP: I came here to do a meeting.

COLLINS: Instead, sources said Trump entered the Cabinet meeting without shaking a single Democrat's hands and lashed out at them declaring he won't work with them until their investigations are over.

TRUMP: I told Senator Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it, but you know what? You can't do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with.

COLLINS: Democrats said they were shocked by the president's behavior.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: To watch what happened in the White House would make your jaw drop.

COLLINS: But they voiced skepticism that this was all last-minute.

SCHUMER: It's clear this was not a spontaneous move on the president's part. It was planned.

COLLINS: The Senate minority leader pointing to this sign printed and posted on the presidential lectern as proof that Trump staged the whole thing.

SCHUMER: When we got in the room, the curtains were closed and, of course, then he went to the Rose Garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting.

COLLINS: Pelosi suggested Trump used her comments as an excuse to get out of finding a way to pay for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan.

SCHUMER: Hello? There were investigations going on three weeks ago when we met. And he still met with us.

COLLINS: Despite the showdown, Democrats say the investigations will go on.

PELOSI: This president is obstructing justice and he's engaged in a cover-up. And that could be an impeachable offense.

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COLLINS (voice-over): Talks in Washington about impeachment have intensified in recent days and clearly rattled the president.

TRUMP: The I-word. Can you imagine?

PELOSI: I pray for the president of the United States and I pray for the United States of America.

COLLINS: Now the president said he is not going to work with Democrats until they stop investigating him but it's unclear how sustainable that threat really is.

Of course, some of these investigations could take months, potentially even years and there are a slew of budget and funding deadlines that are fast approaching here in Washington -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

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COREN: Jessica Levinson is a professor at Loyola Law School and joins us now from Los Angeles.

Great to have you with us. We know this president is extremely thin skinned but his temper tantrum at the White House would certainly suggest that the pressure from multiple investigations are getting to him.

Would you agree?

JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I think so. I think that what he was really hoping, what President Trump was really hoping, was that once the Mueller report was released, that essentially the pressure would be released and that he could move on to controlling the agenda, that he could move on to thinking about his reelection.

Of course, what has happened with the Democrats gaining control of Congress is that, actually now, it's like an octopus and there is a myriad of investigations. And there is a myriad of lawsuits. And there is a number of different fights about what kind of documents we can get from the president, which members of the president's administration, former administration, can be hauled before Congress.

So I think this is really what is going to dominate the end of his presidency, is these investigation questions.

COREN: Jessica, at this hastily organized press conference at the Rose Garden, Trump told reporters, "I don't do cover ups." That was obviously in response to what Nancy Pelosi had said. He also claimed to be the most transparent president in history.

Then why not release his tax returns?

Show Congress the unredacted Mueller report and allow Don McGahn to testify before the Judiciary Committee?

This is just becoming farcical.

LEVINSON: I think irony is officially dead. This idea of, I don't do cover ups, it feels very schoolyard. It feels very, I'm rubber and you are glue. And the other thing is, we know, as a matter of fact, that the president does try and cover up things.

For instance, think about the payments to former adult star Stormy Daniels. But in terms of this idea that the president is transparent, it really just screams common sense. As you talked about, he has basically trying to block every member of his administration, either current or former, from talking to Congress right now.

He is not releasing his tax returns. We also know that he didn't really comply with the Mueller investigation in terms of he didn't help. He didn't sit for an interview. He has not been forthcoming when it comes to speaking about himself and his experiences, about his financial records and about people who have worked for him.

We know that he wanted, in fact, White House employees to sign nondisclosure agreements. That's basically unheard of. So this idea of transparency is really true only in an upside down world.

COREN: Well, Nancy Pelosi, she calmed down talk of impeachment proceedings in a closed door meeting but later in the day at a forum, she shared, quote -- "in plain sight, this president is obstructing justice and is engaged in a cover-up and that could be an impeachable offence."

Does this suggest that her mindset is changing?

LEVINSON: I think Nancy Pelosi is in a very difficult position. I think she knows that what will happen if there is a vote in Congress to impeach the president is that he will not be convicted in the Senate. Because, of course, in the Senate you need a vote of two- thirds majority.

If you look at the partisan makeup of the Senate, it's very unlikely that they would ever get two-thirds to vote to convict the president. But I think what we are seeing from Nancy Pelosi is that she understands the political reality. I think she thinks that impeachment is not a win for 2020, politically.

But I also think that she is getting enormous pressure from her caucus to at least be open to the idea of impeachment. And so one of the things that we might see Nancy Pelosi talking about more is this idea of impeachment hearings, essentially saying the president has forced our hand.

He is not responding to subpoenas. He is not allowing people to come before Congress. He is not releasing any documents. We have no other choice. I don't think it's where Nancy Pelosi wants to go but I think it's ultimately where her caucus and the president might lead her.

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COREN: Jessica, finally, is any of this drama going on in the White House affecting Trump's credibility in the eyes of his base, of his supporters, of Republican supporters?

LEVINSON: I don't think so. I think that his base is with him. I think that what we have seen throughout his campaign and throughout his presidency is that there is a solid, at least 38 percent voters, at least 38 percent of voters, who will be with him, who will believe what he says, who will believe him when he says this is a witch hunt, who believe him when he says that Congress is just after him, who believe him when he says that he is the most transparent president.

I think that there is a majority of the American public who is not with him. And, of course, for his critics, this is just more fodder. The real question is, how will this play for the swing voters in the swing states in the 2020 presidential campaign?

And, that, we don't know. I think it also largely depends on who Democrats will nominate to run against the president. But I think, with his base, he is still strong.

COREN: Jessica Levinson, great to get your insight. Thank you so much.

LEVINSON: Thank you.

COREN: Next, on CNN NEWSROOM, CNN exclusive report on the cholera outbreak in Yemen and how armed conflict is helping to spread the disease across the country. Doctors fear they're on the brink of another deadly epidemic.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) COREN: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren, live in Hong

Kong. The headlines this hour.

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COREN: Well, over the coming hours we expect to begin learning the results of India's huge national election. Hundreds of millions of votes were cast over the past six weeks. The use of electronic voting machines should speed up the counting process.

The main question: will Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his part, the BJP, keep their majority in Parliament when the final tally is announced?

Well, CNN's Sam Kiley is live at BJP headquarters. We are also joined by New Delhi bureau chief Nikhil Kumar.

Sam, if I can go first to you, no seats declared as yet, I believe, but from the exit polls, what can we expect?

SAM KILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, from the exit polls and indeed, some of the results that are all incomplete, with no seat declared but Modi is most certainly, his BJP party, is very much in the lead, although not showing any clear sign of majority.

Now, we're here outside Mr. Modi's BJP Party headquarters, where there is an anticipation that there will be something of a carnival celebration when these results are declared later on today.

But at the moment, it's the media, both domestic and international, that really outnumber any others celebrating these results by a significant figure.

But the figures here really are extraordinary, Anna. This is the world's biggest exercise in democracy, ever. Some 600 million Indians went to the polls over a five-week period, and it's all about whether or not the BJP, Mr. Modi's party, can secure that critical 272 voters, which would put them clearly in the league in terms of majority.

Now, if they were able to do that, then they're home clear. And they were home clear, of course, in 2014 when, for the first time in about 30 years, there was a clear majority for any Indian party.

Now ultimately, this is also all about a significant shift, really, in the shape, the structure, the energy within Indian politics. It has very much been an election centered around the personality of Mr. Modi, the incumbent prime minister, himself.

And also, the issues of Hindu nationalism. He has been able to portray himself as the guardian of the nation, particularly enjoying an electoral boost back in February when, tragically, 40 Indian security forces were killed in a bombing blamed on Pakistan-inspired or based militants. And India, on the orders of Prime Minister Modi, struck back deep into Indian [SIC] territory.

That gave him an electoral bump, if you like, in the polls, because at that time he was beginning to slip somewhat, particularly among rural voters and also more secular Indians who have been very concerned about the growing levels of Hindu nationalism in this Hindu-majority country but with a population of about 15 percent Muslims. They are expected to vote for the opposition Congress Party led by Rahul Gandhi, a sign of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty whose father and grandmother were both assassinated, of course, when they were prime ministers.

But the counting has just begun. It's only been going for a couple of hours. We anticipate some kind of result in the next four or five hours -- Anna.

COREN: OK. Thank you, Sam.

Nikhil, if I can bring you in now into the conversation, you've obviously been covering this story for the last six weeks. Was there ever any doubt that Modi's BJP party would lose its majority? And tell us what the major issues have been in this election campaign.

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Anna, I think that Sam quite rightly said, heading into the election, Mr. Modi didn't look quite as invincible as he looked even a year ago. There were questions about whether or not he'd managed to deliver on many of the promises that he made that propelled him to victory back in 2014, most of them being principally economic. And although Indian GDP growth has been pretty robust, the fact is that on the ground, people have been complaining about distress in India's farm sector, about the fact that there still aren't enough jobs for the roughly 12 million Indians who enter the workforce every year and then struggle to find employment.

By -- but by shifting the focus onto nationalism, national security, the skirmish with Pakistan, it was -- that first terrorist attack that Sam referred to, that triggered what was the first aerial confrontation between India and Pakistan in several -- several decades. And that really bolstered Mr. Modi, who has presented himself as a nationalist, populist figure.

And he's managed to do something, if the exit polls are, in fact, correct, and if the early leads do, in fact, lead to concrete results. Well, then that means he's managed to do something really quite significant in India's political history. He's managed to turn what is a parliamentary system -- this is modeled on the Westminster system, so individual candidates run for constituencies and the numbers add up in Parliament, and then they choose who becomes prime minister. But if he does win, than he's managed to turn what is a parliamentary election into a presidential contest, a U.S.-style contest. Because he's made it all about himself.

And so, yes, it's true. Heading into it, he looked a bit week. He then seized the agenda, again, with nationalism.

[00:35:05] But ultimately, even at the beginning when we were talking about, is he looking weak, we were still only ever talking about him. He turned this election into a referendum on himself. And we'll find out later today, if, in fact, India's voters are still willing to put that faith in him -- Anna.

COREN: Nikhil Kumar, Sam Kiley, great to have you both there in India covering this election for us. Many thanks to you both.

Well, in war-torn Yemen, aid workers fear cholera will soon explode into an epidemic. Armed conflict is making it much worse as infected people flee and spread the disease.

Sam Kiley traveled to the cholera tents in remote towns where doctors are facing an uphill battle.

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KILEY (voice-over): Spring rains, something to celebrate in war-torn Yemen. But this joyful abandon has a mortal risk. Cholera.

Aid agencies fear they're on the brink of an epidemic.

Hajah is an ancient city many miles from Yemen's front lines, where Houthi rebels are battling a Saudi-led coalition. Refugees fleeing war brought cholera with them. It's spreading and fast.

DR. ILHAM WASEL, HAJAH CHOLERA EMERGENCY CENTER: Everybody. Everyone in the area, vomiting, nausea. Everybody.

KILEY (on camera): Is it spreading?

WASEL; Yes.

KILEY (voice-over): The numbers of new patient climb every day. A month ago, there were only 11 patients here. Sixty came in yesterday.

(on camera): How old she?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Two years.

KILEY: What's her name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Alia (ph).

KILEY: When did you first see that she was getting sick?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Around four days ago. It started with diarrhea. Then it got worse.

KILEY: One of the catastrophic side effects of this war has been that people from outside the cities have been forced into beautiful, ancient towns like this, Hajah, but as a consequence of that, the systems are overloaded. The clean water systems.

And these women have been telling me that they've been drinking from the river in the town, the same river that sewage flows into. That will guarantee a cholera epidemic.

(voice-over): A year, ago a million Yemenis were infected with cholera. Over 2,000 died. This year, the United Nations says there have been 300,000 suspected cases. A quarter are kids under five.

For now, the Yemenis are coping, but they don't have long.

LISE GRANDE, U.N. RESIDENT COORDINATOR: We're very worried that, if we're not able to stop it now, we could see an uncontrolled epidemic spread like wildfire across this whole country. As we face this cholera outbreak right now, we do not have sufficient cholera kits in the country. We do not have sufficient I.V. fluid to address the crisis.

KILEY (on camera): So Doctor, what's happening with this patient?

WASEL; We have low blood pressure and epoma (ph). I.V. fluid, and give him breathing to control it.

KILEY: Cholera kills very quickly, doesn't it?

WASEL: Yes.

KILEY (voice-over): This cholera patient survived, but without outside help, many thousands of other lives are at risk.

Sam Kiley, CNN, Hajah, Yemen.

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COREN: Well, next on CNN NEWSROOM, how growing anti-U.S. Sentiment in China has been captured in a song that's gone viral on Chinese social media.

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COREN: Anti-U.S. sentiment is spreading throughout China as the trade war escalates. Well, there's even a song about it, and it's lighting up Chinese social media. It's called, aptly, "Trade War."

Kristie Lu Stout reports.

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Feel bitter hatred for the enemy," the patriotic song demands. Propaganda reminiscent of Chinese communist revolution now going viral on social media.

The anthem is called "Trade War," and calls for support for Chinese businesses taking hits, as tension between Beijing and Washington worsens.

This time, they are fighting economic battles, but China's propagandists have been reminding the public of a much darker time when U.S. and Chinese troops fought one another in Korea. And, like before, the United States is painted as the aggressor.

This editorial cartoon in Chinese state media shows Uncle Sam sacrificing American consumers and companies as he sends trade war salvos. But Donald Trump says American consumers made China the world's second largest economy, and now it's time for Beijing to pay that back.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What they've done to us is indescribable, economically. We have rebuilt China. They've done a great job, and I don't blame China.

STOUT: To do that, the U.S. has more than doubled tariffs on much of China's exports to America and blacklisted telecoms company Huawei. But Beijing says it won't take it lying down.

LU KANG, CHINA FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN (through translator): We have repeatedly stated our opposition to the U.S. behavior and its abuse of state power, To wantonly smear and crack down on foreign businesses, including Chinese companies.

Stout; Again, harkening back to China's communist revolution, this week president Xi Jinping steeled his people for another long march. That was when Chairman Mao's rebels were forced to retreat during China's civil war but also prepared themselves for a future victory.

As this trade war escalates, Trump is landing blows on China, but propaganda proves that China's leaders have long memories and may be prepared to roll with the punches while looking for future wins.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

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COREN: Well, thanks so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren, live in Hong Kong. WORLD SPORT starts right after this break.

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